Argentine Republic

“ Just as the United States had to subdue savage Indians, to enter into war and to offer great sacrifices to develop the resources of vast uninhabited territories in order to establish the principles of liberty and justice, the Argentine Republic has successfully conquered the same difficulties and, to-day, is inviting the rest of the world to add to its developments and to share its wealth. In the disposition of its territories, in its form of government and in its constitution and laws, the Argentine Republic has modelled its policy upon that of the United States. ”

“ Not least amongst the countries willing to make sacrifices to share in this noble work was the Argentine Republic which, in the face of many obstacles to adequate representation, at once entered into the spirit of the undertaking and after assembling its leading authorities in all the branches of national arts and industries, decided to assume its appropriate part in the glorification of the American Continent by the effort to show that the nations of the south were advancing step by step with the great Republic of the north. ”

“ The pure European origin and the commercial spirit of the new inhabitants soon produced changes in pre-existing conditions and in marking out the path for the present Argentine metropolis to become the hub of South America. Founded in 1535 by Pedro de Mendoza, and subsequently destroyed and twice depopulated, the modern rise of the capital of what is now the Argentine Republic may be said to date from 1824, after the formulation of the Monroe Doctrine and the recognition of the independence of the people of Buenos Aires by the United States and Great Britain. ”

“ We inherit the right to be interested in Argentina, and to be proud of Argentina. From the time when Richard Rush was fighting, from the day when James Monroe threw down the gauntlet of a weak republic, as we were then, in defense of your independence and rights—from that day to this the interests and the friendship of [Pg 85] the people of the United States for the Argentine Republic have never changed. We rejoice in your prosperity; we are proud of your achievements; we feel that you are justifying our faith in free government, and self-government ”

“ But the interesting part of the present moment is that the Argentine Republic is sailing upon the same course in the twentieth century that the United States did in the nineteenth. Our evolution is proceeding with greater care because it is being worked out amid better conditions. We can now take advantage of the costly experience gained by our brothers of the north and so by avoiding many of their errors, seek to escape the shoals upon which they stranded and the mistakes which they involuntarily committed, even though we have in our turn special problems which they did not have. ”

“ In every form of national activity the forward march of the Argentine Republic has made itself felt far beyond its own borders; while from a purely commercial point of view it has become a centre of universal interest and has added materially to the enrichment of the commerce of many of the countries of Europe. ”

“ Clearly the advantages that go to make up the success of the Argentine Republic would count for nothing were there no strong minds to grasp the higher principles of public interest and no strong hearts to enforce their practice. The Argentine is a battlefield where every kind of moral force, including politics and sociology, is now in the full heat of action, and exposed to all the chances and changes common to weak humanity. ”

“ While the most of our maps and geographies remain pretty much as they were a score of years ago, and a majority of the kingdoms of the Old World have changed scarcely at all, the Argentine Republic has been steadily growing in population, progressing rapidly in intelligence, constantly extending its commercial relations, and marching all the while towards the front rank of modern civilization. ”

“ You insult an Argentine if you mix him up with Chilians, Brazilians, and other South Americans. He does not thank you for being reminded his father sailed from Italy, or his grandfather from Spain. He has no affection for any old land from which his sires came. The beginning of the world for Argentina was in May, 1810, when the Republic was set up.
He has no pride of historic race. When he makes money and visits Europe it is not to find the ancestral home in Spain or Italy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Despite its eminently cosmopolitan character, which is a peculiarity of its development, the Argentine Republic has succeeded in retaining its own personality among so many diverse elements. It is the type of the modern nation, whose ideal is that of the United States—business. A man is zonzo or vivo—a fool or more than capable—there is no medium. ”

“ But great as is the actual and potential wealth of the Argentine from its favoured soil, it is not that alone that has made its capital the greatest in South America, and has brought to the development of the Republic citizens and resources from all the progressive nations of the world. It is also as the main highway to the remote recesses of the vast continent that the Argentine region has appealed to the imaginations of men. ”

“ In the Argentine Republic the increase of public expenditure responds to causes which differ from those which are active in the countries of Europe; though we do not say that the latter do not also exercise their influence. A new country, inhabited by a sparsely-settled population, in possession of a rich but desert territory, its economic organism as yet barely developed, the Argentine has not yet produced a class of men practised in and prepared for practical administration. ”

“ For the present, the only proper thing for us to do is to devote ourselves exclusively to the exploitation of our resources for we have seen how much effort will be required to assimulate our population, to form a national spirit, to build up a great future nation, to develop an administration which shall be a model of honesty and scientific preparation, and to adapt the republic to its future needs by public works and institutions, and by showing ourselves firm in faith and effective in works.
The present social tendencies in Argentine evolution give promise of a great future for the country. ”

“ From this point of view the present moment in the evolution of Argentine is of immense sociological interest. We are permitted to be present at the visible transmutation of a society, too weak even to direct itself, and absorbed in the fusion of different influences. ”

“ The fourteen provinces which form the Argentine Republic have never been welded into one nation, and have seldom had a moment's peace. The gauchos have been a continual scourge, and the gaucho generals its rulers and harriers combined. Unfortunately, here, as in other Spanish states, one dictator has succeeded another. Thirty presidents, or dictators, have reigned within fifty years. At one time five provinces had each a separate dictator. The neighboring republic of Uruguay, formerly a part of the Argentine Confederation, had 26 revolutions in the twenty-three years from 1864 to 1887. ”

“ I may add that no statistics would enable one to solve the problem which Argentina in 1920 presents to an observer. Has the European War merely retarded the economic evolution of the country, or has it given that evolution a new direction? Will or will not the relations which Argentina is now resuming with the rest of the world be of the same character as the pre-war relations? ”

“ Federal sentiment made its appearance profoundly rooted in tradition and blood, and the tendency towards centralization only emanated from certain groups of dreamers at the metropolis who with their eyes closed to the past believed along with such deluded men as Rivadavia that, by destroying the traditional Cabildo, they would wipe the state clean of such precedents, just as the Jacobins of the French Revolution did with the institutions of the ancient régime. Argentine society issued from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries already shaped toward local self-government and local loyalty. ”

“ In that Republic there is perfect religious and civil freedom; there are no restrictions upon healthy immigration, or upon the nationality of land owners. The right is accorded to every inhabitant, native or foreign, to engage in any lawful commerce or occupation, to petition the authorities, to enter, remain upon, travel over, or leave Argentine territory at will ”

“ The French are declining in numbers, and indeed that nation has favoured the Argentine Republic as a place of settlement to an unusual degree. It is said that in San Rafael more French is spoken than Spanish. The Germans prefer Brazil. Englishmen do not emi [136] grate to Argentina in large numbers, and they are often warned against so doing, as the environment is not suited to the English working men, though of course mechanics and others find lucrative billets—which, however, should be secured before leaving home. ”

“ The aristocratic Argentine of the old school is a very dignified gentleman indeed, notwithstanding a century of democratic profession. I say “profession,” for though I believe the leading families of the Republic are quite sincere in a conviction that they rank among the world’s most advanced democrats, the government of the country has remained almost exclusively in their truly patrician hands since the days of the Declaration of Independence. ”

“ This is the attitude of the average Argentine, so that the Italian labourer who has had to move about the country in quest of employment comes to know the Republic better than its natural citizens, while the European engineers, commercial travellers, and business men in general, can tell the Argentine native a great deal more about his country from personal observation than he himself is ever like to know. ”

“ This immigration increased year by year, and to-day the great majority of the population of the Argentine Republic—a population now exceeding 5 millions—is of European origin.
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That this immigration, which flows from all the nations of Europe, has been the chief agent of the present prosperity of the Argentine, and is the condition of its future greatness, is an incontestable fact. One of our leading statesmen has declared, of America, that “to govern is to people” ”

“ The keen relish of life’s lighter side comes with advancing years. So with young nations. The Argentine is not old enough yet to have developed the sense of humour; it is still seriously young. But with this youth it also has that wonder sense which is the privilege of all youth, and just as the sand-built castles of the children by the [345] sea shore are to them more wonderful than the Pyramids of Egypt, so are all things in his republic to the Argentine.
General View of the City of Montevideo and the River Plate. ”

“ The Argentine Government has done much towards the settlement of the Republic, but the economic conditions and humane direction of immigrants is one which no Government has yet been able sufficiently to compass. ”

“ Despite the local character of the revolution of Buenos Ayres, on the eleventh of September the country at large adopted the fundamental constitution of 1853, at the Congress of Santa Fé. The government of the recalcitrant province of Paraná realized but slowly the new organization, with which it finally incorporated itself, while the nation continued developing in the path established by its constitution. Without losing sight, therefore, of the bitter lessons of this [Pg 144] phase of our evolution, it is but fair to show an appreciation of its benefits. ”

“ The future will decide whether immigration, and the rapid progress of colonization and production, which characterize pre-war Argentina can be adjusted to the policy of accumulation of capital to which the war has condemned the country. ”

“ Certainly it seems clear that the political and social insecurity in Europe, the misery of the old world, will probably enhance the attractions of Argentina. We must remember, however, that the stream of emigration from Europe to the Republic in the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth, century was provoked by a complex combination of economic conditions which were closely related to each other. High wages in Argentina were connected with [Pg 10] the high interest on money ”

“ Thus there are lots of residents with a dual nationality, Argentine in the Republic, but British in any other part of the world.
Though the Roman Catholic faith is that of the State, and other faiths are not restricted, the average Argentine pays little attention to religion. He likes his wife to go to church because it does her good. ”

“ The new spirit is revealed in the way the young Argentine is taking to sport besides horse-racing: rowing, tennis, and particularly football. As every child born in the Republic is by law an Argentine, it is subject for notice that many young English fellows native born are more Argentine than those of Spanish and Italian parentage. It is inevitable that, proportionately, the strictly Spanish population will decrease. But the Spanish language remains. It has a hold in the Western continent from Mexico to Patagonia. ”

“ The secret of the matter lies in the fact that in the Argentine, as, indeed, in most alert young countries, there is a quick response to the efforts of the business man, which is but rarely experienced in the markets of the Old World. In this progressive Republic we have [196] the phenomenon of some seven million people, of whom more than twenty per cent. are accessible in one city, crying out for commodities. ”