The Argentine in the Twentieth Century

by Alberto B. Martínez; Maurice Lewandowski

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

whose area is 56,200 square miles, contains barely 52,000 inhabitants; that of Rio Negro, whose area is 45,600 square miles, contains but 16,000, while in the Territory of Santa Cruz, situated on the shores of the Atlantic, in which there are important ranches, and which might contain a numerous pastoral and maritime population, there are only 1742 souls to its 58,890 square miles. All these figures prove that the Argentine is, without metaphor, a desert nation, and that for the present and for a long time to come, its peopling will constitute its great national need.

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.[29]

[29] The distance of nearly 7200 miles from Buenos Ayres to the French ports is crossed by the great transatlantic liners in from eighteen to twenty-one days. The Argentine Parliament has voted a law authorising the Government to give a subsidy of £400 monthly to any company adopting the refrigerator system and undertaking to make the voyage to Lisbon or Vigo in fifteen days.

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.[30] It is for this reason

that they are striving, by all the means in their power, to restrain the stream of immigration that pours upon their shores.

[30] The population of the United States is hardly yet excessive; the country is very much more than self-supporting, and many States and Territories are sparsely settled. The real source of trouble is that many of the national resources are locked up in the hands of Trusts or private owners; and the effect of railway combinations and of produce trusts all over the country is resulting in a state of affairs similar to that produced by a lack of communications and also an effect similar to that of over-population. It is obvious that both causes make for emigration, as the English immigrant in Canada, who finds all the best locations occupied by Americans, has cause to know.—[Trans.]

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.[31] Moreover, as a rival of the Argentine, Australia has two causes of inferiority: her rigorous climate, which exposes the country to violent extremes of temperature, passing from intolerable heat to a bitter cold, and, on the other hand, a distance from the European countries to which she exports her products double that between the banks of the Plata and Europe.

[31] Here again the trouble is partly due to the back-blocks being taken up by large settlers, and still insufficient means of transit.—[Trans.]

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.