Chapter 39
part three chapter eight of garcia moreno by gustin berth this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by maria therese finances and public works eighteen sixty nine to eighteen seventy five it is an axiom with our modern pagans that civilization consists not in the moral and religious perfection of a people but solely in material progress the example of garcia moreno is the most striking proof of the reverse of this dogma which can be met with in modern history the great need of the country as we have before said was the want of roads and of all communication with the interior the only means of travelling was on horseback while all kinds of merchandise had to be carried on the backs of mules or of indians by the most fearful paths in the midst of dangerous precipices and rushing torrents which made every journey a peril to life to remedy this state of things garcia moreno determined to make a carriage road from quito to guayaquil his old companion in the exploration of the pincinchec volcano the engineer sebastian having been requested to examine the ground reported that with a good number of bridges and viaducts one could unite the spurs of the andes from the capital to chimborazo without greatly deviating from the ordinary track
then a lower elevation would have to be found for the next hundred and fifty kilometres after which only about forty would remain but on low and swampy ground which would entail a good deal of expense footnote see the report of mr sebastian weiss el nacional december twenty first eighteen sixty two and footnote the first engineer whom garcia moreno employed to draw out the plan failed but he was not discouraged at last the route was definitely traced but then came the jealousies and egotism of the large landed proprietors whose rich haciendas would in some cases be intersected by the new road one especially who came from new granada insisted on the whole value of his property being paid marina asked him the price at which he valued it and he replied five hundred thousand piastros very well said the president i will pay it to you in ready money but as you estimate your property before at only fifty thousand piastros you have cheated the government for the last thirty years of an enormous sum which you must first refund with the interest after which my finance minister will pay you the sum you demand it is needless to add that no further opposition was experienced in that quarter
another an intimate friend of his own exclaimed you must walk over my body before you bring your new road through my property we will pass over your body if necessary replied garcia marina but i swear to you that i will not deviate a hair's breadth from the line i have marked out but these first difficulties were his child's play to those that followed before this gigantic undertaking was finally accomplished for ten years thousands of workmen were employed with a doctor to look after them in case of accidents or illness and a priest to attend to their religious duties morning and night sundays were kept for entire rest and mass was sung in the open air at last in eighteen seventy three the road was completed on the twenty third of april the first diligences were started at quito and solemnly blessed in presence of an immense multitude in the square before the cathedral from the gallery of his episcopal palace the archbishop gave his blessing to the carriages which speedily opened to receive the company who were to make their first journey this was indeed a day of triumph for garcia moreno the enterprise which ten years ago was looked upon as a folly by his friends as well as by his enemies now excited the admiration of all without this man of genius people exclaimed ecuador would have remained for ever in status quo his energy has overcome every obstacle triumphed over the cowardice of one the indolence of another and all the passionate opposition roused against him ecuador has not voices enough to bless him and sing of his glory
four other roads were opened simultaneously in the northern and southern provinces the first from quito to the bay of canaques near manabi traversed the country in all its width and opened out two fresh provinces the second from quito to esmeraldas and ibarra was still more indispensable but so difficult of execution that garcia moreno himself directed the engineers in its construction the third was destined to prevent the isolation of two of the southern provinces cuenca and loja and the fourth connected loja with the seaport of santa rosa so as to facilitate the exportation of a newly discovered vegetable the cundurango the valuable properties of which exceeded that of any similar substance marina had thus endowed his country with an eternal source of riches and progress by these five great roads the towns and provinces entered into communication not only with the capital but with the seaports and in that way with all america and european nations the result was instantly seen agriculture and commerce finding these openings for their produce at once devoted themselves to production and ecuador woke up from a sleep which had lasted for a thousand years
it would be impossible for us to enumerate all the public works accomplished by garcia moreno to bring his country to a level with the civilisation of europe without speaking of the port of guayaquil to improve which by drudgers he freed the mouths of the guayas of the accumulations of centuries he set up lighthouses on all the dangerous points of the sea-coast rebuilt the town of ibarra and brought about the complete transformation of the town of quito which up to his time had not a single carriageable road in spite of the outcry caused by his improvements he converted the filthy muddy steep paths into magnificent well-paved streets and by lowering certain parts of the ground and raising others carriages could freely circulate from one end of the town to the other then he restored the public buildings which were falling into ruin converted the plaza major into a beautiful square filled with shrubs and flowers and created in fact the fine city which all strangers now admire those who had grumbled at first were now delighted at the change and realised the genius of the man who had worked these marvels we feel sure that our readers will have asked themselves very often where could garcia moreno find the money for such gigantic undertakings we know that he found the public treasury completely exhausted and that he refused to have recourse to fresh loans besides that since the wars of independence ecuador was burdened with a heavy public debt in consequence of loans contracted by bolivar in the name of colombia which successive governments had aggravated by not paying the interest
in addition to this they had increased the debt by six or seven million piastres with no apparent prospect of escaping a general bankruptcy garcia moreno determined from the first to deliver his country from such a deadlock and succeed it in his message to the chambers of eighteen seventy five we read with the resources of the last six years we have devoted six million of piastres to the total extinction of the anglo-american debt and the liquidation of the home one i have the pleasure of announcing to you that the former will be all paid by next year and the latter a very short time after besides this he added to the salaries of all the government officials while public works in his charitable undertakings absorbed upwards of six millions of piastres or thirty millions of francs yet he did not increase the taxation but on the contrary diminished the duty on many articles and abolished others altogether like the capitation tax on the natives the income tax on the revenues of the bishops and clergy and the succession duty how then did he arrive at these miraculous results a great economist has said be wise in your politics and your finances will be in good order and garcia moreno's device seek ye first the kingdom of god and his justice and all other things shall be added unto you was emphatically true of his financial successes in the first place ecuador had been ruined by successive revolutions
garcia moreno stopped them all as we have seen nor was the public peace ever troubled during his second presidency so that all the money required in former years for repression was saved then his great anxiety was to live at peace with his neighbours although no one was more susceptible than himself of the national honour but every one knew his bravery and the excellent organisation of his little army so that no one cared to pick a quarrel with him we have seen also that he diminished the standing army considerably which greatly reduced the army estimates besides that he purified the government administration in all its departments and placed a man at the head of the treasury on whom he could rely to stop the roguery and depredations which had been the rule rather than the exception among the officials so that an enormous saving of public money was the result he had a right to exact honesty in the public service when he remitted himself half his salary towards the payment of the national debt i am president not to enrich myself he would say but to serve my country he remained a poor man all his life and if at last he was able to build a small house at quito it was not from the treasury but from the revenues of his farm at
the agricultural and commercial progress which he had inaugurated with his new roads doubled in a few years the revenue of the state nothing is more eloquent than the comparison of the receipts under urbina and garcia marino under robina the total receipts amounted to one million three hundred seventy two thousand piastres under gracia marino the annual increase was as follows in eighteen sixty nine one million six hundred seventy eight thousand seven hundred fifty nine piastres 1870 2,248,308, 1871 2,483,359, 1872 2,909,348, 1873 3,604,130, 1874 3,944,647. thus in spite of the important and expensive public works he had carried out and the large sums spent in schools hospitals and other charitable undertakings garcia moreno in those few years had more than doubled the revenue of the state chapter eight
