Evening star., 1915-05-23

Mai. John A. Harman was a retired
army officer. a West Point graduate.
who had held high rank an
sineer. He was a studious. quiet man
of much persistence of purpose.
Archer Harman was vociferous. as-
gressive and domineering. He bullied
and coaxed canny Scot and conserNa-
tive English investors into providing
funds. He also persuaded some French
tinanciers TO invest in the enterprise,
and he did not neglect his own cour-
trymen. He alternately quarreled with
and ca joled the governing powers at
Quito into giving him whatever he
wanted in the way of concessions. aud
he antagonized instead of conciliating
the Ecuadorian people who were not
enthusiastic about railways as instru-
ments of progress
Maj John A. Harman himself led th.,
surveying parties which projected the
most difficult sections of the railwa'
and with a hand level he scaled heights
that were said to he unscalahle IiA
died of yellow fever at Huigra. on &
railway line. when all the sections
which involved perpiexinG engineerir =
problems We're completed.
Archer Harman got the road mp 20
Quito. and then his controversies with
the government at Ecuador over the
and other questions growing out Of
the relations of the railway company
to the government kept the State De-
partment pretty busy He also fourI
time at intervals to plan the acquisi-
tion OF the Galapagos Islands by tls
United States with himself as inter
mediary.
Archer Harman was thrown from Il .
horse and killed in Virginia three
years ago.
The payment of the coupons OF IN,
railway has been suspended nv tie
Ecuadorian government and the Staia
Department apparently has not male
much headway in adjusting the diff
Guilty through diplomacy. but IL is now
possible to travel 300 miles from the
coast at Guayaauii TO the capital at
Quito by rail through the Andean
plateaus and passes. The Harman
brothers with their dissirnilar draii
ties are the men who made this trip
possible.
When the Lusitania was torpedoed
by the German submarine one of the
victims was DR.. F. S. Pearson. another
OF the Americans who have been pio-
neers in constructive work in South
America. DR.. Pearson. who was once
professor of engineering at Tufts Coll
lege, went to Brazil soon after the
Spanish American war to look over
the ground Tor light and power enter
prises. He saw the possibilities. The
result of his vision and of his con-
structive capacity is the light and pow
er company at Rio de Janiero and San
Pauo. These are now reckoned as
among Brazifs principal industrial as
sets.
Central America also has had the
benefit of American pioneers. The es-
tablishment of the banana industry is
comparatively recent. and so is the in
terlocking of some of the railway sls-
TENS. 1t is noted that among the dele
gates to the conference is John NJ.
Keith. a banker of Costa Rica. The
Keths have become SO thoroughly
identified with Central America that
the Yankee element in them is some
times forgotten.
Minor c. Keith is the hest known o6
the family in the United States. and he
has been engaged in Central American n
development for third of century,
His wife is the daughter of a forme er
president of Costa Rica.
Railway construction is now supple =
menting the development of the fruio
industry. with which the Keiths ara
identified.
1t is of passing interest that the
Keiths are nephews of Henry Heigss.
The continuity of North American pio-
neering in South America is thus main-
tained through the Central America n
activities.