The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-07

and he weighs, I should judge, about 100
pounds, light. He is "A years old, but is
still in his prime. Whe nthe minister in
troduced me was surprised to hear the
president address me in English. He
speaks that tongue fuently and 1t was in
English that our conversation was held
The first part of 1t related to the political
situation. and 1 asked as to whether
there was any danger of a revolution in
case the administration candidate should
be defeated.
No More Revolutions for Latin
America
There will be no revolution here" said
President Arosemena. land the day of
revolution is fast passing away as far as
the whJie of Latin America is concerned
AS for We Panamanians, we have given
up such foolishness, and we expect to
have no revolutions for all time to come.
I think the same will be the case at no dis
tant date throughout South America. It Ia
already so with Peru and with Chile. We
have now no revolutions in Argentina and
Brazil. and it will soon be so in Colombia
and Venezuela
How about Central American I asked.
THAT eventually will be the case with
Central America, although cannot say
when. The people of some of these coun-
tries have had so many revolutions that
they may be said to have acquired the
revolution habit and II will be some time
before a condition of permanent peace
can be established there. Nevertheless,
Central America is improving. although
the several republics composing 1t are not
so free as ours. We Panamanians have
more liberty of speech. For instance. my
enemies call me tyrant and l make no
reply If one should denounce certain of
the presidents of the republic north of us.
/, - lam tim in
no favorable way"
The Panama of the Future
The conversation here turned to the
Panamanian republic and its prospects,
and President Arosemena said
It am enthusiastic over the future of
Panama 1t is the baby of the nations
the youngest of all the republics. 1t is
still In its swaddling Clothes. and is just
beginning to grow. Look at what we are
doing Take the city of Panama. II had
only 1900 people nine years ago, and II
now has $4,000. 1t will have $1,000 as soon
as the canal is completed Colon, at the
other side of the isthmus, had 5000 popu-
lation when you made your deal with the
French. It has 1900 now. and we may
have other towns which have greatly in
creased"
But will not this population drop when
we stop our work on the canal?' l asked.
Colonel Goethals says the United States
may have to keep soldiers here to the
number of 10000, ap6. also that It will take
$500 additional employees to run the canal
These people will spend a great deal
Then we shall have the tourist travel
which is already coming by thousands
That will steadily increase. 1t will give
us stream of travellers passing through
and dropping dollars into Panama and
Colon. Why, take our own people. All of
you Americans will certainly want to
come to see the canal. There are 90C30.00o
OF you and even at as low as 81 piece.
that would give us 500, O00.o 900 to start with
If you should spend $40 apiece the amount
would soon reach a billion"
Big Hotels to Be Built
But can you accommodate the crowd?"
Yes. We shall have big hotels for the
tourists" said DIR. Arosemena, land the
tourist travel will bring in a great deal.
Paris gets a thousand million francs
very year out of tourists. and Switzer-
land feeds fat upon them There is no
reason why we should not do likewise"