Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-18
CARIBBEAN POLITICS.
XV-THE PEOPLE OF NICARAGUA.
By Frederic J. Haskin.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

CORINTO, Nicaragua, May 13-The
people of Nicaragua. victims OF SO
many generations Of misrule. with
seventeen years of Zelayaism as It's
climax, have reached that sad state
where the traveller wonders whether
they or their beasts of burden have the
better lot in life. Where there Is a
submerged tenth in America, in Mica
ragua it is a submerged nine-tenths
The people have no education. What
ever of schools there are have been
created in order that the government
might used a lot of high-f1own Ian
guage about education in the republic.
Viva libertad"-long live liberty-is
a phrase to conjure with in Nicaragua
Let a leader shout it and thousands
gather beneath his banner. And yet
the masses know about as little of true
liberty as those Of Persia.
A fair election in Nicaragua has
never been known, and until some one
from the outside guarantees 1t, or un-
til the nature OF the Nicaraguan po-
litioian changes. none ever will be
known. Nothing in the way of SANTA
ton. education or governmental as
Sistance ever has come to the people
They have q hundred times been draft
ed into the armies of the rival revo-
their homes and their work, and the
effect of all this may be shown by the
one significant fact that the popula-
ton of Nicaragua has decreased more
than one-half in fifty years!
Contrast with the lot Of the unfortunate
masses the condition Of the ruling
classes. They are almost without ex-
ception Well-to-do, very often they are
rich, The poor peon must work a
whole day for them for less than 25
cents. II he is not willing to take
the wage the alternative is starvation
and. as hundreds of thousands are al
ways hungry. no strike ever can secure
better wages.
+ There has been one exception to this
prosperity of the ruling classes. During
the endless process
Found 1t Hard sion of revolutions
that have come and
u uet AdDoIeIS. gone in Nicaragua
recruiting officers have visited every cof-
fee finca, sugar plantation and mining vii
lage in the republic in search Of men for
the army. 1t was either a case of take
to the woods or go to the army. Under
those conditions the coffee and sugar
growers and the mining men would have
paid high prices for labor. but it was not
withered on the trees, the sugar cane re-
manned uncut. the mineral continued I'm
its place and industry in general was
ruined. 1t is true that all this, for the
time being. caused losses to the property
owning. ruling class. but future conces-
sions always made up for it.
Perhaps the saddest fact about the
whole situation of the masses In Mica
ragua is the smiling and cheerful resig-
nation with which they have borne their
pitiable lot. Whether it has come from
never having known anything better. or
from sort Of stole philosophy. 1t is hard
TO divine, but their good nature under
their long suffering is revelation in
patience. They are a deeply religious
people. and yet they seem to violate every
principle of morality with which the
American mind. Except in the small
percentage of high caste families, mar
riage is all but forgotten rite. The
church and the state each declare that
marriage ceremonies celebrated by the
other are not good, and the masses be-
lieye them both. Zelaya once boosted
that % per cent of the children of Mica
ragua were Legitimate.
The people have the gambling spirit
highly developed They buy lottery tick
cts every week
Gambling Spirit if they can get a
Highly Developed. have cock firbts
just as often as the supply Of cocks will
permit; they play keno at all hours Of the
day and highland Nicaragua is a wide
open place from Corinto and San Juan del
Sur to Biuefields and Greytown.
The children of Nicaragua are like
Topsy, indeed. There is no pretense of
rearing them-they run as wild as the
pigs and chickens, and live with such in
difference to dirt that one begins to be-
lieve that man may become immune to
all germs just he does to some dis
eases. They grow up in ignorance, live
wholly a hand-to-mouth existence from
the cradle to the grave, and ultimately
are carried to their graves in rented
collins. from which their bodies, wound
in nothing but winding sheets, are tum-
bled into their graves.
Although, as stated before, in half
century the population Of Nicaragua has
been cut In twain. this cannot be at
tributed to race suicide. 1t is not con-
sidered wrong for man to maintain
half dozen domestic establishments. He
is criticised only If he attempts to main
tain more homes than he can provide
for. Some time since the son of one Of
the present candidates for president was
asked how many brothers and sisters ne
had He replied that he did not know
explaining: you see we have SO many
mammas." Plenty of children are born
but disease and war cut their lives short
X *
Notwithstanding the fact that the
masses in Nicaragua have never received
anything from the
People Are government but the
un.4:.4;o privilege of paying
veAJ "'AA0So' for its maintenance
| and fighting for II or against it, they
still are intensely patriotic and equally
bitter against foreigners. They have
heard the ruling element in Nicaragua
| talk SO much about the United States
and its people that they are not much In
love with us. They cannot understand
how any government should sympathize
with them, and they judge us as in