As the executive officer of the Pan American Union, an international organization maintained in Washington by all the American republics, twenty-one in number, including the United States, for the advancement of commerce, friendship, and peace among them all, it is my lot to realize, possibly better than any one else, the remarkable growth of interest which is being manifested now, not only throughout the United States but in all parts of the world, in the countries of the southern portions of the American continent commonly classed as Latin America.
When the Pan American Union was reorganized about five years ago, and it began an active propaganda for making the twenty Latin American republics better known in the United States, and correspondingly, the United States better known among them, there was little cause for encouragement. The average newspaper editor, the man in public life, the manufacturer, the exporter, the importer, the traveler, and the student seemed to be largely absorbed in studying and watching the development of our commercial relations with Europe and the Orient, and not with Latin America. The persistent and continued effort, however, of the Pan American Union in educating the world to the importance of the Latin American countries and to an appreciation of the commercial opportunities and moral responsibilities of the United States in its relations with them, has now resulted in a complete change of conditions which is indeed gratifying. To-day the manufacturers and merchants in all parts of the world, the editors of American and European and even Asiatic newspapers, special writers on foreign subjects, lecturers, members of Congress, professors and students in universities and colleges, librarians, professional and amateur travelers are corresponding with the Pan American Union or visiting its headquarters in order to gain accurate information about the Latin American republics.
As an illustration of this growth of interest a few comparisons can be made. Five years ago the total number of printed reports, pamphlets, and other publications distributed by the Pan American Union was approximately one hundred thousand. This year, the total will approximate nearly one million. None of these have been sent broadcast in a careless way. Five years ago there was little or no demand for the “Monthly Bulletin” of the Pan American Union; now the demand for it is greater than can be supplied. Then it was an uninteresting public document; to-day it is an attractive and instructive illustrated magazine, descriptive of the progress and development of the American nations. Five years ago the Pan American Union was housed in a small building, used formerly as a private dwelling, on the corner of Lafayette Square and Pennsylvania Avenue; to-day it occupies a building which a great French architect has described as combining beauty and utility better than any other public building of its cost in the world.
The library of the Pan American Union, which is a practical collection of books useful to all persons who wish to study those countries, has been increased from twelve thousand to twenty-three thousand volumes, while its collection of photographs has grown from one thousand to eleven thousand.
During this same period the foreign commerce of Latin America has grown from one billion seven hundred million dollars ($1,700,000,000) to two billion three hundred million dollars ($2,300,000,000). Of this, the share of the United States has increased from less than five hundred million dollars ($500,000,000) to nearly seven hundred million dollars ($700,000,000).
The total annual contributions of all the American republics, including the United States, for the maintenance of the Pan American Union in 1906 was $54,000; now the total of their quotas for support approximates $125,000.
All these facts I mention, not to call attention to the Pan American Union especially, but to emphasize with actual truth the evidences of the growth of interest throughout the world in the countries which are described in part by Mr. Van Dyke in this practical volume. If its reading stimulates further interest in them, the Pan American Union will be only too glad to furnish any information in its power.
While this book will perhaps be most appreciated by persons who are contemplating a visit to Latin America, it should be read by all those who wish to know more of what the American nations aside from the United States are doing. What is their interesting history, what are their resources, what are the characteristics of their peoples, what is the progress being made by them in national and municipal government, in education, and in solving social and economic problems? Most of the people of the United States and even of Europe have been so absorbed in their own histories, development, and general progress that they have given little attention to the twenty republics of southern America. After reading Mr. Van Dyke’s story they cannot fail to appreciate that there are other important nations and peoples in the world than those of northern America, Europe, and Asia.
Possibly a few general facts may be mentioned here which will enable the reader better to appreciate what follows in the chapters of this book. It must be remembered that the twenty republics lying south of the United States in the Western Hemisphere occupy an area of nine million square miles. This is three times greater than the connected area of the United States. Their total population now exceeds seventy millions. This is seven-ninths of the total population of the United States. Their foreign trade—and commerce is often called the life blood of nations—now exceeds two billion three hundred million dollars ($2,300,000,000) a year, which in turn represents an increase of nearly one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) during the last ten years. Nearly all of these countries secured their independence under the leadership of generals and patriots who were inspired by the example of George Washington. Nearly all of them have written their constitutions with the constitution of the United States as their example. All of them to-day are watching the United States in its efforts to solve its endless variety of social and economic problems, and they will profit by the example which the United States sets them.
They are not to be classed as lands of revolution, because two-thirds of all Latin America has known practically no revolution during the last fifteen or twenty years. The revolutions which occurred should possibly be called evolutions, and are efforts of their peoples, even though sometimes crude, to improve their permanent conditions of prosperity and progress. They are not by any means solely “tropical lands,” as is often supposed or as may be judged from a glance at the map. The great southern section of South America, including southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and a large section of Bolivia, are in the South Temperate Zone, where they have climatic conditions corresponding to those of the United States. The countries, moreover, which are actually under or near the equator have a mingling of high lands with low lands which means much for their future development. There are high plateaux ranging from three thousand to twelve thousand feet above the sea, covering oftentimes individual areas as large as that of Connecticut or Massachusetts, where the climate the year round is like that of New England in June or September and where the white man can live in corresponding climatic comfort.