Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-11-07

hold on Uruguay that it may be ex-
pected to retain. The merchants are
English, many of them. and SO is a
large part Of the best buying public.
The American trade campaign, how
ever, may find hope in the fact that
Uruguayans are the most progressive
of South Americans in their civic &C
tivities. This argues a keen national
intelligence and presages success for
intelligent methods in selling Ameri-
can goods.
The Uruguayans already appreciate
the products of American invention,
and buy these products in large guam
titles. The competitive market Is now
open for the first time, and Americans
are undoubtedly going after this sort
of trade. The war has created much
anti-German sentiment in Uruguay. so
that sentiment may aid our trade
movement there.
The sympathetic traveller in Para
quay. while he may find things there
of which he disapproves, is more apt
to condone than criticise. He remem-
copied the challenge of what to her
was the rest of the world, and ac-
quilted herself with a heroism that has
scarcely any parallel in history.
During the four years from 1851 to
1865. when the fate of our own land
hung in the balance. an equally bloody
conflict was being fought on the Dor
ders of Paraguay. In those four years
Paraguay stood off the combined
armies of Brazil. Argentina and Uru-
numbers when her last able bodied
men were shot down.
Never was the manhood of a nation
more completely exterminated in war.
More men are said to have fallen in
the battle of Humaita than at Gettys-
burg. Paraguay was the second seat
of Spanish civilization in South Amer
lea, and at the time of her great war
she had waxed rich and strong under
a succession of able dictators. Ex-
cept for that war she might have been
one of the great Latin American re-
publics today.
But Paraguay has never been able to
recover from the loss of the chief re-
source of any country-her men. 1t
is said that when peace came the male
population of Paraguay consisted
chiefly of old men. children and weak
lings. Nearly all the able bodied males
between the ages of fourteen and fifty
had been killed or injured.
The nation tried desperately to re-
cover She encouraged illegitimacy.
hoping thus to rebuild the human stock
in a short time But she did not have
the strong blood to start this rebuild
ing process. The strong men were
dead The Indian blood swept in from
the Chaco wilderness and threatened to
submerge the Spanish. Even today
among the masses of the population OF
Asuncion the Guarani language is
heard as often as Spanish.
But the white blood of Paraguay is
at last asserting itself as the natural
evolution lifts the race upward There
has been an infusion Of German blood.
the president Eduardo Schaerer. for
instance, being of German descent, as
his name implies. In the recent years
the governments have made many eff
forts to encourage immigration. though
with not the success these attempts
deserved, since the European immi-
grants have nearly always done well
in Paraguay.
1t is estimated that immigrants have
been entering Paraguay at the rate of
1000 a year for several years. Even
at this slow rate. the final result of
such immigration will be of great
benefit to the country.
Paraguay stirs the imagination with
her possibilities. One needs only to see
her wooded hills and wide valleys.
vegetation bursting luxuriantly from
the red fertility of the soil. to realize
what an empire of plenty Paraguay
will be when she obtains vigorous
population. Her future will always be