South America and the War Part 3

Early in the war, a German organ, _La Union_, was founded, in order that the Porteno, as he walked the street or travelled by train or tramway, might have the German case daily and forcibly presented to him.

Throughout Latin America, a dozen or more of newspapers have been thus founded for propaganda purposes, some of them ill.u.s.trated by effective cartoons. The strangest examples of this journalistic campaign are two Turkish newspapers, _La Bandera Otomana_ of Buenos Aires and _O Otomano_ of So Polo, which urge the cause of the Central Powers among Orientals in those countries. Besides these purely German efforts, a host of newspapers, many of them the local journals of country towns, serve the German cause throughout Latin America, the newspaper offices sometimes acting as distributing agencies for periodicals printed in Germany in the Spanish tongue.

For, besides German and Germanophil periodicals published in America, others are produced in Germany for circulation in those countries. The number and the excellent quality of these Spanish productions of the German printing-press are remarkable. _La Revista de la Exportacion Alemana_ is a most effective organ for German business, exhibiting side by side, in pictures and letter-press, triumphs in the field and triumphs of industry. The monthly _Mensajero de Ultramar_ and the weekly _Heraldo de Hamburgo_ have been already mentioned. Hamburg also produces the well-known weekly picture-paper, _Welt in Bild_, with letter-press in twelve languages. These well-written and well-printed newspapers are widely circulated in Latin America in order to uphold the German cause.

In addition to these permanent publications, special war periodicals are issued, every one of them a German trumpet. Not least of these is the comic paper _La Guasa Internacional_, which holds up the Allies to ridicule and abhorrence in cartoons, squibs and sketches. A diary of the war with a review of political and military movements is given in the ill.u.s.trated monthly _Cronica de la Guerra_. Another chronicle is _La Guerra Europea Mirada por un Sud-Americano_, a piece of war propaganda written by a Latin-American soldier, Senor Guerrero, who was, until recently, Peruvian military attache at Berlin. But perhaps the most effective of these war periodicals is _La Gran Guerra en cuadros_, which presents, in a series of pictures, the war as meant to be seen by neutral eyes. All these periodicals attribute economic blunders and financial errors or weakness to the Allies, sometimes making adroit use of British or French self-criticisms: on the other hand, they magnify German economic strength and organisation. This main object appears in an article on "After-war commercial relations between Spanish America and Europe" published in _El Mensajero de Ultramar_, which argues that Germany will suffer least of all the belligerents from the effects of the war; and that afterwards she will be the best purchaser and also the most capable provider for Latin America. Such is the reiterated refrain of a host of periodical publications.

In addition to periodicals, Germany pours over the Spanish-and Portuguese-speaking world a constant inundation of fly-leaves, photographs, pamphlets, books and miscellaneous war literature, preaching German strength, efficiency, humanity, and even the democratic character of German inst.i.tutions.

What is the result? Has German propaganda succeeded in moulding Latin-American opinion concerning the war? Opinion in those countries has been moved by an argument more potent than all the German propaganda, and that is the German submarine. The German offers to South America with one hand persuasive self-eulogies, while with the other hand he sinks her unarmed trading ships and drowns her sailors.

Unrestricted submarine warfare and the barring of zones to navigation have drawn Brazil, by successive steps, into active belligerency, and have done much to bring about rupture of relations and declarations of war by other Latin-American republics. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that German propaganda has entirely failed. The Germans certainly think it worth while to continue it. The pavements of Buenos Aires are sometimes ankle-deep with pro-neutrality and anti-ally leaflets. But it is princ.i.p.ally through the persistent and reiterated voice of the newspaper press, aided by the unremitting personal efforts of every German and every friend of Germany, that she wages this secondary warfare, this strategy of moral influence, which mobilises public opinion, diffuses impressions, colours events, creates an atmosphere.

A circular was lately issued to the German League in Chile urging that, if propaganda could delay the severance of diplomatic relations between Chile and Germany, even for a few weeks, it would help Germany and her allies to an extent of several millions, and cause damage to her enemies to the same amount. As the situation becomes more critical for Germany, her propaganda redoubles in intensity. "Public opinion," says Napoleon, "is a force invisible, mysterious, irresistible." The Germans recognise that force, and have done all that was in their power to sway it to their side. German persuasiveness has not wholly failed. But in this war of words one decisive word has yet to be spoken, and that word is Victory.

Yet military victory is not the final word in the economic struggle nor in the propaganda used in its support. The German South American Inst.i.tute urgently emphasises the need of a more thorough and more stable system of German news supply: and official steps are now being taken in Germany to consolidate and extend such a system, in order to provide a permanent support of German influence in the future. The present aim of her propaganda is not only to exhibit victories, but to prepare for possible defeat, while representing Germany as morally invincible and as able, in any event, not only to hold her own, but to extend and strengthen her position.

CHAPTER IV

THE RECOGNITION OF LATIN AMERICA

It has been necessary to speak at some length of the direction taken by German activities with regard to Latin America. In order to preserve due perspective, something should be said about activities on the part of others. For the German has no monopoly of intelligence and energy in these matters. Indeed, the methods of the various German Leagues for Latin America mentioned in the second chapter were prompted, in part at least, by observation of what was being done elsewhere, particularly in France and the United States: for all these matters are carefully watched in Germany, and are described in minute detail in the publications of those leagues.

An American historian remarks that Europe and the United States have lately re-discovered Latin America; and a German observer describes South America as the Fair Helen of the business world--her charms admired and her favours sought by all industrial nations. These epigrams point to a comparatively recent movement, which might be described as the Recognition of Latin America. This is not a sudden new departure, for relations between those countries and Europe have been continuous.

But, in the past, there has been much indifference and ignorance regarding these matters, except among those directly concerned in them.

In recent years a fresh spirit has arisen, an enlivened interest and a desire for better knowledge and more cordial intercourse. The movement is natural and spontaneous rather than official. It owes little--at all events in Europe--to governments and chanceries, although these recognise its value and give it their countenance.

It was pointed out above that French thought and French example have always exercised a profound influence on the Latin-American republics.

Until recently, this influence made itself felt without much conscious observation or deliberate activity on the part of Frenchmen. Indeed, there was sometimes a disposition, which was not unknown in England also, to view the Latin-American in a satirical light. A changed att.i.tude in France--a desire for cordial and equal intercourse--took definite shape in the formation of the Comite France-Amerique in 1906 under the presidency of M. Gabriel Hanotaux. The objects of this society are to develop economic, intellectual and artistic relations between France and the nations of the New World, to attract students and travellers to France from the two Americas and welcome them cordially, to encourage every means of making France and America known to one another. The society soon numbered over 1000 members, and proceeded to found branches in Latin-American capitals, as well as in the United States and Canada. It publishes a monthly review ent.i.tled _France-Amerique_, dealing with every branch of life in the two Americas, and has formed a sub-section known as Ligue francaise de propagande, to spread in America a knowledge of French education and art, as well as French industrial products. The society has published a number of books concerning the history and present conditions of American countries.

The same year, 1906, saw the foundation of the Groupement des Universites et grandes ecoles de France pour les relations avec l'Amerique Latine. This academic a.s.sociation, though it does not ignore the business side of foreign relations, is naturally more concerned with educational and intellectual matters. Its activities appear in the visits of French professors and lecturers to Latin-American capitals, the reception of Latin-American students in France, the study of Spanish-American history, literature and archaeology in French Universities, and in one apparently trivial but very practical detail--the reduction by one half of French Steamship Companies' fares to Latin-American students visiting France.

The economic side of this French movement appears in the inst.i.tution of a "Latin-American week," a kind of festival for propaganda and intercourse, to be celebrated annually in some great business centre of France. The inaugural seven days' meeting was held at Lyons in December 1916. Sixty Latin-American delegates were present, and were met by 200 French delegates from Paris, among them leading men representing every side of French life. The conference discussed every aspect of the relations between France and Latin America, and the means of extending and improving those relations.

The cordiality of intercourse finds its most pleasant manifestation in the frequent visits to South America of distinguished Frenchmen--among them have been Anatole France and Clemenceau--who carry messages of sympathy across the Atlantic to crowded and enthusiastic gatherings in Latin-American cities.

In the United States this double movement, intellectual and economic, is still more marked. Latin-American history and economics are regularly taught in the universities, and prizes are provided for essays on historical works on those lands. Harvard University has a special endowment for Latin-American studies, an Instructor in Latin-American history and a South American Library of 10,000 volumes; and the University, in order to encourage the entry of Latin-American students, dispenses with the use of the English language in the Entrance Examination in certain cases. The Jesuit traveller, Father Zahm, better known by his pen-name of Mozans, has presented his South American library to Notre Dame University, Indiana. The Rector of the Leland Stanford Junior University places at the disposal of the University his library of 7000 volumes on Brazil. Scholarships are granted in the Universities to Latin-American women students. In the year 1913, Latin-American students in American universities numbered 813. American scientific missions are at work in Latin America, as well as missions of teachers to study educational methods in those lands and to invite return visits to the United States. One hears, moreover, of a Spanish-American Athenaeum at Washington, 2000 inst.i.tutions teaching the Spanish language, 1700 clubs formed for the study of Latin America, new magazines dealing exclusively with those regions, Argentine men of letters received with an honoured public welcome, an Inter-American Round Table, founded by representative ladies of New York, who propose to hold annual meetings of women, to take place successively in the capitals of the American Republics.

This educational and social movement accompanies and supports a great business effort directed towards Latin America. The latter has an obvious bearing on the subject of Pan-Americanism, which is treated in a later chapter: but it is convenient to indicate the facts here, as forming part of a general movement of approach by other peoples towards Latin America. The American business effort a.s.sumed concrete form at the beginning of the war, when the United States Government invited the Finance Ministers and leading bankers of all the American Republics to a Financial conference at Washington. All but Mexico and Haiti accepted.

The conference met in March 1915. A committee was appointed for each republic, and their reports were submitted to a joint committee. The decisions so reached were unanimously accepted by the whole conference.

They recommended a standard gold coin for the whole of America, also unification of regulations concerning cla.s.sification of merchandise, customs, consular certificates and invoices, trade marks and kindred matters. Questions of banking facilities, transport and credit were also discussed.

Furthermore, it was decided to inst.i.tute an International High Commission, which should continue permanently the work of the conference, sitting in rotation in the capitals of the several republics. This commission met first in Buenos Aires in April 1916, and decided to create a Central Executive Council to consist of three members, namely the chairman, vice-chairman and secretary of the section representing whatever country should be at the time the headquarters of the High Commission. On the motion of Argentina it was unanimously agreed that the headquarters for the first year should be Washington.

Thus the first Central Executive Council consisted of three North Americans, the three heads of the United States section of the International High Commission.

During the last three years, North American capital has been poured into Latin America, notably into Brazil, although perhaps the most striking instance is the acquisition of three huge and profitable mining properties in Chile, producing copper and iron. American commissioners are studying the field; direct steamship communication between the two continents has been extended; and American banks have been opened in many South American cities. It is remarkable how large a s.p.a.ce is given day by day to Latin America in the Daily Commerce Report and List of Trade Opportunities published by the United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Meanwhile the Pan-American Union, housed in a magnificent palace at Washington, labours unceasingly to draw closer the political, economic, social, and intellectual relations.

But in other directions, indeed in all directions, Latin-American economic and international relations are opening out and finding new roads. Canada has earned a high reputation by her industrial enterprises, and Canadian banks are being established in South American capitals. The Dutch too are opening banks and preparing to extend their trade. j.a.pan, also, is drawing closer to this new Europe of the western hemisphere. j.a.panese immigration is increasing, not only to the republics of the Pacific coast, but also to Southern Brazil. The j.a.panese steamship service to the west coast has been extended, and lines of j.a.panese ships are now running, also, to Buenos Aires and Rio.

Industrial j.a.pan aims at subst.i.tuting for German trade the production of goods formerly imported from Germany, and j.a.panese pioneers are travelling in South America to study and prepare the ground. j.a.panese relations with Chile are particularly close and friendly. Chile can supply iron and copper, which j.a.pan wants; and in return Chile is prepared to take j.a.panese cotton and silk. Kaolin or china clay was lately discovered in Chile: a specimen was sent to j.a.pan for trial; and, as a result, a china factory has been started in Chile, the skilled labour being provided by j.a.panese artisans. Truly, the whole world is drawing nearer to South America.

What of the British position? The British "re-discovered" Latin America more than a century ago. England, as well as France, was the school of Miranda and Bolivar. England provided the sinews of war for the emanc.i.p.ation of these lands, and the British legion which served under Bolivar was saluted by him, on the battle-field, as _Salvadores de mi patria_. South America honours the name of Cochrane among the heroic figures which stand upon the threshold of independence: nor has she forgotten how Canning's generous statesmanship helped her to secure the fruits of victory. One may read, in great part, the history of the struggle for independence in Memoirs written by Englishmen who took part in it. And in succeeding years the British held in those countries a peculiar position of grat.i.tude and respect. The first Argentine foreign treaty was with Great Britain. Uruguay owes her independence, in part at least, to the intervention of British diplomacy, which was held in equal honour at Buenos Aires and in Rio. The founder of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was an American, who, failing to find support in his own country, went to England, and there launched his great scheme of maritime trade on the Pacific coast. The same American, William Wheelwright, was the founder of the Argentine railway system, through English capital and enterprise. Over 1000 millions sterling of British capital are invested in Latin America in the form of government loans and corporate enterprises whose capital can be counted, without reckoning private investments, such as ownership of land. Total British investments in the Argentine alone exceed 500 millions sterling. The British created the Chilian nitrate industry, in which Chilian and British ownership are now about equal. Our fathers and grandfathers dared much, risked much, lost much and gained much in Latin America, and have left us an unrivalled reputation for good work and steady integrity. _Palabra de Ingles_, "the word of an Englishman," is still a proverb throughout those countries.

Yet there is truth in the remark of a German author that the British have made no "cultural efforts" in Latin America. They are viewed with respect rather than with an intimate cordiality which they have not sought. It has been said that an Argentine takes off his hat to an Englishman, but tucks his arm in that of a Frenchman. This absence of deliberate effort does not mean the absence of moral influence. An official of the Pan-American Union remarked to the present writer that the English had done a "wonderful work" in Argentina by introducing and spreading the game of football, which had taught lessons of fair play, voluntary disciplined combination and good humour in defeat. The Boy Scout movement has taken root throughout Latin America, holding up everywhere in the spirit of its work and in local Scout papers a high standard of honour, truthfulness and conduct. These are some examples of a widespread influence exerted by certain sides of English life and character. Yet a certain atmosphere of aloofness still envelopes the British in Latin America, and this att.i.tude is reflected in England. The languages and the history of those lands have not received their due in our schools and colleges. It has been comparatively rare to find in this country a keen and well-informed interest in matters wherein our own people have had a far greater share than our neighbours on the European continent or in the United States. What is wanting is a breath of enthusiasm for a most picturesque past, a present situation of absorbing interest, and the prospect of a future which promises boundless possibilities.

Yet the movement of recognition is making way among us. The number of descriptive books published in recent years concerning those countries points to a reviving interest. Our schools are providing Spanish cla.s.ses: our universities are founding professorships or lectureships in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, and the study of Latin-American history is finding admission to its due academic place. We are beginning to perceive that the life of those countries touches us closely, and that some knowledge and thoughtful interest concerning them should be part of the mental equipment of an educated Englishman. Moreover, the recent establishment of an Anglo-Spanish Society and also of an Anglo-Portuguese and Brazilian Society indicates a growing disposition for sympathetic and reasonable intercourse with the peoples of the Ibero-American lands.

It would be out of place here to talk of this or that defect in British business methods or to suggest possible amendments. Such matters may be left to business men. Mr Herbert Gibson, in the fascinating address which he lately gave in King's College, London, sets the matter on a higher plane. "I do not think," he says, "it is so much a question of this or that system of weights and measures, or of the insularity of our cla.s.ses of goods, as a question of a more intimate and sympathetic understanding between the peoples themselves. Trade can no doubt go on without such an understanding; but, where it exists, commercial as well as political, social and intellectual relations are strengthened. It seems to me that where our relations with South America have weakened or at least where they have not progressively increased, is in that man-to-man understanding and sympathy that opened the doors of all South America to our grandfathers."

CHAPTER V

EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON THE REPUBLICS

_El pais de manana_, "the Country of Tomorrow." One may hear the proverb any day on the lips of Spaniard or Spanish-American in whimsical self-criticism concerning his own ways and those of his people and country. But the word applies in another sense to the Spanish-American republics. They are the countries of tomorrow, the lands of the future, the lands of promise, this score of Latin-American republics; for they are twenty in number. Owing to want of s.p.a.ce and the comprehensive character of our subject, I have been obliged to speak of Latin America as a whole. This is not inappropriate, for Latin America does form a world in itself, as all Latin-Americans feel, and indicate in their intercourse with one another. Thus, one may quite rightly speak of Latin America as a whole, just as one used to speak of Europe as a whole. But this western world, which sprang from the Iberian Peninsula, is a group of twenty republics differing from one another in situation and character and, to some degree also, in ethnology and manner of language.

These countries extend through every habitable lat.i.tude, and most of the republics contain within their own borders every habitable alt.i.tude.

Their products are boundless, both in abundance and in variety, and these products might be multiplied indefinitely. Name any one of the republics, and you are naming a symbol of wealth, of existing wealth, and still more, of manifold future wealth.

Gast's pamphlet, summarised in the second chapter, speaks of eighty million people "reaching upward and now setting their feet on the first steps of their life-journey." The expression may seem a little inappropriate and, at first sight, even a little derogatory. But it is true: and, on reflection, no South American need feel hurt at this description, which is in fact a justification of the past history and present position of his country. These countries are young. They have known the turbulence of youth. Now they are pushing their way, vigorously enough, towards maturity and clearly developed form. The fact was distinctly stated by a Brazilian, lecturing lately in King's College, London, who said: "The Nineteenth Century was the age of experiment; the Twentieth Century will be the age of fulfilment." These countries still require interpretation to Europe. Hampered at their first start, at the epoch of emanc.i.p.ation, by the exhausting and confusing character of that long struggle, by want of political experience, by the ignorance of the ma.s.ses and, in some parts, by ethnological difficulties, they were obliged to spend a generation or two in clearing up the aftermath of that revolution; and in most cases their political const.i.tutions (although in form they are models of const.i.tutional law) are in their actual working only now emerging from the stage of experiment, sometimes confused and shifting experiments, sometimes rough-and-ready expedients. For example, in the Argentine Confederation and also in the United States of Brazil, the relations between the Federal Government and the Governments of the States have not attained that regular equilibrium which prevails in the United States, an equilibrium which was there only procured at the cost of a tremendous civil war. In most of the republics the relations between the Executive and the Legislature have scarcely reached a stable adjustment.

We should remember that Brazil only shook off the monarchical form of government in 1889, and that it was some years before that revolution was really completed. Again, in the republic best known to England, the Argentine Confederation, the multifarious and cosmopolitan mixture of immigration from all the Mediterranean lands has hardly yet coalesced to form a definite national type. The origin of these states, though superficially resembling that of the United States, was in fact fundamentally different. For every one of the thirteen British colonies of North America was, in a sense, grown up and a developed ent.i.ty at the moment of emanc.i.p.ation, since they had all possessed local parliamentary const.i.tutions of the British type from the beginning of their colonial days. The initial condition of the Latin-American states was much more formless and their early difficulties were much more complex.

Some of these lands show the character of youth in the tendency to imitation, the adoption of French and especially of Parisian ways, not realising how much better is a genuine native development than the imitation of even the best models. Another symptom of youth is the lavish and sometimes ostentatious spending of money. If the Spanish-American has money, he spends it like a schoolboy, and he likes a splash for his money. Another sign of youth is the rather exaggerated national or civic _amour-propre_, a lively touchiness concerning outside criticism--a sentiment which inclines one to be rather diffident and apologetic even about making such remarks as these. This is a local, not a racial characteristic in the South American, for the Spaniard is even more proudly indifferent than the Englishman concerning what the foreigner thinks.

These young states have hitherto acquiesced in their economic dependence upon Europe. European immigration (at least on the east coast), Government loans raised in Europe, provision of public utilities by European capital, importation of almost all manufactured articles from abroad--these have been to most South Americans the accepted conditions of life. Thus, all these republics felt a sharp and instant shock at the outbreak of the European war. The economic equilibrium was upset, and the machine ceased to work. The stream of European capital suddenly dried up: so also the stream of immigration. Indeed, the supply of labour in the Atlantic States, especially in the River Plate, dropped below the normal after Italy joined the Allies. Scarcity of shipping, together with the diversion to war purposes of all European energies, diminished the exportation from South America of all commodities not absolutely needed by the Allies for the prosecution of the war. Imports from Europe were restricted. Germany, which had ranked third among outside nations trading with the continent, dropped out altogether, with the exception of the devious and struggling efforts already noted. To the nations of South America what had seemed the natural and regular order of things was suddenly suspended. They were thrown upon their own resources; they were compelled to take stock of their position and to face an unprecedented situation. They must manage their finances without European help; they must provide their own labour. As to things. .h.i.therto imported from Europe, they must either provide these things themselves or go without. The shock was severe, but it must be allowed to have been a wholesome shock. It has stopped public over-borrowing and has put some check on extravagance of public spending. It has favoured private thrift and has compelled those who were perhaps over light-hearted and materialistic to take life more seriously. The Argentine family, which formerly provided separate motor-cars for father, mother and each son and daughter, has now to be content with one or none. The luxurious trip to Paris or London, with its corollary of mountainous shopping, is abandoned, and a more modest holiday is spent at the seaside or in the mountains at home. The daily story, flashed along the cables from Europe, of strife, of heroism, of self-sacrifice, conduces to reflection and grave judgment. Finally, the meaning of the struggle has been now brought home to every South American people. Every one of them is closely touched by the recent developments of maritime warfare. Every one is forced to come to a decision. Whatever that decision may be, whether it be for open war, or limited partic.i.p.ation, or rupture of relations, or complete neutrality, that decision is expectantly watched by the whole world and adds its weight in the balance of the great trial. The effect must be a graver sense of national responsibility, a more sober consciousness of national dignity.

The economic recovery, which followed the first shock, favoured this national consolidation and development. Imports diminished, whereas the urgent demand of the Allies for foodstuffs and raw materials soon produced, in most of the states, a great expansion in the value, if not in the volume of exports. Hence a favourable trade balance and an increase in wealth. These conditions encouraged that movement of industrial enterprise which everywhere sought to supply, by the exploitation of home products and by the development of home manufactures, the needs which had been hitherto supplied by importation from abroad. Examples, taken mostly from the A.B.C. countries, will best ill.u.s.trate this industrial movement, which has been one of the most notable effects of the war.

Argentina felt deeply the shock of August 1914. The outbreak of war fell like a bomb in the midst of a serious financial depression, due to speculation, extravagance and over-borrowing. The trouble was intensified by drought and by two bad harvests, and more recently by widespread strikes accompanied by destructive violence. But the crisis has compelled the Argentines to rely upon themselves, to restrict extravagances and to push forward the industrial development of their own resources. Thus, the diminution in the supply of English coal has led to the search for native coal, to the use of native petroleum and native fire-wood. Lessened timber imports mean the exploitation of native forests. A considerable quant.i.ty of native wool is now spun and woven in the country, and home manufacture generally is increasing. Thus the country is richer and more industrious than ever before. It is true that this wholesome recovery is not yet reflected in the national finances, which are still disordered by extravagance, over-borrowing, improvident budgets, and now by the diminished receipts from customs.

However, one very interesting event deserves special mention--the credit or loan granted by the Argentine Government to the Allies for the purchase of the present harvest. Since Argentine Government loans are mostly held in Western Europe, the debt can be discharged with equal benefit to both sides, by simply taking over the obligations of the Argentine Government on this side of the Atlantic. Even more remarkable is the spontaneous offer made to Great Britain by the Uruguayan Government of a large credit for the purchase of the Uruguayan harvest.

Thus, these two debtor nations have actually become creditors to Europe, and are proceeding to gather into national ownership a large part of the national debt. Uruguay is taking another and most striking step towards economic consolidation. She is preparing to avail herself of the growing national wealth and the increased value of the Uruguayan dollar in order to buy up enterprises owned by foreigners within her territory, particularly the railways, which are mostly in British hands. It may here be noted that this economic movement in Uruguay coincides with a radical and democratic reform of the const.i.tution, a nearer intimacy with her Latin neighbours, an approach to the United States, and also closer relations with Europe through the abandonment of neutrality and the signature of unconditional treaties of arbitration with France and Great Britain.

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 const.i.tuted 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 partic.i.p.ation 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 princ.i.p.al 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 st.u.r.dy 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 surpa.s.sed 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 Jaguaro; and also arrange a seasonal migration of labourers, who work from April to September on the So Polo coffee estates and pa.s.s 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 emba.s.sies, hardly less interesting in character, are the visits of boy scouts from capital to capital. The five tropical republics which hail Bolivar 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 emanc.i.p.ation is a single epic. And a pleasing symbol of this historical unity is to be seen in the portrait of the Argentine commander San Martin and of the Venezuelan Bolivar 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 acc.u.mulated 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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 circ.u.mstance ill.u.s.trates the fact that these countries are a cl.u.s.ter 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 pa.s.s their good things, both abstract and material, from one to another.