Evening star., 1901-11-23
What Will Be the Attitude of Neigh
boring Republics?
POSSIBILITIES OF INTERFERENCE
This Country is Carefully Watch
ing Progress Of Events.
TOO EARLY TO PROPHESY

Written for The Evening Star by Cyrus u ADAMS
During the official sojourn in Caracas
of a former British minister there hung
on his office walls two water colors-one
showing coffee plantation in the morn
ing, the happy faces of the black labor
ers revealing their peace and content
ment; the other depicting the same field
in the afternoon, the sky darkened with
the smoke of burning buildings and the
bodies of the field hands scattered among
the coffee shrubs Another South Amer
lean revolution had suppanted the or
derly quiet of the morning with fire and
tragedy before sundown. The world has
come to regard most of these ebuillitions
with contempt Indifference More
bluster than bloodshed marks the course
of many of them Merely personal ambi-
ton private malice is the handspring
of much of this beligerence. In these
Latin-American republics where active
volcanoes make rapid changes in the
landscape, we have come to regard up
heavals of government as too frequent
for notice. On occasions, however, these
conflicts have been prec!pitated by
wrongs that needed righting, by misgov-
ernment too atrocious to be borne. The
present war in Colombia is one of these
occasions.
The causes of this civil war can be only
briefly referred to here. Colombia has
two intensely antagonistic political par
ties. The clerical or conservative" par
ty advocates a centralized government
welding really despotic power which it
shares with the church; in other words
government copied after the old Span
ish model. The liberal party, the
other hand, favors a progressive, demo-
cratic form of government modelled after
that of the United States. Though these
parties numerically, are nearly equal, the
clericals have held the supreme power
since 1886. when President Nunez sub
verted the government and overthrew the
liberal constitution by a coup d'etat as
drastic that of NaHOlpOn III of
An Absolute Ruler.
From that day till he was poisoned by
enemies in his own party in 1894 Nunez
lacked nothing but the title Of an abso-
lutte sovereign. The federal government
was abolished, the right of suffrage was
taken from nine-tenths of the people, and
nine autonomous states became merely
so many districts governed from Bogota,
the liberty of the press and all private
teaching were suppressed and education
was tentered in the hands of the Jesu.ts
1t is impossible here to detail the mis-
cries that have befalen Colombia under
the despotic rule of Nunez and his sue
cessors. 1t will suffice to say that CO.
lombia having repudiated it's debts, has
no public credit, and her exports have
been so heavily taxed that the country
cannot vie with its neighbors in foreign
commerce; with a population third
larger than that of Venezuela the i'm
nens1of the government have been treated
public enemies.
This, in brief, was the situation that
caused the armed revolt of the liberal marty
in October, 1899. The northern one-fourth
Of Colombia has been the scene of the more
or less desultory fighting that has claimed
some public attention. 1t would not how
ever. have excited the present interest if
the conflict had not recently threatened to
involve two or more other republics and to
compel the arbitration or the Intervention
rf Ivr,;I,
commercial interests Of the world, on the
Isthmus of Panama. or to prevent the
whole Of northern South America and ner-
haps part of Central America from en-
Saging in ruinOus struggle. Imperial am
bitions of Castro Venezuela's president be- |
gan to be discussed, and the possibility of a |
United States of South America has inter-
eSted not only our own country but Fill
rope as WELL
Means Taxes Only.
1t Is a curious fact, worth mentioning
that the Isthmus of Panama, since the be- |
ginning of the Nunez regime, has been |
worth nothing to Colombia except for pur-
poses of taxation. It's railroad, owned by |
foreigners, is merely means of transport |
for the commerce duty free) of other ma |
tions. The government having neglected |
to connect the isthmus by transporta ton |
routes with the other parts of the country
Colon and Panama nothing but way
stations for the foreign traffic across the |
iSthmuS.
The present insurrection which nrom
ises to involve several governments, began |
among the hills Of Santander, the inland, |
eastern department, which raises a large |
part of the superior coffee of Colombia. As |
Santander has no convenient outlet for It's |
coffee through the ports of it's own country |
it sends the product by mule trains to /
Maracaibo Venezuela, for shipment to En-
rope. Thus it happens that the people of |
Santander and western4Venezuela are par |
ticularly well acquainted; this fact prob |
ably had something to do with the little |
plot hatched by the clerical party on both |
sides of the borderTin July for the invasion |
of Venezuela, which SO greatly excited !
President Castro.
Insurreetion spreads.
But the insurreetion Has now spread far
beyond the limits df saatander It has ex-
tended over the northerh plains, where cat
tie raising is the efSindustry; parts of
the insurgent army command the lower
Magdalena and have closed the river route
to Bogota; other forces hold points along
the coast. but have not yet succeeded in
capturing the little port of Riohacha; they
have overrun the department Of Bolivar,
most of which is in their hands, excepting
the seaports of Cartagena and Sabanilla |
and the river port OF Barranquilla; they
have destroyed the railroad from Carta-
gena to the Magdalena, cutting off that |
port from the interior; they have reached |
the Pacific coast in the department of Cau-
ca, have invaded the isthmus and many of |
the merchants there are said to have given |
their allegiance to the revolution The
largest force in any one district Is supposed |
to be with Gen. Uribe-Uribe, who is said to |
command 5000 men in Santander. No data |
yet received give any clear idea as to the |
number of the reyolutionists. The fact that |
they are scattered in small detachments |
over vast territory and that the govern |
ment troops, numbering about 10 00O0 are |
also widely dispersed. probably accounts |
for the desultory nature of the fighting. |