Vernon Parish Democrat., 1922-02-16

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, D. c.
The creation of a United States of
Central America" and troubles be-
tween Panama and Costa Rica which
almost led to war, have drawn atten-
tion to the countries south of the
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 a 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 fa-
vOred alike in natural wealth, but
there is a vast difference in the de-
velopment of that y 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 misrule.
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 a
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. It
would require six Salvadors to make
one Honduras, and yet Salvador has
twice the population Of Honduras and
o larger foreign commerce. Costa
Rica 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
Rica 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 Rica, yet it has a 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 a foreign trade
over thirteen times as great.
Little Porto Rico is so small that it
could be buried in a single Central
American lake; it 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
cepublics Porto Rico has an ideal gov
ernment 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
/ NoII e,-o,, h0fo,.n tJ,o
Honduras Is Laggard.
Honduras in some ways lags behind
its neighbors. And yet it is rich in
natural resources almost beyond i'm
agination.
With vast deposits Of minerals ot
all kinds, with untold thousands Oi
acres Of the finest tropical fruit ant
vegetable lands in the world and will
vast areas Of magnificent grazing ant
coffee lands, Honduras is at our very
doors. It is 700 miles nearer to Chi
cago than that city is to San Fran
cisco it is closer to Washington thar
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 a stable government
Honduras must become a kingdom o
plenty instead Of a prineipality o
poverty.
Across the border is prosperous lit
tie Salvador. It is as diff6sent from
Honduras as night is from. day.
has a population so dense that if our