Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1913-11-21

EM43 fAN ELERS nom THIS country
81 cross continents and seas to
ID find nothing more CURIOUS or
O picturesque than may be found
on the west coasts of Central
America and Mexico, comparatively
close at hand. To be sure, accommo-
dations for tourists are few. There is
nothing luxurious about the hotels at
all, but the traveller sees land of
quaint customs and interesting people
and sees it just as it is, writes G. r.
King in Grit.
Within the next few years there will
certainly be a wonderful change in
conditions along this coast. With the
opening of the canal will come new
steamship lines, lower freight rates
and increased travel Probably the
cities along the coast will lose some
of their picturesque characteristics.
Travellers sailing through the canal
In the days to come will see but little
of the real Panama. The trip across
the isthmus by train allows opportu-
nifty for seeing the sights at each end.
1t Is a surprise to most passengers
who sail from Panama for California
ports to find that the boat does not
start west but south 1t Is commonly
supposed that the isthmus has west
ern and an eastern coast. AS mat
ter of fact, 1t has northern and a
southern coast. "Why, see that sun"
cried one of the passengers on my
boat, 1T is coming up on the wrong
side" 1t was difficult to realize that
we were sailing due south to round
a huge boot top.
/ had taken a slow boat instead of
an express steamer, because | wanted
to stop at the various ports along the
coast. The republics, big and little,
strung along in this order-Panama.
Costa RIGA, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sal
Sador, Guatemala, Mexico. Honduras
has only q few miles on the Pacific
shore, and Salvador no Atlantic coast
line at all. Most OF the republics have
been torn by revolutions, beggared by
graft and kept back by lack of educa-
ton to an extent which can scarcely
be realized in this country near neigh
bors of ours though they are. There
is tribe of Indians In Panama which
has never been conquered and which
is quite independent of the govern
ment, boasting that no woman IN the
tribe has ever borne child to white
man. and obeying laws of their own
making.
immense Tracts Of Fertile Lard.
Much of Honduras is a wilderness.
In Nicaragua and Guatemala are inn
mense tracts OF land of the most fer
tile character and in the finest eli
mates simply waiting the development
which shall come with peace and pros
perity. Slavery is an actual II not an
admitted fact in many of these repub-
lies. The law says that peon shall
remain In the service of his master so
long as he Is in his debt, which is
ali the time. Further, the law says
that the debt is inherited by the mans
descendants and kinsmen. Peonage is
really slavery.
The fault of the system lies, how
ever, in the fact that a few men own
all the land and that the peon sees
nothing ahead but a continual round
of labor When, as in Mexico, ali the
land is in the hands of 5000 individ-
uals, while the total population is 15,-
000, 900, there is little future for poor
man.
Costa RIGA is the one country in
Central America which seems to have
solved the land problem. There the
government is the supreme landlord
and the land is parceled out In small
lots to families who will actually work
it. AS result Costa RIGA is made up
of small farmers and is prosperous
and happy. the serenity Of its affairs
being disturbed only by an occasional
revolution engineered by an ambitious
politician.
Conditions in Nicaragua, next door
to Costa Rica, are about as different
as can we'll be imagined Nicaragua
is land of revolutions, bIoodshed and
bad debts. Yet its natural resources
are beyond estimate. It's climate Is
delightful. It has coast line on two
oceans and good steamship connec-
lions. Some day 1t may prove an Ell
Dorado, Already the need of progress
is felt and the government has signed
a contract with an American com.
pany for more than half a million dol