The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1926, Page 3

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER. 3

Wonderful Natural Resources.

The natural resources of South America are
almost unlimited. ‘The mines of gold, silver, cop-
per, and tin in many cases have been worked for
centuries with no signs of becoming exhausted.
Diamonds and other precious stones abound in
Brazil. Iron is found in great abundance in the
mountains of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. The nitrate
fields of Chile are supplying the world, and the
great Andean coal-fields lie as yet almost untouched,
though holding forth the promise of being almost
exhaustless.

The great forests, the most extensive in the
world, abound in mahogany, ebony, rosewood, and
other rare hardwoods, and the rubber forests of the
upper reaches of the Amazon are known as the
most productive in the world.

While a large part of the continent is mountain,
desert, and jungle, the greater portion of South
America cannot be surpassed for fertility of soil,

making the continent rich in all agricultural
products of the temperate and tropical climes
alike. The exports of Argentina of grain, wool,

and meats are enormous, while Brazil provides the
world with two-thirds of all the coffee it uses.

The People of South America.
A striking feature of South American society

is the absence of a so-called middle class, such as
forms the very backbone of society in our country.

Buenos Aires.

In South America is found a rich aristocracy which
dominates all, though it comprises only ten per cent.
of the whole population. These aristocrats own
ninety-five per cent. of the land, and they live in
splendor in the cities, while the rest of the popula:

gb) 35

tion forms an extremely poor tenantry and labor
class.

Another remarkable feature of South America
is the wonderful development of a few large cities

een enn recy

Porto Alegre.

to the neglect of the rural communities. Cities
like Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Lima,
Quito, and Sao Paulo rival London and New York
in their commercial features, while in beauty and
pleasure they are the rivals of Paris, Vienna, Milan,
and other cities of Europe, famous for their beauty
and their pleasure-loving people. Rio de Janeiro
lays claim to being the “cleanest and loveliest city
of the world.

On the other hand, cities like Guayaquil and’
Callao are filthy beyond description and the hotbeds
of all kinds of infectious diseases. Probably more
than eighty per cent. of the children of South
America die before they reach the age of two
years, and the general rate of mortality is
abnormally high, judged by our standards,
largely due to the utter ignoring on the part
of the people in town and country of the
most self-evident laws of health and sani-
tation.

Another serious blemish of South Amer-
ican society is the lack of education, which
is the rule everywhere. In the most progres-
sive parts of the continent only about half
of the people can read, while in some prob-
ably only one in ten is able to write his name.
It is no exaggeration to say that of a hun;
dred people picked at random from all parts
of the continent only about twenty to twenty-
five would be able to read and write. So-
deplorably great is the illiteracy in Rome-ruled
South America. Compare with this, conditions in
our country. The one State of Ohio spends as much
annually for education as is spent in one year on
the whole continent of South America.

ICONCORDIA SeIN GRY