Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-14

are very few good scientific books printed
in our language. This is naturally ex-
pained by the fact that Portuguese is
spoken by fewer than forty million persons
in the world and that of these persons 80
per cent cannot even read or write. 1t
would not be a paving proposition to print
any good book in that language. knowing
French, we a. read the French poets and
philosophers and get distinctly French
intellectual culture, with the resulting love
ana admiration for all that s French.
The opinion Of the educated class nat
urally has an influence upon the lower
classes. and this is the reason why the
whole Brazilian population declared itself
against Germany from the very first day OF
the war. We knew before It started that
France would have to fight Germany again,
and we were for France.
Crisis in Brazil in 1914.
The beginning Of the war caught us in
the middle of a most serious political and
financial crisis II was the last year of the
term of Marshal Hermes da Fonseca as
President of our Republic. the worst ruler
Brazil ever had. 1t is enough to say about
him that he received the country in the
most prosperous financial condition and
left it with an empty public treasury and
largely indebted to European nations The
Brazilian people had always been very
tolerant toward the abuses of politicians.
but the Fonseca Government was such an
eXaggeration of the bad instincts and ideas
or our lower politicians, displayed so
crudely and brutally, that the evil effects
were felt by all. and even the quetest
citizens decided to act and prevent such
state OF affairs ever happening again.
When the war broke out our present
president. DR. Wenceslaus Braz had been
chosen by the whole nation to succeed
Fonseca because all trusted him as being
an honest and economical man. Owing to
these facts we could not help the Allies in
any way during the first two years of the
war; we were too busy reorganizing our own
country But it took a very short time to
accomplish this enormous task, and we
were soon able to start working for Europe
When England and France went into the
war and not only stopped exporting to
Brazil what we needed, but also stopped
buying much of our export goods the
crisis reached Its limit and we lacked money
ana many of the necessities Of life
when Doctor Braz was inaugurated PresI.
dent ne cut down all unnecessary expenses
and stopped all the public works that were
not absolutely necessary. Agriculture and
industry were encouraged throughout the
country. the Federal Government and the
Governments of the States offered prizes
for all increased crop and industries and
the whole nation answered to the call
Many products which we had been buying
from abroad made of raw material exported
from Brazil, are now being manufactured
in our country. For instance, since the war
began we have built and orCanized many
large packing houses and today Brazil is
IN line with the largest exporting nations
of frozen and canned meat !
BEFORE the war we were the largest ex-
porters of rubber as a raw material bur
we had never made any prepared rNbber
product. Since the war several rubber
hntEa hAAv
three months ago ] saw in an exhibition
many articles they were manufacturing, We
cannot import much wheat from abroad but
we are now growing our own wheat in the
southern part of the country. and we are
learning how to make bread out of our
corn and some native plants such as man
ioc from which tapioca is extracted
German Plotters Fail
Now we must see what the German ele-
ment in Brazil has tried to do in order to
help Germany. We have two quite differ
ent kinds Of Germans in Brazil--the COL
onists, who went down there more than
thirty years ago and whose children born |
there have been kept German in language
and education, but who love the country
where they were born; and the German |
business men, who moved in only a few |
years ago and were great workers for PAN
Germanism. Those business men had sue
ceeded, through their wonderful business
talent, in becoming virtually the only
agents between the Brazilian and European
markets they were even beginning to
monopolize the wholesale business of Bra.
lillian cereals in Brazil. These business
houses. the chief of which was the firm
"Bromberg," with agencies all over the
country. tried very hard to organize the
German colonsts to work for the German
Government
After the war started we know that
Sn1nQplp1 Orf int tha
State of Santa Catharina, where the Ger
man influence is strongest. to try to arm
the colonists against the Brazilian Govern
ment. This plan proved TO be a failure,
for the colonists did not want to fight A
very curious thing happened. The colonists
were arrogant with the natives, to show
their superiority of race After Brazil
broke diplomatic relation with the Kaiser's.
Government. a few Germans tried to go
on with their haughtness and were rather
roughly handled by the Brazilians.
At the beginning of the war our Min
lister of Foreign Affairs was a good Bra
lillian, but the son of German colonists
His name was Lauro Mueller He naturally
sympathzed with the cause Of his fathers
country and did every possible thing to pre-
vent us from taking an active part in the
struggle. At first he justified his neutrality
by President Wilson's example. There was
no reason why Brazil should be more Sc
we're about International law than the
United States was. When in February the
United states broke diplomatic relations with
Germany. Doctor Mueller decided to fol-
low the A C policy; that is, the policy
OF Chilli which Is decidedly pro-German
and of Argentina, which is good frieno
of Chill. The people did not like that deci-
sion and started to denounce Mueller
The Minister was called a German openly
In the papers, and when Germany for the
first time sank a Brazilian boat and killed
three Brazilian citizens Mueller was forced
TO break diplomatic relations with Germany.
The people thought the move was not ener-
getic enough and he had to resign. The new
Minister decided at once to break neutrality
and help the United States and. soon after,
decided TO help. all the Allies. He did not
declare war, for there was no need for that.
The country had been attacked and was
pa wing II back Today the Brasilian fleet "a
ksiplps the AHsricsn 4!x!s!en pstrel ths