Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-03-17
MONEY IN TROPICS SURE TO
BE LOST.
American Who Buys Land Unseen
Tor Unknown Business Faces
Disaster.


growing is the Germans in Central
America. He learns the language;
mixes with the people; rises early;
avoids politics., and closes the shut.
ters OF his shop discreetly when rev.
olution is on foot or Wholesale ar.
rests are being made.
II the government wants to pay d
double. price SO that an official may
have additional profits, he is willing.
Whatever is the game OF the country
he plays it according to the rules, all
to the end of an occasional vacation
trip on German steamer to Ham
burg every few years and the hope of
pile" on which he may retire to
the motherland.
There are also numbers of German
americans. Among them is Adolphua
Stoll, OF whom l shall have more to
say. the richest foreigner in Gnate.
mala, who has become a millionaire
several times over by acting as Ca
breras financial agent. Cabrera sup
plies the power, Stoll the financial
cunning. Together they milk the
country.
Throughout Southern Mexico and
Central America the American cof-
fee and rubber planter fails and the
German thrives. The extreme Amer
1can case is the company booster" !"
who buys a patch of jungle and sells
as many shares as he can. The jun
gle keeps on growing, but no rubber
or coffee trees grow; while the
booster" turns his attention to
other fields.
Sure. to Lose Money.
Let it be said, without equiyoca-
ton, that anybody who invests in
any land or plantation scheme south
of the Rio Grande, when he has not
seen the property or does not know
his men. may consider his money
lost.
Another type is the American who
makes company among his friends
and boldly undertakes a business
with which he is unfamiliar in a cli-,
mate which is unknown to him. He
buys his experience dearly with capi-
tai. knowing neither the language
nor the labor, which is a law unto
itself, he pays excessive prices for
clearing the Land for which he paid
too much originally. Probably his To-
cation is bad. A variation of 500.
feet IN altitude will make a vital diff
ference. He exhausts his capital in
learning the art Of culture and the
marketing OF his crop,
y But the German comes first as an
assistant manager, and after he has
learned the business with his saw
lngs and little borrowed capital he
gets small plantation for himself.
He is patient, Industrious, frugal, con-
tent with small profits and works
d coffee plantation without any
thought Of it as bonanza-whtch
Is the American fault-but rather as
4 good farmer works fertile farm
at home.
After the German, as merchant
and business man, comes the Ital-
ian. In Nicaragua he rivals the Ger
man.
French Chef Keeps Away.
Frenchmen and Englishmen, so
plentiful IN South America, are rare
An Central America. Poverty strick-
en- countries offer no profits in run,
ming restaurants or cafes, where you
nave TO feed so large an official
class free.
The Englishmen without the gift
of the German for small economies
rebels against the government. He
Is not at home among spies, inform-
ers, Dribers, and assassins and he is
handicapped Just as the American is
by his stubbornness and inadaptabil-
ity to the vile conditions that pre-
val, where the Monroe Doctrine
makes reform impossible. In fact.
neither the average American nor
the Englishman can readily knuckle
to Central American despot
In the long run-because the true
ulent dictator who opens our official
mail and abuses International privi-
leges does realize our power, if we
would use 1.-THE Central American
respects the American. especially
when he is part of one OF our rail
road or corporation systems, which
have been represented by type OF
man superior in every way to cuI
ministers and consuls until recen,
years.
Grafters Welcome Prospectors.
The American in Central America
| is either in small way of business
a prospector, album. a railroad OF
a mining man, or the fruit com
pany-s man. Both the best and tn,
worst of foreign residents are unde
our protection. The prospector W
all know. He drifts across the Dor
der from California to Mexico, gat
bles Spanish enough to get along
and drifts on into Central America
You will. find him in Peru and Be
livla, in Honduras and Guatemala
AS fortune fluctuates. he sits in tn
best restaurants or stretches hin
self on the mud floor of mountai
hut. where mine host remarks:
"Senor, If you have the foreig
lcustom of washing your face in tn
morning, there's gourd outside tn
door"
A change Of mood may mean
change of direction. A prospectc
THAT l met in Puenta Arenas, Cost
Rica, when both a northbound an