IMMIGRATION AND COLONISATION
Immigration 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:—
| Area in sq. miles | Population in 1908 | |||
| Province | of | Buenos Ayres and Capital | 117,563 | 2,427,628 |
| ” | ” | Santa Fé | 50,784 | 772,410 |
| ” | ” | Córdoba | 62,000 | 477,680 |
| ” | ” | Entre Rios | 28,709 | 399,333 |
| ” | ” | Corrientès | 32,494 | 317,247 |
| ” | ” | Tucuman | 8,903 | 280,311 |
| ” | ” | Santiago de l’Estero | 39,660 | 192,639 |
| ” | ” | Mendoza | 56,350 | 174,619 |
| ” | ” | Salta | 62,040 | 141,610 |
| ” | ” | Catamarca | 48,408 | 103,680 |
| ” | ” | San Juan | 33,630 | 105,684 |
| ” | ” | San Luis | 28,460 | 103,367 |
| ” | ” | La Rioja | 34,450 | 86,352 |
| ” | ” | Jujuy | 18,930 | 56,945 |
| ———— | ———— | |||
| Carry forward, | 622,381 | 5,328,907 | ||
| Area in sq. miles | Population in 1908 | |||
| Brought forward, | 622,381 | 5,328,907 | ||
| Territory | of | the Pampa | 56,170 | 51,673 |
| ” | ” | Misionès | 8,590 | 38,748 |
| ” | ” | Neuquen | 42,235 | 18,020 |
| ” | ” | Rio Negro | 75,726 | 15,961 |
| ” | ” | Chaco | 52,604 | 13,838 |
| ” | ” | Formosa | 41,294 | 6,309 |
| ” | ” | Chubut | 92,680 | 5,244 |
| ” | ” | Santa Cruz | 107,860 | 1,742 |
| ” | ” | Les Andes | 24,986 | 1,245 |
| ” | ” | Tierra del Fuego | 8,277 | 1,222 |
| ———— | ———— | |||
| 1,137,803 | 5,792,807 |
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.