CHAPTER VI
RAILWAYS AND THEIR ROUTES
Guatemala has more miles of railway than all the other Central American republics together. And yet there are not more than half enough to properly develop the country. There are still a number of important cities and large agricultural districts which have no rail communication with either the coast or the rest of the republic. Nothing will contribute more to the prosperity and peace of the country than an extension of the existing lines into even the most remote sections.
The larger cities are all situated at some distance from the coast and several of them at an altitude of more than a mile in the mountains. Communication with the coast and rest of the country is over long, narrow and rough trails. The transportation of commerce is slow and expensive and requires thousands of cargadors, mules and the patient burros. Furthermore, the very isolation of the people and difficulty of communication keeps them aloof from modern progress, and leaves them content with things as they are, and with no ambition for anything more advanced or better than was enjoyed by their forefathers. The Indians rather look with distrust upon the encroaching iron highways as they fear they will interfere with their employment. Their opposition, however, is a mild one and contents itself with looking on at the advancing track in an idle and listless way. They aid in the construction work when the mood is upon them, or they are compelled to by the authorities; at other times they refuse, and the question of steady and satisfactory labour is sometimes a hard one to solve by the railroad contractor.
The building of railroads has been encouraged by the present government both by liberal concessions and the granting of subsidies, and about two hundred miles have been constructed since Cabrera became President. Several other concessions have been granted but the government has not been in a position to meet the payments promised, so that the projects have been held in abeyance. It is absolutely necessary for the government to meet a fair proportion of the construction expense, otherwise railroad building would not be a profitable undertaking because of the undeveloped condition of the country.
The greatest undertaking before the country at the present time is the Pan American Railway of which little has been heard in the United States until recently, and a great many think that it is merely an idle dream. These people may be surprised to learn that it will soon be an accomplished fact so far as the North American continent is concerned. A railroad by that name has just been completed from San Geronimo, on the Tehuantepec National Railroad, in Mexico, to the Guatemala frontier, a distance of about three hundred miles. More than this, the road is already in operation and regular through trains are running to Tapachula, only a few miles from the boundary of Guatemala. As soon as the Occidental Railway of Guatemala is extended about thirty miles from Retalhuleu to connect with the Mexican line at the border, there will be an all-rail line from Canada and the United States to Guatemala City. A concession has already been granted for this line and it will be built at once by the same people who have just completed the Mexican portion of this scheme so successfully. The present line from Retalhuleu to Escuintla, about eighty miles, will become a part of the through connecting system that will be extended at least to Panama, if not beyond. This much is a certainty, and that it will be completed within a very few years is my prediction. Through trains will not be a possibility, however, unless the Guatemala and other Central American lines are broadened to standard gauge, for at present all the Central American lines in operation and in construction are built of narrow gauge width. The Mexican connecting lines are all of standard gauge construction.
A survey was made a few years ago from Oaxaca, Mexico, to the northernmost railroad connection in the Argentine Republic, and all of the Spanish-American republics are looking forward to the completion of this great scheme at some day in the future. Its construction to Panama would, I believe, be of great assistance in preserving peace and in engendering a better feeling between the states of Central America, as it would facilitate commerce among them and would give them one common interest. At present there is no railroad in any of the republics that reaches the boundary of any other, so that communication is generally by sea and through the ports.
The Occidental Railway starts at the important port of Champerico and, with the Guatemala Central, forms a through line to the capital city. It has been in operation for several years and has aided very much in the development of this section of the country. The first city touched by it on the way to the capital is Retalhuleu, the capital of a department and one of the principal cities of the republic, which boasts a population of twelve thousand inhabitants. The buildings are nearly all one-storied, and the streets are narrow and ill-paved. The sidewalks are scarcely wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Door-steps and window-sills project beyond the houses to such an extent that walking abroad at night is rather dangerous. It has an elevation of nearly a thousand feet above sea level so that its temperature is much better than on the coast. It is now one of the principal shipping points of the coffee for which this region is famous, and quite a number of Germans are engaged in that business in the city. There are no manufacturing industries outside of the small plants needed for local wants.
From the Bulletin of the International Bureau of American Republics.
A SCENE ALONG THE OCCIDENTAL RAILWAY.