Now, in 1909, with peace and tranquillity reigning on all sides, the war-budget still amounts to £1,980,000, and the naval budget to £1,452,000; or to more than £3,400,000 in all. We repeat that these are ordinary, not extraordinary budgets, whose amount is always considerable, and which have to be met by means of sums raised by special financial laws, or authorised by simple resolutions of the Cabinet or Council of Ministers.
To these military expenses we must add the sums required to pay the retiring gratuities of officers, and these already amount to a veritable army. These gratuities, granted under the provisions of an irrational law, have contributed to deprive the army of a large number of soldiers who might still be serving with honour and distinction.
But large as these expenses are, they are altogether eclipsed by the exorbitant sum of £14,920,000 voted by Congress in 1908, which, divided into eight annuities, is destined for the purchase of munitions of war, ships, etc.
The Argentine, by consenting to such expenses, which are as excessive as they are unjustified, is thus deliberately entering upon the policy of armed peace, which has produced such lamentable results among the nations of Europe.
The figures we have already given, which relate to the National Budget, represent a portion only of the expenses which weigh upon the inhabitants of the country; for they do not include those amounts requisite for the support of the provincial and municipal administrations of the entire Republic. The amount of all the budgets together—national, provincial and municipal—amounted, in 1908, to £29,200,000.
Each one of the six-million inhabitants of the Argentine must thus annually contribute nearly £5 towards the support of the public administrations. But in reality this contribution is still heavier, as the expenses which figure in the budget are only a part of the administrative expenses, and we must still add the expenditure authorised by special laws or resolutions of the Cabinet.
This proportion of £5 per inhabitant is enormous; to understand how large it is, we must compare it with the amounts charged in other and more advanced countries. On
the other hand it is stated that some 30 per cent. of the whole national expenditure is absorbed by the salaries of the administrative employés, functionaries, ministers, etc., and by pensions and retiring gratuities.