The record-union., 1899-09-13
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.

| A glance over South America.-It is
safe to predict that, though there is
an uninterrupted stretch of land from
Arctic to Antarctic in the American
continent, there will never be a strong
sense of unity between the two halves,
of the continent. AS time goes on ana
as wars of conquest as well as wars or
commerce grow into more disfayor
with the human family, there VIII
undoubtedly be many attempts, like
that of Blaines reciprocity treaty, to
bring to pass "a vital union between
North and South America 1t will be
found too that the approaches in re-
lation to such treaties of the future
will nearly all take their origin in
candid expression of brotherly feeling
on the part of North Americans. AS
an example, look for moment at the
! generous. almost Quixotic, way in
which the United States took UP the
Venezuelan dispute, and with how lit
tie regard or gratitude her noble self
forgetfulness is viewed by the Little
Venice of South America. This is typ
ical of what will always be our ex-
perience in dealing with the countries
on the mainland, south of the Tropic
of Cancer
Distrust of the people of their own
country and of the greatest republic
on the American continent is the key
note of the policy of the republics of
South America. Viewed from our more
enlightened standpoint, these fiery and
disputatious neighbors of ours do not
understand what human liberty means
| and their republics are tyrannies, in
many cases, tempered by assassination
and revolution. They regard their own
people with suspicion, then they enter
tain the same feeling for each other
and are constantly pickering among
| themselves over arbitrary boundary
lines that might we'll be swept away
in one vast South American federation.
The unreasona nableness of their enmities
| is seen in the fact that practically all
of the South American republics be-
long to what are called the Latin races
and hence have in large measure a
common history, a common literature
and a racial tie.
Yet their common origin is the very
thing that explains their internal rest
| lessness, their continual disputes and
their attitude toward ourselves. The
Latin races as we know them, and
even as they were in the days when
Venice was in it's glory, cannot un-
derstand what it means to give free
dom Of political choice, and freedom
| of religious view to the least as wen
as to the greatest of their members.
Even so advanced, so artistic and so
powerful nation as France, may be
used as the strongest possible illustra-
ton Of what a republic is under Latin
management. The common people are
regarded by the rulers as mere chill
| dren who need watching and whose
most simple acts are constantly under
the eye of the Government, by means
| of the spy system. What is bred in
the bone will come out in the life, and
| though South America has entirely
freed itself from Spanish and Portu-
guese dominion, the setting up of gov
ernments-some of them closely mod
eled upon that Of the United States
has neither made for quietude among
themselves nor for progress that at all
keeps pace with the rest of the world.
This amount of justice, however. must
| be done to the rulers of all Latin re-
publics-they know the characteristics
of their people for plotting and unrest,
and undoubtedly have to watch them
closely in order to produce anything
of a permanent character in the way
of government See how the dregs of
humanity asserted themselves in the
Reign of Reason and the Commune in
| France. These two occurrences illus
trate the very dangers that are always
possible in Latin republic, and hence
explain why it satisfies a Latin repub-
lie to give freedom to the people in
word only.
It may seem daring to prophesy SO
far ahead, and yet one is almost
tempted to say that, though .Never is
a long day." there never will be a
friendship of vital character between
ourselves and our southern neighbors.
Mastiffs and foxes do not run together.
Our ideals are so different and our
leading men so keenly in touch with
all classes of society, that we cannot
understand and sympathize with the
swaddling clothes that bind and con-
fine the voting unit in South Ameri-
can republic. Our constant struggle,
all grades, is to secure for the humblest
voter voice equal in influence to that
Of every other voter, no matter how
superior in wealth, or education, or op-
portunity. And furthermore the whole
people accepts without any violence,
election after election, the verdict of
the majority, In the southern repub-
lies, almost without exception-and
particularly in the Central American
republics. the voting machinery is SO
thoroughly in the hands of the reign
ing government and the army, that
revolution becomes almost the only
way of yoicing dissatisfaction.
Destiny would seem to indicate that
the future of South America will
scarcely be influenced by ideals other
than those now there. And, therefore,
one can scarcely look upon it as likely
to experience a broad and rapid de-
veLopment. Brazil, the greatest and
the latest of southern republics, is
practically closed to American and
British enterprise by reason of restric-
tions on machinery and what-not. Its
vast commercial possibilities will wait
long before the. non-inventive and
somewhat lazy Latins come abreast of
them. So also of much else of the
southern territory. It's uncertainties
render it a. doubtful field for invest
ment, as the frightful failure OF the
Barring Bros. a few years ago will tes-
tify. What it is gaining in the way of
trade comes from the daring of for