Yet, keeping one's eyes open to all the disadvantages, one cannot go through the country and see its fecundity, go into the killing houses at La Plata and Buenos Aires, watch the ocean liners, with the Union Jack dangling over their stern, being loaded with many sides of beef, visit the grain elevators at the ports of Bahia Blanca and Rosario pouring streams of wheat destined for European consumption into the holds of liners, without the imagination being stimulated when standing on the threshold of this new land's possibilities.
Already Argentina holds first place in the quantity of exported frozen meat. It was in 1877 that the Republic led the way in exporting such meat to Europe. It was not till 1885, however, that the business of freezing was definitely established. To-day £11,000,000 is invested in "freezing works." And millions of cattle and sheep are slaughtered for foreign consumption. There seems to be something of a race at present between live stock products and agricultural products which shall hold first place in value of exports. The ports of Argentina, with a capacity for 45 million tons, are ever busy. Yet they are only in infancy.
Like all new lands, where enterprise and optimism frequently leap beyond rigid economies, Argentina has its heaves and falls. We know of the hundreds of millions of foreign capital invested. People do not go to Argentina for the beauty of the scenery. They go for money-making. Often when I came across some evidence of Latin sluggishness, saw what had not been done, what might have been done, and then remembered what, nevertheless, had been done, I found myself exclaiming: "Oh, that this land were a British colony!"
[CHAPTER VII]
THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT
New countries, in planning their system of government, have advantages over old lands steeped in tradition and hampered by precedent. They can profit by the mistakes of the older countries, and can, more or less, start with a clean slate. As men past middle age are disposed to think the young fellows of the present day headstrong, lacking in ballast, it is all in the nature of things that the older countries should look with a somewhat critical eye upon the experiments in government made by youngsters amongst the nations. So it is instructive to look at the system of law and administration in the Republic.
The head of authority, in which the executive power of the nation is vested, is the President. He must be an Argentine, a Roman Catholic, and being elected for six years can never be elected again. This is a provision to prevent a Dictatorship. The President for the time being is head of the Army and Navy; he nominates the judges, selects bishops, appoints diplomatic representatives to other nations, and all the secretaries of State are chosen by him. There are two Houses, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies; but a Minister can be neither a senator nor a deputy. He can attend debates, speak and defend himself from criticism, but he is beyond the power of either House. If he likes, he need appear only once a year in Congress to make an annual report about the working of his Department. So he is removed from the constant cross-examination which is the fate of Ministers in the British Houses of Parliament.
The Senate consists of thirty members, two from the capital and two from each province. Those sent from Buenos Aires are elected by certain high franchised electors, and those from outside are nominated by the provincial legislatures. A senator must be thirty years of age, must have been a citizen of the Republic for at least six years, and have a personal income of £160 a year. A senator is elected for nine years, and can offer himself for re-election. But every three years ten senators of the thirty, decided by ballot, must retire, though they can be re-chosen. No "carpet-bagging" is allowed. A senator must either be a native of his province or have lived in it for at least two years before his election. The provinces vary considerably in population, but they have equal voice in the Senate. Thus it is a body which may be said to represent localities rather than individuals.