The Peace of Latin America 



479 



feet, with locks for fleets of barges from 

 Lockport, the terminus of the drainage 

 canal, to St Louis. This, it is argued, 

 would give through water transportation 

 from L,ake Michigan to the Gulf by way 

 of the drainage canal, the Illinois River, 

 and the Mississippi River, and would 

 enable the United States, in case of war, 

 to quickly transport light-draft war ves- 

 sels from the Gulf to the Lakes. This 

 work of deepening the Illinois River 

 would also give through water connec- 

 tion from Rock Island, on the upper 

 Mississippi River, to Lake Michigan via 

 the Illinois and Mississippi Canal, else- 

 where described, which extends from 

 Rock Island, on the Mississippi River, 

 to Hennepin, on the Illinois River. The 

 estimate of the Chicago sanitary district 

 trustees of the cost of deepening the 

 Illinois and Mississippi rivers from the 

 terminus of the ship canal to St Louis 

 to a depth of 14 feet is $25,000,000, 

 including five locks and dams. 



THE PEACE OF LATIN AMERICA* 



NEARLY three- fifths of the 15,- 

 000,000 square miles of the 

 Western Hemisphere is covered by the 

 twenty different nations which are 

 broadly included in the term Latin 

 America. All these nations are re- 

 publics, in name at least. It may 

 be a mere coincidence or it may be a 

 fact of profound importance, that dur- 

 ing the current year the entire area has 

 been practically free from revolution. 

 It is doubtful if the experience of the 

 last eighty years can duplicate the pres- 

 ent situation. 



We are inclined to regard this as 

 something more than a coincidence. 

 We believe it to be significant, a sign of 

 political development and a proof of 

 increasing stability. We do not at- 

 tribute the condition to a fear of the 

 "big stick" or to an apprehension of 

 any broadening of the " corollary of the 



* From the New York Sun. 



Monroe Doctrine." It is more prob- 

 able that it is due to two well-defined 

 though little recognized influences. 

 One of these is the force of example, 

 notably that of Mexico. The other is 

 the extension of industry and commerce. 

 There is in all these lands a growing 

 recognition of the fact that revolutions 

 are unprofitable. With the great mass 

 of the people the idea is probably sub- 

 conscious, but we believe it is there, 

 and that it is busily working out a des- 

 tiny of peace for our Latin American 

 neighbors. 



A Colombian writer, Senor Knrique * 

 Perez, recently made an admirable state- 

 ment of the case for the Latin Ameri- 

 cans. He says : 



' ' It should be borne in mind by those 

 who are always ready to pass criticisms 

 on South American affairs that not all 

 nations have had at their disposal the 

 means of improving their conditions 

 which, by a chain of exceptionable cir- 

 cumstances, it has been given to the 

 United States to profit by. Civilization 

 was not carried from Spain to South 

 America, as to a certain extent it may 

 be said that it was transferred from all 

 European countries to the United States. 



"The South American countries did 

 not have the same happy chances. The 

 greed for gold and the race for El Do- 

 rado were the main inducements of the 

 Spaniards who, at the peril of their 

 lives, crossed the ocean in unfit vessels 

 in a mad pursuit after the gold and all 

 other precious property of the Indians. 

 The Spanish conquerors did not teach 

 the natives, outside of religion, any of 

 the practical methods of life, or rather 

 those considered practical in those days. 



' 'After the conquest was accomplished 

 there came a period, covering three cen- 

 turies, during which nothing was done 

 by Spain to better the condition of those 

 countries." 



This is an interesting and a precise 

 statement of the case. From California 

 to the Southern Andes and from Carta- 



