Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1908-01-23
THE LATIN AMERICANS
Regarded ne n New Type of the
Human Race.

Bomf'ms "A America Latina" and anal
lies the South American character and
conditions. Mr.. Ruhl says:
The average North American forgives
few things less readily than the lack OF
what he calls horse sense" He himself
generally has IT. Environment and in
heritance combine to give it to him. His
environment has brought him into i'm
| mediate contact with things--our leisure
| class is as yet almost negligible and
| things have for him that reality which
comes only from close observation of,
and physical experience with, them. His
life. in country comparatively now has
given him plenty Of practical problems
to solve, and all his inheritance of liberty.
of thought and action has made him in
tiate invent, work out such problems
by himself
Tho cause Of the very common at
! ttude Of superiority with which the
North American regards his southern
neighbors is his belief that the latter
probably lack these qualities. They are,
after all, as he would put IL. "dagos''-.
summing up in that phrase feeling
very much like that entertained by tho
old-fashioned Briton for the "frog-ea'-
ers" across the channel: a nation that
grasp Of causes and effects. ways and
neans-"horse sense" in a worlds re-
nuirod, he would he his ne Oh boris super
Tor.
There arc obvious explanations Of It's
feeling. insGlar and ignorant as it gen
orally is. The comic opera revolution, so
dear to occasional story writer's in cur
magazines. is ono. The newspapers-np-
M q ri ,,,f- f..
peoples surface lifc-are boolish and
vorhos" There Is little nows-ths. of
course does not refer to LA Prcnsa" or
FL Diario" Of Buonos Avrcs. "ril Nor
curio' Of Santiago, the journal do
Concrete OF Dio. and papers like them
and many communications from "lit-
tory" correspondents who write about
street siGns or trolloY-cars and quote
up and down from Paul Vcrlainc TO
Homer and describe some little garden
party as though it were Versailles Their
politicians speak in dthyra mbs. Their
engineers, even when graduated from
northern technical schools and able to
draw beautiful blue prints. arc often dis
Z placed in tho fold hv srngos Of much
less theoretical training
II was after oncounterinC many such
= manifestations of general trait as these
; -dnrln@ tho long pilgrimage which was
partially chroniClod in this paper In ar
, ticlcs about "rhc Other Amerjcans"-
mat oamc upon senior Manool BON.
/ fms "A American Latina" We had
5 soon n" last OF South America who
tn" sun-dr"nchod walls Of Pcrnambuc
, dropped behind. and were stcaming lazil,
! nor'hward toward the Barbados and HON,
Behind lay that wonderful continent. ole
cities and new ones. noldering walls an,
squcaking phonorraph barred window
and sewing machines, languorous coas
and Icy Cordillera. senoritas and soldier
and horse-racns and opera and band
in the plaza playing tunes out Of "Tosco'
, and La Boheme." Ahead stretched a fort
. night Of untroubed summer sea. AM
here was book which paragraph h,
paragraph. numbered and lettcred
r marched sanely along. went down helov
=. the vivacious externals Of South Ameri
can life and Interrupted them.
IT Is impossible. in this place and space
, moro than to hint at the interest whicl
-. such work had. read a. an instant ;,
opportuno. For here. in tho land @
dithNramhs, was man who looked plai,
facts in tho face; who analyzed Soutl
= American weakness as re,entlcssIy- an,
often as cntcrtainingv-hy British re-
spoons bility IS picked to pieces by Mr.
= Shaw: a thinker with scientific point o
view in a continent whore Such d thing !
> almost unknown
- say SHAW" advisodly. for am no
= putting forth this purely negative criti
cism AS a final Judgment nor as m
70 own opinion. Various works one undo
y the same title by senior Sylvio Romeo
. have been written to refite Il IT
. offered rather rs a very animated "hl
" man docunent"-a proof that IAt
y Americans are not only aware Of de
= iiciencies, but have the intellectual cour
e. age to search them out and expose then
y Those familiar with RoGohot's 'Phvsic
and Politics." to which he refers IN hi
preface. and with kindred works. whic
p treat tho state as an organism subiec
/ to much the same phenomena Of growtl
u heredity. and decay as animals an
# plants. will readily understand Sonho
n Bomhrms point of view Briefly. tho boo
S is study Of national patriotiSnl-a
e developed in Spain and Portugal trans
- ferred to the South American colonie,
d and showing in Inheritance to-day.
d Tho conquerors. infamed with tho IA
II tional idea of tho Iherar world. horoi
r. adventures, conquest, ana SDOliatiOu-
: paraJ tism, in word. living withou
l. work. however this prosaic fact wa
i glamoured ovor-fell on tho southern con
d tinent. sacked exterminatcd WIFI
If a solid, healthy, political organism WA
lie spontaneously growing up in Mort
u America. this system OF explorat ion an
c subjugaton went relcntlcssly on. Prog
= ress was condemned as Useless. ntell
y gence prosecuted as dangerous Every
i body explored and oppressed Productio
/ depended on the number of captives an
the cruelty OF captors The colony WI,
= over the captive, tho treasury over III
IL colony. religious ahsolutism and a,
/ chaism over all. Wealth poured bac
r to the peninsula. The metropolis beanie,
- fairly barkcd its JOY. It had allied if
g., ideal, complete parasitsm.'
u. farasitism 81 complete as this becam
j.. naturally, a congenial tendency. Who
ii the colonists rovolted. the revolutionist
=, having had no experience in democrac,
J. and oppressed by the Tbcrian idea ,
-, conservatism no sooner had throw
-, off the old dictator than. forthwith. tho
constituted themselves dictators an
continued the same under another nam
Not mere Latin volatility then. hu
uparadoxicaly, this i1graned conscrva
ism causes South American revolution
Forgetting that conserving can not !
,f made anybodv's especial active function
but that society conScrVos itself, ind,
penlcnt Of any outsiI, rnrs. i,- -