Book Description

Excerpt from South of Panama "In writing about the South Americans," said one of our Consuls, "no doubt you will always bear in mind that it is the traditional policy of the United States to cultivate their friendship." I have done nothing of the sort. My first obligation is not to National Policy but to Truth. Enough has been written in furtherance of our trade and diplomacy; it is high time for a candid examination of the facts. This book is not intended to help sell our goods below the Equator, but to interpret to Americans the people who, in consequence of the opening of the Panama Canal, have become new neighbors of ours. It is the pet sentiment of Pan-Americanism that the peoples of the two Americas are spiritual cousins. Are we not all children of the New World? The fact is that the British, the Norwegians, the Dutch, even the Germans, have much more in common with us than the South Americans. On the other hand, their mental affinities are with the Latins of the Old World, rather than with us. The differences between us in ideas and ideals run far deeper than the ordinary traveler imagines. South America is the victim of a bad start. It was never settled by whites in the way that they settled the United States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.