The Spanish-Americans have a great many good qualities which we have heretofore failed to appreciate. Americans are too much inclined to thoughtlessly criticize everything and everybody that is not as we would have it. The world would be a prosaic world indeed if all nations were alike, just as it would be if all individuals were cast in the same mould. Environment and heredity have given them different characteristics which will always prevail. We should look upon our Latin neighbours with more sympathy and aid them wherever possible, for Americans themselves, though an especially favoured people, are not perfect. The Spanish-Americans have an innate courtesy which is sadly deficient in our own land, and they admire Americans, but they resent that superior, not-as-good-as-I attitude adopted by so many of our people.
We assume to exercise a guardianship over the Latin-American republics. Whether the Monroe Doctrine is a good thing for those countries or not depends upon ourselves. It can be made a good measure or it may become a curse. European domination would be better than political chaos, and the Latin-Americans resent the Monroe Doctrine. It is advisable for us to study our wards. It behooves all classes, professional and business, to realize the importance of Latin America, which comprises three-fourths of the two Americas, and study her economic and political needs. In that way any barrier that may still exist will be broken down. Seventy millions of people are found among those nations and such an aggregation of people are worthy our interest and friendship.
“Mañana” and “no es costumbre” are expressions that explain two of the elements in the Spanish-American character which account for his non-progressiveness. The first is the “to-morrow” spirit—the desire to put everything off until the future. It is almost impossible to get him to do anything promptly, but it is delayed from day to day in the blandest way imaginable. It can well be called the land of “to-morrow” and “wait-a-while.” The other expression means “it is not the custom” and illustrates the adherence to usage which is so prevalent. If you attempt to do anything in a different way, and even a better way, he is not interested because it has not been the custom to do it that way with his forefathers. He meets your argument with the terse expression “no es costumbre” and the matter is dismissed. It is for this reason that a crooked stick with an iron point is still used in plowing, for that has been the unchanging method since “the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,” as Blackstone, the great law giver, would say. This habit makes the Guatemalan slow to adopt new devices, even though they might be a convenience and labour-saving. He is satisfied until his neighbours adopt it, and then his pride is aroused and he will begin to use the articles or adopt the new methods himself.
Guatemala will never be a manufacturing country unless coal is found in greater abundance than has yet been done. Even the fuel used in locomotives is imported, and it becomes very expensive because of long and difficult transportation. Some waterfalls exist which might be utilized to develop electric power. This would be a profitable undertaking at this time as some small factories for domestic needs always exist, and electric energy for light and electric street railway system is needed. The only factories that are now found are for the manufacture of coarse textiles, hats, pottery, foundry products and the necessary railway repairs. Pottery ware in the average home is used for flour barrels, cisterns, stoves, baths, stew-pans, coffee-pots, dishes, lamps, floors, etc. The looms in use are of the very crudest pattern, being simply two harnesses worked by the foot of the weaver, and the bobbins are wound on bamboo sticks which are shoved in and out through the web.
The mineral riches have been practically unexploited. The mining archives of the old colonial government show that during the three centuries of Spanish occupancy more than thirteen hundred mines of gold, silver, lead, copper, tin and iron were successfully worked and were a source of great revenue to both church and state, and that enormous quantities of gold and silver were taken from those mines. From one group of mines the records prove that nearly fifty millions of dollars in silver were coined besides large amounts that were shipped to Europe in bullion. From 1627 to 1820 more than thirteen hundred mines of valuable metals were discovered and worked under the Spanish domination, for that government kept an elaborate and accurate record of the mines of the precious metals. On the banks of the Montagua River a few gold mines are being worked. Judging from the few American miners I met, not all of them, at least, are getting rich out of the precious metal. Guatemala is not as highly a mineralized section as Mexico. Little scientific prospecting or exploiting has been done as yet. In Honduras several valuable gold mines are being worked, and Guatemala, sandwiched in between that country and Mexico, must contain some gold. Silver mines are being worked profitably in some parts of the country, and very rich veins of argentiferous lead have been located. Lead, tin, copper, antimony, marble of superior quality, sulphur, asbestos and alabaster have been discovered, and coal in small veins. Mining experts have reported extensive veins of all those metals, but little has been done since the establishment of the republic in working them. These mines will offer great inducements as soon as the transportation facilities are improved and new cyanide mills constructed for the thorough and economical working of the raw ores. The very isolation of the mines and difficulty of establishing communication have heretofore prevented the working of the veins already known. The small quantity of coal is a serious detriment to the development of manufactures, for fuel becomes an expensive item in manufacture. There are a number of waterfalls, however, which might easily be used for the generation of electric power for manufactures and railroads. This field remains entirely undeveloped at the present time, but it is certainly worth investigation.
DUGOUT CANOE ON THE MONTAGUA RIVER.
Railroads are now needed more than anything else. Only four hundred miles of railroad in a state nearly as large as Illinois illustrates the difficulty of communication. For instance, the distance from Guatemala City to Totonicapan, a city of twenty-five thousand people, is only one hundred miles, yet it requires almost as long to travel this distance as it does to go from New York to San Francisco on one of our express trains. A mule path is the only road, and the average traveller will not make it in less than four days. Five hundred or a thousand miles of new railway lines would do far more to develop the country than anything else, for the telegraph and telephone would follow the iron rails. At present there are about three thousand miles of telegraph and a few hundred miles of telephone wires that spread over the country. These improvements would also go far toward establishing peaceful conditions, for they would enable the central government to learn promptly of any disaffection, and hurry troops there before the movement could become at all formidable.
Guatemala is a land of possibilities. Everything that can be raised in the temperate and tropical zones will grow here. If irrigation is provided in the tierra templada there need be no unproductive season for the warm air and bright sun will propagate the seeds that are sown at any time of the year. Two crops of wheat and three crops of corn will reward the industry of the planter. Fertilizers are unnecessary, for the heavy rains of the rainy season wash down the rich soils from the sides of the mountains and fertilize the plains. The great secret is therefore for the agriculturist to adapt his cultivation to the nature of the climate and soil and his success is assured. Greater success will be realized on plantations where a colony of peon labourers is maintained, however, because otherwise it is difficult to secure labour when needed, and the farmer can not expect to do as much with his own hands as in a cooler climate. Continued peace, stability of government, construction of more railways and the investment of foreign capital are the four essential needs for the growth and prosperity of Guatemala. No one can travel through that republic, or the neighbouring one of Honduras, and note their nearness to the great markets of the world, variety of climate, wealth of natural resources and vast areas suited to profitable agriculture and not be deeply impressed.
Stability of government will come, I believe, very soon. The Spanish-American character is developing. The prosperity of Mexico and railway connections with that country will have a far greater influence in bringing about that result than any one other condition. The peace conference held at Washington in 1907, composed of prominent representatives of all the Central American republics, was a notable event, and will have a far-reaching effect in bringing about permanent peace among those turbulent states. The meetings were characterized by an earnestness of desire and seriousness of intention that were pleasing to one interested in the welfare of those countries. Already many millions of foreign capital, including about eight millions of American gold, are invested in Guatemala, and the aggregate is increasing each year. Tourists and commercial salesmen are going there in greater numbers, and each one comes back enthusiastic over the possibilities of development of that country.