CHAPTER XIII
RAILROADS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT
In the Argentine railway world Buenos Aires occupies the position of ancient Rome, for all roads lead to it. A glance at the map is sufficient evidence of that fact. It has become the centre of the greatest network of railroads in South America. Like the colossal web of a spider it sends out its strands of steel north to the border of Paraguay and Bolivia, east to the trackless Atlantic, south into Patagonia and west across the Andes with a terminus at Valparaiso. There are at present about sixteen thousand miles of main track in operation in that republic. This is nearly as much as all the rest of the continent combined and shows the progressiveness of the country. All of the railroads, with the exception of the national lines and the Provincia de Santa Fé, which is a French line, were built by British capital and are under British management. Nearly all of the materials and equipment have been brought from that country, and everything has a distinctly John Bull stamp. Only one exception has been made, and that is that the compartments have been abolished in the day coaches. The sleepers, called dormitorios, are made into compartments and are called “Pullmans,” but they lack the luxurious qualities of the cars after which they were named. The stations are generally very creditable and show a spirit of enterprise. Two-thirds of the mileage is of the broad gauge, nine and one-half inches broader than our own, which makes the seats and aisles extremely comfortable. The same English regard for safety is evident and every safeguard is applied toward that end. In fact they are English railroads transplanted to the pampas, with just a few concessions demanded by the nature of the country served.
The government of Argentina has been extremely liberal in its railroad policy. It has recognized the fact that there is no better way to develop its resources than by spreading the parallel bands of steel all over the republic. Perhaps nowhere in the world were there fewer difficulties or fewer perplexing engineering problems than here, for there was no grading and it was only necessary to take off the surface soil and dig ditches to carry off the water. A number of the concessions originally contained a government guarantee of six or seven per cent. on the investment, but most of these have since been altered as the receipts generally paid ample returns, and in consideration of release from the contractual obligation the government granted some other privileges. Many of the charters also granted an exclusive territory of about twenty miles on each side of the right of way.
The principle of consolidation has been going on in Argentina the same as in the United States. The large lines have been taking up the smaller ones until now three companies own one-half of the total mileage, and these three companies are very evenly matched. The original charters of the many lines differed greatly in their terms. They are now all being rapidly brought under a law passed in 1907, which is exceedingly liberal. Under this law the companies pay no import duties on construction materials and articles used in operating the lines, and are exempt from all taxes until 1947. During that period, however, they contribute three per cent. of their net receipts towards the construction and maintenance of the bridges and roads of the departments traversed by their tracks, particularly those roads leading to the stations. Furthermore they must convey free of charge the mails and men in charge of them. Government materials and articles for the construction of public works, war materials and stores, troops, government employees on public service, immigrants sent up country by the central immigration office, and employees of the provincial police shall be conveyed at one-half of the regular rates.
There is one American whose name stands high on the roll of honour in the development of South America, and in particular of Chile and Argentina. His name is William Wheelwright. This captain of industry was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, March 16th, 1798. He came from that sturdy Puritan stock which has contributed so largely toward making the United States one of the most enlightened nations in the world. Not a few of his ancestors rendered conspicuous service in the French and Indian wars, and one of them served under Washington in the war of the revolution. He began life as a sailing master in charge of a vessel trading with South America. Being stranded in the La Plata he finally concluded that his destiny lay in that part of the world. One enthusiastic Argentinian biographer calls him “a new Hernando Cortez, who remained in the land of his shipwreck to conquer its soil, not by arms, but by steam; not for Spain, but for civilization.” He first began his work at Valparaiso, Chile, where he transformed that city by constructing docks and sanitation. He was constantly engaged in voyages of exploration for the purpose of discovering natural resources and means for their development. The lack of transportation greatly impressed him, and through his efforts the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was organized, and he secured concessions for that company from a number of republics. United States capitalists turning down this proposition it was finally financed in England. The two vessels first placed on this route opened a new era on the west coast of South America, for they were the first transatlantic steamers to establish regular communication on that coast. At last he turned his attention to the wild and sparsely populated pampas of Argentina, at that time an undeveloped but fertile wilderness. Although his greater project for a transcontinental line failed, he succeeded in building the first important line in Argentina from Rosario to Cordoba, a distance of two hundred and forty-six miles. This was done after seventeen years of reverses due to civil strife and the Paraguayan war. The road was finally inaugurated on the 16th of May, 1870; and was opened with imposing military, religious and civil ceremonies. His last public work was the construction of a railway from Buenos Aires to Enseñada, the port for La Plata, which was opened just a half-century from the time of his own shipwreck in that same bay. He had further plans in mind but his health failed, and he sailed for London to secure medical attention. His great age was against his recovery and he died in that city on the 28th of September, 1873, and his remains were taken back to his old home in New England. A monument to his memory has been erected in Buenos Aires, and several streets have been named after him in Argentina, one in Rosario.
Just a half century after Wheelwright suggested to English capitalists the feasibility of a railroad across the Andes to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, the road was opened to traffic, although not by the route contemplated by him. On the 27th of November, 1909, the last thin line of rock, which remained to complete the tunnel between Chile and Argentina, was demolished by the explosion of a dynamite charge. Through the opening thus made the workmen who had been employed on the two ends mingled, and a line of communication which has been the dream of two generations, was completed, that may change the political relations of South America, and which will have a marked effect on commercial relations throughout the world. On the 25th of May, of last year, this route was formally inaugurated, and an all-rail route was thus opened up between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Valparaiso, Chile, thus establishing the first transcontinental railroad on the continent of South America. That date is a hallowed one in both republics, for it is the first centenary of the revolution which gave independence to both nations; and it is fitting that so auspicious an event should celebrate that occasion. To the South Americans it is as great an accomplishment as was the opening up of the first through line across the United States. At the present time the trip is made from one terminus to the other, a distance of eight hundred and eighty-eight miles, in thirty-eight hours, and the officials hope to reduce the running time to twenty-nine hours.
BRIDGE OF THE INCAS