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Caribbean Clothing and Housing
In many parts of the tropics white settlers suffer from poverty and its resulting evils, the whole process forming a vicious circle of distress. This is very evident as regards the comfort and the housing of white workers. Moreover, in many parts of the tropics the upper-class whites add to their difficulties by absurd conventions in dress.
Even today scientific authorities differ upon some of these questions. British experts, for example, advocate sun helmets, spine pads, dark glasses, and dark houses as protection against the tropical sun. They advise the use of cholera belts and blankets to prevent chills. They maintain in all seriousness that the evening dress of England, with its starched shirts and collars so pernicious in the tropics, is essential for the maintenance of racial superiority and self-respect.
The Americans and Australians are beginning to learn from experience that such precautions are unnecessary. In northern Australia and Panama men and women wear the lightest of headgear with impunity, and some of the whites, particularly children, even go outdoors bare-headed. An American medical missionary, Dr. G. J. P. Barger, who spent many years with his wife and family on the Congo, told me that they were all more healthy when they decided to abandon the conventional tropical helmet in favor of light, well-ventilated hats.
One government official, for many years resident in Darwin, never wears headgear, and frequent examples of the practice are seen in northeastern Queensland. Of course the climatic conditions in the Asiatic tropics may differ from those of tropical America or Australia in ways not yet ascertained. Despite the work of Shattuck and others, the causes of the distribution of sunstroke remain a mystery, while many conclusions, such as those of Woodruff on the effects of tropical light, are the subject of scientific dispute.
No attempt will be made to examine the various views on the most suitable materials and colors for tropical dress, but it is important to note Yaglou's statement that laboratory investigations show that normal clothing reduces the cooling effect of wind by about 50 per cent, as compared with that which obtains when light work trousers, socks, and shoes are worn. The importance of stripping to the waist in hot industries is, therefore, apparent, provided the temperature conditions do not exceed the limits at which air movement no longer cools the body, but heats it. In certain instances clothing is particularly advantageous, especially where the air is not mechanically cooled by "saturation," as is sometimes done in hot factories.
On the whole, one can say that the dress of white settlers in the tropics has improved greatly since the days when the British murdered their soldiers in India and the white women of the West Indies committed suicide by slavishly following European customs in dress. Yet certain peoples, including the British, can still make improvements. It must be noted, on the other hand, that thin, flimsy dresses expose women who live in unprotected areas to the bites of insects, such as the anopheles mosquito.
Throughout most of the tropics poverty has resulted in wretched housing. Competition in the sugar and other industries makes it difficult to provide screening, detached kitchens, or the flooring and privies that are so essential for the combating of disease. Even in the Queensland tropics in the choice of sites and designs of towns and houses only too frequently slight attention has been paid to such vital questions as the direction of the prevailing winds. Some of the best housing in the tropics is that enjoyed by the American whites in Panama. Judged by this standard the white housing in tropical Australia, in Florida, and in Rhodesia is poor, and that in Costa Rica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, or St. Thomas scandalous. The sections of Part II of this book that deal with northeastern Queensland, Panama, the African plateaus, and other regions, describe the conditions and needs. The publications of Sir Raphael Cilento, Dr. D. B. Blacklock, the United Fruit Company, and many other authorities deal with this important problem in detail and should be consulted, as there is general agreement that local conditions and requirements vary greatly.
One of the greatest hopes for white settlement in the tropics lies in the development of air conditioning, which is now being introduced on a commercial scale. We may shortly see the time when whole communities of white workers will live in air-conditioned villages and labor in airconditioned factories and mills, so that field work alone will remain outside the influence of the improved conditions it introduces. At present the expense is a deterrent, but the system is spreading rapidly, and the success of central heating in cold countries, such as the United States, indicates what engineering science may achieve in hot countries. There are, of course, disadvantages and difficulties. It is unwise, for example, to lower house temperatures too much below the external temperatures. A reduction of 10° is in general considered the best and affords great relief.
There remains a wider aspect of the question of comfort than the points considered above. White people, particularly white women, are prone to dislike the tropics because they regard tropical temperatures and humidities as uncomfortable, and in many cases they flatly refuse to settle in uncomfortable habitats. Others retire to colder climates after a time, when they discover that they are unsuited to the tropics. Hence there follows what Huntington rightly terms a natural selection of tropical settlers. This may or may not produce good results, according to the types of people who are still prepared to emigrate. The truth, which Griffith Taylor teaches as regards Australia, applies to many tropical regions. 30 The white races will not overrun the tropics while they can still find homes in more comfortable places.
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