Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 14 text:

4 SPECTATOR ' South America Everett Wetherbee '15 The war has deprived one country, South America, of most of its imports, and it has also given the United States the opportunity to take up this trade. Let us learn some facts about South America. South America, the southern division of the American continent, is a large, triangular shaped peninsula having a total area of from 6,500,000 to 7,500,000 square milesg and it is divided among ten republics and three colonies. Of this immense area, nearly half is included in Brazil and one- sixth in the Argentine Republic. But South America is an undeveloped country, and al- though discovered only ten years after ours, it is many years behind us in trade and manufacture. South America has as yet hardly any important manu- factures, the most advanced regions in this respect are Ar- gentine, Chili, and Southern Brazil. Most of her trade is in raw products, exchanging agricultural products, rubber and cattle for manufactured goods of nearly all kinds. The chief agricultural products are wheat in Chili and Argentine, coffee in Brazil, sugar in Brazil and Guiana, and chocolate on the Amazon. Columbia and Venezuela, the tropical regions, produce corn, fruits, and vegetables abun- dantlyg but these are little exported. The principal center of grazing is about the Plata in Argentine, in Uruguay, and in Southern Brazil. Rubber islthe principal export of the Amazon, parts of it coming from Bolivia, Columbia, and Peru. South America is also rich in metals, including gold, silver, copper, mercury, platinum, lead, and irong the first two are the only ones extensively mined. Although, at the present time, South America does not rank very high in the world's trade and business, it is a land of possibility, it is the ,land of to-morrow. South Amer- ica needs money to develope her resources and to build

Page 13 text:

SPECTATOR 3 Ellie High Srhnnl Smertatnr Truth, to the fact and a good spirit in the treatment VoL. XVII. JQHNSTOWN, PA., OCTOBER, 1914. No. 1 hmm Z' Y 1 2 r A fn - I October l g Gertrude Sanford '15 VVhen the iields of grain are garnered, And the 'fHarvest Home we sing, Wfhen the rustling corn grows yellow, And the heavy grape vines swing, When the mountains glow with color, Scarlet, yellow, russet-brown Wlien jack Frost steals thru the forest, And the nuts come rattling down Then we hail thee, bright October!

Page 15 text:

w SPECTATOR 5 cities and factoriesg and at the present time, because not many agricultural products are being raised in Europe, she will have a ready market for all her goods. She will get high prices, and it will be an age of prosperity for her. She will be a profitable customer for other countries. Steel for buildings and railroads, machinery for factories and farms, and all materials which she will need for building more and better cities will have to be imported. The time is, therefore, ripe at which to take up trade with South America. 'Consuls see there golden opportuni- tiesf, But work must be hard if we are to get the trade of these countries, for if the war is short, the competition will be sharp, because the Germans, English and French have induced their young men to go to South America and so they of course will favor foreign trade. Some of the for- eign countries already have a pretty well established trade with South America. Let us take Brazil for example. In 1913 Brazil got all her cotton from England, one-half her structural material from Germany and England, three-fourths of her musical instruments from Germany, her earthenware, porcelain, and glass from Germany, and her engines and machinery from Germany and England. The construction of the Panama Canal should encour- age trade with South America, for, whereas before a ship sailing from New York or any of the eastern trade centres for the western coast of South America had to go all the way around Cape Horn, now it can go directly through the canal. This should and will promote trade. Since indications seem to denote prosperity for South America, let us watch our southern neighbor, the Land of To-morrow and see her grow. ' The editor will write an editorial about the advantages in South America for boys. This will appear in the next issue of the Spectator. We hope the information may help some of our boys to decide what to do when they have graduated.