The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-10-25

! Six Months, 80 cents.
are not colonies and are not likely ever
to become such! They are independ-
ent, sovereign states-sO emphatically
free, in fact, that until continental
money lenders profited by such disas-
trous experiences as those resulting
in the fall of the once powerful English
banking firm of Barring Bros. the al
ways impecuniOus South American
governments were in the habit of bor-
rowing, as extensively as possible,
from their wealthy European cousins,
payments of even the interest on such
loans usually being made by thumb
to-nOse-andw wiggle e.fngers form of
sight-draft exceedingly exasperating to
the creditors but comparatively safe
for the debtors, THANKS to Europe's
ever active spectre-fear of interna-
tional complications.
There is, however, another reason
for onr seeming lack of familiarity
with Equatorial America in the fact
that, in the matter Of valuable news
items this region at present offers little
that would be calculated to keep it very
prominently before the eye of the cos
mopolitan public. Its products, with
the possible exception of coffee and
rubber, have practically no influence
upon the worlds market; political and
terrestrial upheavals are, generally
speaking, of too frequent occurrence to
be notewOrthy-and so, asking for but
slight information as to the cOmings
and goiDgs of the peoples of other
lands, and not having yet awakened to
the merits of persistent advertising,
the indOlent Spanish-American offers
in return, even less information of
} himself
One of the results of this trait Of
self-containment has been that the
comparative proximity and consequent
+ accessibility of Venezuela and the
numerous Central American republics
> has led us to base our ideas of the
! entire Southern continent upon
| uOokOl AuOW1OOSO vi UUOoO AC0AC1
/ neighbors, a circumstance as unjust to
t the people and the resources OF some
3 of the larger South American republics,
as it is misleading to ourselves.
. But speaking of Venezuela! Here
: is country nearly one third as large
! as the United States, and with popu-
3 lation of only little more than two and
one-half millions-a land inestimably
t rich in mineral resources TO say moth
: ing Of its vast deposits of asphalt, or
J, its production of crude rubber and
f dye-wOods- alas! "yellow dog"
J. among nations! Too poor to be able
II to finance her own possibilities, and
y without government sufficiently
y stable and honest to warrant foreign
d capital in attempting to develop its
l. wonderful resources.
II In this respect, at least, Venezuela
!. typifes Latin-America as whole, for,
?, great tho may be the shock of such q
10 revelation to those pessimists who
y like to believe that this glorious
J. oily of the earths visible supply of po-
s, litlcal-or even ndividual-"grafters." /"
y 1t must be stated that, when compared
IS to the bold, highwayman-like methods
4, of South American boodler, the acts
10 of our own occasionally corrupt citi-
II zens are but trifes-the fact that the
=, plunder of the Equatorial American
g robber usually amounts to sum in
g. sufficient to even tempt one of our own
d ambitious aldermen having no bearing
IT upon the matter, being fault of op-
t. portunity rather than of inclination,
II In land where administrative rot
tenness and inefficiency are practically
n at premium the absolute ineffective
Of ness of the rights of individual fran
re chise is, necessarily, a presupposed
r condition-small wonder, then that
1e bayonets should be considered more
IN effectively expressive of the public will
a. than are ballots.
1e But let us cross the equator for q
or hurried view, at close range, Of that
Id vast domain, transformed, in single
n night, without sanguinary conflict, mol
ts even sound of martial tread, from thu
CO most absolute Of monarchies into q
so modern Democracy! Where but IL
el South America, with its wealth o1
ct astounding contradictions, could sucl
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