I sat through one night with Señor A, and listened to his eloquent and passionate indictment of his country and of the class of which he was the exponent, for he was of the ruling families. Another night it was with Señor B until the sun was breaking, and a third time it was with Señor C until the lingering habitués of the club were calling for their morning coffee. The talk ran in the same vein. The condition of the poor must be bettered. There must be a change in economic policies; dreams of conquest must be given over; the national revenues must be devoted to internal improvements; foreign capital must be encouraged to go into other industries than the nitrate gamble; the military party must be curbed.
“Then, Señor, there is a military party in Chile?”
“Ah, my friend, there is. Who can deny it?”
The military party was not a partisan organization, for it was only reflected in the different political groups which were at variance among themselves as to the details of their programme, though not as to the main purpose. This was territorial accretion, and the indefinite application of the nitrate resources for military ends as the means for continuing the supremacy of the army and navy elements. The reliance was the aggressive and sacrificing patriotism which is part of the being of every Chilean, whether high or low; hence the difficulty of combating it. But it took no thought of the roto; therefore its weakness.
A series of swift events—some domestic, some international—checked the militant military tendency. Through the peace pacts with the Argentine Republic, Chile found the opportunity of freeing herself from naval expenditures that were weighing her down. In the construction and control of the Panama Canal by the United States, her conservative statesmen were enabled to establish the definite lines of both commercial and political relations with the other countries of South America. By reason of the acuteness of the financial and industrial crisis which prevailed in 1903, the depth of the popular discontent was revealed, and the imperative need of finding a remedy was disclosed. The roto had to be conciliated, propitiated, humored, perhaps bamboozled a little, but always with a view to bettering his material condition. A comprehensive system of public works, railways, harbors, rivers, roads, and also municipal improvements, was recognized to be the channel into which the national income should flow.
It is the slow process of years during which the palpitating problems sometimes may throb with pregnant intensity, but their solution progresses in the degree that Chile adheres to industrial and commercial policies, and recognizes the true function of the masses in the political and social fabric of the State.
CHAPTER XVII
CHILE’S INDUSTRIAL FUTURE
Agricultural Possibilities of the Central Valley—Its Extent—Wheat for Export—Timber Lands of the South—Wool in the Magellan Territory—Grape Culture—Mills and Factories—Public Works Policy—Longitudinal and Other Railway Lines—Drawbacks in Government Ownership—Trans-Andine Road—Higher Levels of Foreign Commerce—Development of Shipping—Population—Experiments in Colonization—Internal and External Debt—Gold Redemption Fund—Final Word about the Nitrates.
TRADE and industry in the future will have a broader scope in Chilean national policies. The passing of the era of unlimited naval expansion assures this result. After the peace pacts with Argentina were made effective, and the building of new battleships was stopped, it was estimated that $1,000,000 went into industries of the soil. By the sale of other superfluous naval armament to European Powers, more funds can be released for public works and agricultural development.