Vol. XVII, No. 8 



WASHINGTON 



August, 1906 



a 



ATHOHAL 

 ©(SIMFIHIIICD 



MBAZI 



Q 



SOUTH AMERICA FIFTY YEARS HENCE 



By Charles M. Pepper 



Author of "Panama to Patagonia," "Tomorrow in Cuba," etc., Member 

 of Permanent Pan-American Railway Committee 



IN the first Pan-x\merican Confer- 

 ence, which was held in Washing- 

 ton in 1890, one of the most emi- 

 nent of the delegates from Latin America 

 declared that the 20th century would be- 

 long to South America, just as the 19th 

 century had belonged to the United 

 States. This sentiment will be re-echoed 

 by the Third Pan-American Conference 

 during the sessions at Rio Janeiro. In 

 the meantime Canada has come forward 

 with rapid strides, and Premier Laurier 

 asserts that the 20th century belongs to 

 Canada. 



In the opinion of many people in the 

 United States, though they know almost 

 as little of Canada as of South America — 

 that is, of the splendid domain which 

 stretches from the maritime provinces to 

 the Pacific and the regions of the Yu- 

 kon — the Dominion has the better claim. 

 But it is not necessary to quarrel with 

 either prophecy. Roth have vast pos- 

 sibilities. 



With regard to South America, it may 

 still be difficult to convince North Ameri- 

 cans that this continent, whose area 

 comes within a fraction of equaling 

 North America, has a future which should 

 not be measured by the past ; or that fifty 



years hence it will not continue to be the 

 region best known to the rest of the 

 world as the seat of earthquakes and 

 revolutions. There is no need to enter 

 here into political abstractions or theories 

 which involve the political future of the 

 Southern Continent. In a half century 

 from now, looking backward, it may be 

 interesting to see how speculative prin- 

 ciples have yielded to hard economic 

 facts. The point for the present is that 

 South America has a future which is 

 just becoming known to itself. In all its 

 possibilities, industrial and political, 

 this may be described as a geographic 

 future, and the geography is commercial 

 rather than political geography. 



The influence of the physical aspects 

 of the continent always must be con- 

 sidered in relation to South America as 

 a whole. The 16th-century idea that the 

 precious metals constituted the principal 

 wealth of a nation has been very slowly 

 dissipated. The mineral resources of 

 the Andes and of the other mountain sys- 

 tems of South America will continue a 

 very potent incentive during the next half 

 century, but the greater development is 

 going to come from supplying what man- 

 kind eats and wears. South America's 



