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Show KNOW YOUR' vjy NEIGHBOR CRA.U. TRANSPORTATION N THE OTHER AMERICAS In a continent the size of ours the problem of transportation is one of singular importance, and while war has taught us in recent years that transportation can make or break a campaign, for centuries peace had been showing us as it will again the paramount para-mount role of transportation in the cultural and economic development devel-opment of a region. When, as the case in most of Central and South America, there are such great obstacles ob-stacles to communication as high mountains, swamps, Jungles and deserts, the problem of transportation transpor-tation becomes a challenge. How Latin America has met and is meeting this challenge is a story along the same road on whichl trucks whizz by. Transportation on human back, be it of a baby or of a load of hay, is still popular popu-lar in many a country of the Hemisphere, Hem-isphere, where also often a porter with handtrucks are for rent at a moderate price. The meast of burden bur-den performs many a service throughout the continent: a loaded load-ed llama is a familiar sight even today on the roads of Andean highlands while the Mexican burro bur-ro has long been the inseparable and extremely useful companion of the poor man for whom he draws carts, carries burdens, and also lends his tough hide and patient disposition as a mount. The prairies of Uruguay and Argentina Ar-gentina and some parts of Chile are the domain of the horse, thanks to which the Gaucho covers cov-ers long distances in this cattle country. Here modern methods, however, provide competition to animal transportation. Buses and trucks, cabs and cars have long become an indispensable means of circulation and transportation in every country of Latin America of courage and endeavor. In South America from Colombia Colom-bia to the Straits of Magellan the towering wall of the Andes rises along the western coast. The Amazon Am-azon basin and the Gran Chaco cover much territory with their tropical forest.?, through which muddy rivers wander like boa constrictors that no man has yet tamed. Between Peru and Chile lie the hundreds of miles of the Ata-cama Ata-cama desert. Tropical lowlands in Venezuela, volcanic ranges in Central Cen-tral America, little isolated Mexican Mexi-can valleys scooped out of the rocky highlands helter-skelter, have made road building slow, difficult and costly. But moving themselves and their goods from one place to another is a habit of all human beings. Moving as quickly and efficiently as possible is the science of transportation; and the Latin Americans have managed to do it by looping trails, roads and railways over the continent. con-tinent. It is interesting to note that today old and new methods of transportation exist together amicably ami-cably under Latin American skies. Progress and tradition join hands as the very old ways mingle with the very new: llamas take a noonday noon-day snooze in the shadow of an airliner; Indians loaded with a hundred pounds of pottery trot ana it is because ol tnem ana their need for smooth roads that the continent is today a thick if somewhat irregular network of highways of which the most important im-portant is naturally the Pan American highway, slowly advancing advan-cing over the rocky ranges and along deep ravines paving the way for the traffic of the future. On tracks, trainsand their juniors, streetcars, slide toward a million destinations from a million points. Railways in South America cross some of the highest mountains in the world. The line from Lima to Huancayo, Peru, running 258 miles rises from 512 to 15,693 feet. Narrow gauge lines frequently connect the mining town and oil fields with coast towns and shipping ship-ping centers. In 1942 there were more than 80,000 miles of railways rail-ways of all kinds, in the twenty republics. Out-of-doors elecators are in use in such places as Ba-hia, Ba-hia, Brazil, where thev town is built on several levels, and for a good view of beautiful Rio de Janeiro Ja-neiro bay, visitors take an aerial cable car to the top of Sugar Loaf hill. On water as on land, all kinds of methods of transportation are found among the republics to the south. High up on Lake Titicaca, 12,500 feet above sea level, sail traditional "totora" boats, named after the reeds from which they ' are woven. These boats glide under un-der sails also made of tortora, while the river boats, ocean-going freigters and barges are other links of Latin America with the world's commerce. On the rim of the continent are great ports on whose modern - docks ocean liners load and unload precious merchandise. merchan-dise. Above it all is heard the hum of planes, the hundreds of passenger passen-ger and freight planes that fly daily on the sky lanes of the Americas. Trips that used to take many days by mule back can be made in an hour or two by air. From Mendoza, rgentina, planes make the hop over the Andes to Chile. From La Paz they cut swiftly overland to Sao Paulo, Brazil. From Barranquilla, Colombia, Co-lombia, they wing over the Caribbean Carib-bean to Havana and Miami.- In 1943 there were 113,929 miles of air routes in twenty Latin American Amer-ican countries. "Even though the challege that lies ahead in the field of transportation is formidable, formida-ble, by working together in the inter-American spirit of cooperation" coopera-tion" the Americas have and can accomplish what might have once seemed impossible. |