The times., 1900-12-31
POLITICS IN GUATEMALA
Some Curious Systems Employed
by the Government.
Peculiar Views Expressed by n Citi-
zen of Tint Republic After Observ-
SeIishness Of the Statesmen of the
Little Nation-Injustice to Indians.


rived in New York in time for the last
few days of the late political campaign,
and watched the progress of the election
with an interest that can scarcely be
appreciated by those who are not familiar
with the way the game Of politics is play
ed in the Latin American republics. Many
of the election incidents which he wit
messed filled him with astonishment In
particular, he was surprised that Mr.. Nc
Kinley had not ordered out the standing
army in doubtful districts, to make sure
of his reelection. Another strange thing
was that Mr. Bryan was allowed to travel
through the country making speeches in
his own behalf; according to the Guate-
mala system, he should have conducted
his campaign from the safety of Canada
OF Mexico, certainly he should not have
put himself within the power of the Ad-
miIiStration. On election day he was
astounded at the apparent secrecy OF the
ballot by which any citizen could deposit
his vote without fear of being led off to
Jail if he voted against the Administra-
tion. But the most surprising thing of all
was the quiet of the day after election,
when the results were made known; ac-
cording to all his precederts, the troops
should have seized upon the Democratic
State and national headquarters, and have
imprisoned or at least banished the whole
corps OF Democratic speilbinders.
1T will be a long time before we can
have such a peaceful election in Spanish
America he said, by way of comment on
his new experience. Our statesmen do
not know how to bear defeat in this way
and when they are in power they are not
willing to run any risk OF allowing the
opposition to succeed in taking their
places. Their motives are altogether sell
fish; they look for their own self-interest
and their own enrichment. They are
destitute of the idea of public spirit, and
even should one of them announce his
course OF action as based on the public
good. nobody would understand what was
meant; it would only be thought that he
had invented some new method of grow
ing rich out Of public office.
The ease with which government is
conducted badly in Guatemala is mostly
due to our large mixed race the Ladinos,
in which the Spanish and native Indian
bloods are commingled. Being without
honorable position and equally devoid Of
capital, the only means by which they can
amount TO anything is to seek minor pc
litical office and offer themselves as ready
ani willing tools 10 the schemers of bet
ter position who grasp at the higher au-
thority in our Republic. 1t is because of
this combination that we have in Guate
mala now a republic now a dictatorship,
now a revolution but always some set of
men making themselves wealthy out of
the public revenue and out of the system
of forced loans taken as blackmail from
all such as are in opposition to the domi
nant power
piracy fall upon the men with money, and,
at the other end of the scale, upon those
who have no money. but are fixed to the
soil as laborers, namely, our Indians. The
wealthy may avoid tb use difficulties by
removing themselves 10 some other coun-
try and by transferring their property to
foreigners. for in all our political troubles
property standing in foreign names is re-
spected, and is exempt from the forced
loans. Or they may unite in sufficient
strength to overthrow the Government
and become pirates on their own account.
''But the poor Indians, our laboring
class, are bound to suffer. The Guatemal-
teco Indians are not at all such as the
Indians of your reservations. At the time
OF the discovery they had advanced to
considerable degree of culture. They were
not nomads and hunters, but agriculturists
and dwellers in towns. At the present time
they are absolutely essential to all our
prosperity. fOr without them We should
have no laborers TO till the soil OF our
plantations or to operate our mines. They
work faithfully during long hours of the
day and for small wages, never demanding
more than so cents day. and taking their
pay In our paper currency, which is sadly
deprecated and has a purchasing power of
less than one third of its nominal value.
All that the Indians ask OF whatever gov
ernment may be in power is to be allowed
TO conduct the affairs of their homes and
villages in accordance with their ancestral
custom. against which. II must be said, no
objection can be urged.
yet even this small concession is not
permitted TO them; it must be purchased
from the Government. Let me give you an
illustration About a hundred miles from
the city Of Guatemala is the pueblo of
Nahuala, a community entirely OF Guate-
malteco Indians numbering about $4,000.
They govern themselves strictly according
to their ancient custom, just as they did
for ages before the conquest, with the
single exception of their religion The
chiefs, or caciques administer the affairs
of the community, and make the few sim
pie laws by which they are governed. One
Of these laws is a provision that no white
man shall live in the pueblo. Another pro-
hibIts in the same way the Ladinos, or
people of mixed blood. The most impor-
tsnt of all their laws is that whlch pro-
vides for the rigid exclusion of all liquor
from the pueblo. None is allowed to be
sold. ana the people are forbidden to bring
any liquor into the town or to have any
in their possession. So carefully is this
rule enforced that when any Indian has
been drinking away from the town and
comes home gith even the slightest evil
dence of intoxcation he is arrested al the
gate of the pueblo, forced to remain in the
fields without until perfectly sober. and
is then brought in for fitting punishment.
To anyone who is in the least familiar
with the havoc which liquor has wrought
on the aboriginal inhabitants Of America
it would seem that no government pre-
tending to be civilized could find any fault
with this regulation. made and strictly en-
forced by the Indians themselves. Yet such
is not the case in Guatemala.
The indian Pueblo OF Nahuala is forced
to pay in addition to all regular taxes,
special impost for the privilege of eX-
cIuding whites and LafInos, and for its
local option. as ] presume you would call
it's suppression of the liquor traffic. 1t
must pay TO the central government a
contribution equal to the amount of reve-
nue. that would BE derived on excise ac-
count from the number of drinking places
that an Indian town OF $4,000 inhabitants
would support without this prohibition.
Nor is this all. The town must also pay
a second sum calculated to represent the
amount of the profit that would accrue
from the liquor that would be consumed
II il were not for the wisdom of the In
dian chiefs Why do we submit to the
enormity of taxing the people for the vice
which they have rejected? Well the
= Gov. tka INN