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Show Peace in South America. PEACE has settled down in South America and will bide awhile. It is the peace which comes after war, taking time to heal the wounds of fratricidal strife, only to break out afresh upon the least provocation. The word "provocation" is not to be taken in the sober sense in which we apply it to justify rebellion against authority. author-ity. In the South American republics, more especially Colombia and Venezuela, Venezu-ela, any man has provocation who believes be-lieves in rapid succession to office by means of physical force, and who can enlist an armed faction to back up his ambition. In view of the relations into which we are likely to be brought with Colombia, Co-lombia, through the construction of the Panama ca'nal, Ca.e political disturbances dis-turbances in that country possessed I more than an acadenjic interest, yet accounts furnished the American press were few and meagre. Even such were skipped by the average newspaper reader, because of the generally accepted ac-cepted belief that stories of South American battles and casualities were minimized by railroad or other accidents acci-dents occurring in North America; some readers even going so far as to compare these battles and assaults with the more heroic slaughter of our football gridiron. Yet, however amusing amus-ing the contrast may be, however small the number of casualties in the aimost daily engagements, the thought is aroused that some time a total .would discover a considerable loss of men and material,-even if the combatants did not extinguish themselves alto- ! gether, like the' famous Kilkenny, cats. The revolution In Colombia was begun be-gun on Oct. 17, 1S99 almost the precise pre-cise date of "the outbreak of. the Boer war. The government is said to have placed 75,000 men under arms, and the revolutionists "are believed to have mustered 35,000. Some 400 combats of. greater or less importance had been reported up to February last; the number num-ber of men killed on both sides, up to that time was estimated at 50,- ooo. . . . The Conservatives themselves deposed de-posed President Cm Clemente two years ago, and the vice president, Dr. Jose M. Morroquin, was placed at the head of the government. His administration admin-istration has been seriously handicapped handi-capped by the lack of concord among the Conservative leaders. The Colombian Colom-bian peso has declined in value, since the outbreak of the war, from 25 cents in gold to about 2 cents. There are now about 200,000,000 pesos . of inconvertible incon-vertible paper currency in circulation, which is legal tender for all debts and obligations. A writer who was on the ground in February iast, describes the industrial situation of the republic at that time: ; "The poorest people, who earn thefc) r"Bt - living by the sweat of their brows, are those who have suffered the most. The government has also found that the issue of paper money will not supply its necessities. Foreign exchange must be bought .with which to get war ma terials, and as it requires some fifty pesos to buy each dollar, this falls with crippling force on the treasury. Although Al-though the government had yielded to the temptation to issue.larger and larger larg-er sums of paper money, and had seen its pernicious effects on the morals of the people and on the integrity of the government itself, there was no remedy except to continue or to confiscate, the property of the people for public uses. The result has been a compromise in which the evil effects of both measures are clearly felt. Confiscation of property, prop-erty, forced loans and contributions of war have been required of the people, ! and especially from' those who are known to sympathize with the revolutionary revolu-tionary party. "The effects of these measures are most deplorable. Industry of every kind has been almost completely paralyzed, agriculture destroyed, many of the farm houses burned, and villages abandoned; and now, with the forced loans and contributions of war, the banks and commercial houses in all the business centers of the republic are on the verge of ruin." The government of Colombia is a republic re-public in name only. The real power is lodged in the president. The president presi-dent cannot be called to account for his actions, and he possesses extraordinary extraor-dinary power to issue legislative decrees de-crees and to execute the laws by what is known as "the administrative process." pro-cess." He appoints his cabinet, the governors of the states, and all executive execu-tive officers, either directly or through those whom he has already appointed and can remove at will. These officers become his personal agents. Although the revolution in Venezuela has resulted in the defeat of the insurrectionists, insur-rectionists, the government has trouble on its hands before it can take breath to celebrate the victory. England and Germany are pressing claims of indemnity in-demnity to persons and property of subjects sub-jects who have suffered loss through forced, loans by reason of the war. It is proposed to recover through seizure of the Venezuelan customs. This government gov-ernment has been apprised of the intentions in-tentions of the European powers, but no alarm is felt that any violation of the Monroe doctrine will result through such means to bring the saucy little republic to its senses. Perhaps Grover Cleveland has different views upon this matter, but the provocations for interference inter-ference by the United States are dissimilar dis-similar to those existing when the ex-president ex-president issued his famous edict to Great Britain. |
