The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1921-06-29

| prepared by he National Geographic So
ciety, Washington. d. c.;
The creation of Omitted States of
Central America" and troubles be-
tween Panama and Costa RIGA which
almost led to war. have drawn atten-
ton to the countries south Of tie
Caribbean sea recently more strongly
than at any time since the completion
Of the Panama canal. Nowhere else
in the world has Nature been more
| bountiful in her blessings OF natural
| resources than in the Caribbean re-
gion. Everything that her treasure
house holds has been bestowed with
lavish and also with impartial, hand.
Someone has observed that if you
tickle the ground with hoe it smiles
back with yam and certain it is that
in any one of these countries the
ground Of natural resources may be
tickled with the hoe Of foreign capital
and it smiles back with yams of
wealth.
These countries are nearly all ia
vored alike in natural wealth, but
there is vast difference in the de-
velopment of that wealth-a differ
ence that may be attributed almost
wholly to the character of the govern
ments in the respective countries
In some of these lands the milk and
honey Of plenty flows in a bountiful
stream. Others are in wretched
poverty, where the masses never have
enough to keep the gaunt wolf of
hunger from gnawing at their vitals
day and night and year in and year
out. In travelling through these coun-
tries, one is impressed with the fact
that prosperity abides with good rule
and poverty dwellS with m;srule.
Differences in Development.
Starting out with the easily demon
strated fact that there is very little
difference between these countries in
their natural resources, 1t is interest
ing to look around and notice what q
vast difference there is in the use that
is being made of this natural wealth.
One need not go out of the confines
Of Central America to see this. 1t
would require six Salvadors to make
one Honduras, and yet Salvador has
twice the population of Honduras and
a larger foreign commerce. Costa
RIGA is less than half as big as
Nicaragua, and yet its foreign COM
merce is greater than that country's.
And yet, when Salvador and Costa
RIGA are compared with Porto Rico,
they in turn seem to be slow in their
development. Porto Rico is so small
| that seven islands like it would be re-
quired to cover an area equal to that
of Costa RIGA, yet it has foreign
trade more than fifteen times as great
as that Of the Banana Empire. Porto
Rico is less than half as large as
Salvador, yet it has foreign trade
over thirteen times as great
Little Porto Rico is so small that 1t
could be buried in single Central
American lake; 1t would take 81 is
lands of its size to equal Central
America in area and yet Porto
Rico enjoys about three times as
much foreign trade as all Central
America together from Tehuantepec
to Colombia. The reason? Because
compared to these Central American
republics Porto Rico has an ideal gov.
eminent. The trade Of the island has
increased sevenfold since Uncle Sam
took possession there. The number of
children enrolled in the schools has
increased skiold. The wages Of the
laboring class has multiplied three
iold even before the war.
Honduras Is q laggard.
Honduras in some ways lags behind
Its neighbors. And yet 1t is rich in
natural resources almost beyond I'M
agination.
With vast deposits of minerals of
all kinds, with untold thousands of
acres of the finest tropical fruit and
vegetable lands in the world and With
vast areas of magnificent grazing and
coffee lands, Honduras is at our very
doors. 1t is 700 miles nearer to Chi
cago than that city is to San Fran
cisco; 1t is closer to Washington than |
Denver is; it is farther from New Or |
leans to Chicago than it is from Puer-
to Barrios and Livingston to New Or
leans. With n stable government, |
Honduras must become kingdom of |
plenty instead Of principality of |
poverty.
Across the border is prosperous lit |
tie Salvador 1t is as different from
Honduras as night is from day. 1t
has population so dense that ii ours l