Viewing page 22 of 27

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

42     THE CRISIS 

surgery, has an unlimited field; likewise the dentist.
  
All that one gets in Rio he pays for, and many times he pays for things he does not get. On the whole the cost of living will approximate three times that of the cost here in the United States.
  
The average working man earns from three to six milreis a day, that is a dollar to two dollars. Policemen, conductors and firemen receive about the same pay. Most all these men are colored. From the lowest strata to the highest the colored man is represented. In all walks of life he is present.

In all parts of Brazil there is an appalling mass of illiteracy. About 75 percent of the people are illiterate. Schools are few and the training received in them is slight and wholly inadequate to fit the student for the practical affairs of every day life. In the school administration, as well as in other branches of the government, system and method are woefully lacking. It is not compulsory to send your child to school and with these lax school laws it is easy to see what degree of interest a large proportion of illiterate parents, having little thought or interest for the future, will manifest for their children. Each state has its own school laws and primary instruction comes within its jurisdiction. University training, however, is under Federal control. In the whole of Brazil there are not more than 10,000 public schools. There is as yet no university.
  
The fighting force of Brazil, army and navy, is composed largely of men of color. In the United States we would say Negroes. Brazil's navy today has three super-dreadnoughts: the "Rio Janeiro" of 27,500 tons displacement, which cost about $15,000,000, the "Sao Paulo" and "Minas Geraes" of 21,000 tons. The navy consists of some thirty six vessels composed of cruisers, torpedo boats, gunboats, submarines and destroyers. Almost the entire crews of these super-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts and other fighting craft are Negroes.
  
The national holiday is celebrated the 7th of September. On one such occasion I witnessed the grand review of 20,000 Brazilian soldiers and sailors. Their line extended for more than eight miles and it required two hours for them to pass the reviewing stand of the president and his party. These thousands of men composing the artillery, infantry, cavalry and navy were mostly Negroes. Whites and blacks were mixed indiscriminately together in the different divisions. There were, however, a few companies composed wholly of whites. There were 200,000 of the Rio population present and this assemblage was unstinted in its praise, and cheers and shouts of acclamation. Their morale will pass muster with soldiers of the leading nations. They were not tramps and ragamuffins as some picture I have seen would indicate. Their equipment was of the latest and most improved type. As for their bravery and valor, it suffices to say that these virtues have been demonstrated many times in the different wars in which Brazil has participated.
  
From Rio to Santos, the greatest coffee port in the world, is a voyage of about twenty hours on one of the coast line streamers. 
  
From Santos to Sao Paulo takes two hours. Leaving Santos the grade of the Sierra do Mar mountains is steep and a large part of the way cables are used in making the ascent. At every station there was a brilliantly uniformed soldier, and he was always a man of color. The Italian immigration to this state has been heavy and today Italians form the larger percentage of the new-comers. There are at least a million of them here. They come poor but by their frugality and excessive parsimony are, in many cases, able to amass much wealth in the growing of coffee. Coffee is to this state and city what rubber is to the Acre territory, and tobacco is to Bahia; it is the very life and revenue of the state. Many Negroes are employed on these coffee fazendas as pickers but they are not so numerous as a little farther north in the state of Minas Geraes.

Sau Paulo is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the new world. It is the meeting place of east, west, north and south and all upon a plan of equality. There were all the races of Europe, representatives from Africa, Turkey, Arabia, India, China, Japan, and in fact from all quarters of the globe. There is hardly another place in the world where so many different races may be found, living peacefully together, without racial hatreds and animosities, working out



GLIMPSES OF BRAZIL     43

their common destiny. It is in truth the exemplification of Christian teachings.
  
As to a man's social standing in Brazil, color has no weight. Wealth alone determines the sphere in which he moves. Here we have a white class and a black class. In Brazil is a rich class and a poor class, and it is almost impossible for the poor illiterate to become rich there as it is here for black to become white. Most of the Negroes belong to the poor class. Indiscriminate commingling and intermarriage with the whites goes on continually in this class. They associate together, eat together, live together, attend the same schools, churches and places of amusement. Higher in the social scale the Negro becomes fewer in number, his blood thins out, and finally, for all that we can tell from external appearances, disappears. American writers have said that the line was drawn and the Negro, therefore, excluded because he was a Negro.  When I was there I saw evidences of Negro blood in all circles from the highest to the lowest. If a man, white or black, is absent from any class it is because he has not the essential requirements to belong to that class, and the desideratum in Brazil is money and not color.
  
Many Negroes have won renown in the arts and professions. In medicine, law, music and journalism they have won distinction and fame. The highest offices in the land today are filled by men of color. In the business field, however, he is not so well represented. Many enterprises are operated by men who appear colored but here in the states might not be so considered.
  
The condition of the country Negroes is one not to be envied. Their life is very primitive and not far removed in development from the native African. Their houses are adobe huts, poorly constructed, with roofs of tile. The bare ground serves as a floor and there are no windows. Each dwelling is surrounded by its clump of bananas or orange trees. The Negroes pay is small when he does work and he is forced to lead a wretched existence. Often he is shiftless, working spasmodically, and with no thought of the future. The climate is bounteous in supplying him with his few wants and he needs have little thought of the morrow. He lives in the direst poverty, the darkest ignorance and the blindest superstition. He cannot send his children to school for the federal and state governments do not provide adequate facilities for instruction. Schools are so few that not more than three per cent of the population are able to attend.
  
All the large manufacturing concerns in Rio Janeiro, gas, electric light and street railways are owned and operated by foreigners. The largest stories are also run by them. In other parts of the Republic mines and other concessions are operated with their capital.
  
Wise leadership and direction must eventually come from the native Brazilian that Brazil may be guided to a destiny resplendent and crowned with glorious achievement. It was with the deepest regret that we bade farewell to this great continent of the south. Memories most cherished will long linger of our cordial welcome and pleasant sojourn in Brazil where for once, at least, in our lives we were Men and treated as such.

[[image]]
[[caption]] ENTRANCE TO THE BOTANICAL GARDEN, RIO JANEIRO [[/caption]]