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.[32]
[32] It is one of the disadvantages of immigration from a very poor country where there is no political oppression, that immigrants will return to it, after saving money in a country where money is cheap and the standard of living higher, as the work of a few years will establish them comfortably in their native country. This is especially true of Italian emigrants. The evil will doubtless be overcome by a measure comparable to the “Homestead Act” of the United States, in conjunction with national loans of capital or of farms as going concerns, to be bought by payment at a low interest, which would result in a population of peasant owners in comfortable circumstances.—[Trans.]
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
the results that were expected of it. To explain this lack of success, we must suppose that the work has not been promoted according to the indications of science and experience, and that a variety of events, uncontrollable by the human will, has thwarted the praiseworthy intentions of the Government. Otherwise it is impossible to account for the fact that the Republic contains less than 6 million inhabitants, whereas its soil would support 100 millions.
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,
so that the disposal of these lands failed to draw the population which these vast domains could support.”
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,[33] and war; but never completely arrested. Industry, commerce, and agriculture, which had so far slumbered, received a considerable stimulus from this new source. In a single year more immigrants entered by the port of Buenos Ayres than had for many years entered the whole country.