Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-14
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LIMA, Peru, July 13.-Alexander P.
Moore, the United States Ambassador
at Lima. says the airplane was Gods
gift to Peru"
It was also Gods gift to Colombia,
Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile.
When nature strewed the lofty Andes
along the west coast of South America
she created a barrier over which man
has crept with great difficulty in his
efforts to develop the fertile empire
which lies east Of the mighty mountain
range.
Railways have finally been built over
passes which rise as high as 14,500 feet.
But they are few In number. The cost
Of construction was so great that freight
rates are. almost prohibitive. Trains
are not numerous, and vast empires are
still hundreds of miles beyond rail end.
So the establishment Of local air.
plane routes was hailed with Joy: And
the prospect of regular through air mail
from the United States to Valparaiso,
Chile, with connecting services to points
east Of the Andes, Is awaited with
eagerness by the republics along the
west coast.
Mail to Be Speeded.
Their great farming areas which
drain into the Amazon and the Rio
Plata will soon have New York letters q
few days after they are mailed, and
passenger planes must inevitably come
into more general service between Pa
cific Coast ports and the undeveloped
heart Of South America.
Many local air routes are already
operating. Lima, Peru, and La Paz,
the lofty capital of Bolivia, are linked
by air. Lima sends mails regularly to
Upper Amazon points in farming areas
which were formerly weeks away from
the capital. Barranquilla, Colombia, on
the Caribbean, and Buenaventura, the
chief Colombian port on the Pacific
are served regularly by planes which
call at Bogota and other cities on their
flights from ocean to ocean.
Ambassador Moore might also Lave
described the motor car as another OF
Gods gifts to Peru and the neighbor-
ing republics. Bogota, which formerly
was week by train and mule from
Buenaventura, can now be reached In
three days by train and motor car. The
railway connecting Buenaventura with
the Colombian capital probably will not
be completed for several years because
of great tunnels to be bored. But en-
gineers have contrived highways
LlIOuSl The mountains WHICH INK The
rail eEd with Bogota.
Panama to- Chile Strip.
From Panama to Chile 1t is only the
narrow strip of land between the Pa
cific and the mountains which has been
developed. Extensive oil development
at points on the Peruvian and Ecua-
dorean coasts have added to the wealth
Of these two republics and created
towns with forests of derricks almost
as thick as those which line the beaches
of Southern California.
Venturesome mining companies with
large capital have tapped the mineral
wealth Of the high mountains of Peru
and Chile and constructed railways
which br'-- copper and other minerals
to Pacific ports. And Chile's arid north
ern plateau is supplying the world with
much nitrate.
But lack of transportation has pre-
vented the development of anything but
the really great ore deposits, and has
isolated enormous agricultural and fruit
areas.
The Panama Canal brought South
Americas west coast SO much closer to
the big markets of the United States
and Euro~o that q treat change was
worked in the republics on the Pacific.
Port Improvements, the modernization
of cities, more railways and better high
ways have followed apace. And now