The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-06
A Chilean Holiday

In complete self abasement before Hoover
the personification of American Imperialism
the government of President Auguste B.
Leguia, of Chile, declared yesterday a ma
tlonal holiday. The eminences of the Chilean
government including the minister of foreign
affairs, the minister of justice and the presi-
dent of the senate bootlickers all, paid
homage to the next president of the executive
committee of yankee imperialism.
That the visit to Chile of Hoover was far
from popular with the masses was evident by
the fact that the port of Callao eight miles
from the capitol city, Lima, was filled with
army attachments brought in to over-awe
the population and prevent any hostile
demonstration against the president-elect
Economically Chile is vassal state of
Wall Street. To protect its interests the
United States government strives to main
tain in Chile government that will protect
its interests. Three years ago the Chilean
peso, with the aid of American finance capt.
tal was stabilized at about II cents 1t has
been maintained since, with further infusion
of yankee gold The finances of the govern
ment have been reorganzed and Chilean
government bonds are in the hands of Wall
street bankers, which means that the finance
capitalists have a claim for years to come
upon the taxes collected from it's subjects by
the Chilean government. Heavy investments
of yankee capital in the nitrate fields and
copper mines, the principal industries of
Chile, constitute another reason why it is to
the interest of the United States to main
tain puppet government there.
Chile is one of the semi-colonies under the
sway of dollar despotism. It's extracting in
dustries, nitrate and copper, are developed in
order to furnish raw material for the United
States, while small manufacturing and light
industries to produce commodities for the
Chilean market are stifled so that Chile must
remain dependent for finished products upon
the United States. The sitting of indie
pendent development was emphasized this
year by the failure of a group of Chilean in
dustrialists to sell sufficient bonds to estab-
lish an industry for producing farm
machinery. Such an industry would have
crippled part of the Latin American market
for products of the harvester trust, hence the
banks did not attempt to handle the bond
issues
At the same time the United States
bankers are waging fight in Chile to drive
out the last vestiges of British investments.
That the rising power of American i'm
perialsm is triumphant in Chile over the de-
clining imperialism of its English rival is
proved by the recent purchase by New York
bankers of the Chile telephone company from
its British founders. Likewise American
finance capital has secured complete control
of the former English electric light and
power company which supplies Santiago, Val
paraiso and adjacent territory
This subsection of Chile to American i'm
perialism is the reason for the good will'~
visit of Hoover during his Latin-American
tour. This sort of thing is called progress
by the imperialists who loudly proclaim that
investments of capital in so-called back
ward country help to develop it. AS Lenin
correctly said: Ear from developing colonial
countries imperialism only depraves them"
But in Chile, as elsewhere in Latin-Ameri-
ca, the lackeys of American Imperialism at
the head of the puppet governments, are care
full to mobilize the armed forces against the
people of their own country while they grovel
before the representatives of the government
of Wall Street. Beneath the thin shell of
pomp and circumstance attendant upon the
hoover tour is the increasingly deep and
ominous resentment of the Latin-Amercan
masses who see in Hoover only the most
malignant type of butcher.
AS against the tour of Hoover, which is
calculated to consolidate the power of i'm
perialism in Latin America, must be created
a powerful bloc of anti-imperialist forces
throughout all that vast territory that hand
in hand with the revolutionary forces of the
United States, will eventually be able to
crush the imperialists and all their agents.