ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 39 



or some other race of a low standard of living. The best op- 

 portunity which the Tropics offer is farming in cooperative 

 communities favorably located as regards markets. Residents 

 of the Tropics are often consulted for advice regarding the 

 stock-selling companies dealing with agricultural products. 

 There seems to be only one answer that can be made to such 

 inquiries and that is, in general, do not buy stock blindly in 

 tropical agricultural companies. The frauds and failures of 

 rubber companies in Mexico and elsewhere have not only 

 brought financial ruin to hundreds of individuals but have 

 greatly injured the development of legitimate enterprises of 

 this sort. Companies which pretend to be developing rubber 

 and fiber industries in newly opened tracts of tropical land may 

 well be carefully investigated before any stock is purchased. 

 Hell is paved with prospectuses of fiber and rubber com- 

 panies, some of which have never actually developed an acre 

 of land upon which they have pretended to hold option. 



The Tropics offer rather abundant and brilliant opportuni- 

 ties for trained men from various lines. The Tropics need 

 trained chemists, agronomists, horticulturists, entomologists, 

 pathologists, and veterinarians. For the substantial develop- 

 ment of tropical agriculture there is great need of white set- 

 tlers like the type of men who settled our West, but with more 

 money. There is need of colleges of tropical agriculture in 

 the Tropics. At present there can hardly be said to exist a 

 college of tropical agriculture, and yet there is constant call 

 for men especially trained in the production or manufacturing 

 processes connected with various agricultural crops. The 

 Tropics need broad-minded sociologists, or rather social work- 

 ers, prepared to study and to help solve the endless interracial 

 problems. The Tropics need also the enlightened interest of 

 the genuine statesmen of the dominant races of the world. If 

 these needs are all adequately met the Tropics may contribute 

 greatly to the necessities and luxuries of the world and may 

 not become the battlefield of armed greed. 



