South America and the War

by F. A. Kirkpatrick

In Brazil, the economic recovery, the industrial development and the general movement of national consolidation are very notable. For the entry of Brazil into the war has added a tone of effort, of serious determination, of grave responsibility to this combined movement. At the outbreak of war the great diminution in the export of coffee, which had constituted nearly half of the total exports from Brazil, hit the country very hard. But the energetic exploitation of other resources, together with a partial resumption of coffee exports, has made good the national loss. The Allies wanted rubber and manganese, which Brazil can supply. The Allies wanted foodstuffs; and Brazil has become, with almost incredible rapidity, an exporter of meat and of vegetable foods. Coal ceased to come from Europe. The result has been that Brazil is striving to supply her own needs by working her southern coal seams, although at the present time want of transport is a serious obstacle to these efforts. Manufactures of all kinds are increasing. Brazilian cotton particularly is now largely woven at home, and this textile industry alone now employs about 100,000 persons. Brazil is also taking more and more into her own hands her coastal and river navigation, and is extending her shipping lines to foreign ports. The result of this industrial and commercial revival has been that, notwithstanding the decrease in the matter of coffee, Brazilian exports now outstrip their pre-war value, and they represent a far more wholesome and more promising distribution of the national resources, since there is no longer an overwhelming preponderance of one commodity raised in one state. Moreover, notwithstanding the burdens of participation in the war, Brazil has achieved by means of careful economy and retrenchment, a wholesome reorganisation of the Federal finances. The war has not prevented the punctual resumption, on the promised date, of cash payment of interest on the foreign debt. The country presents a wholesome aspect of national efficiency and national dignity.

It may be added here that the industrial movement in Brazil has been greatly aided by the investment of North American capital, particularly in meat-freezing establishments. It is perhaps premature to think of Brazil, with her vast and undeveloped pastoral, agricultural and forestal possibilities, as an industrial country. But the possession of large deposits of iron indicates great industrial possibilities in the future. One difficulty, the soft character of Brazilian coal, may possibly be overcome, whether by import of fuel or by the adaptation of mechanical appliances.

Chile, like her neighbours, felt the first shock. Germany, the principal purchaser of nitrates, was cut off; and the republic found by sudden experience, how dangerous and unsound was the system whereby the national finances depended largely on export duties levied upon one commodity. The administration rose to the necessities of the case: taxation was distributed upon a more scientific and normal basis, and very soon the war situation began to pour wealth into the lap of the republic. Nitrate, needed by the Allies for munitions, reached its highest price and its maximum production. Copper—now perhaps the most precious of metals—followed the same course. After-war conditions, particularly in regard to nitrate, are impossible to foresee. But Chile has had her lesson, not to depend on the continuance of what may be accidental conditions and not to build on the foundation of the market in one commodity. "The war," says a representative Chilian, "has brought us a certain prosperity and also something that is worth more than prosperity—common sense."

The industrial movement, which has been noted elsewhere, is being actively pushed forward in Chile, where indeed it dates from a time long before the war; for in Chile local manufactures are favoured by local conditions, namely, remoteness from Europe, a sturdy population, the possession of coal and metals, and, also, a very distinct and compact national character and national ambition, which owe little to recent European immigration. In 1914—just before the war—Chile possessed nearly 8000 factories employing about 90,000 persons. It has often been questioned whether Chile, with a population of less than four millions and a fertile territory largely undeveloped, did wisely to encourage this industrial movement. The war has answered that question. Chilian coal now mainly supplies Chilian needs; and, owing to careful treatment and selection, the results have surpassed expectation. The number of factories is growing; and in view of freight difficulties, there is a movement towards exporting mineral products in a semi-manufactured state.

As to the other republics, the immediate economic effects of the war vary with the character of exports, whether needed by the Allies for war purposes or not. The high prices of copper, sugar, and cotton have brought to Peru a stream of wealth, and have enabled the government to make a very interesting experiment in the scientific taxation of excess war-profits made by exportation. Exports are untaxed until they reach a certain height above normal price. Any addition to that limit is taxed in a progressive ratio.

Not only have war conditions favoured a more clearly defined national development, both economic and political, in each of the states. These conditions also conduce to closer and more real intercourse between the Latin-American states. There has been on the one hand a national consolidation in each republic: but there has also been a movement towards international consolidation in the Latin-American world. The war has drawn these republics closer together and has taught them to feel their need of one another, to supply one another's needs and to recognise a nearer community of social and political interests. The sentiment of Americanismo is more than a sentiment: it is growing into a solid fact. Apart from the war, there are many indications of a kindlier and more intimate intercourse. The Universities of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay exchange professors. Brazil and Uruguay agree concerning navigation of the Lago de Merim and the river Jaguarão; and also arrange a seasonal migration of labourers, who work from April to September on the São Pãolo coffee estates and pass the other half-year working on Uruguayan estancias. The same two republics adjust a financial matter through the foundation of a joint Brazilian-Uruguayan agricultural college. Uruguay has declared that an injury to any South American country is an injury to them all. Envoys from the neighbour-republics visit Bolivia to salute the newly-elected Bolivian President, among them an envoy from the United States. Junior embassies, hardly less interesting in character, are the visits of boy scouts from capital to capital. The five tropical republics which hail Bolívar as Liberator lately clasped hands in a joint celebration of his memory, and at the same time concluded a commercial agreement concerning trade marks and similar matters. The study of history, now actively pursued by competent scholars in all the republics, is a unifying as well as a humanising power: for the student who explores or writes the early history of his own republic necessarily treats the history of all Latin America. The history of the struggle for South American emancipation is a single epic. And a pleasing symbol of this historical unity is to be seen in the portrait of the Argentine commander San Martín and of the Venezuelan Bolívar imprinted on the postage stamps of Peru. The railroad helps this movement. The trans-Andine railway is a link of peaceful intercourse between Chile and Argentina. A direct mail train service has been established between Rio and Montevideo and also between Rio and Buenos Aires. There is a prospect that the last difficult link to connect the railway systems of Bolivia and Argentina will soon be supplied. This is an imperfect and rather haphazard list of symptoms of a natural and tranquil movement towards international unity, which accompanies and supplements a more vigorous economic and political development within the several states. The war situation has favoured this movement. The interruption or diminution of trade with Europe has led these states to trade more with one another. At first, this trade consisted largely in the interchange of accumulated European goods: but it soon grew into something more regular and more permanent, the interchange of home products. Argentina recently got a consignment of coal from Chile—in itself a small matter, but a significant one. Brazilian coal has also found its way to Buenos Aires, and trade between these two republics is increasing.

Both Brazil and Chile are aiming at the national and internal development of their mercantile marine and coasting trade. But the first use which Brazil made of the sequestrated German ships was the opening of a Brazilian steamship line to Chile. The action of Chile is still more noticeable. A law has just passed the Chilian Congress that after the lapse of ten years the Chilian coastwise trade shall be confined to Chilian ships. But the Chilian President may at his discretion extend this privilege, by way of reciprocity, to the merchant-ships of other Latin-American countries—a clear recognition of the fact that these republics form a community of nations in themselves. Thus the two movements are complementary: internal development is more and more a national affair: the development of inter-state relations is felt to be a necessary part of the national development, and more and more to concern all the states: it is also felt to concern these people not only as Brazilians or Argentines or Colombians, but as Americanos. In dwelling on this point, there is probably no danger of giving rise to geographical confusion. A Colombian visitor, lecturing lately in King's College, remarked that, if a British merchant is invited to do business with Colombia, he usually replies, "We have our agent for South America in Buenos Aires," ignoring the fact that, if a Colombian merchant by any rare chance should have occasion to visit Buenos Aires, he would probably pass through London on the way. The trade of all these states with one another is naturally immensely less than with Europe or with the United States, for the simple reason that they are all producers of raw materials and importers of manufactured goods, whereas the European lands, and now the United States also, are importers of raw materials and exporters of manufactured goods. But that very circumstance illustrates the fact that these countries are a cluster of similar organisms. They sit back to back and face outwards: yet as each one grows and expands, they all become conscious that they are sitting close, shoulder to shoulder. They are beginning to touch hands and to pass their good things, both abstract and material, from one to another. Things are changed since the names of Brazilian and Argentine were almost mutual bugbears and since Chile and Argentina seemed to be chronically "spoiling for a fight." The figure of Christ, which stands on the boundary between these two nations, symbolises a truth—a reality all the more valuable inasmuch as it is in part intangible, a product of the realm of ideas, not merely of the material world. The fault of these countries and an unfortunate result of their business connexion with Europe has been that, however prolific in rhetoric, they have been at bottom too materialistic and have been apt to suppose that the convenient appurtenances of civilisation—railways, telephones, tramways, motor-cars, all provided by the foreigner—in themselves constitute civilisation, not quite realising that the word means the faculty of living in organised communities. It is an admirable thing if they can find an ideal, transcending their own borders, in the sentiment or principle or fact of Americanismo: for that word does represent a fact. An Englishman or a Frenchman, if asked about his origin, would never think of saying, "I am a European"; but from the lips of an Argentine or a Colombian the words Soy Americano fall quite naturally, with the addition Colombiano or Argentino. I have heard a South American speak in conversation of La América Nuestra, "Our America," when he had occasion to distinguish Latin America from the United States. The word was casually dropped for purposes of definition: yet it is an inspiring and significant phrase, América Nuestra. Which of us could now so speak of "Our Europe"?

The war has favoured this spirit of Americanism in a tangible way through the growth of economic intercourse. On a higher and broader plane, the same thing is happening. We saw this when Brazil severed relations with Germany. Her announcement, communicated to her neighbour-republics, was received with a kind of demonstration of Latin-American solidarity. Almost every Latin-American state responded in terms of warm appreciation and sympathy. The Argentine Government wrote that it "appreciated thoroughly the attitude of Brazil, which was justified by principles of universal public right, and expressed to Brazil the most sincere sentiments of confraternity."

As the Americano looks across the Atlantic, he may congratulate himself, not without a feeling of civic pride, that he belongs to another world, a system of republics living at peace with one another. A century ago Canning boasted, "I have called a New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old." It was a prophecy rather than a boast. Now is the time for that New World to fulfil that prophecy by realising itself, by creating itself.

It is no inconsistency to add once more that Latin America is at the same time drawing nearer to all the nations of the world, that its long-standing historic connexion with Europe becomes emphasised and extended. Who could have foretold, even a year ago, that the Republics of Peru and of Uruguay would offer the use of their ports to the warships of belligerent European monarchies, that Brazil, Cuba and Panamá would be represented, as recently happened, at the Allied Conference in Paris, or that a Brazilian squadron would be acting with the British fleet in European waters? It can no longer be said of these states, as was said some years ago, that they stand upon the margin of international life. This closer participation in world affairs does not contradict, but rather confirms and explains, what has been said concerning the growth of Americanismo, the consolidation of a younger and distinct Europe across the ocean. As these states become drawn into the general movement of world affairs, they are compelled to define more clearly their own position in a world of their own. One may find some analogy in the British Empire, whose members, as they grow into nations and become severally involved in relations with all other peoples, find it more necessary to reaffirm and to define their relations with one another.