  THE ARGENTINE FROM THE ECONOMIC STANDPOINT CHAPTER ITHE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARGENTINE Climate—Soil—Geographical situation of the Argentine; its boundaries, its area. Climate of various districts. The prevailing winds. Nature of the soil; its fertility; adaptation to the culture of cereals and the raising of live-stock—Transformation of virgin into fertile land—The Pampa—The cultivable area—Conditions favourable to production—The plagues of locusts. Rivers—Their exceptionally favourable influence—The hydrographic system—Network of navigable river-ways: the Rio de la Plata, the Rio Parana—Conditions of navigability—Canals. Ports—List of the principal ports, with a summary of their trade—Buenos Ayres: description of the port, its area, its capacity, tonnage; its docks—The Central Produce Market—Importance of Buenos Ayres in comparison with the great ports of the world—The port of La Plata—The port of Rosario; increase of its traffic; construction of the new harbour conceded to a French company—Bahia Blanca; its development—The decentralisation of traffic. The Argentine Republic occupies the southern extremity of South America and runs from north to south from 21° 30' to 54° 52' of south latitude; or 33° in a meridian line. From east to west it occupies a width of 20°, between 54° and 74° of longitude. Its territory is bounded to the north by Bolivia and Paraguay; to the east by Brazil and Uruguay; to the west by Chili. Its boundaries by land are 2980 miles in extent on the west; 993 miles on the north; the river boundaries on the east are 745 miles in length. Finally, the shores of the estuary of the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic form a stretch of 1614 miles; all of which represents a total boundary-line of about 6334 miles. The superficial area of the Republic has not hitherto been calculated on the basis of a geodesical survey; it has been arrived at only by calculation from charts which are more or less approximate. According to the estimates most worthy of credence, and allowing for the latest rectifications The seasons in the Argentine, compared to those of the northern hemisphere, are of course reversed. The summer corresponds to December, January, and February; the autumn to March, April, and May; the winter to June, July and August; and the spring to September, October, and November. In the matter of climate, the Argentine may be divided into three regions; those of the coast, the centre, and the Andes. The coastal region comprises the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa FÉ, Entre Rios, and CorrientÈs. The average annual temperature is about 66·2° Fahr.; at Buenos Ayres it is only 62·6°. The average summer temperature is about 77°, that of the autumn 64·4°; of the winter, 53·6°, and of the spring, 62·6°. The hottest month is January, when the average is 77°; the coldest is July, with an average of 51·8°. In this coastal region the extremes of temperature are 107·6° in summer and 41° in the winter; but these temperatures are both exceptional. However, a temperature of 95° is very usual on summer afternoons. It is a very unusual thing for the mercury to fall below freezing-point in winter or to remain there. Snow is also a very rare phenomenon, only to be seen perhaps once in five years. A peculiarity of the Argentine climate in general is that the temperature will change very rapidly during the day, or even during a few hours; the change representing sometimes a difference of more than 36°, especially in the spring, which is the most usual season for these rapid variations. The climate of the coast region—that is, of a country consisting almost entirely of plains—is, in general, influenced by the winds, which blow in gales at all seasons. Northerly and southerly gales are the most common; the first especially are very frequent. In Buenos Ayres one finds, during the summer, an alternation of sea and land breezes; the one during the day, the other during the night. The northerly winds are always hot and even suffocating; As for the rain, there is no regularity in its fall; which naturally tends to render the results of culture and of cattle-breeding variable. Rains are more frequent in summer and autumn than at other times; while the least rainfall is that of winter. At Buenos Ayres it is rare for a month to pass without rain, which is often torrential, and accompanied by hail. The climate of the central region, if we except the mountainous portions of the Provinces of San Luis and CÓrdoba, is distinguished from the seaboard region by its greater dryness and its sudden variations of temperature. In the plain the summers are very hot, and it is not uncommon to see the thermometer at 104°; while during the winter there are very hard frosts. As on the coast, northerly and southerly winds are the most frequent. Rain is rarer than on the coast, and falls almost exclusively in summer and in autumn: with rare exceptions the winter is perfectly dry. In the Andean region the climate varies according to the height above sea-level, but is always characterised by sudden variations in the daily temperature, and by excessive dryness. On the eastern slope of the Andes and the plateaux of the north it never rains. These regions are continually swept by furious winds, which make agriculture impossible. To the intense heat of the day succeeds the cold of the night, with differences of temperature that sometimes amount to 68° in twenty-four hours. The climate of the Argentine, with a few exceptions, has In matters of climate one must be careful not to become confused, as so many Europeans do, between our Argentine Republic and the neighbouring country of Brazil, which is nearer the equatorial zone. Favourable to human health, the Argentine climate is also, as we shall see, particularly favourable to most kinds of agriculture and to the breeding of cattle; from this point of view it is a privileged land, which calls only for labour to become productive. For a greater part of its area the Argentine soil unites the geological and climatic conditions favourable to the production of cereals and for stock-raising. It is in the fertility of the cultivated lands and the richness of the pastures that the whole economic value of the country resides. According to recent investigations by competent persons, the surface of the Argentine is largely composed of sandy soil; but a sandy loam is often found, also, more rarely, a gravelly clay; but there is very little actual clay. Other soils, such as absorbent calcareous earth, are not often found. In the subsoil a sandy clay abounds, the occurrence of clay and calcareous earths being greater in the subsoil than in the soil. From the chemical point of view, the high percentage of potash—which remains practically undiminished—long ago attracted the attention of the agronomist. Phosphoric acid is also found, though in less proportions. Lime is often found in small quantities in the best soils in those districts most devoted to agriculture; and nitrogen is often abundant, except in the southern region of the Republic, and in some parts of the western region, where the rains are less Saltish soils are of frequent occurrence in the west and south, but in general the salt is not in sufficient proportions to hinder agriculture, especially when suitable means of culture are employed. Soils of great fertility are found in the central and southern regions, and occupy vast areas in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres and Santa FÉ, and in parts of CÓrdoba and Entre Rios. “There are areas which are apparently of poor fertility,” says M. Charles Girola, from whom we derive these data, “which yield magnificent crops, thanks to irrigation or a better distribution of the water supply; especially in the west and the south.” But in the Argentine Republic experience has shown that there is scarcely any soil which is not capable of profitable use, either for agriculture or stock-raising. It is very frequently remarked that lands which for a long time had been regarded as poor and almost sterile, unfit for exploitation, are to-day converted into admirable natural or artificial prairies, feeding numerous herds of sheep or cattle; or have more often been cleared by the colonist, and are now yielding excellent crops. This wonderful transformation is chiefly due to the pasturing of flocks and herds, which break up and enrich the soil; also to the fertilising organic matter contained in the turf; and finally to the addition of innumerable dead insects, which are brought by the wind and form a deposit on the soil, which acts as a kind of natural manure. These favourable conditions of fertility are all united in the region known as the Pampa, which occupies the greater part of the temperate zone of the country. It consists of immense and virgin plains, which stretch to the horizon almost without landmarks or changes of level, and offer admirable opportunities both for agriculture and stock-raising. Nearly all those Argentine lands which to-day bring fabulous prices were referred to, at an earlier period, as It is difficult to estimate, except in the most approximate manner, the cultivable area of the Argentine. It should be not less than half the total area, or, in round figures, 370 millions of acres. Of this estimate at least two-thirds represents land suitable for stock-raising, leaving available for the production of cereals about 122 millions of acres; of which, at the present time, only a fifth part is under cultivation. We may see, by this simple comparison between the future and the present, that agriculture has still a great future before it and a large margin of development. To give a true idea of this power of production, it is enough to recall, with M. Emile Daireaux, who has described the great farms of the Argentine pampa, that the plough, under the most favourable of climates, meets no obstacles in the way of hills or forests; not a tree, not a rock, not even a pebble in the soil. All European crops give there an abundant harvest, without expenditure upon manure, without shelter for the stock; the colonist may even content himself with a modest wattled hut, protecting him from the mid-day sun or the cold breeze of the night. The soil is everywhere friable; no painful struggles retard the speed of the plough, which traces at one stretch a furrow miles in length without turning the ploughshare. The plough is drawn by four horses, reared at hazard in the open air, knowing no grooming, no complicated training; and sometimes a single hand is able to manage two teams and ploughs. Thanks to the frequentation of these lands for centuries by horses and cattle, these alluvial deposits, rich in natural manures, have an apparently inexhaustible fertility. Awakened by labour from its eternal sleep, the soil is so vigorous that one finds numerous instances where the same grain, sown for twenty successive years in the same place, yields always the same abundant harvest. The only serious scourge which can menace the creative power of the earth, independently of the always to be dreaded drought, is the invasion of locusts. These invasions take the form of flying armies of locusts passing between earth and sky, and revealing their passage by the semi-darkness they produce in the regions over which they travel. Leaving the hot deserts of the tropical regions, the locusts advance in their phalanxes, sometimes 50 or 60 miles across; swarm succeeds swarm uninterruptedly for several days, leaving behind them no trace of vegetation. They till the wells, stop the trains, by opposing veritable barriers of their bodies, obstruct the rivers in which they drown, and sometimes even, by the accumulation of their bodies, form a bridge over which the rear-guard can pass. Serious though this danger may be, especially in the more exposed provinces, such as Santa FÉ, we must say, in honour to the Argentine Republic, that it has never paralysed initiative; as is proved by the continuous increase in the area of sown soil. Very fortunately, too, this plague, like that of Egypt’s in Pharaoh’s dream, is intermittent, and an interval of seven years often passes before its return. Moreover, various means are being put into practice for defence against this formidable evil; means for preventing the reproduction of the insect, or of checking its development before the period of flight. A special organisation has been formed under the name of the “Commission of Agricultural Defence,” in order to coordinate and direct the work of protection from the devastations of the locust, and considerable sums are devoted to this object every year. Regiments, mobilised along the line of passage, sweep the agglomerated masses of insects, in dense ridges, towards the ditches full of quicklime in which they are buried. Hundreds of tons of locusts perish thus, but unhappily the plague seems neither cured nor diminished. RiversThe economic progress of the Argentine Republic is intimately connected with the development of its means of communication, its traffic-ways. The railways and the ports By the truly providential nature of its soil, the Argentine is not only marvellously fertile, but is also a country largely opened up by waterways, and offering exceptional facilities from the point of view of international exchange. One of the most notable peculiarities of this country is that its rivers, which are, as it were, inland seas, accessible to vessels of the highest tonnage, and, penetrating the very heart of the most fertile regions, place it directly in communication with the exterior. What is still more notable is that these rivers flow with an almost constant current over level beds, between perpendicular banks, so that the river-banks form a series of natural ports, with wharves of indefinite length. Nature has well prepared the way for the handiwork of man. The hydrographic system of the Argentine Republic falls into three main groups: (1) the rivers tributary to the basin of the Rio de la Plata; (2) the rivers which terminate their course in lakes or pools, or lose themselves in forming marshes or salt swamps, and are finally absorbed by the porous soil of the Pampa; (3) the rivers which empty themselves into the ocean. To the first group belong all the rivers which water the Provinces of CorrientÈs, Entre Rios, Chaco, Jujuy, and Salta, a portion of those of Santa FÉ, CÓrdoba, and Buenos Ayres, and the Territories of Chaco and MisionÈs. To the second group belong all the water-courses of the Provinces of Tucuman, Catamarca, Santiago de l’Estero, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, the greater part of those of CÓrdoba, and part of those of Buenos Ayres. To the third The best-known river of the Republic, and that which gives the Argentine its name, is the Rio de la Plata, formed by the junction of two rivers no less important, the Parana and the Uruguay. It forms an immense estuary, which pours into the ocean the waters of a whole hydrographic system, a vast basin occupying nearly 1,540,000 square miles, or a fourth part of South America. This estuary is 25 miles wide at its head, and where its waters reach the ocean attains a width of no less than 217 miles, its average width being 111 miles; and its superficial area covers 13,475 square miles. Apart from certain hindrances of the nature of islands or sandbanks, the Rio de la Plata offers relatively easy access to vessels of the highest tonnage making for Buenos Ayres or towards the interior. Its level is influenced by the tides of the ocean, and also suffers very violent changes when the easterly or south-easterly winds pile up the waters of the sea in the estuary. The river which is the continuation of the Rio de la Plata towards the north, and with it forms the vital artery of the Argentine, is the Parana; its length is 2980 miles, of which about one-half flows through Argentine territory. Its width varies from 22 to 31 miles, and its average annual flow is estimated at nearly 39,000 cubic yards per second, which represents one and a half times that of the Mississippi, twice that of the Ganges, four times that of the Danube, five times that of the Nile, and nearly a hundred times that of the Seine. It receives, in its turn, as an affluent, the Paraguay, a river which traverses the country of the same name, and thus places it in communication with the sea, by way of the Parana and the Rio de la Plata. This network of rivers forms a magnificent series of waterways. Rising from the central provinces of Brazil, the Parana passes through the rich afforested regions of Chaco, communicates by means of its affluent with Paraguay and South Brazil, and then flows through the Provinces of CorrientÈs, Entre Rios, and Santa FÉ; that is, through the Concerning its navigability, here are some data taken from an interesting little book by M. Georges Hersent on the port of Rosario:— “During nine months of the year the navigation from the sea to the port of Rosario presents no difficulties to the great transatlantic steamers; indeed, it may be said that their maximum draught is limited only by the depth of the ‘Canal Nuevo,’ the new channel of Martin Garcia. Ships drawing 22 to 23 feet can load at Rosario and leave directly for the open sea, or come to discharge their cargo at the port. “During the period of low water, which lasts for barely three months in the year—from September to the end of December—there are only two channels with a less depth than 21 feet, that of Las Hermanas and that of Paraguayo. In the former, the island of Las Hermanas separates the bed of the river into two channels, of which the one most in general use hitherto has a depth of only 20 feet; but vessels may avoid it to-day, as the western channel has been dredged and deepened, and is of more than sufficient depth. “The second channel, which used to present some difficulty, is that of the Paraguayo, where there was only 17 feet of water. This state of things was happily not permanent, as the National Government has undertaken, at this spot, the work of deepening and levelling the Parana, which was completed in the course of the year 1904. “We may add that the State is engaged in maintaining, over a minimum width of 108 yards, a depth of 19 feet below the level of low water in the channel of Martin Garcia, and of 21 feet 11/2 inches over the whole course of the Parana, as far as Rosario. This maintenance will be necessary only at certain points in the river, as the depth of the latter is in general considerably above those figures.” As we have already said, the real commercial value of the Parana lies in the peculiarity of its banks, which make it along its whole course a series of natural quays. These banks form in many places almost vertical walls, and as the At some places—as at Rosario for example—the bank properly so-called is overhung by low cliffs, forming a kind of promontory raised many feet above the water-level, so that it is possible to utilise this difference of level in loading cargoes. By means of inclined planes or gangways, called canaletas, the goods collected in warehouses built upon the banks are quickly, thanks to the slope of the gangways, run into the holds of the vessels moored to the banks. It will be admitted that these conditions are unusually favourable to navigation, and explain the extraordinary development of a country in which nature has thus surpassed herself. Regarded as traffic-ways, these rivers play a part of the highest importance, by giving easy access to the sea, without re-shipment, to provinces more than 600 miles inland, such as those, for instance, of Chaco and CorrientÈs. The Rio de la Plata affords a natural traffic-way, accessible to all vessels, between Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, which are more than 120 miles apart. All the large transatlantic steamers which used some time ago to put in at La Plata now come up to Buenos Ayres, which has thus become the headquarters of a dozen wealthy steamer-lines engaged in the European service. Thanks to the works established for the deepening of the Parana and the regularising of its course through the sandy districts, great steamers of 10,000 tons can to-day go up to Rosario: steamers of 6000 tons can easily reach Parana or ColastinÉ; and special boats built for the river service can ascend as far as CorrientÈs, and from there towards Brazil, Paraguay, or Uruguay: a distance of more than 1200 miles. Besides these “flowing roads,” we must mention others, which, although of less importance, are none the less destined to exercise a beneficent influence over the economic life of the premier province, and the development of its agriculture, thanks to the cheap transit which they will offer in time to come. We refer to the network of canals which the In the first edition of this book we announced the construction of a canal 155 miles in length, which would unite the Mar Chiquita, its point of origin, and Baradero, its terminus; embracing in its course the following centres of rural produce; Laforcade, Junin, O’Higgins, Chacabuco, Salto, Arrecifes, and Baradero. This enterprise, which was put in hand at the expense of the Province of Buenos Ayres, failed with a crash. After the work had been enthusiastically commenced, after several millions of dollars had already been spent, it was discovered that the work could never be completed in a successful manner, nor could it ever yield a return for the sums raised, which were thus swallowed up in this disastrous enterprise. Men whose technical competence allowed them to speak with authority—for instance, the engineer, Luis A. Huergo—basing their statements on scientific principles, had estimated that the undertaking could never be practically realised; and, as we have seen, the result justified their predictions. Ports and HarboursThe nature of the river-banks being such as we have described, the ports utilised by trade along the course of the great Argentine rivers are very numerous. After La Plata and Buenos Ayres, which share the traffic of the northern part of the Province of Buenos Ayres, we must mention Campana and Zarate, for at these two ports also the exports of frozen meat are very considerable; San Nicolas, a great centre for cereals, whose harbour is to be transformed and equipped by the new concessionnaire, the “SociÉtÉ Anonyme du Port et EntrepÔt de San Nicolas”; and Villa ConstituciÓn, whence the produce of the south of Santa FÉ and CÓrdoba is exported, and whose capacity is 7000 to 8000 sacks a day. After Rosario, which is the second centre of the Republic, the chief ports ascending the Parana are as follows: San Lorenzo, Diamante, Santa FÉ, ColastinÉ, Parana, Esquina, Goya, Bella Vista, and Empedrado. CorrientÈs is the last important commercial centre on the banks of the Parana. All these ports had an annual tonnage amounting to 2,188,000 tons in 1906, 2,366,000 in 1907, and 5,396,000 in 1908, so that the statistics for these three years of the traffic for the Parana, including Rosario, amounts in round figures to 9,891,000 tons, for the distance of 804 miles. At Santa FÉ work has been commenced on the installation o£ a more modern harbour; the Province, by consent of the State, has devoted a sum of £6,000,000 to this undertaking. There has also at times been a question of equipping the port of ColastinÉ, which is one of the principal centres of export for cereals and the timber brought by the French railway system of Santa FÉ. The average trade passing through this port amounts to more than 500,000 tons, and, so far, there has been no need to add any improvements to the natural advantages of the river-banks. We see by this that there is no need to create ports on the Parana, only to utilise or develop existing conditions. We give below a table of the trade statistics of the principal ports of the Argentine Republic, remembering that with the exception of Buenos Ayres their trade consists largely of the exports of produce:— Traffic in Registered Tons at the following ports in the years 1907 and 1908.
The premier port of the Argentine, and we might add of South America, is Buenos Ayres, which in extent and connections rivals the finest ports of Europe. It consists of two harbours, of which one, situated at the mouth of a little river called Riachelo, is frequented principally by steamers of light draught and sailing-ships; the other is known as the Port of the Capital, or more commonly Port Madero, from the name of the contractor responsible for the harbour works. The port contains, altogether, four basins and 61/3 miles of quays, four of which are situated on the flank of the city. Along these quays are disposed immense warehouses, able to contain 29 millions of tons of merchandise, as well as great flour-mills and grain-elevators, with a capacity of more than 200,000 tons, which cost more than £1,000,000 sterling. This harbour has cost in all some £7,000,000, and every year a sum of nearly 3 millions of paper piastres, or £200,000, is spent upon the work of maintaining the channel of approach at a proper depth. At the season when the traffic is densest, the port holds as many as 1400 steamers and sailing-vessels, loading and unloading. It is evident that, with the constant increase of commercial activity, further enlargements will soon be necessary. The Government is at the present moment considering a gigantic scheme of improvement, with a view to which several groups of European contractors have already submitted estimates. In order to give some idea of the importance of the plant at the disposal of exporters at Buenos Ayres, we need only speak of the great market or embarcardero for live-stock. It covers an area of 350,000 square yards, of which 117,000 are occupied by buildings; its capacity is 40,000 sheep and more than 1500 cattle. There is also another notable establishment, reputed to be the largest in the world: the Central Produce Market. The building is of four stories, covers an area of 180,000 square yards, and cost £830,000. The following table shows the quantities, in metric tons,
Besides these products, in 1906 there were 87,400 tons of wool entered at the market; in 1907, 84,600 tons; and during the first nine months of 1908, nearly 43,000 tons. If the year 1908 seems to show a great decrease in the entry of wools, the fact is really due to the larger amounts entered in October, November, and December, which are not included in the figures for 1908. These figures show the importance of this establishment to Argentine trade. It is not a mere depÔt, as one might suppose, but a veritable Exchange, where important transactions take place in all the chief products of the country. The port of Buenos Ayres owes its rapid development to this excellent equipment. In 1880, before the scheme of works was commenced, its trade amounted scarcely to 660,000 tons; since then it has maintained a constant increase, and now reaches the figure of more than 13,000,000 tons. Below is the inward and outward trade of the port of Buenos Ayres:—
To appreciate the value of these figures, we must compare The importance of the port of Buenos Ayres is chiefly due to the fact that it handles nearly all the imports of the Republic—84 per cent, in 1908—while of exports it handles 51 per cent. This confirms what we have already said of the absorption, by Buenos Ayres, of a great portion of the vital forces of the country, which develops it disproportionately to the rest of the country. The equipment of the new ports of Rosario, San Nicolas, and Santa FÉ, and the enlargement of the port of Bahia Blanca, will constitute a useful task of decentralisation, favourable to the economic future of the country. La Plata has the advantage over Buenos Ayres of a deeper basin, which renders its harbour accessible at all times to ships of the highest tonnage. Until 1903 it was the point of call for the large transatlantic liners outward or inward bound, which observed fixed hours of arrival and departure. The harbour of La Plata, 3 miles from the town, contains about 2700 yards of quays and immense warehouses, capable of storing 600,000 sacks of grain. It is the terminus of the lines of railway serving the richest districts of the Province of Buenos Ayres, and is destined to undergo further developments, as the provincial Government intends to connect it with the agricultural centres by a network of light railways. This is the principal port to-day for the exportation of the agricultural products of the central Pampa. On account of the economic importance of this port, the State has taken it over from the provincial Government, in consideration of a price of £2,360,000, with a view to nationalising it and exploiting it for the benefit of the Argentine State. This measure will allow of the organisation and the improvements which may be necessitated by the increase of its traffic. On the other hand, there is constant talk of connecting the port with that of Buenos Rosario holds second place in the Argentine, both in the matter of population and in the extent of its trade. It is the true agricultural capital of the Republic, and the principal outlet of eight Provinces, which use the Parana as their waterway. In his little book on the port of Rosario, M. G. Hersent speaks of the advantages of its situation in the following terms:— “Situated in the very centre of an immense tract of country which is extremely rich and fertile, which to-day furnishes more than half the cereals exported by the whole Republic, Rosario is the necessary outlet of the harvests of nearly the whole Province of Santa FÉ of the whole of CÓrdoba, and of a portion of Entre Rios; three provinces, whose area is almost equal to that of France. It is the market for the sugars and alcohols of Tucuman, the timber of Catamarca, and the minerals of Rioja and Chaco, which are so far exploited only in a rudimentary fashion. “In order to fulfil this economic need of vital importance to the country, Rosario enjoys the most complete and efficacious means of access and penetration. Five great railroads converge upon it, bringing to it all the products of the interior, especially grain and cattle. This network of lines, whose rapid creation has been one of the most powerful factors of the development of Rosario, already contains more than 2700 miles of permanent way; in 1899 the traffic in the Rosario district already amounted to 3,400,000 tons of merchandise, consisting chiefly of the produce of the soil. The extension of this railway system is proceeded with in a more or less continuous manner, so as to increase the value and the opening up of new countries. Very shortly the line to Bolivia will have its terminus in Rosario. “But that which gives this port, so well equipped, an incomparable value, is the magnificent Parana, which, on the one hand, places it in direct communication with the sea, and on the other unites it with the interior by a waterway of several thousand miles in length, constituting a means of transport as easy as it is economical, which brings it all the water-borne traffic of the upper Parana and of the Paraguay.” The statistics given above show the important place which this port has taken in the last few years, and the continued increase of its traffic, which to-day amounts to some 3,000,000 tons per annum, whereas in 1899 it amounted only to 1,600,000 tons. Hitherto these results have been obtained with a rudimentary equipment, and by utilising the fortunate disposition of the river-banks; but the intense pressure of traffic occurring at this point proves the necessity of a large harbour, which would allow the products of the interior to find their outlet towards the Parana and the sea. The need has given birth to the means without waiting for modern improvements. To-day the port of Rosario has entered upon a new phase, which may clear the way for a still greater development. Its exploitation has been made the object of a concession which, in 1902, was granted to a French company, having at its head Messieurs Hersent & Son and the Creusot works, on condition that the latter should undertake the equipment of the port on modern lines. The scheme comprises, among other items, the construction of over 2 miles of quays and a dock which will, with the existing quays, give a total of 23/4 miles; the construction of warehouses, the mechanical equipment of the quays, and also the installation of a grain-elevator of large capacity, which will load a cargo of 5000 cubic yards in four hours. To-day this scheme is nearly realised, and Rosario will be able to meet all the requirements of a perpetually increasing trade. The new railway lines, which will soon reach the port, will complete its organisation. As recompense, the Government has granted the concessionnaires, for forty years, the monopoly of gathering all harbour dues over a radius of 7·4 miles around the city of Rosario, and over a distance of 12·4 miles up-stream and down-stream. The State shares in the takings of the concession to the extent of 50 per cent. of the net profits after the expenses of exploitation are deducted, which are estimated at 40 per cent. of the receipts, and after the subtraction of the sums necessary for paying the interest on and redeeming the capital engaged. From all these data concerning the ports of the Parana, it will be seen that great efforts are now being made to increase the means of communication in proportion to the economic expansion of the country, and to multiply and facilitate outlets upon the points nearest to the centres of production. These efforts are also tending to decentralise the traffic, to the profit of a larger number of ports: in order to avoid the over-crowding of a few great centres to the detriment of other parts of the country. This policy will have happy results: firstly, from the point of view of the export trade, since it will decrease the net cost of transport; and secondly, from the standpoint of the import trade, as the imports, instead of converging upon Buenos Ayres and thence proceeding by rail, will reach the neighbourhood of the inland centres of consumption more directly and at less expense. For these same reasons serious improvements have been carried out at the port of Bahia Blanca, which is situated on the sea-coast in the south of the Province of Buenos Ayres, whose importance has increased more especially since the opening of the military harbour to commerce. Bahia Blanca is one of the termini of many railways of the south; it is thus connected with the regions of agriculture and stock-raising on a large scale, which are able to send their produce directly from this port to Europe. The wool trade is particularly brisk there, and the cereal trade also, since the Pampa has been transformed into a wonderful agricultural country. Seconding this development, already stimulated by the Southern Railway Company, which built the harbour known as “Ingenio White,” the Buenos Ayres and Pacific Railway Company has also commenced at Bahia Blanca a magnificent harbour, called Galvan Harbour. Built of reinforced cement, it is equipped with powerful grain-elevators, built of stone, splendid iron warehouses, sheds, etc. This harbour, when completed, will have cost some £10,000,000; it has already a considerable trade, which will increase in proportion to the agricultural development of the great belt it is intended to serve, which includes the Provinces of San Juan, San Luis, Mendoza, the Territory of the Central Pampa, and a large part of the Province of Buenos Ayres. The importance of Finally, the creation of a harbour has been projected at Mar del Plata, the fashionable watering-place of the Argentine, and another in the Bay of Samborombon, two hours from Buenos Ayres. To sum up: the Argentine possesses at the present time, in the matter of ports, an equipment capable of keeping pace with the growth of its powers of production. Its rivers are truly arms of the sea, collecting on their banks, thanks to their numerous ports, the products of the central Provinces, which are thus connected with the Atlantic over a distance of more than 600 miles. It is the same on the Atlantic sea-board, where advantage has been taken of the least natural facilities afforded by the coast-line to multiply the outlet to exportation, in proportion as the progress of agriculture has travelled south. It is true that this great organisation can only yield the true measure of its value in years of good harvests, since upon the latter all commercial activity depends; yet it must be recognised that, however largely the future has been discounted in equipping these ports, the estimates of future traffic have scarcely ever hitherto been deceptive. CHAPTER IIRAILWAYS Rapid development of the railway system—Tabulation of its extension in each Province—Table showing the general results of its exploitation—List of the lines actually running. List of railway companies, with the length of their roadways and their returns—The difficulty of obtaining exact figures—The tariffs of the railway companies—Form of concessions, and suppression of guarantees. Comparison of the railway system of the Argentine with the railway systems of other countries—Proportion of mileage to area and population. Extension of the system in the near future, owing to the numerous concessions granted—The mileage of these concessions—Insufficiency of plans and previous examinations—Examination of the most important concessions for which the capital is already guaranteed—The dimensions which the railway system will attain after the concessions are realised—Programme of narrow-gauge construction; its value. Meeting of the Argentine with the Chilian railways crossing the range of the Andes—The aerial mining railway in the Province of La Rioja. Railways in relation to agricultural development—Insufficiency of transport at the moment of harvest; its causes and remedies—Necessity of a better organisation which shall respond to the stress of production. The same progressive spirit which the Argentine has manifested in the improvement of inland or maritime waterways is to be seen in the establishment of its network of railways. Here again development has been rapid, and results plainly effectual in making the wealth of the country available. To cite one example only, it is thanks to the railways that agriculture and stock-raising have been able to attain to such large dimensions in the Province of Buenos Ayres; a Province far less favoured than its northern neighbours in the matter of waterways. All the lines running south have greatly contributed to the transformation of the Pampa and the increase of the cultivated area over an immense radius where before there was nothing but untilled soil, which was hardly suited even for stock-raising. The railway has thus played a great part in civilising This latter work is not yet terminated, if we are to judge by the great number of concessions now under consideration, in which the initiative is due to the State or to private individuals. On the other hand, there is a great tendency to build cheap narrow-gauge railways, in order to save expense either in building or in working, so as to obtain a final reduction of the freight tariff. In short, we find, in the case of railways as well as in the case of waterways, that while the continuation of good harvests is counted on, there is also an effort to keep up, by multiplying the means of transport, with the economic expansion of the country. It was in 1854 that the Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres granted the first railway concession, for a line 24,000 vares After these humble beginnings the railway system of the Argentine developed with great rapidity; on the 1st of November 1908, its total length was 13,700 miles, representing an average development of nearly 273 miles per annum. All the Provinces are represented in these figures, but of course in very unequal proportions; as the opportunities of construction have not been everywhere the same. Their installation has gone hand in hand with agricultural development; and the Provinces most adapted to agriculture have also been favoured with the most plentiful means of transit, as the following table will show. Among these Provinces we must note Buenos Ayres, Santa FÉ and CÓrdoba as the three which have made most agricultural progress; for they alone furnish more than 80 per cent. It is in the last ten years that the network of Argentine railways has reached its full expansion, as is shown by the second table; which also gives the amounts of capital invested in these undertakings. Mileage of Railways on the 1st of November 1908.
General Statistics of the Argentine Railways up to 1908 inclusive.
The number of railways at present in operation is thirty, this figure including the railways and cable tramways or mechanical traction lines in the country districts, both public and private, as in either case they serve for the transport of produce. Of these thirty lines twenty-seven are worked by private companies and three by the State. The latter are lines of no great value, which the Government has itself constructed, or which it has had to take over, either in the general interest or to redeem their heavy guarantees. In the matter of comfort the great Argentine railways leave nothing to be desired, and many Europeans, out of touch with the rapid changes of this progressive country, would certainly be much astonished to learn that one may cross the Pampa or reach the foot-hills of the Andes in trains equipped with sleeping-cars and restaurant-cars of the latest type. Perhaps there is rather less ornament and fewer carpets than in the European sleeping-cars, but the same cleanliness will be found, the same service, the same conveniences. The rolling-stock is also the object of incessant improvements. To give only one example, the Southern Railways Company has placed in service a new type of locomotive, with two pairs of double-expansion cylinders. These engines have ten wheels, of which six are coupled and four mounted in the front on bogies; their maximum power enables them to draw an effective load of 2160 tons up an incline of 1 in 500. As for the goods wagons, their capacity is 40 tons in the broad-gauge lines and 25 tons on the narrow gauge. According to statistics, on the 1st November 1908, the various railways had in service 2992 locomotives, 2031 passenger-cars, and 33,800 goods wagons or trucks. The companies are enabled to import free of tariff, during the first ten and sometimes the first twenty years of their tariff, all their fixed and rolling stock; it is thus to their advantage to obtain from abroad the most effective equipment, in order to obtain the greatest possible profit from the governmental favour. The table given below contains various data as to the various concessions; it gives the gauge of the lines, their mileage, and the profits of the principal companies. I. State Railways.
II. Private Companies (Concessionaires).
Railways of the Second Class, Steam Tramways, Cable Lines, etc. I. For Public Service.
II. Private.
Summary.
These lines are of very unequal value from the shareholders’ point of view; but it must be recognised that the majority, after various vicissitudes, have of late years shown an increase of revenue that proves their vitality. We may Generally speaking, we may say that the revenues of the Argentine railways more often than otherwise exceed expectation, even in the case of new lines. On the other hand, it is difficult to reduce the expenses of working, on account of the special conditions of the traffic, which is only heavy at the time of harvest, instead of being distributed throughout the year. We must warn the reader that the summary just given is of only approximate value. To avoid wounding the susceptibilities of the State, or in order not to justify demands on the part of the State for lower tariffs, certain of the railroad companies publish far lower profits than they really make, by means of transforming a portion of their profits to the reserve or redemption accounts. With the same object, they sink considerable sums in land purchase or in permanent-construction work. Other companies, on the contrary, hoping that the State will eventually take over certain of their lines, seek to augment their returns temporarily, in order to obtain a better sale price. We may safely say, however, the administrative methods of the greater companies being what they are, that on the whole the average revenues are above rather than below the figures we have given. Accounts are conducted on a basis of very cautious evaluation, in order to lessen the shock of a bad harvest. As for the tariffs of the various companies, they are still very high, as always happens when there is no competition. Here are some of the prices of freight per ton, according to the articles and the distance they are carried:
A factor that makes these freights seem even higher is a comparison with the maritime freights, which fell in 1908 to a very low figure. The transport of a ton of cereals to a port of embarkation 3000 miles distant would cost a farmer four or five times as much as the freight from that port to Europe. In a country like the Argentine, presenting an immense level surface to the eye, which can hardly distinguish the slightest landmark or difference of level, it would seem as though the building of railways should have been particularly inexpensive, especially as for ten to twenty years all materials could be imported free of duty. As a matter of fact, however, the cost of construction has been very high in the case of certain lines; either on account of the land speculation which has followed their establishment, or because the estimates were exceeded having been established without any serious control on the part of the State. This explains how it is that these companies, having an enormous capital to redeem, cannot at the present moment lower their rates. In the Argentine the railway companies are not established as in France, by right of a concession limited to a certain number of years. The State and the Provinces have guaranteed dividends in various ways. These guarantees were granted very liberally when the Argentine was seeking to create and develop its railway system, but the Governments have not shown the same readiness to honour their signatures in times of crisis. We shall see in the financial section of this book that the State has had to contract loans in order to redeem its obligations, and to liberate itself from engagements it had been unable to keep. At present the Government no longer gives guarantees—not even to encourage the construction of lines in regions which offer little attraction from the point of view of traffic. It prefers to build them itself, in order to increase the extent if not the value, of the systems it already owns; or has recourse to companies or private individuals for the construction of new lines, but without guarantees of any sort. Having given these details of the railway system, we have still to consider of what expansion it is still capable. In comparison to other American States—excepting the United States, whose colossal progress in this department permits no comparison with other countries—the Argentine is in the first rank in the matter of its railway mileage. With its 13,250 miles in operation on 1st January 1909, it surpasses both Mexico (with 8390 miles) and Brazil (with 10,080), the two American States which, being the wealthiest and having the largest populations, possess very extensive railway systems. If from the same standpoint we then compare the Argentine with France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, England, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, we find that it occupies the fourth rank. But it goes without saying that these figures do not mean anything very precise, except in conjunction with If we compare the number of miles of railway in operation to that of the area in square miles of each country, we shall find that among the nations of South America the first place is no longer held by the Argentine, but by the little Eastern Republic of Uruguay, for in the former country the ratio is only 1.25, while in the second it is 1.67, Mexico ties with the Argentine, with 1.25. Here is an example of the strange conclusions to which statistical inquiry sometimes leads us, since it follows from the preceding figures that Uruguay, with only 1207 miles of railway, and 71,990 square miles of territory, holds apparently, from this standpoint, a higher rank than the Argentine. The comparison of the mileage of the railways of each country to the number of its inhabitants is an exacter method. We find that for every 10,000 inhabitants the Argentine has 23.59 miles of railway, while Brazil has only 6.49, Uruguay 10.96, Chili 3.98, Mexico 7.12, and Venezuela 3 miles. All this is explained in the following table, whence interesting deductions may be drawn. The mileage of railway given for the Argentine should be regarded as provisional, for, unlike those European nations which have almost attained their uttermost expansion and equipment, there is still much to be done in the Argentine before the whole of its territory can be served. Certainly the principal lines are already constructed, but others will assuredly be built, which, apart from their immediate utility, will ultimately pay, owing to the manner in which they will increase the value of the soil which they will traverse. The constant expansion of its network of railways is for that matter a necessity to the Argentine, as for all new countries, in which there are no roads fit for wheeled traffic. Rather than go to the expense of opening up such roads, which would be an unproductive investment, the Government prefers to favour the creation of lines of railroad which may in time become instruments of production. Mileage of Railways in the Argentine Republic as compared with other Countries.
It is true, as we stated in the first edition of this book, that numerous demands for concessions permitting new lines to be built have been presented to and granted by the National Congress. But it is also true that only a very small number of these projects have been realised, as many of these undertakings were unable to find the capital necessary to flotation in the foreign markets; this has been true particularly of the English market. At the same time, there are among these concessions a few projects which seem to be capable of immediate realisation; these are concessions granted to already existing companies, for the extension of their systems, which have the necessary capital at their disposal. Among new lines in active construction we must cite that for which the concession was granted to MM. de Bruyn and Otamendi: a narrow-gauge railway in the Province of Buenos Ayres. This concession has been taken over by a French company, and may require a maximum capital of £8,000,000. This undertaking, which is really the extension into the Province of Buenos Ayres of the network of narrow-gauge lines, exploited by the French company of the Santa FÉ Railroads, includes several long lines starting from Rosario, crossing the most productive and thickly-peopled regions of the West, and terminating at the three great centres of export: Buenos Ayres, Bahia Blanca, and La Plata. This undertaking, which has been well thought out by its promoter and present director, the engineer Girodias, is based upon two ideas; one being to build cross lines connecting the principal railways of the south and the west in agricultural districts where these two lines hold an absolute monopoly; the other is to extend to Buenos Ayres the narrow-gauge system of the north and north-west. This system consists at present of 3444 miles of railways, having their terminus at Rosario; it is therefore most desirable that these lines should be prolonged towards the south, and especially as far as the capital, in order to avoid troublesome transhipments. This will be a great advantage, for example, to the sugar-growing districts of Tucuman. At the present moment, this new narrow-gauge system is Another concession for a line on the same basis is that obtained by Mr Duncan Munroe, for the establishment of a narrow-gauge railway between Rosario and Buenos Ayres, to be a prolongation of the “Central CÓrdoba”, of which he is the Director. This scheme, thanks to the support given by the “Central CÓrdoba and the CÓrdoba and Rosario,” has been put into execution, and is on the eve of being opened to the public. The proposal to unite Rosario and Bahia Blanca—the two chief Argentine ports—by a line crossing the Province of Buenos Ayres in its most fertile region, is also on the way to completion. The construction of this line is being actively pushed, so that it is hoped that the line may be open for service in the course of 1910. This important line is being built by French capital, the executive being known as the Rosario and Puerto Belgrano Railways Company. The National Congress has also granted to existing companies, which can offer all requisite guarantees, the authorisation to construct new branch lines, which will attain a total length of 3370 miles, and will absorb a capital of £25,000,000. Of this total, 797 miles will be built by the Western Railways Company, 874 by the Southern Railway Company, 328 by the Pacific Company, 192 by the Central CÓrdoba, 427 by the Rosario and Puerto Belgrano Railway, 190 by the Province of Buenos Ayres Railways, 87 by the French Company of the Province of Santa FÉ Railways, and 476 by the Central Argentine Railway. Apart from the capital of companies already established in the Argentine, one may already detect a new stream of foreign capital destined to build new railways. It is announced, indeed, that a new railway system, 223 miles in length, will shortly be built in Entre Rios by German capital, which has hitherto been shy of this kind of undertaking. The Province of Buenos Ayres also proposes to construct and exploit on its own account a narrow-gauge line running Finally, the National Government, not wishing to remain inactive in the midst of these civilising activities, has just obtained the approval of Congress for a vast scheme of populating the southern territories of the Republic; a scheme initiated by an ex-Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ramos Mexia, the basis of which is the construction of over 1200 miles of railway, along which new centres of colonisation will gradually be formed. This is the great object of the present Government. It has taken shape in the form of a law, having as its especial object the development of the national Territories, and having regard both to the creation of new railways and the progress of colonisation; problems closely connected where the opening up of a new country is concerned, and value is given to its soil. The plan adopted by the Government is first of all to build the railway, which is the great instrument of civilisation; then to profit by the increased value which the land will immediately take on along its course, by dividing and selling it with a view to colonisation. The most immediate result of this policy is that the soil, which has hitherto been uncultivated or abandoned, rapidly attains a double or treble value. The same thing happens when irrigation works are carried out, as they may be in certain districts, rendering productive soil that has hitherto been uncultivable for want of water. We may cite the Rio Negro among those Territories in which recent attempts have been made to realise the value of the soil, and towards which the attention of capitalists as well as colonists has lately been directed. To ensure the carrying-out of these schemes, the State usually has recourse to contractors who accept payment in Government bonds, with a margin of profit sufficient to pay them for their enterprise. We may therefore say that the affair is good for every one, and that it is as much to the advantage of the State as to the profit of the capitalists who take up these proposals. Finally, if we wish to estimate the probable development of the Argentine railways, basing our figures not on the We may thus legitimately estimate that in the coming years the Argentine railway system will be increased by some 6200 miles, making a total of nearly 19,000 miles. But to keep to solid fact, we must add that such development depends on continued agricultural prosperity, the rapid increase of ploughed lands, and, above all, on a brisk immigration; for these conditions are indispensable to all fresh progress in the Argentine. In this large increase of railroad construction we may perceive at the same time the application of a new programme. The State to-day especially favours the construction of a second network of economical railways, running between the broad-gauge lines or even crossing them diagonally—completing them, in fact, and duplicating them. The aim of this policy is not only to respond to the development of traffic caused by abundant harvests, but also to lower freights by the establishment of competition. As an element of the future railway system of the Argentine, we may also include the lines of communication with Chili, across the Cordillera, so soon as they are open to through traffic. At the present time the Trans-Andean railway on the Argentine side of the range has reached the frontier of Chili at Las Cuevas, 10,000 feet above sea-level; and on the further side the Chilian Government is hastening the work of construction on its own Territory, so that it only remains to complete the two miles of tunnel in order to open the whole line to traffic. The line is narrow-gauge, and some 81/2 miles of it is worked on the rack and pinion system. The highest point will be about 1480 feet above sea-level, in a tunnel 1·92 miles in length, of which 1·05 miles will be in Argentine and ·87 on Chilian territory. The Southern Railway has also a line which at present runs as far as Neuquen. The Directors of the company have ordered the continuation of this line into Chili, going by way of Antuco, thus establishing a direct route between the south of Chili and the agricultural districts of the Argentine. Despite the formidable barrier raised by the range of the Andes, the Argentine and Chili, two nations having the same origin, with a common frontier of 3000 miles, are destined, by means of their railways, to an increasing closeness of relation. Chili is a country poor in cereals, and in especial does not raise sufficient cattle for the needs of her population. On the other hand, she produces wines which are highly appreciated in the Argentine. There may thus spring up between the two countries an exchange of products, which the railways will certainly increase, and which will give the Argentine railroad system the benefit of international traffic. To complete this sketch of the Argentine railways, and of the progress they have realised, we must not fail to speak of the construction of an industrial traffic-way which has established a remarkable record—not only in South America, but over the whole world. We refer to the suspended railway, constructed in the Province of La Rioja under the last Presidency of General Roca, in order to carry down to the plains the produce of the famous Famatina and Mexicana mines. This suspended way, which is over 21 miles in length, and which cost £76,000, is, in the words of M. Civit, the Minister of Public Works, who inaugurated it, the longest traffic-way of this kind in the two worlds. “It glides amid the snows and the tempests, crossing abysses thousands of feet in depth, and ending at a height of 15,000 feet. The highest of its towers is as high as the summit of Mont Blanc, and the mines, into whose bowels it enters, will take their place, like those of Rio Tinto and Bilbao, in the commerce of the world, as the agricultural products of the Argentine have already done; thus drawing all eyes to this privileged country, which is set apart for the most brilliant destiny.” If we now consider the part played by the railways in the general development of the Argentine, we are forced to recognise that in a country so essentially agricultural, the railroad is an indispensable auxiliary of production. We have seen that in the matter of transport agriculture will shortly enjoy improved conditions; there will be greater facilities for bringing its products to the ports of embarkation, and placing them in the centres of consumption. But what are these conditions at present? What is the precise relation between the railways and agriculture? Are they sufficient for the rapid transport of the harvests? This inquiry, which is of immediate interest, has been made by M. Emile Lahitte, Director of the Division of Statistics in the Ministry of Agriculture, with his usual competence and practical good sense. We will take certain useful data from this source, without prejudice to other data which we have collected, while profiting by the experience of other personalities equally well informed. One of the most characteristic peculiarities of agricultural From the commercial point of view, agricultural production thus depends chiefly on the importing markets. This is so far the case that if we look into the monthly figures of exportation, remembering that threshing begins at the end of December and continues sometimes into March or April, we shall find that by June three-quarters of the year’s export has already been shipped. The exportation of wheat in 1907 amounted to 100 million bushels, and by the end of June 79 million bushels, or 79 per cent., had already been shipped. The quantity of maize exported during the same year was 48 million bushels, and in October, that is, five months after the harvest, 40 millions had already been shipped; that is, 84 per cent. The statistics of the carriage of cereals by railroad also clearly prove the pressure and congestion existing in the months following the harvest. From this peculiarity it follows that there is always a struggle latent between the exporters of agricultural produce and the transport companies. In some cases, as in 1905, this struggle took the form of judicial protest; the chief export houses sued the “Great Southern of Buenos Ayres” for damages in respect of unjustifiable delay in the transport of cereals. It must be admitted, however, that the railway companies are not always the cause of such delays in export; there are other factors also which we must take into account and consider in relation to the national production. One of the elements which influence the regularity of transport is the amount of cargo-room available at the ports. When there are many steamers and sailing-ships in port the shipping rates fall; the exporters hurry to make contracts with the shipping lines, and in order to be in time to avoid surcharges, they demand a large number of goods wagons of the railways, which the latter naturally cannot always produce. The law states that the railway companies must maintain a goods service equal to the normal demands of the traffic; and the demands created by the accidental causes we have mentioned are not normal. On the other hand, if the shipping contracts are high, or the prices in the consumers’ market low, the buyers will be unwilling to despatch their cereals to the ports of embarkation, and the railway companies can do nothing to clear their stations of large quantities of accumulated grain, which they cannot forward, since the buyers will not give the order for their despatch. During a recent harvest both these phenomena were observed; on the Southern Railway the harvest was abundant in quantity and good in quality, but only a small number of steamers were lying in the terminal port (Engineer White Harbour); every exporter in the district wanted to ship at once, but the railway could carry only what it was capable of carrying in a normal period. It was another affair in the districts served by the Central Argentine and the Buenos Ayres and Rosario Railways. Here the wheat was scanty and of poor quality, and the buyers had sent very little to their port of embarkation—Rosario. They preferred to send their purchases to the grain-elevators of Buenos Ayres, where, by means of blending the central with the southern wheat, a special grade of flour was produced, superior to that produced in the districts served by the above two companies. The best solution of this question of the responsibility of the railway companies toward the despatchers would be a rule that the railways should be obliged to despatch in the course of a day only the amount of produce sent to the stations during the same lapse of time. But the exporters are generally Argentines, while the railways are usually in Let us now see how far the railways have responded to the increase of agricultural productions. According to the official statistics, in 1895 the Argentine Republic contained 8760 miles of railways, and the merchandise transported by the various railway companies during that year amounted to 9,811,100 tons. In 1907 the railway systems had increased to a total length of 14,000 miles, while the produce carried during the preceding year amounted to 28,394,500 tons. These figures represent an increase of rather more than 59 per cent, in railway mileage, while the transports had nearly trebled in twenty years. According to the same authorities, between 1897 and the end of 1907 the rolling stock and the capacity of the goods cars increased in the following proportions:—
From these figures we obtain the increase in the number of cars of produce and their contents in tons; but it is more to the point to know how their rolling-stock is utilised. According to M. Lahitte, the normal distance travelled by a goods car is 6210 miles in a year; but to judge by the statistics its actual record is always in excess of this figure, since in 1902 the distance travelled exceeded 8910 miles per car. It is evident, therefore, that the rolling-stock has been run to its utmost capacity; but it is also evident that in practice the cars have not been loaded to their utmost capacity, as the normal load is 4·37 tons per car, while the average load actually carried has been hardly 1·70 tons. It follows accordingly that, in spite of the distance travelled per car, the companies have only profited to the extent of 39 per cent, of the capacity of their rolling-stock; but we must not forget that there is always a difference between theoretical capacity and effective capacity, which varies according to the nature of the load. This fact is further explained when we add, as we must, that out of a hundred cars sixty-nine make the journey loaded while thirty-one go or return as “empties.” We see from these data that although the Argentine railways possess more than enough rolling-stock for the rapid transport of all agricultural products to their ports of embarkation or destination, yet in practice, on account of the abnormal character of the traffic, the railways only very imperfectly perform the services which they ought to perform, while the fault can hardly be imputed to them. But this trouble will disappear as soon as the large buyers of cereals, in place of expecting everything from the railway companies in the matter of rapid transport, while they themselves wait to despatch their crops until the international prices are favourable, finally decide to build the granaries and warehouses which they now demand of the railway companies. To simplify the task of these companies, elevators should be erected at the stations which serve the important agricultural zones, so that the cereals could be graded before loading them on special cars, which would then transport them to the elevators of the principal ports, whence they would glide into the holds of vessels specially prepared for the trade. But all this would require materials and plant which the country does not so far possess; yet with the rapid agricultural progress of the Argentine, the plan should be easy of accomplishment. As will be seen by the data we have given, the method of despatch is quite unlike that practised abroad. While in Europe the railway depots only receive goods for immediate transit, the Argentine grain-merchant expects the depÔt to serve him for a warehouse until the moment he receives a telegram and requires the railway to transport to the port of embarkation, without delay, the large quantities of grain accumulated at the stations. CHAPTER IIIImmigration is a vital problem for the Argentine—Table of the population per Province and per Territory. Its sparsity—The Exceptional situation of the Argentine as the objective of European emigration—The poor results hitherto obtained through default of colonisation—The faulty division of the public lands—History of immigration in relation to colonisation—The nationality of immigrants. The economic and financial organisation of the Argentine being now assured, and peace without and within being established, while at the same time the revolutionary spirit of the bad old days has gradually disappeared, the great problems which the country has to face to-day are principally those dealing with the development of agricultural and industrial production and its outlets. But among these problems none is more vital to the future of the Argentine than the problem of filling the vast gaps of empty territory with new elements of population. Here, according to the last official data, are the figures relating to the distribution of the population in the Provinces and National Territories:—
The above figures prove more eloquently than any other argument that the supreme necessity of the Argentine people at the present time is an increase of population. The territory of the Republic has an area of more than 1,130,000 square miles, and its population amounts to no more than 5,792,807, which gives a density of 5·1 persons per square mile. One should also recollect, in order to grasp the true significance of these figures, that of those 5,792,807 inhabitants, 157,963 inhabit the 43,000 acres which form the site of Buenos Ayres; so that only 4,634,841 remain to people the rest of the country, a fact which still further lessens the density of the population. This density varies in different regions and in different Provinces; thus the eastern or coastal region, formed by the Federal Capital and the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa FÉ, Entre Rios, and CorrientÈs, has 17·08 inhabitants to the square mile, while that of the centre, which comprises CÓrdoba, San Luis, and Santiago de l’Estero, has only 5·8. As we penetrate further inland the density grows still less, until in the western or Andean region, formed by the Provinces of Mendoza, San Juan, La Rioja, and Catamarca, the figure is barely 2·7. In the northern region, embracing the Provinces of Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, there are 5·23 inhabitants per square mile. But it is in the National Territories—in one of which more than one important European people could find room to spare—that we find the lowest density. There the desert reigns in all its desolation. The Territory of El Pampa, whence so much wealth has been drawn of late years, and To this affirmation we must add another no less certain: that in the normal order of human events, and in accordance with the economic and sociological laws that govern European nations, there is no country in the world which assures the labourer who establishes himself upon its soil of such perspectives of wealth and welfare. All things compete to make it a paradise of immigration: the softness and variety of its climate, the richness of its soil, the extent of its territory, the enormous inland waterways which cross it, and the facilities of communication with the European consumers of its produce, with whom the Argentine is connected by one of the most reliable ocean traffic-ways in the world. The United States, which have hitherto been the objective and centre of attraction to which men of initiative have converged from all parts of the world, are beginning to experience all the troubles familiar to European nations as the result of an excessive population. Australia, which was also only recently one of the great centres of immigration, has during these last few years suffered terrible economic shocks, of which the effect has been to divert the stream of new arrivals. Having thus made it clear that the Argentine Republic is in an exceptional position to attract and to support a large European population, the time has come to measure the distance travelled, and to note the progress realised, so that we may see whether the results obtained are in proportion to the perfect adaptation of the soil to immigration. Without being too pessimistic, we are forced to recognise that all efforts hitherto made by the Argentine to increase its population have hitherto remained without appreciable effect. Colonisation, that is, the peopling of the country, was inaugurated in the Argentine by the initiator of all true progress—Rivadavia—who founded the first colony of Santa Catalina. This work was intelligently and enthusiastically continued by Mitre and Rawson, in 1863: it was then vigorously pushed by Sarmiento during his extremely progressive administration; but as a matter of fact, in spite of all these efforts, colonisation has not given To attain the primordial object of peopling the country, the Argentine has had at its disposal, among others, one very important means—the public lands—a means which other nations in similar circumstances have employed with excellent results, but which in this case has unhappily not produced the same happy effect, being manipulated by inexperienced or thoughtless hands. Various laws have been voted in the Argentine, tending to augment the population by means of colonisation. All systems have been tried successively, and one and all have failed. “This failure,” says M. Eleodore Lobos, in an extremely instructive volume published under the modest title, “Notes on the Land Laws” (Annotations sur la lÉgislation des terres), “is an incontestable fact, and must be attributed not only to economic, administrative, and political conditions, but also to the freedom with which the soil has been divided into lots of enormous area, and the obstacles opposed to the easy and secure acquisition of small properties. In other terms, our politicians have effected the very reverse of a rational colonisation, and have established a system of large properties instead of subdividing the land between the colonists according to their productive capacities.” This error was recognised by the Government more than fifteen years ago; but the influence of speculators, who profit from this short-sighted policy, has been more powerful than all attempts at reform. “To understand the matter,” says the same author, “we have only to see with what indifference to the public weal the executive, during the last twenty-five years, has disposed of 67,817,000 acres of uncultivated soil, which formed part of the national domain. The laws voted were impotent to prevent the disposal of these public lands in large parcels, The real beginning of Argentine immigration was when the tyranny of Rozas was overthrown on the 3rd of February, 1852, and a regular Government established, which voted a fundamental law of which the object was “to cherish the general welfare, and to secure the advantages of liberty to every citizen, to posterity, and to all people of the earth who desire to live on Argentine soil.” From this moment a powerful current of European immigration set in; turned aside from time to time by financial crises, plagues, The public administration did not take the trouble to keep an exact record of the number of immigrants before the year 1853; and between 1854 and 1870 we have simply the number of new arrivals, without any further details. Only since 1870 have the official statistics classed the immigrants according to nationality, and only since 1881 have they recorded other details, such as sex, age, profession, education, etc. During the last six months of 1854, 2524 persons entered the country; in 1855, 5912; in 1856, 4672; in 1857, 4951, in 1858, 4658; and in 1859, 4735; or 27,452 in six years: that is, far more than had entered during two centuries of colonial life. In the decade formed by the years 1860-1869, the number of immigrants increased to 134,325; in the years 1870-1879, to 264,869; but the highest figures, no less than 1,020,907, were reached between 1880 and 1889. But we must confess that during this decade certain artificial means were employed to recruit the population in Europe; such means as gratuitous passages, which brought to the Argentine a number of useless people, unfitted for any productive task whatever. During the following decade, 1890-1899, which saw the terrible banking smash and the loss of public credit, as a result of every kind of excess, the immigration diminished slightly—to 928,000 persons—and at certain moments emigration also made itself felt, in such proportions that it amounted to a veritable exodus. The departure of those who failed to make money in the Argentine or find the work they sought amounted to 552,172, the largest figures that have so far been recorded. Unhappily this double stream of immigration and emigration has continued up to the present. Thus, in 1900-1904, 601,682 immigrants entered the country; but, on the other hand, 384,000 emigrants left it. Such figures as these denote a grave disorder in the assimilative faculty of a nation. Matters were no better in the three years 1905-1907, since although 781,796 immigrants entered from Europe and from Montevideo, 324,687 emigrants left during the same period, leaving a total of only 457,108 in three years. In the previous period, from 1900-1904, the diminution of the current of immigration was explained by various causes: in the first place, by bad harvests, the suspension of important public and private undertakings, the fear of war over the frontier question, the dearness of living, the difficulties experienced by the immigrant in settling in the national or private colonies: the excessive price of land and the high rents in the more promising agricultural districts, the insecurity of life for man and beast, the abuses of the authorities, especially in districts remote from the centres of population, and the tardy, costly, and faulty nature of justice. But since this period many of these causes have disappeared, thanks to the splendid harvests of the last few years, and to the period of rapid economic expansion upon which the Republic has entered. It is difficult, under these conditions, to explain the still existing lack of immigration, which denotes a disorder of the assimilative faculties of the country. Among the causes likely to prevent immigration there is one which must not be too closely insisted upon: the increasing cost of living. But it is the European mode of We must also note that every year numbers of harvesters arrive from Europe, earn good wages, save money, and return to their native countries directly after the harvest. In 1905, 1906 and 1907 the migratory movement was represented, as we have seen, by 781,795 immigrants and 324,687 emigrants. If we allow that each of these latter took away with him a sum of £30, as the Department of Immigration has calculated, it follows that from this cause alone nearly £10,000,000 left the country during this period of three years. Here are some figures taken from an official publication dealing with the migratory movement, which relate both to immigration and emigration, and show which European countries have chiefly contributed to the current of immigration. Italy and Spain, as will be seen, furnish the greatest number of immigrants. Immigration and Emigration.
Immigration from 1857 to 1908.
As we have already observed, one of the causes which impede emigration is to be found in the faulty distribution of the soil, the obstacles which the agricultural immigrant Far from encouraging the promotion of a class of small land-owners, the State has assisted in the establishment of enormous holdings, which are the chief obstacle to the peopling of the country. In place of dividing into small allotments, accessible to modest fortunes, the great stretches of land near the railways or the ports, and offering them for sale at low prices in the European communities from which a number of immigrants come each year, as is done by the United States, Australia, and Canada, the Argentine administration has subjected all the operations of purchase to long and wearisome formalities which quickly exhaust both the savings and the patience of the purchaser. Argentina, then, if she wishes to solve this vital problem of colonisation, which is for her the problem of immigration, must give careful thought to the adoption of some well-devised scheme, with the object of subdividing the present great parcels of land, and of attaching the agriculturalist to the land he tills, by allowing him to become its owner. Without this necessary reform, the country will continue to experience the phenomenon of temporary immigration; the immigration of men who return to their own countries as soon as they have been able to save a little money: a process exceedingly prejudicial to the best interests of the country. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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