Best of all would be the passing of some stringent laws, and their enforcement. For when it has been possible to work such a revolution in the treatment of animals as we have seen within the last ten years in Naples, previously notorious for cruelty—a revolution due entirely to the initiative of the Queen of Italy, who invited the English Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to organise the movement there—as much is possible of achievement in the Argentine. The English newspapers of Buenos Ayres frequently stand forth as champions of animals’ rights, and probably a sufficiently strong public opinion may yet be formed on the subject to remove from the country the stigma which at present it undoubtedly deserves in the title I have here applied to it.
CHAPTER XIX
TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW IN THE ARGENTINE
Although there is a great deal in South America to appeal to the sense of the historic, to render the study of the past interesting and profitable, in the Argentine the past does not greatly engage anybody. There is a general concurrence with the Oscar Wilde dictum that the best thing about the past is the fact that it is past. Here and there native scholars devotedly tend the lamp of History, and from time to time remind the populace of past events worthy of celebration, whereupon the populace, nothing loath, celebrates, and every electric light in the country blazes forth, though it might be difficult to obtain from the average citizen a really intelligent appreciation of the event thus commemorated.
Speaking broadly, everybody in the Argentine is looking forward; few indeed are they who pause to take a backward glance. To-day and to-morrow are the things that matter; not yesterday, nor the day before. And to-day matters less than to-morrow. I have already mentioned the propensity of the landowners and venders of “lots” to discount the future in their sales. This was confirmed to me by various gentlemen acting for large English and French syndicates in land purchases in different parts of the Republic. All were agreed that it was well-nigh impossible to find a landowner prepared to talk business on the basis of current market values. Yet I was told by those in whose judgment I have the fullest confidence that agricultural land, enormously though it has increased in value of late years, is not yet inflated beyond its intrinsic possibilities. Certain lands examined with the greatest care by two Australian experts were, they assured me, though offered much above their present market value, obtainable at little more than half the price of similar land in Australia. Hence they reasoned that, even allowing for the likelihood of having to pay more than a legitimate price according to actual conditions, the possibility of buying agricultural land in the Argentine which would depreciate in value was very remote.
Mention of these Australian experts reminds me that a very interesting movement was noticeable in 1912 and has probably increased in volume since. Owing to the excessive and vindictive restrictions which the Labour Government of Australia had imposed upon property holders, many of the large Australian landowners and agriculturists were beginning in 1912 to look abroad for new fields where they might invest their capital. The Argentine naturally attracted them, similar as it is in many ways to Australia in soil and climate. The gentlemen above mentioned represented between them a potentiality of some $20,000,000 of investment in Argentine lands, and so favourably impressed were they with the splendid possibilities of the soil that I do not doubt they will yet become—if they have not already forwarded their negotiations—owners and developers of large tracts of Argentine territory, the folly of the Australian Labourists driving their millions of money forth from the land where it was earned to fructify a foreign country, and incidentally to earn greater increase for its owners.
It is not to be supposed, however, that everybody who engages in land speculation in the Argentine makes money thereby. In all countries that have passed through a period of “land boom” there will ever be a larger proportion who lose than gain. Many English residents in Buenos Ayres engage in a small way in land speculation as a “side line” or hobby, with an eye to the possibility of adding to their incomes. But those with whom I discussed this matter nearly always concluded by admitting that, so far as they were concerned, the game was not worth the candle, as the anxieties incident to the speculation, and the necessity of watching the market day by day, constituted a serious interference with their ordinary business, which in the end the profit hardly justified. At the same time, one heard many stories of fortunes rapidly realised by successful “deals,” that seemed to make all honest work for payment a futile farce. Here is one of many instances.
A young English dentist—one of the most lucrative professions in the Argentine, by the way—was doing very well in Buenos Ayres. He did not own his premises, nor did he even rent them direct from the owner. He was no more than a lodger, and possessed only the instruments and appliances of his profession. But his services were in large request and well rewarded, so he ventured upon matrimony, his sweetheart going out to be married to him, as he was too busy to come home. The young wife took with her a considerable quantity of furniture, including a fine dining-room suite, the gift of her parents. A house was taken and furnished, and the dentist still continued to carry on his work at the old address where he rented rooms. Business continued excellent. Meanwhile, a friend had mentioned to him that a certain plot of land was for sale in a part of the town where values were bound to rise. The purchase of this required the total savings of the dentist, but he bought it. Soon afterwards, an adjoining plot came into the market, and this he wished also to acquire, but lacked the capital. Here the young wife suggested that they should sell off their furniture, for which they could secure a much higher price than it had cost in England, give up their house, and go into lodgings. This was done, a good profit being realised on the sale, and the new plot bought. So, for a year or two the young man went on increasing his property as he was able, from the profits of his profession. In the course of six years, the land he had thus acquired had not only increased substantially in value, but being let out for building purposes, provided him with an income which enabled him to retire to a beautiful home and small estate near London. This is no fairy tale of a land vender, but a brief record of fact, the beginning of which does not date back more than fifteen years.
The “Rambla” or Promenade at Pocitos, Montevideo.