New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-05-11
wUEPE ARBJTRATION WAS NEEDED.


letter in the new series from our staff
correspondent in South America, to be found
ON another page of to-day's issue. supplies a
practical commentary upon the arbitration pol
lev advocated by tho PanAmerican Congress.
II rehearses the trivial causes which led to a
caamtouS and unnecessary war. ChilTs grey
ance against Bolivia was the levying of an
export tax Of 10 cents per hundred-weight on
the desert manures of the rainless coast. Chill 5
grievance against Peru was the establishment
of n Government nitrate monopoly in Tara
paca. Both the export tax and the monopoly
were assumed to be prejudicial to the financial
interests OF Cbilian investors War was abrupt
" declared. the nitrate provinces were quickly
CONQUERED the Peruvian Navy was sunk, and
the campaign of devastation was carried to the
gates of Lima. When a treaty of peace had
been dictated to the PROSTATE and helpless
allies the principles for which the war was
nominally fought were repudiated. As soon aS
the Bolivian seaboard and the Province OF
Tarapaca were occupied by the conquerors an
export duty was imposed upon nitrates and
the large revenues obtained in this way are
now used in paving the interest on the war
debt. At the same time Government mo-
nopoy was established, not over nitrate salts,
but over guano, and not in one province alone,
but on the West Coast of South America.
If there was ever a war which ought to have
been prevented by arbitration it was that
atrocious and devastating series of campaigns
brought on for the control Of the manure beds
of the desert coast The levying of a mod
crate export tax by Bolivia and the purchase
and appropriation Of the nitrate deposits ana
works by the Peruvian Government were illm-
sy pretexts for war of conquest which de-
moralized the victorious nation well as ex-
hausted and utterly crushed the defeated
States The imposition Of an export duty on
salts after the war and the establishment OF
guano monopoly were practical demonstrations
of the insinccrty with which Chill had acted
in taking up the financial interests or ltN
nitrate investors and relentleSsly refusing TO
accept mediation or any form Of compromise.
If the proposed Arbitration Treaty had been IN
force nothing would have been easier IN di-
pomacy than the settlement of the dispute with
some compensating scheme of privileges FOR
the Gillian capitalists whose contract rights
had been invaded. With that spirit OF enter
prise and energy for which the Southern mar
thine nation is conspicuous. the process OF de-
welcoming the resources OF the rainless coast
and of building railways into the interior for
the control Of Bolivian trade could have been
followed ont without the wan,On destruction
and barbarities Of a desoating war.
Attention is directed by our correspondent
10 the fact that the question OF Bolivian in
IDENTITIES for the war has never been settled.
Peace with Peru was dictated al Ancun at the
point of the bayonet and the Lobos Islands,
the guano deposits and the nitrate provinces
were seized by the victorious nation but with
Bolivia the account was left open by Chill,
presumably with view TO having some means
of obtaining commercial concessions i'll the
future Chilli is rapidly obtaining control OF
the trade routes to Bolivia, and is extending
its maritime influence all along the West Coast
by an enlightened policy of State aid to steam
ship interests. It's supremacy is already cStab-
lished in that quarter its ambition is bound
less. The arbitration scheme is one TO which
IL will be the last State on the continent TO
assent. For many years Santiago is destined
TO be the most important diplomatic centre in
Spanish America and the United States will
need to station there its strongest, most capable
and most influential diplomatistS.