The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-14
NATION OF RAILROAD BUILDERS

lSolauon or BollVla Which IS an interior country in South American. lying east of | Peru and Chile.
 NATION OF RAILROAD BUILDERS ! Some years ago Bolivia rejoiced in 1 the probability that great railroad construction would soon be under way one line extending from the capital to very rich oil fields in southeastern Bo- | ilivia. That project, however, fell through chiefly because the promoters. one of whom was a prominent American citi- l zen, suddenly discovered that the bank CTS of Europe were already apprehen- sive lest war break out in Europe, and for that reason did not want further to expand their loans In spite of this disappointment, Bolivia has undertak- en railroad construction upon a great scale. Much of it will represent the in- lvestment of American money and sub stantially all of the equipment will be imported by Bolivia from the United States.
 When Bolivia and Brazil, in 1906, agreed upon the terms of settlement of the Ocre boundary dispute, Brazil agreed to pay Bolivia s10,000,000 This payment was made through New York and the entire amount was deposited in New York banks to be drawn upon as Bolivia needed it in payment of rail-
 
 eral Pando, who was President of Bo- Ilivia, persuaded the Brazilian govern ment that there could be no wiser use of the money than in payment for rail- lroad construction and expansion. He knew that all that Bolivia needed for the development of her stupendous re- sources was adequate transportation. The money was so expended.
 In speaking of this use of the money Ito MT. Wands recently, Gen. Ishmael Montes, who is now President of Bo- |livia. said that he had carefully studied the career of the late k. H. Hartman and realized to some extent at least how vast MT. Harriman's achievements were. not only in building up the Union Pacific railroads, but also in develop ing the far western section of the United States He determined to make Mr. Harriman's example one for Bo- Ilivia to follow, saying to his people, as MT. Hartman once said, that what la new or undeveloped country needs is railroads, railroads and then more railroads. Already it has been discov- cred in Bolivia that this view of MT. Hartman was correct.
 In few weeks the term of Gen. eral Montes will end, but he is to be succeeded by a man of remarkable ability as well as soundness of judg- ment, who until recently has been oc- Cupied solely With ms vocation as banker. He is Senor Don Jose Gutierrez Guerra He is as accomplished a man as is to be found in South America. | Upon his maternal side he is of Eng fish descent.
 He was educated in economies and banking in London and in Manchester, and he also qualified as mining en- gineer:n When he returned to Bolivia he seodred instant employment with the Bolivia Mining company. Later he became chief accountant of the na- tional treasury, where he introduced modern methods in fiscal accounting. ! The municipal treasury of La Paz is now carried on in accordance with his accounting system He has also been writer on financial subjects and had no idea of entering actual politics un- til 1915. when he was urged by all of the leaders of Bolivia to accept the post of deputy, and in 1915 he became l the minister of finance. Under his ad- ministration the commercial relations of Bolivia with the United States are sure to be increased, and it may be that in the course of a few years the United States will find itself as closely allied to Bolivia commercially as 1t is either to Brazil or Argentina.