Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — Civilization in South America. [ARTICLE]

Civilization in South America.

“The South American systems of education have been framed upon the plan of ours; and In several of them even more radical measures have been adopted to Increase the Intelligence of the people,” says the Hon. William Eleroy Curtis, in an article on “The Progress of the South American Republics” In the New England Magazine. “Their universities are of a standard that compare well with any in this country, and in most of the republics the attendance of children at the public schools Is compulsory. They have more newspapers In pjoportion to their population than we have, and some of their periodicals are of a high order; they encourage art and music, and every city has its museums and galleries of paintings. Their shops are filled with the most modern articles of merchandise; the homes of the rich are sumptuously furnished, and their Incomes are expended for luxuries to the degree of extravagance. The steamships that connect their ports with Europe are always crowded with passengers; but the lack of transportation facilities has prevented them from visiting the United States as frequently, and In as groat numbers. The national debts of the Latin American Republics have been Incurred for the purpose of constructing railways and other Internal improvements, which in several of them have certainly anticipated the necessities of the population, and become burdens upon the public treasuries. But in most of them Immigration from Europe is rapid and permanent, and the development of natural resources will soon enable the railway lines to become self-sup-porting.”