Evening star., 1939-02-22
U.S. Misconception
Cloud on Relations
With Latin America
Immigrants From Europe
Have Been AssimiIuted
Well, Says Knox
By FRANK KNOX.

BY FRANK KNOX.
SALAVERRY, Peru (N.AN.A).-
There are number of illusions
which must be dissipated before one
undertakes any serious considera-
ton of the future political and
economic relations of the United
States to the various nations of
South America. Foremost among
these would put the very general
assumption that German, a
Spaniard, an Italian or an English
man. who has emigrated, or whose
parents or grandparents emigrated
to one of the countries of the
Western Hemisphere below the
Equator, continues to be a German
or a Spaniard, or an Italian, or an
Englishman.
With insignificant exceptions. this
is not true. 1t is odd that we
Americans, particularly. should make
this mistake, because we ourselves
have SO many millions of good,
patriotic citizens whose ancestral or
racial background is exactly the
same as that of their blood brothers,
who chose South instead of North
America for their future home.
The testing of the years of the
World War disclosed we had no
better citizens or soldiers than those
who came originally from Germany.
They had become Americans.
Similarly, your Italian or your Ger
man who deliberately left his father
land and threw in his lot with Brazil
or Argentina is today Brazilian or
an Argentine before he is anything
else.
Chile Has German Group.
For instance, Chile has con-
siderable group of Germanic origin,
and in this group there was organ
lied so-called Nazi party. In the
recent election in Chile popular
front" was organized out of num-
ber of minority parties. They car
ried the election by narrow
margin. Two of the minority groups
in the popular front were the Nazl
and the Communist parties! You
can guess by that just how much
the Nazi party in Germany and the
Nazi party in Chile have in common
Another illusion which stands II
the way of sound conclusions i:
that most of South America is al
ready totalitarian, that they have
nothing but dictators down here
and that in theology there is bu
slight distinction between the gov
ernment of Italy or Germany anc
the government of Argentina OF
Peru. It is true that not all of the
people of Peru are permitted to vote
but the same is true of any one ol
our Southern States! If this make!
a State totalitarian, then Alabama
and Mississippi are totalitarian. And
of course, they are not. The more
literate and educated Peruvians fee
the same impulse to keep politica
power in their own hands as the
whites of our cotton StateS-and dt
it in the same way.
With millions of black men dis.
franchised in the United States, s
condition which has obtained fol
half century, we are in no posi-
ton to feel superior to our Southern
neighbors because they disfranchis'
millions of red men. When we re
call the slow growth of our owl
conscience with respect to univer
sal suffrage and how far it Is from
completion today, we can afford t.
be patient, or at least not to ge
high hat on the subject.
Governments are Varied.
There are, as a matter of fact
all kinds of governments in Soutf
America. from the military dictator
ship of Brazil to the popular from
government just installed in Chile
but fundamentally they tend to con
form more to the democratic thar
to the autocratic species of govern
ment. 1t is going to take time-jus
as it took us a lot of time to arrive
where we are today. BY and large
there are no insuperable politica
barriers in the way of continual!
improved relations between our
selves and the peoples who inhabi
the southern half of the Western
Hemisphere.
But in the economic field ther'
are many barriers, the difflcultie'
of which it would be idle to ignore
First, there is the fact that in many
respects the, exportable surpluse'
of many commodities produced IL
the United States, and in the ma
tions down here, are the same. W.
cannot buy South American wheat
corn, cotton or meat, because WI
produce more of these things thar
we ourselves can use. We have vast
resources in iron. in copper, in oil
so has South America.
And these very items, in which
we share a surplus, constitute very
large fraction of the total commerce
of the world. But, nevertheless, the
case is not hopeless. For instance
we buy most of our rubber in the
Far East. With our help, rubber
culture can become great resource
lOl llldlly VI lllC Soullll ASo W IllS
south of us. We are the worlds
largest user of coffee. Brazil ano
Colombia grow the best coffee in
the world The list can easily be
extended. With good will and under
standing on both sides, our exchange
of goods can be successfully pro-
NOTED to really significant proper.
tions. There is almost no end tt
the list of manufactured good!
which we produce which could fine
a ready market down here.
Scarcity Program a Bar.
But when the discussion turns tt
manufactured commodities, it i!
utterly puerile to hope for any
worth while expansion of trade tt
South America SO long as we cling
to the theory of a high-pricec