Dodge City times., 1884-07-10

After the perfection of its National
independence, the Chilean Government
soon passed into the permanent con-
troll Of civilians, ''while the other Gov
ernments of the West coast remained
prizes for military chieftalns. Its pres
ent Constitution was framed in 1883.
and though it is only half century old,
''it is the Oldest written National Consti-
tuition in force in all the world except
our own, unless the Magma Charta of
England be included in fhe category"
The political history of Chile during the
fifty years of its life has been that of q
well-Ordered Commonwealth, but one of
q most unusual and interesting sort. Its
Government has never been fOrcibly over
thrown. and only one serious attempt at
revolution has been made. Chile is in
name and in an important sense Re-
public, and yet its Government is an oil
garchy. Suffrage is restricted to those
male citizens who are registered, who
are twenty-five years old if unmarried
and twenty-one if married, and who can
read and write; and there is also q
stringent property qualification. The
consequence is that the privilege of
voting is confined to an aristOcracy: in
1876, the total number of ballots thrown
for President was only As, 114 in popu-
lation OF about two and q quarter mill
ions. The President of Chile has i'm
mense powers of nomination and ap-
pointment, and when he is man of
vigorous will he tyranically sways pub
lie policy, and can almost always die
tate the name of his successor. The
Government has thus become prac-
ticaily vested in a comparatively small
number of leading Chilean families.
There is no such thing as "public
opinion" in the sense in which we use
the phrase. and the newspapers.
though ably conducted, do not attempt,
as they do not desire. to change the ex-
isting order of things. History"
says Mr.. Brown, "does not furnish an
example of more powerful political
machine under the title of Republic;
nor, am bound to say, one which has
been more ably directed so far as con-
Germs pecuniary corruption" The
population of Chile doubled between
1S43 and 1875; the quantity of land
brought under tillage was quadrupled;
copper mines were discovered, and so
worked that Chile became the chief
copper-producing country in the world;
some of the silver mines rivaled the
COmstOck lode; more than one thou
sand miles of railroad were built;
foreign export trade of $31, ,695. .O39
was reported in 1878; and two
powerful iron-clads, which were des-
tined to play q most important part
in Chilean affairs, were built in England
Meanwhile the Constitution was official
ly interpreted SO as to guarantee relig-
ious liberation. and the political power
of the Roman Catholic priesthood di-
minished. Almost everything good.
except home manufactures and popular
flourished. The development
of the Nation in these years was on a
wonderful scale for South American
State, and the contrast between Chile
and Peru was peculiarly striking. Com
parative purity and strength of race.
born out of hardship and producing
political stability and honesty and per
sonal courage, seemed to be the prime
factors in the Chilean distinction. And
yet the two peoples were the descend
ants of the same European race and of
kindred Indian races. Doubtless the
difference in climate was entirely favor
able to Chile. ::Apropos, one recalls MIR.
Everett Hale's rule for deter
mining in advance the length of South
American outbreak: ''Multiply the age
of the President by the number of stat
ute miles from the equator; divide by
the number of pages in the given Con-
stitutiOn; the result will be the length
of the outbreak in days. This formula
includes an allowance for the heat of
the climate, the zeal of the leader, and
the verbosity of the theorists. .''-Atlam-
TIC Monthly.