El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-01-05
> INGsTON. Jamaica Jan.


I have stopped off at Kingston
N on the island Of Jamaica, on my
way to south America. I am now in
the center of the Caribbean sea. Two
days later I shall be at Panama, and
within a month 1 shall be amid the
volcanoes and SHOWS on the top of the
Andese. 1 am just starting out on a
tour of $4,000 miles through our
great sister continent, to write a series
of letters for this paper. / expect to
visit the principal countries OF South
America, going down the west coast
from Panama, travelling Tor months
In the Andes inVestig eating the posi-
bilities of the South American desert,
ana writing Of all the countries which
face the Pacific.
Later ia the year I shall go around
through the Strait of Magellan, or over
the mountains to the great republics
which lie son their eastern slopes,
rraVersing The mighty plains ana ira
Yelling up and down the principal rivers
The Continent Of the Future.
The new South Americai The words
make my blood Jingle when [ think of
its future. South America is the
great undeVelOped world of the min
teenth century 1t is the treasure
vault of the universe and the mighty
coming bread basket of the human
race Argentina alone could supply
enough wheat to feed all mankind
The plateaus of the Bolivia and Brazil
added to Uruguay and the Argentine
may in the future be our chief sources
Of meats, and the minerals of the
AndeS-SilVer, gold, copper, and tin
are practically inexhaustibie.
As to cultivable land, South America
far surpasses our own great continent
which lies at the north North Am
erica has the more square miles, but
a vast part of it is all snow and ice
South America is good all the way
through from Caracas In Nenezuela to
Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magel-
ian. The distance is 500 miles or as
far as from San Francisco to Japan.
At its greatest breadth it is 500 miles
wider than the United States from
Boston to San Francisco, and the most
Of 1t consists of mighty plains so
fertile that they rival the valleys of
the Nile or the Gauges in their potential
possibilities.
Big Things IN South America.
We are accustomed to boast that we /
have the greatest country on earth. /
North America seems abSut the only 4
big thing on our hemisphere and the /
United States, in our opinion, stands I
out as prominently there as the boil i
on ones nose. We have no conception 4
Of the immensely of the vast continent /
which lies at the south, nor Of the ]
mighty countries which are there in i
the making. The man on the street /
thinks OF Brazil only as far-off To- i
cality, Of minor extent from where
comes the coffee he drinks Of a morn
ing and the rubber tire which eases his
motor car ride to his business.
Brazil Much Larger Than United States
The truth is Brazil is so big that 1t
could cover the whole Of the United
States, proper as with a blanket and
have good lands left over equal to ten
states the size of Maine 70 tuck in
around the edges. Little Ecuador is
twice as big as Illinois, Peru is ten
times the size Of Missouri, and the low /
shOestriug of Chile if laid out in one
block would more than equal seven
states as big as Ohio, Virginia or Ken
lucky Argentina has one third as
much land as the United States, and
nearly every foot Of it win raise grass.
grain or meat Bolivia is ten times
as big as the whole Of New England I
and Colombia is bigger than France
or the Spanish peninsula
The most of these countries are
white mems countries. Even those
which lie in the tropics have vast
tracts Of land so high above the sea
that their climate is delightful all
the year round. The whole of cen !
trail and eastern Brazil is one vast
plateau, and the southern part of that I
country is noted for cattle and grain.
II IS so popular with the Germans that
they have settled there by the hun
dreds of thousands. The country has Z
become known as West Deutschland,
and II mas German cities and towns,
while regular steamers from Germany
call at the ports.
You might think that the white man
could not live as far down as the Strait