/'27S 
 
SOUTH AMERICA 
 
 Talking Points 
 
 In body South America is a rugged giant with 
 great riches at its command; in mind and soul 
 South America is stunted by illiteracy and 
 irreligion. 
 
 South America may be termed the continent 
 of superlatives. It contains the highest peak in 
 the Western hemisphere; the loftiest navigable 
 lake in the world; and the earth’s greatest river. 
 
 B 
 
 The Amazon river system has over 50,000 miles 
 of navigable water way, enough to tie two loops 
 around our planet. 
 
 B 
 
 And notwithstanding all Col. Roosevelt’s dis- 
 coveries, South America still has the largest 
 unexplored area of any continent. 
 
 B 
 
 Almost everybody knows that Brazil is nearly 
 as large as Europe or the continental United 
 States, but the size of the “little republics” is not 
 so well known. Texas could be lost in “little” 
 Venezuela and still leave room for Kentucky and 
 Tennessee! 
 
 B 
 
 It is almost as far from one end of Chile to the 
 other as from New York to Glasgow. 
 
 2 
 
And these vast areas are not merely empty 
 spaces. 
 
 m Q 
 
 RESOURCES 
 
 Fifteen million ounces of silver is one of South 
 America’s annual contributions to the world’s 
 pocketbook. This would make more than 
 seventeen million silver dollars. 
 
 0 
 
 The hills of South America are seamed with 
 gold. It is found in every state. 
 
 0 
 
 Almost all of the emeralds in the world come 
 from Colombia. Seven hundred thousand carats 
 of them are dug out of her hills annually. 
 
 0 . 
 
 Our famous copper mines in Michigan, Mon- 
 tana and Arizona are surpassed in richness by 
 those on the west coast of South America. 
 
 0 
 
 The Bethlehem Steel Works in Pennsylvania 
 could be kept busy for seventy-five years with 
 the iron ore of one of Chile’s provinces, Coqu mbo. 
 
 . . 
 
 More tin is mined in Bolivia than anywhere else 
 in the world except in the Malay Peninsula. 
 
 _0 
 
 Chile’s nitrates fertilize the fields of the world 
 and bring her an annual revenue in export duties 
 of over fifteen million dollars. 
 
 UJ 
 
 It is a day’s journey by train across some of the 
 million-acre farms in Brazil and Argentina where 
 they raise stock and grow rice, wheat, corn, 
 alfalfa, tobacco and coffee. 
 
 3 
 
Brazil produces three-fourths of the world’s 
 coffee supply. 
 
 Enough sugar is produced in one province of 
 Argentina to sweeten this giant coffee cup. 
 
 n 
 
 As a commercial country Argentina rivals 
 Canada and outranks Japan, China, Australia 
 and Spain; and its agricultural resources are only 
 on the threshold of development. 
 
 B 
 
 The land and wealth of most communities are 
 in the hands of a few. Chile’s tillable soil is 
 held by seven per cent of the population. 
 
 B B 
 
 POPULATION 
 
 Only a third of South America’s population is 
 
 of pure white blood. ^ 
 
 B 
 
 In Peru and Ecuador, only one person in sev- 
 enteen is white; nearly three-quarters are Indian, 
 the rest are Chinese and mixed — very mixed. 
 
 a 
 
 A million immigrants a year were pouring into 
 South America before the war. They came from 
 Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Holland, Scan- 
 dinavia, Portugal, China, Japan and India. 
 
 B 
 
 There are over six million Africans among the 
 twenty-five million people in Brazil and many of 
 them the crudest type of negro on the American 
 hemisphere. 
 
 B B 
 
 EDUCATION 
 
 Three out of every four people in South America 
 can neither read nor write. 
 
 4 
 
In Brazil the rate of illiteracy is 71 per cent; 
 in Argentina 50 per cent; in Chile 63 per cent; 
 Colombia 80 per cent. The rate in the United 
 States is 7.7 per cent. ^ 
 
 Bolivia recently offered a Presbyter an minister 
 the position of head of its educational department, 
 with full powers. Ecuador called in a Methodist 
 preacher to help in its normal schools and Peru 
 is using American educators in the State schools. 
 
 0 
 
 Models for education everywhere are the 
 missionary colleges, such as Mackenzie College 
 at Sao Paulo, the American Institute at La Paz, 
 and the Girls’ College at Santiago. 
 
 0 0 
 
 SANITATION 
 
 There is a crying need in South America for 
 education along the line of sanitation and public 
 hygiene. q 
 
 Open sewers run through the streets of many 
 cities and in some sections smallpox is a con- 
 tinuous epidemic. gi 
 
 la Chile, which has one of the finest climates in 
 the world, the death rate is twice that of the 
 United States or Western Europe. Three- 
 quarters of the children there die before reaching 
 two years of age. 
 
 0 0 
 
 MORALS 
 
 Illegitimacy robs many children in South 
 America of normal home life. About one-sixth 
 of the population of Brazil are of illegitimate 
 birth, two-thirds of that of Venezuela and one- 
 
 5 
 
third of that of Chile. Other countries in South 
 America have more or less the same percentage. 
 
 Q 
 
 This is partly due to the fact that revolutions 
 have greatly decreased the number of men so that 
 in Paraguay, for example, there are two women 
 to every man. 
 
 Q 
 
 Another factor of illegitimacy is the high cost 
 of marriage. When the minimum fee for a reli- 
 gious marriage is ^8.00 and a peon earns only a 
 few cents a day, the cost of marriage is almost 
 prohibitive. 
 
 Q Q 
 
 RELIGION 
 
 Irreverence for sacred things is a marked 
 characteristic of the people. One comes upon 
 such signs as ‘‘Butcher Shop of the Holy Spirit,” 
 “Furniture Shop of the Saviour.” A magazine 
 carried a picture of Christ and Judas, who was 
 smoking a certain brand of cigarette. Judas is 
 saying, “If I had had such cigarettes to smoke, 
 I wouldn’t have betrayed Him.” 
 
 0 
 
 “The growth of unbelief among the men is the 
 outstanding fact in the religious life of South 
 America,” says Edward Alsworth Ross. 
 
 0 
 
 It is reported that 90 per cent of the population 
 of Colombia are unbelievers; in Ecuador it is 
 generally considered a sign of learning to express 
 doubt of Church dogma; the great mass of 
 students in Brazil and Peru are hostile to the 
 Church; and it is said that the members of Con- 
 gress and nearly all the government students of 
 Bolivia are sworn enemies of the Church. 
 
 6 
 
South America is practically a Scriptureless 
 continent. Again and again the priests have 
 burned Bibles distributed by the missionaries 
 who were then driven out of the villages where 
 they were at work. 
 
 B 
 
 There are several million Indians and other 
 native peoples who have not been reached by any 
 church whatever and are as pagan as any tribes 
 in the heart of Africa. 
 
 0 
 
 In any of the ten republics of South America a 
 missionary could have a city and dozens of towns 
 for his parish. In some of the countries he could 
 have one or two provinces without touching any 
 other evangelical worker. 
 
 0 
 
 There are more ordained ministers in the state 
 of Iowa than in all South America with Mexico 
 and Central America added. 
 
 7 
 
Published by 
 
 OTie Centenary Commission 
 of tKe Board of Foreign Missions 
 MetKodist Episcopal CKurch 
 
 150 Fifth Avenue 
 New York 
 1919