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The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of Enterprise
The Chamber of Deputies, however, is chosen direct by the people. There is one deputy for every thirty-three thousand inhabitants. No man can become a candidate unless he is twenty-five years of age, has been a citizen at least four years, born in the province, or lived in it for two years. Thus there is never anything in the nature of a general election, but there is a constant movement going on to secure the proper representation of the people.
Both senators and deputies receive a salary of £1,500 a year, so they are the best-paid legislators in the world. Both Chambers meet on May 1st and adjourn on September 30th. Only the Chamber of Deputies can have a voice in taxation. As I have shown in the preceding chapter, the Argentine Government – which, like all Governments, is open to criticism – has done a great deal in advancing legislation for the solid benefit of the country. There cannot be said to be government on party principles, but the Government is maintained by the followers of particular men. Politicians in Argentina, as elsewhere, have their enemies, and when a man has been elected to Congress he sometimes dare not attend, for that would mean leaving the constituency, and there would always be some rival busy sapping his influence. I was in Buenos Aires toward the close of the session. Day after day the House met, but nothing could be done, for no quorum could be obtained. Public business was at a standstill. It was proposed the President should employ the police to search Buenos Aires, arrest legislators, haul them along, and thus "make a House" with locked doors, so that business could be proceeded with. Everybody was crying out against the scandal of Congressmen drawing such large salaries and doing nothing to earn them. But nothing was done.
Besides the excellent remuneration for not attending to business, the Argentine politician has the advantage of getting jobs for all his relatives. The majority of Government employees are the relatives of politicians. There are true and honourable men in political life, but, so far as I could gather, most men take to politics in Argentina because they can do their families a good turn. The only group that is cohesive is that of the Socialists. Socialist deputies are on the increase. Nearly all the freshly arrived immigrants, Spanish and Italian, when they get their naturalisation papers after a residence of two years, vote Socialist.
Now, whilst everything which affects the Republic as a whole is decided upon by the central Government, each province has its local government, with governor, two Houses, and considerable power, quite independent of the central executive. This is following the United States plan. The principle of devolution is a good one, that districts should administer their own affairs without interference by those who cannot know local circumstances. But Argentina has frequently the same trouble that the United States has, and similarly would like to get rid of. There are differences in the provincial laws, so that what is allowed in one province is prohibited in another, with the consequence that, though the process of trade is not hampered, it is often irritated.
Then the provincial Governments, sovereign in their own realm, sometimes enact laws which the federal Government declares affect general conditions in the Republic. They infringe the prerogative of the central executive. Accordingly, the relationship between the central Government and the local Governments is frequently strained. It is the smaller provinces which cause the most trouble. Some of them have a population that, all told, would not stock a fair-sized town. That, however, does not diminish their sense of importance. They are cock-a-hoop. They know what is for their good; they will pass what laws they like; they are not going to be dictated to by those overpaid fellows who go to Buenos Aires. The federal Government cannot use force, and the provincial Governments snap their fingers. For instance, Mendoza insists on printing her own paper money. It is quite clear, if serious trouble is to be avoided, that the federal and provincial Governments must meet in conference and draw up hard-and-fast rules dealing with their respective powers and limitations.
So far as the individual is concerned, the theory is liberty and equality. The stranger has the same rights before the law as the citizen. The State, however, interferes in the matter of property. A man is not allowed, as in England, to leave his possessions to whom he likes. A father must leave his wife and children four-fifths of his property; a husband, if there are no children, must let half his belongings go to his wife; an unmarried son is obliged to leave his parents two-thirds of his property. Only the man without parents, wife, or children can dispose of his property by testament.
There is no obligation upon a foreigner resident in the country to become a citizen before he can start a trade or own estate. Two years' residence is the qualifying period to become a citizen of the Republic. If you enter the public service you can become a citizen earlier. If you marry an Argentine woman you can become a citizen right away. Every child born in Argentina, even though its parents be British and on a fortnight's visit, and have no desire to change their nationality, is counted an Argentine. 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. Education comprises three divisions: primary, secondary, and higher. The former is free, secular, and compulsory for children between six and fourteen years. If religious instruction is to be given it is only for those children who voluntarily remain after school hours on certain days. Public schools are scattered all over the Republic – though there are extensive districts where the population is thin where there is no instruction, and thousands of children grow up illiterate – and are subsidised by both the national and provincial Governments. Also there are primary schools for grown-ups, men whose education has been neglected, and who want to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and elementary history and geography. This teaching is given during the day or evening, and is free.
Secondary education for pupils over fourteen years is neither compulsory nor free, though the fees only amount to 8s. 9d. a year. This secondary instruction, quite as wide in range as elsewhere, is given in national schools, of which there are five in Buenos Aires and one in each of the capitals of the provinces, and normal schools, which are twenty-eight in number, three in Buenos Aires and the remainder in the provinces. Five years is about the length of tuition at these schools. Then the students can enter one or other of the faculties which form the university. There are three universities in Argentina; the oldest is in Cordoba, and the others are in Buenos Aires and La Plata. To qualify in either of these universities for the practice of medicine, law, or engineering, a seven-years' course is required for the former and a six-years' course for the two latter. Minor terms of special study are required for qualification as a chemist, accoucheur, dental surgeon, surveyor, or architect. In order to obtain the degree of doctor in physical sciences further studies are required outside those of the faculties. The university council cannot grant a qualification for a notary public, which must be acquired before the Supreme Court of the particular province in which the applicant seeks permission to practise.
Primary education in the capital and national territories is under the National Ministry of Education. In the provinces it is under the control of the Provincial Council of Education, who receive subventions from the national exchequer as occasion may require. The intuitive method is employed exclusively, and the whole system is modelled on that of the United States. As a rule, Spanish children learn Italian from their classmates, and vice versa. In the elementary higher standards, boys learn manual labour and French, and girls learn French and domestic duties. The schools are well built, well ventilated, the rooms are airy, each child has a separate desk, there is a medical visit every day, and where schools are within reach they are fairly well attended. But only 42 per cent. of the children in the Republic who ought to go to school do so. The low attendance may be put down to the great distances which separate the children's homes from the schools in the country districts. Very general complaints are heard in the villages of the manner in which the schools are conducted, and the small amount of knowledge acquired in spite of the flattering picture presented by the education authorities.
Considerable attention is paid to technical education, which is largely encouraged throughout the country by means of schools and training colleges maintained at the expense of the nation. Prominent among these institutions stands the National School of Commerce, which trains and prepares mercantile experts, public accountants, and sworn translators. There are also commercial schools in Cordoba and Bahia Blanca. These schools are attended by about a thousand pupils, who receive instruction in commercial arithmetic, account and book-keeping, French, German, etc. The schools are open to both sexes, and in them the pupils can qualify for employment as book-keepers, accountants, clerks, etc. The Industrial School has its own workshops for the teaching of trades. The entrance conditions are similar to those for the national schools. Thorough practical instruction is given to about four hundred pupils in a number of subjects, including chemistry, mechanics, physics, optics, electricity, architecture, practical carpentry, mechanical and electrical engineering. The complete course lasts about six years, and the school is said to have given very good results. There is a School of Mines at San Juan, to which was added, by a decree dated April 20th, 1906, a section of chemical industry. There is an important agricultural college known as the Agrarian and Veterinary School at Santa Catalina in the immediate neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, and at Mendoza there is a viticultural training school where the practical cultivation of the vine is taught. Various other agricultural and horticultural schools are being established by the Government, which also supports the National School of Pilots, several conservatories of music, and a drawing school.
There is a naval and military college, from which officers are chosen for the navy and army, but they do not come under the Ministry of Education. By order of the Ministry of War physical drill and rifle shooting are taught in the two highest classes of all secondary schools, these exercises being subject to the supervision of a military officer. The Argentine Government has founded numerous scholarships, and sends students to England, the United States, Italy, France, and Germany. It will be seen that the plan of education is very complete; but it would not appear to give such good results as might be anticipated, for it is a very general complaint that there are no good schools in the country districts.
The attention of the public is frequently called in the newspapers to the unsatisfactory condition of education, in spite of the large sums of money spent upon it annually. It is shown how small is the attendance at the primary schools compared with what it should be if the law was properly obeyed, as would be the case were the results more satisfactory. It is also asserted that the education in the secondary schools is especially defective, and that certificates are issued to university candidates without previous examination, and after merely nominal questioning by inspectors. There are numerous foreign private schools in the country, which all have to submit by law to Government supervision.1
There is compulsory military service. The period of continuous training does not exceed one year, and this only in the case of a proportion of the annual contingent. The others are released after three months' drill. With varying periods of training every Argentine from the age of twenty to forty-five is liable to be called upon to defend his country. Though years may pass without any call to attend military drill, every man in the country must learn to shoot.
Heavy duties are imposed on most manufactured articles imported, except in the case of material directly beneficial to the development of the country, such as machinery. Anything which helps in the progress of the Republic has easy entry. So, though it means two years' residence to become a naturalised citizen, anyone who establishes a new industry, or introduces a useful invention, who has contracted to build railways or establish a colony, or who is going to be a teacher in any branch of education or industry, is admitted at once. All these regulations go to show that, despite the perfectly legitimate criticisms which can be made, there is sound common-sense and foresight in the minds of the governing classes.
Everyone in any business or profession must pay an annual licence, and these vary from five to sixty thousand dollars. The latter sum is paid by banks. Money-lenders have to pay from five to seven thousand dollars, whilst in some provinces the patente varies from three to six hundred dollars a year. The postal and telegraph services are under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. Most of the taxation is indirect. Though the tariffs imposed on manufactured articles coming into the country are high – except in the case of specified articles, which are counted as beneficial for the development of the country – and consequently one is disposed to gasp at the price of things compared with Europe, it is not to be forgotten that the direct taxation is not so high as in Europe. I heard it asserted that the reason there are high tariffs is to stimulate manufacture in Argentina. If so, the result has not been markedly apparent. The effect might have been so if the mass of the immigrants into Argentina came from manufacturing countries, like Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, or the United States. That is not so, and one of the hindering checks has been the language. The crowd has come from Italy and Spain, mostly unskilled labourers or men whose knowledge is limited to the land.
Argentina has no coal – and that will always handicap her if she enters the field as a manufacturing nation. The climate being what it is, there is no need of coal for heating purposes. A fire-place is a rare sight. But the importation of coal is a heavy charge on the working of railways and on shipping. Syndicates are now endeavouring to introduce oil as fuel. Oil has been found in the country, but as yet not in sufficient quantity to make it an important addition to the products of the Republic. So I see small prospect of Argentina's ever becoming a manufacturing country in the modern meaning of the phrase. Blest as she is in innumerable respects, she could not be worse placed if she had any such desire. She cannot produce cheaper, because most of her raw material, including coal, must be imported, and heavy freights would handicap economic production. Take the case of two raw materials which she has in abundance, leather and wool. There are shoe factories, but the quality can in no way compete with that of the importations. Only the rougher kind of boots are made. There is some woollen manufacturing, but the material produced is crude, except in a few cases. Besides, the rush of immigrants is to the land, and not into workshops. The men who are skilled artizans are few. Therefore, although here and there you get local manufacturers who can hold their own in the markets, it may be said that in general the articles imported are better and cheaper, notwithstanding the tariff. However, as I will show in a later chapter, there is room for industrial development within a defined range.
Then there are the constant labour disputes in the towns. Running along with the prosperity of the country is the trouble of repeated strikes amongst the workers. It is not my province to go into the merits of the respective disputes. But they have been so recurrent, and have so much hampered trade, that the Government has taken the most drastic measures by laying hands on the chiefs of trade unions when grievances are fomented and strikes threatened.
Although the number of the strings of commerce which are in the hands of Englishmen is gratifying, it would have been strange if I had not heard the usual complaint that the Germans are edging in, and that, if care is not taken, the British will be ousted from their pre-eminence. It was the old story that British merchants are too conservative, and do not pay sufficient heed to the personal likings of Argentine customers. It is true I saw lots of German goods. They were cheaper and not of the same quality as those of British make. Further, German houses give much longer credit than do their British rivals. Another cause of complaint is that in business disputes the long-drawn-out law's delay, and the obstacles in the path of the foreigner seeking redress, mean that justice is not always secured.
It is not to be denied that, although the returns are excellent, Britain does not retain the same proportion of the import trade which she had a few years ago. There is no disputing the superiority of the British article; but German and French merchants having a market to secure are more accommodating to their customers, whilst in regard to agricultural implements the United States makers are pushing their hardest. Their machines are more showy than the English. It seems a small point, and yet I have thought it would be well if our British manufacturers would not only turn out a serviceable tool, but bear in mind the temperament of the people who are to be the buyers. Put two threshing machines in a Buenos Aires warehouse, that from Britain painted grey, and that from the United States painted red; the Latin Argentine is naturally attracted to the red, even though its merits be inferior. Hundreds of millions sterling are to be expended in public works during the ensuing few years, and British contractors should be awake to the possibilities. Belgian contractors have already been in the field, but their work has not always been "up to sample," so that the present opportunity is considerable.
Old residents directed my attention to a great change which is taking place in the import houses of Buenos Aires. Until a few years back it could be said that the British were first and the rest nowhere. British capital has flowed abundantly into the country, but toward developing its natural resources rather than in trade. Now German houses have a strong footing in "B.A.," and, naturally enough, they are encouraging the products of their own land. Go into a German house, and it is German wares that are for sale. Go into a British house, and you find United States and German wares as well as English being offered. I was seriously convinced, whilst studying the trend of trade in Argentina, that it is absolutely necessary that the managing heads of English firms who have dealings with South America, and find they are not getting that share of the increased trade which the growth of the country warrants, should make periodic visits to Argentina to learn for themselves what is the matter.
If there is one complaint to be made against the Englishman trading with a foreign land, it is his lack of adaptability. So long as he had the manufacturing of the world in his own hands, he could do as he liked. The thing he made was good, and it was the only thing. Now he has keen competitors, and the customer has a varied choice. The Englishman has to consider whether it is worth his while to give the exaggerated credit which manufacturers elsewhere are prepared to give if they can secure the orders. The Argentine likes long credit. Then, is he prepared to make an inferior, showy article at a cheap price? These are two considerations which count enormously with the Argentine. You can purchase the best Sheffield cutlery in the best shops, for it is what the better-to-do people insist on having. But there are millions of people in the Republic who have never heard of Sheffield, and, therefore, know nothing about its reputation. What they want is cheap knives. Sheffield firms do not make these, and the consequence is the majority of the people have rubbish from elsewhere. I am not advocating that the British manufacturer should drop making the things which have won for him and his country a worthy reputation. I am pointing out some of the things which must be well thought about if Britain is going to keep its pre-eminence in the financial value of the goods imported into Argentine.
Further, an Argentine when he orders anything wants it at once. Quick delivery is an essential. Finally, all catalogues should be in Spanish, and all prices in Argentine currency. No man who goes out to "chase up business" in securing orders should be without a knowledge of Spanish. Talking through an interpreter is no good. The personal touch is lost. Spanish is a language much neglected in England. I can think of no more profitable investment for a young fellow of parts, wanting to enter commercial life, and without means to go into business as a principal, than thoroughly to master Spanish.
CHAPTER VIII
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTRY
It is well to get a bold, broad idea of the country. It covers 2,000,000 square miles. England is just about one-tenth that size. It is double the size of Mexico.
In the far north you are in the torrid tropics. In the far south you need a heavy coat, even in high summer-time. Its conditions may, therefore, be described as variable. No other country can give you such change.
The 20,000 miles of railway run through most of the flat fertile areas, and the ordinary traveller comes away with the idea it is one of the most level, featureless countries he has ever been in. The old settlers had the same idea, for their description pampa applied to a boundless stretch. You can journey for hundreds of miles and never see a tree. But up in the north, under the shadow of Brazil, are great forests which will be made useful to the world one of these days. Then you get the backbone of the continent in the west, the Andes with Aconcagua rising to 23,000 feet above sea level. In the middle land is the fruitful Argentine Mesapotamia. In the far south is the last word of desolation, the Patagonian wilderness.
Argentina has several navigable rivers, and two, the Plate and the Parana, up which it is possible, for light draft steamers, at any rate, to go hundreds of miles. If one pretends there is no Amazon in existence the Plate discharges more water into the ocean than any river from Hudson's Bay to the Magellan Straits. A learned book informs me that the volume of water rolled into the ocean is 2,150,000 cubic feet per second, which seems "prodigious." At Monte Video the width of the river is sixty-two miles; so it is no trifling creek. The Plate is the muddiest stream I have ever come across. This is not to be wondered at, considering that it and its tributaries scour many thousands of miles. As a matter of fact, the estuary is being filled up. Within knowledge, the depth opposite Monte Video has lessened by fifteen feet, and though dredgers are constantly at work, big liners moving up to Buenos Aires have sometimes to force a way through two feet of mud. It is quite likely that in the fullness of time Buenos Aires will not be a port, but an inland town.
Sometimes Argentina has floods which ruin the crops, drown thousands of cattle, break the railway banks, and reduce strong men, who thought they were rich, to tears at the prospect of poverty. Or there are droughts which shrivel everything up. Away back in the 'thirties, Buenos Aires Province had a drought which lasted for five years. Scientists, who know all about these things, say that the rainless zones are extending, and that in the far future the whole Republic will be a rainless zone, and umbrella sellers will go into the bankruptcy court. The prospect is not immediate, and if we are wise we shall not worry over a trouble which may have to be faced five hundred years hence.
Considering you can get a sweep of level country for 2,000 miles, with scarcely a hill that would make a decent bunker, when a gale gets on the rampage it runs away with itself. There is the zonda, which so disturbs the elements that the thermometer jumps fifty degrees in about as many minutes. Then, although there are those millions of cubic feet of water emptying itself out of the Plate, there comes the suestadas, which blows so hard that the water cannot get into the ocean, and, as a result, the upper streams rise and tumble over their banks. Next there are the pamperos on the plains, which either grill you with their heat or give you a chill from their rawness. I did not suffer myself; but these hateful pamperos are so charged with electricity that they give you a shock which produces a sort of paralysis, "perhaps twisting up a corner of the mouth, or half closing one eye, or causing a sudden swelling of the neck," as one authority records.