OCR Text |
Show AMERICA'S MINOR LEAGUE "' Five little Central American states 'all of them in the bantam-weight.. diT vision, are again seeking to form a federal union, Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador haVe' already ' accepted membership in the minor ' American League; but Honduras and Salvadore are still hesitating over ratification. Under the terms of the covenant' the union becomes effective when three of the states have joined; but it will not attract serious" attention "unless Honduras and Salvadof accept membership. mem-bership. '.-' " "-' '-'"' These lesser states are 'c1osHf allied, al-lied, both historically and political-" ly. At different times they have been united under a single' government. govern-ment. But they are still inclined to be contract-breakers and the' nation-' al union has never been"s'lmcienly unified to possess the power to 'compel 'com-pel the members to keep their 'pledges. 'pled-ges. ... '': ! Curiously enough, the agitation' 'over 'ov-er a unified government has'followed closely that of the great powers for a League of Nations. Before"' 'the revolution against Spain. theS'' were all united as the province of Guatemala. Guate-mala. In 1722 they were forcibly "annexed "an-nexed by .the then Mexican Emperor Emper-or Iturbide. But the peoples' rebelled rebel-led against what they considered foreign for-eign tyranny and, in 1723. they forced forc-ed Mexico to acknowledge thefr independence in-dependence and formed what. 'w'as: then known as the republic' of 'the United States of Central America. This federation lasted Until 'is 3 9" In that year. Guatemala,' the'1 strong-est strong-est of the group, broke''1 away ' 'and formed an independent government The remaining states could not agree on a plan of -coercion sb they tried to coax their erring sistoT 'hack'. Cua'-'emola Cua'-'emola yielded, to their" insistence and in lS42 Ihe federal -union 'was reconstituted. Then came Carera. the despot of Guatemala,. Unable to dl-.rect dl-.rect the policy of the federation, he! led Guatemala into a new seceosine ; Civil war waged intermittently. Honduras. 'Salvador- and - vft"vvs sent their united forces apainst the Guatemala dictator; but thev v-err. beaten In the field and gave up the conflict. If they bad possessed (be courage and determination of their neighbors of the greater American republic a different history of Cpn'- j tral America would now li written, j Thirty five years later Guatemala I 'still the most, powerful member ofj the group, sought to- force the other i states to join In a nowjerl.oral union.1 -Barrios', then President of Guatemala, Guatema-la, led the forces of the republic up against the willful little states that were now fighting to keep out of a union that they had fought a ge -er-atiorf before to establish. Fortune was arrain opposed to union. Tie int his life in an uniucresf!i1 rjuinnn nnrl IKd nlnn ,A .... w ' wviu.'ri! upiiy ijiiro force was again abandonee, ! Political unrest continued to stir these little fre states. In 1895 Nir-arauga. Nir-arauga. Salvador and Honduras I former a new union. A .ferPrr) r.ov Isfltution was adopted, but Salvador became restle for inrllvidur freedom free-dom and withdrew and the r-t., Hon was abandoned." ' Next came an attempt to form a i league bnsrrl nn the nrinf fnW ..n norierl by the Hague Tribunal. An international in-ternational r-f.ur' was r---l:,l,'i,-!,r.,l Whir-h Was to der-irlo ;,11 n,,r..tio:s t international law. and the f!V rr.t were each pWlired to abide by ji-.-. deeu-ions. The ) , i r r n a t ion -1 raert was a great si'frs PO jflt))r np ,j,,.rB .were no Important Question. tn ' etde But when If rendr-red a ; decl-ieion decl-ieion relatinc to ---r,mr. r-n.. ,.i.,.-.t.- Nicaragua beeame offendrrl s:.. nfier !'s intention to withdraw a.ir own State D"parfmenf ""then br-e'ame I involved; for Nicaragua was under the protection of this country We sid ed with Nicaragua against the kiter-I kiter-I national court, and that was the last of the little Hague Tribunal of Cen- ; t i ral America. ' These persistent attempts to form ; a durable union indicate that the peo-; peo-; pie of the states concerned feci that 'their interests won d be better protected pro-tected and that Ihere would be less political friction if they could unite under a central government. But I petty jealousies and scheming demagogues dema-gogues have, to date, broken up ev-' ev-' cry combination that has been affect "ed. The sentiment for union has never nev-er been strong enough to cause a majority of. those concerned . to fignt for it. In other words, what was the Civil War period in the existeuce of the United States proved to be the ...... disruption of tlio Central American... . j Union. . , No historian has yet come forward - -with a comprehensive .narrative -of the political history of the Central " American republics. While there has " ,boe;i little vrcrid interest in the sue' 1 cessions pZ revolutions, by roason of-. of-. Ll)e comparative unimportance of the " states, there lias been abundant ma-terial ma-terial for a treatise otv- experimental government. These. .States oeoupy; as much territory as did ancient Greek :-republics, :-republics, and their population is al- , most as great. Yet how much these is; Hellenic .peoples gave to the .world i and how litlle has come out, of Cenn tral Americ.il ! : . ,- . . Centra! .America has remained unknown un-known to the rest of the world be- ' cause it has been- lacking in versa "'' tile press agents. The states have lit- ",: tie literature and -comparatively no ' art. One great , man would I have "A: heon of more value to 'thorn in the """"' .eyes of the world than all the gen-' ' '"' erations of comparative mediocrity. Perhaps, tbey have advanced far '6h-ough '6h-ough along educational lines to un- ' 'ershnid the real meaning of a fed-'' ' oral republic; ami -it is nnusible-that their .sense of honor may have been' "'1 sufficiently developed to cause theni' "' to keep pledges once made. A federal fed-eral republic formed on the 'line's of 'bo government of our own country"' would prepare the way-for-n rapid' ":, 'r-Hnnmont. of a territory of won-"""" dorful territory.. - .. . .-. ' ' ",!-,- .. Itis surprising, to reflect.' how-'"" ' ever, that during all these years," It "' has been the policy of our own Sfat'd' "'1' Department to encourage separation '"'"'' rather .than union among' the Centfnj " '"' American states. We aided Nicaraguk"" "' to break up the union, hut -we" hn-W"''1 never used our rights under the Moh-': '"' ' roe Doctrine to lic.ep the Central Am- ' 1 erican state;; united, Tt is ' -possible" " .that Presylo.nt, Htn-dingand Secretary '"" .Hughes may promulgate- a nb'w"po1-"""! icy.in relation to the govprhnient's '6f pur, little southern friends' " - ' - -'" ..IK |