Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-11

IM capita and the least able TO
ia n Ml meet its indebtedness In
lEkssasA1 fact, France and Portugal
are the only two nations on the Slope
which show a greater per capita IN
debtedness than Honduras. Apparent
ly this little country owes more thah
hundred million dollars, three-
fourths of which is interest that has
accumulated since 1873. 1t happened
in this way. When the Central Amer
lean republic fell to pieces, IN 1871,
each of the constituent states assumed
its proportion of the general lndebt-
edness Honduras never paid It's pof-
ton and in 1867 went into the mar
ket to borrow money to build trans
continental railroad. Before the new
loan could be floated arrangements
had to be made to satisfy the old in
debtedness. The upshot of the mat
ter was that Honduras fell into the
hands of shylocks, who loaned her
money and took everything she had
as security. Twice more she Dor
rowed money, also for the purpose OF
completing an interoceanic railway,
but nearly all of it went into private
pockets instead of going into the
building of a railway.
At last Honduras threw up its hands,
declaring that it had got no ben
not satisfy the bonds. The British
parliament was appealed to for an
investigation. and soon found the whole
matter so tainted with fraud that 1t
could only throw it out of court, so
to speak Since then many efforts
have been made to effect a settlement,
but no mutually satisfactory basis has
been found, although the bonds once
sold for per cent of their face value,
with no allowance for accumulated in
terest.
If Honduras were to pay this whole
debt with the accumulated interest it
would amount to $140 per capita. Our
own debt, upon such per capita basis,
would amount to more than twelve
billion dollars. Heavily handicapped
by its practical, if not actual, repudi-
alton of this debt, Honduras finds
itself in still worse straits from the
fact that it's export trade is of less
value than its imports. Among the
countries of the new world only Haiti
and Colombia have a smaller per capita
ey~ rt trade than Honduras.
In the matter of internal improve
ments Honduras is the most backward
of all the Central American states,
although none of them possess greater
natural resources. Its forests contain
vast areas of precious woods that are
all but untouched and its rich mines
are lying idle for lack of capital to
develop them. Americans have lately
been taking a deep interest in the
possibilities of this land of virgin re-
sources but thousand opportunities
still await development where one has
been improved. While there has been
complaint among the Honduraneans
over the exaggerated reports of their
political disturbances that are circu-
lated in the United States, they heart
lily welcome our capitalists. AS a mat
ter of fact there are few places in the
world not willing to profit by the Won
derworking power of Yankee brains,
capital and grit.
A remarkable plant that rows in
Honduras is the pantain, which is
not unlike the banana. One authority
estimates that an acre of plantain pro-
duces a quantity of food equal to 1873
acres of wheat, or forty-four acres of
potatoes. Flour is made from green
plantains, and both the ripe and green
ones are good to eat in their natural
state. The sap makes a fine indel-
ible ink. 1t is estimated that the aver
age bunch of plantains will weigh sew
enty pounds and that an acre of them
Will produce more than $50 tons of
edible food in a single season. Banana
growing is said to yield a profit Of
$50 per acre for the first year and $50
for the following ten years. Honduras
seems to offer splendid opportunities
for the agriculturist, because it's laws
exempt him from liability to military
service
The first ice cream factory ever built
in Central America was erected at San
Pedro Sula by a Mr.. Troy a native of
Georgia. Shortly after it started there
was doWnpeur of rain in the very
height of the dry season, a thing al
most unheard of. The natives thought
the ice cream factory had changed the
climate of the country, so they i'm
mediately sent petitions to the presi-
dent of the republic asking him to
revoke the ice cream concession. Troy
had witt him a wild Irishman who
had been stranded and this fellow con-
ceived the idea of peddling ice cream
on the streets. He was soon making
from $40 to SIS a day from his in
genuity and industry.
The Bay islands, belonging to Hon
duras, are said to be the nearest known
approach 10 lazy mans paradise. Co
coanur growing constitutes practically