i4o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



GEEMAN INFLUENCE IN LATIN AMEEICA 



BY ALFRED F. SEARS, C. E. 



PORTLAND, ORB. 



I. Magnitude and Character of German Immigration 



[~N 1901 the American citizen was startled by the information from 

 -*- Eio Janeiro, that " A German syndicate has just been formed 

 with a capital of 25,000,000 Marks, with the object of colonizing in 

 Brazil, the states of Eio Grande do Sul, Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina, 

 Parana, Minas Garaes and Goyas. The government has guaranteed 

 5 per cent, interest on the investment in the enterprise." 



At about the same time a further statement was published to the 

 effect that the powers of Europe are combining to overthrow our 

 formidable Monroe doctrine, through a society recently organized in 

 Eome for colonization by Italians in various sections of Brazil. 



American newspapers declared " the German problem in South 

 America to have been brought sharply to the attention of the national 

 administration by this despatch " made the subject of editorials more 

 or less intelligent all over the land. Some of the newspapers were 

 sufficiently sane to offer their readers definite figures on which to base 

 judgment of American duty. Generally, the patriotic bias developed 

 but little jingoism in the complacent American press. Washington, 

 from the heart of things, assured the nation that Germany is our firm 

 friend, innocent of all design against the bogie we have raised on our 

 neighbors' towers. 



While the passion of suspicion concerning the Kaiser's intention 

 was yet alive, the writer was in South America to execute a scientific 

 commission. He had previously spent sixteen years of active profes- 

 sional life in Mexico, Central and South America and believed that he 

 could serve the interests of his country and the impulse of an improved 

 civilization by presenting data for the intelligent consideration of 

 questions involved in foreign colonization schemes among our southern 

 neighbors and illustrating the results to be reached by Teutonic influ- 

 ence among the elements of Latin American life, now so grossly amal- 

 gamated with aboriginal barbarism, the slave and tool of Spanish 

 medieval ecclesiasticism, which breeds and fosters social and political 

 immorality. 



With this end in view, he addressed a circular to official represen- 

 tatives of all the republics in these continents, soliciting a state- 

 ment of: 



