Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/145

Rh  1. How many Germans are settled in the states represented by the officer addressed? 2. Are they settled in collected colonies or scattered over the country? 3. Are they generally engaged in agriculture or in other pursuits?

With this circular a blank form for reply was enclosed, covering all necessary ground for securing a comprehensive description of the condition of German colonization in Latin America.

A general cordiality was encountered among members of the diplomatic and consular services in giving the information at their command, so that reports, more or less definite, were received from every one of the republics. They are here presented in tabular form to aid in a study that shall reach a fair understanding of one of the most important problems facing the American people; one that will appear the crucial problem of the twentieth century. It concerns the enfranchisement of 60,000,000 human beings, the inhabitants of this western hemisphere, and their consequent entry into a superior civilization.

The tabulation proceeds from Mexico, our nearest neighbor, to the most remote state of the southern continent, preserving thus a correct spectrum of the geographical relations.

These figures will be a revelation to the alarmist, apprehensive that Latin America is being submerged beneath a German population

devoted to monarchism. We find 1,051,000 Germans spread over an area of 8,000,000 square miles of territory, already occupied by a native population of more than 60,000,000, who have secured through war their independence of foreign domination, which they show a disposition to guard with jealous watchfulness.

In the comments appended to their reports by consuls and ministers there is the unanimous agreement that German immigrants constitute