The Washington herald., 1917-02-25
Copyright. 1917,


sNicaragua % . charming and fertile
country. The smiling sun there should
hght up . happy and prosperous land
but u doesn't light up anything Of the
kind. On the contrary It lights up very
dfzgruntled and hard-up country. where
monsy and most everything else except
sunshine and vegetation are very scarce
It " hah starved and ragged and down
at thu heels and has been kicked so
nnueh It's calloused. For Nicaragua has
been hufaloed. It has not been given a
square deal The worst Of it II, and
more shame to US your very own Uncle
Sam u the fellow who has been playing
this low-down trick on a little, helpless,
haH-hreed nation, that never did US any
harm and hasn't got spHnk enough left
even 10 start another revolution.
During the last few years Nicaragua
has passed under the semi-offlcial con-
troi Of the United States. It was very
hard up- and We promised to make it q
little loan to build Q railroad, and 50
en-only . little loan Of 50 3000.o To Sc
cure this loan they pawned every re-
source Of the country and the control of
everything under governmental sway
was passed over to American interests.
And the loan has never been made. In
faet the loan scheme appears to have
bean abandoned for the Canal treaty.
Ths reason 10 probably connected with
the Central American objection to the
treaty. but II 10 hard to understand why
In the meantime . good sized loan Of real
money, not imitation dollars, is not made
TO Nicaragua Control Of the financial
system. the customs houses and the rail-
ways By United States interests Is surely
sufficient security. 1t Is . great deal more
than Europeans ever had, and In former
days European money was given plenti-
fully and on easy terms
MI. W. W. Razor has Just returned
from tour Of investigation Of condi-
ions thera He Is full Of Nicaragua g
wrongs and Q great deal Of interesting in
formation The country is an open book
TO him for he has been there many times
ana knows every nook OF II.
One noontime," said he In describing
his trip, I'VE halted at the home of an
old-timer from Texas for a little rest and
luncheon. Learning that fortune had
smiled on him most bene1cently, asked
him his views concerning the country Of
his adoption. He spoke with the dynanaics
OF Davy Crockett and this Is what he
said:
These people are all right, and the
country Is all right. and our troubles
VIII work out all right. Nicaragua Is less
than one-fifth the size of Texas, but she
has one sugar plantation which alone
produces six times as much sugar as Is
grown IN all the Lone Star State She
digs out Of her mines more than 81, ooO, ,OOC
worth Of gold every year Her coffee cror
Is worth 100000 a year, ard she's q
mighty hne cattle country-been selling
more Than 10000 head Of cattle a year to
Costa Rica
What We need in this country Is
more hoes and less rifles more eIbon,
grease and less of this whooping hot air
ABOUT liberty and independence. ItIwere
general manager Of the state I would
start out by doing away with hammocks,
"hlch swing poet, a fiddler a politician
or a general. from almost every home in
the land. would chop down every man
60 nispero and papaya tree in the coun-
ny shoot the poets and deport the
NapoIcons.
Now there is another new-fangIed
notion which [ don't like refer to the
Rockefeller Foundation. which has es-
ta0ished an american doctor in every
central American country. and as a re-
suit We are now told that about 50 per
cent Of us have hOokworm DamnabIe
insult! II they pump this idea into the
heads OF our people, we're done for. so
far as work is concerned
Mind You. think this Yankee notion
mas something else behind it. The
standard Oil Company will one Of these
days be boring to tap our greatest wealth
perhaps. Anyway. it's just as we'll 10
Keep an eye out right now to see that the
country is not infested with patent medI-
cine vendors. selling Standard Oil by
products as dead shot for hookworm,
I wish You would take this message
mack to the people in the States. Tell
them to give us a square deal-quit play-
ing politics at Nicaragua's expense; do
things by US as a neighbor should do;
loan US $5O.OOC.OCO if we should want II
even build the Nicaragua Canal The
Story OF this republic will then most sure
ly glorify before the world the great re-
public of the North"
Mr.. Rozier says that on another occa-
sion he met two men mounted on burros
VINO were jogging along a beautifully
shaded road in a rich agricultural dis
trict some miles out from Leon on the
way 70 Matagalpa. AS they went along
they were brandishing their Inachetes like
swords, vociferating the while about lib
erty and democracy. 1t occurred to Mr.