Show STATUS OF THE WAR t I Por Razon do Fuerza the Malta of the Chilians I HOW THE WAR AFFECTS US I American Interests in the Southern Republics Are Much Greater Than Many Have Had Reason to Believe I SANTIAGO DE CIIILE May G1S9L Special I correspondence of THE HERALDJ There Is almost no news to communicate regard I ing the war in this unhappy country because be-cause during some weeks past nothing of ifconnt has been accomplished by either side The President is awaiting the completion com-pletion of some warships which are being built in France to carry on the conflict by sea meantime remaining merely on the defensive while the rebels resting upon the questionable laurels already won are striving by hook or by crook to secure more arms and ammunition for want of which they are greatly hampered in their work of distruction Happilyas all lovers of law and order will a reethe Federal government has yet very much the best of the situation The greater portion of the country including includ-ing all the territory between the desert of Atacama and tbo strait of Magellan remains re-mains loyal to Balmaceda while THE KEVOLTERS HAVE POSSESSION only of those northern provinces that were recently wrested from Peru holding them por razon de fuerza by right of force the characteristic motto that is stamped on I the silver dollars of Chili from having bombarded into subjection the cities of t1It section and massacred all the opposing inhabitants Thero is nothing heroic about this unholy conflict on the part of the rebels since no Question of principle or national honor are nt slake the motive being merely personal aggrandizement and the vicious determination determi-nation of a political faction to rule or ruin The disturbers of the countrys peace who do not deserve to be dignified by the name of revolutionists called it war when they wantonly devasted prosperous cities murdered mur-dered unoffending men women and children child-ren by thousands cut the toroats of wounded woun-ded soldiers and butchered every officer of the government forces who fell into their adsbut impartial history will com jbeinorate their deeds by a less honorable name The insurgents began THE SHOOTING or CAPTURED OFFICERS end latterly the government has retaliated by serving in the same manner the few rebel commanders that have been taken I prisoners There is some show of justice in the latter proceeding especially in the case of those who while in the pay of the government turned traitor and misused their position as the means of working greater harm A doleful cry has been raised by the insurgents in-surgents and their sympathizers over the hanging of one Captain Velasco an officer In whom Balmaceda reposed entire confidence confi-dence and who while in command at At ncama betrayed that important post into the hands of the enemy Balmucedas army numbers about forty five thousand men including the militia and although many of the socalled aristocrats aristo-crats are in league with the belligerents the bone and sinew of the country the middle end laboring classes which comp com-p fse the most uselul part of the popula tjfoa remain faithful to the constitutional government As a rule the Chilian aristocracy aris-tocracy are as arrogant HOTBLOODED UNSTABLE a set of people as can easily be found possessing more vanity and pride than goods good-s grounds for the same and whose riches were inherited as well as the tendency to treachery and rebellion which seems to belong to a preponderance of Spanish blood The rebel troops do not number more I than six thousand and their leaders have not arms and ammunition enough on hand to properly equip so many though means both fair and foul are being energetically employed to gain fresh supplies It is stated on good authority that emissaries have been dispatched to various countries with instructions to buy beg borrow or steal if need be munitions wherewith to I continue this hopeless struggle but to carry out their instructions will doubtless prove a difficult matter considering the unwritten code of honor that exists between be-tween civilized lands in addition to the neutrality laws The Chlian insurgents have set up what is practically a new government in the northern provinces in t OPPOSITION TO THAT OF BALMACEDA a d have taken for their capital what remains re-mains of conquered Iquique The business portion of that once prosperous city was completely destroyed in the recent battles but a few streets escaped serious damage Provisions are now coming in so that the horrors of threatened starvation are abating abat-ing though all but the barest necessities of life still remain far above the reach of the poor The railway too which was entirely torn up has been again put into Working order By the way who ever heard of utilizing locomotives and trains as battering rams 1 and engines of war At this point when the ammunition of the rebels ran low they adopted the shrewd scheme of making up along a-long line ol cars crowding on full head of steam and thenleaping off in time to save their own precious heads let the locomotive lo-comotive run away and go crashing into the government train on the track ahead with which they had been fighting Rather expensive warfare both as regards life and noperty but for the moment effective THE RAILROAD WAS AN IMPORTANT TACTOn in the battles of this sectio Both armies I used it whenever they could making anew a-new sort of menofwar cn land by mounting mount-ing meld and gatling guns on flatcars and lighting as long us possible from the train Having secured control of all the ports from which nitrate of soda is shipped the rebels do not lack for funds as the export duties on that valuable commodity are not less than 10000000 per annum Of course the public treasury is sadly crippled by the loss of this sum but there is still a considerable I con-siderable revenue from the custom houses at Valparaiso and Talabuano and Balma ceda has met the present emergency by issuing paper money to the amount of S12 000000 which is received by the people and used to pay the army The regular currency of Chili consists of notes issued and guaranteed by the government When the war began those notes were worth only about 50 cents on the dollar and have now dropped to 2S cents A RECENT DISPATCH which it is needless to say was of rebel origin has gone abroad to the world stating stat-ing that many leading families have been forced to leave Santiago and go into the Argentine Republic and other countries to escape persecution from the dictator Bal maceda Does any reasonable person I suppose that the harrassed and hardpushed I president is going out of his way in these tying times when friends are none too numerous nu-merous to persecute respectable citizens citi-zens The truth is that Balmaceda discovered dis-covered among his closjst associates in thfe heart of tho capital a number of families called leading because of I official positions which ho himself had bestowed upon themwho were secretly abetting the rebellion while publicly enjoying the pay and emolum nts I I I of the federal government What course would any ruler in similar case have taken with such doubledyed traitors The persecution per-secution has consisted in their being allowed al-lowed to leave the country unharmed instead of being imprisoned as they deserve that they may disseminate evil reports about THE TOO LENIENT BALMACEDA Another Allegation against tho president which is being copied from newspaper to newspaper as though it were a crime is that Balmaceda has cancelled the commissions commis-sions of those officers of the army and navy who arrayed themselves against the overnment and that he has promoted I Biers who have resisted the bribes of p A o I the opposition and remained loyalas if I any sane ruler would not do the same Regarding that notably indiscreet youn man the Hon Richard Trumbell who has lately gotten himself some unpleasant publicity pub-licity in the United States in connection with smuggling arms from the republic to the Chilian rebels his friends say that it is precisely what might have been expected considering the previous career of that hotheaded hot-headed youth He is by no means a prominent prom-inent figure here in any sense except for I the duels and quarrels he generally has on hand but being a new deputy in the Chil ian congress with his usual impetuosity is identified heart and soul with the rebellion rebel-lion HE IS A GOODLOOKING BACHELOR something of a society swell in Santiago and though the son of a United States clergyman was born in this country and is himself a thoroughgoing Chilian I The most absurd statement I have seen in print is to the effect that this extremely uncivil war was incubated and is being fostered by two rival foreign mercantile firms in Chili the Graces from New York and tho Flints from England I can assure my readers that though foreign merchants with plenty of pluck and capital may prosper pros-per here under favorable conditions they are by no means so popular with these naturally jealous Chilians as to be able to brew such serious trouble among them not to mention the fact that nothing could be more detrimental to the financial interests inter-ests of the merchants themselves than tho present unsettled state of affairs All foreigners engaged in business here desire peace and its attendant prosperity above everything else for long continued strife means utter ruin I THE GRACE PEOPLE ARE LIABLE to suffer particularly by this war having enormous interests in various parts of South America all of which are more or less jeopardized Besides their banking and commission houses in Lima Callap Valparaiso and Santiago and agencies in every other important city on the continent conti-nent the celebrated Grace Donoughmore railroad contract of Peru is a gigantic scheme involving many millions of dollars and when Chili until now the most prosperous I pros-perous of South American countries is in trouble Peru suffers in consequence because I be-cause her commerce depends largely upon her southern neighbor although the two republics so lately at war with one another are not at heart the most affectionate friends To understand more clearly why Chilis financial status so nearly concerns Peru it must be remembered that under the treaty of Ancon which followed the war between the two countries ended In 1583a large extent of Peruvian territory was ceded to Chili until the year 1593 when it is to be DETERMINED BY POPULAR VOTE whether the debatable land shall revert to Peru or remain virtually inJChills possession posses-sion the latter country being pledged to pay to Peru in the meantime 50 per cent of the profit derived from the stolen guano beds It may be hinted en passant that if Chili fears a minority on her side when it comes to the test two years hence she will doubtless import votes enough to control an election of such vital Importance to her exchequer She will have the advantage of the government machine already established ablished on tho soot and can afford to spend millions of pesos rather than lose the province that yields nearly all the saltpetre and sodine used in the world Poor Peru has no surplus cash to squander That disastrous dis-astrous conflict which yeas not of her own seeking destroyd half her army all the railways and most of the towns south of Lima took sway her chief source of revenue reve-nue and left her overwhelmingly burdened with debt Although a digression from the topic in hand perhaps a few words concerning THAT FAMOUS GRACEDONOUGHMORE contract may not be amiss since it is by all odds the greatest AngloAmerican enterprise enter-prise ever undertaken on this continent The principals are the well known Mew York banker Mr W R Grace and Lord Donoughmore of London backed by a powerful syndicate and through their means Peru is afforded an opportunity to emerge from the period of deadly depression depres-sion that followed her four years conflict with Chili and her snbsequent civil war She rids herself of the huge national debt which those wars occasioned amounting to some 200000000 by ceding all her government govern-ment railways to the holders of the bonds together with all the guano deposits that were originally pledged as security for tho loan but had been seized by Chili The terms of the contract are briefly as follows The holders of the countrys bonds surrender them for cancellation they were worth barely 5 cents on the dollar pay down 0000 and 40000 afterwards in payments of 10000 per month and IN CONSIDERATION THEREOF the bond holders receive all the government govern-ment railroads of Peru on a lease of sixty six years I Chili has an important part in it also She agreed to liquidate her share of the account by yielding to said bond holders all the guano on four islands and for eight ears that of Tarapoca also reserving only what is needed for her own agriculture but none for export and at the end of eight years Tarapoca to revert to Chili She also promised to pay 8 per cent of the net profit on all the guano she had exported ex-ported during the eight years since she seized it up to the date of the contract ando and-o pay 20 per cent of all future sales until the account is squared Chili estimates this at 2250000 and how far the present revolution will interfere with this arrangement ar-rangement remains to be seen The GraceDonoughmore people are given the right to build new railroads but are bound to complete the old ones andre and-re promised liberal concessions for every mile of accomplished work besides being allowed to bring in ALL THEIR MATERIALS FREE OF DUTY This gives them almost absolute control of Perus commerce and mucl of Bolivias their only competitors in the ine of carriers being the backs of a few Indians mules and llamas The United States is directly interested in-terested in all this because she will doubtless doubt-less continue to furnish a considerable por tion of Perus railway and mining appliances appli-ances which have been estimated to amount to not less than 30000000 per annum The late Henry Meiggs from California had contracts with the Peruvian government govern-ment to build seven railways which mounted to 133000000 and he lived to see five of them completed The rolling stock in them all came from tile United States The cars worth o500 each when delivered were furnished by Messrs Gilbert Gil-bert Bush 5 Co of Troy N Y the locomotives loco-motives mostly Rogers came from Pat terson N J and cost when arrived from 25000 to 30000 each Tho ties came from Oregon the rails from England the diamond dia-mond drills from Chicago worked by Rand d Warrings compressor and THE STATIONARY MACHINERY FROV LEEL8 The laborers were Cholos Chilians and Chinese The shovels they used were Ames and oven their food and fuel had toe > to-e mostly imported The shops and station houses generally are constructed of Eng lish galvanized iron and the iron water tanks are Pills patent Peruvians seem to have a mania for railroad building for that impoverished country has already invested in railways a trifle over one hundred and forty millions of dollarsa very largo sum for only three millions of people about f7 for everyman every-man woman and baby in the republic reckoning her population according to the last census which counted only the males with reference to a poll tax and guessed at tho rest On this western coast of South America tho business interests of the New York Graces are mainly looked after by three noted brothers who are nephews of Mr William P Grace The oldest of the trio Mr Edward Eyrewho is now in the United States has charge of the splendid house is Lima Mr Jack Eyre superintends the branch at Callao while Mr William Eyre attends affairs in Valparaiso and Santiago San-tiago FANNIE B WARD |