The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-07-21

were of equal density we would have
a population of 700,000,0O0 in the con
tlnental United States; and, although
nearly half of the country is noun
famous, the people are normally able
to get their living out of what they
produce and still have a comfortable
balance of trade in their favor.
The S~alvadorean people are differ
ent from those of any other Central
American state. They have a middle
class. There are thousands of little
farms not much larger than a good
sized city block, and yet 1t is here that
the real prosperity of Salvador is
created. In no other way could a mil
lion and a quarter souls find sub
sistence on 5000 square miles Of ter
ritory, nearly half of it mountains.
Nicaragua and Revolutions
Nicaragua is in much the condition OF
Honduras. There have been revolu-
tons there since the memory of the
tIary. Here one sees a thousand OPP
po%rtunities for the development of
great wealth. Virgin forests Of all the
precious woods in the category extend
ing for miles on end; coffee lands
where millions of pounds of splendid
coffee might be grown; sugar lands
which might yield hundreds of thou
sands of sacks of sugar; and yet all
stand idle. Why?
Ask the American coffee growers of
the Matagalpa district; ask the
cotton growers Of Campo Santo. The
revolutions come along and leave their
coffee to spoil %ungathered and their
cotton to go to waste unpicked. Ask
the fnancier from New Orleans who
spent 20 years of hardships there try
ing to gather together a competence,
and who finally found his business
wrecked and in the hands of the re-
ceivers.
Given good governments, then, nc
countries on the map would afford
greater opportunities for profitable in
veStments than those of Central Amer
lea. With such governments as some
of them have had heretofore all their
natural wealth cannot offset the dis
advantages of those governments, and
an investment at 4 per cent III the
United States has often been preferred
to one yielding 100 per cent. in some
of these countries.
When we come to Costa RIGA, things
are beginning to be different, and
Costa RIGA does not like to be reck-
oned in the same class with Nicaragua,
Honduras and Guatemala. Until re-
Gently she has had scarcely a revolution
in a generation.
Panama which is geographically 8
part of Central America, though it has
been politically SO since %independ-
ence was gained from Spain, is blest
with some very fine farming and fruit
lands in the region next to Costa
Rica but nearly all of the Panamans
have gone down to the canal zone re
gion for the time being. Some of the (:
most beautiful terra templada lands :
in America are to be found in the /:
Chlquiri country, and when the people :
of the United States get acquainted :
with the possibilities there, some of :
them are going to settle in that re- :
gion n make it a splendid example :
of the possibilities of tropical Amer :
lea. Z
1t is not improbable that one of the :
.esults of the completion of the Pana- :
ma canal will be the realization by :
the people of the United States that :
its safety depends in no small degree :
upon the good conduct of the govern :
ments of Central America. That will :
mean a demand for a new order OF :
things In these countries, which in :
turn will mean safe investments for :
American capital. :
Then will dawn an era Of develop. 8
ment in Central America comparable :
to that which has taken place in Porto :
Rico and in Cuba. :