Argentina Part 8

In foreign affairs the present policy of the Republic is creditable as, on the whole, the past has been.

The Government has shown itself honourably desirous of resorting to arbitration for the settlement of its disputes and of encouraging the other Republics to do the same. In all external relations a dignified and conciliatory att.i.tude is maintained and every effort is made to encourage foreigners to visit the country and settle, and the statesmen of the Republic are zealous to maintain the Republic in a reputation worthy of her great prospects in the eyes of other nations.

It is in domestic politics that the outlook is unsatisfactory, and here it must be acknowledged that although Argentina, owing to her wealth and the energetic character of her inhabitants, does not appear to the world in the same deplorable light as several South American Republics almost habitually exhibit themselves, she is nevertheless an extremely ill-governed country. The subject of South American politics is a commonplace with all writers; the hot-blooded Creole, who for centuries had been subject to a paternal government, was altogether unfitted for Parliamentary inst.i.tutions.

It has been seen that Argentina, on the whole, shows a considerably better state of affairs in the nineteenth century than most of its neighbours, and had she not fallen under the malign influence of Rosas, the Plate District might have been the one bright spot in Latin America. But all the faults of inexperience, ignorance, and pa.s.sion marred the political history, and the complaint ever is that the government is carried on in the interests of the official few at the expense of the hard-working many.

The politics are almost entirely personal, and the parties have little discipline; the leaders are full of vague ideas of progress and the megalomania common in the politicians of a new country, and this lack of experience and capability appears very clearly in the finance.

Congress is not really competent to consider the budget, and it is usually hurried through in a most unceremonious manner, and the vast increase of expenditure alarms the thoughtful men of the Republic. A recent work[65] on the general financial conditions says: "The increase of national expenditure is a constant, we might almost say fatal, fact, which reproduces itself year by year in the Argentine administration."

It is true that a young country ought not to be criticised on the same principles as ancient, long-established States. It is necessary for the former rapidly to develop its resources and lay foundations upon which future generations may build, and such a process entails great public expense. But there is a conviction that economy and good administration are urgently needed, and that the future is being unduly mortgaged. Resentment at the growth of public burdens is very keen, and political strikes are becoming common. The temptation to squander public funds is almost irresistible, and as elsewhere, economy is unpopular and has utterly inadequate safeguards.

There is reason to fear that little actual improvement is likely in the near future, for the whole system is on an unsound basis--the view that political power is not an honourable privilege but a perquisite. The general national att.i.tude towards this subject is worse in many countries than in Argentina, but an eminent French economist[66] points out the capital vice of South American politics: "Leurs hommes les plus energiques, au lieu de chercher la richesse dans l'exploitation des agents naturels, l'ont cherche dans l'exploitation du pouvoir. Ils n'ont pas pour force motrice la concurrence economique, mais la concurrence politique. Ils considerent que le moyen le plus prompt et le plus facile de s'enricher est d'etre les maitres du gouvernment."

There is some a.n.a.logy between the position of Argentina and the United States. In both countries business careers have offered such attractions that the best and strongest men have devoted themselves to the ama.s.sing of wealth, and politics have fallen into inferior hands.

This is better than the case in many States where those who desire wealth look first of all to a political career, but the United States has of late realised that politics is a pursuit which demands high intelligence and character, and thus the national welfare has been appreciably advanced. In Argentina the race for wealth has been too absorbing to allow devotion of the best energies to politics, but as time goes on professions will become more sharply distinguished and a leisured and, it may be hoped, public-spirited cla.s.s will grow up, and Argentina may gain a reputation not only for stability but also for good administration.

FOOTNOTES:

[60] He will be succeeded almost immediately by Dr. Roque Saenz Pena.

[61] But in practice the period does not usually exceed one year, and many are released after three months.

[62] The President, in his last Message, speaks of thirty thousand, but he is referring to a special occasion--the celebration of the Centenary.

[63] "Owing to the conditions of his country life, the Argentine is transformed readily into a good cavalry soldier, and in general he soon learns to shoot, because he has been accustomed to train his eye to the calculation of distances" (F. Seeber, "Argentina," &c., p. 88).

[64] "The Countries of the King's Award," p. 104.

[65] "L'Argentine au XX^e Siecle," p. 300.

[66] Yves Guyot, "L'espagne," pp. 188-9.

CHAPTER XI

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE--WAGES AND COST OF LIVING--IMMIGRATION

The Condition of the People question, as Carlyle says, is the most pressing of all. But it is a question almost impossible to answer, and few inquiries are more futile than the attempt to ascertain the comparative well-being of different countries. Two inquirers with equal knowledge of a country will collect statistics and compile elaborate volumes, and one will come to the conclusion that the people are extremely well off and the other that they are in extreme dest.i.tution. They will then apply themselves to another country with the same contradictory results. Carlyle complains: "Hitherto, after many tables and statements, one is still left mainly to what he can ascertain by his own eyes, looking at the concrete phenomenon for himself. There is no other method; and yet it is a most imperfect method. Each man expands his own hand-breadth of observation to the limits of the general whole; more or less, each man must take what he himself has seen and ascertained for a sample of all that is seeable and ascertainable. Hence discrepancies, controversies, widespread, long-continued; which there is at present no means or hope of satisfactorily ending." Wages, price of food, rents, and the other weapons of the statistician are of very little use in attacking the problem. The Hindu peasant may be too poor to buy meat, but if he is non-carnivorous, the deprivation is no hards.h.i.+p, and he may enjoy much greater material well-being than many who eat meat daily. But knowledge of the elementary facts about the life of a people seems to have little effect in elucidating the question, for, as just remarked, people with long experience come to diametrically opposite conclusions.

Those who have lived all their lives in England or Ireland disagree _toto caelo_ in their opinions as to the well-being of the working cla.s.ses. Many observers, of course, believing that facts are silent until they are interpreted by theory, use their facts for the sole purpose of making their theory speak, but, as a matter of fact, entirely disinterested persons differ quite as profoundly. One is tempted to believe that in the Condition of the People question there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Probably no one could get an idea of the condition of the poor approaching in any degree to accuracy without living long among them in exactly their way, and even then his conclusions would be warped in every way by reference to his own standards and by the fact that the circ.u.mstances, which to him were temporal, were to his a.s.sociates everlasting. Further, his imperfect knowledge would apply only to one people and so would be useless for the purposes of comparison.

It is not likely, therefore, that a visitor will be able to impart much information upon the subject, but the opinions of the experienced and the testimony of statistics form a rough guide, and these may be given.

In Buenos Aires, of course, wages are higher than elsewhere and the cost of living is also high. The following table shows the rate of wages in some important trades in that city:--

WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

BLACKSMITHS-- s. d.

Leading hand _per diem_ 0 8 9 Bellowsman " 0 7 10 Labourers _per month_ about 6 10 0

CHAIRMAKERS-- Carvers _per diem_ 0 10 6 Polishers " 0 7 0 Seatmakers " 0 7 0 Labourers _per month_ about 6 17 6

FOUNDERS-- Head bellowsman _per diem_ 0 10 8 Foreman " 0 8 9 Turner " 0 8 0 Smith " 0 8 9 Labourer " 0 5 3 Founder " 0 7 0

FURNITURE MAKERS-- Leading polisher " 0 8 9 Second polisher " 0 7 0 Cabinetmaker " 0 8 9 Carve " 0 8 9 Chairmaker " 0 8 9

MASONS-- Decorating foreman " 0 14 0 Foreman " 0 8 9 Mason's mate " 0 7 0 Labourer " 0 4 3

MECHANICAL CARPENTERS-- Leading hand _per month_ about 17 10 0 Carpenter _per diem_ 0 7 0 a.s.sistant carpenter " 0 5 3 Furnis.h.i.+ng carpenter " 0 8 9 Plasterers " 0 10 6

PRINTERS-- Compositors _per month_ about 12 0 0 Litho engravers " " 19 0 0

SADDLERS-- Foreman " " 13 0 0 Leading hand _per diem_ 0 8 9 Labourer _per month_ about 7 0 0

TAILORS-- Cutters " " 25 0 0 Tailors " " 12 10 0

TURNERS _per diem_ 0 8 9

UPHOLSTERERS-- Leading hand " 0 8 9 Second hand " 0 7 0 Labourer _per month_ about 7 0 0

The above figures, then, give a rough idea of the rewards of the labour market in Argentina. In Rosario also, where there are great railway works which compete with other occupations and so raise the standard of wages, the figures are probably high. But in smaller centres wages are lower and probably the figures before us are somewhat optimistic, for they are compiled with a view to encouraging immigration. It must also be remembered that their advantage is discounted by the cost of living, which is very high everywhere and especially so in Buenos Aires and Rosario. All imported goods are, of course, extremely dear, and in many cases this fact does not affect the labourer, seeing that most of his simple luxuries can be procured in the country, but in the matter of clothes he gets very poor value for his money. Tobacco also is extremely dear. That foreign goods should be expensive is not strange, for not only is it the policy of the Government (hitherto not very successful) to stimulate home manufactures, but also the customs are absolutely necessary for revenue purposes. However, it is surprising that all other articles follow suit. Meat, for example, although Argentina supplies most of the markets of the world in increasing quant.i.ties, is nearly as dear as in England, and, in fact, a very tiny sheet of paper would have ample room for a list of the articles that are cheaper in Argentina than in the Old World. The people have not learned to regard the day of small things; they will not take trouble in little matters; in dairy-farming, gardening, cookery, all the little arts that make for comfort, they are extremely negligent; it is too much trouble to put on the market the hundred and one little comforts that are cheap and ever present in England or France. This is, of course, the case with all new countries, but particularly with those of South America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PERMANENT WAY, BUENOS AIRES CENTRAL RAILWAY.]

The poorer cla.s.ses certainly suffer by it, both in being deprived of numerous conveniences and also in the absence of these industries which, in France for example, give a livelihood to more poor people than are contained in the whole of Argentina. House rent also is extraordinarily high. In Buenos Aires this is always attributed to the vast improvements which were made in the Celman times, and which have certainly transformed Buenos Aires from a very dingy into a very fine city. Complaint is made that the better streets and better buildings have sent up the price of rents, that the ramshackle old tenements which were swept away afforded cheap and central lodgings which the poor now lack, and that in all ways splendour, cleanliness, and health have cost money. But in Rosario, where there is ample room for expansion, the same complaints are made, and at Mendoza, which is almost a garden city, site values are doubling in value every few years. The secret probably is imperfect industrial organisation.

Labour is scarce and not very efficient, munic.i.p.al dues weigh upon all cla.s.ses, every circ.u.mstance contributes towards making building a dear operation. It may be added that any man, still more any woman, who would consent to wait at table, would be a.s.sured of a comfortable livelihood. Servants are abnormally scarce and dear; a domestic with six months' character is rare treasure, the subject of eager compet.i.tion, and mistresses (according to their own account) are quite at their mercy.

It cannot be said that Argentina is a poor man's paradise, in the sense that his interests and general well-being are carefully regarded. Indeed the newspapers are full of complaints of the "oligarchies of office" and the scuffle for power among lucky cliques, who appropriate all the good things and leave the uninitiated mult.i.tudes to take care of themselves. An inquiry as to why Mendoza had no tramways elicited the reply, "Oh, the people in power here have carriages. As long as they can get about comfortably themselves, they do not care about the others." The authorities squeeze the poor as much as they can, but the latter yield most reluctantly to the process. A standing subject of wrangle is licences, which are like Sydney Smith's taxes; everything is licensed; the most petty trader or porter has to pay handsomely for the right to live, and this licence question is a perpetual source of friction. Besides the cost to the poor, it is excellent matter for the ingenuities of police persecution. Licence regulations are bulky and complicated, and licence-holders are, of course, liable to the attention of the law of street-traffic and the like; consequently the police have powerful weapons to hold _in terrorem_ over the refractory, for it is easy to awaken a sleeping statute and effect an arrest under it. As might have been expected, there is considerable discontent among the working cla.s.ses, and strikes are frequent. Trades Unions exist, but it does not appear that they are very well organised, and the South American mind is so permeated with politics that industrial strikes tend to become wholly political. About a year ago the whole of Rosario went on strike against the munic.i.p.al dues, and the movement was by no means unsuccessful. A few months later there were repeated attempts at a universal strike in Buenos Aires, and a considerable amount of bloodshed resulted from the sharp repressive measures which were taken against it. If the poor complain, they have considerable justification.

But it would convey a very false impression to suggest that the condition of the people was miserable, or even that it was unsatisfactory, as far as an observer can judge. The worker is no doubt hara.s.sed by petty officials and exactions, but in the Latin countries, whence he came, he probably suffered as much or more; he was therefore acclimatised before he arrived; and he has now, what he seldom had before--a bellyful of food and some pocket-money, and, if he is enterprising, the chance of rising to competence or wealth. If we make allowance for different standards of comfort, it would be correct to say that any man who is willing to work hard with his hands can live in Argentina in as great comfort as the worker in any country in the world, and infinitely better than in most lands. It is a testimony to the prosperity of Argentine labour, that swarms of reapers come from Spain for every harvest, and return with 30 apiece in their pockets. The evils, from a material point of view, are upon the surface, while it is a fact that the working man in Argentina has, besides a fair livelihood, that hope which is at the same time the main factor in individual happiness and the best security for the economic efficiency of the country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATELAYERS, BUENOS AIRES CENTRAL RAILWAY.]

This subject leads us to one which is the crux of the situation in Argentina--that of immigration. The natural growth of the population[67] is not very considerable; it may be that, apart from immigration, it would remain stationary. Thus the matter is one of great import, and all rulers since Rosas have done everything in their power to encourage the influx from foreign countries. Several different views have been taken about the subject. We have the pessimistic view of Mr. Theodore Child,[68] who, while praising the "urban development" of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, says that: "In the rural districts, however--even in the provincial capitals of the old colonial days, but more especially in the new colonies, where the sc.u.m of Spain and Italy has been deposited in ever-increasing numbers during the past twenty years--one sees aspects of humanity that fill one with sadness rather than with satisfaction, or even hope."

This extremely superficial work has formed the material for a few contemptuous sentences by M. Gustave Le Bon,[69] in which he dismisses South America as an instance of "the terrible decadence of the Latin race." On such slight foundations do philosophers erect their edifices. Again, there is a natural but perhaps somewhat Chauvinistic view which regards Argentina as a "puissance nouvelle qui suffirait a elle seule a rehabiliter la race latine a laquelle elle appartient et a la relever de cette espece de decheance et d'inertie dont elle semble frappee, dans ce dernier quart de siecle, devant la brutale expansion du monde saxon et germanique."[70]

It may be added that these two views well ill.u.s.trate the power of the human mind, to which reference was made in a previous page, of drawing diametrically opposite conclusions from the same premises. Thirdly, there is the view of the statesman, which is doubtless shared by all Argentines and their well-wishers, and which has been expressed by the veteran statesman M. Charles Pellegrini:[71] "The unity of language strongly encourages this fusion and explains the fact, elsewhere ill.u.s.trated by the United States, that the descendants of immigrants of races differing in speech, religion, manners, and customs have the power of effecting a complete fusion into a ma.s.s of people perfectly h.o.m.ogeneous, with the same mental characteristics and sentiment, and thus making a new nationality, both young, vigorous, and strongly characterised."

The first view may be ignored. To speak of the "sc.u.m of Spain and Italy" in connection with immigrants whom the mother-countries would give anything to retain--st.u.r.dy peasants who are the life-blood of Argentina--is absurd, and indeed the danger of the country is not that it may become the common sewer of Madrid and of Rome, but rather the tendency of the people to crowd into those examples of "urban development" which the writers regard with so much complacency. As regards the second view, it is natural that Frenchmen should look with satisfaction upon the stately cities and wide plains in which the ageing Latin race is renewing her mighty youth; but people do not emigrate to ill.u.s.trate theories. The Latin races are no doubt glad to find other Latin races to welcome them across the Atlantic, and also a congenial climate, but they go abroad in search of bread. It is undoubtedly a good thing that the Latin races should flourish in the New World, although hitherto they have been sterile from an intellectual point of view; but the forces that impel them are economic, not racial. The loss to Europe is undoubtedly great, but the third view is naturally that of Argentina, which is every year receiving an abundant stream of white colonists to develop the industries which cry aloud for labour. The figures are indeed remarkable. In 1857 there were 4,000 immigrants, in 1908 there were 255,710. The following table shows the rate of progress:--

1857-1860 20,000 1861-1870 159,570 1871-1880 260,613 1881-1890 846,568 1891-1900 648,326 1901-1903 223,346

It will be noticed that during the eighties, when trade in Europe was indifferent, while the progress of Argentina was rapid, the figures were very high, and that after the crash they fell considerably, though they recovered somewhat before the end of the century. The following are the figures for recent years:--

1904 125,567 1905 177,117 1906 252,536 1907 209,103 1908 255,710

It will be seen that the influx is now larger than ever.