The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1917-05-01
GERMANS IN BRAZIL
They Dominate Its Four Southern
Maritime Provinces.
A STATE WITHIN A STATE.

Wonderful CoIonizing Process That Has
Placed a Million Subjects of the Faith
erIand In Control of 1880 Square
Miles of Territory.
1.-THE Germanic element In Brazil Is
numerous and energetic" says a bulle-
tin of the National Geographic society.
"They number at least million souls,
and they are practically limited In resi-
dence to the four southernmost OF the
Brazilian maritime states-Rio Grande
do Sui, Santa Catarina, Parana and
Sac Paulo-where they have thrust
their national roots far into foreign
soil without losing any Of their Unborn
characteristics. Theodore Roosevelt,
writing In 1914 Of Sac Paulo, says: In
this province 1 met for the first time
Germans born in the country who could
speak only German
German colonization In Brazil has
been going on since 1925, when the set
tlement of San Leopoldo In Rio Grande
do Sui was established. For ten years
the stream Of immigration continued,
when it was interrupted by the sans
culotte revolt In southern Brazil This
interruption lasted for nine years. In
1S48 the food of settlers was percepti-
bly, swollen by the families from Schles-
wig Holstein and the other parts or
Germany which were affected by the
revolt of the duchies against Denmark.
mo less than thirteen important
German colonies were established In
southern Brazil between 1848 and 1850,
the earliest settlers being greatly aided
by generous grants Of land from the
Brazilian government, which allotted
no less than ia acres to each immi-
grant. Owing to speculative abuses
this privilege was largely reduced
but without noticeable effect upon the
movement-which was only checked by
| the imperial edict of 1859 forbidd1ng
the further migrations of Germans TO
Brazil. This edict remained in vigor
until 1896, when. as Austin harrison
terms him In the pan-German1c doc
trine. the great sea emperor, William
II. saw early and clearly into the fu-
ture and taught his subjects to see
too
Under this teaching the Germanic
food swept in larger volume into
Brazil and now has spread over ter
ritory approximately as large as that
of the American states of Florida,
Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina,
North Carolina, Virginia, West Vir-
ginia and Tennessee. Fully 100000
Germans are to be found in the state
of Rio Grande do Sui. where In the
cities they have taken a strong hold
upon the activities Of the country and
have practically absorbed commercial
and Industrial enterprise. In Port
Allegro, the capital of the state, three
German publications indicate and ex-
pound the Germanic doctrine.
'In Santa Catarina, the next state
north. conditions are analogous. Ger
man customs and the German tdiom
prevail, and in many towns one may
almost imagine himself In the father
land. The Germanic element here was
strong enough some years ago to elect
| a German governor, and with the ex-
ception Of the officers of the federal
court the officeholders are almost en-
| tirely German. The anomaly of Bra
lillian governmental reports written by
| Germans is by no means unusual.
1.-THE German colony in this state
owes no little of its strength to the
| fact that here for some time was the
residence of the Prince de Joinville of
Saxe-C oburg-G otha, who married a
daughter of Dom Pedro, the first en-
peror of Brazil; and the city Of join
| vile. German to the marrow, is a
monument to his royal highness' eff
| forts to form a nucleus for German
| immigration.
1.-THE lands to which the Germans have
taken title In south Brazil now gives
them an area of holdings Of 1854
square miles, an extent equal that Of
Alsace-Lorraine and Saxony together.
The aim of the Metropolitan and Han
seattle colonization companies at home
has been to defect the current of Ger
man emigration from the United States
to Brazil and to have the Brazilian
cOlonists retain their German ale
| glance.
"The success of the plan is attested
by Konigsburg who, in his work on
Rio Grande do Sui, says: These
| colonies have built q state within q
state. OF German customs very little
has been lost; also, the German dialect,
with its native idiom, is handed down
from generation to generation. Portu-
guese is little spoken, and even then
the Germans use it with great diff
Guilty The schoolteachers Of the colo
MES are German pastors.
Through their possession Of land
the Germans in Brazil control one-half
Of the worlds supply of coffee, and the
Germanization of the people is further
carried out through the compulsion laid
upon the army of employees and serv-
ants to learn the German language
rather than to oblige the alien to gain
the native tongue.
"'The ideals and ties of the immi-
grants says Frederic William Vile in
the Eclectic Magazine, are essentially
and ineradicably German 1t is Vile
also who declares that the Germaniza-