The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-07-22

before.
 But simultaneously, vigorous minority groups in every coun- try, many of them already lined up with Hitler, are doing their best to sabotage Western Hemi- sphere harmony.
 Inside the Brazilian army, for instance, about 40 per cent of the officers admire and lean to- ward the German military system. In Argentina are some 3,000,000 Italians upon whose passions Mus solini can play. In Uruguay, even after a fifth column Nazi plot to take over the country was exposed publicly, some members of the Uruguayan cabinet thought it was better to close their eyes, not of. fend Germany. Hitler, they fig. ured, would be too important a customer after the end of this war to risk alternating him.
 So it will take all the skill of Cordell Hull's artful diplomacy to bring anything out of the Havana Conference save the usual collection of pious plati. tudes regarding goodwill, uni- form customs procedure and the eradication of the boil weeviL RULING FAMILIES
 What most people in the United States do not realize about Latin America is that most of its repub- lies never have been actual de- mocracies. They are a collection of oligarchies, in which the aris- tocratic families, many of them descended from the Spanish con- uuistadores, and since grown af. fluent on copper, tin, meat and coffee, have dominated their coun- tries almost as completely as the Nazis have Germany.
 The advent of Hitler, therefore, does not particularly disturb them, except insofar as he is likely to upset their system of land and mineral ownership with a new national socialism.
 Actually, the ruling families of Latin America have disliked Roosevelt more than Hitler-up until the last few months. More recently they see Roosevelt as the lesser of two evils. But for seven years they considered New Deal reforms and the tremendous pop. ularity of the President among the Latin American masses as a genuine menace.
 It is necessary to draw this very definite distinction between the people of Latin America and their governments. With the peo- pie, the United States never has been more popular. To them, Roosevelt has been little less than a saint. His Good Neighbor pol icy won genuine friends, but with the ruling families it was different.
 So the problem of the United
 States is to continue reaching down below the oligarchies to the people, as Roosevelt has done, but as the aloof gentlemen in the State Department have not done. U. S. diplomats in Latin America mingle with the upper crust, are considered hoity-toity snobs by the major ity of the people.
 In order to penetrate below the aristocracy, brilliant young Enrique Lozada, ex-counselor of the Bolivian Legation, now pro- lessor at Harvard and Williams, proposes that 5000 North Ameri- can students, carefully picked from the finest in the country, 20 to Latin America to work and live; while 5000 South American students come to the United States.
 He has already started this program by selling the idea to a large group of his own students, and arranging for them to live with Latin American families.
 This Is the kind of Good Neighborliness which really gets Co the roots of things.
 PAN-AnzERICAN HIGHWAY
 One big help to Mir. Hull's work ct Havana may be . giant road building program straight through Central America from Mexico to the Panama Canal. in order to strengthen canal defenses.
 This 10 a 3.2e5-miIe route. passing through tangled jungles and mountain ranges, which wsuid connect countries some ef