Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-06-28
Copyright 1914. by Frank G. carpenter)
LA PAZ, Bolivia.

ALgGRGz republic of Bolivia, and his
capital, La Paz, might be
called the high Andine Lhassa. In his con-
duct President Monies pursues much the
same policy as his prototype of the Hima-
layas He keeps to himself and does not
give out newspaper interviews for publica-
ton He governs his people in his own
way, and practically without let or him
drance Like the centurion of the Scrip
lures, "He says unto this man, come and he
cometh, and to that man, go, and he goeth,
and to third, do this, and he doeth it." /
am not sure as to the wording of this quo
tation, but it describes President Monies.
He is the big man of Bolivia, and am told
he is doing all he can to advance it along
the lines of the development of its great nat
ural resources. Like President Wilson, he
has all sorts of new schemes under way. He
is building railroads, establishing banks and
playing with other financial matters in such
way as to cause great annoyance to the
bankers and brokers. He is like Our presi-
dent also in that he has big things to play
with. Since | came here some weeks ago,
| have devoted my time to learning about
the country and people. | have met men
from every large city, and with the maps
before me have gone over the country with
Don Manuel Vicente Bolivian, the chief of
the bureau of statistics. | am surprised >at
the size of the republic, and at its enormous
undeveloped resources.
/ have called Bolivia the Tibet OF South
America. Of all the lands upon earth, it
kisses the sky next below the Himalayan
highlands. 1t has more high mountains
than any other country outside of Asia and
its mighty plateau is excelled in altitude
only by that of Tibet Within its borders
are more than a score of mountains that
approximate four miles in height, and up
held by these, a great tableland twice as far
up in the air as the high plateaus of the
Rockies. Overlooking the plateau from the
west are the snow-clad peaks OF Pomerape,
Parinacota, Sajana and Huallatri, all rang
ing from 10000 feet to Fl 800 feet high, and
there are four other volcanoes that are al
most as high. On the way to the ocean you
pass several smoking volcanoes; and, scat
tered over the county, are mountains that
surpass anything on the North American
continent excepting M cunt Mckinley,
Alaska. The plateau itself is almost $4,000
feet high and in many places it rises far
above that
This gives one some idea of the general
altitude of the republic. 1t must be remem-
bered, however, that Bolivia has also vast
tracts of lowlands On the east the land
slopes down to some of the large tributaries
of the Amazon, giving it every fruit of the
tropics and the temperate zones Right
here in La Paz you can buy bananas and
oranges, and also apples, peaches and pears.
Quinua, grain that will grow only at H.
900 or $4,000 feet above the sea level. grows
we'll on the plateau, and at the same time
Bolivia has the rubber, coca and coffee
which require tropical heat. The country
has all attitudes, all climates and all sorts Of
resources. 1t can produce every crop
known upon earth, and prospectively it is
one of the richest lands Of the world
wonder if you have any idea of the size
OF Bolivia. Situated here in the heart of the
continent, with great desert between it
and the ocean, it is the third largest of the
South American republics. 1t contains al
together more than 100000 square miles.
It is one-fourth as big as the United States
proper, six times as large as Great Britain
and Ireland, more than three times the size
of Germany or France, and three times as
big as Austria-Hungary or the Spanish pen
insula. The republic extends from north to
south as far as from Canada to the Gulf of
Mexico, and it is almost as wide as from
New York to Detroit ALI of Our New Eng