The daily progressive-miner., 1918-02-18
THE GERMAN SOUTH
 AMERICAN EMPIRE

InaJ the teTllldu COloiioIo III SOuen Brazil were but the nucleus of what was to become a German South Amer ican Empire is the keynote of a recent article on German aims in Southern Brazil in the South American Maga' zine.
 Of the four southern states of Bra gil, Rio Grande do Sul, Parana, Sac Paula and Santa Catarina, the latter is almost exclusively populated by Germans.
 When one is informed that in South ern Brazil the land owned by the Ger man element is no more than one-siXth of the whole area he is apt to think that German influence in these parts is no real menace. That this is a fallacy, the article states, is evident when one realizes that the remaining five sixths. generally speaking, is owned by wealthy absentee landlords who neither cultivate nor stock their holdings.
 When sales of these holdings take place they are usually bought in by some German corporation. Soon set tiers who are of German origin appear and purchase lots at small price. The sale of town lots and the income from boyer and natural monopolles are the sources and of the corporations l financial gain.
 Thus often an unproductive Brazii- ian absentee-owned estate becomes productive German colony and the latent. every ready outposts of the Ger man Empire are in this way establish ed
 Tn Santa Catrina one hears 1lve times more German than Portuguese and sees advertisements such as the following: For sale, first class land on easy terms; to Germans only, The Germans dominate in almost every corner of the State. They have then rifle clubs, their schools, and theil churches, while S5 percent of the com merce is in their hands.
 "Probably for political reasons from fifty to seventy per cent of these neople are naturalized Brazilians, but scraps of paper do not count when il comes to patriotism. The German is a German, all and every time, an nc oath or promise can make him any thing else.
 "This German element has gradual lv extended into the State of Paranf on the north and into Rio Grande d( Sul on the south, where can be fount Noyo Hamburgo' 'Novo Friburgo,' an6 fully dozen other similarly German named colonies-all schooled, church ed, and armed from Germany.
 For some years past there has beer d;snute going on between the State of Santa Catarina and Parana regard ing boundaries. Both claim regions known as Campos Nuevos and Curlt ibanos. Some months ago the question Wal referred to the Brazilian President fo settlement by arbitration. The decls ion went in favor of Phrana Th' quiet German population suddenly tool a deep interest in this question, ant some 5000 of them, armed with Maus CTS and with an ample supply Of car tridges, organized to defend thel State from foreign aggression. Tn Brazilian Government has sent to tn disturbed region some 1900 to l,5o troops with artillery and machne guns Whether there wll be any real fight ng or not remains to be seen, but tn fact must not be lost sight Of tha about four years ago these same qule colonists gave General Carvalho tw years hard work, and three or fou severe fights before he could re-estal fish order.
 CT came, they saw, they settled
 and u ey conquered t hesitate by peac rul means, ever ready, at moment notice, to respond to tn eEmperor call Whether that call was eve made or not cannot be said, but tn
 fact remains that the Germans in Sal
 ta Catarina are well armed and nun toned and at present in an uneas
 franc of mind"