F. A. Kirkpatrick

“ Portugal and Brazil, Great Britain and the United States stand side by side. Most of the daughter nations of Spain have ranged themselves in the same ranks, beside France, their intellectual foster-mother. Spain may yet re-discover herself and her true place in the comity of nations. At all events it is a great thing to have proved that the line dividing freedom from autocracy does not divide the peoples of the New World from their mother Europe, or preclude the whole of the former from joining any great international league such as the future may have in store for succeeding generations. ”

“ Most of the Latin-American states, by their attitude towards the war, have as it were mounted guard behind the Allies. But the United States stands embattled in front of her southern neighbours, to fight the monster which threatens them all. The United States now, at last, appears, not merely as the theoretic propounder of a protection which was really ensured by the assent of Great Britain and the strength of the British fleet, but as the active champion in a common cause. ”

“ The result was that, for at least a generation after the achievement of independence, most of the Spanish-American states were agitated by a turmoil of multitudinous constitutional experiments, confused conflict and destructive civil war, alternating with periods of rigorous and often tyrannical personal despotism. These movements have been perhaps unfairly judged in Europe. The young communities of Latin America, wanting in political experience and torn by a long and unavoidable struggle, were engaged in sweeping up the débris of their great revolution. ”

“ It is an admirable thing if they can find an ideal, transcending their own borders, in the sentiment or principle or fact of Americanismo: for that word does represent a fact. An Englishman or a Frenchman, if asked about his origin, would never think of saying, "I am a European"; but from the lips of an Argentine or a Colombian the words Soy Americano fall quite naturally, with the addition Colombiano or Argentino. I have heard a South American speak in conversation of La América Nuestra, "Our America," when he had occasion to distinguish Latin America from the United States. ”

“ The Argentine family, which formerly provided separate motor-cars for father, mother and each son and daughter, has now to be content with one or none. The luxurious trip to Paris or London, with its corollary of mountainous shopping, is abandoned, and a more modest holiday is spent at the seaside or in the mountains at home. The daily story, flashed along the cables from Europe, of strife, of heroism, of self-sacrifice, conduces to reflection and grave judgment. ”

“ As to political relations, the growing strength of the greater South American republics counts for much. They feel themselves to be in a position to say, "We do not want your protection; but we value your equal friendship; for we are Americans as well as you. And we are willing to group ourselves together for the preservation and protection of that America which is ours." ”

“ Trade can no doubt go on without such an understanding; but, where it exists, commercial as well as political, social and intellectual relations are strengthened. It seems to me that where our relations with South America have weakened or at least where they have not progressively increased, is in that man-to-man understanding and sympathy that opened the doors of all South America to our grandfathers. ”

“ Secondly, the most profitable method is a liberal education. There is something whimsical in the combination of inhuman material calculation with humanising influences, and one may smile at the heavy solemnity of the suggestion that the German will find it pay to acquire tact and to Latinise himself for outside intercourse. But the suggestion should not be dismissed as absurd. Whatever can be done by effort, study, and will-power the German will do. He is training himself to be a more formidable competitor than ever in the economic arena. ”

“ Opinion in those countries has been moved by an argument more potent than all the German propaganda, and that is the German submarine. The German offers to South America with one hand persuasive self-eulogies, while with the other hand he sinks her unarmed trading ships and drowns her sailors. Unrestricted submarine warfare and the barring of zones to navigation have drawn Brazil, by successive steps, into active belligerency, and have done much to bring about rupture of relations and declarations of war by other Latin-American republics. ”

“ Germany has not the many-sided relations with Latin America possessed by the Latin peoples of Europe, nor the politico-geographical advantages of the United States, nor the strong capitalist position of Great Britain. She must make the most of what she does possess. Her main asset is the German in South America. Every German abroad means the investment of interest-bearing capital for German cultural expansion. Two things are required of him, to win esteem by good work and to place his personal influence at the disposal of German national ends. ”

“ Many who know South America well will dissent from the suggestion that the war is helping to mould into some kind of shape the rather shadowy scheme called Pan-Americanism. They will point to the fact that most South Americans would rather have dealings with a European than with a North American and will recall what has been said elsewhere, namely, that the two Americas, both historically and actually, face severally towards Europe and not towards one another. ”

“ The United States, the most dangerous competitor, is handicapped by the higher cost of production in North America and by the want of that facility of adaptation to customers' needs in which Germany excels. Yet the war has revealed the weakness of German reputation. Everywhere the prevailing strain is antipathy to Germany. It is the duty of Germans to put aside resentment and to strengthen their economic position. For trade with the two Americas is the chief source of prosperity for modern German commerce, particularly that of Hamburg. ”

“ But America is a younger Europe which may take example—and warning too—from that old Europe which has given her such institutions and such order as she possesses. Thus a New World may indeed arise to redress the balance of the Old.
To the emancipation of Latin America Great Britain and the British contributed more than any other outside nation. In the subsequent development of those countries, Britain has had a large share. In the moral protection afforded to them by the attitude of the United States, the unostentatious and almost tacit support of Great Britain has counted for much. ”

“ Young men came out from Germany—serious, plodding youths, working for small pay, taking few pleasures and immersed in business. German retail houses, either newly established or formed by the insinuation of Germans into native families or native firms, worked in close contact with the importing houses. The shipping companies worked with these latter and with the Hamburg firms. The chief German achievement in this region was the control of the coffee industry, which was acquired by the usual German combination of admirable industry, patience and intelligence with unscrupulous greed and cunning. ”

“ This omission alone is enough to prove, if proof were needed, that there is something artificial about Pan-Americanism: for obviously a New Yorker is more at home in Toronto or Halifax than in Rio or Buenos Aires; and there is a closer political similarity as well as a closer political bond between Washington and Ottawa than between Washington and Caracas. But, after all, most political combinations are largely artificial: they are products of statesmanship rather than of nature, or at all events they are products of nature assisted by statesmanship. ”

“ The history of the struggle for South American emancipation is a single epic. And a pleasing symbol of this historical unity is to be seen in the portrait of the Argentine commander San Martín and of the Venezuelan Bolívar imprinted on the postage stamps of Peru. The railroad helps this movement. The trans-Andine railway is a link of peaceful intercourse between Chile and Argentina. A direct mail train service has been established between Rio and Montevideo and also between Rio and Buenos Aires. ”