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70 petty politicians, etc. They tend to congregate in the cities. They are mostly unintelligent, though a small percentage of them enjoy an improved social status, won usually by the exercise of an intel- lectual calling, the law, medicine or literature. The whites, though few in number, were, until the revolution of July 1919, the dominant class in Peru. They owned most of the land and controlled all the more important political posts. For the most part they are thoroughly modern-minded and progressive people, intellectual and agreeable. It is to be regretted that few of the older generation recognized their responsibilities with regard to their Indian tenantry, but the younger men, according to observations in 1921, were beginning to take an interest in sociological problems.

Since 1890 all the Government railways then in existence, and additions to them made later, have been administered by the Peruvian Corporation, chiefly owned by foreign investors, which took over the railways and a number of other national resources. In 1920 the railways administered by the Peruvian Corporation were the following:

Length

Gauge

(miles)

(meters)

Central railway Pisco to lea railway

248 46

44 44

Southern railway

535

44

Pacasmayo railway Paita to Piura railwa

y

82 60

44

44

Chimbote railway

35

91

Trujillo railway

64

91

North-western railway

"32

91

Lima-Lurin railway

22

91

.

Besides these important lines there are a number of others neither owned by the Government nor administered by the Peruvian Cor- poration. Chief of these are the Cerro de Pasco railway from Oroya to Cerro de Pasco and a few local lines in various coast valleys.

In the 10 years, 1910-20, a certain amount of road-building was done. In many parts of the coast comparatively little has to be done to make the surface of the desert a good road-bed for motor traffic. During the rubber boom of the previous decade there was a considerable development, in the forest region, of river traffic. But since 1910 that has slowly been diminishing, and in 1920 the Peru- vian reaches of the Amazon were served by but one steamer which made one round trip per month.

Coastwise traffic by steamers is well organized and efficient. Two companies, one British and the other American, maintain direct sailings from New York to Callao, through the Panama Canal, the run being made in 12 days. There is also good direct service with England, the Mediterranean and Japan. The smaller ports_ of the Peruvian coast are served by the steamers of the Peruvian line, the Chilean line, the British line and a number of less important steam- ers. A direct service for freight only was in Feb. 1921 about to be inaugurated between the Peruvian coast and California. The telegraphs, wireless included, were in 1921 owned and administered by the Government. Experiments were then being made with the wireless telephone, also under Government. Two privately owned cable companies give coast and foreign service.

Industries and Commerce. The chief exports of Peru are sugar, cotton and copper. There should be many other articles. Petroleum is already produced in considerable quantities, but Peru could attain a production of vegetable oil fully as important. Castor oil, linseed oil, cottonseed oil and rapeseed oil are a few of the possibilities. Meats, hides and wool could easily be exported on a large scale. Lumber, in the lower or easterly parts of the country, might well be made to take the place of the lost rubber trade. Peru suffers from the unimaginative ultra-conservatism of her landowning class and of her business men. The fundamental need is capital, and the only people in the country who have sufficient initiative to undertake these developments lack capital. Vanadium mining has been under- taken with unusual energy, and it is said that Peru to-day produces 95 % of the world's vanadium.

Imports and Exports. (In Peruvian pounds, equal to sterling.)

Imports

Exports

Excess of Exports

1910 1911 1912

1913 1914

1915

1916

1917 1918

4,980,697

5,438,245 5,140,^38 6,088,776 4,827,930 3,095,544 8,683,150 13,502,851 9,705,113

7,974,076 7,422,027 9,438,581 9,137,780 8,767,790 11,521,807 16,541,063 18,643,414 19,972,595

2,093,379 1,983,782 4,298,243 3,049,003 3,939,860 8,426,263

",857,913 5,140,563 10,267,482

The effect of the World War upon Peruvian trade with Great Britain and the United States is displayed by the following table (in Peruvian pounds equal to sterling) :

Imports from G.B.

Imports from U.S.

Export s to G.B.

Exports to U.S.

1912

1913 1914

1915

1916

1917

,367,976 ,598,605 ,338,552 662,546 ,496,304 .934,665

1,248,880 1,755,251 1,570,723 1,488,264 5,116,582 8,792,710

3,237,564 3,403,109 3,274,097 3,621,624 2,961,841 3,792,750

3,599,851 3,033,259 3,046,892 6,390,282 10,404,334 10,942,407

Government. The Government of Peru is one of the most highly centralized in the world. Every question has to be decided in Lima, by the supreme Government, and often by the president in person. Directly or indirectly the president appoints all the prefects, sub-prefects and governors who administer the provin- cial subdivisions of the country. All of these officers are remov- able at his will. The Legislature (Chamber of Deputies and Senate) controls the purse-strings of the nation and acts as a check on executive extravagances.

From 1860 to 1919 the supreme law of the land was the Constitution of 1860. That constitution embodied all the lead- ing principles of the extreme centralization already referred to. There was, however, a pronounced movement toward " regional- ism " in the southern departments between 1910 and 1019. That movement aimed not only at liberalizing the administrative machinery, but also at a systematic improvement of the condi- tion of the Indians.

In Jan. 1920 President Legufa's Government brought into being the Constitution of 1919, prepared chiefly by Senator Mariano H. Cornejo and Don German Leguia y Martinez. That constitution makes concessions to the demand for re- gionalism by creating " Regional Congresses," three in number, one for the north, one for the centre and one for the south.

History. From 1908 to 1912 was the first term of Augusto B. L'eguia y Salcedo as president of Peru. A number of internal reforms and improvements were planned by him, but the collapse of the rubber market caused great fipancial stringency and had the indirect result of curtailing the Government's reforming activities. It was during this first term of Leguia that the Yale Peruvian expedition, headed by Prof. Hiram Bingham of Yale, conducted extensive geographical and archaeological ex- plorations in Peru. The results were published and did much to direct the attention of foreign capitalists and others to Peru. Other Yale expeditions continued their work in Peru until 1915 when, as a result of misunderstandings, Prof. Bingham and his followers were ordered out of the country. Between 1912 and 1915 Guillermo Billinghurst and Oscar Benavides were presidents, each for a short term of revolutionary character. During this period there were diplomatic conflicts between Peru and Bolivia and Peru and Ecuador, neither of them going so far as to become military in character.

The outbreak of the World War in Aug. 1914 found Peru in an exceedingly bad state financially and economically. Until well into 1915 financial depression of the most acute kind con- tinued. But about the middle of 1915 a great demand for Peru- vian cotton, sugar, copper and other products came into being, with the result that exportations, at war prices, attained propor- tions never known before.

From July 1915 to July 1919 Jose Pardo y Barreda was President. In his time came the question which side was to be favoured by Peru in the World War. The then ruling class was inclined, at first, to be pro-German, partly because they were not fond of England (due to conflicts with the Peruvian Corporation), partly because they did not like the " democratic " atmosphere of President Wilson's various documents, and also partly because they had personal, financial and sentimental ties with Germany. On the other hand, many members of that class and the mass of the thinking element of Peru as a whole were strongly in favour of the Allies. Consequently, soon after the declaration of war by the United States in 1917, the Government of Peru severed diplomatic relations with Germany.

On July 4 1919 Don Augusto B. Leguia, who had been elected president to succeed Don Jose Pardo y Barreda (president 1915-9), seized the person of President Pardo by means of a re-