The People of Latin soon as one crosses the Rio Grande or the strait between Florida and Cuba one is conscious of a great change not only in language and government, but in habits, modes of life, and methods of business. This change is much like that experienced in going from the northern to the southern side of the Mediterranean. So far as business is concerned some of the more note worthy characteristics may be summed up as follows: (1) less energy and push than among the typical business people of the United States; (2) greater courtesy, willingness to wait or be discommoded for the sake of others, more sensitiveness to little personal deeds of thoughtfulness or thoughtlessness; (3) less respect for contracts and especially for apparent promises made in conversation. This last arises largely from the fact that Latin Americans are usually so polite that they do not like to contradict, and often seem to assent or to make promises as a matter of courtesy, expecting that the other person will understand. (4) Almost everything in Latin America moves slowly, and the payment of bills follows this rule. The Latin American allows others to he slow in paying him, and expects to be allowed plenty ofttme himself. If this is once understood it makes business *e Graft is era y suppose( to e even more common in Latin America than in the United States, and it is more or less recognized as legitimate. The officials are especially prone to graft, partly because many are so poorly and often so irregularly paid. (6) Unwillingness to abide by the will of the majority, which leads to frequent revolutions and makes it difficult to organize large business enterprises. (7) A relatively superficial edu cation. Few business men in Latin America have had a college educa tion, and specialists and experts are rare. (S) Lack of self-control. This is due largely to lack of physical vigor. It leads to a good deal of excited talk and gesticulations which have little importance when once the northern business man learns to understand them and be patient with These characteristics are by no means equally strong in all parts of Latin America, nor do they pertain to all classes. They belong pri marily to the people of Spanish, or in Brazil, of Portugese extraction, often with a certain amount of Indian blood, whose ancestors have been in America for some generations. They are most strongly developed in the equatorial countries. In Chile, Argentina, and Uru guay they largely disappear or at least are much modified. In those countries the immigration of Italians and Spaniards by the hundred thousand, and of other Europeans in smaller numbers gives a different aspect to the population, even though the old Chilean stock is about half Indian and half white.
A true knowledge of a country demands good understanding not only of the business men whom we have just considered, but of the labor ing classes and farmers. In all the mountainous countries from Mexico to Peru and Bolivia the lower classes are largely Indians with more or less mixture of Spanish blood. In spite of marked differences, their out standing traits are a sort of dull, slow stolidity which makes it very hard to arouse their interest or enthusiasm or to get them to work or to do anything in any way except the slow and often clumsy fashion of their forefathers. In the West Indies and along the eastern coast to Brazil most of the lower classes are either Negroes or mixtures of the Negroes with Indians and Spanish. The Negro types are much less stolid than the Indians, more merry and responsive, and pleasanter to deal with, but they do not work hard and tend to loaf and enjoy life unless the mere needs of existence force them to work. In the southern countries, however, including southern Brazil, the farmers, cattle raisers, and laborers are largely of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian origin, and are much better workers than either the Indians or Negroes.
In the center of South America from southern Venezuela to Paraguay, the inhabitants are largely wild tribes of Indians who know no Spanish or Portuguese, and who live by the most primitive type of agriculture and by hunting and fishing.
The Types of Business in South America.—As one goes from south to north in Latin America the character of the business activities changes notably, as may be seen in the accompanying table of exports. Argentina, with its exports of cereals and other agricultural products worth $424,000,000 in 1919, and of animal products worth $529,000,000, ranks among the greatest of the world's food-supplying countries. The fact that it can raise such vast quantities of wheat, barley, corn, and vegetables and an enormous number of horses, cattle, and sheep shows that its people are active. They have not yet reached the point, however, where they seek to raise raw materials for their own use in manufacturing. They raise enormous quantities of flax for example, but only for seed, not fiber. Argentina's mineral resources are only moderate so far as yet discovered, and its forests are largely of poor bushy types. Some manufacturing of a simple kind such as meat packing has begun, but progress along this line is by no means so great as in Australia and New Zealand. Nevertheless, the prospects for a satis factory all-around development are excellent. The fact that Argentina will probably long continue to be a great exporter of staple food products is important for the United States, for with our rapid growth in manu facturing the time may not be far distant when the eastern states will import large quantities of food by sea.
In Uruguay the $50,000,000 of exports of animal products against only a million dollars' worth of cereals and a negligible quantity of other products indicate an extraordinary reliance on a single resource. The 'Uruguayans, to be sure, now raise enough food to supply their own wants, except in the matter of luxuries, although a few decades ago such was not the case. Their economic condition suggests that of the Boers on the plateau .of South Africa in about the same latitude, or of cattle men in northern Mexico, but the abundant rain and fine pasturage even in the drier seasons give Uruguay a great advantage. ,So, too, does the fact that Uruguay as well as Argentina and Chile con tains only a few Indians and is now receiving a large immigration of Italians, Spanish, and other Europeans.
In Chile the table shows a condition which we frequently find -epeated in countries having large dry areas, namely a great develop nent of minerals. Nitrate of soda is not only Chile's most important article of export, but an export tax makes it the chief source of revenue. In copper production Chile stands next after the United States. Animal products and cereals are also fairly prominent exports, as in most countries with the Mediterranean type of winter rains and summer droughts. South of the regions where most of the Chileans now live there are extensive forests in a climate with abundant and in many cases excessive rain at all seasons. In fact in latitudes above 40° the heavy rainfall and low summer temperature because of the winds from the Pacific make it improbable that a large agricultural population can ever find a living. Across the mountains in the Pata gonian part of Argentina, although the summer temperature as far south as latitude is high enough for profitable agriculture, the scanty rainfall clue to the cutting off of the west winds by the Andes interposes another barrier to progress. Thus the part of South America south of 40°, corresponding to the parts of North America and Europe where business is most active, is scantily populated and little developed, while the region from to S. is the seat of the greatest activity.