Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-02
PEOPLE OF COLOMBIA
HANDICAPPED LAND AND A
sLOTHFUL POPULATION.
A Capital Situated Over a Weeks
Journey From the Coast-Ex-
elusive Set at Bogota.

or all the Latin-American peoples who
| have slept the years away in sloth and
| wasted in civil war what fevered fits of en-
| ergy they had. the one most to be blamed,
| because lowered with the greatest number
| of talents is Colombia. 1t is the only South
| American country that possesses, like our
selves, the inestimable advantage of sea-
| ports On two oceans and she had in the
| Panama canal site. until she lost 1t in
| climax of folly and misrule, one of the
| greatest natural resources in the world.
| with a thermometer and rule as Hum
| boldt expressed 1t, you can find In Colon
| bia any climate in nature The 1900 miles
| of coast line is equally divided between the
| two oceans. The coast lies within ten de-
| grees Of the equator and is characterized
| by the dense luxuriance belonging to a
| tropic temperature; from there, ascending
| the $4,000 feet to the tops Of the Andes, one
passes through every zone except the arctic
To enumerate the country's agricultural
| possibilities is, therefore, to name every
plant that grows. from the equator to
northern Canada. from tropical coffee and
| sugar, through the cotton and rice belt, on
| up TO wheat and maize. Its mineral re-
| sources are equally varied and abundant
| ana yet Colombia's area Of half million
square miles. greater than all the United
States east of the great lakes and the Allie
| ghanies. supports a population but little
| more than that of Massachusetts. 1t takes
more than one square mile of that splendid
| wealth Of natural resource to support one
| person. 1t Is the classic story of human
| nature and economies: in a, climate where
you need no more shelter than palm tree
10 sleep under and can get your breakfast
| by shaking the tree, the strenuous virtues
are not apt to be developed. The Colom-
bians nave been content to live on such
| products of the soil as can be had by little
more than reaching out arm. The min
| eral riches. to acquire which needs energy
| capital and initiative, have been left to for
! elgners. the natives contenting themselves
| with all that the traffic will bear In tax
| alton. Colombia is today, as a matter of
! fair judgment, in state of worse economic
and political distress than China.
! CONFORMATION of the Country.
There is just one fraction of an excuse
| for all this. Difficulty of transportation is
at once result and a cause of economic
| stagnation. The facts about roads in CO.
lombia are. roughly, the facts about snakes
In Ireland. The big, singular, striking fact
| about Colombia. which sets the traveller
| upon inquiry as much as would the dis
| covery that some great American city mad
| no street railway. is that Bogota the three
| centuries old capital and metropolis with
| its hundred and fifteen thousand people. is
| not connected with the coast by railroad
The trip must be made partly by river
steamboat. partly by pack mule. Now 1t
| would not be fair to attribute this without
| quallflcatlon, to the Incidence of the people
| BE the people never slOthful American
enterprise would surely have built the road
had there not been some other cause. And
| this cause lies in the conformation of the
| country. large portion of Colombia's
| half million square miles are set on edge.
II Is cut by three mountain ranges from ten
TO eighteen thousand feet in height, and
| these separate the coast from the high
| plateau which includes the larger part of
| all the territory and upon which Bogofa
! rests. Whether this condition would have
| been an insuperable difficulty to the en-
| glneering genius of more northern and
| more energetic people it is not worth while
| 10 inquire just what per cent is natural
! barrier and what is native Incidence can
| not easily be appOrtioned., Colombians are
not disposed to ask embarrassing questions
! OF the inevitable, and so the country lacks
not only railroads, but roads of every kind
IN default of these they have relied for a
| highway, as they have for food and raj
! ment, on what nature left ready for their
| hands. For the whole country practically
! the only outlet is the Magdalena river and
It's branches. 1t is as if we had placed New
| York and Washington on the SUBMITS of
| the Rockies, made New Orleans our only
seaport, and relied upon the Mississippi and
its tributaries as our only highways
Colombia, then. is practically without
| reads. The absurdly inadequate 300 miles
| OF railroad consists of detached little
stretches of 20 miles to get round a rapids
or to connect a mine with the river, and
| may be ignored factors In transporta-
| ton. For the rest. there is the river and
/ its branches, and mule-paths The con-
crete condition which this produces is
summed up in paragraph written by Mr.
| William L. Scruggs, the late United States
| minister to Colombia. He is speaking of
| getting single bale of goods from New
| York to Bogota:
On to Bogota.
In the first place 1t must not be over 1875
| pounds in weight; otherwise its transporta-
ton may be indefinitely delayed after
| reaching the Colombian coast. This condi-
! ton complied with the bale, after round
! about voyage of twelve or fifteen days ar
rives, say, at the port of Savanilla. where
it is discharged into clumsy barge towed
| ashore and placed in a warehouse After
| awaiting its turn it Is shipped thence by
rail to Barranquilla, where 1t passes
| through the custom house and is carted
across the city to another warehouse near
the river wharf. Here it awaits its turn
| for shipment by river steamer. 1t then
| makes a ten days voyage of about 600
miles up the river to Las Yaguas, where
| it is discharged into another warehouse to
await its turn for shipment by rail to
| Honda At Honda it is again discharged
i into warehouse to await its turn for
shipment by railway some five or six miles
| to Arranca-Plumas. Here it is taken from
|
! down a steep bank of the river, placed on
| ferry barge and rowed across to the oppo-
| site side. 1t is then portrayed on the backs
Of poems up another steep bank and placed
| in another warehouse, where 1t awaits its
| turn (some days or possibly weeks) to be-
| gin the tedious and toilsome journey on
| muleback TO Las Manzanas, on the western
| edge of the great plateau. whence either OK
! team or thirty-mile railroad will carry 1t
| to the capital. Meantime, enormous freight
| charges, insurance, customs dues and
| mountain road tax. to say nothing of the
| element of damage in such a trip have
| tripled or quadrupled the original cost Of
| the goods in New York An inevitable out
| come of this Is that while native articles
| are very cheap, imported goods come at
| appalling prices. The wife of American
| mining engineer notes two such contrast
ing prices as these. which will appeal to
| every housekeeper-native beef. five cents
| a pound; imported petroleum, eighty-seven
| cents a gallon.
/ he rr;v nf