Evening star., 1928-12-24
BRAZIL s FUTURE
DECLARED BRIGHT
Wealth of Nations Re-
sources Untouched as Lead
erS Plan Great Strides.
BY WILL IRWIN.

By Gable to The Star and the North Ameri-
can Newspaper Alliance.
RIO DE JANEIRO. December "a
1t Is a perilous thing to judge a nation
especially a nation so large and dl-
verse as Brazil-from its capital. But
in anticipation of Mr.. Hoover's visit,
experts on education and economic life
have gathered from every corner OF this
vast republic In the last two days
President-elect Hoover has received
three addresses of welcome and made
three speeches of his own, besides pub
lie appearances.
In the intervals, however, Mr. Hoover
has followed the custom established
since the beginning Of the trip and sat
closeted with the native authorities dis
cussing the life of the country. AS
he can deal with only one or two ex-
perts at time, the rest of them have
spilled over onto us correspondents.
Out Of all this undigested material
comes a sense of a country having al
most unlimited resources, only partial
ly developed-of a great nation OF the
future. It's area is about that of con-
tinental United States. But we have
no such diversity of physical geogra-
ply. Regionally it ranges from dank
tropical jungle to perpetual snow. 1t
has more cultivable temperate lands
than any other South American coun-
try. An area along the sluggish ANA
zon, nearly as large as our Middle
West, is explored only near the rivers.
Great Developments Planned.
Brazil is pushing into that last from
tier against the time when the tropics
will furnish the foodstuffs and most OF
the raw materials for the whole world.
One hears wonder tales OF undeveloped
resources. Somewhere are mountains
of iron, as yet only imperfectly devel-
oped. Somewhere are great fields OF
second grade coal These last indeed
are partially developed. but the over
land haul to Rio or Sac Paulo is so
long that the miners cannot as yet
compete with the Cardiff coal from
England And at this moment Brazil
is planning some of the greatest electric
developments in the world.
The Brazilian people are of diverse
origins, but the foundation is Portu
gueSe.. Underlying all her diversities
must be a substratum of shreWd peas
ant Portuguese.
However, Brazil has her attention
fixed now not upon her black coal, but
upon that everlasting white coal, elec-
trio power She, too, has heritage in
the water falls of the Andes. Develop
ment of the temperate Sac Paulo from
a sleepy subcapital of 100000 souls,
concerned only with coffee trade, is
merely common sense. It is the same
quality which the Yankees from Cape
Cod have remarked in the Portuguese
fishermen and farmers who have come
so much among them in late years.
hn cf1 of hn Y~y
and the difficulty of maintaining COM
municaticns, the political stability and
moderation is astonishing. The world
probably knows that in her two revolu-
tions-one which separated her from
the mother country and the other
which turned her into republic
Brazil took only one life and that
through a mistake. Whereas in our
two corresponding revolutions We
drenched our country in blood.
Elections Bitterly Contested.
The Brazilians fight 1t out at the polls
even more hotly than We do and when
the election is over they accept by in
stinct the will of the majority. The
last remoteSt citizen, holding down a
station among the savage Indians in
the wilds of the Amazon remarks, If he
does not like the new government, that
business has to 60 on nevertheless"
Then he shrugs his shoulders and pro-
ceedS with his job.
AS yet there seems to be no sense Of
rivalry between Rio and that Pitts
said one of the Rio journalists, I'VE are
starting a new building every hour and
half"
Every one regrets that Mr.. Hoover
could not see this district. Its cotton
goods-the raw material is raised most
ly in the same province-are gradually
absorbing the South American market
1t is developing manufactured steel
products. A Brazilian built automobile,
the first of its kind, will go to the Span
ish exposition next year. The hustling
induStrialiSts of this district see simply
no end to the development of their town,
and talk about it like the members of
Western boosters club.
Nor does Brazil at this era permit
herself to be too much handicapped by
the past. She began her modern de-
velopment, like other king-ridden South
American countries, with great estates
from royal grants. But when she eman-
gan falling to pieces, and even now
without that there would have been an
embarrassment Of virgin lands.
100000 Immigrants Each Year.
For a long time Brazil has absorbed
100 900 immigrants each year-Italian,
German, Portuguese, Slavic and Polish.
AS with us in the eighties, these people
come not to crowd the cities. but to set
tie themselves on the land. The Ger
mans have been coming SO long that
they form strong beam in the struc-
ture of Brazil. AS yet the country en-
forces two restrictions-it will not ad-
NIT Africans or Mongolians. But Of
late 1t has been experimenting with
10000 Japanese, who are developing
rice lands.
All these Brazilians use constantly
the phrase, "The new mentality" The
rising generation in Brazil has opened
a wider gulf between it and the old
forms of thought than even our own
younger generation. It expresses itself
in impatience with the old hampering
forms in business and finance, in the
pioneer spirit as regards the great un-
developed areas, in the desire for ju
dicious experiment and in a new feel
ing of nationalism which has not as
vet risen toward the danger point.
"The new mentality" expresses itself
also in the new outlook of women An
American who has lived here for 20
years talked with me on that point
yesterday, saying:
when I came here the sexes still
| followed old Portuguese customs. No
girl of marriageable age went abroad
without a duenna.. The arrival of the
| first American typewriter agent really
| began the forward movement. He be-
held business men going to their Of
| fees in top hats and found that any
| thing but a handwritten letter was
| considered offensive. When he had
! broken that custom they needed type
writer girls, and he opened school.
Typists Had ChaperOns.
1.-THE first applicants" continued my
| informant, "came with their duennas,
| who sat knitting as the girls took their