Argentina

“ WHEN SAN MARTIN CAME To-day, the Republic of Argentina is an immense rich land. It stretches from the Atlantic Coast westward nearly to the Pacific. Its broad pampas, or plains, roll almost from the very doors of the beautiful city of Buenos Aires to the foothills of the Andes Mountains. The mighty frozen peaks of the Andes form a wall between the two sister Republics, Argentina and Chile. ”

“ Argentina is a land without ideals. Religion is at a discount, and as yet nothing worthy of the world's note has been produced in art or literature. There is no national conscience. It is a country for money-making, and, although I may have been unfortunate in the men I met, I encountered few Argentines who had thought beyond money.
The Argentines are a people numbering seven millions—drawn from the sturdier sections of the Latin race, reinforced by adventurous spirits from other races, and backed by the finance of London—and their ambitions are large. ”

“ Argentina is a country that is purely pastoral and agricultural, for the proportion of those engaged in manufacturing is numerically very small. And yet one city contains nearly one-fifth of the total population. When you include the other cities, such as Rosario, Tucuman, Mendoza, etc., the proportion of city dwellers is still greater. The cities of Argentina have outgrown the rest of the country. With people of an excitable nature, such as the Latins are, it may bode serious trouble in the future. ”

“ From Buenos Aires to Mendoza, from Bahia Blanca to Tucuman, are to be seen all the signs of wealth and [2] prosperity, all the unmistakable portents of coming potency usually apparent in a new country that has emerged from the stage of childhood and weakness and feels the vigour of lusty youth in its veins, impelling it to take its place in the system of world politics.
If a single volume is all too short to represent Argentina in its manifold aspects, still less adequate is a single chapter to sketch its physical characteristics. ”

“ The interest which Argentina arouses is entirely unlike that which appeals to the traveller's eye and mind in Peru or Bolivia or Chile. In each of these three countries there is scenery grand in scale and different in type from what any other part of the world has to shew. In Peru and Bolivia there are also the remains of a primitive civilization, scanty, no doubt, but all the more attractive because they stimulate rather than satisfy our curiosity. ”

“ But there is too much business now going on in Argentina, too much development of industries in which foreigners have little hand, too thorough a grasp of some of the problems which face all new lands, for the Argentines to be dismissed with a phrase. ”

“ Argentina TO countless people South America is little or nothing more than a geographical expression, and to such the Argentine Republic is the representative State, typical of all the rest. There could be no greater error, for the natives of the great southern continent are sharply differentiated, alike in many traits of character, the vocations which they pursue, and the physiography of the territory which they inhabit. ”

“ MODERN ARGENTINA—SETTLEMENT AND PROGRESS
The era of modern Argentina is inaugurated by the Presidency of Sarmiento in 1868. Hitherto her business had been to work out her destiny with much waste of human life and wealth, now her task was to create both. Population [53] began to increase and industries flourished. Railways were extended and the administration was improved. It was a season of prosperity in almost every part of the world, and in this Argentina fully shared. ”

“ North Americans are few, though within recent years much United States capital has quietly taken hold of certain industries. Argentina is capable of carrying a population of fifty millions, and it will secure them within the next half-century. In race, language, customs, religion, it is especially favourable to folk from the thronged Latin countries of Europe.
Every settler becomes a violent Argentine. The emphatic patriotism of the American is tepid alongside the hot-blooded nationality of Argentina. It is daily inculcated in the schools. ”

“ Let him realise that those whom he meets in Argentina are as noble and pure as those he left at home. Argentina offers to-day a splendid opening for the best of England's sons, but she does not want the loafer nor the ne'er-do-well. ”

“ But it was a show of cattle of which Argentina had a right to be proud. It was another post along the road of evolution. The time is yet far off when Argentina can rightly claim first position amongst the live-stock nations; but it is a goal which the Argentines steadily keep in sight. Stud farms are to be found all over the country. ”

“ No country known to me impresses upon a visitor from Europe so forcibly as the Argentine the unlimited possibilities of its soil. Travelling hour after hour by a railway straight as a line over gently undulating or perfectly flat plains, stretching on all sides as far as the eye can reach, the observer is struck by the regular ripple of the rich grass, like the waves of the sea, as the breeze blows over it. ”

“ As has been said before, the importance of Argentina as a world State is purely industrial and commercial; her politics, literature, and people are interesting, but they still belong to the day of small things. ”

“ Much has been done, an amazing amount, to place Argentina in the front line of agrarian education. [Pg 190] In giving praise there is, I know, always the danger of overdoing it. And whilst the Argentine has a good conceit of himself, he has the quality, not always readily discernible in a new country, of being able to see his weak points and being willing to learn. ”

“ THE PEOPLE AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS
Argentina is made up of a complex population. An Argentinian is a person born in the country, just as we class our own population. Perhaps nearly one-half of the inhabitants are foreign born, and most of them from the Latin countries. ”

“ Argentine Republic, or Argentina (4,000) , a confederation like that of the United States of 14 states and 9 territories, occupying the eastern slopes of the Andes and the vast level plain extending from them to the Atlantic, bounded on the N. by Bolivia and Paraguay; its area ten times that of Great Britain and Ireland; while the population includes 600,000 foreigners, Italians, French, Spaniards, English, and Germans. ”

“ The capital of Argentina is more like an American city than any other city of South [42] America. The architecture is entirely dissimilar, but the movement on the streets, the arrangement of the stores, and the general bearing of the people bears a marked resemblance. They like to be called the Yankees of South America, for that term signifies energy, resourcefulness and progressiveness. They are deserving of the term too. They are less strenuous than Americans, for they love holidays and enter heartily into the holiday spirit whenever the occasion permits. ”

“ At the present time Argentina stands at the head of all the republics south of the United States in commercial importance. Its imports and its exports greatly exceed those of any of the other countries, and its population is rapidly growing. The people are energetic, resourceful and ambitious. ”

“ So the Argentine flag, like much of Argentine prosperity, is due to Britain.
In proportion to the population there are as many millionaires in Argentina as in the United States. There are sturdy old fellows, who can hardly write their names, who scarcely know the extent of their wealth. ”

“ Although within the limits of a single volume it is impossible to make an adequate presentation of a country so vast and varied as Argentina, an attempt has been made to view this wonderful land and people as a whole, and it is hoped that this sketch, though inadequate, may be judged not untrustworthy. ”

“ The Government of Argentina is that of a Federal rather than a Centralized Republic, although in fact the President has a preponderating influence, with certain rights of intervention in the affairs of any Province. ”

“ As work is assured, Argentina is a land where there are no unemployed—except amongst the dissolute, who are to be found in all countries. I saw these immigrants on the Avon gathered at Vigo, and I saw them in distant provinces, and I was struck with their sturdiness and health. I place on record that I never saw a drunken man during all my wanderings in the Republic. Blessed with a fine climate, and the winter so temperate that fires are not necessary, life is easy, and there is no crushing into towns for work, as is usual in Canada during the frozen months. ”

“ In establishing the commercial and industrial greatness of Argentina my countrymen have co-operated with her people for a longer time and more efficiently than any other foreign nation. The land and the people are therefore a subject of lively interest to Englishmen, and it is hoped that this sketch, however inadequate, will help towards a closer knowledge of Argentina. ”

“ Undoubtedly at the present time the main interest of Argentina is industrial. The wonderful rapidity of her expansion is perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon of this generation, and can only be realised by a visit to the country. ”

“ As a companion and a host no one could be more charming than the Argentine. He loves his country, but is willing to hear praise about other countries without thinking you wish to depreciate Argentina. He will go to infinite trouble to secure some particular information you are anxious to possess. Men on whom I had no personal claim whatever laid aside their work and devoted a couple of days in my behalf. As the men are courteous so the women are graceful, until lack of exercise and over-eating makes them stout. ”

“ These vast stretches of level land may produce a certain sense of irritation upon one newly arrived in Argentina. He may ride for league upon league on his horse, or travel for hour after hour by train, awaiting that change of scenery, which his experience leads him to believe will inevitably occur. He might start in the centre of the republic and travel for scores of leagues east, west, north or south, and find the same unending monotony. ”

“ THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC The Argentine Republic has an area of one and a quarter million square miles. It is 2,600 miles from north to south, and 500 miles at its widest part. It is twelve times the size of Great Britain. Although the population of the country is about seven millions, only one per cent, of its cultivable area is now occupied, yet Argentina has an incomparable climate. ”

“ But, however illegally, trade went on and Argentina flourished. A traveller [29] who visited Buenos Aires in 1769 says that its chief trade was with Chile and Peru, and that it sent to them "cotton, mules, some skins, and about 400,000 Spanish pounds' weight of the Paraguay herb, or South Sea tea, every year." In fact Argentina, like the other Spanish colonies, advanced steadily in wealth and population during the eighteenth century, until progress was abruptly checked by the Revolution. ”

“ But all foreigners, be they British, German, French, or belonging to the United States, must recognise the ambition of the Argentines ultimately to do without them and to "run the show" for themselves.
The nationality of Argentina is not founded on tradition; it comes from the fervour of self-appreciation. Despite the growth of Socialism in the ports the country gives unprecedented scope for individual daring—gambling on the future if you like. The doors are open to all the races of Europe to become Argentines. ”

“ The Frenchman, Spaniard and Italian finds conditions in Argentina, Southern Brazil and Uruguay more in accordance with his traditional customs. For the Spaniard the language is the same, and the Italian soon masters the difference in idiom. So this nation forms and should form the natural haven for these people, when the struggle for existence drives them from the land of their birth. As the government improves it will become still more attractive for them, and it is to be hoped that the stream of Italian immigrants who now seek our shores will head for the River Plate. ”

“ Englishmen have from the beginning taken the lead in developing the resources of the country, and this fact is fully appreciated by the people of Argentina, who owe no less their pre-eminent position in South America to the stream of English capital, which has been pouring in for generations, than to their fine climate and immense natural wealth. ”

“ The truth is that no country nor individual has ever produced much art of any account during its or his infancy. And Argentina and Uruguay are still in the barely adolescent stage of their economic and political development. The many sympathetic, though often contrasted, characteristics of the true Argentine and Uruguayan hold out, however, good hope for artistic achievement in the future. ”

“ Before, however, proceeding to the study of a country the learner must endeavour to set before himself its principal geographical features, and as those of Argentina are well defined and comparatively simple they lend themselves to broad and clear classification. Geographically Argentina falls into four divisions. Firstly, Patagonia, which stretches from the Rio Colorado to Cape Horn. Secondly, the Andine region, which runs from the southern frontier of Bolivia right along the Chilian border. Thirdly, the Gran Chaco, which embraces the whole of the north of Argentina except the Andine strip. ”

“ It has a history rich, in its later years, in traditions of statesmanship and patriotism, bearing on its roll of honor the names of such statesmen, soldiers, educators, and executives as Belgrano, San Martín, Alvear, Puyrredón, Rivadavia, Mitré, and Sarmiento, names worthy of special reverence among a people familiar with the standards set by Washington and Lincoln. In a word, with all this material greatness, and such a record of energetic and enlightened adaptation to world progress, Argentina may, in the not distant future, turn the jest against its northern perpetrators ”