NAWSA

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE

Gannett, Mrs. Lewis

The Nation
90 Vesey Street
New York
[*1928*]

Dear Miss Blackwell

The stenographers are
busy; will you excuse the
form of these marginal
comments on your letter?

I'm glad you are at 
it!

Cordially,

Lewis F. Gannett

The enclosed documents
may help; there is 
a long sad story since!

Monadnock St.  Boston 25, Mass.

June 29, 1924.
[*LSG*]

Dear Friends:

The enclosed in this morning's
Boston Herald made me mad
clear through.  I mean to
reply to it, but I want to 
be sure of my facts.  Will
Mrs. Lewis S. Gannett or someone
else who knows tell me if
the following statement is
correct?

We had a treaty of 
[*Yes*] peace & amity with San
Domingo: it had not

True. The treaty of 1907 pledged Santo Domingo not to increase her "public debt." She did
not increase her foreign debt, but did increase the floating internal debt to natives, &
claimed that was not "public debt." We used it as an excuse, refusing to submit
the interpretation of the phrase to arbitration. The treaty did not 
in any way suggest or authorise armed intervention.

2
[*True*] 
defaulted on its debt: in the disturbances 
there, no American 
lives or American property had 
been destroyed. We marched 
[*True*] in an armed force, deposed 
the president, turned out 
the government, ruled by 
[*1916-24*] martial law - was it for 
eight years? - abolished 
[*yes*] freedom of speech, press & 
assembly: forbade the 
editors either to criticise 
the American occupation 
or to publish the fact 

3
that they had been forbidden 
to criticise it; sentenced 
Fabio Fiallo to death for 
expressing opposition to 
our regime, but let him 
off [because of the] after protests 
of the literary societies in Havana & elsewhere; 
Buenos Aries, Mexico City, Montevideo, etc. 
[*No. This was Hash*] imposed a new constitution 
on the Dominicans, which 
F. D. Roosevelt boasted that 
he had written; put in a president of our
own choosing, [refusing to accept the one who 
had been elected]
and as a condition of

4

our getting out, required 
San Domingo to validate 
Yes all the illegal acts of 
the American occupation 
& to pay [all] the local costs 
of it, 
including unnecessary military road-building, but 
not the upkeep & salaries of our troops,
 thus saddling 
her with a debt 
which she did not 
want, & which will 
be a millstone around 
her neck for years.  

If any other points 
occur to you which 

5

ought to be included, I 
shall be grateful to 
you for mentioning 
them. 

It makes one 
boil!

Yours, with high 
regard for the Nation,
Alice Stone Blackwell.

Please address your reply to 
me at [Chilmark, M] 
Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, 
Mass.

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.