Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-28

dice against him. blindly and without rea
son. 1t is instructive to dislike the
stranger, the unknown. But you meet
the man and get to know him and to ap-
preciate his good qualities. and your dis
trust of him disappears. You grow to ad-
mire and to like him.
so it is with nations. When they stand
aloof one from the other. each is injured
not only in the eyes of the other, but in
all that makes life rich and valuable
Mutual acquaintance and the interna-
tIonal ties of friendship and acquaintance
inevitably results in good to all.
The trouble in the past has been that
there has not been between the American
republics that bond Of sympathy that
should exist. We have not known enough
about one another. 1t is to furnish the
knowledge and promote acquaintance that
this bureau is established.
x
With the approach OF the completion
Of the Panama canal the need for closer
linking of the American nations is felt
more than ever. Our interests become
more nearly identical. and the dependence
each has ON the other is more keenly ap-
parent.
While it is true that Latin Anglican
countries and peoples do not know enough
about North Americans, the North Amer
leans possess a still deeper ignorance Of
their fellow Americans to the south Our
cardinal error here in the north is to
lump all Latin American countries to-
gether We hear of a revolution i'm a
Young. new and struggling Latin Amer
lean country, and are prone to imagine
that all Latin American republics are in
the same embryonic stage where such
revolutions are the common thing We
do not seem always TO realize that great
highly civilized, highly cultured. popu-
lous. stable. progressive nations exist to
the south OF
Mind you. l do not say that the masses
Of our people are anything but kindly in
their sentiments>toward the people OF the
Latin American countries; but the Latin
American Just complains that our poll
ticianS and some of our newspapers are
prone 10 adopt a carelessly contemptu-
Gus attitude toward nations and peoples
Of whom they have little actual knowl-
edge We AFFECT too often a patronizing
air. which is wholly uniustitied
In the mental Jumping process we are
inclined 70 classify Honduras, for ex-
ample, with Argentina which is as ride
ulous as Classifying the Balkan states
with England. Honduras is all right.
but conditions there are not representa-
tive OF conditions in Argentina. You
can no more compare Honduras with Ar
sentina than YOU can compare Arizona
with New York or Germany with Bull
garia.
\ <
The average intelligent Latin Ameri-
can Knows much more about US and our
history than we know about his people
and their history. They know all about
George Washington, for example. but
how few of us know about O'Higgins of
Chile or San Martin of Argentine, and
yet those men, in their fields, were great
liberators.
Latin Americans. however. are not
wholly euiltless in keeping UP unfound
ed prejudices. There are politicians to
the south who find it profitable to them
selves to lambaste the United States, just
as some years ago our dema goSues found
1t furthered their fortunes to berate
England. And some of the sensational
newspapers of Latin American coun-
tries have a liking for trying to create