THE GULF 
 OF ; MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 OR 
 
 North and South America 
 as Seen by Each Other 
 
 TANCREDO PINOCHET 
 

 Copyright, 1920, by 
 BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC, 
 
 'tP 20 i920 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 ©CLA597616 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I The Letters and Their Censor ... 1 
 
 II Idealism 7 
 
 III Democracy 30 
 
 IV Imperialism 56 
 
 V Black and White 91 
 
 VI Woman's Suffrage 115 
 
 VII Marriage and Divorce 137 
 
 VIII Religion 163 
 
 IX Prohibition 180 
 
 X Education, Character and Habits . . 203 
 
 XI Pan Americanism 230 
 
 XII The Light of Truth 247 
 
 m 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 This book is neither a novel nor a didactic treatise. 
 In it a woman and a man speak. The woman — so saya 
 the book — ^was born and educated in Chicago, but she 
 might just as well have been bom and educated in 
 Buffalo, New York or Seattle. She is a woman of thia 
 country. The man — so says the book — was born in 
 Santiago, Chile, but he might as well have been born 
 in Argentina, Colombia or Ecuador. He is a man of 
 Latin America. 
 
 The man — so says the book — wrote letters 'to his wife 
 about this country. It is of no particular importance 
 that these letters were addressed to his wife; they 
 might have been sent to his son, to his brother, or to 
 one of his friends. Or he might have talked to them on 
 the subject instead of writing; or else he might have 
 only thought about these matters instead of writing 
 or speaking about them. Any man who has left the 
 environment in which he has always lived sees things 
 other than those which he has seen before, and is 
 guided by a new train of thought. Whether he writes, 
 utters or keeps these thoughts to himself is of no con- 
 sequence. The thoughts are there. 
 
 The woman — so says the book — is a member of the 
 Censor's Department of the United States Government 
 during the war. It would make no difference if she 
 
 V 
 
vL INTRODUCTION 
 
 were not. She is only a symbol, because every woman 
 is a member of the body of censors in war-time and in 
 time of peace, when the beliefs and moral code of her 
 country are attacked. 
 
 The woman repudiates the way of writing — or speak- 
 ing, or thinking — of the representative of another race 
 which is in contact with hers, and she makes her pro- 
 test. According to the book, she makes her protest, in 
 writing alongside what the man has written. It would 
 be just the same if she had spoken or merely thought 
 about it instead of writing. 
 
 The line of thought of the man and that of the woman 
 are not systematic. We do not think one day exclu- 
 sively about one thing, and another day about one other 
 thing, and on a third day about yet one other thing. 
 We think every day about a thousand things. Just so 
 did the man and the woman think on this occasion, but 
 the book has classified and placed in one separate com- 
 partment all that the woman and the man thought about 
 each determined subject. 
 
 Two things cannot be placed in contact without pro- 
 ducing a reaction, a protest, a contention. Place a hot 
 body alongside a cold body : they will contend with each 
 other until they reach an agreement ; and when they are 
 reconciled, if they are of the same size, the warmer body 
 will have given some of its heat to the colder body until 
 both have been reduced to the same temperature. 
 
 The shock of man with man, of the races with the 
 races, is much more complex, and may occur without 
 immediate contact between them. Communication be- 
 tween peoples is attained by mail, by commerce and by 
 telegraph. 
 
i' 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 This book is the analysis of the shock between Latin 
 America and Anglo-Saxon America. The man and 
 woman who are speaking here are symbols. They may 
 never have seen each other. It does not matter. It 
 may be that the man never came to this country, and 
 that he received his impressions through books, maga- 
 zines or newspapers. It may be that the woman never 
 went to South America, and that she received her im- 
 pressions in the same way. It all comes to the same 
 thing. The two continents, the two races are in close 
 contact. There is a shock, a reaction, and this book is 
 the analysis of this shock, of this reaction. 
 
 This book is the dialogue of the two continents, the 
 dialogue of the two Americas. It is the report produced 
 by the moral shock of two worlds. The author has 
 listened to this dialogue on both slopes of the Andes 
 and on both sides of the Mississippi; he has classified 
 and written down the things he has heard. 
 
The author is indebted for the translation 
 of this book from Spanish into Enghsh to 
 
 MISS CECILIA M. BRENNAN 
 
 and 
 MR. WILLIAM SACHS 
 
 and more especially to 
 
 MR. CHARLES EVERS 
 
 Editor of ''The South American" 
 
 who, guided by the Spanish version, revised 
 
 and polished the Enghsh text. 
 
THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 OR 
 
 NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 AS SEEN BY EACH OTHER 
 
THE GULF OF 
 MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE LETTERS AND THEIR CENSOR 
 
 NO sooner had tlie United States entered the 
 European war than the necessity was seen for 
 an official censorship of international corre- 
 spondence. Accordingly, in New York, San Francisco 
 and New Orleans, the government established offices 
 authorized to examine every letter which left the coun- 
 try. After the sensational discoveries which brought to 
 light the cable correspondence of Count von Luxburg 
 during his stay in Buenos Aires, the order was given to 
 use very special care with all the letters coming from 
 or going to South America. 
 
 . Miss Mabel Jones was one of the staff charged with 
 the duty of examining correspondence in the Spanish 
 Department of the New York's Censor's Office. During 
 her college course at the University of Chicago, Miss 
 Jones had mastered the language of Cervantes; and, 
 after graduation, she went to Spain for the purpose of 
 continuing her studies of Latin American civilization 
 and making original researches in the Royal Library of 
 Madrid. In order to know well the Spanish America 
 
 1 
 
2 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 of to-day, she wished to dive into the history of the 
 conquest and of the colony. A great reader, Miss Jones' 
 interest had been quickly aroused by reading Prescott's 
 *' Conquests of Peru and Mexico," and ©later she had 
 systematically read any book she could get about South 
 American life. She soon became convinced that, in 
 making these original investigations, she was preparing 
 herself to revise ^nd correct jnuch that passes for 
 knowledge with respect to these countries./ 
 
 The daughter of wealthy parents, this work was her 
 pleasure, and she had the necessary means to live and 
 travel, without being hampered by the necessity of earn- 
 ing her daily bread. 
 
 After finishing her studies in Madrid, she returned 
 to the United States, where she spent a year with her 
 family, and then undertook a long journey through Latin 
 America. She devoted much time to seeing Argentina, 
 Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia 
 and Mexico. A few days were spent in Eio de Janeiro 
 and short trips made into the small republics of Central 
 America. The only Latin American country she did 
 not visit was Paraguay. 
 
 She had now a large accumulation of notes prepared 
 and classified for writing an intensive book on Spanish 
 American civilization, when the European war broke out. 
 The first chapters of her work were written when her 
 own country declared war against Germany. She was 
 then thirty-eight years old. 
 
 Miss Jones believed herself in duty bound to devote 
 all her energies to help her country. If she had been 
 able to do nothing else, she would have set about knitting 
 woolen garments for the Red Cross, as millions of her 
 fellow-countrywomen were doing, but, to her great satis- 
 
THE LETTERS AND THEIB CENSOR 3 
 
 faction, the Government accepted the offer of her services 
 in the Spanish Department of the Censor's Office in 
 New York. 
 
 In this work she found ample field for her studies, as 
 there passed before her, like an endless film of moving 
 pictures, the ideas, the opinions and the different points 
 of view of the immense number of representative South 
 Americans that, as transient visitors or permanent resi- 
 dents of the United States, were carrying on a corre- 
 spondence with the other America. These live, intimate 
 documents of a throbbing reality she found far more 
 absorbing than had ever been the crumbling archives of 
 the Royal Library of Madrid, in spite of all its wealth 
 of data relating to days gone by. 
 
 The reading of private letters of eminent men, which 
 posterity has been able to bring to light, has proved, 
 at times, to be the one technical point lacking, the. real 
 key-note of interpretation in great historical moments. 
 The perusal of these letters of a nameless but select 
 multitude, which speaks without restrictions of present 
 day life, gave access to an intimate library often denied 
 to the historian and sociologist. Miss Jones was finding 
 her work intensely interesting. 
 
 Purely commercial letters did not especially attract 
 her attention. Some enigmatic notes were the object 
 of detailed study, and often they were allowed to pass 
 as a decoy in order later to reveal a secret. Sometimes 
 it turned out that they were simply love letters of girls 
 whose parents had not sanctioned the correspondence, or 
 of married women who had adopted a species of code 
 for clandestine communication. 
 
 One letter from a South American gentleman to his 
 
4 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 wife seemed of most unusual interest. It was a bitter 
 criticism of men and things in the United States, a series 
 of what Miss Jones mentally qualified as profoundly 
 mistaken judgments. Of her own accord, and even at 
 the risk of overstepping her duties in the Department, 
 she determined to add to the letter, on separate sheets, 
 a few observations on the opinions of the writer. She 
 made copies of both the letters and of her own comments, 
 to serve later as references for use in her books. 
 
 A few days later there came to the office another 
 letter from the same gentleman to the same lady, and 
 again Miss Jones thought it proper to add her comment. 
 These letters, written in Chicago, 111., were directed to 
 Santiago, Chile, and continued to be mailed with the 
 utmost regularity. Although these letters criticized ad- 
 versely the United States, there was no sufficient reason 
 why they should be detained by the censorship, but Miss 
 Jones thought that it could do no harm, and might do 
 good to add her comments to each of them. 
 
 The Chilean gentleman and Miss Jones were unac- 
 quainted, but to her the correspondent of Chicago seemed 
 to be a palpitating reality. It was the soul of Latin 
 America that vibrated in his letters. She now saw in 
 wilting what she had heard a thousand times in her 
 long journeys. This false conception of her country had 
 continually tormented her. 
 
 He wrote from his room in the Hotel Blackstone, fac- 
 ing Lake Michigan, and something indefinable clouded 
 the view of this observer: he could not see into the 
 depths of American life, just as his eyes could not pene- 
 trate the depths of the lake. Should he be given a 
 diver's dress to enable him to explore the ocean of 
 American life? 
 
THE LETTERS AND THEIR CENSOR 5 
 
 Formerly, when she was in Buenos Aires, Rio, Santi- 
 ago or Bogata, she made allowances for those who spoke 
 in generalities of her country because they did not know 
 it ; but here was an intelle<itual Spanish American, living 
 in the heart of the country, who could see only through 
 the smoked glasses of his spectacles. 
 
 She read each letter from him with avidity. Often 
 she took up her pen to reply to him, but as quickly laid 
 it down again. In spite of the ill-will — which bordered 
 on hatred — with which he wrote about the United 
 States, she could not dislike him. 
 
 ''He does not understand," she said. ''How am I 
 to make him understand ? ' ' This Chicago correspondent 
 was for her the whole of Latin America in the heart 
 of her country. 
 
 ""We must get to understand each other," she went 
 on thinking. "We need to understand each other in 
 order to fulfill our historic mission." Trained to look 
 back on the long road of history, she was also capable of 
 looking forward, and saw in the future a Latin America 
 of two hundred million souls, prosperous, of potential 
 vitality, a factor as decisive in the problems of the world 
 as her country was now. Situated between Europe and 
 Asia, all America would have to be a moral entity to 
 figure worthily in the great conflicts of the future. 
 . At last the war came to an end, and the censorship 
 was abolished. The Chilean gentleman, who had brought 
 with him a proposition for the investment of capital in 
 the extensive copper deposits that had been discovered 
 on his estates, visited California and other States of the 
 Union, where his business delayed him one year longer. 
 
 A few days before his departure for Chile, Miss Jones, 
 who had heard that he was in New York, went to see 
 
6 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 him at his hotel in order to ask his permission to publish 
 his letters to his wife with her comments added. He 
 would never have allowed her to do so, if it had not 
 been that he himself had modified largely his beliefs, 
 owing to the opportunities he had lately enjoyed to pene- 
 trate deeper into North American life, and influenced, 
 as he could not fail to be, by the arguments contained in 
 Miss Jones' writings, which his wife had sent him. 
 
 ' ' My first impressions were readily acquired by super- 
 ficial observation," he said. ** Looking into the heart of 
 things has taught me to understand this country better. 
 By all means publish these letters, together with your 
 illuminating replies, so that they may serve as a torch 
 to others who have fallen into the same errors." 
 
 He said much more, which, as it properly belongs 
 to the epilog of this book, will be found in the last 
 chapter. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EDEALISM 
 
 ABOUT a week had gone by during which Miss 
 Jones read the letters to Latin America in her 
 office at the Censor's Bureau, when the first one 
 written by the Chilean in Chicago reached her hands. 
 Omitting the parts relating purely to family matters, 
 the following pages are those which particularly arrested 
 her attention: 
 
 Chicago, III, ..,1918. 
 
 My dearest: — 
 
 I do not know whether it is because everything in 
 this country is so unlike Europe, especially Paris, or 
 because I have come here without you and the little 
 ones, but the fact is that this North American world 
 seems to me simply horrible. I don't think it will ever 
 be worth while to bring you here. When the war is 
 over we shall resume our visits to Paris every winter. 
 i What a pity it is that this war should have diverted 
 the course of Chilean travel from Europe to this country, 
 though doubtless a superficial mind, judging only by 
 appearances, may find real grandeur in this purely ma- 
 terial triumph of the United States. I have already 
 met some Chileans who are intoxicated with enthusiasm 
 
 7 
 
8 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 for tills country, a disposition that may do us incalcu- 
 lable harm in the future. This is the country of dollars 
 and cents. Every one here is a money-maker. Business 
 is the God of the country. With us the first question 
 of friends when they meet is: *'How is your family?'^ 
 Here the usual greeting is: *'How is business?" All 
 men here are like race-horses to which the beauty of the 
 grand panorama past which they run means nothing. 
 They rush along unbridled, blinded by their mad haste 
 to reach the goal, which is — the dollar, the mere dollar, 
 the hundred dollars, the thousa'^Ld dollars, the millions, 
 yes, even the billions of dolla- 
 
 This is the country of quantity, not quality. It is the 
 country of the Ingersoll one-dollar watch and of the 
 three-hundred dollar Ford automobile. 
 
 There is here a veritable cult for speed. They have 
 the fastest train in the world, and until lately, they used 
 to pay a forfeit to the passengers for every minute of de- 
 lay in arrival at their destination. Automobiles take the 
 dead at full speed to the cemetery. There are express 
 elevators which take you up ten floors in one gulp. The 
 shoemakers have signs on their shop fronts, offering to 
 half-sole your shoes while you wait, and tailors clean 
 and press your clothes as quickly. At the barber's 
 shop a customer has his hair cut, his nails trimmed and 
 his shoes cleaned at the same time. A Frenchman won- 
 ders why Americans have not invented a machine to 
 permit them to work with their feet while they speak 
 over the phone. 
 
 I have read this humorous anecdote, a mere exaggera- 
 tion of the reality, in one of their magazines: Two 
 insurance salesmen happened to call at the same time 
 on a man to get him to take out a life-policy. He ob- 
 
IDEALISM 9 
 
 jected tliat in case of his death his wife might have 
 difficulty in collecting the insurance money. One of 
 the salesmen told him that if he died at two o'clock ih 
 the afternoon, his wife would receive the money at four. 
 *'We do better than that," said the other agent; *'our 
 offices are on the third floor of the building. A client 
 of ours had his office on the thirteenth floor. He had 
 the misfortune to fall out of his window to the street, 
 and as he passed in front of our window he was handed 
 a check for the amount of his insurance with our cour- 
 teous expression of regret." 
 
 f Leisure is not understood in this country. To tell an 
 American that we close our offices and shops at the 
 luncheon hour would be to invite him to deafen you 
 with his shouts of laughter. When a man is over forty 
 he is looked down upon; he is worn out and good for 
 nothing. In our country women try to deceive you 
 about their age ; they want to be thought younger. Here 
 it is the men who lie about their age, in order to keep 
 their jobs or get new ones, because money is worth more 
 than men. 
 
 You know the story of one of our countrymen who 
 was drowning in the sea. Two Americans were watch- 
 ing him from the shore as he struggled for life. One 
 of us, directly he caught sight of the- accident, hastened 
 to the rescue; but one of the Americans stopped him, 
 saying: ''No, let him alone. We have made a bet: I 
 say he will drown, and my friend thinks he will reach 
 the shore." 
 
 You have no idea what a world of truth there is in 
 this anecdote. Money, money! That is first and last 
 in this country. Cities are built solely at the call of 
 moneyed propositions. Here in Chicago there is a service 
 
10 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 of elevated trains, carried over the streets on a hideous 
 structure of steel, which makes their horrible streets 
 still uglier. Why have they not made a subway like 
 those of Paris, London and Buenos Aires, as they are 
 immensely rich? Simply because it does not matter to 
 them that the streets are ugly. The important thing 
 for them is to tear through them quickly. 
 
 Chicago is beautiful in parts, Michigan Avenue, for 
 instance, where my hotel, the best in the city, is located. 
 But alongside such a building as the Public Library 
 one sees gross advertisements or offensive signs that call 
 attention to some automobile tires or some special brand 
 of pork from the packing-houses of Armour or Swift. 
 As I tell you, Michigan Avenue is beautiful, but in its 
 most beautiful part it is cut off by an enormous disfigur- 
 ing soap factory. A Yankee monument; it takes the 
 place of a piece of sculpture in the Champs Elysees. 
 
 Weight, bulk and magnitude so dominate some super- 
 ficial minds that they look upon a rigid sky-scraper of 
 forty stories, built without art or grace, as a greater 
 achievement than a Notre Dame, a Museum of Cluny, an 
 Alhambra or a Milan Cathedral. 
 
 The fact that men are appraised here only for their 
 money is crystallized even in their language. We say: 
 *'Una persona tiene un millon de pesos.'' The French 
 say; '*Quelqu'un possede un million de piastres.'' The 
 Germans say : * ' Der Mann hat eine Million Mark. ' ' Nat- 
 urally, to possess a million dollars is something acci- 
 dental, like having a house or an estate; but here they 
 say of a man : ' ' He is worth a million dollars, ' ' which 
 means that this is his value, the public's appraisement 
 of him. He is worth as much as the number of his 
 dollars. 
 
IDEALISM 11 
 
 I have not yet recovered from my surprise at the 
 campaign for the second war loan launched here some 
 time ago, just after my arrival in Chicago. It was 
 worth seeing. The highest men in office issued public 
 notices such as would be published by the manager of 
 the advertising department of some great patent-medi- 
 cine factory. In the course of this campaign one day 
 was set aside throughout the nation for the special pur- 
 pose of selling bonds, and in the editorials of the ncAvs- 
 papers this day was compared with that of the Cele- 
 bration of Independence. Just think of it: on that 
 day no battle was won, no act of heroism was recorded, 
 only money was loaned to the government at a good 
 rate of interest. 
 
 To-day I passed by a store where they sell orthopedic 
 goods: trusses for hernias and wooden legs and arms. 
 In the window was a plaster copy of the Venus of Milo 
 all disfigured by the belts to which they wished to call 
 attention. Have you ever seen such an impertinence? 
 The prototype of beauty, youth and health marred with 
 belts and trusses for the deformed! It would not sur- 
 prise me to come across an advertisement in which a 
 plaster for chilblains is applied to the bare foot of some 
 such a marble as that in which Chapu gave life to Joan 
 of Arc. Everywhere one finds good taste sacrificed to 
 business. They do not appear capable of arranging a 
 window-display artistically as in Paris. I have seen 
 shop windows piled two or three yards high with candies, 
 nuts or button-hooks. 
 
 Their post-card views of cities are barbarously ugly 
 and daubed with the most shrieking colors. Why can 
 they not produce something in this line like the French ? 
 Because good taste is not marketable. There is through- 
 
12 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 out the country an organized school of bad taste. The 
 newspapers publish in their Sunday editions a colored 
 section for children, in which their elders also delight. 
 These are most irritating to persons of refinement. In 
 our country nothing short of a revival of the Inquisition 
 to burn these papers would suffice if any one should 
 publish such atrocities. 
 
 The same is true of American music, which is rasping 
 and calculated to tear the nerves. Its name describes 
 it well: ragtime. Their national anthem is a proof of 
 their musical poverty. Our ears, accustomed as they 
 are to our own beautiful national anthem, or to the 
 Marseillaise, protest indignantly against this national 
 hymn of a hundred million people in North America. 
 
 George MacManus is a talented cartoonist who con- 
 tributes to one of the Chicago daily papers. The other 
 day his marvelous pencil created a witticism which 
 scarcely exaggerates the theme. ''Mrs. Jiggs wants you 
 to play again," says Mr. Jiggs to the pianist. ''It's 
 rather late, ' ' answers the musician, ' ' I fear it will annoy 
 your neighbors. " "Oh! That's all right. They've got 
 a dog that howls all night." 
 
 Some one has said — in order to explain certain traits 
 in the American character — that the Americans like to 
 be humbugged. I think they also like to be annoyed. 
 That is why they buy pianos for their girls. But, now 
 and then, they get tired of it. Here is another funny 
 dialog by the same artist: Mrs. Jiggs awakens her hus- 
 band at midnight. "There is a burglar in the parlor,'^ 
 she says. "I think he is trying to steal the piano." 
 "I'll go dovrn and see," says her husband. "Don't do 
 anything rash," she called after him. "Certainly not; 
 
IDEALISM 13 
 
 but you don't suppose the man can get that piano out 
 without help, do you ? ' ' 
 
 Parvenus, people who have made their money sud- 
 denly and who do not know how to use it, they pile up 
 everywhere mountains of valuable material without art, 
 without taste, and they brag of what it cost. They talk 
 here, for instance, of a half million dollar production 
 for a play whose setting cost all that money, a two mil- 
 lion dollar building, a five million dollar hotel. 
 
 I am writing to you from my balcony which looks 
 out upon Lake Michigan. In my conception this lake 
 is the most beautiful bit of Chicago. But the Yankees 
 did not make the lake, they cannot call it a billion 
 dollar lake, and so they have spoiled its view from the 
 city by a horrible railroad with a wide expanse of iron 
 rails, where a belt of smoke takes the place of a splendid 
 park. 
 
 Everything here is estimated by its value in dollars 
 and cents, including love. Will you wonder when I tell 
 you that a woman may prosecute a man in a court of 
 justice if he has broken his promise to marry her? 
 Furthermore the court estimates the amount of damage 
 done to the sentiments of his client in so many thousand 
 dollars; and so with a cash equivalent for her sweet- 
 heart the lady is quite resigned, nay, even happy. This 
 occurs so often that almost any daily paper will publish 
 a report of one of these cases of breach of promise, and 
 frequently the women who have taken advantage of 
 such means to make capital out of their shattered illu- 
 sions are wealthy, prominent women. I do not know 
 that such a thing has ever occurred in any part of Latin 
 America. "What happens there in these cases is that the 
 bride sends back to the man who was to marry her, along 
 
14 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 with his love letters, any jewels or other gifts that she 
 may have received from him. 
 
 Money-makers and practical men, they have pro- 
 duced no Watt or Papin to discover the force of water's 
 expansion into steam, but they have had a Fulton, who 
 T applied it to industrial ends. Science is not studied here 
 for its own sake, but for the sake of money. To invent 
 an automatic button to hold in place the collar of a shirt 
 gives better money returns than to discover the laws of 
 the circulation of the blood, and consequently here they 
 give themselves to the task of inventing the automatic 
 button that shall keep in place the shirt collar. 
 
 Their superficial and almost always futile literary 
 magazines fill three-fourths of their pages with "ads." 
 The newspapers do the same. In their first page they 
 boast every day of the number of columns of advertising 
 published by them. A French newspaper, like Le Matin 
 could not survive here. And we, unhappily, are aping 
 in our country the Yankee papers. 
 
 A materialistic people, a people whose only thought 
 is of money, who dream of money, who exploit beauty, 
 who make of religion a trade — later I will tell you of 
 Billy Sunday and other exploiters of religion — a metal- 
 ized nation which does not scruple to coin love, will not 
 hesitate to trade in justice, honor, truth and all the 
 most sacred of the Old World ideals, standards that 
 European civilization has always kept apart from the 
 consideration of dollars and cents. 
 
 You must not be misled by the frequent news in the 
 papers regarding some endowments or philanthropic 
 gifts. This is "advertising;" it brings more money, it 
 
IDEALISM 15 
 
 is a sound investment. Here is an item published the 
 other day in one of their papers. I must borrow from 
 their own humor to illustrate my statements. Of course, 
 it is intended for a joke, but do not forget that American 
 jests are a reflection of reality. A man, making his 
 last will and testament, leaves five thousand dollars to 
 each of his servants who have been with him for more 
 than ten years. *'But we have no servants who have 
 stayed so long as that, ' ' objects his wife. ' ' Never mind, ' ' 
 replies the philanthropist, *'it will look well in the 
 papers." 
 
 With the most affectionate greetings to all, and a 
 thousand kisses 
 
 from your adoring husband, 
 
 Miss Jones read this letter through twice. Should she 
 let it go forward, or should she detain it as harmful 
 propaganda to her country? Finally she made up her 
 mind to leave it on her desk until the following day. 
 
 That night, at home, she sat for hours writing a letter 
 addressed to the same lady who would receive that other 
 letter now lying at her office. She wrote unceasingly, 
 except, when rising from her seat, she consulted a vol- 
 ume on the shelves of her library. 
 
 This is what she wrote and sent off next day inclosed 
 with the letter which a woman in a far distant land 
 was doubtless anxiously expecting from her husband. 
 
 Madam : 
 
 Something that never has happened before in my 
 country has now come to pass ; our government has been 
 
16 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 compelled to appoint persons wliose task it is to violate 
 the private correspondence to foreign countries. It has 
 fallen to my lot to read what your husband has written 
 you, and I must confess that what he says about my 
 country astonishes me greatly. The letter is not one 
 that must be intercepted by the censorship, but I venture 
 to think that neither you nor your husband will take 
 it amiss if I make some comment upon the impressions 
 he has conveyed to you. I am ready to believe that he 
 writes in all good faith, and in the same spirit I take 
 the liberty to correct some of his mistaken deductions. 
 Pardon me, then, this intrusion into your intimate cor- 
 respondence, of which I am guilty, impelled thereto by 
 an irresistible sense of justice. 
 
 I do not think that my country can truthfully be ac- 
 cused of materialism, or that it worships no other God 
 than the dollar. I am convinced, on the contrary, that 
 ■my native land is the most idealistic in all the world, 
 and that your husband has lacked both time and oppor- 
 tunity to make the searching investigation required to 
 warrant so dogmatic a statement. 
 
 Let me remind you, madam, that no sooner did we 
 learn of the Belgian horrors than a unanimous impulse 
 was felt throughout our whole republic to lend a help- 
 ing hand to the cruelly stricken kingdom, now a land 
 of blighted firesides; and a squadron sailed from New 
 York laden with the most substantial proofs of Ameri- 
 can generosity. My country gave millions to succor the 
 unfortunate in distant lands. This generous response 
 to need brought about by calamity is characteristic of 
 my people, v/hether in regard to misfortune within our 
 own national boundaries, such as the earthquake at 
 San Francisco, or in the case of far off disaster, like that 
 
IDEALISM 17 
 
 of the volcanic eruption at Messina. The funds collected 
 by private initiative for San Francisco amounted in an 
 incredibly short time to ten million dollars, and if no 
 more was sent it was because the city earnestly protested 
 that no more was needed. Was this a case of material- 
 ism, madam? Was this the sordid egoism of vulgar 
 money-makers'? It cannot even be alleged that this 
 money was contributed with a view to self-advertise- 
 ment, as many of these donations were absolutely anony- 
 mous. 
 
 The spirit of giving, madam, of giving for the sake 
 of others, is undoubtedly a characteristic trait of our na- 
 tional soul. i\Iillionaires give part of their fortunes for 
 the welfare of the community. Carnegie and Rockefeller 
 are, if you like, hunters of the dollar who have amassed 
 millions; but the first has given two hundred million 
 dollars to establish libraries in all parts of the country, 
 and the second has with forty million dollars created the 
 University of Chicago, one of the most sumptuous in 
 the world. And the same may be said of every American 
 millionaire. Ford's peace expedition may have been 
 foolish, but this was the folly of a dreamer, of an idealist, 
 not that of a money-grubber. 
 
 Yes, it might be said that he did it as a means of ad- 
 vertising his automobiles, which need a world-wide 
 market. Of course, madam, I do not wish to rank your 
 husband with those self-appointed arbiters of human 
 actions who think that a millionaire, in giving away his 
 millions, always either wants advertisement or needs to 
 silence his conscience. They never believe that a good 
 action was done for its own sake. According to them, 
 Christ was advertising Himself when He carried His own 
 cross. When these cynics see a youth whispering to a 
 
18 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 maiden in the woods, they think a plot is being hatched 
 to harm some one. The forest, the blue sky, the crystal 
 brook, the youthful charm and shy gladness of the happy 
 pair have no power to suggest to these parodists of 
 human dreams that here is no conspiracy, but a revela- 
 tion of love. 
 
 In one decade private individuals have donated over 
 one hundred million dollars for education in my country. 
 In the year 1916 alone, private initiative contributed a 
 thousand million dollars among us for purposes of com- 
 mon welfare. Eleven out of these millions were sent to 
 Belgium inside of twelve months. This year the Y. M. 
 C. A. asked the country for thirty-five millions, and the 
 country gave fifty millions. They are going to ask for 
 much more. This year also the Red Cross opened a 
 second campaign, in which the American public was 
 asked for a hundred millions. In the seven days during 
 which the campaign lasted one hundred and fifty mil- 
 lions were received. 
 
 This readiness to curtail private fortunes for the 
 benefit of the masses is not to be found to the same ex- 
 tent in any other country. Ferrero, the Italian sociol- 
 ogist, who recognizes and admires this fact, says that 
 this generous spirit is not apparent in Europe, com- 
 posed as that continent is of highly developed countries 
 where the state has taken charge of nearly all functions 
 proper to the public weal ; and he reminds us that some- 
 thing similar occurred in ancient Rome. The lavishing 
 of private fortunes for the public benefit is characteristic 
 of young countries enjoying great prosperity, he adds. 
 But Argentina and Brazil are young countries of great 
 material prosperity, and they do not offer a phenomenon 
 analogous to that of the United States. Moreover, one 
 
IDEALISM 19 
 
 of the public functions in the United States which owes 
 most to private fortunes has been that of education, in 
 the form of schools, universities and libraries, yet we 
 must admit that the state has always been generous in 
 our country for the advancement of institutions of learn- 
 ing. The Public library of Chicago, with branches in 
 all parts of the city, is one of the most perfect in the 
 w^orld; nevertheless, private initiative has established 
 there other opulent public libraries like those of New- 
 berry and John Crerar. Private initiative does not 
 here fill a neglected want, but supplements official en- 
 terprise, a form of assistance that has been woefully 
 lacking in old Europe. 
 
 This spirit of giving is inherent in our race, in our 
 people. The little child begins to learn it at the foot 
 of his first Christmas tree laden with toys. Perhaps no 
 other country has set apart so many days on which to 
 give vent to this spirit : Christmas, New Year 's, Easter, 
 Valentine's and Mother's day. If your husband would 
 enter any one of the numerous flower-stores in any of 
 our cities, he would see how many orders come in every 
 minute for flowers to be sent from home to home as 
 messages of friendsliip. Every sick person at home 
 or in the hospital has his bed surrounded with flowers, 
 which friends have sent him. This is much more common 
 .here than in Latin America or in any other part of the 
 world. 
 
 To appreciate these traits of the gentle American 
 character, it is necessary to live in this country, not in 
 a hotel, transiently, but in personal contact with our 
 home life. 
 
 Nor is this spirit of generous giving the only disa- 
 vowal of your husband's assertion that we are a purely 
 
20 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 materialistic people, engaged exclusively in the making 
 of money, and capable of teaming all to account for 
 sordid ends, even matters of love, honor and justice. 
 
 You are aware, madam, how in Belgium and in north- 
 ern France this dreadful war has wiped out, not only 
 the population and the homes of the people, but also 
 the ancient relics of art. Longwy, Louvain and Rheims 
 have been destroyed, and if your husband reads the 
 Chicago papers, he will have seen that in this country of 
 money getters, where the meaning of beauty is not un- 
 derstood, there has been formed a society, the aim of 
 which is to gather together money for the reconstruction 
 of such monuments of art as the Cathedral of Rheims. 
 "With this object in view a considerable sum of money 
 has been collected, not to repair some monument of art 
 in Chicago, but to do so in cities five thousand miles 
 away; and — please note this — from people who have 
 seen these monuments only in photographs. 
 
 Does this argue a purely materialistic spirit, madam, 
 or the worsPiip of the dollar? 
 
 This being so, it is not surprising that you should ask 
 why Chicago is ugly, and why the people tolerate the 
 existence of a hideous elevated railroad to still further 
 deface the unsightly streets. You will naturally inquire 
 why the Illinois Central Railroad owns a station in full 
 view of beautiful Michigan Avenue that would be a dis- 
 grace to a city of the lowest grade, and also why Chi- 
 cago has allowed any business enterprise to rob it of its 
 Lake front. Let us admit that Chicago is partially ugly, 
 as are American cities in general, when compared with 
 some old European cities. This has come to pass be- 
 cause in this country of rapid growth the cities have de- 
 veloped almost spontaneously. Buildings have had to 
 
IDEALISM 21 
 
 spring up as if bidden by a magic wand, almost as a 
 miners' camp grows alongside a coal, iron or copper 
 mine. The men who build the first houses in such a camp 
 occupy tents. The United States is a colossal nation 
 still in the making, and in a measure a great part of 
 the population that has arrived in millions from Europe 
 still live in tents. 
 
 Nevertheless, madam, your husband has failed to take 
 into consideration how much is being done in my country 
 to beautify the cities. He specially mentions Chicago, 
 and it would have been worth his while to know that 
 this city has spent millions and millions to make itself 
 hygienic and beautiful. It unquestionably possesses to- 
 day the most extensive and most beautiful park system 
 in the world. And what has been done in this respect 
 is only the commencement 5 billions will be spent yet. 
 Mr. B. T. Ferguson alone has presented the sum of one 
 million dollars for sculpture to ornament the city. If 
 your husband had brought your children to Chicago, and 
 if they had attended a public school, they-would have 
 used text-books in which plans for a future Chicago 
 are described. They would have seen the plans for a 
 new station of the Illinois Central, which is to be made 
 to harmonize with the new Field Museum, a magnificent 
 building of marble; they would have found a design 
 to reclaim the Lake front by the addition of gardens, 
 transforming the city into one of the most magnificent 
 on the surface of the globe. He would then have seen 
 how civic pride may be awakened in the children as 
 they trace the storj^ of the city beautiful, from the days 
 of Athens to th-^ transformation of Paris by Baron 
 Haussman. And believe me, madam, Chicago in the 
 near future is going to be one of the most attractive 
 
22 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 cities in the universe, not only for its commercial op- 
 portunities, as it is to-day, but also for its real beauty. 
 Chicago will be the Paris of the future; a spirit so ex- 
 quisitely refined as the sublime Parisian, Sarah Bern- 
 hardt, has already said: ''I adore Chicago; it is the 
 pulse of America." She was capable of understanding 
 at its true value this new species of beauty, composed of 
 > infinite force and exuberant virility. 
 
 My country is devoting itself with untiring enthusi- 
 asm to the decoration of everything: ports, cities, parks 
 and homes. Lincoln Highway is a road which crosses the 
 continent, and will be a matchless Eden, costing millions 
 of dollars. In ever^^ city there are municipal committees 
 and private associations for the fostering of civic art. 
 Models, ideas, lines and inspiration are being imported 
 from Europe; but the seal of Americanism is being 
 added in every case. Your husband thinks the sky- 
 scraper horrible. I find in it a special, new beauty : the 
 modern obelisk of the Titans of action. The Parisians 
 have in their Place de la Concorde an Egyptian obelisk, 
 and to it is attributed an architectural grace sanctioned 
 by centuries of existence. Our sk;y^scrapers have not 
 had time to be beautified by tradition, but the very edi- 
 fice of the hotel in which your husband lives in Chicago 
 is worthy to figure with pride among such classical ex- 
 amples of architecture as the Alhambra and Rheims 
 Cathedral. 
 
 The love of art for art's sake grows daily among us. 
 When the war which has enveloped this planet first 
 broke out, a battalion of our art students were to be 
 found in Europe, in all the art schools of Italy, France 
 and Germany. For our part, we have founded here art 
 schools which will be centers of attraction for the whole 
 
IDEALISM 23 
 
 world. The most famous musicians of the universe pass 
 almost their whole lives among us. Chicago maintains 
 two theaters for opera alone, and if it is true that my 
 country has not yet given birth to many great artists 
 to rival with those of the European civilization, our 
 democracy is nevertheless beginning to create men and 
 women of genius able to interpret the new spirit of hu- 
 manity, the spirit of the new world. We are now busy 
 in making that supreme work of art — democracy. We 
 are cultivating human capacity in extenso. Every great 
 genius of the past was, in some degree, the result of an 
 intensive culture of the few at the expense of the many. 
 In our country we have reached a point in the intensive 
 cultivation of the many never before attempted in the 
 world. Wait a little and see the flowering of this cul- 
 ture. 
 
 This, madam, explains why in my country we have 
 tried to solve first the problem of quantity in the dif- 
 ferent branches of industry, leaving until later those 
 of quality. If the mother of ten children is ill provided 
 with resources, she will rather give bread to the ten 
 than pie to three, leaving the other seven with nothing. 
 That is to say, if the fate of all of them interests her 
 equally; but if she has favorites or accords privileges, 
 she will leave seven children hungry and feast the other 
 three. The opportunities impartially offered to all the 
 citizens of my country have created a demand for articles 
 of luxurj^ That is to say, in my country we manufac- 
 ture for all, whereas in Europe the produce of labor 
 is still to some extent for the privileged class exclusively. 
 
 I Quantity is the first cry of democracy. A workman may 
 possess and does possess among us property of all kinds : 
 
 I a sewing-machine, a Victrola, a motor car, a house, just 
 
24 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 because we have attended to the problem of quantity in 
 the first place. And this does not signify that we have 
 not also advanced very rapidly with the improvement of 
 quality at the same time. 
 
 Your husband makes an accusation of materialism 
 against our country for certain legal prosecutions called 
 *' breach of promise" cases entered into by women who 
 ask as compensation large sums of money. In this he 
 does us a manifest injustice. The conduct of some of our 
 women is not a characteristic trait of American women 
 in general. In our nation of a hundred million inhabit- 
 ants, every ordinary incident of our daily life does not 
 get into the newspapers, but, of course, only what is out 
 of the ordinary. One of our most famous journalists 
 has said that when a dog bites a man, that is not news ; 
 but when a man bites a dog, that is news. If John 
 Smith, an unknown laborer of any town or city, dies 
 in his bed of pneumonia or tuberculosis, the incident 
 does not occupy a line of space in the local paper; but 
 if John Smith, an unknown laborer, should be lifted up 
 by a hurricane and deposited in fragments some twenty 
 miles away, all the papers of the country would publish 
 the notice of his death on the front page. So it is with 
 everything. 
 
 The tranquil happiness of hundreds of thousands of 
 homes, the promises of marriage kept and those broken 
 for some reason and the consequences silently endured, 
 are not chronicled in the daily press. The exceptional 
 case of some girl who sues for twenty, or fifty, or a 
 hundred thousand dollars because a man has failed to 
 keep his promise to marry her is published by the papers 
 eager to dilate upon the unusual items arising out of 
 our complex American life. These are really isolated 
 
IDEALISM 25 
 
 cases, madam, in which women, usually of the upper 
 classes, avail themselves of the ample protection which 
 our laws offer them. If there were similar laws in other 
 countries offering a like protection there would be plenty 
 of women to take advantage of them. Without making 
 too much of this one detail, I would like to add that only 
 a short time ago I read in one of our newspapers of a 
 young lady from Chile, of idealistic Spanish ancestry, 
 who had presented herself in our courts asking a hun- 
 dred thousand dollars damages in a breach of promise 
 prosecution of one of my countrymen. 
 
 Your husband says, madam, that science is not stud- 
 ied here for its own sake, but for the sake of money. 
 The expansive force of steam was not discovered in 
 this country, but only one of its practical applications. 
 Yes, madam, we are people of a practical idealism; we 
 are constructive dreamers. The sanitation of Panama 
 was a work of practical idealism, as was the devotion of 
 the American doctor, who, in seeking means to combat 
 the ravages of swamp-fever, discovered the poison-bear- 
 ing mosquito, and died a victim of his idealism. .' 
 
 The series of endowed institutions in this country, cre- 
 ated for the purpose of making investigations of all 
 kinds, not for business ends, not for making money, but 
 to lavish it at the call of the common welfare, wou.ld fill 
 .a list long enough to cover many of these pages. The 
 Carnegie Institute in Washington owns forty-two mil- 
 lion dollars, and the interest of this fund is used for 
 scientific, geographical or purely scholastic investigation. 
 The Carnegie Fund for International Peace, with ten 
 million dollars, has for its object the investigation and 
 economic causes of war. It has a department of edu- 
 cational exchange which pays foreign professors to give 
 
26 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 courses in the United States. The Rockefeller Institute 
 for medical investigation in New York is a center of 
 inquiry into the causes of disease for its prevention and 
 cure. The Russell Sage Foundation, with a fund of ten 
 million dollars, has for its object the investigation and 
 suppression of the cause of poverty and ignorance. I 
 shall not continue, madam, to name institutions of this 
 type for fear of tiring you with long, dry statistics, but 
 I ask you, when you gaze at the summit of San Cristobal 
 Hill in Santiago, to remember that the Astronomical 
 Observatory which is there was erected and is being 
 maintained by money from this country, and that our 
 astronomers, who live there like hermits, studjdng the 
 stars, are not exactly looking for money in the heavenly 
 constellations. 
 
 We are eager, it is true, to make money, to acquire 
 wealth by means of work and effort, because money is 
 the value resulting from work and effort; but at the 
 same time there is in us a passion for spending this 
 money more and more directly for the common welfare. 
 Nowhere is the social role of money better understood 
 than here ; nowhere else are more dollars made to work 
 for universities, schools, libraries and settlements. The 
 passion for money in my country is largely idealistic. 
 This may not be so apparent in the American of the first 
 generation, but it is quite true of Americans whose spirit 
 has lived here for generations past. Moliere could not 
 have written L'Avare here, nor could Shakespeare have 
 found here a Shylock for his Merchant of Venice. 
 
 My country materialistic! Is a people materialistic 
 which has such unlimited faith in education that thej' 
 take it with equal fervor to the negroes and redskins of 
 America as to the Malays of the Philippines, the Latins 
 
IDEALISM 27 
 
 of Porto Rico and the Esquimaux of Alaska? Can a 
 nation be called materialistic which sends religious mis- 
 sions to all the confines of the universe ? Are they ma- 
 terialistic who would abolish the consumption of alcohol 
 in spite of the wealth and influence of the liquor inter- 
 ests? Can a people be called materialistic which com- 
 bats vice in all its forms with untiring zeal, vigorously 
 restraining a practice officially tolerated almost every- 
 where else in the world, in pursuit of the idealistic 
 dream to abolish the prostitution of the flesh? Is it 
 materialistic to make of every immigrant unable to 
 read and write a citizen with electoral rights equal to 
 those of the direct descendants of the first colonists? 
 Is materialistic a people which gives the suffrage to 
 women, together with all those prerogatives which have 
 been man 's by tradition in all the world ? 
 
 Finally, madam, why are the United States taking 
 part in this war of the old world ? Why have we aban- 
 doned the traditions of the ]\Ionroe Doctrine, which de- 
 mand that Europe shall not intervene in the affairs of 
 the new world, offering at the same time to refrain from 
 interference in old world affairs? Why send hundreds 
 of thousands of citizens to shed their blood in France 
 and spend billions of dollars, if not in response to a call 
 of burning idealism for the defense of liberty, justice and 
 "democracy in the world? Why have the millionaires 
 acquiesced with smiling affability to the imposition of a 
 burden amounting to sixty per cent, of their revenues 
 as a contribution to the maintenance of this war in 
 another continent? Why have the sons of the million- 
 aires vied for places in the aviation corps, offering the 
 hey-day of their youth on the altar of an ideal? 
 
 The French philosopher, Henry Bergson, in an ad- 
 
28 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 dress delivered October, 1917, to tlie members of the 
 American and English Eed Cross in Paris, said in part : 
 
 **Any one of us who has crossed the Atlantic is be- 
 lieved to have discovered America, and is expected to 
 give an account of his discovery. Such was my case, a 
 few years ago. Called upon to give an opinion of the 
 American people, I told the audience that there was 
 probably no country in the world where material in- 
 terest was less considered, where money was less cared 
 for, where the highest ideals more thoroughly and con- 
 tinually penetrate and permeate every day life. Amer- 
 ica, I said, is the land of idealism. The lecture was 
 listened to favorably, because, over here, we have al- 
 ways been fond of America; yet when it was over 
 a man came up to me and said: ''I don't know your 
 books, sir, but judging by the way you spoke of the 
 American people, I guess that you belong, as a philoso- 
 pher, to the optimistic school.' I have not met the gen- 
 tleman since ; but I am perfectly sure that, seeing what 
 the Americans are doing and have already done in the 
 present war, he will never again venture guessing to 
 what school a philosopher belongs." 
 
 In the midst of fervent acclamation on the part of 
 his fellow-citizens, President Wilson uttered these words, 
 which should be graven in letters of gold in the history 
 of mankind : 
 
 **The world must be made safe for democracy. Its 
 peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of 
 political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We 
 desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indem- 
 nities for ourselves, no material compensation for the 
 sacrifices we shall freely make. We shall be satisfied 
 when these rights have been made as secure as the faith 
 and the freedom of nations can make them. But the 
 right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for 
 
IDEALISM 29 
 
 things which we have always carried nearest our hearts 
 — for democracy, for the right of those who submit to 
 authority to have a voice in their own governments, for 
 the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal 
 dominion of right, by such a concert of free peoples as 
 shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the 
 world it^fi^-^lf at last free. To such a task we can dedicate 
 our lives, and our fortunes, everything that we are and 
 everything that we have, with the pride of those who 
 know that the day has come when America is privileged 
 to spend her blood and her might for the principles that 
 gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she 
 has treasured." 
 
 I leave it to you, madam, to say whether these are 
 the words of a sordid materialism, words uttered by a 
 president, in a democracy, and acclaimed by a whole 
 people. Does it not seem to you, madam, that Wilson 
 is the poet of international politics? 
 
 I could write m.any pages on this theme, but I think 
 that what I have said will suffice to show you that we 
 are not a materialistic people, mere money-grubbers. 
 Rather do I think that a Cervantes is wanted to write 
 a Don Quixote of the twentieth century, in which our 
 country is shown gallantly fighting for high, shadowy 
 ideals with such tenacity, faith and generosity and with 
 such a spirit of sacrifice that will turn the distant cloud- 
 land of our dreams into a radiant sun of reality. 
 
 I beg you once again, madam, to excuse this intrusion 
 in your private correspondence, but I feel sure that you 
 will know how to understand and pardon me. 
 
 Your Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 DEMOCRACY 
 
 HARDLY a week had gone by since Miss Jones 
 had forwarded the foregoing letter when a new 
 one from the same Chilean in Chicago to his 
 wife reached her table. It was already late, and she 
 was about to leave the office as she opened the envelope ; 
 but such was her impatience to read the letter, that she 
 took it home with her, and in her quiet, warm library, 
 this was what she read : 
 
 Chicago, 111., , 1918. 
 
 My dearest: 
 
 This country boasts of being the first democracy of 
 the world. The classic definition of democracy here is 
 that given by Lincoln at Gettysburg, ' ' A government of 
 the people, by the people and for the people." It is 
 largely a theoretic formula, the slogan of Roosevelt, the 
 touchstone of all patriotic speeches, but it has really no 
 actual existence. The truth is that those who govern 
 here are a group elected by the moneyed classes and 
 not by the people. It is a mere pantomime of democ- 
 racy. In no other part of the world is class distinction 
 so marked as it is here. The millionaires are in a class 
 by themselves. There is no aristocracy of blood as in 
 
 30 
 
DEMOCRACY 31 
 
 Europe, the aristocracy that pulses through one's veins, 
 an inheritance through centuries of nobility, of valor 
 and of virtue from father to son through long genera- 
 tions. Here they appreciate a long pedigree for horses, 
 dogs, chickens and even swine, but not for men. A large 
 fortune gained in the tallow industry suffices to make a 
 genealogical oak spring up over night. Europe has her 
 Counts, her Dukes, her Marquesses and her Princes; 
 New York has her upper Four Hundred, her select 
 families. The upper circle of Yankee plutocracy outdoes 
 in many ways the extravagances of courtiers in the time 
 of Sardanapalus, who ground up pearls and diamonds 
 in their food. 
 
 Rockefeller has a fortune of twelve hundred million 
 dollars, and a yearly income of sixty millions. Ogden 
 Armour, here in Chicago, has a fortune of a hundred and 
 twenty-five millions, from which he derives a yearly 
 income of six millions two hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars. Frick earns more than eleven millions a year. 
 Thirty millionaires of this country could have loaned to 
 the government of their own private fortunes all the 
 money collected in the Second Liberty Loan, the sum 
 of three billion dollars. 
 
 Yet the daughters of these democratic multi-million- 
 aires go to the old world to win for themselves a share 
 in the effete titles of European Counts, Marquesses, 
 Dukes and Princes. 
 
 It is true that to-day, because of the war and of the 
 great number of men that are being sent to Europe, it 
 may be said that there is abundance of work for every 
 one, but none can deny that in normal times there is 
 here an army of unemployed who are unable to get work 
 of any kind, and are reduced to frightful poverty. 
 
32 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 I will cite you another one of tlie witticisms published 
 in their newspapers which is, as usual, only an exaggera- 
 tion of the truth: 
 
 A man in Chicago sees a person drowning in the 
 lake. His first impulse is to rush to save him, but then 
 he discovers that the man struggling desperately for 
 his life is a friend who occupies a position which he 
 himself could fill. He thereupon leaves him to drown 
 and hurries to the office where his friend had been 
 working, before any one else should have time to apply 
 for the position. ' ' I have come, ' ' he said to the manager, 
 ''to offer myself for the job held by my friend John 
 Doe, who is drowning in the lake." ''You are five 
 minutes late," replied the manager, "the man who 
 pushed him in was here first." 
 
 The foregoing is a mere joke and a clever one. Psy- 
 chologically considered the humor consists in exaggerat- 
 ing — until it becomes unbelievable — an actual truth; 
 the difficulty of getting a living in America. To cap 
 this I am going to tell you of an actual occurrence which 
 sounds like fiction but which is a horrible reality — a 
 counterpart of the preceding jest. Not long ago three 
 eminent men in Chicago died suddenly after a dinner 
 tliey had partaken together in a hotel. Upon examina- 
 tion of the case it was discovered that they had been 
 poisoned by some powder placed in their food. Further 
 investigation proved that many waiters were accustomed 
 to put this powder in the dishes ordered by patrons 
 w^ho did not tip them. Such cases of poisoning are 
 frequent. 
 ^ The truth of the matter is that the lower classes, in 
 spite of their much advertised democracy, live here 
 in more frightful misery than in any other country on 
 
DEMOCRACY 33 
 
 the globe. It is enough to read books like "The Jun- 
 gle ' ' and ' * King Coal ' ' of Upton Sinclair in order to get 
 an idea of what poverty is like in the United States. 
 Jack London, in his book, ''The Iron Heel," gives some 
 idea of what life in this country will be once capital 
 and labor will have met in battle array. 
 
 And meanwhile, what means this democracy of po- 
 litical oratory, of the demagogue, what means this adula- 
 tion of the workers, this deception of the poor? It is 
 a way of flattering them so that the blusterers may climb 
 to political power. But the result will be far more 
 tragic than one can foresee. The laborer has become 
 arrogant, wants everything and thinks himself entitled 
 to demand everything. He believes himself equal to 
 the upper classes. You cannot imagine the tyranny of 
 the American labor unions. They declare a strike to 
 inforce the acceptance of some audacious demand which 
 they have put forward, and then prevent the men from 
 entering the factories until it is granted. These work- 
 men forbid their employers to engage men who do not 
 belong to the unions. The capitalist, the man who pro- 
 vides the work, is a slave of the working man. Once 
 there was a strike in the McCormick workshops in Chi- 
 cago, employing thousands of workmen. The factory 
 engaged through the Pinkerton agency the services of 
 new men, so-called strike-breakers, who form a special 
 profession in this country ; but these professionals could 
 do nothing, and had, indeed, a narrow escape from a 
 horrible death, because the strikers set fire to the vessel 
 which was bringing them across Lake Michigan. 
 
 Not long ago there was another strike in Evanston, 
 near Chicago. In order to recommence work the fac- 
 tory had to engage the services of fifty strike-breakers 
 
34 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ■who were compelled to live at tlie factory under the 
 protection of seventy policemen. 
 
 You can understand now what the tyranny of work- 
 men intoxicated v/ith democratic ideas means. A fruit 
 of this social philosophy are the "Industrial Workers 
 of the World," workmen who do not speak with their 
 tongues but with bombs of dynamite with which they 
 daily succeed in terrorizing this country. There are at 
 present under indictment a hundred and twelve of these 
 Industrial Workers, who are accused en masse of fo- 
 menting dynamite outrages and treason. 
 
 All this is the result of the famous Yankee democracy, 
 that will probably bring in its wake a catastrophe like 
 that of the Bolsheviki in Russia. There it has been 
 shown quite convincingly what a government, "of the 
 people, by the people and for the people," really is, 
 namely, chaos and the appointment of ignorant laborers 
 as Secretaries of Finance. This may come to pass any 
 day in this country that maintains its social organization 
 as by a miracle in a tottering balance. 
 
 Not because the United States can boast so far of a 
 material triumph can we admit that they have succeeded 
 as a democracy. The success of a country is proven by 
 the record of centuries. To-day one chapter suffices to 
 tell of the grandeur and fall of Rome. Men count their 
 lives by years, but nations count theirs by generations. 
 The United States of America has only begun to live, 
 and as yet cannot speak of any really definite triumph. 
 This democracy is only an experiment, and runs the 
 risk of those who experiment in laboratories with un- 
 known explosives. 
 
 I think that this government of an anonymous, irre- 
 sponsible multitude is an absurdity. They do not even 
 
DEMOCEAGY 35 
 
 know what is good for them. This nation represents 
 an experiment in democracy, the result of which is going 
 to be tragic. Up to the present it has sncceeded because 
 it has never been a democracy in reality, but only a 
 democracy in theory. 
 
 How different things are in Germany,* where, never- 
 theless, the workman lives better than in any other 
 country, though he is not flattered nor permitted any 
 undue interference in the election of his governors. 
 There government is by the upper classes, which are 
 the most capable in any country; there the social hier- 
 archy is respected, and they have the courage to recog- 
 nize the value of caste, inherently superior by virtue of 
 its antecedents. Here, as in our own country, they lack 
 the courage necessary to proclaim openly the superior 
 inherited ability of the higher classes, though we cannot 
 deny that they possess all the sterling virtues of the 
 human race. 
 
 And it is from here, from the United States, that the 
 new current of democratic ideas has gone to Chile; ideas 
 that have infected our people, constituting one of the 
 most serious dangers that threaten us for the future. 
 We owe our progress and our order to the traditional 
 regime of our country, by means of which the intelligent 
 classes hold permanent control of the government as in 
 Germany. 
 
 It is not, as you well know, that I am a German sym- 
 pathizer in the present war. The Germans are entirely 
 too ambitious and aim at world control. It is proper 
 that all the world should be on guard to show that it 
 has no intention of being so dominated ; but we have to 
 
 * This letter is supposed to have been written when Germany was 
 at the high water mark of its military achievements. 
 
36 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 admit that Germany is the most efficient nation of the 
 globe, exactly because there the most efficient classes 
 rule without hindrance. 
 
 p\ The basic idea of democracy is against the law of 
 nature. Society is a living organism, the individuals 
 composing which are equivalent to the cells of an indi- 
 vidual organism like that of man. 
 
 It is impossible to imagine the cells of the feet di- 
 recting the whole structure of the human body; it is 
 the cells of the brain which tell the feet where they are 
 to go. In a social organism the upper classes constitute 
 the brain of the nation, and this it is that should de^ 
 termine the destiny of the people and dictate the regu- 
 lations to which they must submit. In nature liquids 
 occupy the place which corresponds to their density; 
 
 -> mercury cannot be made to float on water. Men also 
 occupy in society the place in which they belong ac- 
 cording to their merit, and this merit is hereditary. 
 
 In Germany, the worth of an electoral vote is in ac- 
 cordance with the individual merit of the elector in 
 question. The vote of a man of high rank has, natu- 
 rally, greater weight. This is logical and just ; it is an 
 advantage to the nation. In our country, although we 
 had the weakness to adopt in theory the principles of 
 
 > the French Revolution, we have had the common sense 
 not to accept such a dangerous policy in reality, and our 
 electoral votes count in accordance with the wealth 
 of each elector. The vote of one who can purchase the 
 greatest number of votes is worth the most. This has 
 saved us. If our people had conducted their own elec- 
 tions with this so-called democratic freedom we should 
 have failed utterly as a nation. There they declaim 
 against bribery as a salute to the flag of democratic prin- 
 
DEMOCRACY 37 
 
 ciples; but no politician of any party, except labor, 
 wishes sincerely to see any change in the reality of onr 
 electoral system. 
 
 Here in the United States there is an increasingly 
 ardent desire to place the government in the hands of 
 the people. The jndges are elected by popular vote, 
 in some States they may even be impeached by a peti- 
 tion drawn up by the same electors, a prerogative which 
 is entitled the "recall." A proof, however, that faith 
 in this system of popular election is not absolute is 
 shown by the fact that Judges of the Supreme Court 
 are not chosen by the popular vote. On the contrary, 
 they receive their appointment directly from the gov- 
 ernment, as in our country. 
 
 Another most extraordinary democratic right of the 
 common people in many States of the Union are the pro- 
 ceedings called ''initiative and referendum." This ac- 
 tually permits them to make laws directly. It means that 
 a certain number of voters may present for the popular 
 vote any private petition that has in no way been in- 
 stigated by the authorities elected by the people. A 
 municipal candidate, or a candidate for the legislature, 
 may have been elected on a definite political platform, 
 with a definite program to carry out. If in any way 
 he breaks faith with the terms of this program, or de- 
 • parts from his political platform, he can be impeached 
 by the same will that put him in office: the popular 
 vote. It may happen sometimes that he has conducted 
 himself according to the terms of his platform but that 
 those who had elected him had seen fit to change their 
 minds about some certain topic. These voters, in a 
 group whose number is determined by law, may petition 
 that this or that legal project be submitted to ballot. 
 
38 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Not long ago in Chicago tliey secured abont one hundred 
 and fifty thousand signatures to a petition that it be 
 decided by a popular vote whether Chicago should or 
 should not be a prohibition city. In order to put this 
 question to popular vote there were needed the signa- 
 tures of only one hundred and six thousand five hundred 
 voters. If this project had become law, as has happened 
 in so many other States, it would have been an example 
 of legislation initiated directly by the people. A law 
 dictated by the State Congress may, by means of the 
 referendum, be submitted to the popular vote, that is 
 to say, the people may veto the decisions of the legis- 
 lators. I do not think that this could ever come to pass 
 in our country, and alas for us if it should ! 
 
 It would take too long to explain this to you in de- 
 tail, but the sum and substance of it is this : A maximum 
 of power is given to the people, not only to elect its 
 representatives and to recall them before they finish 
 their term, but also to instigate direct legislation, some- 
 times in opposition to the will of the very persons whom 
 the popular vote has placed in office. Moreover, the 
 franchise, or right to vote, is as widely extended as pos- 
 sible, and includes the women in a great many States, 
 a condition that will soon exist in all parts of the coun- 
 try. Some day, perhaps, the animals and plants will 
 vote as well ! Soldiers can vote, and just now they are 
 taking steps to enable those who are actually in the 
 trenches in Europe to exercise this right of American 
 citizenship. It will not surprise me if there should come 
 a day when American warships will send home the votes 
 of their crews by wireless from all the seas. 
 
 What most particularly impresses me in the barefaced 
 deception of this pretended democratic system of gov- 
 
DEMOCRACY 39 
 
 ernment of the people, by the people and for the people 
 is the fact that the "people," the multitude, neither 
 thinks nor wishes nor cares for anything in which it 
 is not directly interested. It allows itself to be swayed 
 unconsciously in affairs of common or collective interest. 
 A few leaders tak^ charge of a project and organize the 
 respective propaganda. "When I tell you that there 
 have been secured a hundred and fifty thousand signa- 
 tures to the petition which would make of Chicago a 
 prohibition city, do not imagine for a moment that a 
 hundred and fifty thousand persons have come forward 
 voluntarily to sign this petition. Nothing of the sort. 
 It has been taken from house to house, from office to 
 office by solicitors pleading for signatures and seeking to 
 convince the voters just as merchandise is offered for 
 sale by traveling salesmen. The petition is not a re- 
 flection of the collective will of the people, but of the 
 will of a small group that knows how to drag in its 
 train an unthinking mob. It is just this that saves for 
 the present the democratic regime of the country. 
 
 It is already apparent here in Chicago that the Social- 
 ists are gaining ground, and, in order to beat them at 
 the last election of Judges for Cook County, the Re- 
 publicans and Democrats, the two traditional parties of 
 the country, had to join forces against them. One need 
 not be unusually penetrating to see that the Democrats 
 and Eepublicans in the future will unite into one party 
 representing the interests of capital, in order to combat 
 the ever growing Socialist party representing the endless 
 exactions of the working class. And after them will 
 come the Bolsheviki, the nihilists, the anarchists, the 
 iconoclasts of civilization. There will be no other means 
 of saving the situation than that of dictating a new law 
 
40 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 to curtail the voting power of tlie lower elements of 
 society, for otherwise there must come the downfall of 
 the present organization. And this curtailment will be 
 the denial of the democratic theory, of a government of 
 the people, by the people and for the people. Even now 
 there are editorials in the most prominent newspapers 
 that advocate the idea of placing more obstacles in the 
 w^ay of the suffrage of the naturalized foreigner; and in 
 other articles of the public press it is even claimed that 
 the Socialists should be denied the right to vote. 
 
 Eadical measures like this will have to be taken, in 
 this country and in all "the world, because if it is really 
 true that this is now only nominally *^a government of 
 the people and by the people," at the rate at which 
 things are going, with the development of the labor 
 unions, it might become a real government of the com- 
 mon people, which will be as exacting as the Soviets of 
 the Russian Bolsheviki. 
 
 In all that I have told you, you can see to what ex- 
 tremes is carried this democracy that we foolishly ac- 
 cept in theory and wisely repudiate in prastice. In 
 our country no one speaks of this openly in the news- 
 papers nor in the magazines nor in books; no one has 
 dared frankly to come to the defense of the aristocracy, 
 and we must needs feign reverence for this democratic 
 chorus in which the world now lifts its voice. This is 
 one of the most outrageous conventional falsehoods of 
 which our new civilization is guilty. Germany is the 
 only country that has preferred not to lie, but has had 
 the courage to defend the doctrine of an aristocracy, 
 to fight and shed blood in its cause; and, consequently, 
 that country is the most efficient in all the world, in 
 science, arts, industry and strength, so much so that 
 
DEMOCBAGY 41 
 
 Germany, in the intoxication of its triumph, has wished 
 to rule the world. There is only one other example of 
 this type on the whole planet : Japan. These are strong 
 countries and their strength is that of their ablest men. 
 The United States also has its super men, but they are 
 surrendering their power, abandoning their prerogatives 
 end avoiding their responsibility. It is a renunciation. 
 That is what democracy signifies, the renunciation of 
 the fit and the advent of the unfit. 
 
 But I have already talked too much, my dear one, 
 of the affairs of this country, and very little of our 
 private affairs, I ought «to 
 
 Your husband who adores you. 
 
 No sooner had Miss Jones finished reading this than 
 she started to write the answer. There was no time to 
 finish that night, and on the following day she had to 
 go to the Public Library to look up some items which 
 she could not find in her own librarj^ Her supplemen- 
 tary notes finally took shape in these words: 
 
 ]\Iadam : 
 
 Since I took the liberty to make a few observations 
 on your husband's former letter, it may not seem strange 
 that I do the same with this. The letter that goes to you 
 by this mail arouses in me as many, if not more, objec- 
 tions than the last. 
 
 Yes, madam, your husband is right, we are a national 
 
42 TEE GULF OF MISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 experiment in democracy, but it is an experiment in 
 which the country has an immense faith, a faith that is 
 almost religions. We have faith in a government of 
 the people, for the people and by the people. Yf e believe 
 that every man and every woman should have freedom 
 to govern him or herself personally as best it suits them 
 within the limitations that the rights of others impose; 
 but we do not believe that those in office have the right 
 to govern us as they please, in contradiction to the will 
 of the gOA^erned. 
 
 "When our nation had just awakened to independent 
 life it was thought to make of it a monarchy, and to 
 Washington was offered a royal crown, but the spirit of 
 liberty which had impelled the first colonists to America 
 brought about the triumph of the Republic. The history 
 of our political development, first with its ''congres- 
 sional caucus" (oligarchy, the election of the candidates 
 for the presidency of the republic in private conferences 
 between congressmen) afterwards with political conven- 
 tions, and finally with the popular liberty more freely 
 expressed to-day, show that we are rapidly making of 
 our country a democracy in action, not in theory alone, 
 as your husband says. 
 
 We do not believe, madam, in the divine right of 
 authority. We believe that the authority to govern a 
 people comes from the will of that same people. Neither 
 do we believe in the prerogatives of a governing class, 
 in an aristocratic regime. As your husband says, we 
 appreciate the value of a pedigree in horses, cows, 
 chickens and hogs, but not in men. Madam, if you have 
 a prize chicken farm or a horse-breeding establishment, 
 you subject all your best stock, which you desire to im- 
 prove and perpetuate, to very special conditions of 
 
DEMOCBACY 43 
 
 feeding and propagation, and you are constantly seeking 
 to improve the race which is your specialty. With the 
 human race nothing of the kind is possible. The son of 
 a magnate, lacking the urgent need to work that made 
 his progenitors rich and powerful, and surrounded by 
 comforts and luxuries, is exposed to the danger that 
 instead of cultivating and improving the virtues that 
 should be his by right of inheritance, he is very apt to 
 acquire vices unknown to his ancestors. If this rich 
 man 's son should conserve and perfect the sterling quali- 
 ties of his forebears, he will enjoy, in a democratic so- 
 ciety, all the prerogatives of his parents in open com- 
 petition with others as able as he, whether they are heirs 
 of superior men, or sons of men of humble origin who in 
 the rude school of life have fashioned their characters 
 and acquired qualities essential to social and economic 
 success. 
 
 Napoleon II has no claim to the admiration of the 
 world although he happened to be the son of Napoleon 
 I, and Abraham Lincoln is revered by humanity al- 
 though his father was a carpenter who could not read 
 or write when he married. We believe every man to 
 be the architect of his own character, the sculptor of 
 his own monument, and we strive to keep the social 
 structure such that the survival of the fit shall be real- 
 ized as easily as the downfall of the unfit. We believe 
 thaf the greatest riches a country possesses are its own 
 citizens, and we likewise believe in giving to each and 
 GYery one of these the best possible chance to develop 
 their personality. We have faith in what a broad educa- 
 tion will do, and we wish to place it within the reach 
 of every man in order to permit him to develop his 
 powers to their utmost. It is also part of our social 
 
44 TEE GULF OF MI8UNDEESTANDING 
 
 creed that talents sliould find easy and automatic means 
 to place themselves in the setting which they deserve, in 
 order that they may render the greatest possible service 
 to the community. What would it have availed our 
 country if Edison had continued selling newspapers to 
 railroad passengers? It is much better that he should 
 have the management of his present large fortune, and 
 of his laboratory at Menlo Park, where he can produce 
 more, not only for himself, but for the common good. 
 
 We do not yet know enough about biology to deter- 
 mine whether individual organisms are democratic or 
 aristocratic, but we do Imow that human society is more 
 complex than the human individual, because its constit- 
 uent cells are more complex, and it is therefore not 
 logical for your husband to say that the basic idea of 
 democracy is against the law of nature. 
 
 Democracy is a question of social justice, but it is 
 also a question of social convenience, of social advantage. 
 A democratic organization is the most adequate human 
 organization for the most intense utilization of all the 
 resources of mankind, that is to say of the material, the 
 intellectual and the moral opportunities that are his 
 dower. 
 
 A democratic organization means, in the first place, 
 an equality of opportunity for all. You have seen, no 
 doubt, in your own country, the condor spreading out 
 its majestic wings high over the peaks of the Andes, 
 free and powerful, covering great distances in its rapid 
 flight; and you may have seen, in the Zoological gar- 
 dens, the same condor, apparently free, without a fetter 
 to impede his soaring to the heights. Why does not the 
 latter also fly? Why is he dejected and sad? His wings 
 are there, entire ; the sky is there, free and open, but the 
 
DEMOCRACY 45 
 
 gratings that limit his enclosure do not permit him to 
 make the running start necessary for his flight. Man 
 laughs at his great wings. The condor seems to be 
 free, but he is not. Thus, the man who has not had his 
 chance at a public school — that wide arena where the 
 first unfettered trials are made to prepare for the real 
 race of lif" — seems to be free, all his limbs are whole 
 and sound; he has the wide world before him for his 
 flight, but . . . his freedom is derisory, he is a prisoner 
 like the condor. 
 
 This equality of opportunity exists in my country 
 on an ever increasing scale. It exists on a larger scale 
 than in any other country of the world. The term 
 *' self-made man" has passed from the English to all 
 modem languages. The *^ self-made man" is a product 
 as American as the pineapple is Brazilian. In the presi- 
 dency of the Republic, among the secretaries of state, 
 in Congress, in the judicial career, in industry, in com- 
 merce, in the army, in the navy^ in all human activities, 
 you may see children of unknown fathers, messengers, 
 even newsboys as they arrive at maturity become lead- 
 ers in some branch of activity. These same boys would 
 not have been able to rise in the same way in any anti- 
 democratic country, because *' self-made man" does not 
 mean made by himself alone, without the help of so- 
 ciety, but formed by himself with the help of society, and 
 without the help of the special privileges that in other 
 countries involve the inheritance of a more or less 
 considerable fortune. Society helps with its public 
 schools, its night-schools, its Sunday schools, its libraries, 
 its free lecture courses, its museums, its art galleries, 
 its churches, its settlements; that is to say, society has, 
 in a democratic regime, hundreds and thousands of 
 
46 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 tentacles that go reacliing out into the remotest confines 
 of the nation striving to touch as by a magic wand 
 every brain and every heart. For each there is a ladder 
 by which he may reach the heights appropriate to his 
 capacity now developed to its greatest extent by these 
 social agents with which, whether or not he wills it, he 
 is, nevertheless, placed in contact every day of his life. 
 
 This secures to society a constant renewal 6i its di- 
 recting elements. It does not mean the renunciation of 
 the fit and the advent of the unfit, as your husband 
 believes, but the elimination of the unfit and the advent 
 of the fit. In your country, the presidency of the Re- 
 public has been generally in the hands of a few privi- 
 leged families, that is to say, within a republican consti- 
 tution there has been perpetuated a European aristo- 
 cratic regime. This is not the case with us. We have 
 never had both father and son elected to the presidency. 
 Neither the fame nor the ability of the father secures 
 the future welfare of the son; in each generation all 
 enter the race on equal conditions. I do not pretend to 
 say that this is the invariable rule in oar country now, 
 but it is the tendency of our evolution, and has been since 
 the beginning of our history. 
 
 Not long since, madam, the University of Wisconsin 
 celebrated its fiftieth anniversary^ There were present 
 four of the former Presidents of the University. One 
 of them, ex-President Northrop, pronounced these w^ords 
 which illustrate my thought verj^ clearly : ' ' The utility 
 of the University is not limited to the great men it 
 forms. The utility of the public school is not measured 
 by the number of exceptionally able men that have 
 studied in it, but in the general betterment of the multi- 
 tude. If we can make the sum total of our citizens fifty 
 
VEMOCBACY 47 
 
 per cent more capable, it is much better than to make 
 some of them a hundred per cent more capable, while 
 the multitude has not been appreciably improved. The 
 ideal of democracy is to make the multitude intelligent, 
 not to form a few intelligent leaders and leave the com- 
 mon people in obscurity. We need intelligent leaders, 
 but we also need an intelligent people, able to follow 
 those leaders." 
 
 The above does not imply the suppression of social 
 divisions, as these are not in themselves a negation of 
 democracy. We consider the public school a democratic 
 ideal because there all have a common basis upon which 
 to begin — one and the same platform from which to 
 make the start of life's flight. This does not mean, 
 however, that a democratic regime obliges the person 
 of culture to live with illiterates, or the millionaire with 
 the pauper, though their doing so is not prohibited or 
 even censured; it signifies merely that the illiterate has 
 every facility to make himself a man of culture and the 
 beggar a like chance to become a millionaire. There 
 are select circles, and separate groups, but the doors 
 that lead to them stand wide open to him who wishes 
 to pay his entrance fee in effort, talent, perseverance and 
 honesty. Democracy is not equality among men, but 
 equal opportunities for all men. Democracy does not 
 mean the leveling of mankind to an average standard, 
 but the bringing of opportunities to a level that all can 
 reach. 
 
 Your husband may say when commenting on the 
 power of our millionaires that this equality of chance 
 is only a hollow phrase beside the privileges of an ac- 
 quired fortune. Let us see. 
 
 He speaks of the enormous fortunes of this country. 
 
48 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 There are sucli, it is tme. John D. Eockefeller has a 
 fortune of twelve hundred million dollars, and many 
 others follow closely after. Doubtless, unjust social 
 conditions have made these extraordinary accumulations 
 possible. But, madam, have you any idea of the amount 
 to which this private fortune is assessed for public 
 revenue? Rockefeller's annual income amounts to sixty 
 million dollars and his taxes to forty millions. The 
 present tax — a war tax, it is true, but likely to remain 
 at little less than his ratio — provides that all incomes 
 exceeding two million dollars shall pay sixty-three per 
 cent to the state. It is one of the great checks to the 
 undue privileges of capital. The additional taxes on 
 income now in force are progressive. 
 
 These undue prerogatives of capital are moreover 
 subjected to limitation by our democracy in many dif- 
 ferent ways, such as by the laws that regulate trusts, 
 income and inheritance taxes, and by other methods 
 which each new social period proceeds to formulate. 
 William Kent, a millionaire and a member of the Tax 
 Committee, has recently expressed his opinion with re- 
 spect to this problem in the following words: ^' There 
 should not exist such employments as footmen, butlers or 
 chauffeurs. Men of fortune retain a gTeat number of 
 persons employed in these positions of luxury. I 
 would like to see," added this millionaire, '4he income 
 tax so high that this class of employees could not be 
 retained hy wealthy families." 
 
 "We do not fear at all what your husband sees fit to 
 call the undue pretensions of the working man. We firmly 
 believe that the working man will continue to secure 
 higher wages and shorter hours of work, partly as a 
 measure of social justice and partly as a dictate of social 
 
DEMOCEACY 49 
 
 seliisliiiess, because society needs that all its members 
 sliould liave an equal opportunity to develop personality 
 to its higbest, a thing that is impossible under actual 
 conditions of industrial servitude. We must face the 
 inevitable, madam, that the crowbar, the plane, the brace 
 and bit, the furnace and the lathe are all taking on the 
 •majestic proportions of heraldic escutcheons, of the 
 royal crowns. Only yesterday we read how our dele- 
 gation of working men was received in the palace of the 
 King and Queen of England and feasted by the highest 
 dignitaries of the United Kingdom. 
 
 No, we are not afraid, we are not troubled as we note 
 this evolution. On the contrary, we have enthusiastic- 
 ally gone out to meet it that we may help it. Even our 
 wealthy magnates understand the transformation and 
 comment upon it without becoming alarmed. Do you 
 know what one of the best known millionaires of the 
 U. S. A. says in regard to this? This steel king, Mr. 
 Charles M. Schwab, is president of the Bethlehem Steel 
 Company, which exploits the iron of El Tofo in your 
 o-wn Chile, the company which has built on that far 
 off coast the port of Cruz Grande, and which is trans- 
 porting a mountain of iron from your countrj^ to mine. 
 The company of which Mr. Schwab is president em- 
 ploys a hundred thousand workingmen and pays in 
 wages twelve million dollars monthly. It signifies that 
 economically speaking, the word of such a mxan has 
 weight, and it has also great weight politically speaking, 
 as not long since Mr. Schwab was Chairman of the 
 Board controlling the construction of ships for our 
 government. This man uttered these words when not 
 yet an employee of the government at a salary of one 
 dollar a year: "A¥e are on the threshold of a new 
 
50 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 era. The new order of things is going to be hard for 
 many of us and it will come sooner than we were ex- 
 pecting. It means a social rebirth of all the world. 
 Some call it socialism. Others call it Bolshevism. What 
 it means is this: The man that works with his hands, 
 the man that does not possess riches is he who will rule 
 the business of the world, not only in Russia and Ger- 
 many and the U. S. A., but literally throughout the 
 world. This great change will be a social adjustment. 
 I repeat that it is going to be hard for those who possess 
 a large part of the capital, but in the end it will prob- 
 ably be beneficial for all of us; and so we ought not to 
 oppose this movement without informing ourselves re- 
 garding its dominant ideas. I have no wish to lose the 
 money I possess. The more money a man has the more 
 he wishes to have. The change from the old to the new 
 order of things will be steady but rapid. The aristoc- 
 racy of the future will not be the aristocracy of riches. 
 It will be the aristocracy of those who have done some- 
 thing for their country and for the world." 
 
 You see, madam, that even the owners of great for- 
 tunes do not entertain much fear of the social evolu- 
 tion that inspires your husband with so much dread. 
 As for the extravagance of our millionaires to which 
 your husband alludes, frankly, I think it is very much 
 exaggerated. I believe that, in comparison with mil- 
 lionaires of other countries, what most distinguishes 
 the American is their cheerful readiness to give away 
 their millions in works destined for the benefit of the 
 whole people. 
 
 The same Mr. Schwab, not long ago, in Chicago, where 
 he was speaking as Director General of the Shipping 
 Board, related a very telling story: Going with Mr. 
 
DEMOCRACY 51 
 
 Carnegie to inaugurate a library and an auditorium, 
 gifts which Mr, Carnegie and he were making to the 
 University of Pennsylvania, he went to his room to 
 dress for the ceremony, and found his valet desperately 
 hunting under the bed for a collar-button, "I am 
 leaving your service," said the indignant man to his 
 employer. ^'You and Mr. Carnegie come here to give 
 away millions, but you are the owner of only one collar- 
 button, which I have dropped on the floor and cannot 
 find." 
 
 While Mr. Schwab was making his speech, his wife 
 was in the hotel knitting woolen clothing to send to the 
 soldiers in the trenches. This is where I must tell you 
 that there is much exaggeration in the general belief 
 that the daughters of our millionaires lose their heads 
 over European princes. Naturally, some cases of this 
 kind occur among the thousands of millionaires' fami- 
 lies, and they are given so much publicity that the in- 
 experienced observer very frequently makes a mistaken 
 generalization. 
 
 Riches have their privileges^ madam. How could it 
 be otherwise? But the tendency in our democracy 
 is to see to it that these privileges of fortune shall be 
 only equal to the strength and the intelligence em- 
 ployed in acquiring them. Thus, an arrow can fly 
 through the air only in proportion as we have bent 
 the bow to shoot it. A slight flexion of the bow and 
 'the arrow makes a short flight. "We bend the bow 
 with force and the flight is long. In human life, a 
 democracy disposes of existence in such a way that no 
 one is ?ble to shoot his arrow farther than the force 
 used in bending the bow will permit him. 
 
 Your husband, madam, gives a very synthetic de- 
 
52 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 scription of our electoral system, and he seems to see 
 a national peril in our faith in a "government of the 
 people, for the people and by the people." He believes 
 that the puffed up working man will become a destroyer 
 of society. AVe do not believe that this ample liberty 
 for the workingman to impose his ideas in the election 
 booths need bring dangerous results to the country. 
 On the contrary, this is the legal way gradually to 
 change our social organization already so greatly modi- 
 fied in the course of our history. This is the way in 
 which the aspirations of all our citizens are tried out 
 openly and the reason why those of the majority succeed. 
 This is the safety valve of the machine of progress. The 
 violent revolutions and counter revolutions in Russia are 
 a consequence of the traditional oppression of the work- 
 ingman in the domain of an aristocrac}^ If Russia had 
 had a half century of democratic organization, it would 
 not have fallen into the present chaotic condition that 
 your husband condemns. We do not know as yet what 
 will be the end of Russia, but if it should find the path of 
 democracy while struggling desperately in the darkness 
 to find its destiny, Russia will stagger the world with its 
 progress. 
 
 The suggestion that your husband has seen in some 
 of our newspapers that we should suppress the right of 
 the socialist to vote does not entitle him to accept this 
 idea as representative of a tendency of our thought. 
 You will see, madam, in our daily papers, in our maga- 
 zines, in public speeches and in books the most out- 
 rageous and contradictory ideas. This is only one of 
 the manifestations of our democracy, in which every- 
 body thinks himself authorized to express his opinions, 
 whatever they may be. In other countries the pro- 
 
DEMOCJRACY 53 
 
 fessicn of thinking and expressing opinions is restricted 
 to the educated classes, or to those who make their liv- 
 ing with their pen. Here every one says what he thinks, 
 and, as is natural, some perfectly preposterous opinions 
 are expressed. The observer who studies our country 
 should not forget that this is a trait of our national 
 idiosyncrasy, or his comments will contain many mis- 
 taken inferences. 
 
 This free expression of the opinion of all is a demo- 
 cratic school. In our schools public speech is a branch 
 -of the usual course of study, not a luxury, but simply 
 a means to enable every one to express his opinion pub- 
 licly without self -consciousness. If errors come to light, 
 it matters as little as if a boy does his school task wrong 
 in the class or makes a mistake in his manual training 
 work. It serves as a step onward to better things. Each 
 day we see incorporated more new elements into the 
 realm of citizenship, and from the most humble ranks 
 there rise up men who turn out to be torchbearers in 
 their different walks of life. 
 
 Unquestionably there is in my country still much ig- 
 norance and much poverty to be reclaimed. Your hus- 
 band asks you to read Upton Sinclair's books to get 
 an idea of the poverty among the working classes. This 
 pauperism is found chiefly among the European immi- 
 grants who have not as yet adapted themselves to our 
 democracy. We have in our country, that receives this 
 immense European immigration, more than five mil- 
 lions who cannot yet speak our language. In Chicago 
 alone, madam, the city from which your husband WTites, 
 my own native city, one-third of its inhabitants are 
 foreigners ; another third is composed of sons of foreign- 
 
54 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ers, and of the other third, a third part have either 
 father or mother a foreigner. We are building up our 
 den3ocracy of foreign materials ; we are making a monu- 
 ment out of clay brought from across the sea. 
 
 To study the living conditions of our workingman one 
 should not choose as a type the recently arrived immi- 
 grant, who has not had as yet the time to adapt himself 
 to our ways; but any one who travels a little in our 
 country, and will take the time to visit the homes of 
 American workmen, will find carpenters, mechanics, 
 painters and workingmen of all the industries living in 
 their own houses, with one or two baths, with parlors, 
 pianos and libraries, and more comforts than those of 
 the middle-class of a generation ago. This is not the 
 rule as yet, but it tends to become more so every day. 
 
 I do not believe, madam, that the happiest working 
 classes are to be found in Germany, as your husband 
 says. They have been systematically trained into being 
 submissive automata. They have no such opportunities 
 as the workingmen in the United States, where every day 
 one sees men of the humblest origin rising to social, 
 scientific, economic and political heights. As our ex- 
 ambassador Mr. Gerard says: ''In Germany all the 
 higher offices are held by the members of the Prussian 
 nobility. Germany is still the country of great land- 
 holders. Laws that have been abolished for years in 
 England, still exist in Germany to permit these enor- 
 mous estates to pass from one generation to another 
 without being divided up. The workingmen of German 
 cities work longer hours and earn less than in any other 
 part of the world. More than fifty-five per cent of 
 the families in Berlin live in one room. ' ' I have quoted 
 this to you, madam, merely to answer the expressed 
 
DEMOCBACY 55 
 
 belief of your husband that an oligarchy insures the 
 greater well-being to the workingman. It will not be 
 necessary to add that in the countries of Latin America 
 the condition of the workingman is infinitely inferior. 
 
 I do not pretend that we have reached perfection. 
 Far from it. Our country is a democracy in the making 
 and, as in all works of construction, it presents still, 
 alongside the parts already made and finished, crude 
 material, stone, sand and lime, in formless piles. When 
 an artist is fashioning a piece of sculpture, you will see 
 by the side of the work in course of creation, masses 
 of shapeless clay as yet nothing but a lump of common 
 earth. Maybe the head is finished; maybe the soul is 
 already there, but we shall not be able to appreciate the 
 beauty of the composition until the whole is finished. 
 It is not right to judge the work by the formless mass 
 of clay that has not yet taken on the lines the artist 
 means to give it. The construction of a democracy 
 is a far more laborious piece of work than the pro- 
 duction of the finest masterpiece of the most gifted 
 artist; there must be formless masses of material while 
 the work is in progress, and of this mere clay no one 
 can judge until it has been given the breath of life. 
 In our democracy only the first blows of the chisel have 
 made their mark. Let us not be so superficial as to 
 condemn the work in preparation because it has not 
 yet received the last finishing touches. Let us wait and 
 help to give life to the monument that is the work of 
 our hands, of our brain and of our heart. 
 
 Very sincerely. 
 Your Friend from the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 IMPERIALISM 
 
 MISS JONES now looked for these letters from 
 Chicago with the same interest with which she 
 expected her own private correspondence; and 
 although their contents naturally hurt her feelings, it 
 cannot be denied that she vehemently desired to read 
 the letters because they expressed so well what Latin 
 Americans in general were thinking about her country. 
 One morning she noticed at once the elegant and ener- 
 getic handwriting of the Chicago correspondent among 
 the heap of letters piled up on her desk. That morning 
 Miss Jones did very little work in her office. Reading 
 and meditating upon this long letter took up all her 
 time until the luncheon hour. The letter was as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 • Chicago, 111., , 1918. 
 
 JMy Dear One : — 
 
 One frequently sees it stated in the newspapers of this 
 country that a democracy offers guarantees of peace to 
 the world, whereas an aristocracy is a threat of war to 
 all humanity; that it is necessary, therefore, to conquer 
 Germany in order to make democracy safe and give peace 
 to the world. I cannot see upon what this assertion could 
 
 56 
 
IMPERIALISM 57 
 
 logically be based. The United States boasts of being 
 a democracy, and bas, nevertlieless, waged war against 
 Mexico for the purpose of seizing her northern provinces ; 
 it has made war against Spain to get possession of Puerto 
 Rico and the Philippines, and upon Colombia to seize 
 Panama. In less than a century they have annexed, by 
 right of conquest, a million square miles of what was 
 formerly Latin American territory. 
 
 Among these conquests are the taking of Texas and of 
 sixjmore States that were Mexican possessions before the 
 American invasion, which was pushed even to the ancient 
 Aztec capital. This was the imposition of the southern 
 slave States. Those seven States, in which there was 
 no slavery, were taken precisely so that slavery might 
 be established in them, thus degrading them socially in 
 order to secure a larger representation from the southern 
 States as partisans of slavery in the Federal Congress. 
 
 This policy of aggression and conquest, this imperial- 
 ism without precedent in latter days, has been shown 
 by a North American writer, "William Hard, in an ultra- 
 sensational article severely condemned by the American 
 governm^ent. It was published in the Metropolitan 
 Magazine. The author imagines a conversation between 
 Wilson, the Kaiser, Venizelos, the prime minister of 
 Greece, and a bandit of the Dominican Republic, in 
 which it is shown that the United States, in their rela- 
 tions with Latin America, have proceeded without a 
 shred of honesty. 
 
 The United States is unquestionably the most im- 
 perialistic country in the world. The first States of 
 the Union, since those times when the English Puritans 
 landed from the Mayflower, have not been satisfied 
 later with reaching out toward the West, even to the 
 
58 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Pacific. They have desired and have obtained colonies 
 in distant seas. Roosevelt has defended this policy of 
 intervention on the part of his country in the small 
 South American republics by use of the personal argu- 
 ment of a man who holds a big stick in his hands. ''If 
 I have a happy home/' he seems to say, ''enjoying there- 
 in a prosperous life, and I find that in the house at the 
 right hand side of mine they make a great deal of noise 
 at night, and do not let me, or my wife or children 
 sleep, I am justified in knocking at the door of these 
 neighbors and demanding silence : and if the noise con- 
 tinues, I have the right to use my big stick to make them 
 keep quiet. *' An argument this to snuff out by main 
 force the revolutions of Mexico. Continuing this phi- 
 losophy, Roosevelt has said almost in these words: "If 
 in the house on the left they have in the yard a pile of 
 filth, the odor of which infests my house and places in 
 danger my life and that of my wife and family, I have 
 the right to rap on their door and to demand that they 
 clean up their premises, and if they do not do so, I 
 compel them with my big stick.*' An argument this for 
 interfering in Ecuador and forcibly cleaning up Guaya- 
 quil, if the Ecuadorians will not or cannot do so. Like- 
 wise, Roosevelt considered himself at liberty to open a 
 door (Panama) for his own use in his neighbor's house, 
 when by doing so he would contrive to shorten the 
 distance between two rooms in his own house : the room 
 to the East, New York; and the room to the West, San 
 Francisco. 
 
 Tyranny will always find a suitable pretext to warrant 
 an abuse of force. Could not the same argument be 
 stretched so that the United States might with its '^hig 
 stick'' rule over all Latin America? The United States 
 
IMPERIALISM 59 
 
 is becoming now a military — a warrior country. They 
 are creating a stupendous army and navy. When these 
 forces are mustered out from the European war, will 
 they not look for a way to occupy themselves elsewhere ? 
 Every organ must exercise its functions or it dies. Or- 
 gans that are not used become withered. If the fish 
 would cease to swim, its fins would no longer function 
 and would, in course of time, disappear. If a species 
 of bird should not fly for generations, the wings would 
 likewise go, just as the blind mole does not need to see 
 in the darkness of its underground galleries. 
 
 The United States has been imperialistic in the past; 
 it is so to-day and will be more imperialistic to-morrow. 
 Consider the name they have appropriated for them- ^ 
 selves. They call their country America, and its citizens 
 Americans. Is not Canada a part of America, and are 
 not the Canadians Americans? Mexico, Brazil, Argen- 
 tina and Chile, are they not a part of America and are 
 not their inhabitants as much entitled to be called 
 Americans as those of the United States ? But no, they 
 have taken the name as their own. If the United States 
 had formed their country in the old world, and if they 
 had conquered European Turkey instead of the land 
 of the red man, they would surely have called their 
 country Europe and their inhabitants Europeans, that 
 is, if they did not call it THE WORLD once and for all. 
 
 It is particularly serious for us that North American 
 capital should be finding its way to our country in ever 
 increasing quantities. In Chilean mines alone they have 
 invested more than five hundred million dollars, and 
 this is only the start to capture our natural resources, as 
 is the case on a larger or smaller scale in all the Latin 
 American republics. If, a little later on, there should be 
 
60 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 a great labor strike, with attacks upon the life and 
 property of the North American owners of these great 
 mining possessions, might not these men of the "big 
 stick" ask reparation for their wrongs and indemnities 
 for their losses, and might they not even venture so far 
 as to interfere in our internal political life? The most 
 powerful navy in the world would be ready at their 
 orders, anxious to go into action. We are the country 
 of iron, of coal and of copper. We shall always be an 
 irresistible lodestone to North American capital and 
 enterprise. Although we are so far away, our danger 
 for the future is very great. Sometimes my conscience 
 pricks me when I think that the success of my efforts 
 to sell to the Yankees my copper deposits may aggra- 
 vate the danger to which our country is exposed in the 
 future. As a matter of fact, our government ought not 
 to permit the sale of our mining resources to the Ameri- 
 cans, and as it would be impossible to make an odious 
 exception for them alone in our legislature, we should 
 prohibit the sale of our mines to foreigners in general. 
 
 There exists a veritable Yankee peril for Latin Amer- 
 ica. I have always thought so, and what I now see and 
 read only confirms my suspicions. Of course, there are 
 many here who write of Pan Americanism — of inter- 
 continental love; but all that is only vain chatter, as I 
 can easily prove to you by quoting from books and 
 papers published here. 
 
 The University professor, Hamilton Wright Mabie, 
 in lectures he gave at Japanese Universities under the 
 auspices of the Carnegie Foundation in the cause of 
 international conciliation, said these words: 
 
 **A war with Mexico ended in a forced sale to the 
 United States of a territory that constitutes now six 
 
IMPERIALISM 61 
 
 of our States. ^lany Americans believe that this war 
 was unnecessary and nnjust, but a glance at the map 
 will show that this territory, for which the United States 
 paid eighteen million dollars, was an integral part of 
 our national dominion, and sooner or later would have 
 had to come under the flag of the United States." 
 
 An argument this which would serve Germany for 
 claiming the Belgian coast; a contention that would 
 justify Brazil in taking possession of Uruguay. It 
 suffices to look at the map to be convinced of this. This 
 argument was proffered by an American professor in a 
 foreign country, under the auspices of a Yankee founda- 
 tion for the promotion of universal peace ! 
 
 A magazine called The Seven Seas, the official organ 
 of the Army and Navy League, says in one of its num- 
 bers: 
 
 **A world dominion is the only logical and natural 
 final aim of a nation. The real militarist believes that 
 pacifism and humanitarianism are respectively the mas- 
 culine and feminine manifestations of a natural degen- 
 eration. It is the absolute right of a nation to live with 
 the greatest possible intensity, to expand, to found new 
 colonies, to become as rich as possible through all appro- 
 priate means, such as armed conquest, commerce and 
 diplomacy. ' ' 
 
 One of the most important newspapers of Chicago, 
 the Chicago Trihune, prints every day this motto : 
 
 "My country, in her intercourse with other nations 
 may she be always right; but my country, right or 
 wrong." 
 
 A famous American writer, Alfred Mahan, says in 
 one of his books: 
 
 4^ 
 
62 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 *'As civilized man has every day a greater necessity 
 for lands that he may occupy, he is always in search of 
 new fields where he may establish and develop himself; 
 but as it happens that this planet is entirely explored 
 and exploited, there are no longer desert continents or 
 desert isles; there are only territories more or less oc- 
 cupied by a population more or less well organized. 
 Hence proceeds the natural direction of human tides, 
 whose impulse, like all natural forces, follows the line 
 of least resistance. When two races, one highly organ- 
 ized and the other of inferior and rudimentary organiza- 
 tion, meet, the result is not doubtful; the first dispos- 
 sesses the second, because the right of the previous occu- 
 pant disappears before the right of the superior ex- 
 ploiter. ' ' 
 
 According to Mahan, to dispute about the morality of 
 the phenomena that are developed in accordance with 
 that principle, is like disputing about the morality of an 
 earthquake. 
 
 What do you think of the philosophy of this American 
 sociologist? The Germans themselves might adopt and 
 use it as a pretext for taking possession of all Russia or 
 all France. They only need consider them-selves su- 
 perior exploiters in order to force the former occupants 
 to retire from their own fatherland. Consequent^ 
 they could proceed with a moral right about which it 
 would be as foolish to dispute as about the morality of 
 an earthquake. 
 
 Not long since, at the invitation of President "Wilson;, 
 there visited this country twenty newspaper men from 
 Mexico. While in Chicago one of these journalists, 
 Senor de la Parra, made a speech rather unfriendly 
 towards the United States, an impertinent speech, if you 
 take into account that the journalist was a guest of this 
 country. But if it is true that the utterances of the 
 
IMPERIALISM 63 
 
 Mexican were out of place, it is none the less true that 
 certain comments of the public press were much more 
 impertinent. Arthur Brisbane, editor-in-chief of the 
 Chicago Herald and Examiner, published on the front 
 page of his paper a comment on the remarks of the 
 Mexican, as follows: 
 
 **It would be worth while for the Mexicans to study 
 the character of "VVoodrow Wilson. The Kaiser forgot 
 to make that study; this ought to serve as a warning 
 to Mexico. Mr. Wilson wishes nothing more of Mexico 
 than civility of the damnedest, commonest kind ; further- 
 more, with respect to the lives and properties of Amer- 
 icans, Mexico ought to respect these lives and interests 
 and leave to one side its one-fourth Spanish and three- 
 fourths Indian idea that the United States are afraid 
 of the Mexicans. In only one of the twelve war camps 
 this country has all the material necessarj^ to tear Mex- 
 ico to pieces like an old newspaper. It would be worth 
 while for Mexico to proceed with courtesy and justice, 
 especially if it wishes to continue its life as a nation. 
 We took and we improved a large piece of Mexico not 
 long ago : Texas, etc. The next piece that we take will 
 be larger." 
 
 This editor does not say *'may be,'* he says '*will be." 
 H. H. Powers, who was professor of the famous Uni- 
 versity of Stanford, has attracted a great deal of atten- 
 tion by his two recent books. The last, *' America 
 Among the Nations," appeared after the United States 
 had entered the war, and after the declaration that 
 they were fighting for justice and democracy. This 
 book might be quoted almost entirely in corroboration of 
 what I have written. Its principal merit, in my con- 
 ception, is the barefaced frankness with which it speaks. 
 I reproduce a few lines taken from different chapters: 
 
64 THE GULF OF IIISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 A ''Our Latin American neighbors, though sharing our 
 preference for democracy and modeling their govern- 
 ments as closely as possible on our own, persist in re- 
 garding us with mingled suspicion and fear. Neither 
 our protestations of friendship, nor our democracy, nor 
 our history as they read it, reassures them." 
 
 Take note of this introduction of our author, that I 
 quote only that you may compare the above with the 
 rest of the quotations that follow. Speaking of the 
 struggle that the North American colonies had with the 
 Indians, he says: ''You can make a man of him (the 
 Indian) in time; but not as easily as you can displace 
 him with a better man already made." Speaking of the 
 purchase that the United States made from France of 
 possessions that really belonged to Spain, he says : 
 
 "The reluctance against purchasing stolen goods we 
 did not feel, as indeed nations never do." . . . "This 
 acquisition, the largest ever made in all our history, 
 was accomplished at the ripe age of fifteen years." 
 
 Continuing the same theme, the author says; 
 
 "Florida was necessary to complete our natural 
 frontier, in itself a strong incentive to aggression. If 
 it had been objected that Spain had rights in Florida, 
 the answer would probably have been that incompetency 
 invalidates all such claims, a doctrine instinctively ac- 
 cepted by energetic peoples and ever a cardinal prin- 
 ciple of American policy." 
 
 Florida was perhaps a natural frontier coveted by the 
 United States; but notice what he says of the natural 
 frontiers of his country. Mentioning that its limits 
 reached at one time to the Eocky Mountains, a natural 
 frontier, he says: "But the American people have not 
 
IMPERIALISM 65 
 
 been looking for stopping places. For them all stopping 
 places have been starting places, and that forthwith." 
 In reality it cannot be said that the Philippines, Hawaii 
 and Alaska are natnral frontiers. Why not the Straits 
 of Magellan? He continues: 
 
 ''We want the earth, and we say so quite frankly. 
 Not that we have far reaching designs of w^orld empire, 
 far from it. Such unholy ambitions have always been 
 abhorrent to us. We merely want the next thing be- 
 yond. We are like the young woman who had no sym- 
 pathy with the craze to be rich. All she wanted was to 
 have money enough so that when she saw something 
 she wanted, she could buy it. " . . . ' ' Incentives to the 
 control of the American tropics are likely to be found in 
 the world's growing need for their products, the neces- 
 sity of more intensive exploitation, the inefficiency of 
 their peoples, and the incompetency of their govern- 
 ments to encourage and protect foreign enterprise. It 
 would be rash to predict that this inherent conflict be- 
 tween northern energy and tropical lethargy will not 
 result in farther extension of northern control over the 
 American tropics. . . . Doctrines do not determine des- 
 tiny but destiny determines doctrines." 
 
 Speaking of the possibility of a union among Latin 
 American countries, such as has formed a single great 
 nation in North America, he says: 
 
 ''This historic method will not be applied, certainly 
 not if we can help it, and as a consequence, South Amer- 
 ica will seemingly remain divided. . . . The relation of 
 Latin America to the United States is inherently that 
 of a protectorate, and the ^lonroe Doctrine is the rec- 
 ognition of that relation. This the Latin nations per- 
 fectly understand and deeply resent. . . . The demands 
 made by a single invention like the automobile are rev- 
 olutionary in our relations to the tropics. These de- 
 mands, the tropics in the hands of their own people, 
 
66 THE GULF OF 3IISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 and managed in the true tropical way, are utterly un- 
 able to supply. Yet there is almost no limit to their 
 productivity if their exuberant nature forces can be 
 brought under human control. ' ' 
 
 Notice this, my dear wife: the inhabitants of Brazil, 
 where rubber is produced for automobiles, are not hu- 
 man; and this author says previously that even when 
 one can make a man of a savage, it is much easier to 
 eliminate the savage and put in his place a man already 
 made. A decisive argument for not educating Latin 
 America, but on the contrary replacing the native popu- 
 lation by North Americans already educated. If rub- 
 ber is the magnet of Brazil, nitrate, also not produced 
 in the United States, is the attraction held by Chile. 
 Many of us fear the consequences of the successful 
 manufacture of synthetic nitrate in this country. Maybe 
 this artificial production here would be our salvation in 
 the future. If they have their own nitrate they will not 
 trouble to get possession of ours. 
 
 What does this author think of us in particular? 
 Here you can see: ''Chile and Brazil have a hybrid 
 population with little power of organization or of rigor- 
 ous assertion." This shows a supine ignorance so far 
 as our country is concerned. And of the Filipinos, what 
 does he say? ''We have given them a copy in minia- 
 ture of our American government, a Senate, a House 
 of Representatives, a Cabinet and all, which they use 
 much as a Hottentot would a high hat." 
 
 And this stupendous book by a professor of one of 
 the most famous American universities, ends with this 
 declaration of principles that could not be in more fla- 
 grant contradiction to all the previous pages. Speaking 
 of a possible objection that what both England and the 
 
IMPERIALISM 
 
 United States aim at in the present^^r is to put the 
 Anglo-Saxon on top in place of the Teuton, he replies: 
 
 *'No, what we want is the English principle on top 
 instead of the German. This principle is the principle 
 of fellowship, not of feudalism. It leaves each one free 
 to live his own life and think his own thoughts and go his 
 own ways, and to see the power and the greatness of fel- 
 lowship in this liberty of its members/' 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine is one of the greatest camouflages 
 of history. '' America for the Americans" is a tragic 
 sentence for us. The first word, *' America," means the 
 three Americas ; and the last word, ' * Americans, ' ' means 
 the inhabitants of the United States. 
 
 "We do not need so interested a tutor. This doctrine 
 never had the semblance of kindness and protection for 
 weak Latin America. It was, from the beginning, a 
 protection for the United States itself, which feared the 
 possession by Europeans of colonies on American soil 
 because this might place its own independence in danger. 
 If Mexico had become German they would have had to 
 fear that some day Washington or New York or San 
 Francisco would have to be German. The Monroe Doe- 
 trine will be in the future, as it has already begun to 
 be, the anesthetic to be used by Uncle Sam as he ampu- 
 tates Central America and South America. No doubt, 
 Americans are clever surgeons ! 
 
 What wonder, then, that South America should hate 
 the United States? This anecdote might well be a true 
 story: A Yankee asks a citizen of Ecuador : "Why do 
 you not clean up Guayaquil? Americans will not come 
 to such an insanitary spot." The Ecuadorian replies: 
 '*But we prefer the filth to the Americans." 
 
 J. Gamble Reighard writes in the Sunset review: 
 
68 THE GULF OF MISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 ''"Who said that the South Americans wished to be 
 Pan Americans? In the United States there are enthu- 
 siasts who write and speak as if the Latins were anxious 
 to form closer relations between our country and theirs 
 . . . Latin America has no wish to learn anything from 
 us ; they look for inspiration to the Latin nations of Eu- 
 rope, to which they are related by ties of race, by cul- 
 ture and by all natural sympathies. In speaking of 
 Latin America we ought never to lose sight of this es-" 
 sential fact: the fundamental difference of culture be- 
 tween the Southern Iberian and the Northern Anglo- 
 Saxon." 
 
 This is the truth. "We are two opposed worlds acci- 
 dentally bearing the same name. We have no more in 
 common than have William Taft, ex-president of the 
 United States, and William Hohenzollern, German 
 kaiser, only the name. 
 
 A matter for serious consideration is that Anglo- 
 Saxon America wishes to devour Latin America. The 
 United States have been comparatively slow in starting 
 the conquest of South America because they have been 
 so busy during the past century in conquering their own 
 continent. The same thing has happened in regard to 
 their industries. They did not look for foreign trade 
 in the beginning because they had first to supply their 
 own market. They had first to get rich by exploiting 
 their own resources. Now that they have satisfied their 
 needs in this respect they are looking about for foreign 
 markets to conquer. The same thing will happen in their 
 thirst for territorial conquest. The Monroe Doctrine 
 is this : A glutton who is eating his own plate of food 
 and has neither time nor hunger nor stomach to eat the 
 dish that he sees farther on. He understands that later 
 he will have time, hunger and stomach to partake of it 
 
IMPERIALISM m 
 
 and he says to those who might wish to help themselves : 
 **Let no one touch that dish." America for the Ameri- 
 cans ! We hope that the greedy one will not have digested 
 his first course until we are sufficiently strong to de- 
 fend ourselves. 
 
 How fortunate it is that Latin America for the most 
 part has kept herself neutral in this war. No matter 
 how much the great nations may protest to-day about 
 justice and equity when referring to the weaker nations, 
 we cannot be so innocent as to believe in them even when 
 in exceptioi'' al cases such protests are made in transient 
 good faitli 
 
 If we should declare in favor of the Allies and Ger- 
 many should triumph, the latter would take us after- 
 wards in her fist and squeeze us as one does a lemon; 
 if we should side with Germany we would be cut to pieces 
 quite as promptly by the Allies. And which side is going 
 to win? "W^e do not know. Whose triumph would be 
 to our advantage ? That of neither the one nor the other. 
 It would be better for South America that neither the 
 Allies nor Germany should triumph. Again, in a prob- 
 able future war between Japan and the United States 
 much less would it be to our advantage that either should 
 triumph. Men have a conscience, nations have none. 
 As Professor Powers saj^s in the book that I have men- 
 tioned: ''Doctrines do not determine destiny, but des- 
 tiny does determine doctrines." It is to our advan- 
 tage that there should be a balance of power in the 
 world, seeing that the world has no conscience. An 
 eqaiilibrium of nations is the only salvation, the only 
 security for small nations. When this balance of power 
 ceases, when a nation believes itself to be stronger, noth- 
 ing is respected. Belgiwrn, The great nations have in- 
 
70 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 vented a maxim that is above all moral codes: **The 
 vital interests of the country come first." Is there no 
 parallel in the world for the case of Belgium ? The rape 
 of Panama. 
 
 The balance of power among the great nations suits 
 us in order that the little ones should be respected. 
 For this reason, up to a certain point, South America 
 has been respected. The United States has kept us from 
 being conquered by Europe. Europe has defended us, 
 as far as she could, from being conquered by the United 
 States, and this state of affairs will continue if none of 
 the parties in the fight gain an absolutely definite victory, 
 only, of course, until the day arrives that is not far dis- 
 tant, in which we shall be respected for our own strength. 
 
 South America is the continent of the future and we 
 ourselves want to fashion this future according to our 
 temperament, according to our soul, according to our 
 idiosjmcrasy. Latin Americans will never mix with 
 Anglo-Saxon Americans. It is impossible, although there 
 should come thousands of thousands of the youth of 
 South America to study in the universities of the United 
 States, in order to transplant to our soil this civilization. 
 Because a nest of duck eggs are hatched out by a hen 
 they do not have to be chicks that break the egg-shells. 
 "We shall always keep our soul, our temperament. Oil 
 does not mix with water, and if it is attempted to force 
 the mixture, there will be a protest that may be violent 
 even on the part of the sensitive Latin American spirit. 
 
 Speaking of this I wish to say 
 
 Your husband who adores you 
 « » « 
 
IMPERIALISM 71 
 
 Miss Jones took very much to heart the task of an- 
 swering these letters. It seemed to her that she was 
 speaking to the whole of Latin America. Not only did 
 she retain a duplicate of her notes, but she also care- 
 fully copied the original letters from Chicago. At first 
 her idea had been to use many of the items for some fu- 
 ture work of her own, but when writing the follow- 
 ing comments, she began to see that the publication of 
 these letters themselves would make a useful book: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 This letter of your husband's has caused me the deep- 
 est regret, but I am well aware, nevertheless, that it 
 contains a synthesis of opinion held by many Latin 
 Americans with regard to my country. They distrust 
 and fear us. They think we are a menace to their peace 
 and their future. I believe, madam, that this distrust 
 and terror engenders the dislike and even the hate that 
 many feel toward us. 
 
 For my part, I entertain a great love for Latin 
 America. I believe this is because I know it so well, be- 
 cause I have studied it for j^ears, because I have read 
 ! its history, because I foresee its future, and because I 
 ' regard its problems from its own j)oint of view. I 
 know and I understand Latin America, and for these 
 reasons I love it. Our President, "Woodrow Wilson, in an 
 address which he delivered in Buffalo not long since 
 to the workingmen of my country, referred to a reply 
 of Charles Lamb when they asked him if he hated a 
 certain person of whom they were speaking. The cele- 
 brated English author replied: *'No, how could I hate 
 him if I know him ? ' ' 
 
 To know a person intimately, to penetrate into the 
 
72 TEE GULF OF 3IISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 deep recesses of his soul, to be able to interpret in the 
 light of all circumstances, every reflection, whether real 
 or fancied, every gesture, every action of a person, 
 signifies to have a close regard for that person. Katusha, 
 the fallen woman, condemned for a crime committed in 
 the house of ill fame where she plied her evil trade, was 
 intimately known by Prince Neckludoff, who followed 
 her into exile in Siberia, and he, a prince, loved that 
 woman and asked her to be his wife. The secret of 
 love is to know, to understand, to see beyond the super- 
 ficial fallacy of vision; and the secret for hating is to 
 ignore, to see all through a distorted lens and to willfully 
 reject the view bared in the radiant light of the noon- 
 day sun. 
 
 The Americas do not know each other. Any person 
 of culture in your country knows the history of Egypt, 
 but ignores completely our history, just as we ignore 
 the history of Latin America. This mutual ignorance 
 appears to have been officially fostered if we examine 
 the curricula of public schools and colleges in both 
 American continents. The result is that each forms 
 hasty judgments that are not based on reliable informa- 
 tion. 
 
 Your husb'and, madam, sees our country always 
 through a prism of suspicion and fear, and for that 
 reason all looks gloomy to him ; he interprets all by the 
 same stereotyped formula. He conceives an imperalis- 
 tic country, accepting a qualification by which they 
 refer to us quite commonly in Latin America. However, 
 the truth is that we are not imperialistic and every day 
 we are farther from being so. We are fighting to-day, 
 offering the blood of our best sons and the accumulated 
 
IMPERIALISM 73 
 
 fortunes of a century precisely to strangle foreign im- 
 perialism. 
 
 Your husband, my dear lady, has come to see even 
 in our name ''America" an intention of conquest. The 
 name is wrong. It is not improper to call ourselves the 
 ''United States of America," but wrong if we call our- 
 selves "Americans." This is due only to the difficulty 
 there is in giving us another name. It is easy to form 
 the name Argentine from Argentina, Chilean from Chile, 
 Brazilian from Brazil, but it is not so easy to coin a word 
 like "Unitedstatian" of America. On the other hand, 
 there are many names in history ill bestowed which re- 
 main as they are because custom sanctions it. The whole 
 American continent ought to be called Columbia and not 
 America, because it was Christopher Columbus, and not 
 Amerigo Vespucci, who discovered it. 
 
 We speak in America of the Orient, meaning the 
 lands of ancient civilization situated to the east of 
 Europe, because they are called by this name over 
 there; whereas we should really call this part of the 
 world the Occident, as it lies to the west of us. 
 
 The conquest of our continent from one sea to the 
 other has obeyed the necessity to which Mahan refers, 
 that of a more gifted people displacing the Indian who 
 lived on an inferior plane of civilization. 
 
 This conquest of our continent is parallel to the con- 
 quest made by you South Americans in your own con- 
 tinent. In this necessary struggle between the Indians 
 and the Americans there were doubtless less cruelties 
 than in the conquest of Mexico or of Peru. For some 
 time it was a general belief in Spain that the Indians 
 had no soul. 
 
 It is sufficient to see how our government treats the 
 
74 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Indians to-day, the schools created for them, the way 
 in which they are protected and helped in the develop- 
 ment of their properties, to understand that we know 
 our duty as a Christian nation toward these primitive 
 inhabitants of the soil. To-day there are nearly ten 
 thousand Indians enrolled in our army and navy^ al- 
 most every one of whom has gone voluntarily to fight 
 for his country. Last year it was calculated that there 
 were some three hundred and forty thousand Indians in 
 my country, surely many more than inhabited the land 
 when the first colonists landed here. These Indians un- 
 questionably live a better life than they ever lived be- 
 fore the European colonization. 
 
 It is not my desire to make odious comparisons, but 
 we must admit that Latin America has not yet taken 
 seriously its obligations toward the indigenous inhabi- 
 tant in each of those countries. There are countries like 
 Bolivia where they sell them along with, the live stock 
 of an estate. Much that is done there for the benefit of 
 those poor Indians is due to the initiative, sacrifices, 
 devotion and money of our people. "We have mission- 
 aries, men and women, even in the heart of your own 
 country, madam. These missionaries of both sexes go 
 to live in those solitudes, in the midst of the Indians, not 
 for tlie sake of an income, which is ridiculously small, 
 but urged by an overwhelming desire to serve the hum- 
 blest of the human race. 
 
 It seems absurd that a South American, in judging 
 us, should advance as proof of our imperialism tlie 
 conquest of our continent in the struggle with the 
 original inhabitants. As for our foreign expansion, there 
 is more than a little to say in our defense, and I hope 
 
IMPERIALISM 75 
 
 that you are sufficiently interested to attend to what I 
 have to say. 
 
 In the Monroe Doctrine your husband sees a tragic 
 menace for the future of Latin America, and he stamps 
 it as having had an ulterior motive from its very be- 
 ginning. I agree that the Monroe Doctrine was dictated 
 partly for the security of our own country. It was 
 also in part for our own sake. When a millionaire 
 founds a hospital, and endows it for the express purpose 
 of combating the plague of cancer, is it not also to his 
 personal interest and to that of his family that the dis- 
 ease should diminish in his city or his country, and that 
 they should be safeguarded by the experience and re- 
 search which he has promoted ? Does it lessen the merit 
 of his philanthropy if, reciprocally, he and his family 
 should benefit by it? Every good action toward others re- 
 flects upon the benefactor as there is reflected in a mir- 
 ror the face of one who looks in it. The United States was 
 with Latin America in its campaign for independence, 
 and decided later to uphold that independence. The Mon- 
 roe Doctrine has been of service to South America. It 
 has been an easy pillow upon which the Latin American 
 continent has been able to rest its head quietly during 
 its childhood and flrst youth. When no longer needed, 
 it will be relegated to oblivion, just as the cradle is sent 
 to the lumber room when it is no longer needed by the 
 little one. 
 
 Your husband quotes the words of Professor H. H. 
 Powers to prove that we consider the Monroe Doctrine 
 an acknowledgment of our protectorate over Latin 
 America. If there has been any subject among us specu- 
 lated upon and discussed it is just this Monroe Doctrine. 
 In almost any gathering of persons who discuss this 
 
76 TEE GULF OF 3IISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 , doctrine there are as many opinions as there are differ- 
 ent kinds of raiment. To the interpretation of Profes- 
 sor Powers' line of thought as exposed in such stupen- 
 dous citations as your husband quotes, may I not contrast 
 that of our own ex-President Roosevelt, considered even 
 by your husband the most imperialistic of Americans. 
 He says the following in his autobiography : 
 
 ''The Monroe Doctrine lays down the rule that the 
 "Western Hemisphere is not hereafter to be treated as 
 subject to settlement and occupation by Old World 
 powers. It is not international law ; but it is a cardinal 
 principle of our foreign policy. There is no difficulty 
 at the present day in maintaining this doctrine, save 
 where the American power whose interest is threatened 
 has shown itself in international matters both weak and 
 delinquent. The great and prosperous civilized com- 
 monwealths, such as the Argentine, Brazil, and Chile, 
 in the Southern half of South America, have advanced 
 so far that they no longer stand in any position of 
 tutelage toward the United States. They occupy to- 
 ward us precisely the position that Canada occupies. 
 Their friendship is the friendship of equals for equals. 
 My view was (and is, because Mr. Roosevelt has repeated 
 this on several occasions) that as regards these nations 
 there was no more necessity for asserting the Monroe 
 Doctrine than there was to assert it for themselves. Of 
 course, if one of these nations, or if Canada, should be 
 overcome by some Old World power, which then pro- 
 ceeded to occupy its territory, we would undoubtedly, 
 if the American nation needed our help, give it in order 
 to prevent such occupation from taking place. But 
 the initiative would come from the nation itself, and the 
 United States would merely act as a friend whose help 
 was invoked. The case was (and is) widely different 
 as regards certain — not all — of the tropical states in 
 the neighborhood of the Caribbean sea. Where these 
 states are stable and prosperous, they stand on a foot- 
 
IMPERIALISM 77 
 
 ing of absolute equality with all other communities. 
 But some of them have been a prey to such continuous 
 revolutionary misrule as to have grown impotent either 
 to do their duties to outsiders or to enforce their rights 
 against outsiders. The United States has not the slight- 
 est desire to make aggressions on any one of these 
 states. On the contrary, it will submit to much from 
 them without showing resentment. If any great civil- 
 ized power, Russia or Germany, for instance, had be- 
 haved toward us as Venezuela under Castro behaved, 
 this country would have gone to war at once. "We did 
 not go to war with Venezuela merely because our people 
 declined to be irritated by the actions of a weak oppo- 
 nent, and showed a forbearance which probably went 
 beyond the limits of wisdom in refusing to take umbrage 
 at what was done by the weak, although we would cer- 
 tainly have resented it had it been done by the strong. ' ' 
 
 It is important, madam, that you take into con- 
 sideration that our constitution prohibits acquisition of 
 territory by conquest, for which reason, Florida, the 
 Philippines and Panama, like Louisiana and Alaska, have 
 all been territories that we have bought and paid for. 
 Even in the cases of our victorious wars we have amazed 
 the world in that we, the conquering nation, have paid 
 indemnities. I do not believe there is another countrj^ 
 in the world whose constitution is so stamped with this 
 principle of international honor. On surrendering 
 Alsace-Lorraine France had to pay to Prussia the highest 
 indemnity that had been paid in the world up to that 
 date, and this in a war provoked by the victors. Eng- 
 land, France and Germany have colonized in thirty years 
 nine million two hundred and fifty thousand square 
 miles of territory, containing one hundred and thirty- 
 nine million souls, which is equivalent to a domain 
 larger than all Central and South America, and con- 
 
78 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 taming nearly twice the population of all Latin America. 
 It is true that some of the purchases of territory made 
 by my country have been forced: for instance, the ter- 
 ritory which we bought from Mexico following the war 
 which brought about the annexation of Texas, a State 
 which had already made itself independent and had re- 
 peatedly asked to be taken over. 
 
 We, as a country, in our already long history, have 
 committed errors and injustices, both in domestic as 
 well as in our foreign policy. Where is the man who 
 has not committed such errors? In our former rela- 
 tions with South and Central America there can be cited 
 cases of actuations that redound to our discredit. This 
 our present political leaders constantly recognize. 
 
 How have these injustices occurred? Moneyed in- 
 terests have, on several occasions, secured objectives 
 abroad that were opposed to the principles of stainless 
 morality. In reading our history, as in reading the 
 history of any other country throughout the record of 
 mankind, we find on strict investigation, ever the struggle 
 between justice and unlawfully acquired privileges. Our 
 country cannot be an exception to this universal law, and 
 also there have been and there are still such unjust 
 privileges among us. Great corporations have been 
 able to laugh at justice and to carry on unlawful busi- 
 ness within our country, in defiance of the rights of 
 our citizens. Who can doubt that trusts like these 
 would be successful in their perverse way when ex- 
 tending operations to foreign parts? This has been 
 responsible in the past for a foreign policy at times 
 unjust. It led us to the annexation of Texas and to 
 the war with Mexico, strenuously resisted by the moral 
 forces of the North. That was a triumph of evil in our 
 
IMPERIALISM 79 
 
 domestic struggles between good and evil. It is the 
 reason why Plenry Clay was not elected President in 
 the campaign that gave the office of Chief Executive 
 to Polk. The annexation of the Mexican territories to 
 our country was an imposition of the slave interests. 
 It was triumph, with reverberation abroad, of undue 
 privileges, just as other privileged interests have often 
 triumphed in internal affairs, to the detriment of our 
 own citizens. 
 
 But any one can see, comparing with the past, that 
 justice is getting the upper hand against these privileges 
 in internal affairs. Our present tendency is carrying us 
 toward the nationalization of all public utility industries 
 that involve privileges, such as railroads, telegraphs, 
 telephones, the merchant marine, river commerce, and 
 surely, later on, mines and other natural resources. From 
 now on there will be less to fear from the foreign policy 
 of the United States than in the past. 
 
 If there are examples in our history of an interna*- 
 tional policy at variance with morality, such as can be 
 explained in the way I have just indicated, we can, 
 nevertheless, offer many more examples in which we have 
 proceeded according to a moral code higher than that 
 of other great powers. A case in point was the conduct 
 of President Wilson in the combined action of England, 
 Germany, France and Japan regarding China. In this 
 instance our country was opposed to the interests of 
 our capitalists and in defense of the purest interna- 
 tional ethics. 
 
 My dear madam: in no other country in the world 
 is there being waged such a fight against interests 
 which abuse their power as that in which we are en- 
 gaged; and as imperialistic wars are always dictated 
 
80 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 by these interests, the conclusion is natural that our 
 country will henceforth be less involved in unjust wars 
 than in the past. 
 
 Nevertheless, madam, when hastily analyzing some ar- 
 bitrary act, we are liable, instinctively, to darken the 
 colors of accusation and to fail to give due consideration 
 to extenuating circumstances or justification on the part 
 of the aggressor. I wish to analyze for you the two cases 
 to which your husband refers: those of Panama and 
 of the Philippine Islands. The truth in these respects 
 is little known in Latin America, as I have had ample 
 occasion to notice in my journeys through those coun- 
 tries. 
 
 To compare the case of Panama with that of Belgium 
 is possible only with an unfathomable ignorance of 
 history. The construction of the Panama Canal was 
 a necessity felt by the whole world since Balboa first 
 crossed the isthmus with his dauntless companions in 
 adventure. This is obvious to any one who glances 
 at the map of the world. 
 
 France, impelled by the genius of de Lesseps, construc- 
 tor of the Suez Canal, tried to carry out this enterprise. 
 The immense capital and genius of France failed signally 
 in the attempt. 
 
 The United States, by means of the Hay-Pauncefote 
 treaty, acquired, as far as Europe was concerned, the 
 right to take up the work that had been begun by the 
 Old World. The government of my country hesitated 
 as to whether they should open the proposed route 
 through Nicaragua or through Panama, the first country 
 being independent and the second a part of the Re- 
 public of Colombia. Both Nicaragua and Colombia 
 used every effort to induce us to give them the prefer- 
 
IMPERIALISM 81 
 
 ence. The experts appointed by Roosevelt to report on 
 the matter gave their decision in favor of Panama. 
 
 At the request of Colombia, the Hay-Herran treaty 
 was celebrated, conceding to us the right to construct 
 a canal across the isthmus. As a matter of fact, the Re- 
 public of New Granada, the predecessor of Colombia, had 
 guaranteed us this right since 1848. But Colombia main- 
 tained a continual state of anarchy. Then came the im- 
 prisonment and death of President San Clemente and 
 the dictatorship of Marroquin. This despot believed he 
 could disregard the Hay-Herran treaty, and so gain time 
 to allow for the expiration of the contract with the 
 French company of Panama, whereupon he could lay 
 claim to the forty million dollars that the United States 
 was to pay to the French company. 
 
 Not only was my country, under the presidency of 
 Roosevelt, highly indignant at this treatment, but also 
 in no lesser degree was Panama, where all wished ar- 
 dently for the i^rompt opening of the canal that was 
 to benefit this region in so many ways. Naturally this 
 provoke4 » revolution in Panama. I say naturally, 
 madam, because Panama was accustomed to revolutions. 
 From 1850 to 1902 there had been fifty-three revolutions 
 or attempts at such in Panama ; tliat is to say there had 
 been one revolt each year. Panama brought forth revo- 
 lutions as naturally as an apple tree bears apples every 
 fall. 
 
 Ex-President Roosevelt maintains that it is by no 
 means a fact that he provoked this last triumphant revo- 
 lution of Panama. What he did was to refrain from 
 helping Colombia to reestablish order, as he had helped 
 on former occasions; and he believed that he had good 
 cause for such abstention, given the conduct of Colombia. 
 
82 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 This revolution broke out just at the time when Roose- 
 velt had prepared a message to Congress asking for the 
 relinquishment of the Panama Canal project unless 
 they were prepared to pass measures compelling Colom- 
 bia to respect its contracts. In spite of this, a treaty 
 of friendship with Colombia is pending in the Senate, 
 in which the independence of Panama is recognized, and 
 by which my country pays twenty-five million dollars for 
 the Canal Zone. This is over and above the compensa- 
 tion previously given to the Republic of Panama. This 
 treaty will be approved because it has the support of 
 public opinion. 
 
 The Latin Americans, in general, know but one version 
 of the history of the canal and certainly that version 
 presents a hard case. I have studied this problem 
 carefully and sympathetically and with a leaning in 
 favor of Colombia, and I have found that my country 
 has conducted itself most honorably. We Americans 
 have always been indifferent to the opinions that for- 
 eigners have of us and therefore have never cared to 
 defend ourselves when attacked unjustly beyond our 
 own borders, and I believe 'that this idiosyncrasy has 
 had fatal consequences^ as it is what most has separated 
 the two Americas. 
 
 Neither has the case of the Philippine Islands been 
 properly explained to our neighbors of the other 
 America. Those who burn the midnight oil have given 
 many reasons for our war with Spain. This war was 
 not waged with any idea of conquest, but only to put 
 an end to the oppression by the Spaniards in Cuba 
 after that island had been fighting for years for the 
 independence that its Iberian sisters had achieved. The 
 struggle at our very gates was unequal and bloody. 
 
IMPERIALISM 83 
 
 If at the door of your house, madam, a big man is 
 abusing a little boy, would you and your husband re- 
 main impassive, contemplating the fight? We did not 
 remain impassive. The blowing up of the Maine was as 
 if the two combatants' in the unequal fight had broken a 
 window in your house. The explosion of the Maine was 
 like the tragedy of Sarajevo in the present world war, 
 the insignificant, immediate and determining cause. 
 
 My country interfered to secure Cuban independence, 
 a thing that it accomplished. No other nation of the 
 world has respected thus its pledged word in interna- 
 tional obligations of this sort. Did England respect 
 hers in Egj^pt? 
 
 The fact that the Spaniards had warships in the 
 Philippines with which they could blockade our com- 
 merce, made us fight in Manila and take from the 
 Spaniards their possessions of the Pacific ; possessions as 
 unjustly and cruelly governed as the same Island of 
 Cuba. It has not been and is not our wish to keep 
 these islands, but in undertaking to give them their 
 independence, we have not specified a fixed date, pre- 
 ferring to give the Filipinos sufficient time to prepare 
 themselves for free and independent citizenship. Even 
 when the Filipinos are ready and desirous to exercise 
 the rights of citizenship, I doubt whether we should ac- 
 cept them as citizens of the United States rather than 
 see them independent. 
 
 No efforts have been spared by the United States to 
 prepare the Philippine Islands for their own govern- 
 ment. What have we left undone to help their in- 
 habitants to advance as a race, as a people, and not as 
 tools of their North American rulers? We brought 
 in the first place hundreds of young Filipinos to be 
 
84 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 trained in our country as teachers of their own race. 
 The educational work carried out by us there has no 
 precedent in the history of those islands, nor in the 
 history of any colony of any country. Egypt is an 
 English protectorate, Egypt has eleven million inhab- 
 itants and the Philippine Islands eight million. Egypt 
 has two hundred and eighty-one thousand children in 
 its schools, and the Philippine Islands have six hundred 
 and ten thousand. This educational work, let it be said 
 in passing, the American carries with him wherever he 
 goes, with an unquenchable faith. In Alaska, the region 
 of the eternal snows, in the cities near the pole, it has 
 created schools for the Esquimaux; and the adult Es- 
 quimau attends night school at Shismareff, in the north- 
 east of Alaska. 
 
 Professor Powers may say what he pleases of the 
 American policy in the Philippine Islands; he may 
 say that our attempt to teach them free government is 
 like putting a silk dress on a hippopotamus. But he un- 
 accountably forgets that he is dealing witli facts, though 
 he claims to do so in every chapter of his book; and 
 this American idealism, this American faith in education 
 is for us an Aladdin's lamp, a fact and a reality in spite 
 of Professor Powers, who, without realizing it, fre- 
 quently poses as a preacher of imperialism, instead of 
 being, as he pretends to be, a commentator or expounder 
 of existing realities. One should not allow one's self 
 to be carried away by a writer who has fallen in love 
 with a bit of colored glass through which he sees the 
 sea, the mountains and the sky, all of the same color. It 
 is a fact, madam, that as much in deciding problems 
 of internal import as in its foreign affairs, our country 
 raises its moral standard higher each day that passes. 
 
IMPERIALISM 85 
 
 This can be seen crystallized in President Wilson's 
 policy which has dictated a new international code 
 to the world. Certainly the American nation would not 
 have been provoked into entering this struggle with the 
 Central Empires if it had not believed that therein 
 were involved principles of justice and morality. 
 
 One more example of our so-called Imperialism will 
 suffice to illustrate my point. There is a case in which 
 the Senate of the United States refused to accept the 
 annexation of a Latin American territory after the in- 
 habitants had actually voted in favor of it. From 1844 
 until 1861 the Dominican Republic was an independent 
 state, and was, in the latter year, annexed to Spain, only 
 to obtain its independence once again in 1865. It was 
 the wish of President Grant to annex the country to the 
 United States, and a treaty to that effect was ratified 
 by the Dominican people. This treaty was rejected by 
 the American Senate by a tie vote. 
 
 The growing interest of the multitude in international 
 affairs; Wilson's new plea for a diplomacy open to 
 the bright sunshine, recommended for some time past by 
 many American writers; the frank incorporation of 
 the feminine conscience in affairs of state; the greater 
 influence of the workingman in governmental decisions, 
 even to the point where Presidents and Ministers of 
 State have to persuade and convince instead of driving 
 them; all this indicates that imperialism will be an ex- 
 tinct social species in the second half of the twentieth 
 century, just as the Megatherium is an extinct animal 
 in our age; and, madam, the death blow will be dealt 
 by the United States. Your husband is right in say- 
 ing that the world has no conscience, but the truth is 
 
86 TEE OULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 that my country is making powerful contributions to- 
 ward supplying the omission. 
 
 A new world is coming into existence: the epoch of 
 recognition of the individual. The twentieth century 
 recognizes the strength, the worth of the individual, and 
 believes in the greatest expansion of every heart, of 
 every brain and of every conscience. This century will 
 be called the century of Democracy. 
 
 No matter, madam, that the Latin Americans will 
 never mix with the Anglo Americans, as your husband 
 says; no matter that we have different temperaments 
 and a different idiosyncrasy. So are the peoples of Asia 
 and those of Europe different. But this does not mean 
 that in the world we cannot entertain a mutual respect 
 nor all cooperate in the work of progress, of truth, of 
 justice and in beautifying the planet that is our com- 
 mon home. A jasmine flower cannot be grafted onto a 
 rose bush. Each plant has its own peculiar life, and 
 takes in varied proportions its food from the common 
 soil, and their respective flowers have different colors 
 and a different fragrance to perfume the air. The 
 different peoples and races of this great garden of man- 
 kind, madam, are distinct plants of different colors and 
 perfume, destined in a none too distant future to enfold 
 the earth in an atmosphere of tranquil and radiant 
 beauty. I say a garden, and not a natural virgin for- 
 est, because the garden is man's work and the forest 
 where laws of brute nature alone have their sway pre- 
 sents to us the case of a giant tree spreading imperialistic 
 foliage to deprive its weaker rivals of the sunlight. 
 
 Please do not believe, dear lady, by what I have said 
 that these notes are intended to uphold the pacifist who 
 lays down his arms, trusting tliat the world is, or 
 
IMPERIALISM 87 
 
 will be, actuated only by principles of justice in its inter- 
 national relations, but looking at the history of man- 
 kind in general, we have to recognize that the trend is 
 in that direction. See how every nation now seeks to 
 justify its warfare as defensive, whereas in ancient 
 times no pretext for conquest was considered necessary. 
 But the truth is, the principles of individual morality 
 accepted by every nation as binding within its bound- 
 aries are replaced by blind egotism when treating of in- 
 ternational relations. H. H. Powers is right, in a way ; 
 but in prophesying the future he does not see the new 
 forces which will be in the way of future wars and will 
 make unjust wars impossible on the part of my country. 
 By the great affection I feel for Latin America, and 
 because I understand it better than most of my country- 
 men, I recommend j^ou to arm yourselves to the full 
 extent of your ability. After this war is over sad times 
 are surely coming for the world. But while she 'arms, 
 Latin America needs to develop itself educationally and 
 economically. I do not forget that Brazil alone is bigger, 
 territorially, than my country, excluding Alaska, and 
 that it has as many or more natural resources than the 
 United States. Chile, although so small, is a country 
 whose mountains are in great part made of iron, and 
 whose subsoil, in enormous extensions, is of coal. As 
 these are the magnets of civilization, it will come to pass 
 that great industrial centers will make of Chile a dense 
 manufacturing country. Your country will make itself 
 respected not for its natural undeveloped riches and its 
 untrained population, but by the natural resources that 
 are put to good use, which implies education of the 
 people who develop these riches. China, with immense 
 natural resources, and with an enormous population has 
 
88 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 not been able to make itself respected. Traditional 
 fanaticism has impeded their penetrating to the depths 
 of the earth and therefore its great deposits of iron only 
 now are about to be exploited. 
 
 I firmly believe that yonr hnsband is mistaken when 
 he advocates the idea that the South American countries 
 should forbid the development of the natural resources 
 of their territories by foreign nations, and by my coun- 
 try in particular. 
 
 It is precisely capital that Latin America needs for 
 its development. Capital has to come from the financial 
 centers of the world. In importing such capital the 
 younger nations give material and moral impetus to the 
 dormant national forces. Seclusion in this epoch of 
 internationalism is like the Chinese fanaticism that pre- 
 vents the opening up of the entrails of the earth. To 
 prevent foreign capital from carrying away too much of 
 the national wealth, the Latin American governments 
 ought, in mj^ opinion, always to be partners or stock- 
 holders in these great foreign enterprises that are ex- 
 ploiting your natural resources, and to invest the re- 
 spective incomes in the education of all your citizens. 
 
 I do not believe that the American who has brought 
 and will in future bring his industrial enterprise to 
 Latin America should necessarily be hated there. I 
 know of many cases in which they are admired and be- 
 loved. Your husband loses no opportunity to illustrate 
 his points with jest and anecdote, taking for granted 
 that these have a basis of truth, however great the 
 exaggeration that makes us laugh. This method is some- 
 what risky. I could also illustrate my statements with 
 jokes and stories which, by analysis, would show no 
 foundation of truth. That you may see the method is not 
 
IMPERIALISM 89 
 
 seductive, I am going to top tlie story of the Ecuadorian 
 who preferred filth to Americans, with an anecdote I 
 heard in South America. 
 
 A South American lady — I shall not say of what 
 country — went to see a doctor because her leg pained her 
 sorely. The doctor asked to see the leg uncovered so 
 that he could examine it. The lady blushed and refused 
 to permit it. Thinking that it was a case of bashfulness, 
 the doctor insisted, whereupon the young lady admitted 
 at last, red with shame : ' ' To-morrow, doctor, I am not 
 prepared." The doctor understood, and told her that 
 she might return the following day. The next day the 
 doctor on examining the leg, and seeing nothing much 
 the matter with it, wished to compare it with the other. 
 Blushing again, the girl replied once more : ' ' To-morrow, 
 doctor, I am not prepared." 
 
 "Would it not be cruel to make a deduction from this 
 story, madam? Let us pair off and forget the two 
 anecdotes, the one about filth preferred to Americans, 
 and that of the South American girl who was not pre- 
 pared. 
 
 Having studied well the two continents, we must come 
 to the conclusion that the principal difference between 
 the two Americas is in the more retarded evolution by 
 Latin America. With the material and economic edu- 
 cational advancement of Latin America, the differences 
 between our two civilizations are disappearing. I be- 
 lieve that the future activities of my countrj^ in the re- 
 publics of the South are destined to bring about a greater 
 evolutionary progress than that realized by European 
 action. The American carries his spirit of progress 
 wherever he goes. Note the case of the great plants 
 for the extraction of copper in your country: Chuqui- 
 
90 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 camata, El Teniente and Potrerillos. The only place in 
 Chile where the consumption of alcohol is not permitted 
 is El Teniente of the Braden Copper Co. At Chuqui- 
 camata, of the Chile Exploration Company, in regions 
 formerly desolate, at ten thousand feet above the level 
 of the sea, in the midst of a desert, Chileans have the 
 best school of democracy. Not only has the American 
 taken to this place a hundred million dollars, creating an 
 industry that could not be made by Chilean capital, and 
 giving life to a dead region, but an example is here shown 
 to all the rest of the country of how to regard the human 
 element in large modern industrial works. In a word, 
 we are exporting copper from Chile and importing de- 
 mocracy to Chile. This will apply to all Latin America, 
 day by day, on a larger scale. 
 
 A Latin America evolutionized to the diapason of 
 the century 's advancement, a Latin America that cannot 
 truthfully be taunted with a seventy per cent illiteracy, 
 a thirty per mil mortality or a consumption of thirteen 
 quarts of pure alcohol per head, will command respect 
 because the banishment of illiteracy, the decrease in the 
 death rate and higher culture bring in their trail added 
 wealth, greater strength, better defense and more se- 
 curity. 
 
 Pardon, madam, this very long postscript to your hus- 
 band's letter, and believe me to be 
 
 Your Sincere Friend from Another Continent. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 BLACK AND WHITE 
 
 s 
 
 HORTLT after sending off the foregoing notes, an- 
 other letter arrived at the Censor's Office, which 
 Miss Jones read with eager interest: 
 
 Chicago, 111., 1918. 
 
 My dearest : 
 
 I have spoken to you at length about Yankee im- 
 perialism and of its external ambitions but here within 
 there is also another imperialism. Not only have the 
 United States colonies in distant seas ; they have colonies 
 on their own continent. They have imported colonies. 
 Afroyankeeland is the great interior colony of this 
 country, and never in the world's history has a colony 
 been treated with more rigor and cruelty. 
 
 The Yankees have enriched our language with several 
 very significant words representing ideas purely their 
 own, such as ^' bluff" and ''lynch." Lynch! In other 
 countries this word has not been coined, simply because 
 it has not been needed. One cannot think of negroes 
 without thinking of lynch law, just as one cannot think 
 of fire w^ithout smoke. 
 
 The United States has about twelve million negroes, 
 though some claim that the number reaches sixteen 
 
 91 
 
92 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 million, if all those with some taint of African blood 
 are inchided. These negroes are not intruders who 
 have come to invade America of their own free will. 
 The thirst for gold of the primitive planters brought 
 them by main force from the Dark Continent, and here 
 used them as beasts of burden. These negroes were 
 hunted like wild animals on the coasts of Guinea. At 
 first the captains of slave ships engaged in the hunt 
 themselves, but centers were soon established along the 
 African coast where negroes were purchased from the 
 chiefs of the slave-hunting tribes. These centers were 
 called slave markets. Once on board, the slaves were 
 chained in couples and transported under much worse 
 conditions than those now accorded to animals. Many 
 succeeded in jumping overboard with their chains, pre- 
 ferring death to the fate awaiting them. A captain 
 always counted upon losing by involuntary death or 
 from suicide a fourth part of his cargo of negroes, but 
 the trade was always remunerative, since back in the 
 year 1700 an adult negro v/as salable at from one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five to two hundred dollars ; boys bring- 
 ing from fifty to sixty. 
 
 Soon the business of raising negroes grew in this 
 country, on the same basis as breeding pigs and sheep. 
 Virginia and Maryland were famous for their breeds of 
 negroes, and healthy negro women were sold and forced 
 to produce offspring with any male whom the master of 
 the plantation might select. 
 
 That is to say, these negroes of the United States 
 came from Africa neither of their own free will, nor 
 with pleasure, nor were those born here called to life 
 by the yearnings of maternity, but by the ssrdid avarice 
 of the American planter. 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 93 
 
 "When -universal conscience abolished slavery on the 
 face of the earth (and Chile, our country, was the first 
 to abolish it in America) the United States had to abolish 
 it also. This act of emancipation came later in the 
 United States than in almost all Central and South 
 American countries. Furthermore, when this country 
 snatched from Mexico part of her territories, a conse- 
 quence of the war over Texas, they implanted slaverj^ in 
 the once Mexican territories, where it had already been 
 abolished. 
 
 And I believe with many thinkers, that the abolition 
 of slavery in the United States was not the dictate 
 of a collective superior conscience, but an economic strug- 
 gle between the States of the North and the States of 
 the South. The slave States could use negroes to good 
 advantage on their cotton plantations, whereas the non- 
 slave States of the North could not employ them in their 
 industries, in which an ability was required that they did 
 not possess. Therefore, I believe that it has not been 
 a spirit of justice and humanity that has inspired the 
 abolition of slavery in this country. 
 
 At all events, I believe that the negroes would live 
 happier to-day by returning to the slavery they "en- 
 joyed" before. Every slave master would care for 
 them, at least as much as he cares to-day for his cattle ; 
 for it is only too true that the present condition of the 
 negro is unbearable, and a disgrace to the United States. 
 The prerogative of manhood is denied them here. 
 
 In nearly all States a negro may not marry a white 
 woman, nor vice versa, under penalty of fine, imprison- 
 ment and absolute nullity of the marriage. I have read 
 of a divorce granted to a married couple, happy until 
 then, because a child born had crisp, curly hair and 
 
94 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 thick lips, indicating by this treacherous atavism that 
 the mother — who appeared white, and who believed her- 
 self to be white, and who her husband thought was white 
 — had had among her progenitors one with a few drops 
 of African blood in his veins. 
 
 Negroes may not travel in southern States in rail- 
 road cars used by the whites, nor are they received 
 in hotels except those reserved exclusively for the col- 
 ored race, nor may they attend the same schools as the 
 whites. In the cemeteries blacks and whites must not 
 rest together. The case has been cited of a mother who 
 was not permitted to rest in eternal sleep beside her 
 children on account of recent restrictions regarding the 
 burial of whites and blacks in the same cemeteries. 
 Why! there are buildings that have separate elevators 
 for whites and blacks; you may enter one with a dog, 
 but not with a negro. The negro is considered as a leper. 
 If a negro buys a house in a white district even of a 
 northern city like New York or Chicago (which the 
 whites try to prevent at all costs), the contaminated 
 district may be considered as dead for the whites; the 
 value of all property in the vicinity falls immediately. 
 Sometimes, real-estate firms take advantage of this 
 method to depress the value of the property in a deter- 
 mined ■ section of the city. They bring negroes to re- 
 side there temporarily, and pocket huge profits by means 
 of heavy purchases effected during the transitory slump 
 in price which they have brought about themselves. 
 Even the Trade Unions, with their famous proletarian 
 solidarity, keep the negro at a distance. In Chicago no 
 negro is permitted to become a member of the white 
 workmen 's associations. 
 
 It has been found impossible to send them all to 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 95 
 
 certain States intended exclusively for them, nor eonld 
 tliey be transported en masse to the Philippines or to 
 Liberia ; therefore, they live in -the same cities as the 
 whites and are seen everywhere, but do not even pray 
 together since it has been found necessary to build 
 separate churches for the negroes. Here there is a black 
 Christ for the African Americans and a white Christ 
 for the European Americans. A negro may distinguish 
 himself greatly as did the famous Booker T. Washing- 
 ton; he may even arrive at a position of extreme emi- 
 nence, but the country will make an outcry if the Presi- 
 dent should ask him to dinner — England makes no out- 
 cry when the same negro is received by the King at 
 Buckingham Palace. 
 
 And what is a negro? All the rivers in the world, 
 the Amazon and the Mississippi, the Danube and the 
 Nile, the Yangtse Kiang and the Orinoco, the thousands 
 and thousands of rivers in the world that throw their 
 fresh water into the sea do not sweeten the water of 
 the ocean; but one drop of negro blood that falls into 
 the veins of a white man is enough to blacken entirely 
 the man, his children, his grandchildren and his great- 
 grandchildren. In Alabama the law says that a negro 
 is one who has received black blood in any of the last 
 five generations. 
 
 Here the life of a negro is less respected than that 
 of a dog. The newspapers tell day by day, as the most 
 natural thing in the world, the news that a negro 
 has been lynched. To lynch means to kill a defenseless 
 man at the hands of a blood thirsty mob. This process 
 takes many forms: beating to death, stoning, hanging 
 the victim to a tree and even burning alive. 
 
 These lynchings are sometimes perpetrated on one 
 
86 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 man, at other times on a great number. Not long ago 
 there was a collective lynching in St. Louis. It was 
 a St. Bartholomew of negroes. Spurred on by an un- 
 justified agitation against them, the whites in a furious 
 mob sought the negro quarters to wipe out the meek 
 African population. In the pitiless massacre men, 
 women and children fell. The white women, ladies, 
 incited the assassins, and themselves used pins which 
 they buried in the naked flesh of the despairing victims, 
 who made heroic efforts to defend themselves. I did 
 not witness this ; it occurred just before I arrived here, 
 but I read about it in their own papers and magazines 
 which had no motive in exaggerating the facts of this 
 incident, but rather to conceal them. 
 
 Do not suppose that these a.!re exceptional cases; 
 they are of a frequency that makes them chronic. In 
 Pine Bluff, a small village of Arkansas, there was on 
 one occasion a dispute between white and black work- 
 men. One fine day the white workers placarded the 
 streets with posters bearing inscriptions that could be 
 seen in the full light of the noonday sun by their black 
 fellow workers: '^Negroes, take care. We 7ieed your 
 jobs. We give you two weeks to leave the village or else 
 suffer the penalty of death.' ^ The unhappy creatures 
 had either to obey or die. 
 
 In order that you may realize that the spirit of 
 this lynch-law is in the souls of this people and that 
 nobody can wrench it out, I will tell you that in the 
 1903 conferences at the famous summer University of 
 Chautauqua, one, Mr. John Temple Graves, of Atlanta, 
 Georgia, proposed to his audience the legalization of 
 lynch-law in the United States. ''Why not make lynch- 
 ing legitimate by law?" he said. ''Lynching must con- 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 97 
 
 tinue at all events ; why not give legal authority to the 
 masses ? Why not provide them with the means of doing 
 instantly and legally what they will do anyhow in 
 defiance of the law?'^ And in this way the orator con- 
 tinued to expound his thesis, himself an enthusiastic ad- 
 herent of the right to lynch. 
 
 Of course! As lynchings cannot be abolished, the 
 only way in which these assaults can be saved from con- 
 stituting an act of anarchy, and so safeguard the honor 
 of American democracy, is to give the multitude, the 
 mob, legal authority to lynch. What? Judges appointed 
 by the people ? No, the people themselves accuser, judge, 
 and executioner. Is not this government of the people, 
 by the people and for the people? 
 
 The spectacle of lynchings is unknown in the other 
 countries of the world. It is a manifestation of the 
 internal imperialism of the United States. And the 
 imperialism of a democracy is the worst kind of im- 
 perialism. The individual believes himself all power- 
 ful, even to break laws and mete out justice to him- 
 self. 
 
 Can anything more cowardly than lynching be im- 
 agined? It cannot even be compared with the Spanish 
 fight of the toreador with the enraged beast. To- 
 gether we attended a bull fight in Madrid. Do you 
 remember? You almost fainted. And that horrible 
 spectacle is the fight of a man against a furious animal, 
 stronger than he. The aggressor runs all the risks 
 of the struggle and often dies in the contest. Although 
 the bull-fight is cruel (and I rejoice to think that we 
 have not accepted it from old Spain, our mother coun- 
 try), the sacrifice of a lusty bull at the hands of a 
 fighter w^hom he may kill cannot be compared with the 
 
98 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 sacrifice of a defenseless man at the hands of a fnrious 
 mob armed with stones and sticks. 
 
 Further back in history, in the days of ancient Eome, 
 another savage spectacle flourished ; the contest of gladi- 
 ators ; neither can this feature of national cruelty, which 
 has placed an opprobrious stamp on Eoman civilization, 
 be compared with the American spectacle of lynchings. 
 In the Roman arena it was a fight of man to man, a 
 combat of muscles; in the American public square it is 
 an armed mob against a defenseless person. At first the 
 gladiators were recruited among criminals condemned to 
 death or penal servitude by the laws of the Republic; 
 later, when there were schools of gladiators to prepare 
 professionals, the strongest and most valiant gladiators 
 were admired as heroes, even to the extreme of Roman 
 ladies soliciting their love. And yet, in spite of Roman 
 cruelty, there were in those spectacles traits of pity and 
 clemency unknown to American lynching. When the 
 fallen gladiator raised his finger, asking mercy of the 
 public, the latter often granted it by waving their hand- 
 kerchiefs, whereupon the victorious gladiator had to 
 cease his attacks. There is none of that old clemency 
 in this modern martyrology of the United States, the 
 emulator of Rome in the twentieth century. Two thou- 
 sand years of Christianity have not softened, but hard- 
 ened the souls of these modern republicans. 
 
 This is the discipline that inspires North American 
 character, and which has taught it to trample under foot 
 the weak nations of Latin America — the small republics 
 of Central America, Mexico and Colombia — and which 
 even threatened us by bombarding unjustly and treach- 
 erously our ports. It is the same spirit; it is lynching 
 in distant seas. 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 99 
 
 Thank God, we have no negroes in Chile; but many 
 South American countries have a large African popu- 
 lation. There you will not find the furious antagonism 
 of races existing here, and never have I heard of lynch- 
 ing in Brazil or Peru. This is an exclusive privilege of 
 Anglo-Saxon America — of the country of democracy, of 
 liberty and of equality. If they claim to set up this 
 nation for us as a model, it means that we must learn 
 from them this modern gladiatorism which surpasses as 
 a spectacle of cruelty everything that history records. 
 
 I think and think, I meditate and meditate, I study 
 and study, I compare and compare, and I cannot under- 
 stand how there are people blind enough to advise 
 Latin America to look to this country for inspiration 
 in her progress. 
 
 Your husband who adores you 
 
 Miss Jones felt no surprise in reading this letter. 
 "When living in Spanish America, she had very often 
 read in the local papers descriptions of the lynching of 
 negroes, together with bitter censure of her country on 
 ■this account. 
 
 Mss Jones had studied this problem with some in- 
 terest, and had at her disposal authoritative sources of 
 information to enable her to reply to the scathing indict- 
 ment formulated by the Chicago correspondent. 
 
 She was busy all day long in writing her comments, 
 which took definite shape in these words: 
 
100 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Madam : 
 
 The problem of the colored race in our country is 
 one of the most serious we have to face; but I believe 
 it to be a blessing for the negroes, a blessing for the 
 United States and a blessing for humanity that it has 
 fallen to us to face this problem. It is a commonplace 
 to maintain that it would have been better never to 
 have brought negroes as slaves to the United States. 
 I do not think so. It has been better for them that 
 they came, as I am going to show you, and better for 
 America and for the world, because the most trans- 
 scendental problem for the good understanding of the 
 races on the earth is going to be solved in our country, 
 and the most significant educational experiment in the 
 world is here being made on a scale without precedent. 
 
 In the days when Africans were brought to our 
 coasts like beasts of burden, the slave trade was con- 
 sidered lawful and moral all over the world. They 
 were not brought here as an addition to our family or 
 our nation. They were imported, literally, as if it 
 were a matter of simple beasts of burden. It was even 
 considered a crime to teach a negro to read. That was 
 the sentiment of the times. Captain Hawkins, one 
 of the initiators of the slave traffic, was knighted by 
 Queen Elizabeth of England, and his coat of arms had 
 for its insignia the bust of a negro with arms tied. 
 In those times, madam, your ancestors were or were soon 
 to be proprietors of negro slaves. 
 
 In spite of all, even in those remote times in which 
 the first negroes were imported to the United States, 
 some chosen spirits of my country were already opposed 
 to slavery, considering it a violation of human liberty. 
 
 Only a deep ignorance of history, madam, and the 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 101 
 
 tendency to follow the philosophy of those who in- 
 terpret history from an exclusively economical point 
 of view can explain why it has been said that the aboli- 
 tion of slavery was a question of bread and butter in 
 my country, an economic struggle between the North 
 and the South. 
 
 When the southern States decided to make them- 
 selves independent, their objective was to perpetuate 
 slavery in their territory. Any one who knows some- 
 thing of the history of my country, must admit that if 
 in the War of Secession the South had triumphed and 
 we had seen two republics established on our soil, the 
 liberation of slaves in these same southern States, that 
 is to say in the new slave republic, would only have been 
 a little delayed. 
 
 When interpreting history, the importance of the 
 economic factor cannot be denied; but they are blind, 
 madam, who do not see in all triumphs of humanity, 
 in spiritual triumphs, the ascending pathway of sublime 
 endeavor, of higher ideals, which success has scaled. 
 I believe humanity has become better and better through 
 the centuries and the ages in consequence of work done 
 by spirits highly gifted and inspired by the Christian 
 principles of love, justice and truth, and by those who 
 have sacrificed themselves in the belief that it was their 
 duty to pay to the future the debt contracted with the 
 past. I wish I were able to show you, in all its splendor, 
 the monumental, grand, human staircase of effort, virtue, 
 sacrifice, unselfishness, and generosity which brought 
 freedom to the slaves in my country. This is a stairway 
 with steps as clear and well defined^ as those which lead 
 from the cellar to the topmost story of the gigantic Wool- 
 worth Building in New York; only it is not of iron or 
 
102 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 cement ; it is of strong hearts, of tempered souls and of 
 superior spirits. And as the visitor to Woolworth's 
 temple of commerce does not see the marble steps, be- 
 cause he takes the elevator, so also are the steps of this 
 moral staircase invisible to the people who have not 
 followed this marvelous history of effort step by step, 
 but have been carried to the topmost story in the ele- 
 vator of their fathers* achievements. 
 
 In 1619 the first negroes landed in Virginia, and 
 shortly afterwards slavery began to be organized in 
 my country. Almost simultaneously, agitation against 
 this slavery began. The first traces of the contest are 
 lost in the past and the anonymous; they are vague, 
 undetermined, without a clear consciousness of their 
 further evolution. The names of these fighters are 
 not recorded by history, just as it does not tell the 
 name of him who cast the bronze out of which was to be 
 fashioned the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. But let us 
 consider some of these steps : / 
 
 The first public protest of a religious body against 
 slavery was made in 1688, in Pennsylvania, which was 
 t»ut one of the English colonies. In 1729 Ealph Sandi- 
 ford publishes ''The Mystery of Iniquity,'* a condem- 
 nation of slavery. In 1737 Benjamin Lee publishes a 
 book in which slavery is denounced. From 1746 to 
 1767 John Woolman travels in the central and southern 
 colonies preaching against slavery. In 1750 Anthony 
 Benezet establishes a free school for negroes. In 177G 
 Samuel Hopkins attacks slavery with pen and tongue 
 and succeeds, in 1774, in having a law passed prohibiting 
 the importation of negroes into Rhode Island, which 
 was followed by the law of 1784 declaring free all 
 <jhildren born of slaves in that State. In 1773 the doctor 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 103 
 
 and philanthropist, Benjamin Rush, gives a lecture in 
 Philadelphia against slavery, and in 1774 founds with 
 James Pemberton the first anti-slavery society in my 
 country, the secretary of which he was for many years. 
 In 1786 an analogous society is formed in New Jersey. 
 The same year another is founded in Rhode Island. 
 In 1789 the society of Maryland is organized ' ' to promote 
 the abolition of slavery and to better the conditions of 
 the negroes/' In 1790 the pro-abolition society of Con- 
 necticut is founded ; in the following year an analogous 
 society in Virginia; and thus successively until all the 
 States could boast of a society of this character. In 
 1794 the first convention of pro-abolition societies takes 
 place. In the convention of these societies at Baltimore 
 in 1826 there were already one hundred and fifty so- 
 cieties that gave an account of their efforts against 
 slavery, six of them from the southern States. In 1831 
 the publication of *'The Liberator" begins in Boston. 
 In 1851 ''Uncle Tom's Cabin," by Harriet Beeeher 
 Stowe, appears, a book that shook the conscience of the 
 country, so human that even to this day it is read with 
 profound interest and is produced on the stage and on 
 the screen. In 1863 the President of the United States 
 proclaims the emancipation of the negroes. 
 
 I have noted, madam, only some of the most salient 
 points in this struggle for the liberation of the negroes, 
 but I think they wiU suffice to prove to you that it is 
 absurd to suppose that the emancipation of the negroes 
 was a question of bread and butter in my country. It 
 would be equally absurd to suppose that the present 
 fight for prohibition and female suffrage is also a matter 
 purely economical; and these campaigns of to-day are 
 following the same road over which the pro-abolition 
 
104 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 campaign traveled. Abolition is to-day a historical word, 
 as prohibition and suffrage will be to-morrow, white 
 flags which have been left behind at places already 
 passed in the Avenue of Progress. It is evident that in 
 these struggles the detainers of privileges defend them- 
 selves, their money and their economic position, but 
 the forces struggling for the common progress and hap- 
 piness do not and never have pursued the selfish purpose 
 of a personal monetary interest. 
 
 In my moments of dejection, madam, (who does not 
 have them?), when I am disheartened to see the delay 
 in attaining a social triumph for my country, I usually 
 give new life to my troubled spirit by reading of those 
 struggles of the past which call to memory the ups 
 and downs of furious battles, resulting in the ultimate 
 victories of yesterday. And this struggle for the eman- 
 cipation of the slaves in my country is for me one of the 
 most worthy of emulation. I read the very books of 
 that period and my soul tmvels towards the past. 
 I attend, for example, the martyrdom of Captain John 
 Brown and listen to the speeches of Thoreau before 
 and after the decapitation of the martyr in Concord, 
 Mass., in 1859 and 1869; I associate myself with the 
 life of Gerrit Smith, Aster's cousin, a millionaire who 
 distributes gratuitously lots of land among the negroes, 
 for whom he is founding schools; I hear the speeches 
 and I follow the life of Wendell Phillips, whose name 
 a high school in Chicago bears, which to-day among its 
 seventeen hundred pupils counts three hundred and 
 fifty negroes. This whole struggle of the past with its 
 epic characters gives me strength for the struggles of 
 to-day and prepares me for the struggles of to-morrow. 
 
 Therefore, madam, I take the liberty of saying that 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 105 
 
 only a profoi^d ignorance of history can make your 
 husband believe that in the struggle for the emancipa- 
 tion of the slaves of my country only economical interests 
 have been involved. He also maintains that the negro 
 would be much better off as a slave than under present 
 conditions. Let us see. Your husband says, madam, 
 that it has been a curse for the negro to have come here. 
 First, he was a despised slave; his subsequent liberty 
 .has profited him nothing, and he would be better off in 
 his former state of slavery or perhaps in his primitive 
 home in dark Africa. A more unfounded affirmation 
 could not be made. I am sure that if all the negroes of 
 my country were offered the opportunity of returning 
 permanently, with passage paid by our government, to 
 the negro Republic of Liberia or the negro Empire of 
 Abyssinia, there would not be among their millions 
 enough to fill the first-class staterooms of a transatlantic 
 steamer. 
 
 My country is called the melting pot of the world, 
 the crucible in which all nationalities on the face of 
 the globe are fused into a new race. The ruling ethnical 
 element in this new nation, that has in store so many 
 surprises for humanity, is European. Not with the in- 
 tention of increasing our population, but simply of 
 bringing human machines, we imported from Africa 
 ■cargoes of negroes under conditions which your hus- 
 band has described to you. We brought over slaves 
 whom we hunted in a savage continent. You have al- 
 ready seen how these slaves were emancipated and be- 
 came citizens of our republic. That is to say, the melting 
 pot was not only composed of all nationalities of the 
 Old World, but even Africa came to America ; and you 
 
106 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 may compare the African wliom we received with the 
 Anacaliifs and Onas of Tierra del Fuego, a savage. 
 
 Since the arrival of the negro on our shores we have 
 commenced, first on a small scale, later, with his emanci- 
 pation, on a larger scale, the monumental task of educat- 
 ing the African on our soil. It is a gigantic missionary 
 task, the most gigantic missionary enterprise ever under- 
 taken in the world. Not that we could not have sent the 
 negroes away, but that we did not want to do so. Many 
 have wished it on different occasions, but the moral 
 forces of the country have prevented it. You can see 
 with what rapidity and ease we are sending millions of 
 Americans to Europe and at the same time ammunitions 
 and food in spite of all obstacles and submarines. The 
 negro has come to our country to remain here, and he 
 is protected in our country by the shield of American 
 citizenship. 
 
 Centuries of difference in evolution separated us will- 
 ing European colonizers from the unwilling African 
 colonizers. We understood that it was necessary to 
 fill these centuries by means of education. It is not a 
 simple task, madam, to educate millions of ex-slaves, ex- 
 savages. You know hov/ in your own country educa- 
 tion is still confined to a small privileged group. But it 
 is edifying to see what has been done in fifty years. 
 Let us compare conditions of the negroes since 1866, im- 
 mediately after the triumph of the Civil War which 
 gave them their liberty, up to 1916. Of course, the 
 previous period, since the arrival of the first slaves till 
 the time of the emancipation, marks a lengthy period of 
 preparation of the race. 
 
 In 1866 only ten per cent of the negroes could read; 
 in 1916 more than sixty-five per cent could read. In 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 107 
 
 1S66 there were one hundred thousand negro children 
 attending public schools ; in 1916 there were one million 
 six hundred and thirty-six thousand. In 1866 seven hun- 
 dred thousand dollars were spent for the education of 
 the negroes ; in 1916 fourteen million six hundred thou- 
 sand dollars were spent. Institutions of public high 
 school education for negroes represent a value of twenty- 
 one million five hundred thousand dollars. The Indus- 
 trial and Normal Institute of Tuskegee alone, founded in 
 1881 by Booker T. "Washington, with the constant and 
 very valuable help of the whites, which he has grate- 
 fully acknowledged in his books, contains one hundred 
 and three edifices. 
 
 The negro population of the United States has only 
 twenty-five per cent of illiterates, less than any South 
 American republic. Your country has more than twice 
 that proportion of illiterates and other countries have 
 an even greater proportion. I have told you that there 
 are one million six hundred and thirty-six thousand 
 negro students in our educational institutes. Your coun- 
 try, with a population equal to half that of the negro 
 community in the United States, has only a little more 
 than four hundred thousand students in its different 
 educational institutes; and your country is one of the 
 most advanced of Latin America. To arrive at a figure 
 of one million six hundred thousand negro pupils, we 
 ■ have to take the aggregate for several Latin American 
 countries, according to the most recent statistics. Brazil, 
 Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Paraguay 
 united send the same number of children to their schools 
 as does the negro population of my country, who num- 
 ber twelve millions while the population of these seven 
 republics reaches forty-one millions. Speaking of higher 
 
108 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 education, I can tell you that there are more profes- 
 sional men and authors among the negroes of the United 
 States than in any Latin American country. 
 
 So much for the educational success of the negroes 
 in my country. As regards their economic triumph, 
 it will suffice to consider that our negroes possess to-day 
 property valued at one billion dollars. It would be 
 interesting for your husband to read books like one 
 of Booker T. "Washington's, "The Negro in Business," 
 which would show him whether the negro's present con- 
 dition is better than his former slave condition. There 
 are black millionaires, madam. The negro woman, 
 Sarah Eector, earns six hundred dollars a day, far more, 
 certainl}^, than does our President and more than all the 
 Presidents of all the South American countries put 
 together. 
 
 Neither are the doors to the highest honors in my 
 country closed to the negro. To convince you of this 
 I will cite the case of the negro Bruce, born a slave, 
 who became a senator, an honor that the negro race 
 enjoyed for the first time when Hiram E. Revels, a 
 negro, was elected a senator in 1870. On the other 
 hand, very many negroes have been and are members of 
 the legislatures of several States. More than twenty 
 have been elected representatives to the Federal Con- 
 gress. 
 
 No doubt, madam, the lynching of negroes, unfor- 
 tunately so frequent in my country, has no possible 
 justification. Nevertheless, your husband exaggerates 
 when he says that every day the newspapers tell of the 
 lynching of a negro as the most natural thing in the 
 world. At all events, these are quite frequent and con- 
 stitute a disgrace for us which I cannot fail to recognize. 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 109 
 
 But in tliis as in every other case, when a custom is 
 under observation it is necessary to imagine a curve 
 drawn through time in order to see whether the trend 
 is for the custom to be intensified or to fall into disuse. 
 
 Since 1885 statistics of lynchings have been made in 
 my country, and they show that this shameful practice 
 is diminishing with time. Let us take the statistics 
 for the thirty years from 1885 until 1915 and we dis- 
 cover : 
 
 From 1885 to 1891 there were 1726 lynchings. 
 
 From 1895 to 1904 there were 1239 lynchings. 
 
 From 1905 to 1914 there were 701 lynchings. 
 
 These figures include the lynching of both negroes 
 and white men. 
 
 Lynching is always the result of a movement of in- 
 dignation to punish a misdeed, the multitude fearing 
 that ordinary justice will be trifling or tard}^ It is a 
 collective act governed by the principles of the psy- 
 chology of the multitude, in which the individual loses 
 completely his individuality and in a large degree his 
 responsibility. The motive power for an act of this 
 nature, as I have said, is a feeling of indignation and a 
 desire to punish a delinquent who has offended society. 
 Then, the multitude follows its first impulses, blinded by 
 contagion. Many acts of collective heroism are acts of 
 contagion, inspired by the gestures of a leader. In 
 . the same way, many acts of collective cruelty have the 
 same cause. An act of justice imposed by the multitude 
 was to throw into Boston harbor the cargoes of tea as a 
 protest against the unjust taxes that the mother country 
 wished to impose on the colonies. 
 
 In the early days of the republic, when we made the 
 conquest of the South and the West, it happened that 
 
110 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 men established themselves there and began to control 
 nature's forces without first establishing the majesty of 
 the law with all its necessary formalities. Almost with- 
 out judges, each one had to mete out justice by hioa- 
 self. Lynching originated as a punishment for the 
 crime of assault on a white woman's honor committed 
 with violence by a negro. The public, indignant at the 
 horror of this crime, had not sufficient control over itself 
 to await the slow action of justice. The fact that this 
 has been the principal cause of lynchings is responsible 
 for the absence of a reaction strong enough to put an 
 end once and for all to these irritating spectacles. But 
 I must stop this discussion of lynching lest you may 
 come to think that I favor the practice. I condemn it, 
 madam, most emphatically, just as my whole country 
 condemns it, with a few exceptions. 
 
 Here is another point regarding which your husband 
 does not do us justice : He says that we do not protest 
 against these lynchings. A powerful movement is work- 
 ing throughout the country against the practice of lynch- 
 law. I take at random from a daily paper this notice: 
 ' ' The directorate of The San Antonio Express has estab- 
 lished a fund of one hundred thousand dollars to combat 
 and punish those guilty of lynching. Out of this fund 
 will be paid five hundred dollars for the arrest and 
 conviction of any person who has taken part in the 
 lynching of a white man and one thousand dollars in 
 the case of the victim being a negro. ^' 
 
 There is an essential difference between the way in 
 which we regard these acts and how we proceed to 
 discountenance them, as compared with the acceptation 
 of the spectacle of bull-fights in Spain and the ancient 
 gladiatorial combats of Rome. In Madrid the King 
 
BLACK AND WHITE 111 
 
 attends the bull-fights. Charles Y himself dispatched 
 a bull on the occasion of a corrida held to celebrate 
 the birth of his son, Philip II. It is certain that noth- 
 ing short of a revolution would break out in Spain 
 if it were proposed to abolish bull-fighting by law. 
 Even though Spain is such a Catholic coimtry, the very 
 Popes who attempted to stop the sport failed to do 
 so. In Rome the nobles maintained numerous glad- 
 iators, always ready to engage in mortal combat. The 
 custom was applauded in Rome even by thinkers of 
 the greatest renown. Both Cicero and Pliny the young- 
 er defended this practice, extolling it as a means of 
 combating the fear of death. 
 
 To do ourselves full justice we must also remember 
 all we are doing for the good of the African race. I cite 
 for instance the hundreds of thousands of whites who 
 have aided the negro race in its career of betterment, 
 and also the whites who died in our Civil War fighting to 
 free the negroes, not forgetting those others who have 
 exposed their life in peace-time to save a negro in danger. 
 You know that there is a Carnegie Institution which 
 rewards acts of heroism. Between 1905 and 1912 this 
 Institute has distinguished twenty-eight white men and 
 women, awarding them or their heirs prizes of medals or 
 money for acts of heroism while trying to save negroes 
 in danger, often at the cost of their own life. 
 
 Even the dark clouds have their silver lining, madam. 
 The negro has been paying a contribution in blood for 
 the right to pass from a state of slavery to that of 
 civilized man. But in .my country, more white blood 
 has been shed for the negroes than black for the whit^. 
 
 It is true, madam, that in my country there is no 
 racial mingling between negroes and whites, since we 
 
112 TEE GULF OF 3II8UNDEBSTANDING 
 
 do not desire this approximation. There is a race antag- 
 onism between us, which T7e do not feel towards any 
 European race, but which prevails only against Asia and 
 Africa. These are races so different from ours that 
 many suppose, for reasons apparently well founded, that 
 there is no advantage to be gained by amalgamation 
 with them. Nevertheless, of all the states in the Union, 
 only twenty-nine have laws that consider marriage be- 
 tween whites and blacks illegal. Even less in number 
 are the states in which the law prohibits negroes and 
 whites to attend the same schools, to travel in the same 
 cars, to occupy without distinction the same seats in 
 theaters and public libraries, or to be buried in the same 
 cemeteries. 
 
 In order to understand the spirit guiding the south- 
 em states in which existnig laws separate whites from 
 blacks, it is necessary to bear in mind that the African 
 was a slave there until only a little more than fifty years 
 ago. Withal the negro is gaining socially in proportion 
 as his education advances. Not even in the southern 
 states can the condition of the negroes be compared 
 with that of peoples subjected to the yoke of European 
 nations, such as Poles, Jews and Armenians. 
 
 My country believes in educating the negroes, as it 
 believes in educating the Esquimaux, the whites, or the 
 Philippine Islanders; and this negro problem is one 
 only of education, in which I believe we have passed 
 the period of laboratory experiments. It has already 
 been proven that the African is just as susceptible of be- 
 ing educated as any other race. 
 
 Unquestionably, it would be absurd to raise the negro 
 immediately to the highest activities of abstract thought. 
 Nor can it be expected that the negroes will be able 
 
BLACK AND WHITE U8 
 
 within a generation or two to place themselves on the 
 same level as the whites, who have enjoyed thousands of 
 3^ears of civilization. In my opinion the Normal and 
 Industrial Institute of Tuskegee has solved, in the most 
 intelligent way, the problem of educating the negro, and 
 at the same time it has taught the world how the white, 
 yellow, red and all other races should be educated. An 
 integral education — industrial, intellectual and human 
 at the same time — it teaches how to do, to understand 
 and to feel; it prepares the hand, the brain and the 
 heart. Before long the country will see widespread the 
 results attained by this school. 
 
 That the negro has developed wonderfully through 
 contact with the white is shown in a manner which 
 carries good augury for the future, by the fact that 
 large numbers of negroes have distinguished themselves 
 in all human activities, in science, literature, painting, 
 finance, war and agriculture. Let it suffice to mention 
 the names of Booker T. Washington and Robert William 
 Stanley, famous negro educators; Paul Lawrence Dun- 
 bar and William Stanley Braithwaite, poets of great 
 renown; W. E. Gurghardt du Bois, writer; Henry 0. 
 Tanner, painter; Harry T. Burleigh, musician and com- 
 poser, and May Howard Jackson, sculptress. 
 
 To prove to you the sympathy of the whites and their 
 desire to aid negroes who distinguish themselves, let 
 us recall that back in the days of the beginning of slav- 
 ery in 1761, a little negro girl born in Africa, in Senegal, 
 was bought in America by Mrs. Susannah Wheatley and 
 was treated in her home so kindly that Mrs. Wheatley 's 
 daughter taught her to read and helped her with her 
 books and studies, placing in her hands not only the 
 Bible, but even the Latin classics. The slave showed 
 
114 THE GULF OF 31ISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 such disposition for learning that her masters encouraged 
 her aptitudes, gave her her liberty and came to look 
 upon her as a member of the family. She was even 
 taken to England on a special voyage for the benefit of 
 her health. She became the first negro poetess of re- 
 nown, Phyllis Wheatley, hailed as the laureate of Bos- 
 ton. This has constantly been the attitude of the whites 
 towards a negro who has distinguished himself. 
 
 Weighing all this in the scales of justice, I firmly be- 
 lieve that my country will be shown to have done more 
 for this negro race formerly brought here to slavery, 
 than any other country would have done under the same 
 circumstances. It positively is doing more for them than 
 any republic of Central or South America or any of 
 their own countries, governed by their own race, like 
 Abyssinia or Liberia are doing for their own negroes. 
 
 The newspapers of Latin America, madam, never miss 
 an opportunity to publish details of IjTichings, but very 
 seldom can they find space for impartial records of our 
 labors to uplift the African element in our midst. Simi- 
 larly, our newspapers are too prone to print in full the 
 news or revolutions, changes of government, and earth- 
 quakes in Latin America, while neglecting to chronicle 
 items referring to the struggle of those countries for 
 progress. This divorces and separates us. Pardon me, 
 therefore, for having added these notes to your hus- 
 band's letter; otherwise you would have formed a mis- 
 taken and unjust opinion. 
 
 A Frisnd from the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER YI 
 
 AFTER duly mailing the letter on the negro prob- 
 lem in the United States, Mss Jones was left 
 anxiously waiting* for the next communication 
 from the Chicago correspondent. She wondered what 
 subject he would choose now to write about to his wife. 
 Her curiosity was satisfied before two weeks had gone 
 by. The correspondent had selected a theme for each of 
 ids long letters with the orderly method of one who is 
 writing a book. This time he spoke of Woman's Suf- 
 frage, as follows: 
 
 Chicago, 1918. 
 
 ' My dearest: 
 
 Just fancy yourself putting on your hat some fine day 
 and going out ' ' to perform your civic duties " as a voter 
 for such and such a candidate in an election of Senators 
 or Representatives. Can you imagine anything more 
 ridiculous than a woman going to the polls to vote? 
 But this is nothing ; just imagine yourself seated in the 
 Senate or House of Representatives proposing a Bill for 
 the taxation of saltpetre or copper exports, or else — ^be- 
 cause woman suffrage in the United States is coming 
 to this — elected as a judge and sentencing to death a 
 
 iia 
 
(116 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 criminal for having murdered a man on tlie high-road. 
 
 The intervention of woman in polities would mean 
 her moral degeneration ; politics are dirty, and we should 
 keep our women undefiled. 
 
 Here are some paragraphs cut at random from the 
 newspapers I read. If I am always able to give cor- 
 rect references, with names and figures, to things and 
 cases here, it is because I have made it a habit to cut 
 out from the newspapers and keep in my portfolio any 
 items which attract my attention. One reads: ''Miss 
 Katheryn Sellers has been appointed judge of the 
 Juvenile Court in "Washington. This is the first time 
 that a woman has been appointed a judge in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia." ''Miss Jeannette Rankin, member 
 of the House of Representatives, has been nominated 
 by the State of Montana as a candidate for Senator in 
 the Federal Congress." "Miss Hay, president of a com- 
 mittee in the Convention of the Republican Party, read 
 before the members the new program of the party." 
 And so on in this wise. 
 
 The modern American feminism means the evasion 
 of woman from the home and her invasion of the realm 
 which has been exclusively for man since the beginning 
 of the world; and this kind of feminism is gaining 
 ground here at the rate of geometrical progression. It 
 is winning over the most representative men a§ fast as 
 an epidemic gains ground in a Chinese quarter. Until 
 a short time ago President AVilson was passive, if not 
 opposed to woman suffrage. In his latest book, '^The 
 New Liberty," he does not even refer to women's claim 
 to intervene in the electoral contests; but now we see 
 him sending personal letters to the Senators, asking them 
 to vote in favor of a Federal law giving to women the 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFEAGE 117 
 
 right of voting. His letter to Senator Shields of Ten- 
 nessee, whicli has been widely pnblished, is the most 
 significant propaganda in favor of woman suffrage. Of 
 course, Eoosevelt is also another ardent adherent.* Wom- 
 an's suffrage has already conquered the most represent- 
 ative men of the country. 
 
 At present there are eleven States besides the Terri- 
 tory of Alaska in which women have exactly the same 
 electoral rights as men. The first of those States to 
 win the political liberty of women was "Wyoming. This 
 was in 1869, the year in which I was born; one of the 
 last was Nevada, which made this conquest in 1914, and 
 recently New York has had this trmmpJi. 
 
 To-day more than three million six hundred thousand 
 women may vote in the United States to elect the Presi- 
 dent of the Republic. A glance at the feminist map of 
 the country shows that this is principally a conquest of 
 the West, of that part of the Eepublic where virgin land 
 has been colonized in freedom from any of the restric- 
 tions that Old Europe has imposed on the East. It seems 
 to me unquestionable that before long, possibly while I 
 am here, a law will be passed, giving, in all States, the 
 same electoral rights to women as to men. When this bill 
 was presented to Congress in 1914 it obtained in the 
 Senate a majority of votes, but in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives it was defeated by a vote of two hundred and 
 four against one hundred and seventy-four. To-day 
 this same bill that amends the Constitution has been ap- 
 proved by a large majority in the House of Representa- 
 tives. Investigations made a priori by the suffragettes 
 show that in the Senate it has a large majority, but not 
 
 * Roosevelt was still alive when this letter is supposed to Jhave 
 been writtea. 
 
118 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 tlie two-thirds needful. Of the candidates to the Sen- 
 ate for the next election, thirty-two have declared them- 
 selves in favor of woman suffrage. At present there is 
 being carried on in the newspapers, on platforms, in the 
 magazines and at meetings a most forceful campaign in 
 favor of the law. Women are constantly going to jail 
 for breaking the law in their fights for su^rage. To- 
 day all political parties have added to their platforms 
 the proposal to extend to women all the political rights 
 of men. 
 
 The foregoing will surprise you, although we read to- 
 gether in Chile much about Yankee woman suffrage, 
 and though once we were highly amused when a cable 
 brought the news that a woman fainted in Congress 
 on voting for the declaration of war against Germany. 
 However, you need not be astonished at this. EeservQ 
 ypur amazement for the day when we shall see a woman 
 President of the Supreme Court or President of the 
 Republic. 
 
 I have no fears of this Yankee extravagance extend- 
 ing its contagion to us, although we have lately been 
 assimilating everything which comes from this .country. 
 To pass a law for v\^oman suffrage among us would sim- 
 ply mean doubling the value of the men's vote. Where 
 is the wife in our countries who would vote in opposi- 
 tion to her husband ? Or if she is a spinster, in opposi- 
 tion to the vote of her father? Here, in the United 
 States where the home does not exist, where every mem- 
 ber of a family professes a different religion and has a 
 different conception of life, it is easily understood how 
 the husband may be a republican and his several wives — 
 the present one and those he has divorced — ^may be demo- 
 crats or socialists. 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE , 119 
 
 In our country woman is such an integral part of the 
 home that she is logically always of the same opinion as 
 her father or her husband. The same is true in Ger- 
 many and Japan and France and Italy. Woman suf- 
 frage signifies the dissolution, the breaking up of the 
 home. The case has been cited here of a woman whose 
 husband was a candidate for the House of Representa- 
 tives and who not only did not vote for him, but even 
 delivered speeches in public in favor of the candidate 
 opposing her own husband. They were not divorced 
 and even maintained that they loved each other, but in 
 questions of ideas and politics they were of different 
 opinions. This is a typical feature of Yankee psychol- 
 ogy. 
 
 Unquestionably our women are more sensible than 
 Yankee women. I am sure that they would not accept 
 the right to vote even if it were offered them by Con- 
 gress on a silver ivay. Because they are ivomen. Here 
 there are three sexes. The American suffragist consti- 
 tutes very definitely a completely new sex that is making 
 its appearance for the first time in history. It is neither 
 woman nor man. 
 
 It has always been one of the typical characteristics 
 of woman to belong to the home as the oyster to the shell. 
 The oyster dies when taken out of its shell ; in the same 
 way woman out of the home surely dies. "What con- 
 tinues to live is not a v/oman, it is a neuter being. It is 
 an attribute of v/oman to busy herself in beautifying 
 and making the home of the family attractive, in cooking 
 and in the bringing up of the children, while she leaves 
 to man, whom God made strong, the duty of earning 
 what is necessary for the maintenance of the home. 
 Woman always leans on man. 
 
120 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 This new sexual American type, this new genus, which 
 is neither feminine nor masculine, takes as much care of 
 its home as the hen does of the shell out of which its 
 mother hatched it. Generally speaking, the American 
 woman only sleeps in her house. For meals there are 
 restaurants of every imaginable type, from the most 
 sumptuous, in which nearly every one seated at a table 
 has his own waiter (I am told, but I cannot believe it, 
 that in New York there is a restaurant where they em- 
 ploy as waiters only ruined European counts and mar- 
 quises) to the restaurant in which every one goes to the 
 kitchen, which is in full view (cafeteria), to serve him- 
 self, and to the automatic restaurant where on inserting 
 a coin in a slot a couple of fried eggs appear or a stream 
 of coffee. When cooked dishes can be obtained auto- 
 inatically, why make them at home? Are we not for- 
 sooth in the twentieth century? 
 
 Moreover, when the cooking is done at home, as a 
 rare exception, do you think there is any house in the 
 United States where it takes three or four hours to cook 
 a meal as in our country? No. Everything comes 
 ready made in cans, even soup, and besides, all kinds of 
 cooked dishes may be bought at the Delicatessen Stores. 
 Not long ago I saw in a newspaper of Chicago, The Post, 
 a funny story in four cartoons. In the first the hus- 
 band asks his wife for his dinner. In the second the 
 husband starts to read the newspaper while waiting for 
 the meal which his wife has not yet begun. The gentle- 
 man has not read the first title of the first news article 
 when his wife tells him that dinner is ready. 
 
 The husband goes into the dining-room but sees no 
 food on the table. ''What do you mean by saying that 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 121 
 
 dinner is ready?" her husband asks her. "There is 
 only one thing lacking," his wife replied. ''What?" 
 *'The can-opener." 
 
 The menu was: Canned soup, stuffed bottled olives, 
 beans cooked in cans and so on. This story has for us a 
 humorous meaning very different to that which Ameri- 
 cans see in it. For us the joke is that the meal is en- 
 tirely composed of canned food ; for the American it is to 
 be found in the fact that since the can-opener was lack- 
 ing, in reality everything was lacking; Just as if we 
 should speak of a woman about to be married, who has 
 everything needful except a husband. At least this is 
 how I understand it. The soldier is characterized by his 
 rifle, the painter by his brush, and the housekeeper of 
 an American house by her can-opener. 
 
 In an article published in a magazine under the title 
 ''Why Women Do Not Marry," the author, a woman, 
 says that this is due in part to the fact that women 
 have learned to take care of themselves, but also adds, 
 with much emphasis, that it is because men are not mod- 
 ern, but ^'out of date/' antiquated and have been asleep 
 for two or three generations, and because many things 
 have happened in the world of which they are entirely 
 ignorant. 
 
 At a meeting of the National American Association of 
 Woman Suffrage, which took place in Philadelphia, one 
 of the leaders of the movement said : ' ' Ought we women 
 to leave the laws of the country exclusively in the hands 
 of men, who after the day's work return home tired and 
 incapable of considering the serious aspects of life ? ' ' 
 
 Oh! The speeches of these suffragettes are enough 
 to make one roar with laughing. All this w^ould be a 
 
122 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 simple question of vaudeville if it were not that it is 
 taken quite seriously here and that men say amen to 
 everything they propose. At first, when all the suffra- 
 gettes were homely old maids they objected, but now 
 that every woman has joined the movement they have 
 been forced to give way. 
 
 Thus, we see that this woman who has nothing to do 
 in the home beyond asking her husband to use the can- 
 opener, invades all the activities of man in his work; 
 she enters triumphantly into politics; she competes 
 openly with man in his activities, even to the point of 
 bringing bitter competition into the struggle of life. And 
 man is surrendering to this new master. To-day noth- 
 ing is more common than to see a man washing dishes at 
 home. In advice given by newspapers and magazines 
 to women in the women's section I have many times 
 read this : ' ' Find out if your sweetheart helps his mother 
 to wash the dishes ; if he has not the spirit of helping in 
 the kitchen, do not marry him. ' ' 
 
 I think some day there will be a new revolution in the 
 United States. This time, not on account of the negroes, 
 but on account of the women. Men will arm to defend 
 themselves against this woman, who will no longer be a 
 woman, since she is voluntarily renouncing her sex. 
 
 Men do not realize here what this invasion of woman 
 means, this domination of woman, this denaturalization 
 of woman. Woman is the ''boss,'' the master of the 
 United States. She will soon dictate the legislation of 
 the whole country. 
 
 She herself is above the law. It is interesting to note 
 the great trials in this country in which women have ap- 
 peared as criminals. Almost always they are acquitted : 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 123 
 
 *'Noi guilty. '^ Not long ago a sensational case was 
 discussed, that of Miss Grace Lusk. In her first trial she 
 was condemned to several years ' imprisonment ; but this 
 was because instead of killing her lover, she killed the 
 sweetheart of her lover. Between a murdered woman 
 and a woman assassin the sympathy of the jury is with 
 the murdered woman ; but between a murdered man and 
 a woman assassin, the sympathy of the jury is with the 
 assassin. 
 
 This favoritism of the law towards woman can be 
 seen from day to day in this country. One example 
 will be enough. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a woman 
 appeared before the judge with a complaint that her 
 husband would not allow her dog to sleep in the same 
 bed with them, as if it were their child. The man pro- 
 tested that the dog was dirty, had fleas, snored and dis- 
 turbed him at night, making it impossible for him to 
 work the next day. The woman maintained that it was 
 the best behaved dog in the world, much more so than 
 her husband, and the most lovable creature. (I do not 
 know if you are acquainted with the fact that there is 
 in almost every large city in this country a cemetery 
 for dogs, with mausoleums and even epitaphs.) The 
 charge of the woman in this case, against her husband, 
 will probably seem to you on the face of it preposterous ; 
 but even more preposterous was the decision of the 
 judge. He fined the husband twenty dollars, and, as he 
 had not the money, he was sent to jail for twenty days. 
 
 Women ought to oppose this method in the interpreta- 
 tion of the law. If they consider themselves entitled to 
 the same rights as men, they ought to face the conse- 
 quences of law on an equality of conditions. They ought 
 to conduct themselves like a young lady whose acquaint- 
 
124 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ance I made in the hotel and who entered a trolley car 
 in which all the seats were taken. I immediately offered 
 her my seat, but she refused to accept it. Asking her 
 why she did so, she answered me: *'I do not see why 
 you offer your seat to a woman and not to one of the men 
 standing. I am neither weaker nor inferior." 
 
 Talking the other day with another American lady, 
 she told me that she was of the opinion that wedding 
 rings should be abolished, since this was a survival of 
 the times when woman was the slave of man. That 
 woman did not even stop to think that some men also 
 wear a wedding ring. She also said that the custom of 
 throwing rice and old shoes at the newlj^weds should be 
 suppressed, as that was a survival of the time when men 
 abducted women, whereas to-day they went of their own 
 free will. She asked me if in Chile we also throw shoes 
 at newly married couples, and I answered that there the 
 bridegroom throws coins to the people in the street fol- 
 lowing the pair from the church. 
 
 '^Oh," she said to me, *'that is a survival of the times 
 when men bought their wives. The world is still bound 
 to the past, but a new era is now being born ; man will 
 no longer be the master of the earth ; the turn of woman 
 has arrived, she who has been the slave of man for cen- 
 turies. ' ' 
 
 She was very much astonished to hear of the condi- 
 tions of our women, which I described as best I could, 
 wishing to impress her with the happiness of our homes ; 
 but all her comment was this : ' ' We are still very busy 
 with our campaigns within this country; but we shall 
 soon begin to send women missionaries to foreign coun- 
 tries, just as our churches are doing." 
 
W03IAN'S SUFFRAGE 125 
 
 So tliat we must prepare ourselves to receive Ameri- 
 can suffiagette missionaries, who will not mind if tlie 
 people thiow stones at them, because they are even ac- 
 customed to go to jail, the victims of their civilizing 
 campaigns. 
 
 From everything that I have been able to observe, it *^ 
 seems to me that here in love affairs the roles have been 
 reversed, and that the women make love to the men. 
 They are creating a new philosophy of life. Women 
 here write many more novels and dramas than men. 
 There are more girls studying in the high schools than 
 boys, and the same tendency is seen in colleges and uni- 
 versities. 
 
 It seems to me, however, that men are beginning to 
 feel this new servitude. During all the months that I 
 have been here, I see from day to day without a single 
 exception, in one of the newspapers of this city. The Chi- 
 cago Herald and Examiner^ a cartoon section with this 
 general heading, ^^Let the wedding hells ring out," 
 wherein the theme, exploited in every imaginable form, 
 is man, the victim of woman by marriage. I do not 
 know if this is a sign that men are beginning to open 
 their eyes. 
 
 The wildest inconsistencies seem to be the rule in this 
 country. Here is one of them : I believe that in no coun- 
 try in the world is the Bible more venerated than in the 
 'United States. In every important hotel, in every room, 
 there is a copy for each traveler. Well then, the Bible 
 says in a hundred and one different places that the wife 
 must abide by the will of her husband, that the wife 
 must obey her husband. This is a biblical precept that 
 has been respected during twenty centuries of Chris- 
 
126 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 tianity. How is it that this country, which reveres the 
 Bible, acts in such open contradiction of it? 
 
 Your affectionate husband 
 
 Miss Jones finished reading this letter without any 
 bitter feeling; on the contrary, it made her laugh heart- 
 ily. At first she thought the best way would be to an- 
 swer the letter in a vein of burlesque; but, fearing to 
 wound the susceptibilities of her unknown friend, she 
 wrote thus: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 I do not object to the facts, the information that your 
 husband gives you in all his letters. Much of this data 
 is taken directly by him from our most authorized 
 sources, from our own statistics, but when he gets his 
 notions from newspaper paragraphs, as in the case of the 
 woman who succeeded in having her husband put in jail 
 because he would not allow her dog to sleep with them, 
 it would be better not to take them too literally. The 
 journalist, in order to impress his reader and publish 
 something different, very often exaggerates one detail of 
 a piece of news, giving the most prominence to the least 
 important part. Probably in the case to which your 
 husband refers, the woman complained of cruelty. Per- 
 haps the dispute arose from the incident of the dog 
 sleeping with them, and in the course of the quarrel 
 he maltreated his wife. Hence the fine. 
 
 There is nothing more dangerous, madam, than a little 
 
 i 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 127 
 
 of the truth, because tJiat little leads to the belief that an 
 assertion is true in its entirety; jnst as, in the world 
 of physics, a ton of coal has power to move for one mile 
 thousands of tons of material, so also in the moral world, 
 an ounce of truth is strong enough to drag a ton of lies 
 for thousands and thousands of miles. Never trust, 
 madam, to a little of the truth. Truth cannot be taken 
 like whiskey, with soda; but only pure, like milk. This 
 is the besetting sin, in my opinion, of your husband ^s 
 letters, in which he formulates his doctrines from an 
 unusual paragraph in a newspaper, from a conversation 
 with a crazy woman, from a quotation of a speech in this 
 country where every one believes himself authorized to 
 voice his ideas and sentiments. But in general, madam, 
 I do not object to the *'data" and the ''facts'' that your 
 husband gives you. I do object to his interpretation of 
 them. 
 
 Above all, in order to judge these problems of wom- 
 an's suffrage in the different countries, it is necessary 
 to bear in mind a very special circumstance. In Latin 
 countries, in Germany and in Japan, the family is the 
 social unit; on the other hand, in our country, the indi- 
 vidual is the social unit. I think that I have read that 
 formerly in Japan the family was so much the social 
 unit of the Empire that when one of its members was 
 condemned to death, the sentence very often included 
 the whole of the family. Among us, if the husband is 
 sentenced to prison, his wife has the right to ask for a 
 divorce, and also the right to marry another man, if she 
 wishes. Among us, each individual, man or woman, is a 
 *' social unit"; in the Latin-American countries, to a 
 certain extent, the family is the ' ' social unit. ' ' And this 
 explains why your husband cannot imagine how a 
 
 ; 
 
128 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 woman in Chile could think differently to her husband 
 in matters of politics. This also explains in part why in 
 those countries children enjoy the social prerogatives of 
 their parents on a much larger scale than in my country, 
 even when they have inherited neither their merits nor 
 their fortunes. 
 
 The most elemental of her rights, that of patria po- 
 testaSy is denied to the woman of your country. A 
 widow is not permitted to administer the estate of her 
 children in their minority, whereas a widower is en- 
 titled to do so. If, after the unwinding of much red 
 tape, she obtains permission from the court to act as 
 her children's trustee, the law compels her to render 
 periodically written account of her administration, just 
 as if she were a minor herself. 
 
 Over there woman is, economically and politically 
 speaking, a thing; she has neither independence nor in- 
 dividuality of her own. As in Japan, this conception of 
 responsibility of the whole family for a delinquency 
 committed by one of its members has changed, so also 
 the individual all over the world is gaining his person- 
 ality and his independence. We already see that even 
 in France and in Italy, countries where the family is the 
 social unit, the campaign for woman suffrage is progress- 
 ing. In France the principle of feminine municipal 
 vote has been accepted ; and after the war, you will see 
 how the French woman will win all her electoral rights. 
 The scarcity of men has obliged the women there to work 
 in the factories, and they are beginning to understand 
 that thej^ have new responsibilities and new rights. Even 
 in Germany the women are holding meetings, asking for 
 woman suffrage. In Latin America education of the 
 women is a very recent thing and is still very limited, but 
 
W03IAN'S SUFFRAGE 129 
 
 in proportion as the education of the women advances, 
 the way of judging of woman will change, and she will 
 come to be a social unit. 
 
 For a long time the problem of the mental inferiority 
 of woman has been debated, and a large number of 
 **wise men" have come to the conclusion that we are 
 inferiorly gifted, because among other reasons, our con- 
 tributions to the world of science, art, and literature 
 have been almost nothing compared with those of man. 
 These "wise men" have not taken into consideration, 
 however, that for centuries knowledge and instruction 
 have been monopolized by man, leaving to us only the 
 simple domestic tasks. This has been responsible for the 
 conviction, universally held by Germany, that woman 
 is reserved only for these three cults: '^Kilche, Kirche, 
 Kinder" (cooking, church, children). 
 
 Now, however, people are looking at things through 
 different prisms. The education of the woman has been 
 extended throughout the world and very particularly in 
 my country; and even when one cannot gain in a gen- 
 eration the fruit that man gathers as the consequence 
 of a legendary culture, woman is proving, in all activi- 
 ties, the immense capacity that she had neither developed 
 or utilized in past centuries. 
 
 Your husband has courteously refrained from telling 
 you in any part of his letter that woman is intellectually 
 inferior to man. I think I have no reason to debate this 
 point with you. It seems to me we shall agree on this 
 matter. Both of us are women and it would be hateful 
 to recognize our inferiority. The mere fact that your 
 husband confides his social impressions of my country 
 to you is proof that he puts you intellectually on the 
 same level as himself. 
 
130 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Discarding all this, there remain only two aspects 
 of the woman suffrage problem. The first is the prob- 
 lem of right and of justice; the second is the problem 
 of social convenience, whether or no it is advantageous 
 to have woman's contribution in matters of collective 
 interest. These two aspects, madam, I wish to discuss 
 with you in these notes. I take pleasure in advance in 
 thinking that you are going to agree with me. 
 
 If we admit the intellectual and moral equality of 
 woman with respect to man, I do not see by what pretext 
 the legislator can deprive her of the right of electing 
 authorities who, with their laws, have so much influence 
 in her destiny. 
 
 If we were to admit for a moment what your husband 
 says, that woman thinks — or ought to think — politically 
 exactly like her father or her husband, the result would 
 be that the vote of the married man would have twice 
 the value of that of the bachelor, and the father of three 
 daughters would have a fourfold vote. I see no harm 
 in either of these contingencies, but, on the other hand, 
 the widow, the woman without parents and the inde- 
 pendent woman would each have her individual vote, 
 and here I can see only advantages. However, I do 
 not understand why, in the most intimate and loving 
 homes, woman should not have an independent vote and 
 opinion. Woman studies problems that are related di- 
 rectly with herself from a point of view very often dif- 
 ferent from that of man. The problems of education, 
 of drink, of commercialized vice, of gambling, of child 
 labor and of factory conditions affect very deeply the 
 feminine conscience. Is it just that the assistance of 
 the brains and heart of woman be disregarded in these 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 131 
 
 problems, circumscribing all her activities to the three 
 German Ks? 
 
 In my country we have given the right of voting to 
 the negroes and to the most uncultured elements of our 
 population. Why not to the cultured woman? Is it 
 not unjust to maintain one-half of the population, which 
 has to obey the laws, without the right of electing those 
 who are going to make the laws ? 
 
 Can a country call itself a democracy, that is to say, a 
 government of the people, by the people and for the peo- 
 ple, when it withholds citizenship from half its popula- 
 tion ? The letter of President Wilson to Senator Shields, 
 to which your husband alludes, says that in a large 
 measure the morals of this country and of the world will 
 rest in our sincere adherence to democratic principles; 
 it will depend on the action that the Senate takes in this 
 matter now so critically important. The President re- 
 fers here to the simple aspect of justice, and he under- 
 stands that this country cannot be fighting for democ- 
 racy in the world while democracy is limited to the 
 males. 
 
 I do not believe, madam, that our world, the feminine 
 world, ends at the door of our home, that we have noth- 
 ing to do but with that which is within our home. Our 
 home extends beyond the portals. Woman has like man, 
 perhaps more so, a very deep interest in the well-being, 
 in the progress of the community. We are an integral 
 part of it; why then should we be relegated to act as 
 mere spectators ? 
 
 Your husband says, madam, that if woman wants the 
 right of vote, she should also be recruited to go to war, 
 to be a soldier. In the first place, woman — it has so 
 happened in my country — ^has offered herself in battal- 
 
132 THE GULF OF MISVNDEESTANDING 
 
 ions to go to war to serve in the Department of the 
 Red Cross, where, as in this war, she has met death 
 with little less frequencj^ than soldiers. By the very act 
 of going to sea, where death-dealing submarines navi- 
 gate like fish, she runs the same risk as onr regular sol- 
 diers. But I think, madam, that the triumphal entrance 
 of woman in universal legislation, in the legislation of 
 the allied countries, in that of the central empires and 
 of the entire world, will tend to do aw^ay with wars in 
 the future. In the world of the future, will not the 
 conscience of mothers of all the countries that have seen 
 the sacrifice of their husbands and sons in this sea of 
 blood which is now stifling humanity, force them to in- 
 tervene to prevent the committal of another such crime 
 on the earth? The incorporation of woman into citizen 
 life is a triumph of humanity that is going to be more 
 profitably revolutionary than the invention of steam or 
 electricity. 
 
 Your husband says that the home is the place for 
 woman; but what about the hundreds of thousands of 
 women that modern industrial life has driven out of the 
 home and sent to the factory? He thinks only of the 
 women of the wealthy classes, those who are preoccupied 
 exclusively by the three German Ks, and forgets alto- 
 gether the vast majority of women in the world. In 
 his eyes it is a very serious matter for a woman to be- 
 come the manager of a bank, or a doctor, or a lawyer, 
 but it is unimportant that she should work in a factory, 
 making matches, preserves or ammunition. 
 
 You must agree with me, madam, that it is right for 
 woman to vote and to take part in decisions of a social 
 nature which will concern her and her children. Gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people and for the people 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 133 
 
 does not mean government of man, by man and for man. 
 Woman is a part of the people, and the time has arrived 
 for her to claim her rights for the good of humanity. 
 
 Regarding the advisability from a social standpoint 
 for woman to take part in matters of State, it suffices to 
 observe what has happened in the world since woman 
 has partially succeeded in obtaining her electoral rights. 
 In Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark women 
 have the same electoral rights as men, and you will agree 
 with me that these countries are among the most ad- 
 vanced in the world. In Sweden, England, Wales, Ire- 
 land and Scotland woman has the right of municipal 
 suffrage. In those of our states where woman has all 
 the civil rights of man social legislation is, without a 
 doubt, more equitable. It was by the vote of the women 
 that a chief of police in California, who was protecting 
 vice, was recalled. Soon after women secured the right 
 of vote in Washington, the mayor and the chief of police 
 of Seattle awakened public attention by their corrupt 
 action in a certain matter, and in three days twenty- 
 three thousand women asked for and obtained the recall 
 of the mayor and had the chief of police put in jail. 
 An eight-hour work day for women, equal pay for women 
 and men workers, female teachers who visit homes to 
 complete the education of children, and maternity pen- 
 sions, are all the fruit, madam, of woman suffrage; but 
 woman suffrage is not only beneficial to woman, but is 
 also directly so for man, although it would be fully justi- 
 fied if only for the service it has rendered in the cause 
 of the redemption of our sex, which has very slowly 
 shaped its own destiny in history. Let us not forget, 
 madam, those days of ancient Indo-European civiliza- 
 tion in which the father was the despot and the high- 
 
134 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 priest of the domestic cult, and could punish, kill or 
 sell his wife. In this slow evolution, the world is only 
 now awakening to the benefits of human society (in the 
 most ample acceptation of the word) and is relinquish- 
 ing the sway of a society composed of one sex. 
 
 If the idea of woman suffrage seems strange and even 
 extravagant to Latin America, it is because woman there 
 has been ke^it in systematic ignorance. Strictly speak- 
 ing, man has also been kept in systematic ignorance 
 there. With the exception of a small group, certainly, 
 in both cases. Many of our social problems of to-day 
 will inevitably be problems for solution half a century 
 later, or even more, for those countries. What is hap- 
 pening with woman suffrage is happening with prohibi- 
 tion. We have progressed more rapidly than those 
 countries for historic reasons very easy to understand. 
 
 Of course, your problem is very different from ours. 
 To give the women of Latin America the right to vote 
 would mean duplicating an uneducated electoral force. 
 They have not arrived at the necessary stage of giving 
 the vote to woman in general. I fear they have not yet 
 reached the standard which should justify the extension 
 of the vote to all men ; but just as it would be advisable 
 to curtail the right of voting among the uneducated mas- 
 culine elements — trying at the same time to educate 
 them with a view to the restoration of this right — I think 
 it would be a matter of justice and expediency to grant 
 immediately the vote to every woman who possesses 
 certain requisites of culture, for instance, a knowledge 
 of the subjects taught in the high schools. 
 
 Tell me, madam, you who know how the cultured 
 woman in your country is beginning to work so success- 
 fully in philanthropic lines, and has founded homes for 
 
WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 135 
 
 children, leagues to combat tuberculosis and benevolent 
 societies of every kind, how much more could they do if 
 the leaders were themselves legislators, promulgators of 
 beneficial social laws and vetoers of pernicious social 
 laws? Are the politics of your country clean in the 
 highest degree? Are not anti-social laws passed there? 
 Are not frauds committed? Is the milk that is sold in 
 the streets pure ? Is food never adulterated ? Is white- 
 slavery being combated as it should be? Is the drink 
 habit being curbed? Are the factories where women 
 work sanitary ? Are the wages of women equitable ? Is 
 education being spread profusely in every city, village 
 and farm? All these are political problems, madam, 
 problems that need the direct intervention of woman 
 the world over. 
 
 Politics are dirt, your husband says, and we should 
 keep our women clean. The fact is, woman should inter- 
 vene in politics just for the purpose of cleansing them. 
 It is the woman of one continent, my dear madam, who is 
 speaking to the woman of another continent, and in spite 
 of the fact that we are separated by oceans and moun- 
 tain ranges, in spite of the fact that we do not know 
 each other, we can at least agree that woman, all over the 
 world, is endowed with a big heart, capable of doing as 
 much or more good, of disseminating as much or more 
 true lovingkiudness than men. 
 
 I have very frequently read the criticisms of Latin 
 American journalists with regard to the woman's suf- 
 frage movement in my country. They try to discredit 
 the new democratic tendencies of the world which would 
 make of woman a citizen, saying — as does your husband 
 — that this movement owes its being to unattractive 
 spinsters or old women who for those reasons are dis- 
 
136 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 contented with their lot. Their idea of getting even so- 
 cially is to obtain some authority in the community as a 
 compensation for the neglect of which they have been 
 innocent victims. 
 
 It is perhaps the woman without special physical 
 charm that has taken the most active part in these move- 
 ments; and, generally speaking, it is she who has felt 
 most deeply the neglect to which women, considered as 
 a social element, have been subjected throughout history. 
 If this is so, the fact can easily be explained without 
 injury to our cause. But you may be sure that to-day 
 the illustrated papers of the whole world might be filled 
 with portraits representing the flower and cream of 
 feminine beauty, all of them soldiers in the army of 
 women who are fighting to obtain the rights of citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 It will be a new world, madam, a world in which 
 woman will cooperate wholeheartedly in the noble work 
 of conducting the destinies of each nation. Until now 
 mankind has not taken advantage of women's help in 
 the fight for progress, except in a minimum degree. 
 The new world which is dawning will be one of all man- 
 kind instead of, as now, a world of half mankind. 
 
 Your Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER YII 
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 
 
 NO great efforts of imagination were necessary on 
 the part of Miss Jones to guess what would be 
 the theme of the next letter. To speak of mar- 
 riage and divorce in the United States after debating 
 the matter of woman's suffrage was only what one 
 might expect; she felt therefore no surprise when be- 
 ginning to read the letter which follows below: 
 
 Chicago, lU., , 1918. 
 
 My dearest: 
 
 I sometimes wonder why married couples in this coun- 
 try get divorced, since it appears to me that they are 
 practically divorced from the day of their wedding. 
 In fact, the husband lives his life and the wife hers. 
 The wife very often has her personal friends, very amia- 
 ble men, who take her out riding, to dine at restaurants, 
 and to the theater, while the husband does not even know 
 these intimate friends of his own wife. He breakfasts 
 at home and never returns until dinner time. I do not 
 think the Yankee exists who ever took lunch at home. 
 A possible exception might be made for the honeymoon 
 period. 
 
 Neverthless, living so separated, so divorced, they 
 
 137 
 
138 TBE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 often find life together unbearable, and ask with terrific 
 frequency for a more effective divorce, wbicli the law 
 promptly grants them with a generosity worthy of a bet- 
 ter cause. 
 
 I told you in my previous letter that I have discovered 
 here a new sex ; the American woman who is neither man 
 nor woman. Well, there also exists in this country a 
 new kind of child: the orphan whose parents are alive, 
 the orphan whose parents have had recourse to the ultra ' 
 liberal laws of this country to ask for their definite sep- 
 aration and their liberty to marry again for the most 
 trifling reasons. 
 
 The newspapers of the United States publish comio 
 items with extraordinary frequency, on every page. I 
 do not know why. I understand why butter is spread 
 on bread, but I see no necessity for spreading margarine 
 on the butter. I mean that the actual news items they 
 publish are much funnier than the jokes they make up. 
 I think that the list of divorces and their causes, pub- 
 lished every day by the newspapers, furnish the most 
 entertaining reading imaginable. It is not uncommon 
 for a woman to ask for a divorce because her husband 
 snores at night, which does not permit her to dream at 
 her ease. 
 
 In our country everybody is familiar with the cards 
 announcing marriages, births, christenings, or deaths; 
 but here a card is also sent out when a lady announces 
 to her relatives and friends that she is divorced. Not 
 long ago I read one of these announcing a case much 
 talked about on account of the social standing of the 
 divorced woman. Printed on severe-looking parchment, 
 with all the luxury proper to a lady of high degree the 
 card read thus: 
 
MABBIAGE AND DIVOBCE 
 
 139 
 
 **By aiitliority of tlie decree of the Supreme Court of 
 the State of New York, granted to me, dated June the 
 tenth, one thousand nine hundred and sixteen, I have 
 elected to resume my maiden name and will hereafter be 
 known as Madame Evelyn Florence Partridge. 
 
 "Evelyn Engalitchepf, 
 Hotel Netherland, City of New York/' 
 
 To the prince, her ex-husband, the divorced woman 
 sent one of these cards, and he, reading it at the "Wal- 
 dorf-Astoria Hotel, was seen to smile with an air of 
 deepest satisfaction. Isn't this delightful? 
 
 But the following is not so delightful : During the last 
 fifty years there have been four million five hundred and 
 eighty-six thousand seven hundred and thirty-two men 
 and women separated by law in the United States, and 
 these have left one million six hundred and eightj'-nine 
 thousand six hundred and sixty-two orphans with their 
 parents living. Although the tendency of North Ameri- 
 can laws is to restrain divorce, it is increasing every day, 
 not only on account of the increase in the population, 
 because it increases three times as fast as the population. 
 Just look at these figures, which are sadly eloquent : 
 
 In 1867 there were 
 
 In 1877 
 
 In 1886 
 
 In 1896 ** ** 
 
 In 1906 '' ** 
 
 In 1916 
 
 in this country 
 
 9,937 divorces 
 14,800 *' 
 
 
 25,535 *' 
 
 
 42,937 '' 
 
 72,062 '' 
 
 124,000 '* 
 
 The one hundred and twenty-four thousand divorces 
 in 1916 left about one hundred and twenty-four thou- 
 sand orphans with living parents. In Cook County, in 
 which is the city of Chicago, and which has more or less 
 
140 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 the same population as tliat of our country, there are 
 more than five hundred divorces each month, more than 
 one for every hour of the day, in the long days of sum- 
 mer. Just imagine the consternation there would be in 
 Chile at the news of such a horror having occurred 
 among us. 
 
 The divorce laws of the different States are not the 
 same. People often discuss the necessity for federal leg- 
 islation to make the law uniform in this respect, but 
 there are many States that wish to retain their full in- 
 dependence to enact such laws regarding matrimonial 
 relations as they see fit. While in South Carolina di- 
 vorce does not exist — ^the only decent State in this re- 
 spect — ^in others the laws are ultra liberal, and divorce, 
 with the right to marry again, is granted to couples 
 for the most absurd reasons. In West Virginia a wife 
 can ask for a divorce if she learns that her husband, 
 before marriage, was a ''notoriously licentious '^ person. 
 If this law were to be put into effect in South America, 
 practically every wife could get divorced. In many 
 parts of this country the husband or wife can ask for 
 and obtain a divorce without his or her life companion 
 knowing anj^thing about it. The husband may come 
 home and find among the cans just opened for his din- 
 ner, together w^ith the grocer's bill, a divorce decree in 
 which the judge has declared his wife single that very 
 afternoon. 
 
 One of our countrymen who has written very enthu- 
 siastic books about this country had a certain experience 
 in New York which he relates himself, perhaps without 
 realizing the seriousness of what he is writing, since he 
 is apt to take things lightly. In the boarding house 
 where he was staying there was also a young lady, very 
 
MABBIAGE AND DIVORCE 141 
 
 beautiful, an invalid, forced to remain forever seated in 
 an invalid's chair. The lady was married, and her hus- 
 band, an engineer, took only his breakfast and dinner 
 with her. During the day she was wheeled about in 
 the park by another gentleman. One day the ladj^ dis- 
 appeared early in the morning. The gentleman who so 
 assiduously took care of her went to see our compatriot, 
 to whom he said : 
 
 ' ^ Do you know what has happened ? ' ' 
 
 ''What?" 
 
 ''Mrs. has been sent to Buffalo.'' 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Her husband sent her there against her will. You 
 know we love each other, but her husband — that imbecile 
 — wants to put himself between us, and has sent her 
 back to her father's house. The poor girl, an invalid, 
 had not the strength to resist, and has sent me this let- 
 ter." 
 
 "But she is married," our countrj^man answered him. 
 
 "And what has that got to do with it? So am I mar- 
 ried. Both of us can obtain a divorce at the same time, ' ' 
 
 Very American ! 
 
 I spoke to you in my last letter of the case of a Miss 
 Lusk. This young lady, a teacher of psychology, fell 
 in love vvdtli a veterinary surgeon and manufacturer 
 ^ of patent medicines. This veterinarian was married, 
 and consequently the teacher of psychology asked her 
 lover to tell his wife that she — the wife — was unduly 
 interposed between the love of both. The following is 
 a copy of a letter that the lady sent to her lover's wife, 
 a document which was recently published in all the 
 newspapers of this city, and, I imagine, of the country: 
 
142 TEE GULF OF MI8UNDEB8TANDING 
 
 **My dear Mrs. Eoberts: I have just come home from 
 spending the evening with your husband. He has told 
 me the full details of your Eastern trip, etc. We plan 
 to be together to-morrow in the city. I am going to ask 
 him then to decide finally between us. He has told me 
 that it was I who had all his affections. I have begged 
 him to go to you and tell you the situation frankly, for 
 I felt you were a big enough woman to desire his happi- 
 
 The end of this tragedy was that Miss Lusk murdered 
 Mrs. Roberts, one consequence of which was that all her 
 private correspondence was brought before the greedy 
 eyes of the public. One thing at least may be said for 
 the United States: Here a case may always be judged 
 by the public without fear of error. They publish every- 
 thing in their newspapers, even the most intimate secrets 
 of a married couple. 
 
 When a married woman finds that she loves another 
 man — and this seems to happen frequently here — it is 
 only necessary for her to speak. Woman must have her 
 way. The following case of a professor of Chicago Uni- 
 versity, which occurred recently, will serve to illustrate 
 
 what I mean : Mr. occupies the chair of professor of 
 
 preventive medicine in the university that bears the 
 name of this city. His wife expresses to him her desire 
 of getting a divorce, but the professor, who really loves 
 her, does not wish to give his consent. She tells him 
 
 frankly that she loves a Mr. , whom she purposes to 
 
 marry when she is free. The professor is firm, and trusts 
 that his wife will forget this illicit passion. He does 
 everything possible to win the heart of his own wife. As 
 she could get no satisfaction from her husband and as 
 her lover was sent to France as a soldier, she asks for and 
 obtains an appointment as nurse in a hospital in France. 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 143 
 
 The husband succeeds in having this appointment an- 
 nuled by giving the true reasons which induced his wife 
 to abandon their home. As a result of this the wife 
 could not go to France, but she left her husband, and 
 nobody knows where she is. This incident was published 
 with all the names in the papers. 
 
 I could fill sheets and sheets with stories of divorces 
 here. There is no respect for the sanctity of marriage. * 
 I saw lately in The Daily Nexus an illustrated humorous 
 dialogue which serves to corroborate my statements from 
 a good-natured point of view : 
 
 John — *'Why have you chosen the month of June to 
 get married ? You know that June is the high summer 
 here.'' 
 
 Thomas — * ' The courts close in June and remain closed 
 all the summer. We shall have to stay married for some 
 time at all events. ' ' 
 
 One of the most popular American poems is * * Evange- 
 line," by Longfellow. I think you must have read it in 
 Spanish. The story is simple and profoundly moving. 
 In 1775 the English government roughly ejected a 
 French colony in Arcadia, Nova Scotia, and Evangeline, 
 the very day of her wedding, was separated from her 
 husband in such a way that she lost all trace of him. 
 The poem describes the wandering of the newly married 
 girl in search of her husband, always faithful to her 
 love, rejecting all new passion, all joy, until after many 
 years, and already an old woman, she finds her husband 
 on his death bed in a hospital where she is a nurse, and 
 succumbs with him, a victim of her grief. This is the 
 ecstasy of love, as we understand it. But Longfellow 
 when writing this poem did not seek inspiration in his 
 
144 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 own country, since his poem is, to some extent, an imi- 
 tation of "Hermann and Dorothea," by Goethe. And 
 yet, the poet, thinking no doubt that it was unlikely that 
 an American girl would act in such a way, had to make 
 his heroine, Evangeline, a French girl by blood and 
 temperament, the daughter of Bellefontaine, whose garb 
 is that "brought in the olden times from France," whose 
 lover is Gabriel Lajeunesse, and the village in which he 
 lived is "such as the peasants of Normandy built in the 
 reign of the Henries." 
 
 Not even poets, in the dreams of their free fantasy, 
 can disregard truth. 
 
 As I am writing to you about marriages and divorces 
 here, this morning I went to the Court of Domestic Rela- 
 tions, and for three hours I listened to complaint cases 
 of married people before a judge who hears exclusively 
 cases of matrimonial disagreements, in which husbands 
 complain of their wives and wives complain of their 
 husbands. These cases are not brought forward with a 
 view to divorce, but treat of transitory domestic diffi- 
 culties in which one of the parties asks the authority of 
 a judge to intervene and give a ruling. 
 
 The judge I saw hears and judges from a high desk, 
 in his shirt sleeves, without any vest or jacket, and with 
 as little ceremony in his language as in his dress. Dur- 
 ing all the time I was there no case was heard of a man 
 complaining of his wife. All were cases of wives com- 
 plaining of their husbands. And you ought to see with 
 what meekneps the men came before the judge and how 
 tyrannically the women spoke of their husbands: like 
 a master to his slave. I cannot tell 3'ou all the incidents 
 I witnessed, but one can serve as a sample of the reasons 
 which bring these women before a ju.dge, complaining 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 145 
 
 of the conduct of their husbands. One woman com- 
 plains that her husband has given her only forty dol- 
 lars out of seventy-five that he earns every two weeks. 
 She speaks with the insolence of a creditor who not 
 only is owed money, but who has been cheated. After 
 the judge has heard her he questions the husband as he 
 would question a criminal. He asks what he has done 
 with the other thirty-five dollars that he has not given 
 to his wife. The poor man presents a doctor's bill for 
 twenty dollars which he had paid. 
 
 **Did your husband owe this money?'' the judge asks 
 the wife. 
 
 *'Yes, your honor, and he paid it," the wife had to 
 admit. 
 
 *'But what have you done with the other fifteen dol- 
 lars?" asks the judge of the husband. It later devel- 
 oped that he had given his wife two dollars on a certain 
 occasion and more later on. 
 
 '*Is that so?" the judge asks the wife. 
 
 "Yes, but that money was not out of his salary," she 
 replies. 
 
 Eventually it appeared that the wife had received 
 practically all the money except about four dollars. And 
 after everything was proved, the husband, still being 
 afraid that the judge would sentence him, takes a little 
 .piece of paper out of his pocket and passes it to him, 
 saying: 
 
 '*My wife very often leaves me papers like this at 
 home." The judge reads in a loud voice: 
 
 **I will not be here for dinner. The potatoes are in 
 a bag in the pantry. Buy ten cents' worth of butter 
 and fry them." And the piece of paper continues giv- 
 
146 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ing directions for preparing the meal that she had in- 
 tended for him that day. 
 
 I will say for your comfort that the judge did not 
 sentence the husband, and you ought to have seen the 
 poor man's expression of gratitude. 
 
 Oh ! it does not astonish me that the men get divorced 
 here. What astonishes me is that they marry. On my 
 part, I can say that if I had never known you, if the 
 same fate had befallen me as befell Eobinson Crusoe, 
 and if, on his famous desert island — our island of Juan 
 Fernandez — I had met, instead of the native whom he 
 called Friday, a modern American young lady, beautiful, 
 ultra cultured, one of the very best, in a word, a true 
 type of the feminine jeunesse doree of this country, if I 
 did not have another companion on the island, another 
 living being, and if I were condemned to live there for 
 the rest of my life, I would play tennis with this girl, 
 I would go out hunting with her — everything but make 
 her my wife. I cannot conceive matrimonial happiness 
 with a Yankee woman. They are as of another planet 
 for me. The following from a newspaper of this city is 
 more a philosophical reflection than a joke : 
 
 Mrs. Gabb, reading a newspaper, says to her husband : 
 *'I see here that a rich gentleman from the West has 
 left five hundred thousand dollars to a woman who re- 
 fused to marry him twenty years ago." Mr. Gabb an- 
 swers: ''That's what I call gratitude!" 
 
 If it were a duty of our government to look out for 
 the private happiness of all its citizens, they ought to set 
 aside a sum in the yearly budget to recompense Yankee 
 girls for not marrying Chilean young men, who un- 
 fortunately come to this country to study and are crazy 
 enough to fall in love with American women. 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 147 
 
 But, on mature reflection, one need not be astonished 
 at the large number of divorces that are granted here 
 every day. To meet a woman for the first time and 
 propose marriage to her is pretty frequent. Marriages 
 by telegraph are not unusual. A newspaper of Chicago 
 makes a feature of getting men and women acquainted. 
 The proprietor of this daily was once candidate for the 
 presidency. I have already spoken to you about this 
 paper, The Herald and Examiner, whose owner pos- 
 sesses as many newspapers in this country as one would 
 possess neckties in our country. 
 
 The newspaper runs a free matrimonial agency. One 
 of its sections that is published every day in two columns 
 is called ''Lonely Hearts. '* A woman manages this 
 love department of the newspaper. Any man or woman 
 can write to the editor, asking for a companion. The 
 letters vary but are more or less of the following tenor : 
 *'I am twenty years old, tall, fair, and have blue eyes. 
 I would like to get acquainted with a young man over 
 thirty. I prefer one with dark eyes. He must be sober, 
 like dancing and the theater. ' ' One man writes : ' * I am 
 thirty years old, weigh one hundred and sixty-three 
 pounds ; my height is five feet six inches. I work in the 
 city from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. I would like to become 
 acquainted with a girl from 18 to 22 years old, pleas- 
 ing, intelligent, with the idea of possibly marrying. ' ' 
 • And there are thousands of letters of the same kind. 
 Black, blue and dreamy eyes, blonde and black hair are 
 offered. Of course, these letters are published, and the 
 persons who fit the case in physique, age and tempera- 
 ment, answer the editor, who makes the two ''lonely 
 hearts" become acquainted. In combination with this 
 section, the newspaper has a dance and picnic club 
 
148 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 where men and women can make eaeh other's acquaint- 
 ance. Anybody who can present two references can 
 belong to this club. A man writes asking to be made a 
 member (I also wrote, from mere curiosity) and receives 
 a letter from the chaperon saying: ''You must know 
 that thousands in Chicago are interested in our club. 
 ... In your own vicinity, perhaps in your own street, 
 alongside your house, there are persons who are very 
 desirous of becoming acquainted with a person just like 
 you. . . ." 
 
 Just imagine this free matrimonial agency. Hearts at 
 public auction, in the market of Chicago, just like bacon, 
 carpets and pajamas. It's no wonder that divorce is the 
 immediate result. And this same daily publishes car- 
 toons — about which I have written to you before — de- 
 scribing the tortures of married life — for the husband, 
 you understand. 
 
 In New York a paper is published called The Matri- 
 monial News, whose sub-title is ''Cupid's Advertiser." 
 The following is one of its editorials: "This society is 
 organized and incorporated by philanthropic people, 
 having broad and humanitarian ideals, for the purpose 
 of obviating the bad social and economic conditions that 
 are an obstacle to matrimony in New York and the 
 United States in general. ... No matter how fastidious 
 you may be, we feel confident that sooner or later 
 amongst the many thousands of members you will be 
 able to find the ideal companion you are seeking. ' ' This 
 paper publishes more than a hundred advertisements 
 all sent by Cupid. Here is a sample: 
 
 "Here is just the sweet little miss you have been 
 looking for. Her age is 20 summers; weight 140 lbs.; 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 149 
 
 height, 5 ft. 4 ins. ; dark hair, blue eyes, rosy complexion ; 
 mild disposition; American; income of nine thousand 
 dollars a year; college education; enjoys good health; 
 neat and tidy appearance ; plaj^ s the piano and sings ; 
 has property worth $130,000 ; never married and no one 
 dependent upon her. No objection to a poor man if 
 honorable and a good worker. "Would like to marry an 
 honorable farmer and live in the country. Will marry 
 at an early date. Write and get acquainted before it is 
 too late." 
 
 Many of the men and women who advertise even pub- 
 lish their photographs. If what some of the young 
 ladies say in their ''ads" is true, I ought to divorce my- 
 self from you and ask their hand in marriage. 
 
 In this country the sanctity of marriage and of the 
 family is not understood. People here would not under- 
 stand our conception of home. We ought to thank God 
 that we were not born here. 
 
 I have read a novel by Ernest Poole which studies 
 family life in this country. This novel seems to me 
 sufficiently authorized and representative, since the 
 School of Journalism of Columbia University has given 
 it the first prize, in accordance with the donation made 
 by Joseph Pulitzer, by declaring it the novel that pic- 
 tures best ''American life." 
 
 It is the story of a New York widower of a well-to-do 
 family, with three daughters, each living a different 
 life. One of these daughters is Laura, who, like every 
 American woman, goes out alone and comes home late 
 at night after having gone to balls and theaters with 
 persons whom her father does not even know. 
 
 The following is a scene between father and daughter: 
 
 She — "Do you remember Harold Sloane?" 
 ffe— "No." 
 
150 THE GULF OF MI8UNDEBSTANDING 
 
 She — **I want you to know him. I am going to 
 marry him." 
 
 This is the way in which the father found out that 
 his daughter was going to be married. A few months 
 pass. One day Laura visits her father's house and has 
 the following conversation with her sister, Deborah: 
 
 Laura — *'This time it's divorce. I've stood it long 
 
 enough." 
 
 Deborah — '*You mean you don't care for your hus- 
 band ? You want a divorce — but how do you think you 
 are going to get it? The laws are rather strict in this 
 state. One ground only is acceptable, and even if your 
 husband has been unfaithful, have you any proofs?" 
 
 Laura — ' ' No, I haven 't — but I don 't need any proofs. 
 He wants it as badly as I do." 
 
 Deborah — "Your husband is to bring suit against you? 
 For God's sake, Laura, what do you mean?" 
 
 Laura — ' ' Mean ? I mean that he has proofs ! He has 
 used a detective — the mean little cur — and he's treating 
 me like the dirt under his feet ! Just as though it were 
 one thing for a man and quite another for a woman! 
 He even had the nerve to be mad, to get on a high horse, 
 to call me names ! Turn me — turn me out on the street ! ' ' 
 
 Deborah — "Stop, this minute! You say that you've 
 been doing — what he has ? ' ' 
 
 Laura — ' ' Why shoudn 't I ? What do you know about 
 it? Are you going to turn against me, too?" 
 
 Deborah — "Perhaps I am. Speak clearly. Explain 
 yourself. ' ' 
 
 Laura — "Explain — to you? How can I? You don't 
 understand — you know nothing about it — all you know 
 about is books. You're simply a nun when it comes to 
 this. I see it now — I didn't before — I thought you a 
 modern woman — ^with your mind open to new ideas. 
 , . . You're afraid." 
 
 Deborah — "Yes, I'm afraid." 
 
MABBIAGE AND DIVORCE 151 
 
 Laura — '* And, being afraid, you can't be fair. You're 
 like nearly all American women — married or single, 
 young or old — you're all of you scared to death about 
 sex — just as your Puritan mothers were ! . . . But I 'm 
 not afraid and I 'm living my life ! And let me tell you 
 I 'm not alone ! There are hundreds and thousands doing 
 the same — right here in New York City to-night. It's 
 been so abroad for years and years — in Rome and Berlin, 
 in Paris and London — and now, thank God, it has come 
 over here ! If our husbands can do it, why can 't we ? " 
 
 Deborah— ''^Yho's the man? That Italian?" 
 LaurOr-^'Yes.'' 
 Del) or ah— "Where is he?" 
 Laura — ''Right here in New York." 
 Deborah — ''Does he mean to stand by you?" 
 Laura — "Of course he does." 
 Deborah — "Will he marry you, Laura?" 
 Laura — "Yes, he will — the minute I'm free from my 
 beast of a husband!" 
 
 And that 's just what happened. Laura got a divorce 
 from her first husband and married the Italian. 
 
 This is the philosophy of marriage in the United 
 States. This is a trait of the American family's in- 
 feriority. In the whole scale of life the offspring de- 
 pend longer and longer on the parents, in proportion 
 as the importance, complexity and refinement of the 
 species increases. In simple vegetal life plants have 
 nothing to do with the plants that gave them life. The 
 wind draws out billions of seeds from the pine-trees and 
 the new pine-grove that is born in the rugged forest 
 knows nothing of its parents in a far-away forest The 
 salmon comes out of the sea, swims up the river, lays 
 
152 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 its eggs, and thereafter knows and cares nothing about 
 the new myriad to which it has given life. The spar- 
 row takes better care of its eggs and its little ones in 
 the nest, but it leaves them alone as soon as they know 
 how to fly. It is a privilege of man to keep his children 
 for as long a time as possible, and it is his prerogative 
 to be at their side so as to insure their future happiness 
 till death. The fact of a daughter making herself inde- 
 pendent of her family at fifteen years of age and acting 
 on her own account, without the advice and permission 
 of her parents, is a step backwards, not a mark of prog- 
 ress in the record of human life. 
 
 It is this contagion that I am afraid of if we insist in 
 admiring and imitating this country. Fortunately, our 
 women seem to be immune against such a plague. 
 Heaven grant that neither years nor centuries will be 
 able to weaken the power of their resistance. 
 
 Your husband who adores you 
 
 No sooner had she read this letter than Miss Jones 
 took up her pen to answer it. It might well be supposed 
 that she felt hurt in her womanly dignity ; but she was 
 now so accustomed to the contemptuous observations 
 made in these letters that she was able to write the reply 
 quite calmly in these words: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 Do not think for a moment that I intend to comment 
 upon this letter from your husband moved by the indig- 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 153 
 
 nation which you probably think its perusal has caused 
 me as an American woman. No. I am understanding 
 better and better your husband's temperament and his 
 one-sided criterion in judging of our life. 
 
 In your country there are no laws to make divorce 
 easy, except in a very few cases, in which the divorced 
 couples must not marry again. This is a general rule 
 in Latin America with a few exceptions, as in Uruguay. 
 Your husband, madam, has taken Cook County, where 
 the city of Chicago is, to compare it with your country, 
 since they both have approximately the same population, 
 and invites you to imagine the consternation that would 
 be caused in Chile by the publication of the news that 
 there had been in one year one hundred and twenty-four 
 thousand divorces. I also believe that this would cause 
 great consternation in Chile, since of the three million 
 and a half persons who comprise the population of your 
 country, according to the last census, only eight hundred 
 and seventy-one thousand are married. If there were 
 as many divorces there as in Cook County, in four years 
 everybody would be divorced, those who got married 
 during those four years included. 
 
 If you begin to ask yourself why there are so few mar- 
 ried people in Chile, you will arrive at the conclusion, 
 not that the people live in a state of sexual abstinence, 
 but that relations between the sexes are frequent among 
 the unmarried in your country, as in all Latin America. 
 
 I know very well that in your country, as in almost 
 all Latin America, the uncultured classes live generally 
 in a sort of concubinage, at times permanent, but very 
 often transitory. If an account were to be made of the 
 different "wives" that the men of Latin America have 
 had — that is, of voluntary divorces, without the inter- 
 
154 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 vention of tlie law, without punisliment or compensation 
 on the part of the hnsband for the abandoned woman — 
 we should find relatively more divorces in your country 
 than in ours. 
 
 The fundamental error, madam, of your husband is 
 that he compares the high, cultured classes of your 
 country with the figures of our statistics, which naturally 
 include our whole population. A Latin American when 
 speaking of his country only thinks of those of his own 
 social class, without regarding the lower classes. The 
 following are figures taken from statistics, showing the 
 percentage of the population that is illegitimate in some 
 Latin American countries: In Uruguay, twenty-seven 
 per cent, of the population is of illegitimate birth; in 
 Chile, thirty-seven per cent.; in Venezuela and Colom- 
 bia, fifty-eight per cent. ; in Ecuador, seventy-five per 
 cent. ; and in Paraguay, ninety per cent. In Bolivia or 
 Peru conditions are similar, if not worse. 
 
 In order that you may realize the gravity of this 
 problem in your country, where it is analogous to that 
 of the other Latin American countries, I will add that in 
 spite of the fact that the mortality of legitimate children 
 is thirty-one per cent, in Chile, the mortality of illegiti- 
 mate children between birth and the age of seven years 
 is sixty-three per cent. 
 
 I am not quoting these figures in order to taunt Latin 
 America, since I know very well that this condition is a 
 consequence of several causes which will gradually be 
 rooted out ; but I write in reply to that exclamation of 
 surprise of the Latin American who so often sneers at 
 us because of our divorce record, and who declares that 
 neither home nor family exists here, and that we do not 
 respect the sanctity of marriage. Abandonment, sub- 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 155 
 
 mission, and ignorance of women is the normal condition 
 of the humble classes in those countries; and, there 
 being practically no marriages, a large part of the popu- 
 lation lives in a condition of free love, and has not felt 
 the necessity of divorce. Wait till the women of Latin 
 America wake up, become educated, individualized, and 
 are born as social units; and I assure you they will 
 claim the right to separate lawfully from the men who 
 for one reason or another humiliate them or treat them 
 like a servant instead of as an equal. 
 
 Do you imagine for a moment, madam, that there are 
 not among us millions and millions of happy homes? 
 Tell me, is not the mere fact that we have so many facili- 
 ties to get a divorce, that the maltreated and deceived 
 wife has an open door for legal separation with alimony 
 from the man who was her husband, a guarantee that 
 the immense majority of married people do live happily? 
 If in your country they were to print the news of all 
 the poor people who separate each day, with the same 
 lack of ceremony with which they became united, and if 
 they were to publish the causes of disagreements, would 
 not your husband also find there a fountain of humor 
 typical of daily life? Real life is sometimes bitterly 
 grotesque. Our lists of divorces, made in accordance 
 with the law and considered — unduly, in my opinion — 
 news of public interest, are only the counterpart of those 
 separations of people not married by law and not pub- 
 lished in the Spanish American countries. 
 
 I must repeat, madam, by way of this problem of di- 
 vorce, something that I told you in my notes to the 
 previous letter of your husband. In our country the 
 social unit is the individual man or woman, and in your 
 country the social unit is the family. Considering the 
 
156 THE GULF OF ^IISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 personality of the individual among ns, slie not only 
 expects, but in a certain manner demands happiness in 
 marriage. "Woman does not sacrifice herself so volun- 
 tarily for the benefit of marriage although she may do 
 it, and frequently does, for the benefit of her children. 
 If a woman is ill treated here she will not put up with it, 
 while in Latin countries she bears more easily the con- 
 tempt of her husband, and, yielding, humbles herself. 
 Nearly all our divorces are asked for by the wife, who 
 claims her right to happiness as her part of life. 
 
 Marriage, madam, is a contract, a sacred contract, 
 without doubt, in which a man and a woman have prom- 
 ised to unite their lives to form a common home before 
 God and man. This contract being the most serious one 
 in life, one should think well before making it, so as to 
 run the least danger possible of making a mistake. But 
 we are human; we can make a mistake in spite of all. 
 This contract is often made at an early age, impelled by 
 an almost overwhelming passion. If we make a mistake, 
 if we are unfortunate in our marriage, why should we 
 be condemned to live a miserable life, a life of tortures ? 
 You probably have seen around you thousands of mar- 
 ried couples very unhappy. Why should those men and 
 women suffer everlasting torture through life? 
 
 From the very beginning men understood that they 
 had to guard against misfortune in marriage ; but as they 
 thought only of their own happiness, they made laws 
 that to-day we consider fit only for savages. In the 
 early days of Rome, as in the beginning of almost all 
 society, the wife was considered as the property of the 
 husband, who bought or acquired her in some other man- 
 ner. He then had the right of life or death over her; 
 and later a law was established which enacted that the 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 157 
 
 husband could, instead of killing her, divorce himself 
 when he became tired of her company. In ancient 
 Eome laws were passed which permitted the husband to 
 divorce his wife if the latter went out without a veil or 
 spoke to a woman of inferior rank in the street. 
 
 In the evolution, through the centuries, of laws regard- 
 ing divorce we always feel the weight of tradition and of 
 ecclesiastical and dogmatic influence. In this respect 
 to-day complete anarchy reigns in the entire world 
 among the most civilized nations, and in this chaos are 
 degrees of confused legislation going from absolute pro- 
 hibition of divorce to divorce granted by the simple mu- 
 tual desire of both parties, without the law entering 
 and studying the reasons, as in Norway. You admit 
 separation in South America, but in such exiDressive and 
 determined conditions that almost make it impossible, 
 since you absolutely debar the divorced pair from mar- 
 rying again. You, as I gather from your husband's 
 letters, are very happy in your home; but if a woman 
 has been unfortunate enough to marry a libertine or a 
 drunkard, believing him to be an honorable man, v/hy 
 should she not get a divorce? And whj^ should she 
 refuse to be happy later on with a good man whom she 
 loves and who understands her? This seems strange in 
 your country; it is even more so in other parts, where 
 they think that a widow or widower cannot marry again 
 without making themselves guilty of posthumous bigamy. 
 For those who think in that way, our President Wilson 
 and our ex-President Roosevelt would be posthumous 
 bigamists. 
 
 The world is traveling, madam, along a road of en- 
 deavor to contrive more and more ways of making more 
 and more individuals happy. France is a very Latin 
 
158 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 country, even more so than Latin America, and it per- 
 mits divorce with the right on the part of the divorced 
 pair to marry again. Spanish America will, sooner or 
 later, have to follow the same course as these countries 
 that do not believe that marriage has to be a rigorous 
 lottery, without appeal, in which a number drawn must 
 either win a prize or lose once and for all. 
 
 The last word has not been yet spoken in the world 
 as regards definite laws for divorce. My country par- 
 ticularly in this respect is a laboratory for social ex- 
 perimentation. I know that we are far, very far, from 
 having solved the problem. But efforts of every char- 
 acter are being made to solve it. Our Courts of Do- 
 mestic Relations are an attempt of the State to intervene 
 in the home, by the request of one of the parties, with 
 the purpose of insuring as far as possible happiness in 
 marriage. Some States, like Minnesota, have under- 
 taken to teach the men how to proceed in order to guar- 
 antee the maximum of happiness in the home. The State 
 Board of Health publishes pamphlets and issues propa- 
 ganda with the purpose of avoiding hasty marriages, 
 entered into blindly; it cautions the married couple 
 against the errors they may commit when marrying if 
 they do not know thoroughly well the character of their 
 future life companion; and then it teaches how to live 
 the life of married people. New experiments and ideas 
 are being proposed and being brought into use con- 
 stantly. I myself do not know what to anticipate as 
 regards the future of this problem ; but I do know that 
 our ideal is to have the most complete happiness reign 
 within the home, both for the wife and the husband. 
 Our aspiration is to be happy, in the enjojonent of free- 
 
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE 159 
 
 dom, with purity and honor, not as the canary in the 
 cage, but as the dove under the eaves. 
 
 In the novel by Ernest Poole, to which your husband 
 refers, the author describes three different women as 
 types of American womanhood. Laura is one, Deborah 
 is another, and Judith is the third. Why does your 
 husband choose Laura as the type of our womanhood? 
 Why not Judith, who condemns Laura blindly, or De- 
 borah, of such a different temperament? The case pre- 
 sented by Laura is generally one of the big cities, often, 
 as here, of a woman who has traveled through Europe 
 and has been contaminated by certain currents of opinion 
 in the great cities of Rome, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. 
 And what of Judith, the self-denying mother? And 
 Deborah, the woman of a collective spirit, the mother of 
 thousands of children, the social reformer? 
 
 Judith, when she knew the whole truth, was filled 
 with indignation, and said to her father that she could 
 not understand how he could tolerate the return of 
 Laura dishonored to his roof, where she, Judith, now a 
 widow, lived with her children, whom Laura would con- 
 taminate by her bad example. Judith is the opposite 
 type to Laura, unchangeable in her puritanism. And 
 Deborah, the broad-minded woman, full of lovingkind- 
 ness, sublime in her aspirations, indulgent to the weak- 
 ness of others, always more disposed to relieve the pain 
 than to reprove the transgression, a devoted wife and 
 mother, and with a soul so big that her goodness fills the 
 home and flows over beyond its limits ; this is the woman 
 prototype of my country ; this is the new woman who is 
 the symbol of feminism in my motherland. 
 
 But even taking this one case — that of Laura — it is a 
 fact that a new philosophy is making its way in my 
 
160 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 country. Purity for both sexes. Fidelity in both sexes. 
 I believe that the present complexity of our sexual life 
 aims at this. 
 
 And, of course, it is true that the women do not de- 
 pend so much in my country, as in Latin America, on 
 the opinion of their parents to choose their life com- 
 panions. Woman is, without doubt, more independent 
 here. She thinks more for herself of the problems 
 that are going to affect her directly. Cases do not 
 occur here of a woman who loves a man and who is 
 forced by her parents (who have no fault to find with 
 the man she loves) to marry another whom she does 
 not love, or simply prevent her from marrjdng the man 
 she loves. "Woman, among us, is more master of her- 
 self. 
 
 Woman and man are adults before the law in my 
 country earlier than in yours. And this is not a proof 
 of inferiority, as your husband believes, in the com- 
 parison that he makes with vegetal and animal life; 
 it is a proof simply that the schools and life in my 
 country prepare the child more rapidly for his own in- 
 dividual action. In every line of action you will al- 
 ways see young men here at the head of grave respon- 
 sibilities. The people live faster here. The mind 
 awakens earlier ; individualities are respected even in in- 
 fancy. The son does not necessarily believe in the same 
 religion nor must he have the same political creed as 
 the father. Take, for example, a High School in the 
 United States and a College or High School in your 
 country ; here the student can select the studies that he 
 likes to complete his course ; he has a service a la carte 
 for his tastes and inclinations ; in your country he is sub- 
 mitted to a determined discipline, to a fixed program, 
 
MABBIAGE AND DIVORCE 161 
 
 to certain exact branches, with general rules for all, 
 whether they meet or not the tendencies, the tempera- 
 ment, of each child. 
 
 Although it is true that the interference of parents 
 can contribute very often to the happiness of their 
 children, it is no less true that it may often be the 
 cause of misfortune. The son does not necessarily have 
 to be a faithful reproduction of the father; nature en- 
 dows him with his own idiosyncrasy. There is variety 
 in the species, and the more so when the species is 
 more perfect. There never can be such marked differ- 
 ences between two moles or two sparrows as between 
 two men. 
 
 The only way the world can advance, madam, is to 
 respect the individualities of children. To mold each 
 child to the temperament, tendency, and philosophy of 
 the father is to perpetuate the immobility of the human 
 race. The son will be the same as the father, the 
 grandfather, and the great-grandfather, and his chil- 
 dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren will be 
 the same as he. 
 
 For the sake of this respect for the individuality 
 of the child, madam, we, with not less affection for 
 our children, submit to their criterion their own prob- 
 lems as soon as they are capable of making their own 
 resolutions. 
 
 Before concluding I wish, madam, to insist emphatic- 
 ally that I believe that the woman of your country, 
 taking her as a whole, high class and low class, is 
 exceptionally chaste, and I know very well that the 
 figures of illegitimate births that the statistics give re- 
 flect upon only a special philosophy of the lower classes, 
 
162 THE GULF OF MISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 tliat do not give to the marriage act itself, civil or 
 religious, the importance that it has in your mind and 
 my^mind. 
 
 With kind regards, 
 
 A Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 REUGION 
 
 THIS time three weeks passed without the Chicago 
 correspondent writing to his wife. Miss Jones 
 supposed that the Chilean was now ready to 
 return home, and that this correspondence was there- 
 fore finished, when, one morning, the following letter 
 took her by surprise : 
 
 Chicago, 111., ..........1918. 
 
 My dearest : 
 
 Some one has said that there are one hundred re- 
 ligions in this country, and only one sauce, but, judging 
 from what I have seen, there are one hundred kinds 
 of sauce and two hundred religions, amongst which, 
 the sauces and the religions, it is difficult to choose the 
 most despicable. 
 
 Just as mushrooms in our country shoot up over- 
 night from the ground, so religions sprout up here. 
 It is a common thing for each member of a family of 
 five to profess a different religion. The churches are 
 ■organized like business houses to recruit their clients. 
 These Yankees are systematizing heaven, and as in the 
 department stores, there are bargain sales from time 
 to time, like one recently offered by Billy Sunday in 
 Chicago, sales in which the customer may acquire Jesus 
 Christ at a bargain price, below cost. 
 
 163 
 
164 TEE GVLF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 When I arrived in Chicago the coming of Billy Sun- 
 day to this city was being advertised. I must tell you, 
 since you could not possibly know it, that Billy Sunday 
 is a religious orator. He formerly was a baseball player, 
 but as he saw that there was more money in religion 
 he devoted himself to it. He made no mistake, since 
 he has already earned half a million dollars in his new 
 profession, to which he has adapted the gestiires of 
 his first athletic profession. 
 
 Of course, as soon as Billy Sunday arrived in Chi- 
 cago, I hastened to hear this prodigy of whom the news- 
 papers had been for months publishing columns and 
 columns of advance notices. 
 
 There is not a theater in Chicago, or in the world, 
 which can hold the crowd that Billy Sunday attracts; 
 consequently, he has to have a special colosseum built, 
 which he calls a tabernacle. On the banks of the calm 
 waters of Lake IMichigan, like John the Baptist on the 
 banks of the Jordan, this apostle of the twentieth cen- 
 tury sets up his amphitheater. 
 
 Yvlien I arrived, the immense colosseum was full of 
 women and men, young and old, but the greater part 
 women. How does an orator succeed in bringing to- 
 gether fifteen thousand persons twice a day, and three 
 times on Sundays, for ten weeks? Because this is 
 what Billy Sunday has done. I think that it is mainly 
 curiosity, the same that brought me there : the curiosity 
 to see the stupendous pantomimes of this man. If 
 it is advertised here that a man will eat a live rattle- 
 snake, the masses are always ready to go and see it 
 done. And so behold me on my way to see the king 
 of grotesque pantomime. 
 
 "When I took my seat, Billy Sunday had not yet com- 
 
RELIGION 165 
 
 menced to speak; his secretary was speaking. This 
 gentleman was showing the crowd how to cough with- 
 out making a noise; he was telling the public that 
 nobody should leave immediately at the end of the 
 ceremony, during the conversion, and finally he said 
 that everybody ought to contribute towards the ex- 
 penses of this great religious campaign. Then came 
 the collection, because this ceremony is payable in ad- 
 vance: hundreds of plates are suddenly passed around 
 the whole tabernacle ; in each row a plate is passed from 
 person to person as each one puts in his obolus. The 
 plates emerge in the aisles of the tabernacle, and thence, 
 in a mighty stream, the contributions flow into the 
 financial department, where the total is figured. 
 
 While the secretary speaks, Billy Sunday is seated on 
 the platform rubbing his neck. I have read that this 
 great orator has a professional massagist for his throat, 
 but, evidently, he has to supplement the work of the 
 doctor who takes care of his oratory muscles. 
 
 Small, agile, of a penetrating look, he has not, how- 
 ever, a physiognomy revealing any very remarkable 
 ability. Seen in the street, without knowing who he 
 is, he could be taken for a hair-dresser, an umbrella 
 seller, or an insurance agent. Besides, his manners, 
 while seated before the public, are coarse. Between 
 hiccoughs, he scratches his feet, chews paper, and rest- 
 lessly scrutinizes the audience. In his movements he 
 resembles a monkey in a zoological garden. I regarded 
 him with amazement and understood that only a public 
 like the Yankee would tolerate such a bounder as a 
 teacher of ethics. In our country lynching would break 
 out spontaneously to punish the audacious impertinence ; 
 but I ceased to wonder when I remembered that I was 
 
166 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 in the United States, the country of grotesque vaude- 
 villes. 
 
 In his language he is irreverent. He speaks of Jesus 
 Christ with such familiarity, that it seems as if they had 
 been college chums. He treats biblical characters as 
 if he had loaned them all money and they had not 
 yet paid him back. He calls Joseph Joe, he calls 
 Job Jake. As for him, he compares himself with the 
 greatest personages of history with an arrogance truly 
 Yankee. He says, for example: ''Napoleon used to 
 sleep four hours, I sleep less than he. ' ' He puts himself 
 on a level with Lincoln and Washington. 
 
 But his language is nothing, his eloquence and his 
 arrogance are nothing when compared with his panto- 
 mimes. For this he has not and never will have an 
 equal in the world. He jumps, shouts, shrieks, twists 
 and spits. A great stunt of a tenor is to bring out 
 a beautiful high C; a great stunt of Billy Sunday is 
 to take off his jacket in the middle of his excitement 
 and throw it at the audience, or to take a chair and 
 break it in pieces on the platform. This seems un- 
 believable, gross exaggeration, but by this time you 
 probably have accustomed yourself to believe that noth- 
 ing is impossible when treating of this country. 
 
 And then comes the imposing final. The call for 
 people to be converted. Then Billy Sunday speaks in 
 the voice of an afflicted woman, he cries like a Magdalen, 
 and the chorus of thousands of women invites the mul- 
 titude to approach and shake the hand of the Savior, 
 to approach and commune with Jesus Christ. A pro- 
 cession begins. That moment is truly imposing, be- 
 cause men and women, really possessed of holy faith, 
 approach with frightened eyes, some almost lifeless, 
 
RELIGION 167 
 
 others in hysteria. It is a moment of collective hyp- 
 notism. Billy Sunday is a past master in understand- 
 ing the psychology of the masses. You know that at 
 the circus, when a man of the troupe stands at the 
 entrance to announce the wonders inside, he selects the 
 jaoment of the climax of his eloquence to say: "Now 
 en ter, but do not rush, there 's room for all, do not 
 rush,^' and a crowd composed of the very employees of 
 the company is behind the public pushing the people 
 to make way. The public does not know that they are 
 employees of the company, but believes them to be part 
 of the crowd that is rushing to get in, and it is dragged 
 along. The people buy their tickets and go in. The 
 public is hypnotized. Everybody goes in. In the same 
 way Billy Sunday, with hundreds of drilled agents, 
 speeds up conversion. 
 
 Well, this extraordinary man has converted fifty 
 thousand persons in Chicago in his campaign. He has 
 saved fifty thousand souls. One of his admirers says 
 that the salvation of these fifty thousand souls has 
 cost Chicago two hundred thousand dollars. As every- 
 thing here is reduced to numbers, it has been figured 
 that the salvation of each soul has cost four dollars, 
 and as this means eternal happiness for the other life, 
 it is impossible to compute what infinitesimal fraction 
 of a cent each century of happiness for each saved 
 person costs. 
 
 • I have spoken to you so much in detail of Billy Sun- 
 day because he is the most popular religious personage 
 in the United States, he is more popular than the kaiser 
 in Germany or the devil in hell. He is the supreme 
 clown of the world. But don't think he is the only 
 one. 
 
168 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 There is another religious sect here which is enjoy- 
 ing an extraordinary vogue and which is advancing 
 with unbelievable rapidity. It is called Christian 
 Science. It owns in Boston one of the most imposing 
 churches in the country and publishes there a daily 
 newspaper which has gained great renown in the whole 
 republic. The headstone of this church is the belief 
 that man can and should cure his own ailments with-, 
 out the aid of doctors or medicines, that is to say^ by 
 the exercise of his own will. 
 
 The Mormons, whose religion permits men to have 
 several wives, still exist. Although not long ago 
 polygamy was prohibited by law, Morm.onism still flour- 
 ishes and it has thousands of missionaries and j^riests 
 spreading their faith. I have spoken here with men 
 and women who are Morm.ons and who defend their 
 doctrines most vigorously. The death was announced 
 not long ago of Joseph Fielding Smith, President of 
 the Mormon Churchy or, as they call it: the Church of 
 Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. They have four 
 hundred thousand adepts. In the Eeverend Mr. Smith, 
 as head of the church, was invested the authority of his 
 uncle, Joseph Smith, the original Mormon prophet. 
 This prophet had five wives and forty-three children. 
 Only since 1890 is polygamy illegal all over the United 
 States; but the prophet Smith insisted to the last that 
 he could not abandon his numerous sons and wives. 
 
 It would be a hopeless task to try to make here even 
 the most superficial mention of the one hundred and 
 eighty-six denominations that flourish in this country, 
 according to statistics. There are religions for all tastes, 
 and if a person does not agree with any of them, he 
 just founds a new one. These people believe that re- 
 
BELIGION 169 
 
 li^ons are like eggs, to be served in any way, soft boiled, 
 fried, scrambled, as an omelet or in cocktails, and to be 
 mixed with anything, say, with tomatoes, asparagus or 
 red pepper, according to the taste and fancy of the 
 consumer. 
 
 Of course, our religion, Catholicism is ever gaining 
 more and more new adepts here and counts to-day 
 more than seventeen million souls. As a matter of 
 fact it is the denomination that has the largest number 
 of adepts in the United States. Catholics here own 
 fifteen thousand four hundred and twenty-seven 
 churches. The second most numerous denomination is 
 that of the Methodists, with seven million three hundred 
 and twenty-eight thousand members. I believe that the 
 day is still far off when Catholicism will be the only re- 
 ligion professed in this country. Moreover, I think it 
 really is a serious matter that these dissenting religions 
 are carrying on an immense work of propaganda in our 
 countries, and that in our own Chile they have founded 
 schools and churches that threaten our national faith. 
 They are collecting here more and more money to ex- 
 tend their creeds to our countries. What have they 
 got to do with our beliefs ? This propaganda makes for 
 disorder and the annihilation of our national soul, it 
 is an offense against the conscience of our countries. 
 
 A nation with one hundred and forty Christian re- 
 ligions (v/ithout counting the non-Christian religions 
 which also abound) cannot have any unity of sentiment, 
 and threatens us with this Babel of souls. Who is going 
 to free us from the danger of such an invasion by these 
 exiles of God? The Yankee peril for our Latin coun- 
 tries is not only military, not only political and not 
 only commercial ; it is also religious. Pray to God, my 
 
170 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 wife, with all tlie saintly faith of a Christian woman, 
 that our country be saved from the modern barbarian? 
 of the North. 
 
 Your husband who adores you. 
 
 Miss Jones was a Christian woman who revered the 
 liberty of conscience. The Chicago correspondent's nar- 
 row-mindedness surprised her not at all; she knew 
 that there were fanatical Roman Catholics in Latin 
 America, who looked upon all Protestants as heretics, 
 and she had found there great numbers of skeptics who 
 scouted the belief in any religion; but she also recog- 
 nized that a spirit of tolerance was very hard to find. 
 Certain of her ground, she replied to this letter thus: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 In the problem of religion, the capital difference 
 between your country, between Latin America in gen- 
 eral, and the United States, is that over there there 
 is a state religion and in my country there is no state 
 religion ; over there there is a religion that can be called 
 the only one, and in my country there are many re- 
 ligions. Roman Catholicism is the religion of Latin 
 America; Roman Catholicism is also one of the re- 
 ligions of my country, but many Americans profess 
 other denominations of the Church of Christ, and even 
 other religions not of the Church of Christ. 
 
 Our country having been founded by men who fled 
 from the religious persecutions of old Europe, it was 
 only logical that one of the headstones of our national 
 
RELIGION 171 
 
 organization should be absolute liberty of conscience. 
 On the other hand, Latin America was conquered by an 
 intolerant Spain, not by persecuted men, but by per- 
 secutors who brought the Inquisition to the New World. 
 This is the historical cause of this capital divergence. 
 
 The state could not, among us, take over the right 
 of prescribing a determined religion to its citizens; it 
 could not, with the funds of the nation, support the 
 apostles of a single religion. This will never happen in 
 my country. There is a modern tendency to have the 
 state take over many services of public utility, such 
 as railroads, steamships, telephones and telegraphs; but 
 it will never come to pass that the state will take over 
 religion, as happens in your countries where the priests 
 are paid out of the national budget. 
 
 Madam, religion is a matter of the individual con- 
 science of every person. To impose a religion on a 
 person is like forcing a mask on his face; that person 
 does not profess that religion if he does not feel it, 
 if he does not believe in it, if he does not understand 
 it or if he does not accept it with all sincerity. In fact, 
 in our country there is absolute liberty of conscience; 
 in Latin America, sometimes openly, but often secretly, 
 there exists the imposition of a determined belief. With 
 the taxes and contributions that a Protestant pays, a 
 church that he does not believe in is supported. I 
 mention this point, madam, because it marks a capital 
 difference in the sincerity and intensity of religious sen- 
 timent. I believe that as a consequence of this, in part, 
 in my country religious sentiment is more profound, 
 more sincere than in Latin America. Religion among 
 "US has a more decisive influence on our actions. Even 
 treating of Roman Catholics, I submit that they are 
 
172 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 more truly sincere and more deeply convinced in the 
 United States than in Latin America. 
 
 The fact that in my country different ways of inter- 
 preting the Bible have originated different denomina- 
 tions of the Church of Christ, I believe has been beneficial 
 to religion itself, even though ultra-radical, unilateral 
 and in some cases, if you like, dishonest sects have been 
 formed under the protecting shade of this liberty of 
 interpretations. I am not going to speak to you of 
 individuals in these notes, madam; so I am not going 
 to answer your husband's long dissertation about the 
 Rev. William Sunday. But I must say that it would 
 be wise to weigh very carefully what is said against 
 a man who has had exceptional success in his career 
 or who attacks evils and the interests allied with evils, 
 such as alcoholism and vice, in such an aggressive way 
 as that of Mr. Sunday. Such a man must have enemies. 
 In your mind look back at history and you will see how 
 the fighters of all periods have been persecuted and 
 reviled. If Christ came back once more into the world, 
 you may be sure that He would be crucified once again. 
 The man whom I do not envy is he who never made any 
 enemies, he whose death is mourned by all, even by the 
 undertaker who sells his coffin. Allow me at least to 
 recall one fact with regard to Mr. Sunday: when he 
 entered the church, he left a good, remunerative position 
 to accept one as secretary to a religious organization 
 which paid him only seventy-five dollars a month. 
 
 But as I have told you, I do not want to discuss 
 persons nor even religions. You profess the Eoman 
 Catholic religion and I revere with the most profound 
 respect your beliefs. But do not believe, madam, that 
 this diversity of religious creeds, destroys national unity 
 
RELIGION 173 
 
 among its, as your husband fears it does, because it is 
 in the mind of everybody here to respect and tolerate 
 the creeds of others. On the other hand, the fact that 
 we are not confined to the creed of one church alone has 
 promoted and is still promoting a healthy rivalry be- 
 tween the different sects, each doing its best to carry 
 on a more intense social work, and to discuss man 's prob- 
 lem.s, both spiritual and earthly. 
 
 On the other hand, madam, a religious monopoly does 
 not provoke healthy competition, and what is worse, 
 as we have seen in Latin America, it stimulates a certain 
 noxious indolence towards the most serious social prob- 
 lems. How do you explain, madam, that the church 
 in your country has not undertaken a formidable cam- 
 paign against the r'^oholism which is destroying your 
 people ? The chu/ '^ has not arrayed itself against 
 
 alcoholism, but ' .3n and is a manufacturer 
 
 of wines for sale; that is to saj^, the church has its 
 economic interests allied with the alcoholism of the 
 people. Without a religious monopoly, this could not 
 happen. In a small Latin American village, where the 
 Catholic priest leased for years to a saloon-keeper a plot 
 of ground adjoining the church, he was at once dis- 
 possessed when a Protestant pastor began his religious 
 work in the same village. That same priest led a licen- 
 tious life, which was subjected to very considerable re- 
 straint when he saw that in order to keep his congrega- 
 tion he had to preach not only with words but by exam- 
 ple, since another rival priest of the Church of Christ 
 preached both with words and example. For the benefit 
 of Eoman Catholicism itself, madam, there ought to be in 
 Latin America the most absolute freedom of conscience 
 separating the state from the church. 
 
174 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 A live religion, madam, is a religion tliat battles, a 
 religion that does its best to gain more and more 
 adepts, to add more and more souls to its bosom. Never 
 is a religion purer, never is it healthier, never is it 
 stronger than when it is fighting with the utmost ardor. 
 The first days of persecuted Christianity were the days 
 of its most austere principles, of its most self-denying 
 martyrs. When the struggle ceases, moss commences to 
 grow. 
 
 This effort of dissenting religions to conquer Latin 
 America is only a proof of the moral strength of these 
 creeds that are looking for expansion. Your husband, 
 madam, should not fear this entrance of new Christian 
 sects into your country. It can already be seen that they 
 have done and are doing a moral work of the most 
 profound significance. What Latin America needs most 
 is education and character, and our religious missions 
 are giving it just that. A welcome should be given 
 in Spanish America to this new social force which, 
 at the same time, will be called upon to intensify and 
 purify the social strength of ruling Eoman Catholicism. 
 These evangelists are sincere believers who do things in 
 accordance with their beliefs. Almost all of them 
 are abstainers and lead a pure private life that is an 
 example for their neighbors, whether they profess an- 
 other faith or no faith at all. 
 
 One of the causes of stagnancy, madam, for a re- 
 ligious denomination is the fact that its apostles and 
 priests are supported by the state. A religion sup- 
 ported by the state is a parasitic religion, it has no 
 life of its own, it does not need to fight, it need not 
 be so jealous of maintaining its high moral standards. 
 The worst feature about it is not the injustice of taking 
 
BELIGION 175 
 
 money from every one, from the members of different 
 creeds to support a determined church; the worst of 
 it is not that a citizen is obliged to help support a 
 church to which he does not belong; the worst of it is 
 that those who do not contribute directly feel themselves 
 more widely separated from it. The church should be 
 supported by the voluntary contributions of its followers, 
 by part of their work, efforts and money. In this way 
 there is a ^eater bond of union between the church 
 and its parishioners. 
 
 In my country there is absolute separation between 
 church and state, and our moral advancement and a 
 large part of our intellectual progress are due to religion 
 as it is preached and practiced here. This school of 
 national morality in this country is the Church of 
 Christ. It is the philosophy of Christ that has made 
 our democracy. It is the philosophy of Christ put into 
 practice by our churches that has saved us and will 
 save us in all great national crises. Abolish suddenly 
 the active Christian church in our country and you 
 may be sure that we should not conduct ourselves 
 morally, or with justice and equity, towards the world 
 at the end of our present war. Of course you will 
 agree with me, madam, that the morals, even of those 
 who profess no religion, the morals of skeptics and of 
 unbelievers, receive benefit from the influence of believ- 
 ers. They do not know that they are the product of a 
 reflex education. They do not know that the healthy, 
 pure and Christian life of believers is the moral code 
 that they observe in their very actions. 
 
 Doubtless, madam, there are men who, without be- 
 ing religious, do nevertheless proceed in all their human 
 acts in accordance with the purest moral code; they 
 
176 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 are honorable, truthful, merciful and pure. Of these 
 men Latin America has a large number, and this is the 
 basis of argument advanced by religious skeptics to 
 explain their skepticism. But where have these men 
 obtained their moral standard? From the Christian 
 religion ruling in their surroundings. Religion is ca- 
 pable of making those within its bosom good and by 
 extension, by reflex education, those not within its bosom. 
 
 I recall to mind, madam, that at a scientific conference 
 held some years ago in the University of Chile an 
 eminent Roman Catholic priest said, in the course of 
 his address before a full assembly of the members, that 
 there could be no moral men without religion. The 
 president of the University, the venerable historian 
 Don Diego Barros Arana, an old man of unblemished 
 rectitude and morality, rose to his feet and interrupted 
 the Roman Catholic speaker with glowing words, asking 
 him if he meant by this that Francisco Bilbao, Guillermo 
 Matta and many other great Chileans, all well known 
 atheists, were immoral. He cited his own case as that 
 of a man without religious faith, and demanded to know 
 if he also was immoral. 
 
 I do not remember what answer was made by the 
 priest, but it seems to me that he should have replied 
 that these luminaries of Chilean intellectuality whicH 
 professed no religion had acquired their austere rules 
 of conduct from the code of moral ambient suffused by 
 the Christian Church. It behooves us to follow very 
 closely the way in which the threads are woven in the 
 warp of the moral Christian standard. A woman at- 
 tends the services of her church every Sunday. Her 'son, 
 her brother, her husband, her neighbor, all are indi- 
 rectly influenced by her own moral force. It is not 
 
RELIGION 111 
 
 that she gQos T^oiind repeating the sermons she has heard, 
 but that these have become dynamic, and others are 
 inS.aenced by her example. Was not the mother of 
 'Don Diego Barros Arana a sincerely religious woman, 
 and was she not, by her example, the first moral teacher 
 of the future president of the University? 
 
 A foreigner may come to my country on a visit, may 
 stop at a hotel and enjoy all the privileges of our re- 
 publican life, without incurring the obligation of going 
 to Europe to fight in the defense of the country which 
 has given him hospitality; he takes advantage of our 
 prosperity at the cost of sacrifices made by others. So 
 also a skeptic in a Christian community is like a for- 
 eigner who lives sheltered by the moral ambient at the 
 cost of the faith and devotion of others. 
 
 One of those skeptics told me once: *'I accept the 
 moral principles of the missionaries that you send us, 
 but not the religion they preach. I have no religion." 
 
 That is to say, he is ready to take, and does take 
 the rose from the rose-bush, but he does not bother about 
 the plant, nor does he fertilize or water the earth in 
 which it grows. I would tell that atheist, all those 
 atheists and apostles of Latin American skepticism that 
 even though they do not believe in Jesus Christ, even 
 though they consider Him a myth, they ought to respect 
 that myth as the most beautiful and useful mystery of 
 the Christian faith, as the inspiration for the moral 
 code that puts man above his egoistic interests. Irre- 
 ligious doctrines, which have become a serious disease in 
 Latin America, are destructive, iconoclast and discourag- 
 ing, not offering anything in their place for the elevation 
 of the soul. 
 
 And you have probably noticed, as I have, to what this 
 
178 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 skepticism is due. Latin America, in spite of its oiHcial 
 Roman Catholic religion, is the one skeptical continen-t 
 of the world. How do you explain that the Catholic 
 religion being official there, the people so often rise 
 up against its apostles? Why this religious contempt 
 among the students of the university and among the 
 workingmen? Just because religion is official, because 
 there is no tolerance for different denominations, be- 
 cause there is a religious ttnist. It has been the in- 
 tolerant spirit of Latin America that has made it and is 
 making it every day more and more skeptical. 
 
 The fact that a religion struggles to extend its faith, 
 without impositions, but by means of persuasion, is not 
 only natural, but plausible. Every man should try 
 to set for himself the highest moral standard and exert 
 himself to extend that moral standard to others. Man 
 is not instinctively good. It is the ascending advance of 
 civilization that makes him better. And the most power- 
 ful force that is working for the moral betterment of 
 man is religion. Religion is to the moral progress of 
 peoples what steam is to the speed of the locomotive. But 
 in order that this religion be an impulsive element of 
 moral betterment it must be submitted to the purifying 
 forces of free competition, of wide discussion, which is 
 impossible under a regime of monopoly. Religions are 
 the courses of human ethics, and like courses in physics, 
 biology and sociology, they must change continually, 
 keeping step with the progress of the world. In olden 
 times medicine did not advance because the study of 
 anatomy, autopsy and the analysis of the human body 
 with the scalpel of science was considered sacrilegious. 
 Neither can progress be made in religion if it is divorced 
 from analysis, from a critical spirit or from free dis- 
 
RELIGION 179 
 
 cussion or if it is left locked up in bell-glasses. There 
 can be no moral advance in a country where the national 
 course in ethics, religion, is stagnant and governed by 
 laws that are imposed on the people, that cannot be dis- 
 cussed. That is happening in Latin America and is 
 not happening in my country. 
 
 Religious tolerance, madam, is, in my conception, one 
 of the most pressing necessities of Latin America. It 
 is necessary that men of all political parties should 
 understand this and that the Roman Catholics, who 
 have a religious monopoly in those countries, should un- 
 derstand it, too. With the adoption of religious toler- 
 ance the very Roman Catholic religion will become 
 stronger. 
 
 Pardon me, madam, if I have offended you by what 
 I have said here; but if you will think over the matter 
 well, you may perhaps find I am right. 
 
 Your Friend from the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PROHIBITION 
 
 o 
 
 NE week later, Miss Jones received the next 
 letter from the Chilean correspondent. 
 
 Chicago, 111., 1918, 
 
 My dearest: 
 
 I was on my way from New Orleans, and conversing 
 in the dining-car with a fellow-passenger. We were 
 drinking beer. The landscape was splendid; the sky 
 of a limpid blue ; birds were darting about freely, wititi- 
 out any obstacle in their way to soar on high, to fly 
 through the clouds in any direction. 
 
 The waiter approached and took up our half -drained 
 glasses. 
 
 ''Dry State," he said. 
 
 The locomotive was emitting its tuft of smoke in a dry 
 State. Neither champagne, wine, beer nor anything 
 containing alcohol could be drunk. 
 
 Without doubt the birds flying through the air in 
 perfect freedom were laughing at us through the win- 
 dows. Man, the king of animals, this privileged being, 
 the master of earth, sea and sky, may not drink what 
 he wishes; he is not the master of his own will. An 
 unreasonable law, imposed by a group of unbalanced 
 
 180 
 
PROHIBITION 181 
 
 minds upon a meek and obedient multitude, orders that 
 all must abstain from drinking what the State forbids 
 them to drink. 
 
 In France, the student of a state college has a glass 
 of wine with his meals, and a patient in the state hos- 
 pital has also his glass of wine at his bedside. In 
 Germany beer is as air to the individual, but in this 
 country of liberty man has to submit to the dictatorial 
 caprices of a preposterous law which ventures to dic- 
 tate what a man should put into his mouth. Even 
 though two-thirds of the population of this country 
 were against the consumption of alcoholic drinks, I do 
 not see why they should want to oblige the remaining 
 third to submit to their determined tastes, instead 
 of being themselves content to go without. Why is not 
 the consumption of meat, cheese and butter prohibited ? 
 
 There are already many States, counties and cities of 
 this country in which the consumption of all alcoholic 
 drinks is prohibited. More than sixty per cent of the 
 population is already obliged to abstain from drinking 
 wine and beer. Everything seems to point that within 
 a year the whole country will be dry, since to pass a 
 federal law only two-thirds of the votes of both houses 
 are required. 
 
 And the prohibitionists, already delighted with the 
 triumphs which they foresee, announce that they will 
 soon start a campaign against nicotine, cigars and 
 cigarettes. There are many people already who seri- 
 ously announce future campaigns against tea and coffee, 
 The}^ will form the League Against Caffeine and Theine. 
 A campaign against the use of salt is also to be initiated. 
 
 This is an absurdity that has no name. It is an 
 attack on the liberty of the individual and an unjust 
 
182 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 dispossession of all those wlio have fortunes invested 
 in vineyards, breweries and distilleries. Billions of 
 dollars will be thrown into the street; vineyard plan- 
 tations will become useless, large beer factories will 
 have to close np; hundreds of thousands of men will 
 be thrown out of work. More than nine hundred 
 million dollars — I have read — invested in business con- 
 nected with alcohol will be affected by the prohibition 
 madness. And if the whole cauntry goes dry, which 
 without doubt is coming to pass, the government will 
 lose each year some five hundred millions from taxes 
 which it will no longer receive. This is of very little 
 importance to these fanatics dominated by the fixed 
 idea that alcohol is harmful to the health. 
 
 But this is a lie. Alcohol is only harmful when used 
 in excess. Everything is harmful when used in excess, 
 even bread, milk and rice. A proof of the fallacy of 
 prohibition argument is apparent from the fact that 
 they do not oppose the sale of alcohol as a medicine. 
 A doctor can prescribe champagne or malt as a recon- 
 stituent. You know very well that two bottles of stout 
 a day were indispensable for you while you were nour- 
 ishing each one of our children. Beer is the best milk- 
 forming beverage known. Made of cereals, a producer 
 of heat and energy, it has been fittingly called liquid 
 bread. How many many times we have revived with a 
 little cognac persons who had fainted ! How many colds 
 you and I have got rid of by taking a glass of strong 
 whisky and hot water ! Do you remember the time when 
 your cousin Christina was between life and death ? Don't | 
 you remember that her strength was kept up with spoon 
 f uls of champagne ? Can it be denied, besides, that ; 
 
PROHIBITION 183 
 
 alcoliol is an appetizer ? Why are cocktails taken before 
 meals all over the world ? 
 
 Do not imagine, on the other hand, that this dry- 
 law will be strictly obeyed. Sufficient to prove my 
 assertion is the one fact that in Washington, after the 
 city became dry, twenty-six empty whisky bottles were 
 discovered (and photographed for publication in the 
 newspapers) in the very Capitol building, consumed in 
 one week by the self-same legislators who had passed 
 the law. 
 
 Up to the present, in the dry States, the law has not 
 been obeyed, and alcohol has been introduced on the 
 sly from neighboring States ; but with the whole country 
 dry the consuming public of drinks slightly alcoholic, 
 such as wine and beer, will have to manufacture alcohol 
 for its consumption in their own homes. And as it is 
 easier to manufacture whisky than wine or beer, real 
 harm will be done to consumers of slightly alcoholic 
 drinks. IModerate drinkers will become whisky drinkers. 
 That is to say, prohibition will encourage intoxication. 
 Analogous phenomena have already been noticed. In 
 factories where smoking is prohibited the habit of chew- 
 ing tobacco has developed among the smokers. 
 
 In the diTj States the consumption of narcotics such 
 as cocaine, morphine and heroin is such that the situa- 
 tion has become alarming. I have recently read that in 
 the State of New York there are more than 200,000 in- 
 dividuals who are slaves to different kinds of narcotics. 
 Well-known authorities on the subject say that there are 
 in the United States more than a million addicts of 
 heroin. Heroin is the worst form of opium. It is 
 three and a half times as strong as morphine. It is 
 
184 THE GULF OF BIISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 a chemical product which originated in Germany, the 
 use of which is strictly prohibited there. 
 
 JBesides, this is a phenomenon that can be seen in 
 all parts. In the dry districts of Norway the con- 
 sumption of ether and perfumes as clandestine drinks 
 has become very common. In Germany, .since the anti- 
 alcoholic agitation began, the consumption of opium 
 has increased. In 1907, 29,200 kilograms were con- 
 sumed ; in 1908, 54,200 kilograms ; in 1909, 73,400 kilo- 
 grams. Everywhere it has been found that an attempt 
 to even partially suppress the consumption of alcohol 
 brings as a result an increase in the use of narcotic 
 drugs. 
 
 Oh! life is a vale of tears, even the Bible tells us, 
 but can we not wipe these tears away at will ? I do 
 not advocate ebriety, far be it from me to advocate 
 such an absurdity, but I do advocate the right of 
 every person to slightly benumb his senses in order to 
 rest from the penury and fatigue of the day, in order 
 to solace his mind. What! That man going to his 
 dentist with a sharp pain in his upper left molar can 
 get cocaine, ether or creosote from a doctor to ease 
 his physical pain, whereas that other returning home, 
 weary with the day's work, disillusioned, dejected, may 
 he not ask his wife for a draught of wine to deaden 
 his moral pain ? 
 
 Why? Why? In virtue of what right may a group 
 of men — or rather of women — who have never known 
 the joy of living, who have never known anything of 
 bitterness, or of lost illusions, who have never reached 
 the heights of genius, nor descended to the depths of 
 misery; neuter beings of an irritating normality; in 
 virtue of what right may they impose their will on 
 
PROHIBITION 185 
 
 millions of persons who think differently from them? 
 
 It is unquestionable that the abuse of alcohol does 
 harm, as do all abuses. I am an open enemy of the 
 abuse of alcohol. Nothing is more repugnant to me 
 than a drunkard; but the moderate use of alcohol — the 
 glass of wine that you and I have always taken at 
 home — is a human necessity, wanted by the best of 
 men, those who feel and think deeply, those who live 
 an intense life and therefore require the stimulants 
 that have become an inherent part of their daily life: 
 alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. 
 
 Is alcohol weakening ? After drinking wine or cham- 
 pagne can v/e v\'ork as efficiently as we can without 
 one or the other? The prohibitionists insist a great 
 deal on these points and present statistics in which 
 different test cases are tabulated. Mathematical prob- 
 lems have been given for solution to persons not under 
 the influence of alcohol, and then to the same persons 
 when under the influence of a little alcohol, say a glass of 
 wine or beer, similar problems have been put, and it has 
 been shown that efficiency diminishes in the second case. 
 Quite so, but what does this prove? Make the same 
 experiment with persons who have partaken of a hearty 
 meal, comparing their efficiency with others who have not 
 eaten, and it will be seen that food is also momentarily 
 enervating. The body should rest after eating and 
 drinking the same as after having taken strenuous 
 exercise. The harm done by a drink cannot be meas- 
 ured by the lesser or greater efficiency of the consumer 
 while the effects of the drink are still present. Like- 
 wise, sleep reduces the efficiency of a person to zero. 
 Give a mathematical problem to a person asleep. He 
 is incapable of solving it, which is worse than solving 
 
186 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 it slowly, as in the case of one under the influence 
 of a glass of wine. Are we going to abolish sleep as 
 injurious because it reduces efficiency ? Alcohol does not 
 permanently reduce efficiency; it reduces tension, pro- 
 motes rest and, consequently, like sleep, really increases 
 efficiency. 
 
 However, I do not suggest that wine or beer be 
 taken in order to do more efficient work, even though 
 many poets have written their best poems when under 
 the stimulating influence of a lightly alcoholic drink 
 or in the midst of clouds of tobacco smoke. I do not 
 pretend that more efficient work is done when digest- 
 ing a banquet nor that more active work can be done 
 during sleep. But weak alcoholic drink satisfies a want 
 strongly felt by humanity; its use is due to the stimu- 
 lating capacity that alcohol has of intensifying rest 
 and inducing forgetfulness. Edgar Allan Poe, the most 
 inspired of American poets, was a hard drinker. By 
 an ancient enactment the Poet Laureate of England 
 received from the government, in addition to his al- 
 lowance of one hundred pounds a year, twenty "fair 
 casques of good Canary wine.*' 
 
 Life should be lived, not as a continued sacrifice, 
 but in the enjoyment of as many healthful pleasures as 
 we can give ourselves. True, these pleasures cost money, 
 but take away from mankind its pleasures and it will 
 fall sick of neurasthenia in two weeks. 
 
 The perennial state of mankind is one of suffering, 
 of sorrow, of anxiety, of weariness and of anxiety for 
 the future. Happiness is a transitory state. The pleas- 
 ure of eating consists only in relief from the pangs of 
 hunger; the pleasure of sleeping is only a mitigation 
 of the discomfort caused by sleepiness, and satisfied love 
 
PROHIBITION 187 
 
 is but gratified desire. Why should the glass of wine 
 taken at meals, which is a necessity of all normal people, 
 be denied for the alleviation of this constant load of 
 care? 
 
 The fact that some abuse alcohol, few, very few in 
 proportion to the immense majority who drink moder- 
 ately, is not a reason to sacrifice all. Water is respon- 
 sible for so many misfortunes, for so many deaths. How 
 many people have been drowned at sea in shipwrecks 
 or in rivers when bathing? Is this a reason why we 
 should be against water ^ 
 
 Has not every person the right to live as he pleases, 
 provided that he does no harm to anybody else? Why 
 should he be deprived of the right to drink a glass 
 of beer ? I cannot get this into my head ; nor will you 
 be able to do so ; our mode of thinking is fundamentally 
 at variance with that of this country. If the prohibi- 
 tionist has the right to impose his abstinence on those 
 who do drink, why should not those who do drink 
 have the right to compel the teetotaler to take wine? 
 In our country everybody drinks, with a few excep- 
 tions. Would it be logical to i)ermit this majority that 
 likes to have a glass of wine with their meals to force 
 teetotalers to do so? Clearly, no more logical than in 
 the opposite case. Let those drink who wish to do so, 
 and let those refrain who do not wish it; let each side 
 carry on their propaganda as they see fit, but let us 
 make no law dictating to each person his menu. 
 
 There is a very big difference, which the prohibition- 
 ists do not appear to see, between beer containing three 
 and four and a half per cent of alcohol, wine or cham- 
 pagne with ten per cent, and whisky, rum and brandy 
 containing from thirty to sixty-five per cent of alcohol. 
 
188 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 These last named drinks are harmful, unless taken in 
 small quantities, because they are habit-forming. You 
 know very well that I have always taken the same 
 amount of wine, just as you have. "Wine does not form 
 the habit of drinking, nor beer either. The person who 
 begins by taking a little whisky requires more later on, 
 and even more still later, as with the drug habit. This 
 is why I am in favor of prohibiting the sale of strong 
 alcoholic drinks, but I do not mean that this prohibition 
 should be extended to wine and beer. 
 
 I think that if the United States goes dry the use of 
 morphine, opium, heroin and other drugs will be in- 
 creased to such an extent that there will be a strong 
 reaction, and the country will have to abolish its pro- 
 hibition amendment. In the dry States of the Union 
 the manufacture, sale and use of patent medicines, the 
 principal ingredient of which is alcohol, have increased 
 a great deal. Is there a remedy for rheumatism with 
 ten, twenty or thirty per cent of alcohol? Is there an- 
 other cure-all for the kidneys, liver, cancer, and bubonic 
 plague, with alcohol as its base? Well, neither Tom, 
 Dick nor Harry suffer from rheumatism, cancer or 
 bubonic plague, but like every normal man, they have 
 their blue days, hours of weariness and disillusions and 
 they want to forget ; so they have recourse to these drugs 
 and poison their bodies with fake medicines for diseases 
 from which they do not suffer. Everybody will become 
 a consumer of patent medicines. This is only to be ex- 
 pected unless the country continues to drink alcohol 
 secretly, and in this case it would not consume beer 
 or wine, but almost pure alcohol, since those who dis- 
 obey the law will not do so by producing drinks contain- 
 ing three per cent alcohol but those with seventy or 
 
PROHIBITION 189 
 
 eighty per cent. Counterfeiters do not make pennies or 
 nickels, but one, ^ve or twenty dollar bills. 
 
 It has not been the men or nations that abstain from 
 drink that have most distinguished themselves. China 
 is a dry country and Beligum is one of the countries 
 that consumes the most beer per inhabitant. Belgium 
 consumes fourteen liters of pure alcohol a head every 
 year. Which is more civilized, Belgium or China? 
 Germany, a consumer of beer on a large scale, has in 
 thirty years increased its population from forty to 
 sixty millions. 
 
 However, you must not suppose that everybody here 
 meekly accepts this prohibitionist movement. Cardinal 
 Gibbons, a representative of our church in this country, 
 published last year the most violent protest against 
 the prohibitionist movement. He said: 
 
 *'I should consider the passage of a Federal Prohibi- 
 tion Law a national catastrophe, little short of a crime 
 against the spiritual and physical well-being of the 
 American people. I am firmly and unalterably opposed 
 (also) to the enactment of (even) state-wide prohibi- 
 tory legislation, for such sweeping measures mean 
 that the rural districts, for instance, can force their 
 sumptuary judgment upon the urban districts. This 
 is a denial of self-government, an infringement upon 
 personal liberty . . . 
 
 "The history of the world do^vn to the present time 
 demonstrates the fact that people always have indulged, 
 and, in ail probability, always will indulge in the use 
 of alcoholic drinks. It is true that the use of wines and 
 liquors, when abused, leads to lamentable consequences; 
 yet, the best of things are liable to abuse. Take the 
 tongue, for instance. We all know the social and 
 domestic joy and utility which is derived from con- 
 versation, and yet the misuse of the tongue leads daily 
 
190 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 to lying and misrepresentation, to quarrels and slander, 
 to bloodshed, and often to murder. Should we then be 
 justified in putting a padlock on our mouths because of 
 the occasional misuse of the tongue ? ' ' 
 
 This American movement in favor of prohibition 
 "would not alarm me if it were not for the fact that 
 these Yankees in all their reform movements imme- 
 diately think of a world campaign. They will soon be- 
 gin to extend their doctrines to Latin America, the 
 nations of which they consider the orphans of this world. 
 And they, of course, are to be the tutors. 
 
 Each day I see more clearly that the Yankee peril 
 is for us multiform, political, commercial, religious and 
 social. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 Miss Jones was very familiar with the prohibition 
 movement of her country. She had, therefore, no need 
 to make great efforts of investigation in order to write 
 the usual comments, but it took her full two days to 
 write the following answer; 
 
 Madam : 
 
 The problem that your husband treats in this letter 
 has — like the woman suffrage problem — three aspects. 
 First: Is the consumption of alcohol in small or large 
 quantities harmful or beneficial to health? Second: 
 Is it advisable or not for society to stop its consump- 
 tion ? Third : Is it right or is it not right to stop the 
 
PEOHIBITION 191 
 
 manufacture and consumption of alcohol, if the majority 
 of the people are in favor of doing so ? 
 
 The fight for prohibition is not new in our country. 
 It began with our colonial life. Never, of course, has 
 there been any doubt that alcohol is harmful if taken 
 in sufficient quantity to caiise intoxication. It is the 
 consumption of alcohol in small quantities that we are 
 going to consider, that little taste of alcohol which your 
 husband claims is a necessity for man to deaden the 
 miseries of life. 
 
 But before going further, madam, allow me to pro- 
 test against that pessimistic philosophy of your hus- 
 band who believes life to be a vale of torture, of sor- 
 rows, of ungratefulness, a prolonged situation of suf- 
 fering with, here and there, an oasis of pleasure as a 
 mere accident of assuaged pain. 
 
 I had already noted this tendency of Latin Ameri- 
 can philosophy. There is a stamp of sadness on the 
 Latin American soul, and I do not believe — as do some 
 thinkers — that this stamp has been placed there by 
 the Argentine pampas, the Chilean deserts, or the 
 Brazilian forests. No, this stamp has been placed there 
 by the dejected and taciturn Indian who has mingled 
 his blood in the veins of Iberian America. It is true 
 that there is a considerable proportion of the popu- 
 lation without native blood, and I think I am right in 
 supposing that neither you nor your husband have 
 inherited the strain. It is, however, also true that the 
 Spaniard is a pessimist, and pre-war French philosophy, 
 which has inspired Latin America, was also pessimistic. 
 
 At this very moment, when I am writing to you, I 
 have before me on my desk a letter from a friend of 
 mine in Chile. This letter has wide borders in black. 
 
192 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 The girl who wrote it has lost an aunt whom I did 
 not even know. With this black-edged note-paper, 
 which my friend always uses, and which she will con- 
 tinue to use for the next six months, she spreads her 
 grief, intensified by much outward parade, among the 
 whole circle of her acquaintances. I can see her now, 
 all in black, even with a black handkerchief; the piano 
 of the house closed and all theaters and parties under a 
 ban. AYhy perpetuate and intensify melancholy? Sor- 
 row is looked for and courted, and then comes a drink 
 to deaden the pain ! Among the poorer classes of Latin 
 America, a funeral, a wake, is sufficient motive to start 
 a carouse. Sorrow is first provoked and stimulated, and 
 then drink is supplied to allay it. Years ago, in Latin 
 America, rich people, when they lost a member of the 
 family, used to hire women mourners, professionals in 
 the art of crying, the tears of the family not sufficing 
 to voice the lamentations over the loss. 
 
 We suffer no less from our misfortunes^ nor do we 
 less sincerely reverence our dead, but with a more op- 
 timistic philosophy v/e consider death as a natural thing, 
 and we honor the memory of our dead in a very different 
 way. A tomb in your cemetery, surrounded with lugu- 
 brious cypress trees, is a hymn to death. Our Leland 
 Stanford, Jr., University is the counterpart to your 
 mausoleum, an American memorial shrine, a hymn to 
 life, to effort, a monument erected by the dead boy's 
 parents to his memory. Another mr*tlier, Matilde Zieg- 
 ler, has a blind son. Her prayers, m:^ addressed to 
 heaven; while here below she works cheerfully, extend- 
 ing her love to all other blind people and founding a 
 magazine for blind people which carries her name. 
 There are endless cases like these. If these persons, in 
 
PEOEIBITION 193 
 
 order to drown their troubles, were to seek those be- 
 numbing effects of alcohol which your husband extols, 
 they would be acting selfishly instead of looking for 
 mitigation of their grief by working for the welfare 
 and happiness of others. 
 
 If the workman comes home tired after a day's work 
 of ten or twelve hours and finds relief in a glass of 
 wine because it benumbs his senses, it means that that 
 workman should not do hard work during ten or twelve 
 hours a day ; it means that he has been kept working at 
 a very high pressure, and the remedy consists in lower- 
 ing the pressure. 
 
 To assume that alcohol when taken moderately in- 
 creases human happiness because it slightly benumbs 
 man's senses, and in this way enables him better to 
 put up with the pains of life, is the same as to say 
 that the dog is happier than man because it has less^ 
 preoccupations, and that plants are happier than the 
 dog, and for the same reason the stone happier than 
 the plant. Nirvana would be the 7ie plus ultra of hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Moreover, if I wished to argue like your husband 
 when he says that we, to be consistent, should be against 
 water as much as against alcohol, on account of all the 
 shipwrecks on the ocean, I would tell your husband 
 that, to be consistent, he should also preach the doctrine 
 of having our eyes taken out so as not to see so much 
 human suffering. 
 
 But no; sensibility is one of the most valuable at- 
 tributes of man, in my opinion — useful for enjoyment 
 and for suffering. If our body had not the capacity 
 to suffer from a blow, or from sickness, we should lack 
 the note of alarm urging us to remedy the evil. If 
 
194 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 a child felt no pain when placing his finger in a flame, 
 he would not take it out, but would allow it to be 
 burned to a cinder. The worries and the anxieties of 
 man should not be quieted by benumbing the senses, but 
 by shunning the causes of these anxieties. If a man has 
 reasons for being discontented with life he gains noth- 
 ing by benumbing his senses; he should find a remedy 
 for his restlessness by avoiding the cause of it. 
 
 Thus the social organism is affected by the misfor- 
 tune of the community. The remedy is never found 
 in a glass of wine to benumb the senses. This is equiv- 
 alent to renunciation or desertion. 
 
 Assuming, however, for a moment that alcohol is 
 harmless when taken moderately, and assuming that 
 some people with strong power of will do not acquire 
 the drink habit, we must remember that there are hun- 
 dreds of thousands — nay, millions — of other people with 
 weak will power, who, moderate drinkers in the begin- 
 ning, become bigger drinkers every day. Alcohol is a 
 drug, and, like morphine, it is habit-forming. 
 
 Alcohol has, it is true, the faculty of making one for- 
 get momentarily, of quieting anxieties, and your hus- 
 band, happy, with a beautiful home, with a loving wife, 
 with abundant resources — does not drink to forget, but 
 by social habit; but when he invites others to drink, 
 how often may he not initiate into the habit persons 
 with less will power than he himself and who have real 
 anxieties or worries to forget. 
 
 The fact that there may be a small number of people 
 who are able to drink moderately, who may not acquire 
 the drink habit, and who — this is merely hypothetical — 
 may not suffer, nor their children either, from the mod- 
 erate use of alcohol, would not justify the manufacture 
 
PROHIBITION 195 
 
 and sale of alcohol for them, since the law could not 
 differentiate. By their example they would be doing- 
 harm to society. 
 
 That alcohol is an ansesthetic, not a stimulant, has 
 already been fully proven, as well as the fact that its 
 action on the organs and tissues of the body — ^whether 
 taken moderately or in excess — is essentially that of 
 a poison. It is in no case a food, and much less a medi- 
 cine, as your husband says. In 1915 the Grand Com- 
 mittee of the American Pharmacopoeia struck out 
 liquors of all kinds from the list of legitimate medicines, 
 and in June of 1918 at the National Convention of the 
 American Medical Association the president of the asso- 
 ciation, in the midst of unanimous approval, called upon 
 all doctors to unite their efforts in favor of prohibition 
 as the best way of promoting public health. 
 
 The fact that alcohol is made of grapes, cereals, and 
 other food substances has brought about the mistaken 
 belief that it is a food. Hence the name 'liquid bread" 
 given to beer. 
 
 The fact that you may have believed that malt liquor 
 was good for you while you nursed your children was 
 only an illusion. The alcohol consumed brought about 
 in you a transitory sensation of well-being on account of 
 semi-insensibility. This has made you seek the rest that 
 this state demands, and rest has done you good, because 
 it is necessary to the woman who is going to be a mother ; 
 but you would have been able to obtain that rest with- 
 out drinking alcohol and with more real benefit to 
 yourself. 
 
 The minute investigations that have been made with 
 regard to the oft'spring of fathers who drink in modera- 
 tion and to excess have shown that alcohol consumed 
 
196 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 by fathers — in large or small quantities — impairs the 
 integrity of the child, especially harming his nervous 
 system. These conclusions have been arrived at by 
 Professor Taav Laitinen, of the University of Helsing- 
 fors, in Finland, who had under observation seventeen 
 thousand children of fathers who were moderate 
 drinkers. Professor Gustav von Bunge, of Basel, Switz- 
 erland, has made investigations in the cases of fathers 
 who indulged in the drink habit with different degrees 
 of intensity, and he proved that physical defects in the 
 offspring are in proportion to the intensity of the drink 
 habit on the part of the fathers. I could fill pages and 
 pages by quoting thousands of scientific studies, care- 
 fully made by investigators of all countries, who agree 
 that the consumption of alcohol by fathers is harmful 
 to their children. The scientific investigations made by 
 the Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory under the direction 
 of Dr. Benedict are conclusive in this respect. Br. Ben- 
 edict and his fellow workers used to believe that alcohol 
 consumed in small quantities could be utilized by the 
 system and serve as a food. These investigations have 
 proven conclusively that alcohol is always, and in every 
 case, a poisonous narcotic. 
 
 From the moment that it was proven that alcohol 
 is the toxin of a fungus, the old controversy about 
 whether alcohol was a poison or not ended. Experiments 
 made with toxins of all classes, from those of the highest 
 orders of life, such as man, to those of inferior life, such 
 as microorganisms, have permitted the establishment of 
 a law governing the action of all poisons, to wit: the 
 toxin of a form of life is a poison for the form of life 
 that produces it, and a poison for all forms of life of a 
 superior type. Consequently, alcohol, a toxin produced 
 
PROHIBITION 197 
 
 by the fermentation of a fun^is, one of tlie lower forms 
 of life, is a poison for all other forms of life, such as 
 plants of a higher grade and animals, and, of course, 
 most especially for man, with his marvelously developed 
 nervous system. 
 
 Some believe that alcohol by burning itself prevents 
 the burning and destruction of the tissues. In fact, 
 alcohol reduces the process of nutrition of the cells and 
 fosters the accumulation of unnecessary fat. This is 
 why beer makes one fat, but this artificial obesity is 
 harmful to the organism. 
 
 The mere fact that organic, vegetable or animal, ma- 
 terial can be preserved in alcohol is proof that no 
 vital process can be developed in alcohol. 
 
 No superior animal can live if given six drops of al- 
 cohol for every thousand drops of blood. Five ounces 
 of pure alcohol, a small glassful, is a sufficient dose to 
 cause the death of a man in ten hours. 
 
 None of the digestive juices can digest alcohol, so 
 that the latter passes unaltered to the blood. About 
 twenty per cent, is absorbed by the stomach and eighty 
 per cent, by the intestines. The larger part is found 
 in the blood one hour after having been taken. When 
 alcohol enters the blood, it attacks its constituent parts 
 and begins to weaken them by depriving them of water 
 and oxygen and coagulating the protein and albumen. 
 
 The myriads of red globules, live vehicles that trans- 
 port their load of oxygen from the lungs to the cells, 
 and their returning cargo of waste matter from the 
 cells to the lungs, are attacked by alcohol. Their pro- 
 tective cover is penetrated as it is by chloroform and 
 ether. 
 
 Your husband says that sleep is also benumbing and 
 
198 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 should be condemned as alcohol. Sleep is a natural 
 phenomenon. On awakening, man feels fresh and 
 strong with increased vigor, whereas when he recovers 
 from the effects of alcohol he actually feels only more 
 downcast. With the natural rest of sleep man has 
 gained; with the artificial rest of alcohol he has lost. 
 
 That alcohol vivifies the imagination and is a muse 
 of inspiration for thinkers, novelists and poets is an 
 illusion. In a party where alcohol is consumed every 
 one becomes more loquacious; but at the same time 
 each one places himself on an inferior intellectual level 
 and is ready to concede and applaud that which he 
 would not concede and applaud under normal condi- 
 tions. He is less exacting. As regards our poet, Edgar 
 Allan Poe, his biographers have clearly established the 
 fact that he never wrote a line when his head was 
 not absolutely clear and free from all alcoholic influence. 
 
 That the suppression of alcohol would stimulate the 
 consumption of narcotics is a vain assertion. Morphine, 
 heroin and opium are consumed on a large scale in 
 States and countries where alcohol rules. Very often 
 alcohol is the antechamber of morphine. 
 
 Consequently, madam, those fighters who are work- 
 ing for the abolition of the consumption of alcohol in 
 society, those whom your husband calls fanatics, are 
 the phagocytes of the social body; they are the fanatics 
 who protect the life and health of society. 
 
 It is absurd, madam, to speak of the thousands of 
 men who are going to be thrown out of work when 
 the manufacture of alcoholic drinks is prohibited. Our 
 country needs more and more men for useful pursuits; 
 the more men thrown out of these industries, the better. 
 This applies to capital also. Vineyards and distilleries 
 
PROHIBITION 199 
 
 can be used for the production of other necessities, as 
 has already been the case in some States. As for the 
 revenue which the government will not receive, this 
 means nothing either, because a nation which prohibits 
 the use of alcohol is much more efficient, much richer 
 and better able to pay taxes derived, not from pain, 
 degradation and ruin, but from happiness, dignity and 
 prosperity. 
 
 The Russian Secretary of Finance, at the beginning 
 of the world war, estimated, soon after the manufac- 
 ture of vodka was prohibited, that Russia, with a third 
 of its workmen in the army, had nevertheless doubled 
 its producing capacity. The British Minister of Muni- 
 tions estimated that national efficiency increased 25 
 per cent, merely by the imposition of measures moder- 
 ating the consumption of alcohol. All contributions 
 which the State receives from alcohol are insufficient 
 to cover the expense incurred by the vice, misery, crime, 
 and disease which alcohol causes. 
 
 Gathering together the threads of argument, it can 
 be said that there is a moral reason, a scientific reason, 
 and an economic reason for combating alcohol. Moral 
 because alcohol is always leagued with vice, gambling, 
 and prostitution; scientific because it has been proved 
 that alcohol fosters the ruin of the individual's health 
 and that of his children; economic because alcohol re- 
 duces the efficiency of the drinker, whether he consumes 
 it in large or small quantities. 
 
 Accepting all this, there still remains to be answered 
 that part of the letter in which your husband says tiiat 
 the anti-alcoholic laws of our States and the Federal 
 law that is to be passed are infringements on liberty. 
 
 Liberty in our democracy does not mean anarchy; it 
 
200 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 means the authority of the majority to dictate laws, and 
 the respect of all — the majority and the minority — for 
 these laws. Among our one hundred million inhabitants 
 there surely are not two persons of the same opinion 
 about everything. Many that have been for prohibition 
 may be against other laws that, nevertheless, they have 
 to respect. We are all continually respecting some law 
 or order that we do not like, and at the same time we 
 have contributed to having some law passed that does 
 not please another. But this respect for the will of the 
 majority is the base of order in a democracy. 
 
 If the majority passes a law the only thing left for 
 the minority to do is to fight for the amendment of 
 that law. The same force that passes a law can abolish 
 it. The forces that favor alcohol in my country under- 
 stand this very well and have labored in prohibitionist 
 States to reestablish the saloon. Kansas has been dry 
 for about forty years. Since 1880 in four-fifths of the 
 State the most drastic anti-alcoholic law has been in 
 effect. Seven years ago an attempt was made to ask 
 Congress to suppress prohibition. A tenth of the neces- 
 sary votes could not be secured. The State of Wash- 
 ington became dry in 1915. The most important beer 
 factories in the country were there. Seattle, the largest 
 city in the State, was the first to vote in favor of pro- 
 hibition in the proportion of three to two. After two 
 years' experience the law was submitted to the city by 
 popular initiative in conformity with the constitution of 
 the State, and Seattle voted this time five to one against 
 the restoration of alcohol. The whole State then again 
 voted, nine to one, in favor of the prohibition of alcohol. 
 
 This triumph of prohibition in my country is not 
 tyranny on the part of the minority, as your husband 
 
PROHIBITION 201 
 
 says, but the will of the majority, and democracy means 
 the rule of the majority. If it was almost impossible 
 to get a majority against alcohol half a century ago, 
 little by little this has become easier because of the 
 wider education of the people regarding this grave 
 problem, and since this majority has been attained and 
 the State has become dry, the object lesson of the dim- 
 inution of immorality, increase in savings, fewer jails, 
 and increase in business, has been so eloquent that the 
 opposers of yesterday are the defenders of to-day. 
 
 A grave problem, madam, for your country is that the 
 ruling classes have economic interests so widely con- 
 nected with alcoholic industries. Your husband himself 
 is a producer of wines. It happens that, unconsciously, 
 the man who gets his income from the manufacture of 
 wines, champagne, and whisky fails to see the grave 
 evil that this industry is for his country. Your coun- 
 try's case is the same as that of England, where the 
 rulers have interests in alcoholic industries. This may 
 be the reason why the people are so given to drink, 
 not by nature, nor by instinct, but by reflex education. 
 I have often heard the Chilean people — the working 
 classes — accused of being drinkers by instinct. The 
 manager of the coal mines of Coronel, in Chile, an Eng- 
 lishman, told me when I visited those regions that it 
 was impossible to suppress the inveterate drink habit 
 of the Chilean people. There were five thousand work- 
 men there, and the day I visited the mine all were intox- 
 icated. It was Independence Day. In another plant 
 of your country — El Teniente, a copper deposit worked 
 by Americans — there are also five thousand workmen, 
 and it is the only prohibitionist population in your coun- 
 try. There nobody, neither the manager nor the em- 
 
202 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ployees, may have even a drop of beer, but all are eon- 
 tented, and the workmen there save more than in any 
 other part of the country. If prohibition could be ex- 
 tended to the whole of your country it would be an 
 Eden by its climate, by its natural wealth, and by the 
 intrinsic value of its men and women. 
 
 A Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
T 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 
 
 WO weeks later, on opening the heavy envelope 
 from Chicago, Miss Jones asked herself what it 
 would be now. She read, as usual, eagerly: 
 
 Chicago, 111., 1918. 
 
 My dearest: 
 
 When crossing the Gulf of Mexico on board the 
 Athens, my table companion asked me: 
 
 ''Where are you from?" 
 
 "From Santiago, Chile." 
 
 "Where are you going?" 
 
 "To Chicago." 
 
 "Oh! Are you coming to see the baseball games be- 
 tween Chicago and New York?" 
 
 • It was perfectly natural, according to the American 
 mentality of my interlocutor, for me to come from the 
 other hemisphere, a voyage which takes almost a month, 
 to see a baseball game in which is at stake what is here 
 called the championship of the world, and even of all 
 the planets, although it is really only of the United 
 States. 
 
 When the steamer was three days distant from New 
 
 203 
 
204 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Orleans the wireless messages were already able to give 
 us news of the world. 
 
 I hasten to read the news bulletin. I wonder what 
 has happened in the wide world during the days of 
 our isolation. Ah, we are at the gates of the United 
 States. The most important news of the bulletins refer 
 to the baseball championship. 
 
 At last I arrived in Chicago. It was eight o'clock in 
 
 the morning. I called a taxi to take me to the Hotel 
 
 Blackstone, which is so large that the whole population 
 
 of a Chilean town could be accommodated therein at one 
 
 * time. 
 
 ''There are no vacant rooms, sir," I am told. We pass 
 on to another hotel. 
 
 ''Not a room to be had." 
 
 "No rooms." 
 
 "Full up." 
 
 It has taken me — I observed this out of mere curiosity 
 — exactly two hours and eight minutes in an automo- 
 bile going from hotel to hotel looking for a room ; and I 
 was able to get one in a tenth-rate hotel only by the 
 merest chance. I had to stay there for several days. 
 Chicago was overflowing with people who had come to 
 see the baseball game scheduled for that Sunday. 
 
 Naturally, I wanted to go and see this marvelous 
 game. It was impossible. All the good seats were sold 
 beforehand, and in order to secure the cheapest of them 
 — a dollar and a half — of which fifteen thousand were 
 sold a few hours before the game, there was a crowd 
 of more than fifteen thousand people waiting, a large 
 part of them stationed in front of the ticket boxes all 
 night, standing in the midst of glacial cold. 
 
 This baseball championship is played between the 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 205 
 
 teams that have been victorious during the year in their 
 respective leagues, the American League and the Na- 
 tional League. The teams that had won the pennants 
 and that were going to play for the world's cham- 
 pionship were the Giants of New York and the White 
 Sox of Chicago. The first two games are played in 
 Chicago and then two in New York. If all four games 
 are won by one team, this is the winner of the cham- 
 pionship of the whole solar system. 
 
 The Sunday that I arrived in Chicago this city won 
 the two games. The two following games were played in 
 New York and won by the New Yorkers, making it 
 necessary to continue playing until one team had won 
 four games. 
 
 I was able to go to the fifth game, which was played 
 in Chicago, by buying as a special favor the ticket of a 
 gentleman who had to leave Chicago that day. 
 
 ''Please keep the stub for me," he said when selling 
 me the ticket; "I want to frame it." 
 
 Do not suppose that he said this in fun. He was in 
 earnest. That stub was for him more than a souvenir — 
 it was a relic. 
 
 The tickets when resold by speculators bring incredible 
 sums, sometimes as much as one hundred dollars — so I 
 am told. 
 
 The Colosseum, where this stupendous game is played, 
 is crammed to overflowing. It is an immense human 
 ocean. Forty thousand people have secured seats. 
 There is in the air that feeling of breathless expectation 
 which precedes the most important events in life. Down 
 on the field the players — like epic gladiators in the 
 arena — ^by their very appearance electrify the people. 
 
 I had already seen in the shop windows little terra 
 
206 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 cotta statues representing these players who are going 
 to fight for the championship of the alert muscle; and 
 it is easier to sell these figures of baseball players than 
 statues of Stephenson, Fulton, Pasteur, Shakespeare or 
 Marconi. I do not know if I should also include Wash.- 
 ington and Lincoln; but this I do know: on the same 
 day tliat more seats were needed in a stadium with 
 capacity for forty thousand persons paying exorbitant 
 prices to see the players in a game, there were about 
 a thousand empty seats out of 12,000 in the hall where 
 ex-President Taft spoke on the vital subject of the 
 United States and the war, there being absolutely no 
 charge levied to hear the famous orator. Many distin- 
 guished people shook hands with ex-President Taft, but 
 the players of the winning team were hugged and car- 
 ried in triumph. They are even kissed in public ! When 
 one of these players cried for mercy in the midst of these 
 manifestations of enthusiasm, one of his admirers forced 
 his way up to him and kissed him on the forehead. In 
 addition to the glory, the hugs and the kisses, these 
 champions also receive fabulous sums in cash. 
 
 A sport critic says that the costumes of these rival 
 teams will exercise some influence in the style of 
 women's clothes. 
 
 At one side, in the grandstand, I see a line of tele- 
 graph operators working busily at their respective posts. 
 They are the telegraph operators who are sending out 
 all the details of the game for the whole country to read. 
 The news distributed regarding all the battles waged 
 in Europe is not one-hundredth part so voluminous as 
 that published here about the game I am witnessing, 
 nor is it so detailed, nor sent out so quickly. One 
 hundred million people follow, through newspapers and 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 207 
 
 the moving picture, the most minute details of the 
 game. On leaving the eolisseum I bought a newspaper 
 which gave all the details of the first part of the game 
 that I had witnessed some minutes before. 
 
 In the course of the game, particularly when the 
 Chicago team scored a point, the arena looked like a 
 colossal mad-house with forty thousand lunatics yelling 
 in delirium. Suddenly the whole crowd rises to its 
 feet as one man. Hats and coats are thrown into the 
 air. An indescribable hubbub follows; and this mass 
 is composed of all kinds of people: men, w^omen, old, 
 young, millionaires and workingmen. 
 
 The White Sox, the Chicago team, win the game. 
 The applause seems to shake the globe. It is the frenzy, 
 the madness of sport. Another mentality than ours is 
 needed to understand this. A boxing champion is also 
 converted here into a national hero. The Yankees, be- 
 sides being worshipers of the golden fleece, adore brute 
 force. 
 
 It is true that in all parts of this country may be 
 seen public schools housed in magnificent buildings, uni- 
 versities endowed with millions and millions, splendid 
 public libraries like those of Washington, New York and 
 Chicago, but I cannot understand w^hat part these insti- 
 tutions play in the life of these people, since they are 
 cultured neither in knowledge nor in manners. 
 
 Every time I am asked my nationality and I answer 
 that I am from Chile, people stare at me as if I had 
 spoken in another language. Some ask me in what 
 State — referring to the States of this country — that city 
 is located. I answer: 
 
 "From Chile, South America." 
 
 **Ah! South America!" they exclaim, and then there 
 
208 TEE GULF OF MISVNDEESTANBINQ 
 
 dawns in their minds the conception of a vast country 
 in the far South. They think that South America is a 
 single country. They have a vague idea that it is not 
 the same as Mexico ; they have perhaps heard of Buenos 
 Aires or Rio de Janeiro. Others say : 
 
 ''Oh! South America, a good opportunity to make 
 money"; and they think of our nations as desolate re- 
 gions where any intrepid explorer may possess himself 
 of immense tracts of country. 
 
 Really, the ignorance of the Yankee in matters of gen- 
 
 >,, eral culture is fathomless. Any one of our boys who has 
 been through high school knows a hundred times more 
 than the Yankee who is considered a cultured person 
 here. I have spoken to managers of large business 
 houses, to engineers and to doctors, in more or less in- 
 timate conversation here in the hotel. As a rule, they 
 are well prepared in their respective lines and special- 
 ties J but they show absolute ignorance as regards culture 
 in general. Out of the ordinary is he who can speak 
 French or Spanish. They think English is the language 
 of the universe and they do not bother to learn other 
 languages. For them all the civilization of the world 
 is here. 
 
 f The Yankee is of astonishing superficiality. He learns 
 only what is absolutely essential to make a living. Of 
 the sciences, when he must, he learns the principles and 
 the laws, but not the reasons for those principles and 
 laws. In mathematics he learns how to use the tables. 
 An engineer learns the strength of materials in a week, 
 since he is taught only to consult the tables. This is 
 why this country has not produced a Pascal, or a Des- 
 
 >> cartes or a Newton. Neither has it produced geniuses 
 in literature. Where i^ their Shakespeare, their Cer- 
 
EDUCATION, CHABACTEB AND HABITS 209 
 
 vantes, their Moliere, their Dante? Kodin would never 
 have been able to find in this country a model for his 
 '* Thinker." 
 
 But if the schools and colleges do not teach the Yankee 
 child the humanities endowing man with the smallest 
 modicum of culture possessed by him in all civilized 
 countries, neither do they teach manners. 
 
 I have never seen people more badly behaved in any 
 other part of the world. They are rude in their language 
 with the rudeness of baseball ; they do not know how to 
 sit, they put their feet on the table; they do not know 
 how to eat, they eat chicken with their hands ; they do 
 not know how to greet one, they do not take off their hat 
 ito greet even their superiors; they say: this "man," 
 this "woman," whereas, in all the other countries of 
 the world this "gentleman," this "lady," is the rule 
 of speech. In a trolley or railroad car a man seldom 
 gets up to give his seat to a lady. 
 
 This is the only country in the world that I know of 
 where chewing-gum is used. On Broadway, New York, 
 the most brilliant, most complicated and, doubtless, most 
 expensive electric sky sign is one advertising chewing- 
 gum. Enormous posters glorifying this chev/ing-gum 
 may be seen everj^where. Of course, you do not know 
 •of it even by name. It is a gum that the people here 
 chew incessantly. It is a sticky, disgusting ingredient 
 that the jaws of almost all the Yankees are squeezing 
 every hour of the day. I cannot understand how this 
 disgusting habit has become so popular, to the extreme 
 of making the chewing-gum industry as important in 
 this country as the match industry. And even tlT?)ugh 
 the art of chewing gum is disgusting, you will see well- 
 
210 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 dressed people of decent appearance, young girls, chew- 
 ing gum in theaters and at receptions. 
 ^ This lack of ceremony can be seen everywhere. On 
 hot days the Yankee walks through the streets with his 
 coat off; in automobiles he appears in his shirt sleeves; 
 in the parks everybody sits on the ground without coat 
 and vest, and even with their shirts open. On the lake 
 shore young couples are seen in bathing suits seated 
 together. 
 
 In one of my previous letters I mentioned the word 
 lynchmg as of genuine Yankee manufacture. There is 
 another word which this nation has contributed to the 
 vocabulary of all languages: ''bluff." Hence our word 
 ^^hlufear." Here everything is "the biggest in the 
 world," ''the most beautiful in the world," "the most 
 expensive in the world." The Chicago newspaper that 
 I generally read is called "The Chicago Tribune," and 
 under the title it has this sub-title : ' ' The Largest News- 
 paper In The World," which, of course, is not true, 
 but so that none may surpass it, it publishes on one of 
 its pages a small caricature section in the form of a 
 newspaper and calls it ' ' The Smallest Newspaper in the 
 World." 
 
 Everybody here brags about what they are doing. 
 For instance, a Liberty Loan campaign is launched. 
 The government orders millions of buttons ; one is given 
 to everybody who buys a bond and they pin it on their 
 coat lapel, like a medal. To have bought the bond is 
 not sufficient for them, they must brag about it, they 
 must boast, they must show that they have bought their 
 bond. The Red Cross launches a campaign and, of 
 course, distributes paper banners, so that every one who 
 gives a dollar can put one in his window. If in a house 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 211 
 
 there is one person who has given a dollar to the Red 
 Cross, one cross is gummed to the window-pane; if two 
 persons have each given a dollar, two crosses are pasted 
 in the window, and so on. In some of these windows I 
 saw, alongside two or three crosses, the sign ''100%," 
 and when I asked what this stood for, I was told that 
 it meant that every one in the house had given a dollar. 
 For the families of those who have gone to war they 
 have invented what is called "a service flag" on which 
 a red star is depicted for each man in the family who 
 has gone to war and a golden star for each man who has 
 died in the service of the country. Windows display 
 these flags to acquaint each passerby with the fact that 
 a member of the family has gone to the war; they are 
 also carried on automobiles. Not long ago I saw the 
 window of a private house converted into a show-case 
 like those in shops. In it were exhibited not only the 
 service flag, but the letters that the young man of the 
 house had sent, postal packages and a German helmet 
 that he had captured from the Prussians. 
 
 I cannot think what they do in the schools of this 
 country, since no culture or manners are taught. Their 
 only object appears to be that of preparing the in- 
 dividual to make the dollar: aggressiveness in business. 
 On no account would I consent to have my children 
 educated here. 
 
 I do not know the schools, colleges and universities 
 of this country, except by their outside appearance, by 
 their buildings, which are generally magnificent. But 
 if I may judge by their produce, I think we have nothing 
 to envy in the American educational system. 
 
 There is, however, an aspect which revolted me from 
 the first moment I saw the pupils coming from schools, 
 
212 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 whether it be an elementary or high-school; I mean co- 
 education. Boys and girls not only attend the same 
 school, but they attend the same classes and sit on the 
 same benches. 
 '^ This promiscuity of the sexes in schools robs woman 
 of her charm, it makes her masculine. Hence the reason 
 why woman in this country has acquired so many 
 features that are exclusively masculine elsewhere. In 
 almost all homes the men get up from the table after 
 dinner to wash the dishes and to occupy themselves with 
 other domestic details exclusively feminine. To see men 
 in the parks wheeling a perambulator, or carrying the 
 baby in their arms while the wife walks at their side 
 carrying the dog, is a common scene in the cities of 
 this country. Of course you know that a servant here is 
 almost a rara avis, and that the owner of an automobile 
 can seldom afford to keep a chauffeur. 
 
 It being impossible to have a servant, man is one in 
 this "womanocracy." 
 
 Man here occupies an inferior position. In other 
 countries the question is discussed as to whether a 
 woman is intellectually man's equal. Not here, where 
 this controversy is old already. The question discussed 
 here now is whether man is intellectually on a level with 
 woman. The following joke, which illustrates this point 
 of view in American life, I read the other day in a 
 newspaper : 
 
 Professor Phirstboy prided himself upon his advanced 
 and enlightened views concerning women and their place 
 in the scheme of things: 
 
 He sat next to a very clever woman at a little dinner 
 the other night, and in reply to a remark of hers ex- 
 claimed : 
 
EDUCATION, CHABACTEB AND HABITS 213 
 
 "My dear ladj^, I go further than believing in woman 
 suffrage; I maintain that man and woman are equal in 
 every way." 
 
 ''Oh, professor!" said the lady very sweetly; ''now 
 you flatter yourself." 
 
 Of course. Just imagine the bold professor placing 
 himself on a level with woman. 
 
 This difference in habits extends to all the aspects of 
 life. The menu of the Yankee house is simply unbear- 
 able for us. They eat stuffed turkey with cranberry 
 sauce; I have been served in hotels with artichokes 
 cooked in cinnamon; they put sugar on lettuce and to- 
 matoes; and all the rest in the same style. 
 
 This difference in the way of living is extended to the 
 houses themselves. Very often there can be seen in 
 the windows of the restaurants here a compact pile of 
 unopened oysters with large pieces of ice on top and 
 underneath. That, I think, is a symbol of a Yankee 
 city. The men are piled up, one on the other, in their 
 enormous houses, with a room for each family, like 
 oysters in calcareous shells, without any of them having 
 relations with their neighbors or knowing anything 
 about them. Even the ice is a symbol: a Yankee city 
 is a refrigerator, the souls are frozen. 
 • Here they are determined to do away with prostitu- 
 tion, and the traffic is illegal in nearly all States of the 
 Union. This constitutes a radical departure from the 
 wise traditions of continental Europe, adopted in our 
 country and in all Latin America. 
 
 Particularly in Chicago a pitiless campaign is being 
 waged against women of easy virtue. A young country- 
 man of ours told me how, when walking one day in 
 Michigan Avenue, a fairly good looking girl eyed hink 
 
214 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 suggestively. He reciprocated the look and invited her 
 to take something at a restaurant, as if he were on a 
 Paris Boulevard. The girl accepted, and after supper he 
 asked her to accompany him to a hotel. This invitation 
 was also accepted by the young woman, but no sooner 
 were they alone in the room when she showed him her 
 detective's badge and marched him off to prison, from 
 which he escaped only on payment of a fine for having 
 encouraged prostitution. Did you ever see such a 
 thing? Male detectives are also on the watch for girls 
 guilty of the same misdemeanor. 
 
 They do not understand here that legalized prostitu- 
 tion is a necessary evil, tolerated for the purpose of 
 abating a much greater evil: the furtive prostitution of 
 the home, of the daughter of honorable parents, who 
 runs the risk of seduction by the beast that is in man, 
 and which they think here can be curbed in defiance of 
 the law of nature. 
 
 This is another world and certainly not a superior one. 
 It is a world eminently inferior. Here one does not live 
 — one exists. I do not know what grounds Latin Ameri- 
 can admirers of this country have for praising this coun- 
 try at the expense of our own countries. The following 
 is by an Argentine, Alfredo Colmo, taken from his book, 
 *'The Countries of Latin America," and cited by Pro- 
 fessor William R. Shepherd, professor at Columbia 
 University : 
 
 "What has the United States in common with the 
 countries of Latin America ? Very little : the incidental 
 fact of its geographical location in the same hemisphere> 
 and the external circumstance that it became independ- 
 ent at almost the same time. . . . What, then, does it 
 offer by way of unlikeness? Nearly everything, and in 
 
, EDUCATION, CEABACTEB AND HABITS 215 
 
 terms so disparate that they are but little less than 
 diametrically the opposite of one another. Details and 
 secondary matters apart, the contrasts, in which those 
 countries never hold the place of vantage, are the fol- 
 lowing: populousness and uninhabitedness ; wealth and 
 misery; deeds and words; activity and atrophy; educa- 
 tion and inculture ; industry and politicalism ; commerce 
 and militarism; order and impulsiveness; legality and 
 defiance of law; free will and arbitrariness; morality 
 and egotism; truth and falsehood; principles and men; 
 railways and mules ; civilization and stagnation and even 
 barbarism; liberty and slavery, etc." 
 
 These are the words of Senor Colmo, and they are 
 surely the limit. Writers are needed who will defend 
 Latin America instead of reviling it. Do people travel 
 on mules from Santiago to Buenos Aires or on a railroad 
 as modern as thai from Chicago to New York? Have 
 we not erected high upon the Andes a Christ at whose 
 feet we tell the world that the Andes mountains will first 
 crumble before the peace can be broken between the 
 great countries that the mountain range separates? Is 
 not Buenos Aires growing more rapidly than New York ? 
 Have we not writers, sculptors and musicians greater 
 than those of the United States? 
 
 I know not why we have taken into our head lately to 
 send our teachers to this country to look for inspiration 
 from the Yankee methods of education. We have noth- 
 ing to learn here and we could certainly teach them a 
 great deal. Our natural bond of union is with Europe. 
 Thence our politicians, our writers and our artists drew 
 their inspiration. There is nothing more opposed to 
 our idiosyncrasy than the idiosyncrasy of the Yankee 
 
216 TEE GULF OF 3IISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 and it is absurd for us to pretend to learn their methods 
 of educating the future generations. 
 
 Your husband who adores you. 
 
 The perusal of this letter angered Miss Jones for half 
 an hour. Her first impulse was to reply with heat, but 
 true to her conviction that a calm statement of her case 
 would best serve her purpose, she held the insulting 
 letter over until the following day, when her comments 
 took form in these words: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 Your husband is shocked at finding in general very 
 little culture among the persons with whom it has fallen 
 to his lot to associate in our country. 
 
 It happens that your husband himself, who is eminent 
 in your country, who has had a careful University 
 education, who has traveled in Europe, who has de- 
 voted a gi'eat deal of time to reading in foreign lan- 
 guages, and who possesses a more than ordinary general 
 culture, will naturally not often find people who have 
 the same degree of culture as he. I even agree that it 
 would be easier for him to find in Chile, your country, 
 persons of high culture than in my country. The 
 reason is very simple: there he has his circle of intel- 
 lectual friends, of choice minds with which he is in 
 daily contact; here he meets at random with all kinds 
 of people. There he is in his own atmosphere; here he 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 217 
 
 is transplanted. Very often the manager of a bank with 
 whom one talks at a dinner may have been during all 
 his early youth a humble worker to whom the exceptional 
 opportunities that our democracy offers suffice to enable 
 him to overcome economic difficulties, specializing his 
 I studies in the line he needed most for his advancement. 
 
 In your country, madam, as in all Latin America, 
 there is a small number of persons who are very cul- 
 tured, but there is an immense mass of the population 
 quite uneducated, and when speaking of the culture of a 
 country we must do so in just the same way as when 
 speaking of its wealth. In the latter case not only 
 are the millions of the millionaires counted, but also 
 the cents of the poor; the sum total of wealth is 
 estimated. Considering things in this way — which is 
 the only right way to discuss them w^hen treating of 
 democracies — it cannot be denied that the culture of 
 the United States is enormously superior to that of 
 Latin America. / 
 
 On the other hand, your husband, being a Chilean, 
 is astonished at the ignorance of the people with whom 
 he speaks regarding the geography of his country; but, 
 do you think that your countrymen are very familiar 
 with the geography of the world? Do you think that 
 I could not name for you, and other Latin Americans, 
 •cities with a population of half a million of which you 
 have not even heard? Has not the news of the world 
 war shown us all our supreme ignorance of the world's 
 geography ? 
 
 The truth is, that man all over the world is still pro- 
 foundly ignorant of things that he does not see, that he 
 does not smell and that he does not touch. The things 
 he sees, smells and touches he knows more or less well, 
 
218 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 and when he leaves his environment he is astonished 
 that men who live in other surroundings are not familiar 
 with the things that he knows from childhood. We na- 
 tions live in a shell, like the oyster. The ignorance of 
 Latin America about our countiy is as supine as our 
 ignorance about Latin America. 
 
 However, there is a world of difference between this 
 last statement and admitting that superficiality is the 
 dominant note in our country. I do not want to make 
 offensive comparisons with Latin America, but the indi- 
 cations are all thatfwords mean there more than ideas, 
 form more than things. , Our universities are serving as 
 a model of inspiration to Europe. The intellectual pro- 
 duction of our present university professors is of in- 
 estimable importance. In no country of the world has 
 the national task of study, in all its branches, been 
 taken care of with more ardor than in my country. 
 
 In no country are there so many libraries as here. 
 Between the years 1775 and 1800 there were thirty 
 public libraries in my country; between 1800 and 1825 
 there were one hundred and seventy-nine ; between 1825 
 and 1850 there were five hundred and fifty-one ; between 
 1850 and 1875 there were twenty-two thousand and 
 forty. To-day it can truly be said that there is no one in 
 the United States who does not live near some library. 
 And these libraries have each day more and more read- 
 ers, and each day sees an increase in the number of 
 serious books, not novels, circulated by them. 
 
 My country also has a real national institution in its 
 open forums where public lectures are given, generally 
 with the right of free discussion; and statistics tell us 
 that each year one person out of eleven of our popula- 
 
EDUCATION, CHABACTEB AND HABITS 219 
 
 tion attends these lectures where all the vital problems 
 of the day are discussed. 
 
 It is true that our country has not produced literary 
 geniuses of the caliber of Shakespeare, Cervantes, 
 Moliere or Dante. Neither has Latin America. I think 
 that this is because each of the two continents has a 
 literature which is a branch of that of the mother 
 country and which has not as yet become perfectly ripe. 
 Neither have Canada and Australia produced literary 
 geniuses who have dazzled the world ; but it would have 
 been enough for your husband to have brought to mind 
 the figures of William James, Emerson, Whittier or 
 Whitman, to have made it impossible for him to say 
 that Rodin would not have been able to find here a 
 model for his Thinker. 
 
 However, I must admit that in your institutions of 
 secondary education wider general instruction is given 
 than in ours. You impart more knowledge; you fill 
 the pupils' heads with more data, you know more about 
 world history ; and when I say you, I refer to the small 
 part of the population that attends school. /TWe have 
 put more emphasis in the formation of character. Our 
 schools give an education ; yours give instruction. There 
 word has been deified; here action has been deified^ 
 
 As for our exaggerated love of sport: the baseball 
 game which your husband saw in Chicago was a con- 
 test quite naturally exciting the enthusiasm he de- 
 scribed, because it was played in order to establish who 
 were the champions of the country. We have a love 
 for sport of all kinds and, in my opinion, this partiality 
 is a virtue rather than a vice, whatever may be the ex- 
 tremes of enthusiasm and delight to which the meeting 
 of the champions lead the people. There is something 
 
220 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 finer in that baseball game than in a bull fight or in a 
 horse race where fortunes are at stake. Sport, the edu- 
 cation of the animal in man, is a part of our program 
 of national education. 
 
 Have we not the social refinement to which your hus- 
 band is accustomed? Are we uncouth in our manners? 
 Of course, I believe that there are very many people in 
 my country as refined as the most exclusive society of 
 Latin America; but I must admit also that in the so- 
 called upper classes persons of bad manners are found, 
 which is rarely the case among the privileged classes in 
 the countries of Latin America. 
 
 Why? For a very simple reason more to our credit 
 than to our disrepute. I picture your husband, madam, 
 as the prototype of the well bred man of savoir faire 
 and distinguished and exquisite refinement. He learned 
 that from the cradle, he inherited it from his father, 
 from his grandfather and his great-grandfather, and 
 he passes it on to his children, grandchildren and great- 
 grandchildren. There is hardly any interchange in the 
 social layers. The rich and distinguished man of to- 
 day is the sou, grandson and great-grandson of rich 
 and distinguished men of the past. 
 
 You will agree with me, however, that leaving those 
 privileged classes and descending in the social scale 
 until we reach the laundress, the bricklayer and the 
 day-laborer, the manners we find are very different. 
 If there existed in your country the facilities enjoyed 
 in mine for the poor to obtain the best economic and 
 social positions, you would discover that refinement, 
 distinction in manners and aristocracy of movements 
 would not be a characteristic feature among all people 
 of the upper classes. 
 
EDUCATION, CHABACTEB AND HABITS 221 
 
 It is this stability of caste in the countries of Latin 
 "America, and the unrestricted field for the advance- 
 ment 0? competence in the ranks of our democracy, 
 Which accounts for the fact that there aristocracy has a 
 stamp of distinction, while here the man of good educa- 
 tion can le seen side by side with the unpolished man 
 who has succeeded economically and socially. 
 
 That the man of my country is discourteous towards 
 Woman I do not believe. Your husband should not 
 confound our habits of business life with our habits 
 of social life. The American does not remove his hat 
 in the elevator of an office building, even if there are 
 ladies present, but he uncovers in the elevator of a 
 hotel. 
 
 I have always heard, madam, this accusation made 
 by Latin Americans and Europeans that our men are not 
 very gentlemanly or courteous towards women. In 
 these notes to the letters of your husband, madam, 
 I have made an effort to appear as little chauvinisie 
 as possible, but now I cannot resist the impulse of say- 
 ing that the man of my country is the most courteous 
 in the world, the most gentlemanly towards women. 
 
 Your husband makes fun of the husband who wheels 
 a perambulator through our streets or who carries his 
 child. In the countries of Latin America I have noted 
 that the suitor always carries the parcels of his be- 
 trothed when walking together, but I did not always see 
 the husband carrying his wife's packages. 
 
 Is it not true courtesy for a husband to help his wife 
 in housework when there is no servant in the house ? Is 
 it only courteous to say: ''Pardon me, madam. I am 
 delighted to make your acquaintance ? ' ' Should courtesy 
 be expressed by words or by actions ? 
 
222 THE GVLP OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Does your husband also lay to the debit in the trial 
 balance of our progress the fact that it is difficidt to 
 keep a servant among us ? Why is it difficult ? Doubt- 
 less in some cities of Latin America a person who earns 
 one hundred dollars monthly can have two servants in 
 his house, and one who earns two hundred dollars a 
 month can have four. Why? Because the labor of 
 servants is cheap. And why is it cheap? Because of 
 the backwardness of those countries. In some cities of 
 Latin America a servant can be employed for a dollar a 
 month. But, thank God, this will not always be so ; some 
 day there will not be in Latin America a single woman 
 whose work will be remunerated at the rate of only one 
 dollar a month. 
 
 Madam, your husband describes to you in detail the 
 whole scene of the baseball game between the White 
 Sox and the Giants in Chicago which it fell to his lot 
 to witness. Allow me to describe to you in detail another 
 scene that I was privileged to witness, where those base- 
 ball players, virile, sound in body and soul, gave proof 
 that the potency of the muscle is not at variance with 
 the highest form of courtesy. I am going to describe to 
 you a scene that I was fated to witness and which will 
 never be effaced from my memory. 
 
 It was on the high seas, in the Titanic^ a powerful 
 transatlantic steamer, the sinking of which was doubt- 
 less brought to your notice at the time. 
 
 The largest ship in the world has hurled itself at 
 midnight against a mountain of ice while the last notes 
 of a waltz are still vibrating in the saloons, when the 
 ladies have not yet discarded their silk dresses nor the 
 men their dress-coats. The steamer has called for 
 help from all the ships within its wireless zone; but 
 
EDUCATION, CHABACTEB AND HABITS 223 
 
 there is no time to wait on deck until they come, 
 because the ship may at any moment dive to the utter- 
 most depths of the abyss. There are hardly enough 
 boats to save one out of every six of the crew. The wa- 
 ter overwhelms the dynamos and all lights are extin- 
 guished. Communication with the outside world has 
 ceased; the Hertzian weaves carry no more messages. 
 Feeble minds become deranged, but in the midst of this 
 confusion and panic there is something clear, something 
 which shines as a light; it is a cry heard on all sides, 
 a voice in command, an Anglo-Saxon mandate that waves 
 like a flag, the supreme touch of courtesy: ^'SAVE 
 THE WOMEN FIRST !" 
 
 That order is obej^ed; the scanty places in the few 
 boats are to be filled with the women and children on 
 board. The wife descends, followed by her maid, not 
 by her husband. 
 
 Astor, the millionaire, leads his wife, who is soon to 
 become a mother, to the lifeboat ; he asks the officers for 
 permission to accompany and protect her, but they an- 
 swer no, not while a woman remains to be saved. The 
 master of five hundred millions, clad in his dress-clothes, 
 meekly obeys, steps back and makes way for a woman 
 immigrant, a barefooted Syrian woman, who obtains 
 precedence because she is a woman. Astor lights a 
 cigarette and says good-by, waving his hand to the boat 
 in which departs his wife, young, beautiful, adored, 
 while he, smiling, remains behind awaiting death. 
 
 The wife of Straus, another millionaire, refuses to 
 enter the lifeboat unless her old husband comes, too. 
 The officers request the old man to go, both because of his 
 advanced age and because it is the only way to save his 
 wife. The octogenarian replies: *'I am old, but you 
 
224 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 cannot take away my prerogative of being a man." So 
 both husband and wife perish, after taking care that 
 their servant is saved. 
 
 Practically all the women and children are saved, 
 with the exception of the wives who would not abandon 
 their husbands, preferring to die with them, it being 
 impossible for any human force to drag them away. 
 The women and children of the steerage are also saved, 
 while the magnates and millionaries die like heroes, 
 standing, as the men of the ship's band, knowing they 
 have only a few minutes to live, fill the air with stirring 
 music. 
 
 One individual, overcome by panic, loses his presence 
 of mind and tries to save himself; but Major Butt, of 
 the United States army, with the roughness of the base- 
 ball player, catches him by the arm and throws him 
 (Stunned to the deck. 
 
 *'I am sorry," says the stern soldier, *'but the last 
 woman in the steerage must leave the ship before you." 
 
 Some Chinese coolies save themselves in the darkness 
 by gliding, crawling like snakes. An Italian conceives 
 the idea of saving his life and losing his honor ; he dons 
 some of his wife 's clothes and descends at her side. The 
 semidarkness protects the fraud, the men make way for 
 him and aid him to the lifeboat. If he had put on a 
 king's crown or the insignia of a multi-millionaire he 
 would not have attained his object, because the voice 
 of command was: women first; even the ragged immi- 
 grants; after them the men, even the magnates and 
 millionaires. 
 
 Many of the latter enter the boats to take leave of 
 their wives and return to the ship, which they know will 
 be their tomb. 
 
EDUCATION, CH ABAC TEE AND HABITS 225 
 
 Guggenheim remains on deck, which attracts brave 
 men as an electric light attracts butterflies. He 
 writes home a few lines : ' ' If anything happens to me, 
 tell my wife that I have tried my best to do my duty." 
 
 In one boat seven women are saved who are return- 
 ing from their honeymoon, while the orange blossoms 
 with which they w^nt to the altar have not yet withered. 
 Their husbands, when leaving them in safety while they 
 remain to die, are not perturbed; with a princely smile 
 they seem to add a final courtesy to their sweet bonds of 
 love. 
 
 The women of the steerage who have been saved say 
 that the gentlemen in evening dress took off their life- 
 belts and tendered them like courtiers who offer flowers 
 to a queen. 
 
 Miss Edith Evans gives up the last seat in the last 
 boat to one of her friends and remains behind to die, 
 saying these words that would have shaken Sparta : 
 
 ' ' You have children. ' ' 
 
 At times it still seems to me that I am in that boat in 
 which thirty of us women were saved, and think I hear 
 the voices of the shipwrecked in the distance. So long 
 as the boat w^as able to hold more, we picked up every- 
 body we could ; but soon we had so many in it that any 
 added weight would imperil the lives of us all. An 
 old man swam towards us. He grabbed hold of our 
 boat; but he was told that if he tried to climb in we 
 should all sink. The man answered quietly: 
 
 ' ' Very well ; you are right. May God bless you, ' ' and 
 he drifted away from the boat, going to die like an un- 
 known hero under the waves cold as the pole. 
 
 The sun of the following morning lit up that sea in 
 
226 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 which hundreds of gentlemen had perished so that the 
 gallantry of the men of our race might not perish. 
 
 And this tragic scene that I have described to you, 
 madam, is one page in a book of thousands of pages 
 that could be written to define the courtesy of our 
 men for us. 
 
 Our national education forms the character of the 
 individual; it teaches habits that have already been 
 partly converted into racial features, and these habits 
 are sterling qualities of our race. 
 
 If we have produced the word "bluff," almost un- 
 translatable into Spanish, as your husband says, we 
 have also produced other words, such as "a square deal" 
 and ''fair play," which are a product of our education 
 and which are even more difficult to translate into Span- 
 ish than the word ''bluff." From this circumstance I 
 should not infer, madam, that "fair play" and "square 
 deal" do not exist in your countries. 
 
 "Bluff," as a national feature, is something inherent 
 to all countries that have attained great success in 
 their collective lives. It existed among the Romans. 
 On its coins and stamps France has pictured the French 
 Republic as sowing the seeds of civilization in the world. 
 Germany coined the world-known phrase: ^'Deutschland 
 ueher Alles/' ^^Chauvinisme'' is a French word; 
 "jingoism" is English. 
 
 I do not believe, however, that hluff is a character- 
 istic feature of our country. Bluff, of a collective na- 
 ture, is closely associated with clannishness and is com- 
 mon to every country, to every State, to every province, 
 to every city, to every political party, to every organiza- 
 tion and to every school ; it is the spirit of exhibiting all 
 those things which are an honor to the group to which 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 227 
 
 one belongs, and, of course, the noise that is made by 
 the one who has the most things to boast of attracts 
 most of the world's attention. It is not that I am 
 here defending Muff; I am explaining it. 
 
 Your husband speaks of the buttons that the buyer 
 of a Liberty Bond exhibits on his coat lapel, of the 
 service flag and of the Red Cross insignia. These ex- 
 hibitions are made principally as a means of propaganda, 
 as a mode of emulation for one's neighbor, or just for 
 convenience, so that solicitors may not lose time. We 
 have not the craze for orders, so prevalent in Europe. 
 I have read that in France, some time ago, a strike of 
 postmen for an increase in salary was settled by the 
 promise that the Government, unwilling to grant the 
 increase asked for, would award a medal to every post- 
 man. That would be impossible in my country. More- 
 over, neither is Latin America free from this reverence 
 for orders of chivalry. When President Manuel Estrada 
 Cabrera of Guatemala received from the French Gov- 
 ernment the decoration of a Grand Officer of the Legion 
 of Honor, he immediately decreed that the day on which 
 he received this honor should be a legal holiday for 
 the whole country. 
 
 We do not believe, madam, that legalized prostitu- 
 tion is a suitable defense for the honor of our home 
 life. On the contrary, legalized prostitution is a school 
 for vicious men, who spread their vice beyond the ''red 
 light" district. 
 
 Nor do we believe it to be i^ight that the state 
 should recognize the profession of a class of women 
 as slaves of vice in order to defend other women in 
 their innocence. To the state the purity of the woman 
 
228 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 highly placed is as sacred, and not more so, than that of 
 the woman born in a lower stratum of society. 
 
 "We differ from Latin America and continental Europe 
 in our way of facing this problem because the countries 
 of which these continents consist are autocracies, whereas 
 we are a democracy. Over there they do not scruple 
 to sacrifice women of the poorer classes so that they 
 shall serve as instruments of pleasure for the upper 
 classes, under the fictitious pretext of defending the 
 virtue of the privileged classes. Here we think that 
 the virtue of the poor is also worthy of defense. 
 
 If I were asked what is the predominant feature of our 
 national character, I should answer, without hesitation: 
 the spirit of service. 
 
 I remember that when on my travels through Latin 
 America I was walking along the streets of a city, I 
 noticed how a woman peddling fruit overturned a basket 
 containing peaches, plums and apples. I hastened to 
 assist her in picking up the fruit ; but she, never suppos- 
 ing that a lady would bend down to help her, was more 
 easily inclined to suspect that I wished to deprive her 
 of her fruit, and exclaimed angrily: 
 
 *' Leave that alone, it belongs to me." 
 
 In our country the spirit of service is the soul of 
 the nation. I do not think that there is anybody here 
 who is not directly united with some service association. 
 ]\Iany make their spirit of serving the moving principle 
 of their lives. 
 
 Now this good will to serve others is, in my opinion, 
 the supreme manifestation of courtesy. It was the 
 spirit of service that induced my country to go to war, 
 raising an army of six million men and spending thirty 
 billion dollars, to help their brothers in democracy. 
 
EDUCATION, CHARACTER AND HABITS 229 
 
 I think that the famous Argentine writer quoted by 
 your husband exaggerates when belittling South Amer- 
 ica. That is a groat continent with a wonderful future ; 
 but it will attain its future triumphs by recognizing the 
 virtues of others and by trying to take advantage of 
 everj^thing suitable without destroying its own tempera- 
 ment and idiosyncrasy. 
 
 With affectionate regards, 
 
 From your Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 PAN AMERICANISM 
 
 MISS JONES thought that the Chicago corre- 
 spondent had at last exhausted the fury of his 
 indictment against the country which sheltered 
 him, when this new letter, a corollary of all the previous 
 ones, arrived at her office : 
 
 Chicago, lU.j 1918. 
 
 My dearest : 
 
 After all I have told you about this country, after 
 having shown you that this people is entirely different 
 to us in ideals, education, character and manners, to 
 the extreme of being antagonistic, one cannot help 
 feeling surprised that the peoples of Latin America 
 should regard with pleasure this new doctrine so much 
 in vogue nowadays in the new continent; I mean, Pan 
 Americanism. 
 
 What is Pan Americanism? The union of the two 
 Americas, the Latin and the Anglo-Saxon. What is 
 this union for? We have nothing in common: neither 
 interests nor ideals. Is it because we are near each 
 other? Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil are 
 nearer to Europe than to the United States. Europe 
 sells us her goods cheaper, which is quite natural since 
 the workmen here are asking double wages every month ; 
 
 230 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 231 
 
 Europe buys more from us than does the United States ; 
 Europe gives us her ideals, her literature; Europe is 
 the source of all culture, and we should drink from 
 the original source, not where the river flows into the sea 
 with all the, refuse it has brought with it on its way. 
 
 The commercial contact of the two Americas is harm- 
 ful for Latin America, for it is an established social law 
 that when two civilizations, one more developed in a 
 material way than the other, come into contact, the 
 more developed people tyrannize over the less de- 
 veloped people, and the latter become satellites of the 
 former's empire. 
 
 Some carry their Pan Americanism so far as to pro- 
 pose that all the countries of America should join in a 
 Z Oliver ein^ which means that we should allow the manu- 
 factures of the United States to enter free of duty, and 
 that this country should receive our produce under the 
 3ame conditions. 
 
 With childlike candor they want us to agree to the 
 offer made in the stable by the hen to the horse: 
 
 The hen pecked the oats which fell from the horse's 
 manger, and was kept on the hop to avoid the feet of 
 the noble charger which paid no attention to the con- 
 venience of the humble fowl. 
 • One day the hen said philosophically to the horse: 
 
 **Mr. Horse, I have something to propose to you. 
 If you will promise not to tread on me, I promise not 
 to tread on you. ' ' 
 
 This is what Pan Americanism means: You, Latin 
 America, may send us your natural produce, which we 
 shall allow to enter our ports free of duty; and we 
 Americans shall send you our pianos, our automobiles, 
 our typewriters also duty free. We may forgive the 
 
232 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 hen for not taking into consideration that her foot- 
 steps do not hurt the horse; but we cannot forgive 
 the United States for making us this offer knowing that 
 we are not manufacturing countries, while in sending 
 them our raw material, such as coal, iron, copper, wood 
 and cotton, they reap the benefit by returning them to 
 us in the form of manufactured goods. 
 
 One of the most intelligent sociologists of the United 
 States, Josiali Strong, in one of his books, follows the 
 argument of Professor Drummond, who, in his work 
 ''The Ascent of Man," maintains that when men be- 
 came sufficiently intelligent to invent a tool the evo- 
 lutionary development of the hand ceased. 
 
 He tells us that the more we gave the hand to do 
 the better it became adapted to its work. The hand 
 continued in its development to adapt itself to all 
 work required of it. But the fatal day came (fatal for 
 the development of the hand) when man invented the 
 first tools. Thereupon, what the hand did and learned 
 to do better every time began to be done by auxiliary 
 tools; so that the new things that had to be made 
 brought about no further perfection of the hand, but 
 rather a new tool or the improvement of those already 
 in use. Tools are the prolongation of the hands; levels 
 do the work which the forearm did before. Hammers 
 are substitutes for the fist ; knives do well what the 
 nails did imperfectly; pliers are the fingers. The day 
 when the cave-man made his first tool, the evolution of 
 the hand stopped. In the course of the successive ages 
 the hand might have arrived at a stage of develop- 
 ment where many things which cannot now be made 
 without tools could have been made by the hand alone. 
 
 Something analogous to the foregoing, continues Mr. 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 233 
 
 Strong, may be applied to backward races when placed 
 in touch with advanced races. The manufacturing coun- 
 tries take the place of the tools with regard to the hand, 
 which here represents the backward countries ; and from 
 the moment when the manufacturing countries begin to 
 supply goods to the backward countries, they hold up 
 their industrial development. 
 
 All this was said by Mr. Strong to establish the fact 
 that the industrial future of the United States is im- 
 mense and that it need not be feared that the backward 
 markets of Latin America will be able to supply them- 
 selves from their own resources. 
 
 The maiden seeks fragrance and beauty in the flower, 
 the bee and the humming bird their daily food. We 
 ourselves see in Latin America the cradle of our life, 
 the couch of our dreams, all that is most sacred and 
 most dear; the sons of this other America see here a 
 market. Just as smoke is associated with fire, gloves 
 with the hand and shoes with the feet, so the Yankee 
 thinks of Latin America as a market for his produce. 
 
 I have never seen a Yankee paper in which the ' ' end- 
 less opportunities of the Latin American market" are 
 not spoken of. Public lectures are held day after day 
 to boost the trade opportunities of Latin America. Every 
 month new magazines in Spanish appear, which are 
 nothing else than a means of commercial penetration, 
 with hundreds of pages of advertisements in which the 
 excellence of their chewing gum and their patent medi- 
 cines are proclaimed. 
 
 The religious campaigns of evangelical propaganda, 
 which count upon the help of business men who give 
 liberally to ''evangelize" Latin America, are really 
 only another means of trade penetration. Inter- Ameri- 
 
234 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 can conferences and congresses are also nothing but 
 means of commercial penetration in Latin America. 
 We joyfully welcome these peals of the Pan American 
 bells, without thinking that we are only giving away 
 part of our sovereignty by so doing. 
 
 Pan Americanism is the bridal robe, decked with 
 immaculate orange blossoms, with which the colossal 
 campaign for the commercial conquest of Latin America 
 by the United States is covered. But this is not a 
 bride who wishes to marry for love, but for interest. 
 
 A great reception, with banquets and speeches, is 
 given to all eminent Latin Americans who visit this 
 country. There is in New York a "Pan American So- 
 ciety" to which belong the great merchants, manu- 
 facturers and bankers who do business with Latin 
 America. The purpose of this society is to offer ban- 
 quets to representative men of Latin America who visit 
 New York. There are many business houses in this 
 country which maintain an official staff intrusted with 
 the social entertainment of their clients at the expense 
 of the firm. They know well that these extra attentions 
 bring orders for goods. This Pan American Society 
 takes the place of such a diplomatic staff employed 
 by the big exporters; it is a commercial bait. 
 
 The foregoing does not constitute anything dishon- 
 orable. It is legitimate that the United States should 
 use all honest means within its reach in order to sell as 
 much as possible to our countries; but I object to the 
 campaigns disguised with the incense of Pan American- 
 ism, for here the interested parties make believe that 
 Pan Americanism means the union of both Americas, 
 the better understanding between both Americas, mutual 
 help between the two Americas, whereas it really stands 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 235 
 
 for nothing else than the commercial conquest of Latin 
 America by the United States. 
 
 To show yon that I am right in what I say, I will 
 cite the case of the Pan American Congress which was 
 held at our capital. The American delegates to the 
 Congress were sociologists, statisticians and diplomatists, 
 who came with the intention of exploring new markets 
 for their country. One of them was Archibald Cary 
 Coolidge, who is author of the book entitled: "The 
 United States as a World Power." After showing in 
 this book that the United States, looking round the 
 world, have seen that Asia and Africa are monopolized 
 by European countries, which, like France in Madagas- 
 car, have taken from them all the markets, Cary Coo- 
 lidge says that "there remained, however, two regions 
 where the Americans believed they saw splendid pos- 
 sibilities for the future. But to make the most of these 
 possibilities they must take decided action. In the re- 
 publics of Latin America there was no highly developed 
 native industry to be feared as a rival. There was noth- 
 ing but the competition of Europe, which had too long 
 had the field to itself, and the Americans were con- 
 vinced that they could meet this competition victo- 
 riously if only they made the best of their natural ad- 
 vantages. A first step was to draw closer to these fel- 
 low-republicans to the South, for the benefit of all con- 
 cerned. This led to the policy known as Pan American- 
 ism. . . . ' ' 
 
 "The manufacturing industries of the United States,'' 
 he says further on, "have developed, and are develop- 
 ing, at such a rate that the Americans are not afraid 
 to meet their European rivals in almost any branch of 
 trade. It was to be expected that they should turn their 
 
236 TEE GULF OF 3IISUNDEFSTANDING 
 
 gaze to the southern half of their own hemisphere, 
 where, as yet, they are only beginning to get a good 
 commercial footing, but where the future appears to 
 offer them golden opportunities. ^Vhy should the 
 American merchant leave this splendid field to be ex- 
 ploited by the Englishman or the Germans? Is it not 
 the plain duty of his government to aid and encourage 
 his enterprise in every possible way?" 
 
 **In South America," he adds elsewhere, **the Ger- 
 mans are convinced that they have found a field of splen- 
 did possibilities, and their progress in recent years has 
 been startling in its rapidity ; but to South America the 
 Americans are turning much of their attention, and with 
 the aid of Pan American sentiment, they hope to win 
 the first place for themselves." 
 
 The United States sent men of this caliber, men who 
 think in this way, to form part of the Pan American 
 Scientific Congress in our country. And in spite of 
 everything we have allowed ourselves to be duped. 
 
 Here they have made of the Bible an adequate text 
 for the foundation of hundreds of religions, each of 
 which interprets the Holy Scriptures in its own way. 
 The same applies to Pan Americanism: to the vendor 
 of shoes it means that Latin America buys his foot- 
 wear; to the maker of locomotives it means that Latin 
 America buys his engines. That is all. 
 
 Since the whole problem of Pan Americanism is a 
 question of commercial relations, it presents itself to us 
 in this form: Does it suit us better to make our com- 
 mercial relations closer with the United States or with 
 Europe ? 
 
 I believe that closer relations with the United States 
 are undesirable because this country is too absorbing 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 237 
 
 and has tlie tendency to get our natural resources en- 
 tirely into its power. For instance, in doing a fruit 
 business with Central America they have not been satis- 
 fied with the business of buying and selling, but have 
 extended their operations to the purchase of the planta- 
 tions. The same applies to the iron and copper of Chile, 
 to the copper and petroleum of Mexico and to the frozen 
 meat of Uruguay and Argentina. 
 
 We are responsible for this, as I also am myself, since 
 I am in treaty to sell them my copper deposits, a fact 
 which does not fail to lie hea-v^ on my conscience. 
 
 The most serious matter, however, is that the Yankee 
 is persuaded that his flag must follow his business, and 
 having manifold interests in Latin America, he is in- 
 clined to meddle with its internal politics. Nowadays, 
 a President for IMexico or for any country of Central 
 America cannot be elected without the consent of the 
 White House, which is for us the Black House. Ac- 
 cording to the measure by which their business extends 
 towards the South their political influence will also be 
 extended, and some day they will be dictating our eco- 
 nomical policy from the Rio Grande to the Straits of 
 Magellan. 
 
 Nothing of this kind occurs with regard to our inter- 
 change of business with Europe, and therefore we should 
 prefer to encourage our commercial relations with Eng- 
 land, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium. On 
 the other hand, it is our duty to oppose the doctrine of 
 Pan Americanism with that of Ibero-Americanism. 
 There are more interests in common between Chile and 
 Uruguay, between Argentine and Colombia and be- 
 tween Mexico and Peru than between any of our repub- 
 lics and the United States. The extraordinary growth 
 
238 THE GULF OF 3IISUNDEBSTANDIN0 
 
 of this country during the nineteenth century will be ex- 
 celled by the growth and development of Latin Amer- 
 ica in the twentieth century. Ours is the continent of 
 the future. We have had the good fortune to inherit a 
 continent with vaster natural resources than any other, 
 and we shall occupy a conspicuous place in history when 
 we are able to harvest the accumulated patrimony of 
 material, intellectual and moral treasure derived from 
 twenty centuries of Christian civilization. Old Europe 
 yields us already solved all the most transcendental 
 problems of mankind. For Latin America is the task 
 of observing, choosing and applying them, according to 
 her idiosyncrasy and her temperament. 
 
 The New World will have an Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
 tion in the North and a Spanish-American civilization 
 in the South. Of a truth these civilizations will be an- 
 tagonistic, and farseeing men of South America should 
 commence to prepare their countries for the struggle to 
 come by uniting them in spirit for a common purpose. 
 
 Your affectionate husband, 
 
 Soon after reading this letter. Miss Jones found on 
 her desk a communication from the Chilean lady to her 
 husband in Chicago. This was the first letter of the 
 kind she had seen, which is not surprising, as it was no 
 part of her duty to read the correspondence from Latin 
 America; but the censor to whom the letters from San- 
 tiago, Chile, were generally intrusted for examination, 
 finding Miss Jones' comments on the first letter of this 
 series inclosed, sent her the lady's missive for examina- 
 tion. 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 239 
 
 The Chilean landowner 's wife wrote almost exclusively 
 of family affairs, occupying only one paragraph to tell 
 her husband how interested she was in his description 
 of American ideals, the more so because the censor had 
 added comments to all topics he had discussed. 
 
 Once more Miss Jones was on the point of writing to 
 the Chicago correspondent, but she did not do so. She 
 contented herself with writing a reply to this letter, 
 just as she had done with regard to all the others, and 
 she foresaw that this would be the last one which would 
 require an answer. She wrote: 
 
 Madam : 
 
 Your husband's present letter has not astonished me 
 in the least. It is the natural corollary of all the pre- 
 vious ones. 
 
 If you have tacitly accepted all he has told you with- 
 out having weighed in your mind my remarks, it is but 
 natural for you to look with displeasure upon the grow- 
 ing spread of Pan American ideals. But if you have 
 quietly meditated on my notes to your husband's letters 
 and believe I am right, then you should enthusiastically 
 applaud the Pan American movement, the intellectual, 
 moral and material union of the two Americas. 
 
 It is true that there are also commercial interests 
 bound up in this movement ; this is one aspect of Pan 
 Americanism, its material aspect. But it is not its only 
 aspect, nor is it the most important. 
 
 The history of the world shows us man in a state of 
 constant moral development. This moral development 
 can be measured only by the human capaeitj^ to extend 
 its interest and its love from merely individual limits, 
 from the love of each individual for himself, to love for 
 
240 THE GULF OF BIISUNDEBSTANDING 
 
 his family, his people, his race and for mankind. The 
 moral growth of the human soul is its expansion towards 
 a greater and more comprehensive love. The primitive 
 savage took care of himself and his children, in their 
 early years. It was a great moral advance when he be- 
 came interested in the well-being of his tribe. 
 
 As man advances, his interest, his affection and his 
 love expand. The present epoch shows us that a hun- 
 dred million men, women and children in America took 
 so seriously the happiness of men, women and children 
 deprived of their rights in Old Europe, that they re- 
 solved to give their peace, their money and their lives 
 to defend these far-away victims. 
 
 Societies are living organisms, but much more com- 
 plex than the individuals, cells, of which they are com- 
 posed. Man is an egoist in his infancy. You probably 
 have noticed that your children, in their early years, are 
 very selfish. This is due to the instinct of conserva- 
 tion. 
 
 Societies are still organized beings in embryo and that 
 explains the collective egoism of nations ; but in propor- 
 tion as a country progresses, in proportion as it has more 
 confidence in itself and in its economic and moral force, 
 it becomes more altruistic. The United States is to-day 
 the most altruistic country in the world. Our participa- 
 tion in the present war, in which we are giving our blood 
 and money for justice and the well-being of others, is 
 the most conclusive proof that our society is no more in 
 an embryo state. 
 
 The day seems to be dawning in which mankind is to 
 have a collective conscience, is to have a soul, and in 
 which the earth is going to be a single social organism, 
 which cannot be injured at one extremity without the 
 
PAN AMERICANISM 241 
 
 commotion and instinct of defense being felt at the 
 other. 
 
 The League of Nations that is being spoken of is the 
 alphabet, that is beginning to be sketched of this new 
 human condition, of this international and interconti- 
 nental soul. 
 
 And this new internationalism does not mean the 
 death of nationalism, just as the constitution of nations 
 did not mean the death of individualism. Furthermore, 
 only those nations are strong in which the individual 
 is strong, in which the family is united. The greater 
 assertion of each individual, the cell of the nation, makes 
 the nation itself stronger; and the greater liberty of a 
 country, the greater assertion of a country, the cell of 
 mankind, would make the society of nations stronger. 
 
 But we shall arrive very slowly at this union. There 
 still are principles in dispute. There are several classes 
 of mankind in the world. Before having a sole con- 
 glomerate on the planet, there will be several con- 
 glomerates. And in the final fusion of these conglom- 
 erates the strongest will prevail. 
 
 On the fingers of one hand we can count the centuries 
 of European civilization in America. Here, between the 
 Atlantic and the Pacific, two continents exist into which 
 Europe could fit twice over. These continents, almost 
 in their entirety, claimed their right to constitute inde- 
 pendent nations little more than a century ago, and a 
 score of countries were born to life who adopted — in its 
 general lines — an analogous constitution for their peo- 
 ples, similar ideas as standards of their progress. 
 
 For a century, however, these twenty nations have 
 been isolated among themselves, isolated both materially 
 and morally. Each one of them, closed up in a narrow 
 
242 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 national individualism, has bnsied itself vv^ith develop- 1 
 ing its own moral and material entity without bothering 
 much about the fate of its companions of the continent. 
 And all have grown with a vertiginous rapidity. And 
 they will grow with even more rapidity in the future. 
 
 The problem has been presented to the thinkers of the 
 two Americas, to the dreamers of the future, whether 
 it is suitable for these countries to continue being iso- 
 lated in their struggle for progress, or whether there are 
 advantages in a material and spiritual union that will 
 make the two Americas a conglomerate of related na- 
 tions, ready to aid one another mutually in their strug- 
 gle for progress. The United States has one hundred 
 million inhabitants; Latin America also has one hundred 
 million. At the end of the present century the two 
 Americas will possibly have four hundred million in- 
 habitants. Is it not of interest for the whole continent, 
 for all mankind, that these Americas should have an 
 analogous purpose? In the struggles of the faraway 
 future, is it advisable or not that all America present a 
 single front, or are there advantages in leaving these 
 countries to sow to-day the seed of the discords of to- 
 morrow ? 
 
 I firmly believe that it is for the best interests of each 
 one of these countries to observe a policy of close union, 
 of intimate community of ideas, a policy of Pan Ameri- 
 canism. 
 
 Your husband thinks that Pan Americanism in this 
 country is a drug, a patent medicine to benumb Latin 
 American initiative, so that the United States may be 
 able to freely develop a policy of commercial and terri- 
 torial expansion in the rest of America. 
 
 He arrives at this conclusion because Pan American- 
 
PAN AMEBIC ANISM 243 
 
 ism generally goes hand in hand with the idea of inter- 
 American commerce. But your husband does not take 
 into account that commerce means mutual service. Our 
 manufacturers and merchants do not ivy to sell to Latin 
 America what Latin America does not want to buy, 
 what Latin America does not need. Everything in life 
 is commerce, that is: interchange, material interchange, 
 intellectual interchange, moral interchange. 
 
 And it is these three interchanges that unite countries 
 more closely. The university professor, the lecturer, 
 the Latin American student who comes to our universi- 
 ties, the magazines in Spanish that are published here, 
 carry our ideas to the countries of Latin America. The 
 church and the school, and the hospital sent there by 
 our missionaries are the base for our moral interchange. 
 In these two instances we give and we receive ; we teach 
 and we learn. The Christ that you Chileans and Ar- 
 gentines have erected on the top of the Andes, is better 
 known in our public schools than in yours, and its mean- 
 ing is a lesson for us in international ethics. The His- 
 panic Society of America is a center of Pan American 
 comprehension, without any commercial aspect. 
 
 Moreover, why not the material interchange also ? We 
 .want to buy from you what you produce and we need; 
 we want to sell you what we produce and you need. 
 Coffee, cotton, saltpeter and sugar are needed by us, and 
 you have them in excess. Our manufactured articles 
 are needed by you and we produce them in excess; but 
 this commerce of raw materials against manufactured 
 articles — your husband says, quoting Josiah Strong — is 
 going to hold back the industrial development of Latin 
 America. No, madam, that is an obvious error. If 
 that were true, my country would not have become an 
 
244 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 industrial one from the moment when it was in contact 
 with industrialized Europe. 
 
 Do not forget that the commerce of Latin America 
 with my country is one of the most powerful agents 
 for fostering the development of industries in those 
 countries. Take, for example, the exx)ortation of ma- 
 chinery to Latin America. Our machinery for making 
 footwear, has it not developed the industry of footwear 
 there? Our machinery for woodworking, has it not de- 
 veloped the furniture industry? These examples can 
 be multiplied indefinitely. 
 
 It is an error made by many — among them Josiah 
 Strong — to believe that the industrial development of 
 Latin America would not be for the best interests of my 
 country. The industrialized United States of the twen- 
 tieth century imports much more from Europe than the 
 agricultural United States of the first years of our na- 
 tional life. If Latin America industrializes itself, it 
 will rapidly double its population and will raise the liv- 
 ing conditions of its inhabitants. Its consumption would 
 multiply in geometrical proportion. A new industry 
 creates others and others and others. If Latin America 
 were to-day as industrialized as my country, the com- 
 mercial interchange between both continents would be at 
 least a hundred times greater. The above does not mean 
 that Latin America should not try to foster the develop- 
 ment of its favorable industries, by means of customs* 
 tariffs, as we have done ourselves. 
 
 I, madam, have no personal interest in the commercial 
 interchange between my country and Latin America. 
 But I believe in the advantages to be gained from this 
 interchange because I know that commercial relations 
 unite peoples. You in Chile have had, until lately, most 
 
PAN AMEBIC ANISM 245 
 
 of your commerce with Germany and England, and a 
 consequence of that commercial interchange has been 
 that you have imported German teachers for your pub- 
 lic schools and your army, and English officers for your 
 navy. You have hardly had commercial relations with 
 Spain and, in spite of its being the mother country, 
 you have not looked to her for inspiration in your na- 
 tional development. 
 
 Without doubt, your husband is right when he says 
 that all the Latin American republics should unite in a 
 common ideal. When we speak of Pan Americanism 
 we do not mean the union of each republic of the other 
 America with the United States and their isolation 
 among themselves. We mean the union of each Latin 
 American republic with each one of the other republics 
 of America; we mean the union of all the free countries 
 of the whole American continent. 
 
 But it is rash and absurd to speak of Ibero-Ameri- 
 canism in opposition to Pan Americanism, to speak of 
 the union of the Ibero-American republics to oppose 
 the United States as a danger of the future. In the 
 notes to your husband's previous letters I think I have 
 shown that there is no reason to fear discords of any 
 kind between the two continents, and that if some shad- 
 ow is thrown on the horizon, it is our duty to make the 
 sky clear by means of mutual understanding and intelli- 
 gent comprehension. Europe has not solved for us all 
 problems, as your husband believes. On the contrary, 
 Europe will have to receive from this New World the 
 solution of many of her own problems. She will have to 
 ask our aid, as she has done already. And it is Amer- 
 ica, united, fresh, luxuriant, strong and intelligent, and 
 not America at variance, weakened, steeped in blood 
 
246 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 and hate, that will stretch its hands towards the Old 
 World to pay the sacred debt that we contracted with 
 her on receiving her inheritance and her civilization. 
 
 I am more than pleased that I have undertaken the 
 task of answering your husband's letters. They have 
 hurt me, I cannot deny that, but I have understood that 
 they are the crystallization of an estimate very general 
 in Latin America. What encourages me is the thought 
 that perhaps you have meditated deeply on these prob- 
 lems and that you have duly appreciated all I have told 
 you. 
 
 I must confess that I have many times been tempted 
 to write to your husband. You cannot imagine how 
 desirious I am to know him, how I wish to converse with 
 him regarding all these grave problems. 
 
 I want to ask his pardon personally for having in- 
 truded in his correspondence and to explain to him that 
 I have been animated by the best intentions. I am sure, 
 madam, that you have understood my purpose and that 
 you have read with sympathy everything I have had to 
 
 Your Friend of the Other Continent. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE UGHT OF TRUTH 
 
 THE anonymous hero of our story, wlio was writ- 
 ing from Chicago to his wife in Santiago during 
 part of the year 1918, finally received, very 
 late, the news that his letters — in which he had com- 
 mented unfavorably on men and things in the United 
 States — had been supplemented by notes from the censor 
 in New York. 
 
 He received in November, at about the time when the 
 armistice was signed, the censor's criticisms of his two 
 first letters, and by each following steamer he continued 
 to receive, one after the other, the further comments on 
 his letters to his wife. 
 
 Of course, in the subsequent letters he wrote to his 
 wife, the Spanish-American ceased to disparage the 
 country that was sheltering him. Now, it was he who 
 was subjected to criticism for the observations he had 
 made. These notes of the censor arrived after he had 
 had the time and the opportunity to observe more closely 
 and to understand better many things that he had 
 judged at first sight too superficially. 
 
 The sudden ending of the war provided him with 
 much food for reflection. He witnessed in Chicago the 
 delirium of popular ebullition when the news of peace 
 arrived. The people lost all notion of propriety, intoxi- 
 cated to frenzy with the elixir of victory. And why? 
 
 247 
 
248 THE GULF OF 3IISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Had he not believed, when he saw the enthusiasm with 
 which this country gave itself over to preparation for 
 w^ar that they were going to fight because war meant 
 good business for the nation? And now that the war 
 had ended so suddenly, demolishing at one blow great 
 business enterprises, why this delight? Would not 
 everybody lose by it? Could it mean that this country 
 really loved peace? And did it mean that the nation 
 had made war, with much sacrifice of blood and money, 
 only for love of justice ? 
 
 When he saw clearly that this country had no inten- 
 tion of claiming any indemnity from the enemy; when 
 he saw that many newspapers even recommended that 
 the United States should make to Belgium, France and 
 Italy a gift of the millions that it had loaned them, 
 he began to understand that this country had not fought 
 to earn other people's money, but to mitigate other peo- 
 ple's suffering. 
 
 The wealthy Chilean landowner had come to the 
 United States with the purpose of selling the valuable 
 copper deposits that he had discovered on his extensive 
 holdings in one of the central provinces of his country. 
 Pie had brought along with him reports and plans made 
 by the most famous experts of the United States. 
 
 While the war was going on, business men had listened 
 to his proposition and had shown some interest; but all 
 of them had said that it would be necessary to wait for 
 peace. It was true that copper would then go down in 
 value, but, for the duration of the w^ar, it was absurd to 
 think of installing this new plant in Chile, since it could 
 not be made productive for some years, that is, not until 
 after peace had been declared. 
 
 The most hopeful prospect arising out of the many 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 249 
 
 interviews with capitalists which he had had was one 
 in negotiation with a gentleman of Chicago, John H. 
 Chasewell; but even he could make no promises before 
 the end of the war. 
 
 *'Just now we can think of only one thing: winning 
 the war," he had said at the acutest stage of hostilities. 
 Even he, in spite of his advanced age, was thinking of 
 enlisting, if circumstances should demand his quota of 
 blood. 
 
 Once the war was over, everj^thing changed. The cap- 
 italist paid close attention to his proposition, receiving 
 him several days in succession at his office. 
 
 While they talked the visitor's attention was drawn 
 to the portrait of a beautiful woman, which was stand- 
 ing on the desk. He had noticed in the offices of many 
 business men framed photographs of their wives, and he, 
 who adored his wife, had never thought of placing her 
 likeness on the desk at his office. Nobody did this in his 
 country; indeed it would invite ironical remarks on 
 the part of his friends. 
 
 Then he looked penetratingly at this Yankee, young 
 at the age of fifty, healthy, virile, merry, a golf player, 
 so human in the midst of his figures, his statistics and his 
 plans — this big boy who often referred to his wife in 
 conversation as a lover speaks of his sweetheart. 
 
 ''No, Mrs. Chasewell believes that the Latin Ameri- 
 can workmen are as human as ours are, and much more 
 sensitive," he said on one occasion; and when he men- 
 tioned his wife, he looked at the portrait as if he were 
 formally introducing her. 
 
 On one occasion Mr. Chasewell invited the Chilean 
 to luncheon, and this was the beginning of a certain 
 intimacy that disposed the American to later invite the 
 
250 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 Chilean landowner to dinner in his own home. There 
 he became acquainted with Mrs. Chasewell ; and there a 
 door was suddenly thrown open to him that until then 
 had been closed — the entry to a home in this country. 
 
 Later the Chilean gentleman became acquainted with 
 many other homes and many other ladies, who soon 
 convinced him how greatly he had erred in his general- 
 izations about the American woman. 
 
 He remembered having read in an American book 
 about the meeting between a citizen of the United States 
 and a Japanese in Tokio. In the course of their con- 
 versation, which had for its theme the Land of the Eis- 
 ing Sun, the Japanese asked : ' * Have you seen her yet ? ' ' 
 *'If I have seen her? Whom?" asked the American. 
 '*Ah! If you had seen her, you would not have asked 
 who. . . /' 
 
 They met again some weeks later. The American had 
 seen the marvelous, the indescribable Fujiyama — with 
 the summit capped with snow, reflecting the sun's rays 
 in a thousand different tones of color — which rises thou- 
 sands of feet above the plain, unique and incomparable 
 in grandeur and beauty. It is not strange that the na- 
 tives speak of her as something unique in the world. 
 
 Months passed by, and the Japanese, now on a visit 
 to the United States, sought from the Pacific to the At- 
 lantic something that might compare in beauty with the 
 Holy Mountain of Nippon. He saw the Josemite Val- 
 ley, the Rocky Mountains, the National Parks and Ni- 
 agara, but nowhere could he find the one distinctive 
 thing like *'her" of Fujiyama. As he gradually made 
 friends, American houses were opened to him, and one 
 day, at last, he exclaimed joyfully: *'I have found the 
 
THE LIGHT OF TRUTH 251 
 
 marvel of America, it is the home, the domestic hearth, 
 and it is more beautiful than ours." 
 *^ He was right. When the traveler in the United States 
 sees the facades of the houses, when from the train he 
 perceives the villas in country towns, he sees only brick 
 and stone; but he does not see, he does not imagine — 
 unless he has had the privilege to know it — the home that 
 is inside, where true happiness reigns, where the husband 
 is not the lord and master of his wife as in a South 
 American home, where the children have their own in- 
 dividuality. 
 
 The American home is not confined by the four walls 
 of the house ; it radiates beyond. The great number of 
 institutions for social betterment which inundate Chi- 
 cago are extensions, prolongations of the American home 
 interior. The woman of this country is not satisfied 
 with being the mother of her children; she seems to 
 wish to be a mother to all the destitute of the community. 
 
 One afternoon, when passing through Thirty-ninth 
 Street, near the Lake, he saw that a public block-party 
 was being held in the middle of the road. A band was 
 playing on a temporary platform. His companion, who 
 was from the quarter, told him that this was one of the 
 dances given there twice a w^eek. It was free, perfectly 
 free, without formalities of any kind, to any one who 
 cared to take part. 
 
 ''This district of Oakland," he was told, ''is for us 
 a village in the middle of Chicago. Ours is a vast 
 metropolis, but it is our pleasure to preserve an air of 
 village life in each district. We even publish a little 
 newspaper, for free distribution, giving the family news 
 of the section. In this way we get to know one another ; 
 not one among us need feel isolated. The local theater 
 
252 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 gives an "amateurs' niglit" once a week, when neigh- 
 bors meet to be entertained with music, song and other 
 amusements. A prize is awarded by the public, accord- 
 ing to their taste. The winner is he or she who receives 
 the most applause. In this way we also stimulate in- 
 diviHual talent." 
 
 All this was a revelation to him. He began to under- 
 stand that a city cannot be known to one who lives in 
 the best hotel, and makes his observations from his bal- 
 cony. This spirit of association within each quarter of 
 the city desiring to preserve the aspect of a country 
 town was carried to even greater lengths in other cities 
 like Cincinnati, where they were making of each block a 
 social unit. 
 
 Mrs. Chasewell had received him with infinite cor- 
 diality. 
 
 **I am very much interested to hear about life in 
 Latin American countries," she told him on one occa- 
 sion. "My husband has valuable mining interests in 
 Honduras, and I have accompanied him twice on his 
 visits there. It is a country with inexhaustible mining 
 resources, but what has most interested me are the peo- 
 ple. I help him in the social aspects of his work. I 
 do not believe that American capital has any right to 
 exploit the natural resources of Latin America, if it is 
 not willing to face the social responsibilities of all capi- 
 tal invested for profit. The foundation of commercial, 
 industrial or mining enterprises exclusively for the sake 
 of money itself is to-day a thing of the past in my coun- 
 try. To make money is evidently the aim of our busi- 
 ness, of course; but if a concern does not care for the 
 happiness of the men it employs; if it does not raise 
 them to a higher plane of life ; if it does not cooperate 
 
THE LIGHT OF TEVTE 253 
 
 "with them to promote the welfare of the community, 
 then that concern is held unworthy of public esteem. ' ' 
 
 The Chilean's attention had already been called to 
 some items in the estimate of expenses that Mr. Chase- 
 well had made for the installation of a copper smelting 
 plant on his property. He had put aside five million 
 dollars for workmen's dwellings, sanitation work and 
 recreation, in spite of the detailed reports in his posses- 
 sion describing the humble standard of life and the very 
 low wages to which the men were accustomed. 
 
 * * No, ' ' Mr. Chasewell had told him ; "if we are going 
 tb do big business there, we must consider the work- 
 man as a partner who is entitled to the wages, health, 
 happiness and education constituting his rightful share 
 in the profits yielded by the work." We are not going 
 to sweat men, but machines, by means of intelligent or- 
 ganization. "We shall raise men to a higher plane. This 
 is what is going on through all Latin America. Wher- 
 ever we have brought our industry, we are paying higher 
 wages than before, providing better dwellings ... we 
 educate." 
 
 The man of fortune is less of an egoist in this coun- 
 try than in any other. The case of the millionaire 
 Ford, the big automobile manufacturer, who, when tak- 
 ing contracts for the Government during the war, un- 
 dertook to retain not a cent of profit — a promise which 
 he lived up to — was but one shining example among 
 thousands of other similar cases. Our hero brought to 
 mind an incident of the Civil War that he had read not 
 long before. President Lincoln, in his distress, calls 
 Vanderbilt, the millionaire, and says to him : 
 
 ''The Merrimac has anchored outside James River 
 Bay. How much do you ask for capturing her?" 
 
254 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 *'I ask nothing, because I do not speculate in my 
 country ^s misfortune. In two days the Merrimac will 
 be in your hands, ' ' answers the millionaire ; and in thir- 
 ty-six hours this promise was fulfilled. 
 
 On a larger, equal or smaller scale there were thou- 
 sands and thousands of Vanderbilts in the war of lib- 
 erty against slavery, just as on a larger, equal or smaller 
 scale, there were thousands and thousands of Fords in 
 this other war of democracy against autocracy. The few 
 profiteers were isolated black stains in a blue sky, dis- 
 playing to better effect the beautiful majesty of the 
 firmament. 
 
 He had now had occasion to see how the whole nation 
 sacrificed its personal interests before the nation 's altar ; 
 all, the poor and the rich, women and men. 
 
 He had heard other Spanish-Americans say, before 
 the United States went into the war, when they saw 
 the invasion and the horrors of Belgium and when the 
 Germans sunk the Lusitania, that the great American 
 democracy would not go to war because its business re- 
 quired peace. In pursuit of the dollar they would toler- 
 ate disgrace unworthy of a great nation. Then it was 
 peace for money's sake. 
 
 And later, when this country joined the belligerents, 
 he had heard it said that this move was also for the 
 sake of money, that they already had loaned so many 
 millions of dollars to the Allies, had extended so much 
 credit, that they also were obliged to lend a helping 
 hand as a measure of prudence. And this Latin Ameri- 
 can began to understand that he had been blindly and 
 passively following the current of opinion that syste- 
 matically condemned this country, do what it might. 
 Nothing easier, nothing more comfortable, no philosophy 
 
THE LIGHT OF TEUTH 255 
 
 »nore, simple, than to form a priori, an opinion abont an 
 individual or a nation and later reconcile to this preju- 
 dice all the actions of the individual or nation. This is 
 much easier than to analyze carefully and then to mod- 
 ify the former point of view. 
 
 Had he not done this very thing? When discussing 
 this country, had he not always tried to adapt his judg- 
 ment to the preconceived impressions which had been 
 stereotyped in his mind? 
 
 Now, when he meditated upon the letter to his wife 
 in which he had told her that this country was mate- 
 rialistic, egoistic, a mere dollar hunting ground, the fig- 
 ures of the big multi-millionaires who cheerfully paid a 
 tax of more than sixty per cent, of their profits to win the 
 war; the figures of the large and small contributors, of 
 all those who relinquished their profits and of all those 
 who gave their time to win the war ; of those who went 
 as soldiers to give their blood, and the women who went 
 as nurses to the battlefields to win the war ; the figure of 
 a whole nation of one hundred million people assuming 
 the heroic attitude of a sublime altruism, all this an- 
 swered him: 
 
 ''No, we are not egoists, we are not materialists." 
 
 Not only were they not egoists, but they had carried 
 their idealism to the point of being incorrigible dream- 
 ers, the Don Quixotes of the world. 
 
 When he thought of the letter that he had written in 
 which he told his wife that this country was not really 
 a democracy, that an oligarchy was in power which im- 
 poses on the people its judgment and will, he began to 
 see that the muster of directors was not here a heredi- 
 tary body, as in Germany, or as in the Latin American 
 republics. A number of capable men ruled here, but 
 
256 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 these were recruited from the ranks of every social 
 stratum. Here was no governing caste ; new men, whose 
 families had not figured on the public stage in previous 
 generations, were elevated to high rank in the adminis- 
 tration, ascending by the white marble stairs of their 
 o^vn merits. And what happened in the official admin- 
 istration of the whole nation, from the presidency of the 
 Kepublic — with its Lincolns and its Wilsons — was also 
 the case with regard to the administration of private 
 fortunes; laborers of yesterday — Carnegie, Ford, Edi- 
 son — were the emj)loyers of to-day. Fortune is a social 
 force, and its handling is given automatically by the 
 nation to the most capable. He saw that the same dem- 
 ocratic principle was applied in private life, in thou- 
 sands and thousands of clubs, associations and civic, 
 religious, athletic and recreative organizations. 
 
 As a democracy this country was not perfect ; it had 
 defects; but the ideal was there as the goal which all 
 wished to reach. A remedy is being found for every 
 evil. Nothing is perfect; but comparing this country 
 with others, is not this the most nearly perfect of democ- 
 racies ? 
 
 And, had he not been mistaken in believing that an 
 aristocratic government like that of Germany was more 
 efficient than a democratic government like this? Was 
 it well that the countries of Latin America be governed 
 by hereditary castes? Was it not fully demonstrated 
 that a democratic government is not only fairer, but 
 also more efficient? What had not the United States 
 accomplished in eleven months of war ? 
 
 What a fine spirit of discipline there was in this de- 
 mocracy! When the people were asked — asked, not or- 
 dered — to save gasoline because it was needed by the 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 257 
 
 government, and to avoid riding in motor cars on Sun- 
 days, except in cases of extreme necessity, did lie not 
 see that in Chicago the request of the government had 
 more effect than an imperial ukase? The few automo- 
 biles seen in Michigan Avenue carried a placard on 
 which was written: *' Doctor." 
 
 It is not admitted here that the government is the 
 master of the people ; it is considered to be the servant 
 of the people. The government is the representative of 
 the popular will. Before the Christian era kings con- 
 sulted the Pythonesses of the Oracles in order to find 
 out what they should do to govern with wisdom and jus- 
 tice. In this country the Delphian Oracle of the Sanc- 
 tuary of Apollo is the American people; Mount Par- 
 nassus stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic, frona 
 the frontiers of Canada to those of Mexico, and in it 
 each citizen is the Sibyl who tells his lawgivers ho-jv to 
 govern with wisdom and justice. 
 
 And these soothsayers of the twentieth century, who 
 have commenced to mumble their advice with the same 
 vagueness as that of the ancient oracles, are noAV speak- 
 ing every day with more clarity, more knowledge and 
 more intelligence, because more and more the means of 
 self culture are being placed within the reach of all. 
 
 AYith the land of his birth before his mind's eye, he 
 concentrated his thoughts upon what the education of 
 the masses in his country would really mean: a new 
 era in which the number of those able to give in alHssimo 
 the full measure of their support to the cause of na- 
 tional progress would be steadily {?% crescendn, until the 
 country was indeed a Commonwealth. The An^^Io-Saxon. 
 word had come naturally and unconsciously to this Span- 
 ish-American, because it had no equivalent in Spanish. 
 
258 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 At other times he would call to mind the letter in 
 which he had denounced to his wife the imperialism 
 of the United States, and then he remembered the pa- 
 tient attitude of this country in face of the outrages 
 inflicted on Americans by some of the rebel factions of 
 Mexico, the independence they had given Cuba, the in- 
 dependence which, in good faith^ was offered to the 
 Philippines, and the emphatic declarations made during 
 the war that there would be no annexations, although 
 this country had been a decisive factor in the victory. 
 All these facts seemed to shout in his ear : 
 
 ''No, we are not imperialists, we have no desire to 
 be. "We wish only to be a great country, prosperous 
 and happy, and to help all other countries, as well as 
 we can, also to attain prosperity and happiness." 
 
 There were elements of imperialism in the country, 
 and some of the newspapers were also imperialistic in 
 their tendency. How could it be otherwise ? In a coun- 
 try of a hundred million souls, every one of them with 
 liberty to give an opinion, secure in the knowledge that 
 it would obtain a hearing, and where there is an inex- 
 haustible faith in one's fellow man, be he a college grad- 
 uate or a yokel, was it not to be expected that imperial- 
 ists might be found, not to say sorcerers, occultists and 
 futurists ? 
 
 When he thought of what he had written so bitterly 
 reproaching the United States for its attitude toward 
 the negroes, he could not help recalling the affrays be- 
 tween whites and blacks that had taken place in the 
 country during the year of his residence in it. But at 
 the same time he had to consider very closely what this 
 grafting of the negro race in a country of whites really 
 signified. 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 259 
 
 He recollected a conversation he had had with a negro 
 who had attained national celebrity as a thinker. It 
 was an intimate talk in which the negro spoke with the 
 utmost sinceritj^ 
 
 ''Yes, I have white blood in my veins," he said. 
 ** Every negro who has distinguished himself — like 
 Booker T. Washington, for instance — has had white 
 blood in his veins. The thoroughbred negro is of a race 
 inferior, both intellectually and morally, to that of the 
 white. The process of moral advancement, until he at- 
 tains the level of the civilization under w^hose protection 
 he has been received, must entail a long period of strug- 
 gle and suffering. I have faith in the future of the 
 negro race, but only because it enjoys here wonderful 
 facilities for improvement." 
 
 One day, getting off a trolley-car, he saw a man sur- 
 prised in the act of stealing a lady's purse. When the 
 thief saw that he was caught, he threw the purse on the 
 ground, but the crowd which had gathered round 
 shouted at him : ' ' Pick it up ! Pick it up ! " as they pre- 
 pared to take him to the nearby police-station. 
 
 The pickpocket was by no means inclined to appear 
 before the police with the stolen object in his hand, and 
 it was a sight to see the threatening fists of the crowd 
 raised to strike as they cried again : ' ' Pick it up ! Pick 
 it up!" 
 
 These and other similar incidents had given him the 
 clew which explained — though it did not excuse — lynch- 
 ing in this country. These nameless throngs which 
 lynched were not thirsty for blood, they were athirst 
 for justice, and had not — in the moment of passion — 
 enough control over their actions to await the slow but 
 sure march of official justice. 
 
260 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 And was it not foolish of him to have written to his 
 wife declaiming against the right to vote in the United 
 States being given to women ? During one year that he 
 had lived in this country he had been able to see that 
 women here were a much more intense social factor than 
 in his own country. Certainly, in the countries of Latin 
 America there was a smaller proportion of women 
 equipped for civic life, and it would be inopportune to 
 grant to all — the prepared and the unprepared — the 
 right to take part in public affairs. The same thing, 
 however, applied to man. But even in his own country, 
 was not woman interesting herself more and more in the 
 great national problems? 
 
 He had come to the conclusion that, undoubtedly, in a 
 democracy, however nearly perfect it may be, it is need- 
 ful to place certain restrictions on the right to vote. 
 No insane person should vote, nor children ; nor any un- 
 cultured illiterate; certain requisites should be insisted 
 upon before allowing an individual to exercise his rights 
 as a citizen. But these restrictions, as well as these 
 rights, should be applied impartially to men and women. 
 
 Often some incident or a new acquaintance would 
 make him think of matters about which he had written 
 to his wife, and he found himself comparing them with 
 other analagous incidents and other persons whose ac- 
 quaintance he had made before. Familiarity with the 
 interior of a happy home, acquaintance with a married 
 couple, of which the woman enjoys complete liberty and 
 is faithful and sincere, and whose husband loves her and 
 respects — in every detail — her dignity as a woman, led 
 him to understand the felicity of other homes of which 
 he had had a glimpse. He then began to see that it is 
 -^the exceptional cases, the big scandals, that make most 
 
TEK LIGHT OF TTWTE 261 
 
 noise, that attract most attention, that are most fre- 
 quently mentioned in the newspapers, and that most 
 largely contribute to the pernicious hr^ it of generaliza- 
 tion common to the ill-informed. 
 
 And if marriage is a failurj, as sometimes happens 
 in all parts of the world, with all peoples, with all races, 
 either because the man is unworthy of his wife or she 
 unworthy of him, what is more natural than a desire 
 for freedom on the part of the spouse who has been 
 an innocent victim, instead of a perpetual widowhood? 
 
 With regard to this question of women's rights, not 
 only had he been confuted by the censor of New York; 
 not only had the facts shown the fallacy of his argu- 
 ments when he had later begun to understand this coun- 
 try, but even his ov.n wife disagreed with him. "All 
 you tell me about the United States," she had written, 
 **is so interesting, and the censor's notes have made it 
 doubly so. I must say very frankly that your letters 
 often puzzle me, and sometimes — as for instance with 
 regard to all your references to the question of women's 
 rights — I am less inclined to take sides with you than 
 with the censor. We are a very happy couple, you and I, 
 but this is not the general rule. The condition of woman 4, 
 in all Latin America is a continental tragedy. I can 
 easily imagine how much happier woman is in the 
 United States and how man is happier in consequence. 
 You think that your letters would cure me of my longing 
 to know the United States, but they have had the con- 
 trary effect. That country attracts me now much more 
 than Europe." 
 
 And something that all his life had seemed to him 
 most natural, most logical and most advisable for the 
 cause of national morality, was that the Church be sup- 
 
262 THE GVLF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 ported by the State. The people themselves are not 
 generous enough to pay on their own initiative the ex- 
 penses of the church — he had always believed. The 
 state must exact from all citizens the payment of con- 
 tributions for the support of the most important services 
 of the nation: safety, justice and education. Are not 
 religion and fear of God more important than these ? 
 
 Only when he saw that in the United States the Catho- 
 lics were more devout and sincerely religious than in his 
 own country, w^hen he saw that they supported their own 
 Church with more liberality than the state in Chile had 
 ever shown in supporting the national cult, he began to 
 think the matter over very carefully, thereby divesting 
 himself of many prejudices that had become incrusted in 
 his mental personality. He began to understand that it 
 would be much better for Catholicism in his country — 
 as in all Latin America — to retain no connection between 
 Church and State. The money which the State gave to 
 the Church, the budget estimates for the cult, that every 
 year gave rise to a sectarian dispute in Congress, would 
 be easily covered by public initiative, and the people 
 would be more intensely and sincerely religious by the 
 mere fact of their contributing voluntarily to the sup- 
 port of the Church. 
 
 He had often to take his meals without wine because 
 in certain restaurants none was to be had. At first this 
 seemed to him an unheard-of thing, but he had to put 
 up with it. Sometimes he was invited to dine at a 
 house where only water was served, which seemed to him 
 nothing less than a crime, a breach of hospitality. On 
 the occasion of a short trip that he had made to a dry 
 State, he spent two weeks without tasting a drop of wine. 
 The first day he found this deprivation unbearable, the 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 263 
 
 second day He was able to put up with it better, and 
 though at the end of his journey he was naturally anx- 
 ious to return to Chicago in order to take his meals with 
 wine, he was surprised to note how each day it had been 
 easier for him to enjoy a meal with water instead of 
 wine. 
 
 Personal convenience contributes greatly to every- 
 body's system of philosophy. "We rarely find individ- 
 uals willing to reason and act on the strength of the ab- 
 stract, eliminating their personal convenience in order 
 to formulate their social or political creed; and there 
 is nothing very strange in the fact that our Spanish- 
 American vineyard proprietor should begin to look with 
 a certain modicum of sympathy — timid sympathy, it is 
 true — ^upon the prohibition movement of this country, 
 seeing that the land he owned not only could produce 
 grapes, which drop by drop had distilled a fortune for 
 him, but also possessed, hidden in its bowels, copper, for 
 the exploitation of which sober men would be needed. 
 This line of thought influenced him subconsciously. 
 
 And this campaign against alcohol was beginning to 
 take root in Latin America. In Mexico, Brazil and in 
 Chile the governments had been taking steps which were 
 bringing them nearer to prohibition. The United States 
 would soon be on a basis of prohibition ; the great experi- 
 ment was about to be made throughout the country, and 
 upon the result of this experiment depended the fate 
 of whisky, wine and beer in Latin America. Every coun- 
 try in the world is a social laboratory, and it is best that 
 all should not make the same experiment at the same 
 time. Germany and Austria-Hungary had been experi- 
 menting in autocracy; the United States were experi- 
 menting in democracy. And the world had learned its 
 
264 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 lesson. Europe was experimenting with official prosti- 
 tution, the United States with the suppression of pros- 
 titution. Latin America experiments with the negation 
 of women's rights, the United States with their ex- 
 altation. France experiments with the glass of wine at 
 mealtimes, the United States with the glass of milk. 
 
 In no other country are so many social experiments 
 made as in the United States because here each State is 
 also a laboratory within the nation. Here there is per- 
 sonality for the individual — man, woman and child; 
 there is personality for the community, for the city and 
 for the State. And in no other country are the experi- 
 ments being made with more faith and more vehemence. 
 Every new idea, every new proposal which has any prob- 
 ability of success is given an opportunity to make good. 
 
 This Spanish-American gentleman had believed that 
 the United States occupied a lower place than the coun- 
 tries of Central and South America in the matter of 
 culture, habit and social manners ; but, just after he had 
 received from Chile the notes that the censor in New 
 York had added to the letter in which he spoke about 
 this subject to his wife, an incident had occurred which 
 caused him to alter his mind on the subject. A young 
 American who spoke Spanish, but who had never been 
 in a Spanish-speaking country, told him that on a visit 
 to New York he had attended several times at the Span- 
 ish Theater of that city in order to exercise his ear in 
 the language; and he added that he had never seen a 
 display of worse behavior. The audience shouted such 
 impertinent vulgarities at the actors that they had made 
 him blush as never before in his life. 
 
 That theater is frequented exclusively by Spaniards 
 and Latin Americans, and the young man from Chicago 
 
THE LIGHT OF TRUTH 265 
 
 had come to the conclusion that the people of these coun- 
 tries were habitually coarse. The hero of our story had 
 to take it upon himself for the first time the defense of 
 Latin Americans from such attacks, and to maintain that 
 the theater which the young man from Chicago had at- 
 tended did not cater to the best people from these coun- 
 tries. But the very fact that he had to undertake this 
 defense made him think that he, in his turn, had perhaps 
 jumped at conclusions with the same undue haste as the 
 person whose inferences he was now setting right. 
 
 There were uncultured, uneducated, badly behaved 
 people everywhere, in that America and in this Amer- 
 ica ; with the difference that in Latin America the social 
 classes are so widely separated amongst themselves that 
 the well bred man has no opportunity of criticizing the 
 vulgar herd. It is an unheard-of thing over there that a 
 millionaire should seat himself alongside a workman, as 
 might easily happen here. 
 
 The censor's argument concerning the letter in which 
 he had spoken of the want of good manners, of courtesy 
 in the United States had impressed him greatly. Here 
 was no privileged, hereditary class which inherited its 
 social manners with its name and fortune. Here a 
 workman could become a man of importance in the land, 
 often in a few years' time. In this democracy there were 
 to be found rough men among the upper classes ; whereas 
 in Latin America this was not the case because stability 
 of caste v/as there the rule. The description of the 
 sinking of the Titanic had moved him acutely. This at 
 least was evidently the truth : those men who might per- 
 haps not yield their seats to ladies in a trolley-car were 
 quick to give their life-belts to women in a wreck at sea. 
 
 One afternoon, after having visited Hull House, and 
 
266 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 after a delightful chat with Jane Addams, right in the 
 settlement, where he had tea with this wonderful woman 
 and with other women who worked with her, he returned 
 to his hotel and seated in his room up on the tenth floor, 
 with his eyes fixed upon the lake, there came to his 
 mind a deeply felt experience of his life. It was an 
 intimate story about a pretty girl of his own social 
 circle, to whom he had done irreparable harm by airing 
 an injurious and unjustified opinion about her. Later, 
 he came to know her intimately and became convinced 
 of his lamentable error. 
 
 Why did this story come to his mind? Because he 
 was beginning to believe that the United States was a 
 second girl about whom he had expressed injurious and 
 unjustified opinions. It was not so easy to become 
 acquainted with a country as with a person, but in fact 
 a country has also individual characteristic features; 
 and the ugly conviction was already dawning on him 
 that he had been slandering unconsciously a country 
 not only worthy of the greatest respect and admiration, 
 but worthy also of being imitated by the sister countries 
 of America for the good of the entire continent. 
 
 Moreover, the successful conclusion of his business 
 here, the sale of those deposits which left him the pos- 
 sessor of a large fortune and a stockholder in the new 
 enterprise, influenced subconsciously the new condition 
 of his mind in observing, judging and generalizing. In 
 the transaction of this business he had been treated with 
 the most rigorous honesty and the most exquisite affabil- 
 ity ; his country was spoken of with the utmost respect ; 
 it was proposed to remunerate generously the men that 
 were going to be employed and to provide good living 
 
THE LIGHT OF TRUTH 267 
 
 conditions for them. All this also helped him to get rid 
 of his former prejudiced viewpoint. 
 
 The day was approaching when he must return to his 
 native land. Before leaving he was to stop for a few 
 weeks in New York, a city with which he was not per- 
 sonally acquainted, since on arriving in this country he 
 had landed in New Orleans and had visited only the 
 Southern, Western and Central States. 
 
 In New York he took an apartment in the Waldorf- 
 Astoria, and from there made short trips to Washing- 
 ton, Boston and Philadelphia. Two days before he left, 
 General Pershing arrived in New York. The city was 
 en fete. He also was moved to see from his window 
 on Fifth Avenue the "march past" of soldiers who had 
 been led by a simple, unassuming man, a genuine type 
 of the people whose flag he defended. 
 
 The afternoon before his departure, while engaged 
 with packing in his room, he was called to the telephone. 
 A lady wished to see him. He went down and received 
 the lady in one of the large saloons on the main floor. 
 
 "Sir ," began the young lady, whose big eyes 
 
 irradiated sympathy, "I have not the pleasure of know- 
 ing you personally; only by chance I discovered that 
 you were here, and I have not hesitated in coming to 
 ask you for a moment's conversation. IMy name is 
 Mabel Jones. It was I who in the Censor's Office of 
 the Government read and added comments to the letters 
 which 3^ou wrote your wife." 
 
 The gentleman's surprise was such that he could not 
 control himself sufficiently to hide it. 
 
 "Please sit down, madam, your visit is a great pleas- 
 ure for me." 
 
 ' ' I want to ask your pardon personally. ..." 
 
268 TEE GULF OF 3II8UNDERSTANDING 
 
 *'But it is I who should ask your pardon and thank 
 you. I have contracted a debt toward you which I do 
 not know how to repay. I have read all the notes with 
 which you supplemented my letters, and they have been 
 a decisive factor in showing me how I should judge of 
 this country. I beg your pardon, madam, for the errors 
 into which I had fallen/' 
 
 She smiled. 
 
 ''Is it to one who is convinced, or to a Latin gen- 
 tleman, traditionally gallant with ladies, that I am 
 speaking ? ' ' 
 
 The elegant figure, the delicate features, the gentle 
 manners and the instinctive aristocratic grace that this 
 man had inherited from his forefathers served but to 
 corroborate the preconception that Miss Jones had 
 formed of him. He, smilingly, but giving to his tone 
 and to the slight movement of his head all the attri- 
 butes of conviction, rejoined: 
 
 * ' A convert, madam, and also a repentant sinner. ' ' 
 
 The conversation swept quickly from one topi' to 
 another, speaking of imperialism, of democracy, of 
 woman suffrage, of education, of marriage and of di- 
 vorce. Now that they had reached the same level, it 
 was easy to understand each other. 
 
 In the midst of a well dressed crowd in constant move- 
 ment, amid thousands of voices muffled by carpets and 
 curtains, surrounded by the scent of flowers and the 
 melodious strains of the orchestra, they seemed to be as 
 isolated as the monks of St. Gothard; and as the sun 
 bathes the mountain tops, the light of truth bathed the 
 spirit of this Spanish- American. 
 
 The conversation took them so far, that night began 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TEUTH 269 
 
 to fall without either of them noticing the flight of time. 
 "When he saw how late it was, he asked her : 
 
 ** Would you be so kind as to accept an invitation to 
 dinner ? It is the first and last opportunity that I shall 
 have to see you.*' 
 
 And she, knowing that he was leaving on the follow- 
 ing day, and having her message still untold, did not 
 scruple to accept the invitation. They were only a few 
 steps away from the spacious dining room of the hotel, 
 with its windows looking out upon Fifth Avenue, very 
 near one of which they took their places. 
 
 He repeated in different ways how very grateful he 
 was to iMiss Jones for all the trouble she had taken, ex- 
 pressing himself as doubtful of ever being able to recom- 
 pense her trouble. 
 
 ''You can repay me by granting a favor I wish to 
 ask you." 
 
 *'It will be a pleasure for me to have the opportunity 
 to do anything for you. ' ' 
 
 ''My supplements to your letters have contributed, 
 you tell me, to make you better capable of understand- 
 ing this country. I think that by publishing them to- 
 gether with your letters, which are a revelation of the 
 way in which many Latin Americans judge the United 
 States, others might also be induced to learn the truth 
 about my country. I doubt whether the perusal of these 
 letters will alone suffice to definitely convince anybody 
 with deep-rooted convictions toward a contrary opinion, 
 but they may serve as a compass to direct the mind, 
 as a help to understanding. Would you give me per- 
 mission to publish your letters?'^ 
 
 "With the greatest pleasure, although I would prefer 
 that you do not publish my name. Or if you wish my 
 
270 THE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 name to appear, you must give me permission to change 
 the form of the letters, which I wrote as if I were speak- 
 ing freely, alone with my wife.'' 
 
 ''Oh! That is just something that must be preserved. 
 It could very rarely happen that any one would write 
 in that way for our public, censuring our nation; but 
 you have left on record in those letters the form and 
 substance of opinions held by many, very many Latin 
 Americans regarding my country. There are writers 
 among them who have spoken with still more rancor of 
 my country in books, magazines, newspapers and public 
 lectures. These opinions are mistaken, sometimes pur- 
 posely, and evidently inspired by bad faith, but most of 
 the time they are due to ignorance. At all events, it is 
 advisable to know these conceptions in order to combat 
 them. It makes no difference that your name is with- 
 held. You are a Latin American, a representative 
 Latin American of the highest class of those countries. 
 That is what matters." 
 
 "Thanks for your good opinion. You may use those 
 letters as you see fit. ' ' 
 
 All New York seemed to be passing through the Ave- 
 nue, the most imposing artery in the world. From their 
 seats, the American of the North and the American of 
 the South were as if seated on the banks of a swollen 
 human river. 
 
 ''Yes, I have arrived at the true comprehension of 
 the significance and beauty of democracy, and I believe 
 that this country, more than any other, is striving whole- 
 heartedly that democratic ideals may prevail," he con- 
 tinued gravely. ' ' This nation has the biggest collective 
 soul in the world. I told you before that I was a re- 
 I)entant sinner, a convert. I might say that it is an- 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 271 
 
 other man whom you are meeting now. I have been 
 transformed^ I have a different soul in the same body. 
 Not only have I changed my mode of thinking with re- 
 gard to your country ; I have acquired a new philosophy 
 regarding many of the cardinal problems of life. 
 
 As he spoke, his eyes seemed to shine with a new light, 
 the illumination of awakening. It was more than the 
 awakening of a man; it was the awakening of a conti- 
 nent. 
 
 ' ' Of all the things you have said to your wife in those 
 letters, of all your judgments, which appears to you now 
 as the most mistaken? Which of them do you regret 
 most ? ' ' asked Miss Jones. 
 
 This question delighted the Chilean gentleman. 
 Though all that he had said in the letters was liable to 
 put him out of countenance before an American lady, 
 there was one thing which mortified him more than the 
 rest. 
 
 *'What I most regret to have said is that the American 
 woman is not a woman, but a neutral being, and that I 
 would not have married one of them if there had been no 
 other women in the world. They are charming." 
 
 ''1 might have expected that answer," she said smil- 
 ingly. ' ' Politeness is second nature to you Latin Ameri- 
 cans. ' * 
 
 *'I admire this country," he went on, seeing that he 
 need no further insist in his apology. ^'I think you are 
 giving a lesson to the whole of our America ; but do you 
 not think that there is a real social menace, a danger 
 for democracy, in this popular ferment, in these ideas of 
 communism, of bolshevism, that fill the air in your coun- 
 try?" 
 
 'The American people, on the 
 
272 TBE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 whole, believe in democracy. Foreign elements, which 
 we have in more abundance than any other nation, have 
 come to preach here a revolutionary socialism which is at 
 variance with our principles. There is but one way to 
 play the game of life, and indeed all games, whether they 
 are of the mind or of the muscle. Be it chess or base- 
 ball, both sides begin with the same elements. The 
 two castles, the two bishops, the two knights of one 
 player can move from square to square in the same way 
 as the castles, the bishops and the knights of the other 
 player. And in baseball the balls and bats are the 
 same for both teams. But the intelligence, the plan of 
 campaign of one chess player or one baseball captain 
 is superior to that of the other, and sooner or later a 
 master stroke puts the balance in his favor. The de- 
 feated party is not beaten definitely; more study on 
 his part, more practice, more attention, may see him the 
 winner to-morrow. Good sportsmen go on with the 
 game; as losers they join in the applause for the victors, 
 who reap the laurels won by their efforts. Later on 
 these honors may be theirs. 
 
 *'Thus, in a democracy we want the game of life to 
 begin under equal conditions for all. The public school, 
 the library and the college are within the reach of every 
 one. The winners are those who, with more effort and 
 more intelligence, move their pawns to the best advan- 
 tage. All have a chance to win on a larger or smaller 
 scale. "We must play the game. The distinctive token 
 of victory differs according to the game that is being 
 plaj^ed. In chess it is checkmate, in baseball the home 
 run, in art the glory, and in business it is money. 
 
 *'But the game must be played, and the laws of the 
 game must be respected, which in the case of life are 
 
THE LIGHT OF TRUTH 273 
 
 the laws dictated by the majority. There must be win- 
 ners and losers. And the winners of to-day are not 
 necessarily the winners of to-morrow. If the losers are 
 in the majority, and if they are not satisfied with the 
 rules of the game, they can change them, because the 
 fundamental principle of our laws is that they can be 
 changed in accordance with the will of the majority.'' 
 
 ''And what do the communists want in this game of 
 life?'' 
 
 ''They want . . . not to play the game. They claim 
 that there should be no winners or losers. They want 
 it to be established that he who exerts himself, he who 
 studies and he who works shall enjoy the same honors 
 as he who does not exert himself, or he who does not 
 study, or he who does not work ; they claim that Edison 
 should receive the same remuneration as the joiner who 
 makes a wooden box for the phonograph invented by the 
 scientist; they want Carrel to earn as much as a quack 
 dentist; they think that Ford should earn the same 
 wages as a chauffeur. They would snatch away the 
 winning pieces from a chess player who is about to win 
 the game. These Utopian and nonsensical pretensions 
 are equivalent to an order for the removal of mountains, 
 a foolish mandate to raze the Andes or the Rocky Moun- 
 tains in order to make of the world an even, level plain. 
 This is at variance with the spirit of our country." 
 
 The orchestra filled the room with its melodies. Ele- 
 gantly dressed ladies and gentlemen continued coming 
 in and occupying all the tables of the large dining room. 
 Outside, the Avenue looked like day, with its brilliant 
 lights. The human river streamed on in a continuous 
 and overflowing torrent. 
 
 "But the men and women of our country," she con- 
 
274 TEE GULF OF MISUNDERSTANDING 
 
 tinned, ''have confidence in themselves, they wish to 
 play the game of life and to continue their efforts in 
 the struggle to perfect the laws of the game. ' ' 
 
 At that moment — it was a day of civic celebrations 
 and of receptions for great soldiers — the strains of the 
 national hymn of the United States were heard, and 
 the Chilean gentleman felt himself overpowered by al- 
 most the same emotion that always moved him when 
 hearing his own national hymn. He rose immediately, 
 even before the rest of the people, and at that moment, 
 there, in the heart of New York, he felt that he was in 
 a glorious country, which was receiving the men of old 
 Europe, and inspiring them with the new energy and 
 ideals that a virgin world has to offer. He felt, for the 
 first time, the fibers of continental love vibrate ; he had a 
 presentiment of the future greatness of all America, and 
 he understood that he must be animated by a spirit of 
 love, fraternity and mutual intelligence, in order to take 
 his part in the fulfillment of the great destinies of the 
 New World that was to be a world made new. 
 
 They were an American of the North and an Ameri- 
 can of the South, educated in two different continents, 
 with different idiosyncrasies. They were two souls, sym- 
 bolical of two different races which had come from Eu- 
 rope three centuries ago, and were occupying different 
 rooms in the same continental palace. During three 
 centuries these peoples had merely exchanged visiting 
 cards. Only now were they beginning to know each 
 other; only now was it dawning upon their minds that 
 mutual understanding and cooperation were necessary. 
 He would return home, to the side of his wife and 
 children who were anxiously waiting for him; she 
 would remain here, at the side of those dear to her. 
 
TEE LIGHT OF TRUTH 275 
 
 Their eyes met; not the eyes of a man and a woman 
 lit "Up by passion, but those of one America and the 
 other America that understood each other, two con- 
 tinents of a new world that had been divorced from 
 each other and that wished to be re-united. 
 
 THE END 
 
3Lt-77-l