COSTA RICA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1941, Page 6

COSTA RICA

DEMOCRACY UNDER THE PALMS; RELATION TO PANAMA CANAL. PEOPLE’S PRIDE IN COUNTRY, ! I | i Costa Rica is one Latin-American! I republic which has more schoolleach-1 i ers than soldiers. And that's one reason) j why Costa Rica is important to the United States, write Sylvia Martin in j the "Christian Science l Monitor." j This is more significant than the fact) I that Costa Rica is next-door neighbour ) to the Panama Canal and that the Pan I American Highway, which might form* la vital link in a military artery for (protection of the Canal Zone, passes I I through Costa Rica from end to end.; j These are merely practical considera-i I lions behind the 4.606.000 dollars loan, of tin* United States Export-Import I Bank for the completion of the inter- ! national highway from Cartago to Panama.

The importance of the numerical 1 preponderance of Costa Rican schoolteachers over soldiers grows out of the fact that Costa Rica is a democracy one of the few genuine democracies loft t<> this disturbed world —and that means much io the United States. You cannot be in this little nation one day without feeling the pride of the people in their country. The peasant in the fields, the Deputy in Congress. the shopkeeper, clerk, schoolboy and pean, all speak with one voice. Then’ boast of the number of schoolteachers. They point out their President. walking through the streets like any other citizen, without police escort or bodyguard. They inform you that their percentage of literacy is higher than that of any other Latin-American country, and higher than that of many European nations. They tell you that every man not only can but must vote, and the ballot is secret: that almost, every Costa Rican family owns his own homo or land; and that freedom of speech, press. and assembly are more than words on paper. They introduce you to Juan Mora] Valverde, head of the infant ist Party, a Deputy in Congress. And: then to Don Julio Acosta, conservative* leader, an ex-Presidcnt satisfied m serve his country in a lessor capacity.: And finally to Don Adriano Urbina, j Deputy from Guanacaslo, the cattle? country, loader of the opposition. who| is often consulted by his political foes.i As a working democracy. Costa j Rica stands alone in Central America.' .She lias managed, without bloody re-? volutions, to become a free country'’ fur free people, Tin's agricultural republic's drinn-> er.’.’i y is based on a widespread distribution of land, which in turn is in the colonial past. When the Conijuistadors came to the "Rich Coast,"! discovered by Columbus in 1502. they found no etile ! Indian civilisation and thus no docile body of Indian labour While the ee.loe. -r, ,j : Hi tile t «*f Latin America w<;'e living m lo'-’iny '>it Wed phiii'mii ns \w>ri;< ;( ip. India!! la vt < ’Span i: i i’»j' v, ire the laughing >d !!«< ir m iijmoiii s b> ■rati-e the, had m ....w, R (l > field-, and build wi’ii their own hands S= your was the runitnunity that cocoa< berm were used for mi ney, and runny lend ciiurrh i:o ait e th. v had n<> md-’ able eh-th" Hill the Ilf-Sy dm-ki bi . c the- J w.i■ i .-i <.’«■*; i,il .»,; ■,i ;; i ,i;, n tn.'.eiy J.ietoi •- lh.it made i'er ;,e 0:1’ . duck ling. She found dem.u >aty >, be-. •iiU'S- .’die Ji bii’ 'leeati ■ ‘die f. ,ui ..i lies ■ <■! : v . i h the limp ■ ■’ '■ ■ e , . ■ . I. e-e.e. - ; .. .. . ... O' e he' (it.ttl Olid ISW'd ( m : .d; i hi f! ’i dull <Ven rn. ;o ,1 .d ... ly .■ , hi y - e :.a., he....,'. > coping Eur- ■ T-d. •. Uo‘ta ILran imiywi , elfha,, i ‘a oi," Th< -f '< \... ■ : manic 1 i.'. ’h, . ? 'cd <|« y .‘ , ■ ? l '■ til; ’, !..»i’* ;■« H’ ■ / i übt fif I'"•.• 51 i.uJ ,t 5 ... s .-- ■ v f