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Show KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR QN 4$p " (DP.A.U. NICARAGUA OCEAN LINK OP TOMORROW to join the army. I figure a man's never too old to be a good American" Ameri-can" , Next week the Mutual Broadcasting Broad-casting system will continue the story of copper in a broadcast from the Revere Copper and Brass company plant at Chicago, where the army and navy are getting artillery shells and cartridges car-tridges . and Pacific. In the days of the California "Gold Rush," there was lively interest in the possibility. possi-bility. A definite step in the direction di-rection of such a waterway is a treaty recently entered into by the governments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the canalization canaliza-tion of the San Juan. This would Nicaragua is the largest of the Central American republics. Its territory, about that of Wisconsin, forms an isosceles triangle wedged wedg-ed into the middle of Central America, with the Pacific as the western boundary and the Atlantic, Atlan-tic, the Caribbean Sea, as the eastern. From the northwest to southeast south-east the extension of the Sierra Madre mountain system cuts through Nicaragua, dividing it into two ports which have, as yet, little access to each other. The smaller of these, the narrow Pacific coast region, is about a quarter of the country's total area of 57,000 square miles. But here is most of the agriculture of the nation, and nearly half its population of about a million and open the way for navigation of snips of medium size from the Atlantic to Lake Nicaragua and speed the development of the whole region. Columbus was the first white man to set eyes on Nicaragua. In September of "1502, according to the story, nearing the Central American coast-on his last voyage, voy-age, he was overtaken by a storm. Finding safety in, an unknown harbor, so great was his relief that he called the jutting point of land 'Gracias a Pios," (Thanks Be to God). So the north-eastern corner of Nicaragua got its name. Conquest did not follow close on the heels of discovery, however. how-ever. It was not until after Balboa Bal-boa discovered the Pacific and claimed it all in the name of the Spanish king that there was begun be-gun a period of ? conquest and Spanish rule, to 1 last for three years beyond three centuries. Movements toward independence there were, but the country's development de-velopment into a free nation was delayed by attempts of various foreign powers to administer the affairs of the Nicaraguans. At last, rid of foreign interference, Nicaragua was to njoy a period of tranquility which has been marked by a steady advance in the political and economic life of the, nation. , ,: In the world-market of today Nicaragua can offer gold, coffee, bananas, lumber, j cotton, live stock hides and sugar. To supply its own needs, the country requires re-quires from other nations, cotton goods, machinery, tools, iron and steel products, oil, chemicals, drugs, automobiles and trucks. One of a series descriptive of our neighbor nations prepared j by the Pan American Union for the information of students participating par-ticipating in the 1942 Inter-American Student Forum, and for their parents, ' teachers and friends. . .?" "7 a half. Here, too, on the south-i south-i em shore of the famed Lake,, Managua, about 200 feet above sea level, is Managua, the capital city. Almost completiVy destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1931, the city has risen again, more modern but fully as beautiful as of old. The larger eastern section of the triangle is for the most part mountainous. Most of the large river3 emptying into the Atlantic rise in the central Cordillera Cor-dillera region. The Rio Grande de Matagalpa flows, eastward through a large gap in the mountains, moun-tains, and in its valleys are most of the cattle ranches of the country. coun-try. Lying placidly between mountains moun-tains and coasts are the two fresh water lakes for which Nicaragua is famous. Into them empty the mountain streams of the western slopes. The smaller f these is Lake Managua, 38 miles long and 10 to 16 miles in width. The other, oth-er, Lake Nicaragua, is an elliptical ellipti-cal body of water 90 miles long and 39 miles at its widest. It is about 135 feet above sea level and has always been an important import-ant factor in the transportation of the country. Davila, the first Spanish conqueror, " called it "Freshwater Sea." From Lake Nicaragua, on its way to the Atlantic, At-lantic, flows the San Juan River. Together, these lakes cover nearly near-ly 3,500 square miles. These lakes and the San Juan river long have been discussed as possible routes of a second canal linking Atlantic |