CHAPTER I

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE

Physical Features--Character of the Population--The Land-owning and Laboring Classes: Their Mode of Life and Personal Characteristics--Factors Which Have Retarded Economic Development--Agricultural Products--Foreign Immigration and Investments.

Guatemala, Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Costa Rica, the five Republics of Central America, occupy a narrow strip of land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, extending East and South from Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama. Although their combined area is smaller than that of the state of California,[1] they comprise many regions of strikingly different climatic conditions, for the mountains which occupy the greater part of their territory cause variations in the distribution of rainfall, and also provide plateaus and high valleys where the tropical heat is less intense because of the altitude. Along the shore of the Caribbean Sea there is a broad strip of country but little above sea level. This has remained almost uninhabited until recently because of its intense humidity and suffocating temperature, but within the last twenty-five years it has become of great economic importance, at least to the outside world, through its exports of bananas. The lowlands extend inland to the Central American _Cordillera_, a series of ranges which grow higher and higher as they approach the Pacific Ocean, until they culminate in a great chain of volcanic peaks which traverses the Isthmus from the Mexican boundary to that of Panama. It is near these peaks, where the decomposed lava from past eruptions has created a marvelously fertile soil, and where the climate, with copious but not excessive rains during six months of the year, is healthful and favorable to agriculture, that the great majority of the people of Central America live. Almost all of the more important cities and towns are situated either in the mountain valleys, at an altitude of from two to seven thousand feet, where the temperature rarely exceeds eighty degrees Fahrenheit, or in the hot, but dry and therefore comparatively healthful plain between the base of the volcanoes and the Pacific Ocean.

Populous and partially civilized Indian communities had existed in this part of America for centuries before the Spanish conquest, and their descendants form the bulk of the population of the five republics. Although the original inhabitants were almost exterminated in many districts by the oppression and mistreatment of the early colonists, enough remained to become the predominant racial element in the conglomerate population, Spanish in language and religion but Indian in civilization and standards of living, which arose from the fusion of the invaders, the aborigines, and the negroes who were brought in as slaves or escaped to the mainland from the West Indies. This was especially true of the three central countries of the Isthmus, and the development of these has therefore been somewhat different from that of Costa Rica, where the white stock predominates even among the common people, and from that of Guatemala, where the pure-blooded Indians are still a distinct and separate race.

Although the Central American countries are theoretically democracies, there is in each a small, powerful upper class, consisting of the so-called “principal families.” These are for the most part descendants of the prominent creole[2] families of colonial days, and are therefore in many cases of pure or almost pure Spanish descent. A large proportion,--perhaps the majority,--however, have more or less Indian and even negro blood in their veins. This class has been able to maintain its dominant position in the community, partly because of its command of the government, which it assumed when the republican institutions which the Isthmian patriots attempted to introduce after the declaration of independence were found to be unworkable because of the ignorance of the mass of the people, but more especially because of its control over agriculture. At the time of the conquest, the land, like everything else in the invaded territory, was treated as the property of the crown, and that in the neighborhood of the Spanish settlements was divided among the colonists by the royal governors. Further large allotments were made from time to time during the colonial period. After the declaration of independence, the governments of the several republics continued to regard as state property all land not already specifically granted, and sold or gave away large tracts of it to rich natives or foreigners, notwithstanding the fact that much of the public domain was already occupied by peasants who had always considered the patches which they cultivated as their own. The number of large holdings has been further increased in some of the republics by the division of the common lands formerly held by each village among the village’s inhabitants; for the beneficiaries have often sold their shares to their wealthier neighbors. At the present time a comparatively small number of persons own a very large amount of agricultural property, and employ the majority of the other inhabitants of the Isthmus as workmen on their plantations. The economic and political power of this class would manifestly be very great even if it were not supported by their prestige as the descendants of the conquering race.

Although their wealth is entirely agricultural, the “principal families” invariably reside in the cities. They make frequent visits to their plantations, which they intrust to the care of overseers, but the majority of them show a marked aversion both to country life and to rural pursuits. As a whole they are neither very enterprising nor very energetic. Those who do not inherit a plantation which produces an income sufficient to support them turn to one of the already overcrowded learned professions rather than to the development of the natural resources of their countries, in the exploitation of which foreigners are daily making fortunes before their eyes. Nearly every member of the upper class, moreover, is actively engaged in politics, often to the exclusion or to the detriment of his other occupations.

The wealthier families live in one or two story houses of adobe or concrete, which cover a surprisingly large extent of ground but have little pretension to architectural beauty or to comfort. These are built around two, and often three, courtyards or _patios_. The front _patio_, upon which open the _sala_, or parlor, and the bedrooms, generally contains an attractive garden surrounded by an open _corredor_, which serves as living room and dining room. At the rear are the kitchen, stable, and servants’ quarters. The standard of living, especially in the less advanced countries, is still rather primitive. Furniture and food are of a very simple character, and the servants, of whom each family employs a large number, are untrained and inefficient. The band concerts three or four times a week, the cinematographs, and occasional cheap operettas offer almost the only opportunity for diversion, except on the very unusual occasions when a government subsidy makes possible a short season of opera or drama. Social events are comparatively few. In every city there are two or three civic _fiestas_ during the year, when the native society abandons itself to a round of dancing, horse-racing, and other gayeties, but at other times the capitals of the Isthmus are decidedly dull. Life in them has, however, a peculiar charm for the foreigner, because of the kindliness and friendliness of the people.

Since the building of the railways and the increase of commerce have brought the Central American countries into closer touch with the outside world, there has been a great change in customs and ways of living in such places as Guatemala, San Salvador, and San José de Costa Rica. The high price of coffee during the last decade of the nineteenth century brought about an era of prosperity such as the rather backward communities of the Isthmus had never before known. Elaborate private residences and costly public buildings were erected in the national capitals, and pianos, window glass, modern furniture, and other articles which had formerly been little used, were imported from Europe in great quantities. After the reaction which set in when the value of coffee in the world’s markets declined, the new standard of living remained, and even the poorer members of the upper classes now enjoy most of the comforts and many of the luxuries of modern civilization. The tendency to adopt European and North American customs is greatly furthered by the young people, who in increasing numbers are sent abroad to school and college, for they return with new tastes and new ways of thinking even when they do not acquire a great amount of learning.

Although the members of the upper class are for the most part descendants of the _conquistadores_, social and political prominence is today no longer entirely a matter of birth. The old creole families formed a narrow and exclusive circle until the latter part of the nineteenth century, but as a result of factional wars among themselves and against other portions of the community, they have now become generally impoverished and almost exterminated. A new element, recruited from the more intelligent and ambitious members of the lower classes, has meanwhile achieved a large amount of political power, and has perforce been admitted to a position almost of equality with the old aristocracy. At the present time, humble birth in itself is no obstacle to advancement, although educational opportunities are so limited, and the part played by family influence and favoritism is so great, that only the most capable and energetic boys from the lower classes can hold their own with those to whom the accident of birth has given powerful friends and greater opportunities for study.

The half-breeds, known as _ladinos_ or _mestizos_, occupy an intermediate position between the white aristocracy and the great mass of the laboring population, in which the Indian blood predominates. For the most part these are artisans, or skilled laborers, in the towns. They are generally clever workmen, enterprising and quick to learn, but without the capacity to work steadily and diligently for any one object. They occupy practically all of the positions which call for manual dexterity or special training. Many become more prominent than the persons of pure Spanish descent in the public schools and universities, and not a few rise to high positions in the government or in the learned professions.

In each of the five republics there are some small farmers, who are for the most part descendants of the early Spanish colonists. These are the leading citizens of the smaller towns and villages. They do not always have property of their own, but often cultivate fields allotted to them by the municipalities of which they are citizens. The new settlements which were founded from time to time during the colonial period were given tracts of land, usually a league square, to be used in common by their inhabitants, one part as pasture, another as forest, and a third to be apportioned each year among the members of the community. Similar grants were made to many of the Indian villages and tribes, which in some cases received a title to much larger tracts than their white neighbors. These common lands still exist in all of the republics, but the number of villages which hold them has been greatly reduced because some of the governments, as in Costa Rica and Guatemala, have enacted laws dividing them among the inhabitants, in the hope of stimulating private enterprise. The property thus apportioned, as we have stated above, was frequently sold to the rich planters, especially in the districts where the climate was suited to the cultivation of coffee, and the former owners became part of the class of landless laborers. Even where this has not occurred, the smaller villages have in most places decayed because of the emigration of their inhabitants to the cities and to the coffee-growing centers. The small-scale agriculturist has ceased to be an economic factor of importance, except in Costa Rica and in some parts of Salvador; and today there are few places more lifeless and more depressing than the once prosperous settlements in the more remote country districts.

The household servants and the common laborers, who form the poorest classes, are descendants of the native tribes whom the _conquistadores_ overcame and enslaved early in the sixteenth century. The first settlers everywhere forced the Indians to work for them, either by declaring them slaves, as a punishment for rebellion, or by establishing the _encomienda_ system, under which influential Spaniards were intrusted with the religious instruction of the inhabitants of certain villages, and in return for the benefits thus conferred were allowed to demand a certain amount of labor from their spiritual charges. These _encomiendas_, or _repartimientos_, were the principal source of income among the early colonists. The unfortunate aborigines were compelled to work in mines or plantations or to bring in tribute to their masters, and they were treated with the most revolting cruelty when they failed to do so. After the Spanish government became aware of the grave abuses which the system involved, it ordered its suppression, but the _encomiendas_ were finally abolished only after a long struggle with the colonists, who were secretly aided by the royal governors in maintaining their privileges. The Indians never entirely regained their economic independence, for their descendants, with the exception of a few thousands who live an isolated, half-savage life in clearings in the forest, are to the present day dependent upon employment on the plantations of the white families.

Whether in the cities or in the country, the laboring classes live in one or two room huts of adobe or wood, with dirt floors and thatched roofs. A crude table and two or three chairs, one or more beds of rawhide or wood, and often a shrine, with a small image of the Virgin or of some saint, comprise the entire furniture. The walls are decorated with colored prints and advertisements, which are much prized by those fortunate enough to secure them from some passing traveler or from friends in the city. There is usually a loft in one end of the hut, in which the stock of corn and beans, if there is any, and a few of the more bulky family possessions are kept, while the small tools and utensils and the contents of the larder are suspended from the walls. Water, which is often brought by the women on their heads from some little distance, is contained in large earthenware jars and dipped out in gourds, which serve not only as cups but as washbasins. Cooking is performed over an open fire on a brick platform, where there is sometimes a primitive oven. The family livestock is represented by a few pigs and chickens, which associate on friendly terms, inside and outside of the house, with the lean dogs and naked children.

Under such conditions, the Central American laborer lives contentedly and without worry, for he requires few clothes and but a small amount of inexpensive food. Corn, prepared in the form of _tortillas_, beans and rice cooked with lard, and coffee form the diet of the average family day after day. Plantains are also eaten in great quantities in some parts of the Isthmus, and eggs can frequently be secured. Meat can be had only occasionally outside of the cities, and vegetables, although easily grown, are little cultivated. The same is true of the innumerable and delicious tropical fruits, which grow up where accident dictates, without care or protection.

Because of the primitive living conditions, there is a considerable amount of disease and a high death rate, especially among the children. Malarial fever and typhoid are common, and intestinal parasites are omnipresent. The hookworm, especially, has done incalculable harm. The eradication of this disease has recently been undertaken by the governments of several of the five republics, with the aid of the International Health Commission of the Rockefeller Foundation, which has contributed large sums of money and lent trained men for the prosecution of the work. The prevalence of the hookworm, which perhaps contributes as much as any other factor to the poor physical condition of most tropical races, is indicated by the fact that of the persons examined by the representatives of the Commission in 1915, 60.1 per cent were found to be infected in Costa Rica, 58.6 per cent in Guatemala, and 49.4 per cent in Nicaragua.[3] Notable results have already been obtained, not only in curing sufferers, but in educating the people and their governments to appreciate the need for improvements in sanitation and the need for closer attention to the public health in general. When the principles of hygiene are better understood in the Isthmus, and when better systems of sewers and water supply are provided, the Central American cities should be as healthful as any in the temperate zones, for their moderate climate and the porousness of the volcanic soil upon which they are situated should do much to prevent the diseases common in other parts of the tropics.

In the country villages, life is extremely uneventful and deadening. The women spend a large amount of time in visiting one another and in attending church services or prayer meetings. The men work, where there is work, on week days, and get drunk on _aguardiente_, or sugar-cane rum, on Sunday. The fiestas and fairs, which are held at least once a year in every village, are mainly an occasion for gambling and debauchery, so far as the common people are concerned. There are few other recreations. The monotony of such an existence, which leads the rural laborers to embark on any adventure offering promise of excitement and prospects for loot, is one of the factors which makes it easy to raise a revolutionary army in many of the Central American States.

Except in Guatemala, where there exists a peonage system which will be described later, the wages of the working man are not very low, considering the fact that his services are of far less value to the employer than would be those of one who was more energetic and intelligent. They range in general from the equivalent of fifteen cents United States currency a day with food and lodging to thirty, forty, or even fifty cents a day without it, and in some places are still higher. The workmen are neither conscientious nor physically strong, and the amount which they accomplish in a day is small. On many plantations, payment is made by the task, and the employees work intermittently, frequently failing to appear for days at a time. This is in part due to the prevalence of drunkenness and disease, and in part simply to an indisposition to work more than is necessary to provide a bare subsistence.

There is little pretense of equality in the treatment by the government of the upper and lower classes. The laborers and country people are forced to bear the entire burden of the military service which is theoretically required of all, and to perform work on the roads and other public undertakings from which the wealthy families are practically exempt; and they are everywhere taxed heavily, although by indirect means, for the benefit of the professional politicians who occupy posts in the government. The petty local officials exercise an almost irresponsible authority over them, and frequently use their power for their own personal advantage or for that of their friends. The poor man enjoys little security in his personal or property rights, and thus has little incentive to better his position.

Education, however, has done much in the last twenty-five years to improve the situation of the masses in the more advanced republics, for the laboring man who learns to read and write has in his hands a powerful weapon both for his own protection and for the advancement of his political and economic interests. In Costa Rica, where public schools have been established everywhere and the percentage of illiteracy is comparatively insignificant, the peasants are assuming a more influential place in the community. Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras have been prevented by internal disorder and lack of resources from raising their educational systems to the level of that of their more tranquil neighbor, but their rulers have taken a very real interest in popular instruction, and have made it possible for a very large part of the people to acquire a knowledge of reading and writing. In Guatemala alone the great majority of the inhabitants are at present illiterate. This is not entirely the fault of the government, which has instituted a large number of schools and has legislated for the establishment of others by the owners of plantations, but is due rather to the indifference of the Indians themselves, who as a rule do not care even to learn to speak Spanish.

Public and private morality have been rather disastrously affected by the social conditions arising from the conquest of a half-civilized race by adventurers who in too many cases belonged to the lowest and worst classes in Spain. The Indians who continued to form the bulk of the population were deprived of their own religious and moral customs, and were given in their place a Christianity which was imposed upon them by force, and of which, because of the cruelty and licentiousness of their conquerors, they saw only the worst side. The oppression and violence which characterized the communities of the Isthmus during their early history long prevented their social life from acquiring stability, and made brute force, rather than conscience or public opinion, the ruling principle in private as well as in public affairs. Even at present, in some of the five countries, political and social conditions tend to militate against public spirit and altruism in public life and personal honesty in private life. Social conditions also leave much to be desired. With the men of the upper classes, ideas of morality are generally rather loose, and it is not unusual to see a respected citizen bringing up a number of children by other women side by side with those of his lawful wife. The community not only does not censure his careless observance of the marital tie, but even receives the illegitimate offspring on practically the same footing as the legitimate. With the half-breed laborers, marriage is an institution which finds little favor, not, as is sometimes said, because of the expense which the ceremony involves, but because both the men and the women dislike the obligations and ties which a formal union creates, and prefer a relation which, although generally fairly permanent, can be broken off by either party at will.

This low morality is to a very great extent due to the lack of religious restraints. At one time, the Catholic Church, to which all of the people nominally belong, was very powerful throughout the Isthmus, and the clergy and the numerous monasteries exercised a strong social and political influence. A few years after the declaration of independence, however, the Liberal leaders, who had been opposed by the clerical party in their struggle to regain power during the years 1826-29, expelled the archbishop and many of the other priests, and suppressed all of the convents. The religious orders were never revived, except in Guatemala after the Conservative victory of 1839. There they continued to exercise a dominant influence until the revolution of 1871, after which the government again suppressed them and took radical measures to destroy the influence of the secular clergy. In the other countries, the priests continued to play a small

## part in politics, usually as the allies of the Conservative party,

but at present their influence can hardly be said to be important. In spiritual as well as in temporal affairs the Church has now almost entirely lost its hold on the people. Many of the women are still very devout, but the men, especially among the upper classes, are for the most part frankly irreligious. In the country districts, few of the churches can support a priest, and religious observances are confined to prayer meetings, led and participated in by the women, and to the rather licentious celebration of holy days. Among the priests, many of whom are foreigners, there are some who lead an irreproachable life, but many others, especially in the poorer countries, do much to harm the Church by their scandalous conduct. There are a few missionaries from England and the United States, but Protestantism is so utterly unsuited to the temperament of the people that they have made few converts.

The Central American has, nevertheless, many good qualities. He is good-natured, affable, profoundly attached to his friends and the members of his family, and deeply susceptible to lofty ideals and patriotic impulses. In every city there are a number of men who are distinguished for their personal integrity and their scrupulous honesty, whose influence and example do much to offset the demoralizing effects of conspicuous political corruption and commercial dishonesty. Even among the most brutal and the most ignorant of the men who have been in power in the various republics, there have been few who have not done what they could, in spite of the difficulties presented by armed opposition and administrative disorganization, to promote the social and economic progress of their countries.

The backwardness of the five republics is in large part due to the isolation in which they were kept by Spain during the three centuries of their existence as colonies. Their development was restricted until the beginning of the nineteenth century by a misguided policy which made progress almost impossible. Agriculture and industry were hampered by burdensome regulations and taxes which not only prevented the cultivation of many products for which the country was admirably suited, but also made difficult, if not impossible, the exportation of those which could be grown. The prohibition of commercial intercourse with foreign countries and the restriction of that with Spain, combined with other obstacles to transportation to and from Europe, practically shut off Central America from the rest of the world during the entire colonial period. Even the declaration of independence in 1821 made little immediate change in this respect, for the new republics had still no direct means of communication with Europe and North America. They all faced the Pacific rather than the Atlantic Ocean. Guatemala City, San Salvador, and the other capitals were not only nearer to the West than to the East Coast, but they were separated from the latter by mountainous country and pestiferous jungles through which traveling was difficult and dangerous. It was not until the construction of the Panama and Tehuantepec Railways brought the West Coast ports within comparatively easy reach of the centers of the world’s trade that they could export their products profitably. More recently the construction of railways across Guatemala and Costa Rica has given those countries an outlet upon the Atlantic.

Even after the main obstacles to communication with the outside world had been removed, the economic development of the five republics was held back by internal conditions, for the political disturbances which characterized their first half century under republican institutions, and which are still prevalent in some of them, made large scale agriculture difficult and unprofitable, and discouraged commerce. The civil wars often drew the laborers away from the plantations at the time when their services were most needed, and caused a periodic destruction of property and a laying waste of planted fields. In Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Salvador, where revolutions have been less common during the last generation, the wealthier classes have become very prosperous through the production and exportation of coffee, but Honduras and Nicaragua, because of the almost continuous fighting between rival factions, are today but little better off than in 1821.

All of the five Central American countries are still purely agricultural communities. Manufacturing has never advanced beyond the point of providing a few primitive articles for home consumption, and the native industries have declined since the increase of commercial relations with the outside world has made it more profitable to import many things, such as textiles, furniture, and leather goods, than to make them with the crude tools of the local craftsman. There are a few small factories in each city which produce _aguardiente_, cigars and cigarettes, cloth, candles, and other articles, but in none of them is there employed a great amount of capital or a great number of laborers. The most important agricultural products, from the native point of view, are the staple food crops, among which corn, which is cultivated by every farmer in every part of the Isthmus, holds first place. Beans, rice, sugar cane, and plantains are also found everywhere where they will grow. Potatoes, cacao, and countless varieties of fruits and vegetables from the temperate zone as well as from the tropics are raised here and there in the climates suited to them, but comparatively little interest is shown in their cultivation, and they are surprisingly hard to obtain except in the markets of the larger towns. Agricultural methods have changed little since the Spanish conquest. Except in the most thickly settled regions, the old Indian system of planting is still employed. A patch of forest is cleared by cutting down the larger trees and burning off the undergrowth and branches, and the seed is sown among the charred trunks in holes made with a pointed stick. After being used for one year, the land is planted with grass for pasture or allowed to return to its original condition, and is not cultivated again for from three to five seasons. In the regions where the density of the population makes it necessary to plant the fields year after year, a crude form of wooden plow is used, but fertilizers and modern agricultural implements are little known. The _machete_, a long heavy knife which each laborer carries at his belt, serves as axe, hoe, and trowel. The soil is so rich, however, that it produces two and in some places even three crops each season without apparently becoming impoverished.

In Nicaragua and Honduras, and in the low country along the Pacific Coast of the other republics, a large part of the land is devoted to cattle _haciendas_. The stock as a rule is not of a very fine type. Except on a few ranches no attempt has been made to improve the race of the herds by the importation of animals from abroad, and the native stock seems to have degenerated somewhat as the result of centuries of life in a hot climate. The cattle receive little attention from their owners, and in some regions die by thousands in dry years for lack of food and water. Practically all of the meat is consumed in Central America, for the surplus product of Honduras and Nicaragua is bought by their more densely populated neighbors. The hides and horns are exported to the United States and Europe, but the occasional attempts which have been made in recent years to do the same with a few thousand head of live cattle have not been very successful. Dairy products play but a small part in Central American domestic economy. The native cows produce little milk, and the cheese which is made in large quantities is commonly of a very inferior quality.

Until several years after the declaration of independence practically the only exports of Central America were the forest products of the East Coast and small amounts of indigo, cochineal, and cacao from the communities on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. The five republics had very little commerce, and for this reason had little intercourse with the outside world. This state of affairs was completely changed when the coffee plant was introduced from the West Indies in the second quarter of the last century. As the soil and climate on the slopes of the volcanoes along the western coast were found to be admirably suited to this valuable crop, and the product of Central America from the first commanded a high price in the European markets, the number of plantations increased rapidly, and the new industry soon became the chief interest of the landed proprietors in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Salvador, and to a less extent in Nicaragua. The cultivation of coffee was in fact carried to a point where it seriously affected the production of the staple food crops, for land formerly planted with corn and beans was turned into _cafetales_, and the inhabitants of the rural districts, who formerly raised enough food to supply their own wants and to sell a small amount in the cities, were led by the greater earnings or were forced by official pressure to become laborers on the coffee plantations. Food prices have consequently risen, and it has become necessary to import flour, rice, and sometimes even beans and corn from other countries. When land has once been planted with coffee trees, which require from three to five years to come into bearing and thus represent a large amount of fixed capital, it is difficult to return it to its original uses, or to release the laborers from the plantation to engage in other occupations, even though in eras of low coffee prices the production of other crops might be more profitable.

Coffee is most advantageously grown on a large scale, as its preparation for the market requires the removal of the pulp of the berry and of the two skins of the bean itself by rather expensive and complicated machinery. The better plantations in Central America produce from 200,000 to 1,000,000 pounds of cleaned coffee each year,[4] and have their own _beneficios_, or cleaning mills. The farmers who operate on a smaller scale, or who for some reason have not found it profitable to install a cleaning mill, send their coffee to _beneficios_ in important shipping centers, where the work is performed at so much per bag. Before the war the greater part of the product was exported to Germany, England, or France, but the partial closing of the market in Europe has caused increasing amounts to be sent to the United States since 1914.[5]

The rapid development of the export trade and the corresponding increase in the imports of the five republics would not have been possible without the improvement in means of transportation which has taken place during the last half century. There has been a remarkable betterment, especially in the facilities for travel between Central America and the United States. On the Atlantic side, the United Fruit Company, and, in times of peace, the Hamburg-American line, as well as a number of smaller companies, provide an ample freight and passenger service between all of the important ports and New Orleans and New York. From Puerto Barrios and Puerto Limon, the termini of the transisthmian railroads, there are several boats each week. The conditions on the West Coast are much less satisfactory, for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which has almost a monopoly since the German Cosmos Line was forced to withdraw by the war, provides a very irregular and rather expensive service. Even there, however, conditions are immeasurably better than at the time of the opening of the Panama Railway in 1855.

Internal communications have also been improved. Fifty years ago, there were practically no railways in the entire Isthmus, but at the present time each of the national capitals, except Tegucigalpa, is connected with one or more seaports by daily train service. Other forms of transportation and travel, however, are still in a rather primitive state. Some of the republics have spent large amounts of money in constructing roads for bringing the products of the country to the cities or to the railway stations, but as a rule the impecunious governments have not been able to make much headway against the difficulties presented by the mountainous character of the country and the torrential rains of the wet season. There are few highways which are suitable for any vehicle more elaborate than the slow-going oxcart, and in many places even these have to give way to the pack mule.

One of the forces which has been most potent in bringing Central America into closer contact with the outside world has been the cultivation of bananas by North American enterprise along the low, densely wooded Atlantic Coast. Until recently almost the only inhabitants of this region were scattered, uncivilized tribes descended from Indians and runaway West Indian negroes, who lived in an extremely primitive way in clearings along the shore or on the banks of the rivers. There were one or two struggling ports and a few settlements of woodcutters who traded in mahogany, logwood, and Spanish cedar, but these had little intercourse with the civilized communities of the interior. Within little more than a quarter century, this unpleasant and unhealthful but marvelously fertile region has been transformed. Great banana farms have been created in the formerly impassable jungle, and a net of railways has been built to carry the perishable fruit to the ports, from which it is shipped in fast steamers to the United States and Europe. This is the work of one American corporation, the United Fruit Company, which controls the banana trade not only of Central America, but of the West Indies as well. As the plantations and the transportation lines are managed principally by North Americans and the manual labor is performed by negroes from the British West Indies, English is the predominant language of the new towns which have sprung up. To the native Central American, the Coast is almost a foreign country. The Caribbean ports of Honduras and Nicaragua are in fact for all practical purposes farther from Tegucigalpa and Managua than from New Orleans, and even in those countries where there are better means of transportation from the interior to the fruit ports the banana country has developed in its own way, influenced little, economically or politically, by the communities of the interior. The interior towns, however, have been profoundly affected by the changes on the East Coast. The fruit trade is mainly responsible for the improvement of the steamship service; and in Guatemala and Costa Rica the railways built originally for the transportation of bananas have been extended to the capitals of the two republics, so that the journey from Europe and North America to those cities, and through them to other parts of the Isthmus, has been shortened by several days.

In the interior of several of the republics, the last fifty years have seen a considerable immigration of foreign business men and planters, among whom Germans and North Americans have been the most numerous, although there have also been many Frenchmen, Englishmen, and Italians. The newcomers have obtained almost complete control over the foreign trade of the Isthmus, and even the retail trade at the present time is largely in the hands of Spanish, Chinese, and Armenian shopkeepers. Mercantile pursuits were at one time one of the chief occupations of the creole families, but most of the easy-going Central American merchants, accustomed to the routine created by three centuries of isolation, have been unable to hold their own under changed conditions. The same is true, though to a less extent, in agriculture. Many of the finest plantations were developed in the first place by foreigners, and others are constantly passing into their hands. The majority of those still belonging to natives are heavily mortgaged, for the Central American planter apparently cannot resist the temptation to borrow money, notwithstanding the high rates of interest and the ruinous conditions on which he secures it. There are several European firms whose business it is to make loans secured by plantations and crops. These eventually take over the properties which fall under their control, either reselling them or operating them on their own account.

There are also several small and not very scrupulous banks, of which the majority have been established, in part at least, with foreign capital. In some of the republics these have co-operated effectively with the officials in the disorganization of the currency and of the government finances. Large investments have been made by North American interests in railways and mines. The total amount of foreign capital in the country is, however, comparatively small, because internal disorders and the slowness with which the country has been opened up have until lately discouraged investments. There is still an immense field for foreign enterprise in the exploitation of Central America’s natural resources, which include not only land suitable for the production of almost every kind of agricultural product, but also great forests of valuable woods and as yet untouched mineral deposits.

In some respects, the relations between Central America and the outside world have not been entirely beneficial to the communities of the Isthmus. Many of the foreigners, especially among the Americans, have been fugitives from justice in their own countries who have used their talents to the disadvantage of the natives, or adventurers who have mixed in the politics of the country for their own profit. Unscrupulous corporations or individuals have exploited the inexperience or cupidity of the local governments to obtain valuable concessions without making any adequate return for the favors received, and have not even hesitated to incite or to assist revolutions when they thought that their interests would be furthered by doing so. Too many of the foreign business men have done what they could to make worse the already low standards of commercial morality and have shown themselves more unprincipled than their native competitors. In spite of the distrust generated by hard experiences, however, the Central Americans do not seem to dislike the newcomers or greatly to resent their intrusion. Many North Americans and Europeans have become respected and influential residents of the communities in which they have settled, and marriages between foreigners and natives of the better class, which have been generally welcomed by the creole families, are gradually giving rise to a half-foreign element which is becoming more and more prominent in each of the five republics.

Closer contact with the outside world has thus brought about entirely new conditions throughout the Isthmus. What the final result of the present changes will be, it is difficult to say. The native families are now more and more losing their hold on the economic life of the country, for commerce, banking, mining, and to an increasingly greater extent agriculture, are controlled by foreigners. They are therefore being forced into the learned professions, which afford a very poor livelihood for any but the most able, and into politics. Their influence is becoming less and less, and the time seems not far distant when the dominant place in the community will be assumed by the foreigners and their descendants, who will probably be assimilated to a great extent into the native population. Some of the more energetic and intelligent native families will doubtless be able to maintain their present wealth and influence, although they will be forced to change their customs and habits completely, as many of them are already doing in the more advanced countries. Whether political and social conditions will be improved or made worse by these developments it is still too early to say, but it is inevitable that both the character of the governments and the conditions of the people as a whole should be profoundly affected.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The estimated area and population of the five countries, as given in the Statesman’s Year Book for 1916, are:

_Area._ _Population._ Guatemala 48,290 square miles. 2,003,579. (1915) El Salvador 7,225 ” ” 1,225,835. (1914) Nicaragua 49,200 ” ” 703,540. (1914) Honduras 44,275 ” ” 562,000. (1914) Costa Rica 23,000 ” ” 420,179. (1915) ------ --------- 171,990 4,915,133

[2] The word creole is used in the Spanish-American sense, to signify a person of Spanish descent born in America.

[3] These figures are compiled from the Second Annual Report of the International Health Commission, 1915.

[4] In Guatemala there are three or four plantations which produce much more than this.

[5] For a more complete account of the coffee trade, see Chapter XII .

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