PERU

FOUR YEARS OF CONSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNMENT

NEW YORK
1920

Sefior Doctor DON JOSE PARDO
Constitutional President of Peru
1 904- 1 908 and 191 5-1919

PERU

FOUR YEARS OF CONSTITUTIONAL
GOVERNMENT

X """Par do

NEW YORK
ig20

PERU 111

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Senor Doctor don Jose Pardo was born in Lima, February
24, 1864, as a son of sefior don Manuel Pardo and senora
Mariana Barreda de Pardo. He comes of one of the most
distinguished families of Peru. His father was the first civil
president who governed under the constitutional regime,
from 1872 until 1876. As the founder of the civil party — the
most important political organization of the country — he
brought to an end the domination of the military governments
that had followed one another in power from the establishment
of independence. Don Manuel Pardo was one of the most
eminent figures in the history of the republic.
Don Jose Pardo was educated at the Instituto Lima and at
the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, where he took the
courses in literature, jurisprudence and political sciences,
graduating with the title of doctor and lawyer in 1887.
Appointed by the government as secretary of the legation of
Peril in Spain, and afterward as charg6 d'affaires, he formu
lated the defense of Peru in the arbitration of boundaries with
Ecuador in 1889, the decision of which was submitted to his
majesty the king of Spain.
The process of arbitration being interrupted, he returned to
Peru and assumed charge of the administration of a valuable
agricultural property — owned by his family in the north of
the republic — until 1898, at which time he established himself
in Lima and devoted himself to business. He founded the
Compafiia Nacional de Tejidos "La Victoria" and the Com
pafiia Urbanizadora of the same name, and he was made a
director upon the boards of several limited companies. He
did not abandon, on this account, his international studies,
and he conducted courses of study in diplomatic law and the

IV PERU
history of the treaties of Peru, a professorship that was
offered him by the Facultad de Ciencias Politicas y Adminis-
trativas. In 1900, he contracted matrimony with his first
cousin, sefiorita Carmen Heeren y Barreda. When don
Manuel Candamo, the leader of the civil party, was elected
constitutional president for the term of 1903-1907, he
intrusted to senor Pardo the presidency of his first cabinet
and the portfolio of minister of foreign relations, a position
which he filled from September 24, 1903, until May, 1904.
The lamented death of sefior Candamo rendered an election
necessary. The civil party chose sefior Pardo as its leader and
announced his candidacy for the presidency of the republic, in
accord with the constitutional party and the civic union.
During the months that he had been in the administration,
senor Pardo acquired a great reputation for his initiative in all
branches of the government, so that, although the democratic
and the liberal parties supported the candidacy of the former
president, senor don Nicolas de Pierola, the leader of the
democratic party, in opposition to sefior Pardo, the opinion of
the majority was so decidedly in favor of senor Pardo that
sefior Pierola withdrew his candidacy before the elections
occurred; and, the elections being held, senor Pardo assumed
charge of the government, from September 24, 1904, until
September 24, 1908.
This period pf government was without doubt the most
propitious to the progress of the country. The citizens
enjoyed full guaranties ; the freedom of the press was absolute ;
there were no persecutions for holding adverse political
opinions. During no former period was a greater number of
extraordinary meetings of the congress convoked, notwith
standing the fact that the government had to face a respect
able and well organized opposition, composed of the repre
sentatives of the democratic and the liberal parties, many of
whom were reelected senators and deputies during senior
Pardo's administration. The opposition followed, on its part,

PERU V
the example of the government, and it also showed respect for
the law and for men.
In all the branches of the administration, active labors
were accomplished, and senor Pardo was able to carry out as
president many of the plans he had begun as minister: an
arduous undertaking, in which he found himself seconded by
the energy and decision of his political friends.
He maintained strict cordiality in the relations of Peru with
all the other nations, especially with those of South America,
and with the United States of America.
He invoked anew the arbitration of Spain in the solution of
the question of boundaries pending, with Ecuador. The
problem of the frontiers with Bolivia was submitted to the
arbitration of the president of the Argentine republic; the
modus vivendi with Brazil was prorogued; and a friendly
protocol was arranged with Colombia; the interrupted
diplomatic relations with Chile were renewed; a general
treaty of arbitration was celebrated with Italy.
In respect of the public exchequer, senor Pardo doubled in
four years the government income, which was fourteen
million soles x when he entered office, and twenty-eight
millions when he delivered it to his successor. This consid
erable increase was due both to the new laws that created
additional revenues and to the development of commerce and
the industries, achieved through the blessings of the order and
well-being that are fostered by enlightened governments.
In public instruction, a transcendent reform was effected by
taking from the municipality the administration of the
primary schools, which since then have been under the charge
of the state, there being organized a Direcci6n de Instrucci6n,
and special revenues being created, which enabled President
Pardo to leave, upon the completion of his term, three
thousand public schools in operation.
1 The sol is equivalent to .4864 cents, United States money.

VI PERU
Sefior Pardo took the greatest interest in the establishment
of a national steamship company, and he attained his object
by organizing the Compafiia Peruana de Vapores y Dique del
Callao, a company that acquired five steamers and a floating
dock of seven thousand tons for the port of Callao.
During the recent war, the country has experienced the
incalculable advantages which have accrued to the maritime
traffic from the possession of national merchant vessels,
without which the commerce, and even the provisioning of the
population, would have suffered enormous damages, as
occurred in countries that were lacking in this very valuable
resource. The government also gave diligent attention to the war and
navy departments. The navy beheld the dawn of a new era
with the organization of the Escuela Naval ; the acquisition of
the cruisers Grau and Bolognesi and the war transport Iquitos;
the acquirement of a supply of heavy artillery for the batteries
of Callao; and the establishment of lighthouses for the
Peruvian coast.
In the department of war, sefior Pardo concerned himself
equally with the development of the army. He enlarged the
scope of the Escuela Militar; he caused the law of obligatory
military service to be strictly enforced; he organized annual
maneuvers, even to the extent of calling out the reserves; he
instituted national military target practice and a school of
marksmanship; and he equipped the army with the most
modern artillery material.
In the department of Fomento,2 his government accom
plished undertakings of great value for the development of the
undertakings of great value for the development of the
country, such as the railways from Sincuani to Cuzco, from
Oroya to Huancayo, from Yonan to Chilete, from Ilo to
Moquegua and from Puerto Pizarro to Tumbes.
8 A department of the national government charged with fostering
and protecting new enterprises.

PERU Vll
Extensive telegraph lines were constructed; wireless
communication was established between Lima and Iquitos;
and the erection of the Palacio Legislativo, the Carcel Central
de Lima, the Ministerio del Gobierno and a number of student
centers were undertaken. Senor Pardo's government brought
before the congress the idea of studying the labor laws.
The accomplishment of all this enormous labor enabled
sefior Pardo to leave the presidency with a great reputation ;
and amid the most spontaneous acclamations, which were
lavished upon him by all the social Classes, he returned to his
home September 24, 1908, delivering the government to the
president elected by the people, senor Augusto B. Leguia, a
colleague of sefior Pardo's in the ministry of sefior Candamo
and his own minister of Hacienda for three years.
Sefior Leguia had been chosen leader of the civil party when
sefior Pardo entered upon the presidency of the republic ; and
the nation might logically expect that senor Leguia would
continue the same policy of legality and national progress
that had been developed from 1903.
Sefior Pardo left the country in May, 1909, in order to
retire from politics, and he took up his abode in Paris.
In 191 1, the most important fraction that had resulted from
the schism in the civil party, after the first year of the new
government, besought senor Pardo to offer his candidacy in
the presidential elections that were to choose a successor to
sefior Leguia. Sefior Pardo declined the request, and he
remained in Europe until the war broke out. He returned to
his country in November, 1914, being received at the places
where the boat touched and at Callao with great demon
strations of enthusiasm.
Upon his arrival, he attempted the unification of the civil
party by proposing a formula couched in the broadest terms;
but he met no success in his efforts; and this induced him to
abstain entirely from all political activity and devote his time
to the duties of the rectorship of the Universidad Mayor de

Vlll PERU
San Marcos in Lima, to which he had been elected unani
mously by the votes of the professorial delegates. During the
few months in which politics permitted sefior Pardo to
discharge this honorable function, he instituted plans to foster
higher learning. He created chairs of foreign languages in the
faculty of letters, and he organized university extension
courses by means of public lectures and by studies, at popular
centers, in history, geography, hygiene and drawing, con
ducted by the younger professors.
Politics, however, imposed upon senor Pardo other labors.
It being necessary that elections should be held for president
and vice-president that the republic might return to a condi
tion of constitutional legality, the provisional president,
General Benavides, promoted the organization of a political
convention, formed by a hundred delegates from each party —
the civil, the liberal and the constitutional — and by the
persons who, during the last ten years, had held office as
ministers of state, senators or deputies. This plan permitted
the participation in the convention also of members of the old
democratic party and of many citizens of importance, already
retired from politics. For the first time in the history of
Peru and of all the South American nations, there took place
the nomination of a candidate for the presidency by. a con
vention of the delegates of all the parties. The convention
nominated sefior Pardo as its national candidate. The
elections were held, and he was chosen president for the new
term from August 18, 1915, until August 18, 1919.
The manifesto that sefior Pardo addressed to his fellow-
citizens, and which will be given the reader immediately,
contains a synthesis of this new period of order, of respect for
law and of progress, disturbed thirty days before the com
pletion of his constitutional term by an unjustifiable revolu
tion. We do not desire to add anything to what the former
president sets forth, both as to the work accomplished during

PERU IX
the four years of his government and as to the true significance
and motives of the revolution of July 4, which came to
interrupt again the constitutional life of Peru; but we do
desire to reproduce the words that sefior Pardo addressed to
the congress in his message of July 28, 1918, which faithfully
represent his thought in respect of the manner in which
political parties ought to solve the problem of presidential
succession. Unfortunately the parties did not harken to the
patriotic voice of President Pardo, and now the same political
groups have fallen under the sway of an imperious partisanship
which has driven from the country her leaders and delivered
her over to a relentless dictatorship.
The following are the ideas expressed in the message to
which we have referred:
The new policy of the nation continues to develop in accord
with the elevated and patriotic aspirations that gave birth to the
present regime. The government, loyal to them, has only
sought at every moment to serve the public interests, and in its
honest endeavor — it is a satisfaction to me to recall it; — it has
had and now has the valuable support of the majority of the
parties. The. nearness of the date at which the personnel of the execu
tive power is to be renewed again brings before the nation the
political problem in all its fullness and gravity.
Happily, the progress achieved during these last three years of
government — in which we have been able to contemplate, with
legitimate satisfaction, the establishment of the constitutional
regime; the building up of the national prestige abroad through
the development of a policy of good understanding and cordiality;
the reorganization of the administrative service; the increase of
the fiscal revenues; the restoration of the credit of the state ; the
carrying on of work demanded by respect for institutions or by
the great public necessities; in short, the resuscitation of all the
vital powers of the nation, the sure harbinger of a brilliant future
— points out to us, with the imperative force of a patriotic man
date, with greater intensity even than in 1915, whenever we are

X PERU
the profiters by a system, adopted then for the first time in
political customs — points out to us, I say — the duty of giving
to the problem a solution of concord, which will prevent the
lamentable strife of overweening personal ambitions.
On the other hand, as there do not exist in the programs of
our different political parties any fundamental divergencies,
there can be no difficulty to-day, as there was none three years
ago, to prevent all from uniting in a solemn act to nominate the
national candidate for the presidency of the republic who is to
be presented to the popular vote, thus laying the foundation of
a vigorous system of opinion that will not suffer in the exercise
of the public functions the disturbing influences of party interest,
and that shall find inspiration for its acts, as the government
over which I preside finds inspiration, solely in the country's
general needs.
One other consideration ought to determine us to guard zeal
ously the victory that is represented in the support of our civic
culture by the institution of conventions: they will mean the
definitive death of the partisan system of government.
The epoch of the apogee of the partisan leaders, which has
wrought so much harm to the republic by taking people una
wares with deceitful promises in order to make them victims
afterward of their own despotic and authoritarian tendencies, by
feigning love and respect for institutions and laws, in order soon
to cover them with contempt and mockery by postponing the
permanent interests of the nation to the satisfaction of their
hatreds and passions, ought to be closed for ever in Peru, which
has the right, by reason of the glory of her traditions and the
greatness of her destiny, to be governed, as all enlightened coun
tries are, by the reasonable rules of political law, and not by the
violence of inadvised personal ambition: by the most upright,
and not by the most audacious.
Publicists and statesmen, persuaded of the decisive influence
that the qualities of the leader of the nation exercise upon the
life of democracies, urge the necessity of withdrawing his election
from popular effervescences and passions, in order to confide
it to the reputable and serene judgment of the legislative assem
bly; and even among us this plan has been suggested.

PERU XI
Without considering this reform timely, but rather, far from
doing so, deeming it, as I do, dangerous in respect of our present
political condition, I hold that it is necessary to enrich the elec
toral habits of the country by adopting methods that will lead us,
slowly but surely and progressively, to a realization of the demo
cratic idea, which consists in elevating to the highest magistra
cies, through the intelligently combined cooperation of all the
factors of the citizenry, honorable rulers, worthy of so lofty an
investiture. What democracies seek with longing is the triumph of moral
superiority, and we certainly ought to be brought nearer to the
satisfaction of this fruitful craving by the nominating conven
tion, which, organized upon bases as ample as those that underlie
the platform of March, 1915, shall permit all the tendencies of
national opinion to be represented.
As to the mere functioning of the convention, it would be im
possible to entertain a doubt as to its happy outcome, because the
nation is now aware of the patriotism of its directive parties and
she knows that for them it is a question of loyalty and honor to
prevent the frustration of the most noble aspirations of the
present hour.
A. R.
New York, December 1, iqiq.

PERU

Declaration of Senor Doctor Don Jose Pardo
President of Peru
Although driven from the government by public
force and compelled to leave the country, I do not
consider myself excused from complying with the
constitutional precept that lays upon the president of
the republic the duty of rendering to his fellow-citizens
an account of his acts at the legal conclusion of his
term of office.
Far from it, it is for me a matter of the most legiti
mate satisfaction to be able to present to-day a
statement of the work accomplished by the adminis
tration that was overthrown by the soldiery on the
fourth of July just past, thus making it clear to all
honorable consciences that the governmental action
of the last four years was always based, upon the
dictates of the purest patriotism; that it respected the
constitution and laws; that it fully guaranteed the
free exercise of the rights of citizenship; and that it
adhered with loyalty and perseverance to the program
that had been outlined in respect of the fiscal and
economic development of the nation.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
When I assumed authority for the second time, in
August, 1915, the international situation of Perti was
one of marked isolation. The break occasioned in the
constitutional life of the nation had produced a
painful impression throughout the world, by reaf-

2 PERU
firming the universal public conception that only
legally constituted governments possess the lofty
representative authority of the external sovereignty of
states; and the reduction of our diplomatic service, to
which the great fiscal crisis of 19 14 gave rise, had also
tended to weaken appreciably the influence of the
republic abroad.
Elevated to the chief magistracy in a truly excep
tional manner, with the prestige of a free and undis
puted election, I thought that I ought preferably to
address my attention to securing the restoration of
our good name beyond the national borders, and to
this end I considered it wise to send accredited
legations to La Paz, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
My desires were immediately and fully satisfied;
for the statesmen who directed the international
policy of the continent knew very well that my
presence at the head of the government was a guaranty
that, in so far as Perii was concerned, the old bonds of
fraternal friendship that unite her with their states
would necessarily be strengthened; and, because all
the peoples remembered that my past acts as a ruler
had been distinguished by a persistent endeavor to
arrive at a wise juridical solution of our territorial
questions, while avoiding carefully, and without any
diminution, certainly, of the honor and integrity of the
country, every irritating political incident that might
contribute to the perturbation of the harmony of
America. When the United States declared war upon Ger
many, my government, which had always protested
against the unrestricted submarine campaign, placed

PERU 3
itself in full harmony with the policy of the great
republic of the north; and, in order to accentuate its
attitude of frank Americanism, it refrained from
declaring its neutrality toward the conflict, as the
practice of international law would have provided in
such a case.
In my message of July, 1917, at the same time that I
reproduced some of the noble principles proclaimed by
the president of the United States before the congress
of his country in April of the same year, I said textu-
ally: Perii — which in all the acts of her international life, has sought
to incorporate these principles of justice in the juridicial and
political relations of the American peoples; Peru, which, in a
not remote war, sacrificed to these ideals the blood of her sons,
the wealth of her treasures and her future hopes — could not
remain indifferent to the words of President Wilson, and she
renews her adherence, another time still, to such noble purposes.
Not in vain will be the sufferings of humanity during these
years of the terrible war that draws in the most powerful and
peaceful nation of history, if by her effort there be erected the
new edifice of international society upon the immovable founda
tion of justice and respect for sovereignty.
Shortly afterward, on September 5, of the same
year of 191 7, the head of the chancellery, Doctor
Francisco Tudela, presented the following declaration
in the chamber of deputies :
The minister of foreign relations, ratifying the declarations
contained in the last message of the president of the republic,
and reaffirming the thoughts he expressed before the chamber
of deputies, declares that the foreign policy of the Peruvian gov
ernment has as its object Pan American solidarity, founded upon
the principles of international justice that have been proclaimed
by the president of the United States.

4 PERU
On October 5, the congress of the republic met in
full session at the invitation of the minister of foreign
relations, and it approved by a hundred and five to
five votes the motion of senor Jos6 Balta, a renowned
and distinguished member of the majority:
In view of the declaration of the sefior minister of foreign rela
tions and of the principles proclaimed by the chancellery and by
the chambers, the congress approves the breaking off of rela
tions with the German empire proposed by the executive.
The result of the parliamentary resolution, while at
the same time that it reflected the national sentiment,
openly favorable to the cause of the allied countries,
was the best denial that could be given to those who,
boasting of being indifferent to the supreme interests
of the nation, and stimulated only by the ignoble
purpose of injuring me, kept on affirming, in every
possible manner and with the most refined malevo
lence, that those who were in charge of the government
did not look with sympathy upon the policy of a
sincere support of the United States in respect of the
struggle that has stained the fields of Europe with
blood for the period of four years, and which, for the
happiness of humanity and thanks principally to the
powerful moral and military support of the American
federation, has terminated with the triumph of the
most elevated ideals of justice.
However, the international policy of the government
over which I have had the honor to preside was not
minded to limit itself to formal declarations of Ameri
canism, but, penetrating to the realm of realities,
although without ceasing to contemplate, as was its
duty, the actual condition of the country, lent to the

PERU 5
allies all the assistance compatible with the true state
of the material resources on which it could rely.
Thus we granted the unrestricted use of our ports to
the war vessels of the allies; we also gave them
permission to utilize the wireless service of the state;
and when the illegal destruction of merchant vessels of
all flags and on all seas produced a profound disturb
ance of commercial traffic, we took possession of the
German steamers and ships lying in Peruvian waters,
and we entered into a contract with the Shipping
Board's Emergency Fleet Corporation by which that
fleet was placed at the disposition of the government
of the United States, thus showing that the adher
ence of Peru to the cause was positive and sincere.
My policy in the international sphere has been
criticised, however, and that very severely, because I
did not lead the country to the extreme of a declaration
of war against Germany; and the leader of the
victorious revolution that to-day exercises dictatorship
in Peru had the temerity to charge the constitutional
government, in a political speech, with having let
escape "an unique opportunity" for recovering the
territories occupied by Chile.
I ought to set forth with all frankness that I was
always opposed to the nation's proclaiming a state of
war with the German empire, because I have a very
rigid notion of the circumspection with which it is
necessary to direct affairs of state, and because
I have a still higher idea of the respect that govern
ments owe to the good name of their country.
To declare war upon a powerful people that devel
oped its martial activities upon a stage eight thousand

6 PERU
miles removed from our soil, while lacking all the
necessary means of lending effective aid to the armies
that were defending the right, would have been to
place the republic in a situation but slightly pleasant,
which verged upon the borders of the despicable, if it
be recalled that a few years before, and even at the
expense of the integrity of our national territory, we
made enormous sacrifices in order to preserve the peace
with peoples less remote and less strong, when the
intriguery of the Chilean policy, efficaciously served by
the imprudent and insensate efforts of the same
functionary who is at present intrusted with the
management of the foreign relations of the country,
was about to plunge us in the irreparable national
disasters of 1909 and 1910 with Bolivia, Brazil and
Ecuador. Our true situation has been so well understood and
appreciated by the allied governments that the idea of
suggesting to the chancellery a declaration of war
against Germany never occurred to any of their
representatives or agents. On the other hand, the
manifestations of frank sympathy which Peru has
received from all of them, in view of the participation
of which she was capable in the world conflict, are
public property.
It would not be worth while therefore to pause to
take up the charges and condemnations which have
been heaped upon me with visible hatred on this ac
count, if they were not the unquestionable exponents
of the inconsistency that dominates the authors of
them, the present shapers of the national policy.
I consider it, indeed, an inevitable duty on my part

PERU 7
to make it clear that never, during the four years of
this second administration over which I have presided,
the same as in my former term of 1 904-1 908, was there
presented a single propitious opportunity for the
recovery of the Peruvian territories shorn off by Chile.
Such a remarkable occasion for the achievement of
national revindication has existed at this* time for
Italy, a great power whose military assistance has
weighed considerably in the fate of the European war;
but could it be said with honor and loyalty that the
distant support of Peru, in case it were feasible, would
have had the power of wresting from the allies an
agreement remotely analagous even to the treaty of
London? However, the language employed by my detractors
not only reveals a total misunderstanding of the
enormous responsibilities incurred by men who aspire
to the management of the destiny of a people, when
they address it, in respect of grave external problems,
in terms that are at strife with truth and patriotism,
but it also demonstrates an absolute failure to compre
hend the new juridicial formulas adopted by humanity
since the entrance of the United States into the great
struggle took place under the wise and generous
inspiration of President Wilson.
To seek, at the present moment of the world, to
adjust the dominion of the rules of law in the society of
nations to the text of political conventions is to over
look the new and ample orientations that are opened
to the existence of states and which, now incorpo
rated in the covenant of the league of nations assure
full reparation for all the historic injustices.

8 PERU
Peru has welcomed with enthusiasm the radical
transformation that obtains to-day in public law,
because at all times, whether at the dawn of her
independence, when, seconding the lofty thought of
Bolivar, she participated in the congress of Panama in
1826, when she took a seat in the Pan American
conference in Washington in 1889 — a noble exponent
of the moral superiority of Blaine — inevitably,
throughout every incident of her political existence,
she upheld the principle of judicial solution as the
only effective means of settling differences between
nations. She has absolute faith that the application of these
norms will fulfil her national aspirations, because her
demands are legitimate and because the equality of
nations, established by universal concensus, excludes
all distinction "between large and small, between
powerful and weak peoples," by sheltering them
beneath the same conception of justice!
That the policy of my government in the face of the
world war has shed luster and respectability upon the
country abroad is revealed by the fact that Peril has
taken part in the peace conference and has enjoyed
precisely the same diplomatic representation as that
assigned to the belligerent nations of America which,
by reason of military and economic deficiencies
known to all, were not able to lend to the allied powers
any other assistance than their moral solidarity.
In other respects, the appreciation which the
greatest peoples of the earth have expressed of our
international conduct stands as the strongest refuta
tion that could be offered to the systematic and

PERU 9
heated anathematizers of the policies of the chancel
lery. For three years, and without overlooking any
occasion, I have made known to the government of
Chile my desire to see diplomatic relations reestab
lished between our respective countries; but, unfor
tunately, this desire of my administration was not
realized, because there prevailed among the members
of the cabinet of Santiago the idea — from which I had
to differ fundamentally at every moment — that the
reestablishment of legations would be improper, if
this act of reciprocal friendship were not preceded by
an agreement of the chancelleries regarding the
solution of the problem of Tacna and Arica.
Deplorable circumstances that took place previously
have united to aggravate the subject of political
interdiction in which we live with respect to our
neighbor of the south, and which also compelled us
to withdraw the accredited consular agents whom
we had in Chile and whom the government of La
Moneda 3 refused to grant the due guaranties for the
free exercise of their function.
The triumph of the allied cause thrilled the national
heart of Peru in November, 1918. The reintegration
of the soil of France, with the return to the bosom of
the country of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine,
and the certainty that very soon Wilson's lofty
principles would become incorporated in the league
of nations, which would mean the reign of peace and
justice in the world, were memorable acts destined to
8 The Chilean White House or executive mansion.

10 PERU
stir profoundly the spirit of our people, who, the
victim of the growing Prussianism implanted by Chile
in America in 1879, awaited longingly the hour that
would announce the final overthrow of all imperi
alisms. The victory of law must necessarily provoke a very
different echo in the republic of the far south. The
international policy of that country — being based upon
the idea of force which her diplomats and publicists
always proclaim without mincing words; her army,
organized upon and instructed in the principles of
German tactics; her youth, educated in admiration of
the Prussian methods and aspirations of conquest —
Chile must have felt, with the overthrow of the
German empire, a bitter and painful contrast. When
she saw disappear for ever her dreams of greatness,
which were to be built upon the violation and despoil
ment of the sovereignty of weaker nations, in the
spasm of her keen disillusionment, she was unable to
find any other means expressive of her profound
hatred of our country than that of making the
Peruvian inhabitants of the territories which she
annexed, as a result of the war of the Pacific, the
object of most unjust and cruel persecutions.
Upon the expulsion of the consul of Peru at Iquique,
accomplished by individuals of the Chilean population,
with the manifest and proven complicity of the
authorities of the port, there followed innumerable
assaults upon the persons and properties of our
compatriots, which had, as a natural and inevitable
epilogue, the exodus en masse of thousands of Peru
vians from Tarapaca, Arica and Tacna, where they

PERU II
were living engaged in the honest labor of industry in
its varied and rich manifestations.
The chancellery of Santiago, by means of circulars
to its legations abroad, and President Sanfuentes, in
his last message to the congress, comprehending
doubtless the reaction that their vituperable attitude
was to awaken in the conscience of humanity, have
attempted in vain to smooth it over by alleging that
the departure of the Peruvians from Tarapaca was
occasioned by the paralyzation of labor in the saltpeter
works, due to the crisis in nitrate.
Neither the number of the expatriates from the
south, nor the simultaneous and violent manner in
which they were compelled to abandon their labor and
their homes, nor even the habitual occupation in
which a great number of them were engaged, lent
verisimilitude to the explanation which, after the
manner of an excuse, the government of Chile has
sought to give to the society of civilized peoples; all
this is aside from argument that can have no applica
tion in respect of the inhabitants of Tacna and Arica,
a region in which the deposits of saltpeter are not
exploited. As to the assertion, made equally by the president of
Chile, to the effect that the consuls of his country in
Peru could not rely upon the corresponding guaranties,
I find it my duty to reply to the charge by making it
clear that they always received from the Peruvian
government and its people due respect, and that their
retirement from the national territory took place after
the consular agents of Peru in Chile had been with
drawn by the express order of the chancellery.

12 PERU
These disagreeable incidents stirred, as was natural,
the public opinion of America, and the president of the
United States, animated by a noble spirit of fraternity,
hastened to offer his friendly action to Chile and Peru.
My government, in agreement with the enlightened
opinion of the members of the diplomatic committee of
the congress and interpreting the unanimous view
of the nation, welcomed with lively sympathy the
generous action of the head of the United States gov
ernment, to whom it was' my honor to address the
following cable message, in reply to one received from
him through the medium of the envoy extraordinary
and minister plenipotentiary of the United States in
Lima: To his excellency Woodrow Wilson, president of the United
States, en route to Europe:
I have received through the medium of his excellency, Mr.
McMillin, envoy1 extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of
the United States in this capital, the telegram of your excellency
relative to our question with Chile, and I hasten to present to
your excellency, in the name of Peru, the most lively and sincere
expression of our appreciation of your generous effort to main
tain peace.
The rupture of consular relations is in no sense an act of hos
tility or disturbance on our part, but, on the contrary, one of
prudence, in order to avoid the aggravation of agitations and
assaults against our agents.
We have not been able to prevent, unfortunately, our citizens
who live upon their own soil, occupied by Chile, from being vic
tims, as they have been often and in recent days, of hateful,
outrageous and grave injuries to their persons and properties.
Our country asks for the prevalence of natural justice and
of the principles of civilization, to the end that such a state of
affairs may cease immediately and finally, and that merited pun-

PERU 13
ishment shall be meted out to the responsible authorities, and
that proper guaranties shall be given.
These lawless acts demonstrate once more that the powers of
oppression against which civilized nations have fought exist also
in a certain measure upon this continent, and that here, as in
Europe, there are parts of a country torn from their natural
nucleus and subjected to misfortune by the dominion of brute
force. All Peruvian hearts go with your excellency upon your journey
to Europe, because they profoundly cherish the hope that your
excellency, who is the most authoritative interpreter of the mag
nificent ideals of the juridicial ordering of the world, shall obtain
in the conference in Paris the sanction of the systems and organi
zations in accordance with which shall be effected a just solution
of the problems that disturb our life and prevent our devoting
ourselves with confidence to the work and felicity of our people.
Your excellency confers upon us a new benefit by offering us
your high mediation for the settlement of our difficulties with the
republic of Chile. The government of Peru accepts without
hesitation and with gratitude your excellency's mediation. The
government of Peru and the entire nation understand that your
excellency, as the creator of new forms of liberty and justice in
the common international life, will secure their application in our
case and will lend us your valuable assistance in order that there
may reign between these republics a peace based upon right,
which will only be possible when one possesses what is his own
without the stain of conquest, and when peoples obey the states
and governments to which they belong historically and which
they freely desire to obey.
I salute your excellency and express to you the longings of the
Peruvian nation for a happy voyage and for the fruition of your
noble purposes in behalf of humanity. Jos£ Pardo,
President of Peru.
Desiring that the whole country, in an act of
patriotic solidarity, should assist in alleviating the
sad condition of our fellow-countrymen in the south,

14 PERU
I appealed to her by means of a proclamation in which
I invited all the social classes to contribute in behalf
of our martyred brethren.
As was to be expected, the idea was welcomed with
whole-hearted and general enthusiasm, and in a few
days the public subscription reached approximately
the sum of $97,280.00.
Unhappily, the executive has been assailed by politi
cal interests that have been distinguished by their
contempt for the most sacred interests of the republic.
They made those subscribers the objects of their
attacks, and the country must recall with a strange
sentiment, a mixture of reprobation and pain, that be
cause of the celebration of a session directed by known
agitators, in the course of which reputable members
of the aid committee were the target of most incredi
ble attacks, and the assistance which our society was
hastening to render, in response to my initiative, sud
denly had to cease.
May I be permitted to improve this opportunity to
express my appreciation to the distinguished group of
ladies and gentlemen who were kind enough to second
the patriotic efforts of the government, an apprecia
tion that I ought to extend to the cultured society of
Arequipa for the immediate cooperation which it ex
tended to the state by taking charge of the organizing
of aid for the children of that department, thrust forth,
as they were, from the territories to-day occupied by
Chile. Alleging reasons founded upon the absolute right
of peoples to their preservation and development,

PERU 15
General Ismael Montes, former president of Bolivia
and plenipotenciary of his nation in France, addressed
a note to the minister of foreign affairs of that republic,
in January of the current year, informing him that
the government of his country entertained the purpose
of presenting to the league of nations a petition in
which it would assert the claims of its pretended title
to the territories of Tacna and Arica, a title which he
considers superior to that presented by Peru or Chile.
Shortly afterward, the chancellery of La Paz ad
dressed a circular to its legations abroad in which it
insisted, although in terms less precise and less clear,
upon the aspirations expressed by General Montes.
In protection of the indisputable rights of our nation
to the definitive sovereignty of the provinces of Tacna
and Arica, the chancellery replied, under date of
April 30, to the Bolivian circular to make it clear that
Peru would never consent to renouncing her rights
to her territories; that she is not disposed to cede
them at any price ; that she refuses the offers of com
pensation at which an attempt has been made; and
that she is resolved to appeal to the league of nations,
assured of securing the most ample guaranties of her
rights. It is hardly to be conceived how Bolivia's diplo
macy has been able to fall into the error of believing
that a tribunal of all the free democracies, like the
league of nations, instituted precisely to assure full
respect for the sovereignty of states, would be dis
posed to accept a petition presented by its legation in
Paris, which does not limit itself to invoking the
natural right of Bolivia to have access to the ocean.

16 PERU
but which undertakes to obtain it with detriment to
. the national integrity of a traditionally friendly people.
Throughout our existence as a republic, well-nigh a
century long, Bolivia has never dared to dispute the
full and lofty juridicial right that gives to Peril
domination and sovereignty over the territories of
Tacna and Arica.
If to-day she justly aspires to obtain direct com
munication to the sea, her statesmen ought to seek it
in a formula that would not involve an attack upon
the legitimate rights of our nation, which, to the fullest
extent and animated by the purpose of diminishing
the harmful effects to the economy of the Bolivian
republic which would be caused by the mediterranean
condition to which the implacable victor of 1879 re
duced her, did not fail, as she does not fail to-day, to
exert every effort to enable her to develop, free of
hindrances and burdens, her commercial activity by
means of our railways and ports.
The defense of the rights of Peru in this exceptional
hour of the existence of the nations has been contem
plated by my government with the most exacting
zeal, of which the wisdom with which the chancellery
proceeded to make provision for our principal lega
tions is an evident manifestation.
It would be sufficient, indeed, to run over the names
of the distinguished personages who have served in the
diplomatic representation of the country at Wash
ington, London, Paris and Brussels, Rome and The
Hague, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, in order to
give incontestable value to my assertion and to demon
strate in an absolute manner that "the constitutional

PERU 17
regimen had not, as it could not have, in the direction
of foreign affairs, any other end than that of attaining
the greatest efficiency in safeguarding the supreme
interests of the republic.
An intense activity in propaganda has also been
carried on in behalf of the cause of our country, in the
most important centers of culture of Europe and
America; and in this fruitful labor we have had the
good fortune to be able to avail ourselves of the
invaluable cooperation of distinguished foreign pub
licists, who have sought generously to honor Peru by
the aid of their prestige and talents.
The circulars published by our chancellery under
the dates of December 2 and 28, 1918, and June 12,
February 14 and April 30, of this year have also
contributed to the just and proper molding of inter
national public .opinion regarding the reality of our
present problems.
That the foreign policy of my government has con
tributed to the honor and respect of Peru has been
attested— rather than by any number of phrases — by
the extraordinary missions which were sent to us by
England, Argentina and Uruguay, in the persons of
their illustrious ambasadors, his excellency sefior
Bunsen, his excellency sefior Saguier and his excellency
senor Brum, the president of Uruguay at the present
time; in the decision of his holiness, Pope Benedict
XV, to raise to a nunciature his diplomatic represen
tative in this country; and the same decision on the
part of the United States, granting to us the corre
sponding right to elevate our representative at Wash
ington to the rank of ambassador; and finally, the

18 PERU
participation of Peru in the conference of peace and
in the signing by our delegate of the treaty of Ver
sailles. The recalling of all these facts enables the nation
to judge whether the government which has ter
minated did or did not serve her interests with fore
sight and patriotism; and the future will decide
whether revolution and dictatorship guide the destiny
of Peril with greater wisdom and efficiency.
THE EXCHEQUER
The moment in which it fell to my lot to assume
charge, for the second time, of the management of the
affairs of the exchequer was exceptionally serious.
My fellow-citizens unquestionably will not forget
that in August, 191 5, the economic activity of the
nation was considerably restricted as the result of
manifold causes, some of which originated in the state
of profound political disturbance in which we lived,
and others, in the general distrust awakened by the
first symptoms reflected by the European war.
As a contributory cause, to complete the pessimism
that filled the air, came the condition of the marked
disequilibrium of the public treasury, which had been
carrying for several years an enormous floating debt,
accumulated in the main during the first term of
government of the present d'ctator, as was made
known to the nation by President Billinghurst in the
financial communication which he addressed to the
congress upon assuming charge.
This debt had not been contracted in order to set on
foot public works and great reforms in the country.

PERU 19
No ; no greater value in the national wealth compen
sated for these considerable charges upon the national
credit. The floating debt of the government in 1912 is the
bill which the government has to pay for the mistakes
of every kind of which that destructive administration
was guilty.
The reduction of public revenues occasioned by the
war aggravated the financial situation, and the crisis
reached such a point that the exchequer did not pay
the administrative debts corresponding to the first
fortnight of August, 1915. The fiscal credit had
disappeared entirely. The economic situation of the
republic reflected the financial crisis and an absolute
lack of confidence, growing out of the fear that a new
issue of bank-notes, which would put us upon a basis
of paper money, would be necessary.
Therefore, although the value of exports considera^
bly exceeded the value of imports, foreign exchange
was unfavorable to our money, and the balance from
the national production remained abroad.1
Knowing the true cause of the bad economic situa
tion, at the same time as the importance of the
national resources, I did not hesitate to assume the
responsibilities of the hour, trusting that the whole
country would now perceive the danger to her future
that so abnormal a state of things involved, and that
she would second with abnegation and patriotism my
efforts as a ruler.
To this effect, in the statement which I made to the
nation on April 30, 19 15, as the result of my being pro
claimed by all parties as a candidate for the presidency

20 PERU
of the republic, I presented a financial program which
I formalized in a discourse that I pronounced when I
received the insignia of the supreme command. In
that program, I indicated in a concrete manner the
policy which my government would follow in this
respect, and when it was made public, it immediately
reestablished confidence, which was strengthened
when the nation beheld the constitutional regime
restored and the efforts put forth by the government
for the prompt execution of the financial measures
proposed. The bases of the reforms consisted in:
I. The strict revision of public expenses in order
to limit them to the most urgent needs of the adminis
tration. 2. The increase of public revenues to the extent
necessary to meet the expenses of the nation, the debts
of the state and the amortization of the floating debt.
3. The solemn engagement to the nation not to
effect new fiduciary issues of paper and to increase the
effective guaranty in metallic gold that might serve
as a basis for the issues made, in order that, at the
close of the war, the conversion might be accomplished
in the manner established by the respective laws.
When these efforts of the executive power should be
embodied in laws and they should result in a regime
of order, rectitude and justice, they would necessarily
obtain the most complete success, since they would not
seriously affect the normal administrative process nor
deplete the productive powers of the nation, singularly
stimulated by the high prices which our principal
articles still command in the world market.

PERU

21

To-day the economic and fiscal condition of Peril
truly is flattering.
The figures which our foreign commerce totaled in
the last three years proclaim a high degree of pros
perity. They are as follows:
1916  $122,710,029.14
1917  156,359,438.69
1918  145.352,375-97
In 1915, the foreign trade amounted to only $83,-
75I-349-54- The bank movements are another appreciable indi
cation of the economic progress that has occurred
during recent times. The following data will give an
approximate idea of the capitalization effected by
the country during the constitutional period:
Total cash in the banks,
August 15, 1915. .
Total cash in the banks,
June 30, 1916 
Total cash in the banks,
June 30, 1917 
Total cash in the banks,

June 30, 1918 . .
Total cash in the banks,
June 30, 1919 . . .
Deposits and credit accounts,
August 15, 1915 ....
Deposits and credit accounts,
June 30, 1916 ....
Deposits and credit accounts,
June 30, 1917 
Deposits and credit accounts,
June 30, 1918 . ." . .
Deposits and credit accounts,
June 30, 1919 ...

{7,697,502.77 8,376,395-77
14,208,984.32
16,549,502.20 25,371,988.83 10,181,290.26 11,922,131.43
27,374,387.7i37,652,642.3048,085,101.26

22 PERU
In the manifesto which I addressed to the nation
on April 20, 1915, as a result of my being proclaimed
the candidate of all the political parties for the
presidency of the republic, I made a solemn promise
to free the country from the menace of national bank
notes by means of the steady development of a finan
cial policy that should be far-seeing and discreet. I
said at the time:
These declarations ought to convey to the public mind the
most absolute confidence that the specter of a national bank
note has been definitely removed from our frontiers.
The reality has fully confirmed my promise.
On June 30, 1915, the board of supervision had on
hand $1,376,155.92, which was equivalent to 20 per
cent, more than the amount of the issue, at that time
$1,149,783.74. On June 30 of the present year the stock of gold with
the board of supervision and in banks of New York
and London was $23,015,903.23; that is, 87.27 per
cent, of the total of the issue, amounting to $26,370,-
214.95- These figures constitute the best exponent of the
earnestness with which the government devoted itself
at every moment to the maintenance of the value of
our money, and to which effect it not only invariably
took pains that order and prudence should reign in
the organization of our fiscal system, but that, by
favoring importation and the coinage of gold and by
securing it for institutions of credit in exchange for
bills intended for circulation, the metallic guaranty

PERU 23
of the check 4 was appreciably increased, thus defi
nitely assuring the stability of the monetary system
of our country.
The administration also contributed to the happy
solution of our monetary problems by giving solicitous
attention to the payment of the loans made by the
banks to the government, in pursuance of laws number
1968 and number 1982.
These payments being made with all punctuality,
it was possible to reduce these credits in such a
manner that, from $2,353,241, to which it amounted
on June 30, 1915, it reached only $1,072,829.91 on the
same day of the present year.
With a view to the government's being able to pay
off immediately in gold this balance against it and in
favor of the banks, of $1,072,829.91, a part of the
obligation of these institutions in behalf of the public
for the amount of the circular checks, the respective
bill for a law to be presented to the congress on the day
of its installation was formulated. This bill permitted
the making of an immediate delivery in metallic gold
of the balance mentioned to the board of supervision.
The proceeding under consideration enabled the
exchequer to free itself of this obligation, without
assuming new debts and without imposing new bur
dens upon the people.
The responsibility of the government being dis
charged, the banks, in which there was still a certain
» The fiscal notes issued during the period were called checks to.
avoid the use of the words "note" or "bill," unfamiliar and disagreeable
to Peruvian ears. Hitherto the only money in use was gold, silver,
nickel or copper coin.

24 PERU
difference between the gold deposits and the amount
of the checks received, would also have had to fulfil
their guaranties, and in this manner, on August 18, at
the conclusion of my term, the nation would have had
in gold on deposit the whole amount of the circulating
checks. This plan had also another advantage of great im
portance to the country: that of releasing the tobacco
revenue, ten per cent, of the net product of which was
set apart to pay off the loan made by the banks ; and
upon the making of this payment, the fund available
for the construction of railways was to be increased by
this ten per cent.
The problems that resulted from the extraordinary
rise in value of silver were also duly considered by the
administration, and it solicited and obtained from the
congress the necessary laws, by virtue of which were
issued the bills of one sol and the nickel fractional coin
of twenty, ten and five centavos.
Equally, because of the crisis that occurred in inter
national exchange and in circulation itself as a result
of the prohibition of the export of gold from the
United States, the government had to request in due
season the authority of the legislative power to in
crease by $14,592,000 the amount of the issue, with the
guaranty of deposits made in the banks of New York
and London.
Notwithstanding the marked misgiving with which
a good part of the public received these last acts of the
executive power, they served to solve the great diffi
culties in which the national economy was involved
by the notable scarcity in the circulating medium, and

PERU 25
they also prevented the withdrawal from commercial
activity of large sums of money, the amount of the
balance from our sales abroad.
In order to free the tobacco revenue which, as is
known, is set apart for the payment of the loans made
by banks to the extent of ten per cent., until the
circulating checks shall be redeemed, and of twenty
per cent, from the date of this operation, and above all,
for the purpose of enabling the government to pay off
punctually in gold its still remaining obligation, thus
enabling the banks themselves to cover the amount of
their issue in gold, a bill was formulated that was to be
submitted to the congress, and in the drawing of which
the ideas for the public good mentioned above were
contemplated, without involving new revenues or the
making of any loan.
This step being sanctioned, the guaranty of the
issue would have risen to 92.42 per cent.
The public finances have improved considerably
during recent years, and this betterment is to be
attributed to the new revenues created by the congress
upon the proposal of the executive power.
As has just been said, the most valuable element
involved in the new revenues was constituted by the
export duties upon agricultural and mining products,
a tax that operates upon our principal extractive
industries, but which, because of the spirit of justice
and public interest that has governed its creation,
does not compromise, fortunately, the sources of
national wealth.
These export duties established in conformity with
laws 2143, of October 4, 1915, and 2187, of November

26 PERU
14, of the same year, brought into the treasury the
following returns :
1915 .... ... $272,157.82
1916 . . 2,320,934.45
1917 2,868,761.90
1918 ... .... 4,831,809.56
The first six months of 191 9 . 2,413,400.62
$12,707,064.35
The new taxes created in accordance with law 2219
have contributed likewise to the increasing movement
of the fiscal revenues, and they produced in the year
1918:
Consular bills of lading  . . $17,190.70
Ten per cent, upon articles previously free . . . 380,810.03
Demurrage in the custom-houses of Callao and
Mollendo . . 46,104.98
$444,105.71
The new inheritance tax, fixed by law number
2227, has brought into the exchequer in the last year
a revenue of $85,083.58, and in the first six months
of the present year of $78,300.72:
In accord with the ideas set forth in my last message
to the congress and sanctioned by law number 3069,
there was constituted the new Compafiia Adminis-
tradora del Guano, with the understanding that the
government should enjoy a stipulated participation in
the selling price of the fertilizer and that the expenses
of extraction and transportation should be at the
expense of the company itself.
If the legislative chambers, wisely safeguarding the
interests of the state connected with the fostering of
thi^ valuable source of public wealth, retain the figure

PERU 27
of $1.22, proposed by the executive power as the quota
for the unit of azote (nitrogen) which the government
ought to receive, it is evident that the consumption of
guano will extend considerably, with positive benefit to
the national agriculture; and at no distant time the
exchequer will have from this source a net revenue of
not less than $1,216,000 annually, resulting from the
employment of a hundred thousand tons of fertilizer in
agricultural enterprises.
The customs revenues, as likewise those adminis
tered by the fiscalized companies,6 have also increased
in a proportion worthy to be taken into account.
All these factors indicate a notable progress in the
development of the public income, the exact figures of
which are shown in the following table :
Income received in 1914 ... . $14,733,015.84
Income received in 1915 . ... 14,025,813.31
Income received in 1916 19,175,755-77
Income received in 1917 . 21,938,756.96
Income received in 1918  23,796,930.62
Estimated income for 1919, according to the
budget voted by the congress .... 25,142,731.38
A fundamental point of my program of government
was the restoration of the credit of the nation, pro
foundly affected by the suspension which the state was
compelled to make in the payment of all its obligations
in 1914 on account of the grave crisis that occurred as a
result of the declaration of war in Europe.
• Companies organized under supervision of the national govern
ment, and in which a representative of the government holds a re
sponsible position.

28 PERU
In order to secure this object, I had to occupy
myself, from the very moment in which I assumed
charge of the task of administration, with studying the
best manner of putting the public treasury in a sound
condition, and to this end I was authorized by the
congress to make a refunding loan in the United
States. Circumstances known to all hindered the carrying
out of this wise financial plan, the execution of which
would have enabled the nation to save large sums of
money in the payment of interest upon debts that
to-day bear a higher rate, and to avail herself of the
advantages to be derived from the international
exchange in favor of our money, without increasing in
any way the financial engagements of the state,
inasmuch as it was simply an affair of refunding the
debt. The idea of placing a loan abroad being abandoned,
I resolved strictly to apply the balances of the budget
to the amortization of our credit obligations, a purpose
which was fully realized in the transactions of 1916
and 1917, but which, unfortunately, could not be
carried out with the same amplitude last year, because
the congress substantially modified the figures of the
budget bill for 191 8 presented by the executive
power. In spite of this, the table that appears below will
make known to the people of the country the energetic
and constant enterprise displayed by the constitu
tional government in reducing the floating debt of the
state — the effect of the shortsightedness and inhar-
mony of another hour — and in restoring the foreign

PERU 29
credit of the nation, an advantage that is only enjoyed
by peoples that are able punctually to discharge their
financial obligations.
PAYMENT OF THE NATIONAL DEBTS
YEARS AMORTIZATION INTERESTS TOTAL
19*5 $330,454.87 $405,487.36 $735,937-83
1916 1,881,228.85 1,441,985.59 3,323,211.28
1917 3,635,857.54 1,434,379-94 5,067,801.63
1918 1,226,259.16 851,854.47 2,178,109.98
1919, first six 670,665.46 365,888.63 1,036,552.45
months 
$7,744,465.88 $4,499,595-99 $12,341,613.17
As may be seen, during the period of my adminis
tration there has been paid out, on account of amortiza
tion and interest upon our debts, the considerable
sum of $12,261,629.90.
To these figures that appear in the foregoing
table, as the payments made during recent years, to
the sum of $7,744,465.88, I am able to add the fol
lowing amortizations, which were to be obtained
from transactions carried on with the persons inter
ested and which were about to be perfected when the
government was overthrown. With the Compafiia
peruana de Vapores I had on foot agreements that
represented for the country the following benefits:
Cancelation of the responsibility of the government
for the loan of  $1,226,000
For the payment of  1,459,200
Besides, there were canceled also the responsibilities
of the state. for previous payments due and not
made and which exceeded the sum of  972,800
Or a reduction of the public debt by the amount of . $3,658,100

30 PERU
The government was to sell the 130,000 shares
which it held in this steamship company at $972,800.
With the Compafiia del Ferrocarril de Huacho, by
virtue of the express authority of the congress, I was
at the point of perfecting an agreement by which the
government would receive as property the railway and
its equipment in order to exploit it in the way the
government might deem proper. The present issue
would be replaced by an issue of government bonds,
but limited to $3,842,560, which represents the value
of the work accomplished. The issue would yield the
same interest as that which it would bear to-day, thus
producing a larger sum to be devoted to amortization.
The sums claimed for payments due but not made
would be canceled by the government with $486,400.
These were the bases of the arrangement planned,
which, as will be observed, could not have been more
favorable to the public interests, because they cleared
up a situation that was disadvantageous to the credit
of the state, and because the debt that exists to-day in
behalf of a railway that is not a property of the state,
was to be refunded by a smaller sum, while at the same
time the government would receive possession of the
line, that is, it would increase by an equal amount the
productive national property. .
The government planned the organization of a
company that was to manage the railway, supply it
with the necessary rolling-stock and extend it to
Lima, with the assurance that the products of the
line were to supply the new capital necessary to carry
on this work, and even to cover the responsibility for
the payment of the new bonds in a short time.

PERU 31
Another of the purposes insistently pursued by the
recent government was the refunding of the internal
debt, to which effect law number 2713 was enacted, by
virtue of which the present obligations, which origi
nated with the previous fiscal administration, could be
canceled with warrants subject to sinking-fund and
interest charges.
The respective bonds being received from the
United States, the issue was begun with the object of
paying the obligations investigated by the liquidating
committee, organized for this purpose.
Up to July 4, new bonds had been issued to the
value of $1,606,481.92.
With a view to liquidating the obligations of the
state derived from the contract for the cancelation of
the public debt of January n, 1890, relative to the
exploitation of the guano of our islands, I have used
the greatest diligence in the settlement of the differ
ences pending with the Peruvian Corporation.
Duly assured — in conformity with law number 2107
— of a preference for the use of this fertilizer in the
national agriculture, the government proposed to the
Peruvian Corporation to pay it in money and by
annuities the value of the number of tons of guano
which, according to the contract of 1890 already cited,
it still has the right to export — when the requirements
of the farmers of the country were satisfied — until
the quantity of 2,000,000 tons should be reached.
Progress was made with the new representative of
the Peruvian Corporation in the solution proposed, to
the point that the basis of indemnity to the corpora
tion for the remainder of the guano that still belongs

32 PERU
to it was accepted; but it was not possible to reach an
understanding regarding the rate at which the price of
the fertilizer per ton should be estimated. Upon this
point the government contended that the price ought
to be fixed at the average maintained by the guano
from the time when the first shipment was made by
the Peruvian Corporation until the enactment of the
decree of February, 1909, which, by arbitrarily estab
lishing the division of the guano islands into zones,
granted to the Peruvian Corporation, without any
compensation to the government, the richest fertilizer.
assuring it consequently the longest time for exploita-
t'on; and the representative of the company held to
exactly the opposite opinion, that is, that the value of
the guano ought to be calculated at the mean price of
the fertilizer, beginning with the decree of 1909
mentioned, until the date of the last shipment.
In view of the absolute impossibility of reaching a
direct understanding regarding this particular, it was
agreed that the difference question should be sub
mitted to arbitration for solution; and at the very
moment when the revolutionary movement of July 4'
last was in process of consummation, the directorate
of the Peruvian Corporation was to give its decision
regarding this proposal, which the government
promised also to submit to the sanction of the congress.
The policy pursued by the government in relation
to the administration of the Compafiia Peruana de
Vapores is known to the public.
Animated by the serious purpose of conciliating the
permanent and higher interests of the company with

 Peru  33
those of the stock-holders, it was necessary to over
come inevitable obstacles before a good understanding
could be reached. Happily, all obstacles being over
come, the company has won a truly favorable and solid
position, which permits it to face the future with
confidence. During recent times the Compafiia Peruana de
Vapores has distributed important dividends; it has
canceled the loan of $1,216,000, for which the govern
ment was responsible; it has taken the place of the
state in the affair of the Paris loan ; it has been able
to accumulate resources of its own that have put it in a
position to acquire two transatlantic steamers of 7,000
tons each, of the approximate value of $3,404,800.
The government is the owner of 130,000 shares of
the company.
By virtue of law 2763, due to the initiative of the
executive power, there has been organized among us
the institution of general warehouses designed to lend
very useful and effective service to commerce by
means of the application of credit to products and
merchandise in bond.
By means of the summary enumeration just made
may be seen how, during the four years of my last
administration, the country has grown notably in her
productive capacity, has capitalized enormous sums,
has met all her obligations with strict punctuality and
has reduced her debt by considerable amounts.
The following have been the honorable and patri
otic uses made of the national revenues: to stimulate
the development of public wealth ; to put the national
exchequer in a sound condition; and to foster power-

34 PERU
fully the moral and material life of the nation by the
accomplishment of enterprises of supreme importance.
WAR
A theme exploited by the opposition to my govern
ment with a persistence comparable only to the base
ness of the design with which it was inspired has
been the contention that there existed on my part no
interest in looking out for the progress of the army and
for acquiring the war materials necessary to the
effective defense of the rights of the nation. These
gratuitious and sinister charges, which I had to regard
with disdain by considering that no citizen of Peru
had a right to overlook my patriotic efforts in behalf
of the true perfecting of our military institution — in
asmuch as the reality proves that both in my latter
and my former administration I looked out zealously
for the advancement, the dignity and the standing of
our army — have been, in spite of their notable fre
quency, publicly supported by the successful revolu
tion. In truth, such accusations appear embodied in the
manifesto which the chief of the subversive movement
of Anc6n in August of the previous year issued to the
public, and the present usurping president, in recent
discourses, in reply to the head of the general staff of
the army, as he was also of the constitutional govern
ment — but who had to be removed from that position
because his ability was not equal to the function that
was intrusted to him — has said that he grieved from
afar over the manner in which the army was treated.

PERU 35
This circumstance compels me to make known to
the nation, in all its fullness, the governmental activi
ties developed during the last four years in behalf of
the military institution.
Imperative demands of a financial character, which
it would not be just to forget at this moment, led me
to reduce the effectives of the army at the beginning
of my administration. Experience has demonstrated
that there was wisdom in this measure and in other
measures of strict economy adopted in the different
branches of the public service; because without them
it would not have been possible to free the country
from the frightful fiscal situation to which it was
being forced by the budgets liquidated with a deficit,
a genuine menace to the future of the nation. On
the other hand, the safety of the state, in times of
marked quietude in our international relations, was
perfectly safeguarded by means of an organization of
a temporary character planned for the army; and the
military preparation of the country did not suffer any
set-back, either; for the reduction of the effectives
was compensated for by the rigid application given
to the newest law upon the formation of mobilizable
groups composed of citizens between twenty-one and
twenty-two years of age, in excess of the anuual con
tingents obliged to receive instruction in military
marksmanship. It is necessary to make it clear, however, for the
sake of truth, that the reduction of the army extended
over the time that was strictly necessary only. The
stringencies of the public treasury being passed, the
government proposed to the congress in 1917 a

36 PERU
considerable increase in the number of effectives, and
this proposal was carried out in 1918. In 1919, the
number of our troops was again raised, and in the
budget proposed for the coming year of 1920, a third
increase of troops was considered.
Possessed of all these forces, it was possible to create
such new units as: infantry regiment number 13;
the companies of divisional machine-guns; the
battalion of gendarmes of Lima number 2; and the
squadron of horse of the guards of Lima.
In this respect, however, it is possible for me to go
even farther. I am enabled to affirm, in spite of the
malevolent criticisms of my adversaries, that the
republic never had in time of peace a greater number
of military effectives than it possessed during the
period of the overthrown government.
As unmerited as the charge in connection with the
number of men, is the accusation that has been
brought against my government, of not having
concerned itself with the acquisition of war material.
No one can be ignorant, certainly, that during the
recent world conflict all the nations absolutely pro
hibited trade in articles of war, and if at times they
seemed disposed to permit it, as an exception, it was
with the exaction of such exorbitant prices that the
government which would have acquired them in the
circumstances would have incurred a very grave
responsibility. Nevertheless, as soon as the armistice
brought hostilities in Europe to an end it became my
duty to acquire, as far as the resources of the state
would permit, the most indispensable armament.
Thus were bought munitions for the infantry; an

PERU 37
important lot of machine-guns; an equally valuable
one of aviation material; considerable repairs upon
the cruisers Grau and Bolognesi; and on the fourth of
July a contract was about to be concluded for the
acquisition of artillery munitions.
To this end, I ought to say also that, since it was
impossible to acquire war materials, as is generally
believed, that is, in an arbitrary and haphazard
manner, but by following a harmonious, progressive
and well considered plan — the only guaranty that
there will be no repetition of such errors as the blunder
that was made in acquiring a unit that was without
any military value, like the cruiser Elias Aguirre — the
government had formulated two bills that were to be
submitted to the next congress.
The first of them referred to the creation of special
revenues to constitute the war fund; the second bill
provided for the organization of a council of national
defense, a body designed to control all that had to do
with the armed defense of the country and which, in
consequence, was to formulate the program for the
acquisition of material, to authorize the contracts
made to this effect, superintend the application of the
sums voted, etc. The solicitous interest of the
constitutional government in behalf of military
instruction is revealed likewise by the contract for the
services of the French mission; by the foundation of a
school of aviation in charge of a competent and
expert personnel to direct it; by the effort which it
always showed to raise to the highest rank — to the
command of the general staff — from the military
regions and the different units, the leaders of greatest

38 PERU
repute for their professional capacity; by the regu
larity with which it carried out the law of military
service; by the organization of garrison maneuvers,
provided for some years ago, and put into effect
recently in the divisions of the north, of the south and
in Lima, with the calling out of the reserves; by the
accomplishment of scientific journeys on the part of
the academy of war ; by the sending abroad of leaders
of distinction to visit large countries and great armies ;
by the reopening of the school of marksmanship; by
the fostering — unfortunately limited because of the
scarcity of ammunition — of target practice throughout
the republic; and by the construction of a central
magazine of powder.
In like manner, my administration has given
attention to the welfare of the officers and soldiers and
it has introduced improvements irto the hospital of
San Bartolome, which put it in a splendid condition
for the treatment of the sick; and in its section of
surgery, in charge of one of the most reputable
surgeons of the country, has been installed all the
equipment required by the demands of modern
science; a magnificent property located in Trujillo
has been converted into military barracks; the
buildings of the barracks of Sullana, Juliaca and of the
Avenida del Ejercito in Lima are now in course of
construction and far advanced; and properties
contiguous to the present barracks of El Cercado
have been acquired for the formation of a soldiers'
home. It seems to me sufficient to set forth the labors of my
administration in respect of the army — a duty to

PERU 39
which my detractors drive me — in order to prove the
injustice of the attacks of which they have made me
the victim.
Men of honor who live outside the heated passions
of our political strife and who, fortunately, represent
the majority of the country, are those who are called
upon to pronounce a favorable verdict regarding my
activities in this particular; and those leaders and
officials of the army and navy who took part in the
ignominious campaign of the early morning of July 4
must read these lines and judge in the depths of their
conscience whether their conduct can by any means be
reconciled with the love which they owe to their
calling, the noblest and most elevated in its purposes
and therefore the most exacting in respect of the
principles of honor and duty.
The gendarmerie and the police of Lima have also
received especial attention on my part. Consideration
of their needs has always been as punctual as that of
the army, and the pay of those engaged in both
branches of the service has been increased on two
occasions. As to their quarters: no government has
so much concerned itself as mine that they should be
commodious and hygienic. There stand to-day cer
tain other barracks, reconstructed almost completely
through my exclusive action, in my latter and my for
mer administratiQns, to corroborate this point, as I
have said.
In other respects, all may recall the bill of the
executive power, pending before the chambers and
designed to remedy the precarious condition of the
leaders and officers of the gendarmes by guaranteeing

40 PERU
to them the rights of elevation and the privilege of
retirement with pension.
The personnel of the police also received from the
government true incentives, which consisted in supply
ing the official vacancies by competitive examination
and in the increase of their salaries.
INSTRUCTION
Developing my program for the stimulus of the
moral and material interests of the country, I have
had a lively concern, as I had in my former adminis
tration, for the progress of national education and for
the construction of railways and other public works of
importance, with no other restrictions than those
imposed by the economic ability of the state.
One of the first undertakings that I submitted to
the congress was the annulment of law number 2094 in
order to restore to the central government, in all its
integrity, the authority reposed in it by law number
162, and thus to assure, by means of the action of
superintendents of education, the greatest efficiency
in respect of primary instruction.
The failure to secure hitherto so necessary an object
did not prevent, however, the Direction General de
Instruceion from stimulating, by all the means at its
command, the development of popular education.
The following figures clearly reveal the work of the
government in this important branch of public admin
istration. The number of schools that existed in 1915 was 2276.
The number of teachers upon the rolls in 191 5 was
3246.

PERU

41

The number of pupils matriculated in 191 5 was
165,724- Well then:
The number of schools in 1 919 was 2980.
The number of teachers in 1919 was 4284.
The number of pupils enrolled in 1919 was 175,320.
As to the sums devoted to the promotion of primary
instruction, I ought to explain that while the budget
of 1915 voted the sum of $1,109,753.05, the budget for
1919 includes the sum of $1,715,738.68; and in the bill
for 1920, the sum of $1,945,600 was under considera
tion. These figures indicate that during the last four years,
404 schools have been established, and the item for
primary instruction has been almost doubled.
The schools have been supplied with the necessary
equipment, and the Sociedad Geografica has prepared,
at the request of the government, a map of Peru,
appropriate for instruction in national geography.
The condition of the teachers has also been contem
plated with solicitous interest, and their salaries have
been raised in the proportion permitted by the re
sources of the state.
The construction of school buildings has not been
accomplished with the amplitude achieved during my
former administration. Nevertheless, a school center
that combines all the conditions required by pedagogy
and hygiene has been constructed in Lima, and a
number of schools have been repaired.
I had thought that a better organization of the land
tax would considerably increase the departmental

42 PERU
revenues, thus placing the offices that administered
them in a position to contribute effectively to the
development of the different regions of the territory,
and enabling the state, to which belong thirty per
cent, of these revenues, to devote a greater part of
what was obtained to the construction of local school
centers. To this end the respective bill was oppor
tunely submitted to the chambers, and it still awaits
the sanction of the congress.
As to secondary instruction, the government, appre
ciating the importance that the formation of orderly
and industrious habits in the mind of the young has
upon the future of the country, has devoted itself
scrupulously to the maintenance of discipline in edu
cational institutions.
The enrolment that reached 4,918 pupils in 1915 has
increased to 6,486 in the present year.
The incomes of the colleges have been considerably
augmented. In 1915, they reached a total of $353,364.73; in
1919, that of $482,436.36.
Some new establishments for education have been
founded: the Colegio Pardo, in Chincha; a school for
girls, in Chiclayo; a manual training school, in the
same city ; and another similar school, in Iquitos.
Upon the initiative of the government and of law
2510, the duration of secondary instruction has been
extended to five years, and this extension permits, by
means of the greater distribution of the courses, a
greater thoroughness in the study of the history and
geography of Peru, in conformity with ideas that it
fell to my lot to present to those in charge of the

PERU 43
department while I was president of the Universidad
de San Marcos.
To a better teaching of these courses of a national
character is to be attributed also the formation of the
geographical atlas of Peru, intrusted by the govern
ment to the Sociedad Geografica, and which was an
undertaking carried out for the first time among us.
The normal schools for men and for women have
furnished a considerable number of teachers, who at
present are exercising their teaching function in the
service of the people.
The foundation of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas
Artes, established in adequate quarters of its own,
and the organization of the Archivo Nacional, accom
plished also in this period, crown the work of higher
culture which I had the good fortune to inaugurate in
my former administration, with the creation of the
Museo Nacional, the Academia Nacional de Mlisica
and the Instituto Hist6rico. JUSTICE
During the last four years, there has been a con
siderable advance in the betterment of our present
system, through the construction of new penal
institutions. The government being authorized by law number
2404 to utilize convict labor outside the prisons
proceeded to establish the penal colony of Front6n,
which has the capacity to lodge two hundred convicts,
who are engaged in cutting blocks for the paving of
Callao.

44 PERU
The establishment constructed has the use of
buildings appropriate to its character, with equip
ment of electric light, wireless telegraphy, a dock, a
tug, and tank and freight launches.
The sum expended on the construction of this
colony exceeds $48,640.
An aspect of criminality that always demanded the
special attention of the government, because of the
serious possibilities it involved for the future of society,
was that which related to juvenile offenses. For the
purpose of correcting it in the effective manner coun
seled by modern penal science, there has been erected a
magnificent establishment with the farm of El
Cercado as a base and the expropriation of the scrip-
tory rights of Orduna and Munay, where youthful in
mates may devote themselves, in an environment rela
tively pure, from the twofold physical and normal
point of view', to the education of their sentiments and
the development of their energies applied to the culti
vation of the soil.
The construction of the principal' edifice of this
important enterprise is already completed, and the
work of constructing the pavilions designed for the
auxiliary services of laundry, bakery, blacksmith-
shop, stables, etc., is in progress. This new plant is
supplied with its own equipment of electric light, wa
ter, drainage, etc.
Up to July 4, there had been spent upon the works
of the correctional school $178, 478.49.
In the Pan6ptico, there has recently been constructed
a third story, with 104 cells, in which are now lodged

PERU

45

an equal number of convicts, who likewise had served
their sentence in the public prison.
This establishment has called for an expenditure of
$37-037-41. The work upon the prison of Lima, begun during my
first administration, has also been resumed, the direc
tion of it being placed in the hands of a special commis
sion. It was the purpose of the government to furnish
the necessary means to enable this establishment, by
the end of the year, to be in a position to lodge, with
due security, a hundred prisoners, who would then be
able to continue the work upon the edifice on eco
nomical terms to the state.
Such is, in outline, the contribution made by the
government over which I presided to the work of social
defense. FOMENTO
The action of the administration during the years of
1916 and 1917 being concentrated upon the reorgani
zation of the public treasury, nothing important could
be done then with regard to the construction of ways of
communication. As soon, however, as the state of the
fiscal revenues would permit, it was my pleasure to
continue the work of national highways begun in my
former administration, with the construction of the
railways from Oroya to Huancayo, Sicuani to Cuzco,
Yonan to Chilete, Ilo to Moquegua, Puerto Pizarro to
Tumbes, and the beginning of the first section of
the railway from Huancayo to Ayacucho, all of them
being enterprises that were paralyzed from the time
when I left office in 1908.

46 PERU
The congress, in close harmony with the govern
ment in the endeavor to stimulate the material develop
ment of the country, enacted, under date of November
3, 1916, law number 2323, upon highways, and on
March 13, 1918, law number 2769, upon the construc
tion of railways.
As the executive power deemed the expendi
ture of the limited funds in hand upon the simultane
ous construction of different lines to be a very serious
obstacle to the efficiency of the policy that the con
gress and the government prepared to develop in
respect of the construction of railways, and as the
law enacted, suffered from a certain confusion and
from vagueness as to the revenues which it assigned
for this purpose, I necessarily observed the fact — a
circumstance that had the effect of recalling the pro
visions contained in the law of March 31, 1904, which
applies to the construction of railways the net product
of the tobacco revenue and which caused the promul
gation of law number 2886, designed to assure the fact
of its application to a work of so much importance for
the republic.
The manifest importance of this law, the rigid terms
of which faithfully correspond to the most pressing
public desire, impels me to reproduce its text below:
The president of the republic. Inasmuch as the congress has
enacted the following law:
Article I. In the execution of the railway works ordered to be
studied and constructed, according to the existing laws, there is
to be utilized the net product of the tobacco monopoly, after
deducting: First, the expense of manufacture and distribution; second,
the interest and amortization of the capital, which the company

PERU 47
that administers it has invested in order to contract with the
state for such administration, and to take it over from the
Compafiia Recaudadora de Impuestos; and, third, the interest
and the amortization of the bonds that may be issued according
to the following article:
Article II. The executive power will authorize the company
that is formed for the administration of the tobacco monopoly
to issue bonds with the guaranty of the latter, which shall be
called "bonds of the tobacco revenue," which shall pay up to
seven per cent, per annum, and one per cent, for amortization,
and which shall be exempt from all taxes upon income created
or to be created.
Article III. The product of the revenue derived from such
bonds will be applied, in the first place, to the payment of the
capital mentioned in the first section of article I of this law, and,
then, to the construction of railway works.
Article IV. Beginning with the first fortnight of the month
of January, 1919, and in the successive years, and until the con
struction of the railways shall be concluded, and all the obliga
tions and guaranties which the state shall contract in constructing
them shall be canceled, with the mortgage of the tobacco revenue,
the company that administers shall deposit in the Caja de
Depositos y Consignaciones, the fifteenth and the last day of
each month, the net product of the monopoly, which shall belong
to the state; after making the deductions mentioned in article I,
as also the amount of the sale of bonds that may have been issued
for the construction of railways, in compliance with articles II
and III. The Caja de Depositos y Consignaciones will, on its
part, withdraw, every fortnight, upon its own responsibility, the
percentage of the net product which shall be determined by laws
number 1969, 1982 and 21 11, for the amortization of the loan
made by the banks to the government. This amount being
deducted, the Caja de Depositos y Consignaciones will not make
any payment whatsoever to be charged against these funds, ex
cept for works, materials, salaries, wages, expropriations and in
demnities for the construction of railways, and upon orders for
payment which may be drawn for this purpose by the Direction

48 PERU
del Tesoro ought to appear the name of the railway to which
they are to be applied, as well as the indicated details.
Article V. The sum set apart by this law for the construction
of railways may not be devoted to any other object different
from the one established in it. The assignment of sums set apart
for this object in the general budget of the republic shall be kept
inviolate, and they may not be applied to any other item under
the responsibility of the minister who may authorize it or of the
functionaries of the branch that participates in the operation;
this being a responsibility that will become effective according
to the constitution and the laws.
The responsibility treated of in this article shall become
effective by popular action before the supreme court, which will
apply to violations of the law the punishments corresponding to
the crime of malversation of public funds.
Article VI. The executive power shall be authorized to take
all the necessary measures for the formation of the company that
shall be charged with the administration of the tobacco monopoly,
in conformity with the provisions of the law.
Let it be communicated to the executive power in order that
he may take the necessary steps for its accomplishment.
Given in the hall of sessions of the congress in Lima, this
twenty-third day of the month of November, 1918.
Antonio Mir6 Quesada, Juan Pardo,
President of the senate. President of the chamber of deputies.
F. R. Lanatta, Luis A. Carrillo,
Secretary of the senate. Secretary of the chamber of deputies.
To the sefior president of the republic:
Therefore: I order printed, published and circulated and that
it be given due compliance.
Issued at the government house, this twenty-ninth day of the
month of November, 1918.
Jose Pardo. victor M. Maurtua.

PERU 49
The government has definitely fulfilled the above
mentioned requirements, separating month by month
the product of the tobacco revenue and delivering the
amount of it to the Caja de Depdsitos y Consigna
ciones, for exclusive application to the work upon
railways. It has caused to be published monthly and
with all scrupulosity a statement of the sums expended
for this purpose.
Beginning with the first of January of the current
year and up to June 30, there had been placed in the
Caja de Dep6sitos y Consignaciones the sum of
$612,274.37, there remaining to be delivered on July 4
a balance for the liquidation of the quota of the second
three months that was to have been effected by the
Compafiia Recaudadora de Impuestos. Since, accord
ing to the balance of this company that corresponded
to the sum of the second three months of the present
year, the greatest product of the tobacco monopoly
exceeded $291,771.23, when the deduction was made
and the commission for collection had been calculated,
as also the interests which, according to the instruc
tions of the government, were to be reserved at the
rate of seven per cent, upon the sum of $3,891 ,200.00 —
the probable capital of the new Compafiia Adminis-
tradora to be established, etc. — it may be affirmed,
without fear of falling into error, that the sum of this
balance could not have been in any case less than the
amount of $145,920.00. It is to be hoped, conse
quently, that at this date that balance of $145,920.00
is now reposing in the Caja de Dep6sitos y Con
signaciones.

50 PERU
It is to be trusted that the dictatorship will respect
the decision of the congress contained in law 2886,
from the compliance with which much is expected by
the people of the republic, taught by sad experience
of what has occurred since my first administration,
terminated in September, 1908. If the farsightedness
of the legislators had been manifested in the same way
as is revealed by this most recent law so often cited,
there would have been invested in the construction of
railway communications, from January 1, 1909, until
December 31, 19 18, the considerable sum of
$15,017,777.77, and it would not have been necessary
to await my return to power in order to see again the
realization of their desires in respect of the construc
tion of railways.
Indeed, responding, I repeat, to the unanimous
demand of public opinion, which is perfectly aware of
the enormous influence that railways have in the
solution of our great national problems of a political,
economic and military character, my government
devoted the greatest possible effort to their con
struction. The work upon the line from Huancayo to Ayacucho
which, as I have said before, was suspended suddenly
at kilometer number 12 in the year 1909, has been
renewed, and at present some six hundred hands are at
work between La Mejorada and Huancayo. Eleven
hundred tons of rails, 25,000 cross-ties and a locomotive
and cars for the moving of materials have been
acquired for this work. If construction is not again
interrupted, the line can be carried to La Mejorada by
July 28 of the next year of 1920. The expenditures

PERU 51
that had been made up to June 15 last exceeded the
sum of $206,956.58.
The prolongation of the railway from Chimbote to
Recuay has been begun with great enthusiasm. The
extension from kilometer 104 to Recuay is 162
kilometers long, so that from this important mining
and agricultural center to the port of Chimbote there
will be a distance of only 266 kilometers. When the
line reaches Recuay, approaching the coast at the rich
and beautiful Callej6n de Huaylas, the country will
have solved in an unimprovable manner the problem
of her supply of domestic wheat.
The extension from kilometer 104 to Chorro and to
the unavoidable pass of the Can6n del Pato — which is
the part of the enterprise that involves the greatest
difficulties in its construction — is 30 kilometers long,
which being finished, the railway will enter the valley
along an exceptionally easy route.
Upon the initiative of the engineer, senor Hdctor
Escard6, minister of the departments of Fomento and
Hacienda during the last administration, the congress
authorized the construction of the railway from
Chuquicara to Cajabamba, designed to benefit
considerably the provinces of Pallasca, Santiago de
Chuco, Pataz, Otuzco, Huamachuco and Cajabamba,
whose abundant mineral and agricultural riches will in
a short time offer a great stimulus to its development.
The contract has already been made for the construc
tion of the first section of this branch of 18 kilograms,
which, because it terminates in the carboniferous
basin of Ancos, gives ground for the assurance of the
early exploitation of the minerals which it possesses.

52 PERU
For the line of Chimbote, 24 kilometers of rails and
40,000 cross-ties have been secured, a total expenditure
of $477,475-35 having been made on account of it up to
June 15 last.
The railway from Cuzco to Santa Ana continues to
be constructed with all activity, from a desire soon
to extend the line as far as Pachar, on the Urubamba
river, a distance of 62 kilometers.
For this line, whose total length is 170 kilometers,
1,050 tons of rails and 40,000 cross-ties have been
acquired. The expenditure upon it made from
August 15, 191 5, until June 15 of the present year,
exceeded the sum of $458,089.93.
The railway of Lurin, to the construction of which
my government contributed with great interest, has
been completed, with a total length of 45 kilometers.
The last administration has applied to this under
taking the sum of $451,966.67.
The railway from Vitor to Sotillo, an extent of
12 kilometers, was acquired by the government at
public auction, and there had been spent upon this
public work, up to June 15, the sum of $61,634.24. The
extension of the line to the river Vitor has been
intrusted to the Peruvian Corporation.
The construction of the railway from Ninacaca to
Pachitea, an undertaking of extraordinary importance,
which will permit the exploitation of the immense
wealth stored up in our mountain regions, is being
pushed with the greatest effort, and the state had
invested in it, up to June 15 last, the sum of $37,905.06.
In compliance with law 2323 the following highways
are being constructed at the present time:

PERU

53

From Magdalena to Cajamarca, a distance of 60.25
kilometers, of which 23 kilometers have been com
pleted, with an expenditure of $80,116.16.
From Tarma to La Oroya, a distance of 45.762
kilometers, of which 36.762 have been finished, with
an outlay of $63,30.38.
From La Mejorada to Huancavelica, a distance of
61.572 kilometers, of which 8 have already been com
pleted, at an expenditure of $8,747.06. There has
also been constructed along with this work a servicea
ble pathway of 45.927 kilometers, at a cost of
$i5,435-90. From Cerro to Huanuco, a distance of 99.300 kilo
meters, of which 4.447 have been completed, at an
outlay of $16,100.28.
From Abancay to Izcuchaca, a station on the rail
way from Cuzco to Santa Ana, a distance of 203 kilo
meters, of which the commission charged with carry
ing out this important work has constructed 60 kilo
meters, at an expense of $270,915.07.
By a vote of June 27 just past, it was decided that
the branch from Izcuchaca, on the railway to Santa
Ana, should be extended 28 kilometers to Abra de
Huilque, thus considerably shortening the distance of
the highway between Abancay and Cuzco. The en
tirely level territory permits the construction of this
branch at a very low cost.
Apart from all these public works, intimately associ
ated with the future of the nation, the government
has also undertaken building enterprises of another
character and of less importance, but urgently needed
for the dignity and reputation of the higher authori-

54 PERU
ties of the state, for the hygiene, adornment and cul
ture of the capital, for the progress of her baths and
for the development of the port of Callao, the first
of the republic.
I limit myself to making up a list of the principal
of them :
The completion of the building of the Palacio Legislativo.
The building for the Ministerio de Gobierno, the prefecture and
police offices.
The archbishop's palace.
The expropriation of the grounds for the new Palacio de Jus
ticia.
The prolongation of the Avenida Pierola.
The Parque Universitario.
The Escuela Normal de Varones.
The Avenida del Ejercito.
The Avenida Pardo.
The Avenida Miramar.
The Avenida Bellavista.
The Malecon and Terrazas de la Magdalena.
The Avenida Santa Beatriz.
The Malec6n de la Reserva.
The Parque de Miraflores.
The Plaza Olaya in Chorrillos.
The completion of the road to Herradura.
The Malecon de la Punta.
Economic aid to the municipal councils of Chorrillos, Barranco
and Miraflores for the completion of works of local impor
tance.
The construction of new offices for the coast guard, the recon
struction of the Muelle de Fleteros and the beginning of the
first section of the paving of Callao.
In the department for the safeguarding of navigation, a con
tract has been made for the construction of a lighthouse for
Punta de Coles; the material for the channel light of La
Punta; and the luminous buoys of Camotal.

 PERU  55
It has been the constant desire of the government
to foster the cultivation of wheat and the exploitation
of our carboniferous ledges.
Those in charge of the department have distributed
plows and seed among the farmers who have asked
for them, trying to place them in circumstances that
would supply the towns in the neighborhood of the
productive valleys. As has just been said, a supply
of domestic wheat along the entire coast of Peril can
easily be obtained as soon as the railway from Chim
bote to Recuay, now in process of construction, shall
reach the Cellej6n de Huaylas.
With a view to facilitating the exploitation of the
principal coal deposits of the country, official action
has been applied in an equally advantageous manner.
In the first place, law number 2966 was enacted.
This authorizes the construction, with state funds, of
the railway to Jatunhuasi, an enterprise which the
government has not carried to a conclusion because it
possessed information that justified it in believing that
this line was' going to be constructed with private
funds and in behalf of certain mining interests.
A contract has also been made with a syndicate of
Huayday for the construction of the roadway that will
unite this center with the railway of Malabrigo.
Finally, with the extension of the branch from
Chuquicara to Cajabamba, to which I have already
referred, the rich basin of Ancos will be opened up for
exploitation. The degree of prosperity attained by the agricultural
and mining industries, which constitute the prime
source of national labor and wealth, may be seen by

56 PERU
reference to the following details, which show the
volume of production in the years of 19 15 and 1918:
agricultural products 1915 1918
Tons Tons
Sugar  257,677 295,000
Cotton .... . 24,603
Rice  35,500 38,000
Rubber  2,310
mineral production 1915 1918
Gold .... ... kilograms 1,690 1,793
Silver  kilograms 294,425 304,253
Copper  tons 34,727 44,414
Lead  . tons 2,696 632
Zinc  tons 19
Coal  tons 290,000 346,226
Petroleum  tons 343,838 335,002
Borates ... ... . tons 510 523
Salt ...  tons 25,729 26,663
Mineral waters . liters 128,333
The total value of mineral products was:
In 1915   $28,842,766.08
In 1918  . . . 40,472,605.44
The number of mineral properties leased in 1915
was 68,382; this figure rose to 71,193 during the first
six months of 1919.
The creation of departments of agriculture, water
and statistics, as well as the enactment of the law
upon agrarian mortgages, and the initiative of the
government in the promotion of the system of rural
banks, are thorough manifestations of the interest
I have taken in the development of the public wealth.

PERU 57
The postal and telegraph services have also under
gone notable development during the last four years:
The income of the post office department during the
the first six months of the year 1915 reached . $255,884.08
It reached during the first six months of the present
year   434,933-85
The returns of the department of telegraphs have
also increased in an equal proportion.
A hundred and eighty-eight new post offices and
thirty-eight telegraph stations have been estab
lished, and the telegraph system, which had in
1915 an extent of  kilometers 12,635,050
Reached, on June 30 last  kilometers 14,087,200
A contract has been made for the installation of a
direct telephone service in Lima and of long distance
service in the region from Chiclayo to lea.
Finally, many modern telegraphic apparatus have
been acquired, and they will serve to meet the defi
ciencies that are to be observed in this service because
of the considerable increase in messages.
The radiographic service has been much extended
during recent years, thanks to the installation of the
new stations of Cachendo — which has the same power
as that of San Cristobal — Salaverry and Eten. The
erection of the new tower at Piura was decreed, and
in a short time it ought to be placed in position, this
kind of service being thus completed along the whole
extent of our coast. The outlay incurred in the new
installations exceeds the sum of $91,443.20.
PUBLIC HEALTH
The activity of the administration for the protection
of public health has been incessant. It has centered

58 PERU
its attention upon the struggle against the bubonic
plague and smallpox, diseases that periodically deci
mate our population.
During the last four years, vaccination has been
practiced throughout the whole country.
Thanks to the zeal and competence of the national
medical body, bubonic plague serum is now manu
factured among us.
In order to fight malaria, the services of an Ameri
can professional specialist have been engaged.
Likewise a contract has been made with a noted
bacteriologist who served in the army of the United
States, and who will be in charge of the organization
of the new Instituto Bacteriol6gico which is to be
constructed upon land along the Avenida Grau that
was formerly intended for a military hospital.
The construction of the sanitary station on the
island of San Lorenzo is almost completed.
For the protection of friendless children, there have
been founded in the capital two dispensaries, which
bear the name of "Gota de Leche," 6 and there has
been established in the Higiocomio of Chosica, a sani-
torium to serve as a temporary housing for the frail
children of the public schools who need the benefit of
a change of climate to build up their organisms. As
was to be expected, these new enterprises have pro
duced excellent results.
6 "Drop of milk," a name given in Peru and Chile to certain estab
lishments — usually the result of private beneficence — where milk is
dispensed to infants whose mothers are too poor to buy it, and where
children are washed, treated and cared for, and mothers are given
instruction in the rearing and nourishment of children.

PERU 59
With a view to meeting properly the manifold de
mands of the insalubrity of the country, the executive
power opportunely submitted to the chambers two
important bills relative to the organization of public
health and the creation of the special revenues neces
sary for supplying water service and drainage to the
population and for meeting the other demands of social
prophylaxis. The accomplished results and the beginnings that I
have indicated are sufficient to make clear the views
entertained by the government as to its function in
respect of sanitary enterprises, which are truly indis
pensable for safeguarding the dearest interests of
the people at present and in the future.

SOCIAL LAWS
Foreseeing the conflicts that would spring from the
social problem and which to-day are engaging the
whole of humanity; taking my stand upon the sound
principle of justice toward and protection of the work
ing classes; and desiring to introduce into our con
structive legislation the general principles that
to-day govern juridical relations between employers
and laborers, I submitted to the national congress,
during my former administration, under date of
October 4, 1915, bills relative to the health and secur
ity of working men ; to the labor of women and chil
dren; to obligatory rest; to the number of hours of
labor; to indemnity for accident; to labor contracts;
to apprenticeship contracts; to the formation of in
dustrial and labor associations; to conciliation and

60 PERU
arbitration; and to the constitution of the national
board of labor.
Of these bills, the following have become laws: the
bill that fixes the obligation of the employer to indem
nify the laborer who may be the victim of an accident
while at work; the one that regulates the labor of
women and children; and the one that makes provi
sion for compulsory Sunday rest.
The hours of labor, which there is an effort to limit
everywhere, for the double purpose of preventing
the physical exhaustion of the laborer and of guaran
teeing him hours of rest which he may apply advan
tageously to the cultivation of his mind, have also
been reduced in the country, in accord with the most
advanced principles of social legislation. Indeed, by
a decree of the supreme court of January 15 of the
present year, it was enacted that among us a working
day of eight hours should be established, the laborers
of Peru thus achieving a victory for which many
peoples of the earth are still anxiously striving. The
decree to which I refer is the following:
The president of the republic, realizing:
1 . That no agreement has been reached between certain indus
trial establishments and their employees regarding the duration
of the hours of labor and the changes sought in the present wages;
2. And that it is the duty of the state, in its own establish
ments and in the public works that it constructs, to fix more
compatible conditions between the interests of the state and
those of its operatives; decrees that:
Article I. In the workshops of the state, on its railways, in
agricultural and industrial establishments and on public works
constructed by the government, the time of daily labor shall be
fixed at eight hours, the amount of present salaries being main
tained.

PERU 6l
Article II. In factories, railways; industrial, agricultural and
mining establishments of all companies and private individuals,
the length of the duration of daily work shall be fixed by mutual
consent between the proprietors, industrials and administrators,
and the laborers.
In want of an agreement and while the congress is legislating
upon the particular, the time of the duration of labor shall be
subject to the rule of eight hours, the present salaries being main
tained at the same rate.
Article III. Differences that may arise between the parties,
whether caused by the increase asked in wages or whether caused
by the new rates that will have to be fixed in order to maintain
their amount, will be determined by arbitrators when those who
are interested do not reach any direct solution. The arbitrators
shall be designated one for each party, and the adjuster shall be
appointed by the president of the Corte Suprema de Justicia.
The point in dispute must be settled within a maximum period
of one week.
Issued in Lima, at the government house, this fifteenth day of
the month of January, 1919.
Jose Pardo. M. A. Vinelli.

I ought to recall with satisfaction that the former
decree of my government was issued on account of a
general strike that occurred in Lima, which was dis
tinguished by the order preserved during it by the
laborers and by the respect which they showed at
every instant for the authorities.
The natural consequence of so correct an attitude —
which permitted events to develop tranquilly, without
the effusion of a single drop of blood — was the recog
nition on the part of the public authorities of the
justice of the claims presented and the consent of the
employers to accept them.

62 PERU
It is not possible, unfortunately, to make a similar'
statement in respect of the shut-down that took place
last May, and which, in contrast with the former,
was characterized by the use which its organizers
made of violence in the most extreme forms, to such
an extent that the public authorities were compelled
to interfere, as the only means of preventing the
accomplishment of outrageous assaults upon private
property. Because of these reprehensible acts, which the whole
country was forced to condemn without reserve — and
which it would not be just to impute to the people of
Lima and Callao, but to the pernicious action of cer
tain agitators — there occurred certain personal injuries
which the government sincerely deplored, but the
responsibility for which may not by any means be
attributed to it, inasmuch as the atittude of the
authorities was maintained within the strict limits
marked out for it by its most elementary duties in
respect of the legitimate defense and protection of the
social institutions.
Since the activities of the last administration were
developed at the same time that the European war
was unfolding, and since there were springing up
everywhere, as the immediate effects of the defi
ciency in production and the scarcity of transporta
tion, difficulty in provisioning the population and
unlimited advance in prices, it has had to face the
different phenomena that sprang from the localization
in Peru of this great world crisis of subsistence.
Happily, the measures adopted by the constitutional
government had such efficiency that the country has

PERU 63
not at any time been without the necessary supplies
for her own consumption, and even certain articles,
such as wheat and other necessities of life, have been
recently imported in a greater proportion than they
were before the beginning of the war.
As to the prices of articles of prime necessity, the
proceeding • carried into effect, and which consists in
the direct sale of them by the state, has produced
beneficial results. Indeed, in the sixty odd distribut
ing points established by the Compafiia Salinera in
behalf of the government, in Lima, Callao and other
parts of the country, sugar, rice, cereals, charcoal, etc.,
have been sold with a saving for the consumer that
may be calculated at forty per cent., as compared
with the prices charged by the private dealers, and at
a sum exceeding several million soles.
During the last six months only, the sales made by
the Compafiia Salinera amounted to the sum of
$924,160. The system applied by the administration over
which I presided to reduce the cost of living — which
is the same as that employed to-day in the United
States and the greatest nations of Europe — possessed,
besides the advantages involved in the suppression of
the middleman, the indisputable benefit of affecting,
by means of competition, the general scale of prices,
thus reducing them perceptibly throughout the whole
range of the market.
So, without attacking the sources of national
production by radical and destructive measures, but
by seeking the cooperation of the industrials, by re
stricting or prohibiting their exports according to the

64 PERU
demands of consumption; in short, by exercising a
just and discreet economic policy, it has been possible
to render the provisioning of the country almost nor
mal, and to prevent food, housing and clothing from
reaching in Lima the high prices which they have
attained in the greater number of South American
capitals. The working classes have also found a true compen
sation for the high cost of living in the rise in wages
and salaries, which has been very observable in Peru
during recent times.
It may be said that the economic crisis regarding
which I occupied myself has been felt and is still felt
among us chiefly by the middle class, from whose
ranks come the employees who are great aids in the
commercial, industrial and administrative movements
of the country. However, in that which relates to the
latter, the government has contributed to relieving
their difficult situation by paying each month a per
centage of their back salaries, reduced during the war,
and which have been almost wholly made up to them
to the value of more than $1,264,640, and by including
in the projected budget for 1920, which was already
formulated on July 4, a total item that would permit
the introduction in their incomes of certain just
modifications in accord with the importance and re
sponsibility of the labors with which they are charged.
THE REVOLUTION
While I was engaged in the preparation of the
annual message which I was to present to the congress
on the twenty-eighth of last July; that is, of this

PERU 65
statement, a resume of the acts of my second term of
administration; and in arranging for the early
completion of certain public works of importance, I
was surprised by the early morning of July 4, during
which the officers of the palace guard, intrusted with
its custody, threw wide open the doors for the free
access of the rebellious soldiery who, under the orders
of military leaders of high rank, made me a prisoner, to
shut me within the walls of the Pan6ptico. At the
same time that these events were occurring, other
forces of the army and the navy rebelled against
constitutional order and took to the government
palace sefior Augusto B. Leguia, to invest him with the
title of provisional president of the republic, with
which he to-day exercises dictatorship, after having
dissolved the national congress.
The grounds of this odious attack have been set
forth in a different manner by the dictator and his
ministers in recent documents.
According to sefior Leguia, as was said in his
telegraphic circular of July 4,
the democracy has overthrown the most ignominious tyranny
that Peru has ever had.
According to the minister of foreign relations — the
celebrated chancellor, to whose sad policy are attrib
uted the great territorial mutilations suffered by the
republic for the advantage of Brazil and Bolivia in
1909:
the people of Peru have not been able to resign themselves to
having the popular vote unrecognized and to consenting to the
dictatorial acts practised recently by the administration that has
just terminated.

66 PERU
This was affirmed with inconceivable audacity in a
circular addressed to the honorable diplomatic corps
resident in Lima, with the deliberate intention of
misleading the minds of its distinguished members — a
vain and childish design, inasmuch as they, being
accredited to the capital of Peru and not to Peking,
are very well acquainted with the cultivated and
patriotic policy of the recent government.
According to the minister of justice :
the desire of the nation has imposed the obedience that is due her,
thus safeguarding herself from a governmental plan which was
already in operation for ignoring her, as was of common knowl
edge. Here it is no longer in the presence of foreign diplo
mats, but of the magistrates who constitute the
supreme court of the country, who live more in contact
with our political life, who have been taking part in
the electoral processes and who have also been
observing the frauds committed by the partisans of
sefior Leguia, with whom an effort is being made to
adulterate the truth.
Last of all, according to the minister of government
of the dictatorship, the coup d'itat of July 4 was not a
pretorian assault, but a national movement inspired by
a noble aspiration to accomplish constitutional reforms
that would establish in Peril a real democracy. This
he says textually in the first consideration of his
decree entitled Reformas constitutionales.
As may be seen, falsehoods are once more the only
reasons of usurpers in Peru.
To have suppressed a newspaper only when it put
itself at the service of the enemies of social order, after

PERU 67
having supported them for three years and a half,
during which it systematically carried on its attacks
upon my person, having recourse to all the insults and
calumnies imaginable, and after having appealed to a
legal process foreseen and provided for in article IV of
the law of habeas corpus, when the supreme court
ordered the opening of the printing house of El Tiempo r
are acts that converted my government into an
"ignominious tyranny," in the words of the dictator
and his ministers.
If, however, this be, according to such scrupulous
citizens, the qualificative merited by my efforts in
defense of threatened society, what will they call the
great crimes, the greatest that can be committed in the
political life of a people, and of which they have been
guilty since the early morning of July 4?
What name must they give to the enterprise to
which they were devoted, through whole months, of
inducing leaders and officers and soldiers to commit
the crime of treason, by misleading their judgment
with false affirmations and by covering up the true
motives of the revolutionary movement?
How are they to qualify their pertinacious campaign
whose success placed the national army and navy
in the most shameful, contradictory and unqualifiable
of situations by dragging down, on February 4, 1914,
the president who, by the insinuations of a wretched
and immoral politician, was going to attack the
majesty of the congress, and by overthrowing on
July 4, 1919, their constitutional president, in order to
set up a dictator who, by the suggestions of the same

68 PERU
politician, carries forward and consummates the
assault? Probably they will exhibit their conduct as a
manifestation of the profound regard which they feel
for the military institution, so profound that they did
not desist from their efforts until they made it play
the part which, without doubt, they will deem the
most honorable and worthy of the glorious traditions
of the army and navy of Peru.
To dissolve the congress; destroy printing estab
lishments; alter the character of the form of
government; provoke plebescites in accord with
methods that have been practised by tyrannical
imperialisms; assault and sack domiciles, without
holding the known perpetrators accountable; order
trials stopped; and wrest from the supreme court
the functions with which the law intrusts it: all
this that the nation contemplates filled with stupor —
how will it be christened by the men of the
military regime? Will they perhaps find in the
lexicon words that will faithfully express the meaning
of such actions?
It is regrettable that the minister of justice has not
made known to the public the details of the govern
mental plan to which reference is made. I, for my
part, can say with the firmness of a conscience strictly
in harmony with the truth and with all the authority
that belongs to one who has never deceived his
country, that such a plan has not existed even for an
instant, and that, consequently, it could not have been
on foot or within the scope of public knowledge. I
summon the members of the dictatorship, who have
to-day a magnificent opportunity to put me to con-

PERU 69
fusion with their proofs, to deny my categorical
declarations. The only modification of the existing order that I
permitted myself to submit to the congress was that of
setting forward the date of inauguration to the second
or fourth of the present month of August, for the
purpose — unquestionably quite proper — of enabling
the new administration to begin its labors simul
taneously with the ordinary legislative session, as
happened in a former period. This was, I repeat, the
only plan that I had conceived, and it is quite different,
without a doubt, from the one attributed to me by my
political adversaries, as also it is radically different
from the one worked out by the president of 19 12 in
order to remain in power.
The truth is, however, that the revolutionary
conspiracy existed long before the first electoral vote
began. This of which I speak is better known to the
present minister of justice than it is to me.
What plan of government could have been traced
out when the subversive movement of Anc6n started
on August 22, 1 91 8, and throughout the time that
elapsed afterward, during which each of the members
of the constitutional and Leguista committees has
been an active element of propaganda against the
reputation of the government and an agent of cor
ruption with the leaders, officers and men of the army
and navy?
The governmental plan imagined by the enemies of
justice is nothing therefore but another affirmation,
wholly void of truth, and intended to deceive those

70 PERU
who wish to be deceived in order to obtain rewards
and elevations in recompense for their treason.
The government, in the matter of electoral politics,
had marked out for itself a truly inflexible line of
conduct. The idea of a convention of the parties —
which it favored with the greatest loftiness and
patriotism, because it was convinced that this method
of harmonizing interests would have strengthened, and
added prestige to, the nation abroad, in these excep
tional times of international life, and would have
assured the triumph of the true collective aspirations
in its internal regime — being discarded, it resolved to
develop its action upon the principles of the most
absolute rectitude by giving ample guaranties to all
the candidates. I was not only compelled to follow
this policy through loyalty to my duties as a ruler, but
also as an especial consequence of the distinguished
personages who formed the cabinets presided over by
Doctor German Arenas and General Zuloaga, who did
me the honor to serve with me in the labors of the
administration under the conviction that there would
exist the most complete electoral freedom; and, more
singularly still, through consideration for Doctors
Federico Panizo and Augusto Arrese, who afterward
entered the ministry under the express condition that
the government should respect the popular will,
whatever the direction it might take.
This means therefore that the efforts of the executive
in respect of the electoral process did not correspond
merely to a political direction freely taken, but also to
an engagement of honor existing between the pres
ident of the reoublic and his counselors ; and, in view

PERU 71
of this condition of affairs, sefior Leguia reached Peru,
entered Lima and received all kinds of public mani
festations from his friends, without encountering the
mobs that are now sacking the homes of his political
adversaries and sowing terror everywhere in order to
impose silence.
The preliminary steps of the election being taken
without the least show of coercion on the part of the
authorities, the meetings of the greatest contributors
could be held freely throughout the republic. In some
of them, as in Lima and Callao, the lists made up by
sefior Leguia triumphed; in others, were organized
dual committees in opposition to those formed by the
supporters of senor Aspillaga; and in others, finally,
the upholders of the candidate of the civil party were
victorious. It is worthy of note that if there was
bloodshed on account of the meeting of these assem
blies in certain parts of the country, this was due,
almost always, to the provocative and violent action
of the candidates affiliated with the constitutional
party that supported senor Leguia, and who, obeying
doubtless a definite plan, exerted themselves that
there should not fail to be such. In Chota, in Otuzco
and in Pataz, the unfortunate subprefects and
gendarmes who, complying with instructions of the
government, tried to maintain order, were vilely
assassinated by bands of the political organization
sarcastically termed "constitutional."
To this attitude of the public authorities, of positive
respect for electoral freedom, sefior Leguia replied by
maintaining in his newspapers the most violent
campaign of infamy and calumny against the govern-

72 PERU
ment. Without doubt it was an effort to form what
Doctor Cornejo calls "the revolutionary environment."
It is unnecessary, however, for me to enter into
further considerations. The public conscience is now
formed; the country knows that I invoked the
patriotism of the party leaders in order that a conven
tion might be held, subject to the rules that they
themselves might desire to establish, and that this
disinterested and sincere purpose failed in the face of
group selfishness and personal ambitions; that I
guaranteed the freedom of election in so absolute a
form — as must be loyally recognized and proclaimed
by any of the least impassioned of the opposition
itself — that sefior Leguia was enabled boldly to stuff
the ballot in many parts of the republic by means of
the most barefaced fraud ; and even in Lima, with the
manifest complicity of the committee on suffrage, and
before the astonished gaze of the whole city, it was
possible for him, by appealing to the same means, to
offer many reports of contested cases at variance with
the truth ; that, in short, I developed a policy that was
for the country a promise of peace and a revelation
that there existed on my part no crooked design of
foisting a successor.
When the electoral campaign, properly speaking,
was concluded, there remained, pending merely the
qualification of those elected, a function that, accord
ing to the law, fell to the lot of the supreme court,
whose decisions must determine inevitably the
judgment and resolution of the congress, inasmuch as
they were based upon organisms that had served both
for the congressional and the presidential elections.

PERU 73
It would not be admissible to suppose that the
chambers would validate votes declared void by the
court, nor that they would have dared to consider as
valueless votes that had received the approval of the
court. This means, consequently, that the qualification of
the presidential elections was, strictly speaking,
intrusted to the republic's highest tribunal of justice,
which, in pronouncing its opinion upon the cases
brought to its cognizance by the candidates for
senatorships and deputyships, was weeding out the
lists presented by senores Leguia and Aspillaga.
Thus, up to July 3, there had been presented to the
supreme court thirty-five pleas for voidance, and
seven cases had been decided, two that dealt with the
political friends of sefior Leguia and three that
favored the partisans of sefior Aspillaga being ap
proved and two wholly annulled. That is, up to the
eve of the revolutionary movement, sefior Leguia had
lost by the decision of the supreme court, whose
probity and rectitude the whole country has re
cognized, 14,546 votes.
The solution of the presidential electoral problem
ought then to have defined itself with absolute clear
ness. As in the elections of May, there had been some
scattering votes, and as the court was considerably
reducing the number of votes for the opposing candi
dates, the congress was going to come face to face with
the case provided for in article 82 of the national
constitution, thus having to choose between senores
Leguia and Aspillaga as president, since they were
the ones who had received the highest number of

74 PERU
votes, without either of them obtaining an absolute
majority. I did not have a majority of my own in the congress
in order to carry out any plan. However, as I had
pursued a policy of absolute loyalty toward the
parties that had elevated me to the presidency, and,
above all, as my efforts were in harmony with manifest
national interests, according to the formulas of sound
sense and effectiveness, it was not difficult for me to
count upon the support of the liberal party, upon that
of independent groups in the chambers, upon the votes
of the old constitutional and democratic representa
tives and upon the loyalty of the civil party, all these
being elements that constituted a considerable
majority, which for the last four years has directed the
affairs of state with the wisdom and patriotism that
the nation must recognize.
I had this majority, as it is possessed by all
parliamentary governments — whose success depends
upon the action of political forces and not upon the
imposition of dictatorial wills — because my policy was
not personal, but genuinely national, and because I
did not seek unconstitutional support, such as the
dictatorship is trying to secure by means of the
organization of a new congress. Far from this, on
many occasions and in affairs of grave moment, that
majority forced upon the executive power decisions
very different from those he had sought.
All that I am affirming was very well known to
senor Leguia ; but he knew something more : he knew
from the lips of representatives attached to the policy
of the government that the administration had not

PERU 75
made them any suggestion that they should fail to
comply with their constitutional duties and that it did
not exercise the least influence in the direction of
hindering the free vote of the congress.
It was then that sefior Leguia, on arriving at the
conviction that the executive did not desire anything
less than that the electoral process should be carried
out in the terms of the political charter, and on seeing
that the ranks of his friends in the parliament were
increasing, in proportion as the day of his inauguration
drew near; on persuading himself, in short, that the
congress was going to elect him, resolved to take a
revolutionary step.
It did not mean that the conspiracy had been
prepared with thought fixed upon the idea that the
congress might be capable of proclaiming a person
different from sefior Leguia or sefior Aspillaga, nor
that the flag which the present dictator proposed to fly,
in rebelling against the authority of the legislative
power, had suddenly fallen from his hands. What he
was interested in was the disappearance of the con
gress; and, with or without a pretext, he would have
consummated the attack.
The revolution was not waged against the president,
but against the congress, from which sefior Leguia did
not wish to receive the presidential investiture, because
this fact would have made it impossible for him to
dissolve it; and he did not desire to govern, as I
governed for four years, with a majority resulting
from a patriotic conjunction of political forces, but
with another, constituted by unconditional elements.
It was on this account that he resolved upon revolu-

76 PERU
tion: not to save the country from an "ignominious
dictatorship," which never existed at any time while I
was at the head of public affairs, but in order to
dissolve the congress and form another new one to his
entire satisfaction.
In order to carry out this nefarious plan it has made
no difference that he had to commit the gravest
assaults that could be made upon a civilized nation,
restore partisan leadership in Pen! and plunge the
nation into the most profound disgrace abroad, at the
very moment when she was presenting to the free
peoples of the world a just demand for her territorial
revindication. Compatriots: I have given you an account of the principal acts of
my administration during the period of 1915-1919, in
which, for the second time, I had the signal honor to
guide your destiny; and I have revealed to you with
absolute truth what is the origin of the high treason of
which the constitutional institutions of Peril are
victims. Whether surrendering the symbol of supreme power
in the presence of the representatives of the nation, in
the refined ceremony of a free democracy, or having it
wrested from me by the brutal hand of a pretorian
soldiery, in the service of a legicidal ambition, the
condition of my spirit is the same : it is one of absolute
serenity, because, since all my acts have been ad
dressed to the welfare of Peru and have served no
other end than the national interests, in the rigid

PERU 77
realm of honor and duty in which I have moved during
all my public life, I can await, with my forehead
lifted high, the justifying verdict of honorable men.
Jose Pardo.
Coldn, August 18, 1919,

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