Evening star., 1942-02-08
United States and Brazil Hold
Key to Hemisphere Defense
Close Ties Between American Giants Have Already
Paid Joint Dividends in Solidifying
Latin Nations
By John Lear,
Vide wordNe
By John Lear,
Wide World News.

many years. Bolivia, Paraguay and
Uruguay, once faithful satellites Of tns
Argentine, are following Brazils lead now
while Buenos Aires hesitates. Not only
have they broken with the Axis without
waiting to see what Argentina would do,
but they have signed financial and COM
mercial agreements directing their future
toward the path Of the new power in the
Atlantic.
Brazils President Getulo Vargas dra-
matized this shift by visiting Bolivia and
Paraguay last year, the first time he had
left his own land.
History has held Brazil and the United
States on a parallel course. The land
mass of the two countries was discov-
cred within three years. the North Amer
lean mainland in 1497 and Brazil in 1900.
Pioneering Parallels.
Both countries expanded westward
across hundreds of miles of wilderness,
gaining vast territory chiefly through
subjugation Of aboriginal natives and
peaceful annexation. The United States
began as a narrow strip along the Attain
tic coast, cut from the forests by men
intent on the right to worship as they
chose and to govern themselves.
Brazil began as wild empire bounded
arbitrarily by line drawn on a map by
a Catholic Pope. The United States, in
spite Of prodigious growth, never caught
up. Brazil today is the bigger of the two
powers in area, by 250,000 square miles.
But Brazil never caught up with the
United States, either in population or
machine power.
The United States was first Of the
Americas to declare independence, in
1776. Brazil was second, in 1922. Neither
of the two intended their first moves
toward freedom to be absolute breaks
with the old way Of life. An American
king was proposed in the early days Of
the 13 Colonies, and Brazil actually had
an Emperor, Dom Pedro, son Of the
Portuguese King John VI, who fed Lis
bon in advance of Napoleons armies in
each kept Of the motherland was the
language: Brazil the Portuguese; the
United States, the English.
Turns to United States.
When Brazil declared its freedom from
Portugal, it borrowed its basic frame
of government from the United States
Constitution. Now that it has declared
its freedom from attempted NaZ domi-
States for money and technical skill and
friendly sympathy to teach 1t how to
| fill its empty acres and diversity and
strengthen its economy.
At the beginning of this war, there
were doubts In many minds In the
United States as to whether 1t would
| be safe to give too much help to Brazil.
| When Vargas in 1887 dissolved his Con-
gress and took the government into his
own hands "for the safety of the State"
he was accused of bringing European
totalitarianism to the New World. Warn
ings went abroad that sooner or later
Vargas would betray democracy.
Vargas at that time denied he was
copying from anybody's book. He said
he centralized the government because
his people were too poorly developed to
govern themselves.
Since then Brazil has moved slowly
closer and closer to the United States.
1t sponsored the plan for American con-
troll of foreign. colonies in the New
World, adopted at the Havana confer
ence. 1t clamped down on Its German
population, which included drilled and
armed storm troopers. It seized Axis
ships interned in Brazilian ports by the
war. 1t asked for United States Army,
Navy and air missions to develop CO.
operative defenses. 1t grounded Ger
man airlines within Brazil and the Ital-
Ian Lati line across the South Atlantic
to Europe. 1t agreed to sell all its host
Of vital war materials to the United
States and to expand production of
those materials. 1t closed Axis propa-
ganda agencies.
The friendship has paid. Brazilian
mineral production has multiplied at
least eight times in the last decade, its
industrial capacity has tripled, its tex
tile output is three times as great. its
industrial production is 20 per cent above
agricultural production.