The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-12-02
fheS War Of the South American Re.
publics.

1t Is not surprising to learn that the
peace negotiations set afoot by Minister
Christiancy on the South Pacific coast
have come to naught. Burdensome as
the war is to all three belligerents, the
time for successful Intervention is per-
haps not yet ripe. Were pride or pune
tilio alone in the way. diplomacy could
find means to surmount that obstacle.
But the war is q matter of business as
well as of sentiment; and the material
stake in it is too large to be surren-
dered by either party until its cause is
hopeless. r, ..--.. ,.'s5 ,-... a -
The country for whose possession the
three republics. have been nineteen
months at war is land without rain,
without herbage, in which barren
fill the landscape. But nature has made
compensations TO this dreary region
has made it worth fighting for. 1t is
the land of guano. niter. silver and
copper. With its center in Bolivia's
seacoast, Province of Atacama, it ex-
tends southerly into Chill and northerly
still further into Peru.
To Peru, her inter and guano mean
not only a great source of income for
carrying on the Government and en-
ploying many of the people,, but her
basis for negotiating vast foreign loans.
During the past thirty years her foreign
inter trade has increased to over six and
half million hundred weight, this last
being the eliminating point of the ex-
ports in 1875. On her guano Peru
raised in loans $3.50, 100000. About
five years ago the Peruvian Govern
ment undertook to bug all the inter
mines and factories In its province of
Moquegua, or in the part commonly
called Tarapaca, for twenty million dol
lars, and then to borrow more money
on these acquisitions as security. The
mine owners demurred, but a heavy ex-
port duty was levied. and most of them
sold out to the Government. The out
put fell off speedily, while the price
rose. II 80. - .si.1
Meanwhile Chill had just concluded
with Bolivia, in 1874, a treaty by which.
in return for her concession of Bolivia's 8
boundary claims in the disputed prov
ince of Atacama, Bolivia stipulated
that she would, during a period of
twenty-five years, exempt from all duty
were owned and worked by Chilians,
time disputed. Thus Peru found her
self undersold in the inter market by
the Chilians, who, while the Peruvian
plan was forcing up the prices, had no
duty on their mines to contend with.
The rest of the story is the war story.
Bolivia suddenly put a duty on the An
tofagasta works, in violation of the
treaty, and announced that she consid-
cred this agreement to be no longer
binding. When Chill declared war,
Peru offered mediation on the basis of
substantially conceding BOlivia's de-
mands. Chilli at once treated both her
neighbors as IN secret combination
against her, as very likely they were.
And now that a year and half of war
has resulted in Chili's triumph, the
terms of peace are obviously as hard to
arrange as ever. For Chill will doubt
less claim both Atacama and Tarapaca
as the price of her arms. But to yield
them would cost Bolivia her only outlet
to the sea, and Peru her vast interests
in the inter beds and guano deposits.
Probably, when the time comes for
peace, q compromise will be effected.
Chill will perhaps be suffered, if her
good fortune in war continues, to hold
Atacama, Cobija and what she has won
in Moquegua south of Pisagua, Iquique
and Tarapaca; while Tacna and AFRICA
and their surroundings may remain
Peruvian. Bolivia, in that case, would
be turned over to her ally for territorial
indemnity and seacoast outlet, if she
should be held by Peru to merit any.
Indeed, the political union of the two
countries now contemplated might
solve the difficulty. N ?. Sun.
-Godin, q Paris iron-master, has
combined community of work and the
cooperative store in a palais social he
founded at Guise, near Compeigne, in
1860. Godin makes his workmen asso-
ciates in his business, giving them
twenty-five per cent. of the net profit,
and houses his whole community of
twelve hundred persons in large man
sion of three WINGS, each four stories