NEVER FOUGHT A WAR.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20278, 21 August 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

NEVER FOUGHT A WAR.

Peaceful Corta Rica : : More Schools Than Soldiers

(Julian Freeman in “Events.") •

IT WOULD TAKE more than a casual glance at this warlike world to locate an independent nation that can reasonably be called a democracy and that is actually disarmed. Yet there is such a nation. Costa Rica is able to boast that she has more schools than soldiers. In the 435 years of her existence Costa Rica has never indulged in international conflict. Last year over 21 per cent of the entire Budget was devoted to educational appropriations. The military and the police suffered accordingly. There are to-day 475 schools, 1902 teachers, and 51,500 pupils in a country of less than half a million population, while the army consists of 246 elderly citizens who are unable to find employment elsewhere. In Costa Rica during the last hundred years there have been two revolutions, both bloodless, both lasting three days, both ending in collapse. There is little political discontent because Costa Rica alone among Latin American States has genuine popular elections. Exaggerated tales of El Dorado sent prominent Spanish families and their servants to the “Rich Coast" of Costa Rica. They did not find gold, and many returned home. Those who stayed realised that the real wealth was in the soil. Racial mixtures were rare and to-day rosycheeked blondes are common. In 1821 independence was the vogue ?n Central America and Costa Rica followed her neighbours in freeing herself from Spanish sovereignty. There was no opposition and no bloodshed—merely a declaration. The discovery of gold and the exportation of coffee paid in part for purchases of necessities abroad, foreign loans making up the difference. With the aid of great sacrifices on the part of the people, roads and schools were gradually built. In the 1870’s Minor Cooper Keith, an American, was commissioned by President (iuardia to build a railroad connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific. Keith recognised

the yellow wealth that the early prospectors had missed—bananas. Slowly a profitable trade with the United States developed. Minor Cooper Keith, .his brother, and uncle organised a fruit company which was soon competing with two others. The Keiths owned the Northern Railway of Costa Rica and that factor caused the consolidation of all three into the United Fruit Company. In Costa Rica the United Fruit invasion was much more orderly than in the neighbouring States. Costa Rica’s economic development had by this time, thanks to the extensive British and German markets for the country’s high-grade coffee, reached the point where they no longer needed the United Fruit investments. In 1929 the world suddenly crashed on the banana men in Costa Rica. First the depression cut off foreign markets. Then an administration opposed to the company came mto power and rushed through a new export tax on a sliding scale. The final blow came with the discovery that a mysfilmT r ava KinK the banana fields. In 1931 the United Fruit owned 8500 acres of banana land in Costa Rica. To-day less than 3000 acres remain. Thus we see that m this one instance the joke has been on the imperialist.” The United Fruit Company has built roads, railways, and hosP i t ?i ls j J— y . hav ® dred S ed harbours, installed efficient sanitation systems, and have made possible the construction of two modSan Jose’ the P ° rt ’ Limon ’ and •*« capital, Actually the Costa Ricans have suffered TvTdne*.! 6 fr ° m the Amer ican ‘‘invasion/’ To-day they are not wealthy in a material l n fj he majority of them are small £ " The people are happy because they aie fiee. They have a political democracy in every sense of the word. They Ire C f Spee u h ' fl ' ee electioas . and schools hat ate free because no fees are charged and because of the lack of restraint upon and stud U ent 0 a n iike ami V ‘ 6WS ° f the

PURPOSE. A I-IFF: without purpose is a languid, drift"tV Ing thing. Every day we ought to renew our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let us make .1 sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is nought:—Our improvement Is In proportion to our purpose:— We hardly ever manage to gel completely rid of one fault, and do not set our hearts on d ills Improve \lways place a definite purpose before thee: get I tie habit of mastering thine inclination.

GOOD ADVICE. other piece of advice, Copperfleld,” said Mr Micawber, “you know. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six. result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditmre twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. The blossom is (blighted, the leat is withered, the God of Day goes down upon t.lie dreary scene, and—and in short you are for ever floored . . . As 1 am l”