The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-25
Troubles of Venezuela
W--The Systen, of DespOtisn
By Frederic ]. Haskin.


a sentimental reflection of the revolu- ton in North America. There are statues of '1iberators" galore in every venezuelan city. There Is great talk oI liberty In the government press. But despite all these things, Castro Is an absolute despot. With one or two exceptions. every president of venezue- Ia who has preceded him has been despot, or has ruled by permission and under the direction of a despotic The Venezuelans greatest hero is BoIvar. who was himself a tyrant Their second greatest hero is Miranda. who died in Spanish prison into which he was foully betrayed by his partner In. liberation, simon Bolivar. The heroes Of their history are men or blood and cruelty. Venezuela raises magnificent statues to George Wash ington as the author of American lib- erty. but 1t cannot understand his re- nunciation of the power of dictator, his refusal to accept third term of ofice.
 Their constitution is almost an exact copy, Of that of the United States The oivlslon of federal and state powers is the same, and the same written guar | antees of personal liberty are there enshrined. Yet there has never been president of Venezuela who has paid any attention to the Constitution. That Tact Tn itself might not mean so much. put It Is wonderfully significant that the Venezuela complaints against the acts Of these despots is based upon the particular incident in which the usurped power Is used, never upon inc principle that the very assumption of power Is contrary to the Consultation.
 simon Bolivar understood something or this when, in 1880, only a month Defore his death, he made this pro- phecy l Amsrtca is ungovernable. Those who l have served thesrevolution have plowed the seas. The only thing that can be done in America is to emigrate. These countries will infallibly fell into the hands of the unbridled masses--in order thereafter, almost imperceptibly. l 10 pass Into the hands of petty tyrants Tor all colors and race, devoured by every form of crime and extinguish ed by ferocity. Europeans perchance will not even design to conqueri them, If 1t were possible for any part of the
 world to go back to primitive chaos. that would be the last period of Amer ica-" AAs-Es. - 71'
 In another book on Spanish America. 1 (BoIvar always used the word Amer lea as meaning Latin America) publish ca two years before his death, the Great Liberator said:
 I neither among men nor nations. Treaties are paper, constitutions are books, elections are combats, liberty Is anarchy and life Is a torment"
 These statements came from the man who had set Spanish America free from the yoke of Spain, and who spent his last days in a miserable mountain hut "a fugitive, from the governments he I had established. Proud monuments now do honor to his memory. The house in which he was born in Caracas \ is national shrine. The Republic of Bolivia Is named for him. The stan dard of value in the .enezuelan money system is the Bolivar, There is far more sentimental homage paid to his memory than to that of Washington in the United States.
 But for all this latter-day homage, | witness the contrast between his death
 and that of shington, his Farewell Address and that of Washington, his
 rule as chief magistrate and that of
 Washington. In that contrast there is the difference between Venezuela and
 the United States. But the difference did not begin with Washington and Bolivar, 1t began in the era when King