Guatemala, the country of the future Part 2

Besides the primary schools a system of higher education is supported, and there are normal schools and various faculties such as those of law, medicine, engineering, etc. Especial attention, however, has been given to practical education, that is, the fitting of the common people for their occupations. There are schools of commerce, of manual training, and of agriculture, as well as an Inst.i.tute especially for the native Indians. On this subject of technical education Consul General of the United States Winslow in a special report said:

"There are few villages in the country where there are no schools.

In the city of Guatemala of late much attention has been given to education, under the direction of President Manuel Estrada Cabrera, who has done more along this line than any of his predecessors.

There are in the city of Guatemala 25 public schools, 8 inst.i.tutes, and 3 colleges.

"President Estrada Cabrera has given much attention to his pet scheme of establishing an industrial school for boys and girls at his own personal expense, aided by several of the more progressive citizens of Guatemala city, where the most improved methods of instruction are to be employed. The President has engaged two able educators from the United States, and proposes everything shall be up-to-date.

"The Boys' Industrial College is in charge of Prof. Y. C. Pilgrim, a well-known educator of New Jersey, a.s.sisted by Professor Bellingham and wife, who have charge of the languages, and Professor Lorenzo de Clairmont, who instructs in gymnastics and military tactics. These are a.s.sisted by several native teachers.

The boys are selected from the best families in the Republic and are limited to 50, and are all required to live in the dormitory.

The college buildings are situated in a tract of land of about 60 acres, convenient to the city, with a campus where the boys are to be instructed in the modern sports and military tactics as taught at West Point, and all orders are to be given in the English language.

"The Girls' Industrial School is in charge of Miss Alice Dufour, a prominent educator of New York City, a.s.sisted by several native instructors. This inst.i.tution is located in the city and is to be conducted on the same high plan as the boys' college. The idea is to teach the principles on which the American home is founded.

"President Estrada Cabrera means these inst.i.tutions shall be the nucleus around which a solid and up-to-date system of education shall be built for this Republic. It is his ambition to firmly establish an educational system modeled after that in use in the United States, where the watchword shall be industry, promptness, and honesty."

The New York _Tribune_ in a Washington dispatch had this to say on the same subject:

"American teachers who went to Guatemala some time ago at the request of the government are sending back interesting accounts of the progress which that country is making in adopting the educational methods that obtain in the United States. The newspapers also have a good deal to say on the subject. President Estrada Cabrera, who is a progressive man, for several years has had the ambition to give a new turn to public instruction, and to make it practical after the system of the United States. His idea is that the youth of the Latin-American countries are especially in need of newer methods, and of getting away from the metaphysical systems which created a large cla.s.s of professional men, for whom there was no room and who were a drawback to material progress.

"Some time ago President Estrada Cabrera established what was called the practical school, which combined technical instruction and manual training. A few weeks ago exercises were held at the Escuela Practica, or technical school, and it is concerning this that the New York teachers have written so encouragingly. The President delivered an address on the value of work and of developing through the schools an apt.i.tude for everyday life.

Heretofore he said there had been too much theory and too much that was purely professional in the system followed. Now that the aspiration of many years had been realized he was hopeful that the experiment would be beneficial in giving a new direction to the national spirit, and would result in the kind of business training that would fit the Guatemalan youth for the activities of practical life rather than incline them to the traditions of the past. Under the direction of the President fields for farm experiments have been established, and the youth are taught the care of horses and other farm work, as well as the manual trades. There is special provision made for athletic sports."

SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT EXPLAINED.

The Government of Guatemala is republican--democratic and representative--and the supreme power is exercised by three governmental branches, each independent of the others, called "the legislative power," "the executive power," and "the judicial power."

The legislative power is vested in a National a.s.sembly which consists of a single house composed of one deputy for each 20,000 inhabitants or fraction of that number exceeding 10,000. The deputies are elected by popular vote for four years, but one-half of the a.s.sembly is renewed each two years so that each time that it meets it contains an adequate number of experienced members. Annual sessions are held lasting two months, beginning March 1, but they can be extended one month longer in case of necessity. For the transaction of business during its recesses the a.s.sembly appoints seven of its members who form a body called "the Permanent Commission." This commission, as well as the executive, can call the a.s.sembly to meet in extraordinary sessions.

The executive power is exercised by the President of the Republic, who, for the transaction of public business, appoints six Ministers or Secretaries of State, who have charge of the portfolios of Foreign Relations, Government and Justice, the Treasury and Public Credit, War, Public Works, and Public Instruction.

There is also a Council of State, a purely advisory body, which is composed of the Cabinet Ministers and nine other members, of whom five are appointed by the a.s.sembly and four by the President. These appointments are for two years.

The judicial power is exercised by the courts and judges of the Republic, organized as follows:

The Supreme Court of Justice, which sits at the capital of Guatemala and is composed of the President of the Judicial Power, four Magistrates, and an Attorney (Fiscal).

Six Courts or Tribunals of Appeals, composed of three Magistrates, of whom one presides, and an Attorney (Fiscal). Three of these Courts sit at the Capital and one in each of the capitals of the Departments of Quezaltenango, Alta Verapaz, and Jalapa. The Magistrates and Attorneys are elected, by popular vote.

The Judges of the Courts of First Instance, of whom there are six in the Capital, three in Quezaltenango, two in San Marcos, and one in each of the remaining Departments of the Republic. These Judges are appointed by the Executive from three names proposed by the Supreme Court of Justice.

Finally, the Justices of the Peace who p.r.o.nounce oral judgments and are elected by the people of the districts in which they exercise their functions.

For the exercise of the political, civil, and military administration of the country it is divided into twenty-two Departments, each of which has a Governor (Jefe Politico) invested with the executive functions.

For the administration of the local affairs of each district there are popularly elected Munic.i.p.al Councils. The service of the members of the Councils is for one year, is obligatory for the citizens of the respective districts, and is not remunerated.

The Const.i.tution of the Republic gives to all those who live in the country the most ample guaranties of liberty, equality, and security of their persons, their honor, and their property; of freedom of movement and of a.s.sembly, of professions, of industries, and of commerce; of the right to dispose of their property, to address pet.i.tions to the authorities and to defend their interests before them; of liberty of conscience, inasmuch as there is no official religion; of the right to freely express their opinions, whether by speech, or by writing, or by means of the press, without being subject to censure; of liberty to give or receive instruction, if they should so prefer, in private educational establishments; of the right to have their residences, their property, their correspondence, and other papers respected as inviolable; of the right of _habeas corpus_; of liberty of defence in judicial proceedings, etc.

Primary instruction is obligatory, and that which is sustained by the nation is secular and free. There is no imprisonment for debt. Marriage is considered a simple civil contract; but those who desire can have it solemnized in a religious form. Absolute divorce can be obtained in cases defined by the law.

CHAPTER III.

THE SOIL AND ITS RICHES.

The soil of Guatemala is remarkable in the vast extent and great variety of two cla.s.ses of products which are unusual within the same degrees of lat.i.tude, that is, it produces both tropical and temperate staples of agriculture in great profusion. The soil grows coffee, sugar-cane, cacao, bananas, tobacco, cotton, india rubber, vanilla, sarsaparilla, and a long list of medicinal plants, while it likewise produces the cereals, wheat and Indian corn, which are only found in temperate regions, giving two and in some places three crops of these annually.

There are also endless kinds of valuable hardwood, mahogany, rosewood, ebony, cedar and the like, which are especially tropical timber, and at the same time pine and oak exist in the mountain regions of the interior. Besides all this the gra.s.ses grown are especially adapted to live stock, and cattle raising and dairying are very profitable industries.

The British Consul General in an official report to the Foreign Office in London had this to say about the capabilities of the soil:

"The tropical situation of the country, the proximity of every portion to the sea on both coasts, the diversity of alt.i.tude and consequently of temperature, combine to make the agricultural capabilities of Guatemala equal to any in the world. Every kind of crop, from those of the tropical coast regions to those of the cold highlands (the latter having a climate corresponding with that of northern Europe in summer) may be raised. There are districts where even four crops of maize (Indian corn) are obtained in one year. It is a common theory that the manures are unnecessary, as the heavy rains 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 soil and climate and his interest would be advanced by a judicious rotation of crops."

A breezy description, though an accurate one, was given of the soil of Guatemala by a correspondent of the Washington _Star_. Wrote this correspondent:

"Instead of my own impressions of the country I would rather give those of a North Carolina business man. He was taking the rest cure by means of a sea voyage to San Francisco and deflected his itinerary for a week's land journey. We traveled together to the capital and also made a trip to the port of Champerico over the railroad extension which has opened up new and untouched territory.

It was his first view of tropical lands except from the ship's deck.

"On landing at San Jose the North Carolina man looked with awe and admiration as every tourist is bound to do on the dominating volcano peaks Fuego and Agua, Fire and Water. But while he never ceased to wonder at the richness of the scenery his practical instincts a.s.serted themselves and he punctuated the information given him about climate, soil and products with keen observations.

He confessed that on the vessel he thought they were 'stringing'

him when they told him that the posts for the barbed wire fences just grew, but when he saw countless miles of trees in straight rows with the wire stretched along the trunks he paid his tribute also to climate and soil. He knew that naturally trees don't grow in straight rows and he found the explanation. The posts are poles cut from the trees' branches and when stuck in the ground they shoot up so rapidly that they soon are trees.

"The North Carolina observer never got over his wonder at the soil.

The railroad cuts gave him a chance to see that it was not surface richness and he easily grasped the explanation. The vegetation grows to a certain height, then dies away, rots and forms fresh layers of richness. This process going on for centuries has made the fertility of the land inexhaustible.

"The utility of volcanic eruptions was new to him and was explained on the trip to Champerico. This is the great coffee region. It comes within the sphere of influence of the volcano Santa Maria.

When Santa Maria was sprinkling both the sea and land with pumice stone and ashes, on many of the fincas (plantations) there was just enough of this lava soil after the rains had come and washed away the surface of the deposit to renew the productiveness."

In another way an idea of the varied products of agricultural industry can be had from an account given in the British Consular reports of a model plantation. This plantation consisted of 3,000 acres. In a given year it produced 1,200,000 pounds of coffee, 300,000 pounds of sugar, 300,000 bottles of the by-product of sugar known as aguardiente or cane rum, 22,000 gallons of milk. Two thousand head of cattle were raised. On this plantation from 900 to 1,300 laborers were employed.

COFFEE OF WORLD-WIDE FAME.

As is well known, Guatemala's most valuable agricultural product is coffee. The fame of Guatemala coffee is worldwide and it commands the highest prices. The production in average years is about 70,500,000 pounds, though in a recent year it exceeded 80,000,000 pounds. The most productive regions are in the departments of Guatemala, Amat.i.tlan, Sacatepequez, Solola, Retalhuleu, Quezaltenango, San Marcos, Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Santa Rosa and Escuintla.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VISTA OF AGUNA PLANTATION.]

The alt.i.tudes at which the coffee plant is most successfully cultivated are between 1,500 feet and 5,000 feet above sea level, according to the locality and quality of the soil. The temperature at which the greatest productiveness is obtained varies from a minimum of 60 Fahrenheit to a maximum of 90. In the lowlands the trees have to be shaded in order to prevent the leaves from being scorched by the heat. There is an abundance of native trees which answers this purpose. Occasionally, too, bananas are raised in conjunction with coffee since their broad leaves furnish an excellent protection.