Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1901 — POSSIBLE TROUBLE VENEZELA. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POSSIBLE TROUBLE VENEZELA.

The trouble in Venezuela is between two American companies, both claiming the right to work certain deposits of asphaltum in the State of Bermudez, near the mouth of the Orinoco river. The Barber Asphalt Company has been engaged on these deports for several years, having secured a concession to work them from the government of Venezuela. That government has been overthrown by a revolution, and the opposition is now in power, with Gen. Castro as president, who, on certain allegations, revoked the concession to the Barber company and granted a new concession to what is known as the Warner company, which is in favor with the government. It has been asserted that the new concession was obtained by bribery and misrepresentation; that President Castro needed money, and that the Warner company paid him $40,000 cash to throw the Barbers out.

When the new company went down to Bermudez .to take possession it met with resistance. The Barber people insisted upon their tights and prepared to defend

them. The Warners appealed to the government. The president sent troops to their assistance. The Barbers armed their men and held the fort. The United States minister at Caracas has been endeavoring to arrange a compromise or in some way prevent hostilities, and the little gunboat Scorpion has been sent to the scene of the trouble to prevent the contestants from shooting each other. Some idea of the absurdity of a serious war between the United States and Venezuela may be gathered from the statement that the Central American country, which has an area five times as large as that of the State of Michigan, has a total population of only 2,320,000, somewhat less than that of Michigan, of which number nearly one-fourth are uncivilized Indians. The regular army of Venezuela consists of 3,600 men, with a militia which in time of civil war has put as many as 66,000 men into the field.