The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-01-19

tCcpyright, 1918, by Frank G. Carpenter)
EAM writing this letter at Esquintla
Guatemala. 1t is the biggest town
! between the capital and the sea coast
It lies on the Guatemala Central railroad
some distance north Of Santa Maria, the
function where the Pan-American road
WI cross the Central on its way TO Pan
anna The Pan-American line is now prac-
1lcally completed from Santa Marie to
Mexico, and the plan is TO extend the road
southwark TO Santa Ana in Salvador. The
distance between these two towns is less
than 100 miles. and We shall then have
railroad connection between Salvador and
the United States. An American syndi-
cate will probably build this road, and the
same syndicate has plans for line from
Zacapa, on the Guatemala railway, on
the other side of the mountains, to con-
meet with the Salvador system. When
these roads are finished Salvador will be
able to ship goods TO Port Barrios on the
Caribbean sea and 1t will be within less
than three days Of New Orleans
| understand the concessions for these
branches are we'll under way, and that
their completion is a matter of very
snort time.
These two roads will form a part of
great Central American railway system
the chief owners of which are Minor G
Keith and his associates, many of whom
are connected with the United Fruit COM
pany. Mr.. Keith controls the roads of
Costa Rica and also those Of Guatemala.
lie has large interests in Honduras, and
also a grasp upon the railways of Nicara-
qua The road from Santa Maria TO
Aanta Ana was originally granted to Mr..
Rene Kehauer, but II is now in the
names of Minor c. Keith and Bradley NJ.
Palmer. The line from Santa Ana to
I L l. II H.
Keith 1t will be 70 miles long, and its
gauge will be standard,
Salvador Railways
AS it is now, Salvador has just about
122 miles of railways and these belong
TO British company. It's lines were built
with British capital. although they have
a number of American engines and cars.
Some of the locomotives are Baldwins,
and a number of the cars were manu-
featured in Philadelphia. At present the
company is building its own coaches.
These roads connect the port of Acajutla
with the thriving town of Santa Ana,
and also with the capital at San Saliva
dor. The company owns an iron pier
at Acajutla, which cost over s., ,00O,O00 to
build, and it has a line of steamers which
plies along the coast running to Hon
duras, Nicaragua and as far north as
Salina Cruz. in Mexico. These steamers
carry the Salvador mails north to Te-
huantepec, cutting down the postal time
between Salvador and Europe to only a
little over two weeks, whereas 1t used
to be one month They enable one to go
TO Salvador from here every few days.
With the completion of the Panama canal
the traffic of Asajutla will be greatly in
creased, and the road win be a very val
liable property The prospect is that it
viii eventually go into the hands of the
American syndicate.
The Smallest of American Republics
These railways will bring Salvador into
close connection with the United States.
II is one of the most interesting coun-
tries on this continent Great parts or
Guatemala are savage, wild and unpopu-
lated. Salvador is more thicliy settled
than most parts of our union. II has an
area less than that of Massachusetts, and
its inhabitants number 100000 If the
United States were as thckly populated
II would have more than four times as
many people as now, and IL our soil
throughout were rich we would have
wealth beyond the dreams of avarice
Salvador has two ranges OF mountains
which are rich in iron, copper and lead
and In gold and silver as we'll As it Is
nov. it's mineral exports are between
s2,o0o,000 and $30O0,000 a year. and the
total exports. including coffee, tobacco
and sugar, are more than $9000.00O
The bulk of the exports go to the United
States. France and Germany, while the
most of the imports come from the British
and us. The Germans. who have less
thar $4,000 of the exports and about
the same of the imports. have large finan-