CHAPTER III

GUATEMALA

Political History--The Government--The Indian Population--The Contract Labor System--Production of Coffee and Other Crops on the South Coast--Means of Transportation--Outlying Sections of the Country.

Guatemala is the most important of the five Central American republics. Her two millions of people form about forty per cent of the entire population of the Isthmus, and her commerce is greater than that of any of the other four countries. Although in many respects less advanced than Costa Rica and Salvador, her wealth and her strongly organized government, supported by a formidable army, have always enabled her rulers to play the leading part in the international politics of the Isthmus, and even to exert a decisive influence in the internal affairs of her neighbors.

The people of the Republic live for the most part on the plateaus along the Pacific Coast, not far from a chain of lofty volcanic peaks which fringe the interior tableland on the south, and on their farther side slope abruptly down to the low coastal plain. Of the many populous towns in this region, by far the greater number were prosperous and rather highly civilized communities centuries before Columbus discovered America. They are still inhabited mainly by Indians, although in each place there is now an upper class of white merchants, planters, and professional men.

For several years after the declaration of independence, the history of Guatemala, as we have seen, was closely connected with that of the federal government. The Liberal state administration, which Morazán had installed, maintained itself in office until 1838. It was overthrown by a revolt among the bigoted and ignorant _ladinos_ east of the capital, who were persuaded by the priests that an outbreak of cholera in the preceding year was due to the poisoning of the rivers by the authorities. The Liberals retired to the western city of Quezaltenango, where they attempted to set up an independent state, but they were completely defeated by the Conservative army in 1840. Rafael Carrera, a half-breed peasant who had led the popular uprising, was for a generation the most powerful personage of Central America. Becoming president in 1844, he retained this office during the greater part of the period from then until his death in 1865, although the difficulties arising from renewed Liberal revolts caused him to resign twice for short intervals. In 1854, he was made president for life. Carrera was an absolute despot, fond of the trappings of supreme power, but in political matters somewhat subject to the control of the leaders of the Conservative party and the ecclesiastical authorities. The policy of his government was therefore shaped by the great families and by the Church, and the more liberal and progressive elements in the community were not allowed to express their opinions or to take part in public affairs.

One of the early acts of the Conservative administration was the repudiation of the federal union. The wealthy classes of the capital had suffered so much from the disturbances attending that ill-starred experiment, and had been put to so much expense in organizing expeditions to uphold the authority of the federation in the other states and in defending the central authorities against attacks from outside, that it is not surprising that they preferred to sever all connection with their turbulent neighbors. During their entire tenure of power, it was their policy to discourage the restoration of the union, not only by refusing to accede to any proposals tending to this end, but also by intervening by intrigue and even by force in the internal affairs of their neighbors when the plans of the unionist party could not be frustrated in any other way.

After the death of Carrera, and during the administration of Vicente Cerna, his successor, the Liberals renewed their activities in opposition to the government, and finally succeeded in 1871 in overthrowing it by revolution. The first president under the new regime was Miguel García Granados. He was succeeded in 1873 by the real leader of the party, General Justo Rufino Barrios, under whose masterful leadership the Conservatives were completely crushed. The religious orders, which had been very powerful, were expelled from the country and deprived of their property, and a similar fate overtook the heads of the old aristocratic families. Liberal reforms of all kinds were introduced in theory if not always in practice, and provision was made for the building of railways, the encouragement of agriculture, and the establishment of schools. Barrios’ great ambition was the restoration of the Central American union, but his efforts to secure the co-operation of the other governments of the Isthmus for this purpose met with little success. It was in an attempt to accomplish this object by force that he met his death, for he was killed in a battle against the army of Salvador in 1885.

Manuel Lisandro Barillas, one of the _designados_, or vice-presidents, succeeded Barrios and held office until 1892. At the expiration of his term, not having the strength nor the desire to remain in power, Barillas held the only comparatively free election in the history of the Republic, and José María Reyna Barrios, a young nephew of the great Liberal leader, became President. Although capable and energetic, this ruler was so extravagant in his expenditure of the public revenues that his death by assassination in 1898 left the Republic in a very serious financial condition. This was intensified by the political difficulties which confronted the first _designado_, Manuel Estrada Cabrera, when the latter took control of the administration. After a few months of tension, however, the new chief executive succeeded in establishing the legal authority and in overcoming some of the problems confronting the national treasury. He is still at the head of the state, after nineteen years of service.

The dense ignorance and the oppressed condition of the masses of the people, combined with the bitter factional strife among the upper classes, where party hatred has probably been stronger than in any of the other Central American countries, have caused the government of Guatemala to became a military despotism, more absolute than any other on the Isthmus. The administration firmly maintains its authority by means of a large standing army and police force, and promptly and mercilessly checks the slightest manifestation of popular dissatisfaction. An elaborate secret service attempts, with a large measure of success, to inform itself fully of everything which occurs in the Republic. Supposed enemies of the party in power are closely watched, through their neighbors, their servants, and even through the members of their own families, and foreigners coming to the country often find themselves shadowed until the details of their business are discovered. It is dangerous to express an opinion on political matters even in private conversation. Much of the mail, and especially that coming from abroad, is opened and read in the post office. The formation of social clubs is discouraged because of possible political results, and it is impossible for a man prominent in official circles to have many friends without arousing distrust. Persons who fall under suspicion are imprisoned or restricted in their liberty, or even mysteriously disappear. The ruthless execution of large numbers of persons, many of whom were probably innocent, have followed attempts to revolt or to assassinate the President. This reign of terror is approved by many influential natives and by the majority of the foreigners in the country on the ground that only a very strong government can prevent revolution and maintain order; and there is no doubt that the life and property of foreigners, at least, has been safer in Guatemala than in some of the other Central American countries. The omnipresent spy system, however, and the cruel treatment meted out to those who incur the displeasure of the authorities, have created an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and fear, especially in the capital, which has noticeably sapped the spirit and the self-respect of the people. Patriotism and national pride have to a great extent been destroyed by the ban on the discussion of important national questions, and the country has thus probably become less rather than more fit for self-government during the last two decades.

Although the presidents, almost without exception, have shown great force of character and marked administrative ability, the subordinate officials are very frequently inefficient and corrupt. Official morality seems to be growing worse rather than better, apparently as a direct result of the depreciation of the currency, which has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in salaries. The highest employees, such as the ministers and the judges of the Supreme Court, receive the equivalent of about fifty dollars a month, and the remuneration of minor functionaries varies from one dollar to twenty dollars. Posts in the government, consequently, have little attraction except for those who desire them because of the opportunities which they afford for graft, and respectable persons, who are often appointed to professorships in the schools or to other positions requiring special knowledge and experience, accept only because they are practically compelled to. The great majority of the administrative and judicial officials are men of a rather low type, and bribery, theft, and oppression are consequently very prevalent. The fact that the superior authorities do not punish or discourage even the most flagrant corruption gives rise to the suspicion that they are willing to have their subordinates recompense themselves in this way, in order not to be forced to pay them salaries out of the national treasury adequate for their support.

Notwithstanding the corruption in the government and the exploitation of the people for the benefit of the official class, there is at least a pretense of public-spirited administration. Humanitarian laws are put on the statute books and praised in the newspapers; the cities are beautified by laying out parks and erecting monuments; magnificent buildings for schools, hospitals, and other public institutions are constructed; and the progressiveness and benevolence of the administration are heralded by subsidized writers, not only in Central America, but even in the United States and Europe. The motives of the government are no doubt praiseworthy, but the actual good accomplished has not been great. The execution of the reforms has been left to officials who had no understanding of their spirit and who were in many cases deterred by their own interests from carrying out their provisions; and the schools and other public institutions have never been properly equipped or provided with adequate teaching staffs because of the failure to appropriate money for these purposes.

Although all power is centered in the hands of one man, the forms of the constitution are still observed and elections are held regularly in accordance with the law. They are, moreover, participated in, not by a few chosen voters, as in some other Central American countries, but by the entire body of citizens. In a presidential election, especially, all classes of the population are rounded up by the military and taken to the polls, where they exercise a right of suffrage restricted only by the fact that they are not permitted to vote for any but the official candidates. The number of votes for the re-election of the president thus equals, when it does not exceed, the total number of adult males in the Republic.

Since the breakdown of the Central American federation, Guatemala has suffered from fewer successful revolutions than any other state of the Isthmus. The Republic has been by no means free from internal disorder, but at least it has not been subjected to the continual demoralizing changes of regime which have occurred so frequently in its neighbors. This comparative stability has been in part due to the strong organization which the government inherited from its Spanish predecessors. The Captain General and the royal _audiencia_ in Guatemala City had naturally enjoyed more prestige and had possessed more means of making their authority respected than had the subordinate governors in the provinces in colonial days, and the old administrative machinery and traditions were maintained to some extent after the declaration of independence. Moreover, the country has had a series of able rulers, holding office generally for life, who have crushed all opposition with little regard for constitutional provisions or public opinion, and who have almost always been able to defeat attempts at revolution and to arrange for the succession of a president of their own choosing. There are, of course, turbulent elements which make occasional attempts to overthrow the government, but their influence has been much less than in Honduras, Nicaragua, or Salvador because of Guatemala’s racial and economic conditions.

Among the upper classes, although they are divided among themselves by bitter political feuds, and although there are many powerful families which have suffered indescribable outrages at the hands of governments of opposite political faith, the revolutionary spirit seems at present to be conspicuously absent. The majority of the white families who own plantations upon which they employ Indian labor are more interested in the maintenance of peace than in obtaining offices for themselves by a revolt which would cause their workmen to be recruited into the army and would perhaps lead to the destruction of their properties. The difficulty of overthrowing the government, with its large standing army and its superior military equipment, and the terrible consequences which follow an unsuccessful attempt to do so, deter those who have anything to lose from engaging in political agitation.

The half-breed middle class, which is usually a cause of disturbance in the neighboring republics, plays but a small part in politics. The _ladinos_, as they are called, occupy an economic and social position between that of the Indian laboring population and the landed proprietors, being employed as artisans, small tradesmen, and minor public officials in the towns, and as carpenters, mule drivers, and skilled laborers in the country. In the districts east of the capital, where there are few full-blooded Indians, the _ladinos_ work on the plantations or on their own small patches of ground. Many of the more intelligent rise from humble origins to high positions, but the majority are ignorant, dishonest, and vicious, and form one of the least desirable elements in the community. Their importance, however, is small, as compared with that of the other classes.

The great majority of the inhabitants of the Republic are docile and ignorant pure-blooded Indians. These have never shown any liking or capacity for war since the first small force of Spanish invaders conquered their populous kingdoms at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Political agitators have rarely been able to incite them to resistance to the authorities, for whom they have a deep-rooted respect and fear; and for this reason the organization of a revolutionary army among them is more difficult than among the turbulent half-breeds of the other Central American countries. For the government, on the other hand, they make patient and obedient, if not very intelligent, soldiers. Many of them are raised to high military offices, for their lack of interest in political affairs makes them more dependable than the white or _ladino_ officials. They are on the whole, therefore, an influence on the side of peace.

Guatemala is the only one of the Central American countries where the aboriginal population still maintains its identity as a distinct race. In other parts of the Isthmus the Indians were exterminated by thousands during the first century of Spanish rule, and those who survived were assimilated into the European communities to such an extent that they adopted the language and customs of their conquerors everywhere except in a few outlying districts. In Guatemala this did not take place, partly because the population was more compact and more civilized at the time of the conquest, and partly because the natives received more protection in their rights from the Spanish authorities in the capital than in the provinces. The Indians were of course subjected to the _encomienda_ system just as were those of Honduras and Nicaragua, but the _repartimientos_ worked less harm among them than in those countries because their great number made the exploitation of the whole population by the small groups of Spaniards impossible. The Indians are still sharply set apart as a class from the half-breed and white population. In many places they are almost entirely unacquainted with Spanish, although their native languages, of which it is said that there are nineteen spoken in the Republic, are becoming more and more contaminated by Castilian words and phrases. The inhabitants of each village still maintain the distinctive costumes and in some places retain traces of the religious observances of pre-Spanish days; and wherever they have been left to themselves they still carry on agriculture and their primitive household industries in much the same way as before the conquest.

The failure of the Indians to assimilate with the white population caused them to remain in the position of a subject race. Even after the abolition of the _encomiendas_ they were still compelled to labor for little or no remuneration on the plantations of the white landowners, for it became the practice for the authorities to recruit a number of them by force and to send them anywhere where their services were needed, either as a special favor to the beneficiary or for a money consideration paid into the treasury. These _mandamientos_, as they were called, were the chief means by which agricultural laborers were secured until nearly the end of the nineteenth century. After the establishment of the large coffee plantations, however, they were found to be entirely inadequate for providing the large and regular supply of labor which was necessary for the new industry, and the system has been to a great extent superseded, although not entirely done away with by the present _Ley de Trabajadores_, enacted in 1894.

This law defines two classes of laborers or _mozos_: _colonos_, who reside permanently on the plantation, and _jornaleros_, who sell their services for a longer or shorter period by contract. The former usually work for the employer only a part of each month in return for the land which he allows them to cultivate. This system is most common in the Alta Verapaz, where the plantations have great amounts of land unsuitable for coffee cultivation, and where the Indians, who until a short time ago had lived a life of complete freedom in the forest, are less amenable to control than on the South Coast. The laborers there are for the most part natives who lived upon the land before it was purchased by the present owner, and who had no recourse, after the establishment of the plantation, but to accept their new status or to leave their homes. They are on the whole better off than the _jornaleros_ because they enjoy more independence and are able to work part of the time for themselves.

The _jornaleros_, or day laborers, are held on the plantations under a peonage system. Theoretically the Indian is perfectly free to contract himself or not as he pleases, but when he has once done so, he may not leave his employer’s service until he has completed the time for which he agreed to work and has repaid any money which the _patron_ may have lent him. If he attempts to escape, he is hunted down by the authorities and returned to the plantation; and the entire expense of capturing him and bringing him back is debited in his account. If, on the other hand, he refuses to work, he may be imprisoned until he is in a more reasonable frame of mind. Those who still prove obstinate, after fifteen days in jail, may be sent at the request of the employer to the convict labor squads, where fifty per cent of the returns of their labor are set aside for the benefit of their creditors. The whole system depends upon keeping the _mozo_ in debt. For this purpose, he is allowed a limited amount of credit at the plantation store and is even loaned small sums of money from time to time if necessary. Few are sufficiently energetic or ambitious to make a serious effort to free themselves from these obligations. They have in fact little incentive to do so, for those who leave the plantation can only look forward to similar employment elsewhere, or what is much worse, to impressment into the army, from which _mozos_ working on large coffee, sugar-cane, banana, or cacao plantations are legally exempt.

The law imposes on the employers certain obligations which are more or less faithfully observed. In most cases, huts are provided for _mozos_ of both classes, and food is dealt out to them when the supplies of food which they themselves raise are exhausted. The _jornaleros_, in fact, are fed almost entirely by their employers, although they are frequently given small patches of ground for gardens and are allowed three or four weeks during the year in which to cultivate them. The planter distributes medicines and even furnishes amateur medical advice when it is needed. Free schools, required on all by law, are maintained on some plantations, although as a rule they are attended only by the children of the _ladino_ employees, for the Indians do not care about educating their children and are generally not compelled to do so. The owner of the plantation is responsible for the maintenance of order, and is empowered to imprison criminals and fugitives from labor until the local authorities can take charge of them. In these duties he is assisted on the larger plantations by an _alcalde auxiliar_, an official appointed by the municipal _alcalde_ from a list of names submitted by the owner. This functionary, who nominally represents the authority of the government, but is in reality an employee of the planter, is an invaluable aid to the latter in maintaining his control over the laborers.

The wages paid to laborers are at the present time extremely low, for they have risen little in spite of the rapid depreciation of the national currency. The _jornalero_ or _colono_ on the average plantation, in addition to a limited amount of very simple food, receives from two to three _pesos_ (from five to eight cents in United States currency) a day, whereas voluntary laborers, upon whom the planter has no hold, receive from five to seven _pesos_ for precisely the same work. It is customary in most places to pay by the task, so that those who are most efficient may earn slightly more than this sum, while those who are weak or incapable will receive less. Considering that the Indian enters the service of the planter owing the fifty or one hundred _pesos_ which it is customary to advance to him when he is contracted, it is not surprising that he is unable to free himself from debt, especially as the few articles which he must buy--clothes, tools, and candles for the church or chapel--are relatively very expensive. The combined earnings of the whole family, for the women and children are usually given tasks as well as the men, are in fact hardly sufficient to supply the necessities of life without an occasional extra loan from the employer.

This peonage system, in itself pernicious, is subject to the gravest abuses. The short-sighted and improvident Indians are easily persuaded to accept advances of money when they have some immediate occasion, such as a baptism or a funeral, for spending it, without realizing apparently the onerous conditions under which they must make repayment. The professional _habilitadores_, or contractors of labor, and the agents whom many of the planters maintain in the native villages, take advantage of this fact and of the other weaknesses of the Indians’ character to obtain a hold upon them. This is made much easier by the aborigines’ fondness for liquor and by their helplessness when drunk. The Indians are often induced to sign contracts by misrepresentations or even actual violence, for the corrupt and unscrupulous local authorities not infrequently bring pressure to bear upon them by threats of arbitrary imprisonment or of impressment into the army. Many of the representatives of the government derive a large income from considerations paid them for service of this kind and from tributes which they exact every month or every year from the planters in their districts as the price of official support in disputes with their laborers. That the contracts are rarely entered into voluntarily and with a full appreciation of their terms is evident from the great difference in the wages received by those who work under them and the wages earned by the so-called voluntary laborers. The government has made half-hearted attempts to check the worst features of the system, but its decrees enjoining strict respect for personal liberty and stipulating minimum wages for contracts made in the future have for the most part been left unexecuted by the local officials.

The contract labor system is defended in Guatemala on the ground that the cultivation of coffee, upon which the prosperity and the commerce of the country depend, could not be carried on without it. The Indian, it is said, would never work for more than a few days in the year unless he were compelled to, as he is perfectly contented with a few possessions which he can obtain for himself by cultivating a small patch of ground in the woods. The planters complain of a scarcity of labor even at the present time, and often find it difficult to cultivate their properties and harvest the crops. This argument explains, but hardly justifies, the system. An institution which subjects the masses of the people to a degrading bondage, and which prevents these masses from progressing or becoming more fit for the self-government which they are nominally supposed to exercise, must in the long run be extremely harmful to the country as a whole. The development of agriculture and commerce, which has been beneficial chiefly to foreign investors, can hardly be said to be desirable if it has made social and political conditions within the country worse. While the Indians are practically serfs, living under the most primitive conditions and deprived of any opportunity to better their position, it will be impossible to educate them or to raise their standard of living.

There is, moreover, no conclusive proof that the Indians would refuse to work if they were not forced to by the labor laws and the tyranny of the officials. They naturally do everything they can to escape employment under the present conditions, where they receive in return for their labor nothing but the bare necessities of life. These they could obtain for themselves, almost without working, if they were left in their original condition in the forest. There is no reason to suppose, however, that they would refuse employment at wages which were really worth their while. They are certainly not a more lazy race than their half-breed neighbors, and they would doubtless improve their standards of living, which are today no lower than those of the _ladinos_ in the more backward parts of Honduras and Nicaragua, if they were given an opportunity to do so. Nor would the cost of coffee growing be so increased as to make it prohibitive. In Costa Rica and Salvador, where the wages are from four to eight hundred per cent higher than in Guatemala, the planters are prosperous and make large profits. Under the present system, the underfed and ill-treated Indians are unwilling and inefficient workers, and their services involve a great extra expense to the employer in the form of sums to be paid to _habilitadores_ and local officials in return for aid in contracting them. This money would be saved, and the value of the Indians as laborers would certainly be greatly increased, if the peonage system were done away with and the workers were freely employed at fair wages.

There are some thousands of Indians, especially in the less developed parts of the Republic, who still cultivate their own properties or a share in the common lands of their villages, raising not only the corn and beans with which they feed their families, but also a small surplus which they carry long distances to sell in the markets in the towns. They seem to delight in the free life of the mountain trails, where the traveler continually passes long lines of them, in their picturesque local costumes, carrying vegetables, home-made cloth, baskets, and grass mats--the men with heavy burdens in the peculiar square frames on their backs, and the women with baskets or bundles poised on their heads. Many of them come to the capital from places several days’ journey distant, camping by the side of the road at night, and reach their destination nearly as quickly as more aristocratic travelers do on mule back. Besides those who market their own products in this way, there are large numbers of professional _cargadores_, who spend their lives on the roads, taking goods from one place to another for hire or as a commercial speculation. They are said to cover as much as thirty miles a day with a load of one hundred pounds, and they form one of the most important factors in the internal transportation of the country.

These free Indians work only part of the time or not at all on the plantations. When they do work, it is usually as “volunteers” at the time of the harvest. Their number, however, is constantly diminishing. As the extension of the coffee plantations has made the demand for laborers more and more insistent, it has become increasingly difficult for the Indians to escape from the snares of the _habilitadores_ and the pressure exerted by the local officials, so that those in the more developed agricultural districts have with few exceptions been persuaded or forced into service on the plantations. Many of the Indians who lived on the public domain have been forced to work for the foreigners who purchased from the government the land which they had formerly cultivated, for it has been the regular practice in some parts of the country to secure new _mozos_ in this way. Even those who once owned land of their own have often sold it to their wealthier neighbors.

At the present time the situation of the Indians is probably worse than it was fifty years ago, and it is certainly worse than that of the lowest classes in the other republics. The development of the peonage system has deprived them of even the small measure of economic and political liberty which they once enjoyed, and by taking them away from their homes has almost entirely destroyed their old community life. The native municipalities, which exist side by side with the _ladino_ municipal boards in many of the towns, and which formerly managed the internal affairs of the native community, have been powerless to protect the members of the latter from the operations of the _habilitadores_ and the tyranny of the representatives of the central government. Many of the Indian villages which once enjoyed a sort of independence of their white neighbors are now completely at the mercy of brutal local officials, who are not content to exact money from the people under them by every conceivable pretext, but even make a regular practice of virtually selling into slavery those who are intrusted to their government.

Their own vices, meanwhile, have reduced the native race to a pitiable condition in those districts where they have longest been in contact with civilization. The cheap and poisonous _aguardiente_, the sale of which is encouraged by the government because of the revenue which it produces, is consumed in great quantities by the laboring classes, and there are drinking places everywhere, not only in the towns and villages, but even along the country roads. The liquor is much inferior to that produced in the other Central American countries, and is sold at a price equivalent to less than ten cents a quart. Its effects are appalling. To it are due the greater part of the crimes committed in the country, for drunkenness makes the usually peaceable Indians quarrelsome and unruly, and causes Sundays and holidays to be marked everywhere by a great number of murders and robberies. There is a very evident degeneration, due to this one vice, among the Indians in the southern part of the country.

The coffee plantations, which have within fifty years become the most important enterprises in the country, are for the most part situated on the southern slopes of the volcanoes along the Pacific Coast, not far from the populous towns and villages of the interior plateau. They are on the average larger than in the other countries of the Isthmus, and as a rule have their own cleaning mills. The coffee of Guatemala is the best in Central America, with the possible exception of that of Costa Rica, and is hardly excelled in any part of the world. The largest and best plantations are owned and managed by Germans, who either set them out in the first place or acquired them from their former native owners; and many of those which still belong to citizens of Guatemala are for all practical purposes under the control of foreign concerns which hold mortgages on them. Not only production, but also marketing, which is mainly in the hands of German export firms, have been highly systematized.

The production of coffee overshadows all other agricultural enterprises on the South Coast, but there are nevertheless many other crops which deserve to be mentioned because of their local importance. In the plateau above the coffee plantations, not only the typical Central American foods, like corn and beans, but also many temperate zone fruits and vegetables, and even wheat, are cultivated successfully. On the coastal plain to the South, there are large cattle ranches and cane plantations, which, in part at least, supply the home demand for meat, sugar, and _aguardiente_. Sheep in the highlands, and cotton in the lowlands, supply the raw material for the clothes still woven by the Indians on hand looms in their huts. There is a regular exchange of foodstuffs, carried for the most part on the backs of men, between the settlements in the plateau and the more tropical districts of the coast plain. The traveler cannot fail to be impressed with the great variety of products which differences in the altitude and in the distribution of rainfall make possible, for in the markets of the capital one can see almost every kind of temperate and tropical zone fruits and vegetables, brought from one point or another of the steep slope between the plateau and the coast. Little attempt has been made, however, to cultivate for export any of the valuable native plants, with the exception of coffee, or even, in the case of some of them, to raise enough to supply the local demand. Flour, for instance, is brought from the United States in large amounts, although there is no apparent reason why a quantity of wheat sufficient to supply the whole country should not be harvested on the plateaus west of the capital. Cotton also flourishes, but most of the cloth used is imported or is manufactured in the country from imported yarn. As in the other countries of the Isthmus, the production of the one great export has consumed the capital and energies of the inhabitants of the Republic to such an extent that other forms of agriculture have been seriously neglected.

The economic development of the southern part of the country has been greatly accelerated in recent years by the improvement in means of transportation. The Northern Railway, which connects the capital and the South Coast with Puerto Barrios on the Caribbean Sea, was completed in 1908 after great expense and many difficulties. Another road runs from Guatemala City to the Pacific ports of San José, Champerico, and Ocós, crossing the southern part of the country to the Mexican frontier, where it is separated by only a few hundred yards from the Pan American Railway of that Republic. With the exception of the capital, however, most of the important towns still depend upon more primitive forms of transportation, as they are situated in the high plateaus, several miles above the railway line which runs along the South Coast. The same is true of the majority of the coffee plantations. The highways which connect the towns and _fincas_ with the stations and with each other are chiefly mule paths, although there are cart roads, and even in some cases carriage and automobile roads, between the largest cities.

The railway system is under the control of an American-owned corporation which is closely allied to the United Fruit Company. The freight rates are high and very inequitable, as they have been arranged with a view to giving Puerto Barrios, which is served by the Fruit Company steamers, every possible advantage over the Pacific Coast ports, through which a large part of the foreign commerce of the country is still carried on. According to the schedule in force in the fall of 1915, for example, the company charged $0.70 gold[10] to haul a bag of coffee from the station of Candelaria to Barrios, a distance of 331 miles; $1.48 from Guatemala City to Barrios, or 196 miles; and $0.64 from Los Amates to Barrios, which is sixty miles. To the Pacific ports, on the other hand, the rates were proportionately much higher, for that from Candelaria to Champerico, twenty-two miles away, was $0.22, and that for the seventy-five mile haul from Guatemala to San José was $1.00.

The policy of the railway company has to a great extent counteracted the benefits which the Republic might have received from the opening of the Panama Canal, because it has discouraged the shipping of imports and exports by way of the Pacific Coast. The western departments have profited somewhat by receiving lower rates to Barrios, but it still costs them more to send their coffee by that route than if they had a fair rate to the southern ports. In other parts of the country, the railroad is forced to charge higher rates than would otherwise be necessary, in order to maintain its total revenues. The loss to the country as a whole from having its commerce deflected to a more expensive route than that which it would otherwise have taken is considerable. Although the Pacific Coast ports are mere open roadsteads, where the irregular steamship service cannot be compared with that provided by the Fruit Company at the safe harbor of Puerto Barrios, they are nevertheless the logical outlet for the commerce of the more populous part of Guatemala, because they are so much nearer to the coffee plantations. The difference in the ocean freights from Barrios to New York and from the Pacific ports via Tehuantepec or Panama to New York--between forty and fifty cents on each one-hundred pound bag of coffee--is not in reality enough to offset the actual cost of the long railroad haul across the mountains.

Although it is on the South Coast that the great majority of the people of Guatemala live, there are several other districts of economic importance. The exploitation of the natural resources of these has been left almost entirely to foreigners. Beyond the arid and unproductive interior districts immediately north of the volcanic region, there is another coffee belt in the Department of Alta Verapaz, the product of which, known to the trade by the name of the departmental capital, “Coban,” is of an unusually fine quality. The owners of the plantations are for the most part Germans. The coffee, which amounts to about ten per cent of the total exported from the Republic, is shipped from the port of Livingston, with which the plantations are connected by a short railway and a regular line of launches on Lake Izabal and the Rio Dulce. East of the Alta Verapaz, along the lower part of the railway line from the capital to Puerto Barrios, the United Fruit Company has established a number of banana plantations. These are not so extensive as those of Costa Rica or Honduras, but they furnish a continually increasing export, which is now second in value only to that of coffee. The low, unhealthful plain of Peten in the North, which comprises almost a third of the area of the Republic, is rich in mahogany, Spanish cedar, and other valuable trees, but the lack of means of transportation and the deadly climate have so far prevented the increase of the population there and have discouraged the development of the natural resources.

Guatemala has been gifted by nature with a delightful and healthful climate and a marvelously fertile soil which ought to make her one of the richest countries in tropical America. She can never attain real prosperity, however, until her rulers make a determined effort to improve the situation of the masses of the people by doing away with the worst features of her social organization. Among the lower classes, the contract labor system and the unrestricted sale of _aguardiente_ are today causing a steady degeneration, which eventually, if not checked, will cause the community as a whole to sink farther and farther into a condition of semi-barbarism. These evils will be very difficult to remedy. Legislative action to secure the independence of the Indians will be obstructed by the interest which the ruling classes have in the _status quo_, and the education of the laborers to a point where they will be able to protect their own interests will be a matter of generations and perhaps of centuries. Upon a gradual raising of the social and economic status of the aborigines, however, rather than upon the development of agriculture and the exploitation of the natural resources of the country, the future of Guatemala depends.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] When the expression “gold” is used in regard to sums of money, United States currency is meant.

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