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diff --git a/38086-h/38086-h.htm b/38086-h/38086-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b9efed7 --- /dev/null +++ b/38086-h/38086-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1507 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Social Evolution Of The Argentine Republic, by Hon. Ernesto Quesada. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } + #id1 { font-size: smaller } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr.smler { width: 10%; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .block {margin: auto; text-align: center; width: 35em;} + .tbrk {margin-bottom: 2em;} + .fnanchor { font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Social Evolution of the Argentine +Republic, by Ernesto Quesada + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic + +Author: Ernesto Quesada + +Release Date: November 22, 2011 [EBook #38086] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE *** + + + + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Martin Pettit and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<h1><span>THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE<br />REPUBLIC</span><br /><span id="id1">BY</span><br /><span>HON. ERNESTO QUESADA</span></h1> + +<p class="center">Attorney-General of the Argentine Republic; Professor in the Universities of +<br />Buenos Ayres and La Plata</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">Publication No. 636<br /><span class="smcap">American Academy of Political and Social Science</span><br /> +Reprinted from <span class="smcap">The Annals</span>, May, 1911</p> + +<div class="block"><p>Price 25 cents</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p><p>This Reprint is made from the May, 1911, volume of THE ANNALS, the +complete contents of which are</p> + +<blockquote><p>INDIVIDUAL EFFORT IN TRADE EXPANSION.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Elihu Root</b>, United States Senator from New York.</p> + +<p>THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN STATES.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Henry White</b>, Chairman of the American Delegation to the Fourth +International Conference of the American States.</p> + +<p>THE FOURTH PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE.</p> + +<p><b>Paul S. Reinsch</b>, Delegate to the Fourth Pan-American Conference; +Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin.</p> + +<p>THE MONROE DOCTRINE AT THE FOURTH PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Alejandro Alvarez</b>, Of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, +Santiago, Chile.</p> + +<p>BANKING IN MEXICO.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Enrique Martinez-Sobral</b>, Chief of the Bureau of Credit and +Commerce of the Mexican Ministry of Finance.</p> + +<p>THE WAY TO ATTAIN AND MAINTAIN MONETARY REFORM IN LATIN-AMERICA.</p> + +<p><b>Charles A. Conant</b>, Former Commissioner on the Coinage of the +Philippine Islands, New York.</p> + +<p>CURRENT MISCONCEPTIONS OF TRADE WITH LATIN-AMERICA.</p> + +<p><b>Hugh MacNair Kahler</b>, Editor of "How to Export"; Vice-President, +Latin-American Chamber of Commerce; Publisher of the Spanish +periodicals, "America" and "Ingenieria."</p> + +<p>INVESTMENT OF AMERICAN CAPITAL IN LATIN-AMERICAN COUNTRIES.</p> + +<p><b>Wilfred H. Schoff</b>, Secretary, Commercial Museum, Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>COMMERCE WITH SOUTH AMERICA.</p> + +<p>PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN PERU.</p> + +<p><b>Albert A. Giesecke, Ph.D.</b>, Rector of the University of Cuzco, +Cuzco, Peru.</p> + +<p>THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF CHILE.</p> + +<p><b>Dr. Guillermo Subercaseaux</b>, Professor of Political Economy, +University of Chile.</p> + +<p>THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Ernesto Quesada</b>, Attorney-General of the Argentine Republic; +Professor in the Universities of Buenos Ayres and La Plata.</p> + +<p>COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF CHILE.</p> + +<p><b>Hon. Henry L. Janes</b>, Division of Latin-American Affairs, Department +of State, Washington.</p> + +<p>CLOSER COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH LATIN-AMERICA.</p> + +<p><b>Bernard N. Baker</b>, Baltimore, Md.</p> + +<p>IMMIGRATION—A CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEM.</p> + +<p><b>Ernst B. Filsinger</b>, Consul of Costa Rica and Ecuador, St. Louis, +Mo.</p> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p>Price $1.50 bound in cloth; $1.00 bound in paper. Postage free.</p></blockquote> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></span></h2> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By The Hon. Ernesto Quesada</span>,</p> + +<p class="center">Attorney-General of the Argentine Republic; Professor in the +Universities<br />of Buenos Ayres and La Plata.</p> + +<hr class="smler" /> + +<p>To condense into a few pages several centuries of the history of a +nation like the Argentine Republic, to give some idea of the nature of +the forces that have determined the development of this country from the +end of the sixteenth century, the period of its discovery, to this the +second decade of the twentieth, when it is celebrating the first +centennial of its independence, is a task at once delicate and arduous. +For, aside from these natural difficulties, it will be necessary to +avoid all details, to shun statistics, and even to lay aside historical +evidence, in order to crystallize into seemingly dogmatic statements, +the complicated social evolution of a people in process of +transformation, a people still in a formative period. It is a venture +bordering upon the impossible.</p> + +<p>A century after the commencement of the conquest of the American +continent and after the scattering over the land of the invading race, +at once warlike and religious, an expedition which was purely Andalusian +discovered the River Plate in the southern extremity of the continent. +Instead of penetrating to the south, the expedition fixed its gaze +northward, searching for a route by which to renew relations with the +rich district of the old empire of the Incas. This was in obedience to +that thirst after wealth which characterized the taking possession of +America. Two centuries later, these remote provinces had been converted +into the very important viceroyship of the River Plate. In one direction +it extended from the tropical viceroyship of Peru and the torrid lands +of Portuguese Brazil, to Cape Horn, lashed by the raging Antarctic seas, +and in the other direction it stretched from the chain of the Andes, +which runs like a solid wall the length of one of its flanks, to the +Atlantic Ocean,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> which bathes its extensive coasts. This enormous +territory thus embraced every sort of climate, and was inhabited by a +heterogeneous collection of aboriginal races. Its conquest and +colonization had been effected upon two convergent lines, that by water, +by the River Plate, that by land, from the north. This impressed upon +the civilization of these regions different characteristics which must +be defined since, even after a century of political independence, their +mark is still stamped upon the ideals, aspirations and conduct of the +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The "Leyes de Indias,"<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> faithful reflections of the purposes of +Spanish colonization in America, show how extraordinary was the +importance of the native races, how relatively few were the Spanish +conquerors and how closely the two races became mingled, through the +régime of the <i>encomiendas</i><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> the <i>mitas</i><a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and the <i>yanaconazgos</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +The Spanish colonies were founded and developed in the midst of a mass +of people, who, because of their enormous superiority in point of +numbers, necessarily reacted in turn upon the small number of the +invaders, either by interbreeding with the latter, or by the contact of +daily life, or by their superior adaptability to their natural +environment. The conquerors themselves presented different traits, +according to the region of Spain from which they came, and naturally +they sought to group and to settle themselves in obedience to the ethnic +affinities of their origin. Biscayans, Basques, Castillians, Aragonese, +Andalusians, etc., gave typical characteristics to every American region +where they established themselves. They transplanted their social +prejudices, their spirit of communal independence, their concentrated +energy and their buoyant temperament. From this it resulted that in +whatever corner of America a particular Spanish strain of blood was +found, there were reflected the traits of the corresponding district of +Spain.</p> + +<p>As the native races varied according to the region, from those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> of a +peaceful and civilized character to those of an untamable and warlike +nature, and even to ferocious savages, the Spanish settlements existed +without any common plan. They made a republic with the tribes, and they +were the beginning of a creole type which was quite distinct in each +locality. In the viceroyship of Buenos Ayres the ethnic geography of the +aborigines shows a kaleidoscopic variety of races. In the north and in +the regions which formerly had been subject to the rule of the Incas, +the population—both servient and dominant classes—was peaceful, +attached to the soil, resigned and passive.</p> + +<p>In those regions lying between the two great rivers the population was +of a gentle and peace-loving nature and, therefore, was easily molded by +missionary civilization. Along the slopes of the Andes the people were +daring, excitable and independent. The south or Patagonian extremity was +overrun by brave and unconquerable tribes, closely related to that +Araucanian race which the Spanish conquest never entirely succeeded in +subduing. The Spanish settlements on the other hand presented different +characteristics. In the north they came from Lima, and were Biscayan and +Castillian, aristocratic, very proud of their ancestry, holding aloof, +enriched by the mines of Potosi and the commerce of the fleet of +Portobello. Southward were Andalusians and Spanish common folk, little +given to titles and conventionalities. They were condemned to pursue the +smuggler's trade, because the mother country, following an economic +error of the time and perhaps owing to deficient geographic knowledge, +permitted them only an overland commerce, by mule back, from the Panama +fleet which unloaded its cargoes in Callao. Hence in the provinces of +the north, called High Peru, and in the present provinces of Jujuy and +Tucuman, the Spanish population held up Lima as their ideal, and +exhibited both its vices and its virtues. Out of it was formed the +aristocratic, commercial and luxurious city of Salta. On the other hand, +in the river provinces, the existence of the cities was precarious and +fraught with the dangers of a smuggling trade carried on with the +Portuguese neighbors—the source of the centuries-old controversy of +Sacramento colony. These settlements were not unacquainted with the fear +of pirates, of daring navigators and of roving slave dealers, who on +their arrival at the River Plate unloaded the "products of their +country," with the toleration and secret complicity of the government +officials and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> the connivance of the inhabitants. These inhabitants +were true outlaws. They scoffed at the administration and fiscal +measures and trusted more to their fists than they feared being caught +in the complicated meshes of the uneconomic laws.</p> + +<p>The interbreeding of these different classes of population resulted in +creole types, characteristic of each region. In the central cities of +the north, they were always aristocratic and devoted to learning, while +in the vast stretches of country they lived the semi-feudal life of +<i>encomenderos</i>. The interbreeding with the Indians formed an inferior +class of half breed which approached the type of the mother more than +that of the father and which was certainly not a robust or handsome +race. In the river region, the population lived on a democratic plane of +equality in the cities, while in the rural districts they became that +creole type known as the <i>gaucho</i>.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Found amidst a scattered +population and inheriting the far from sedentary habits of the Spanish +mother race, the <i>gaucho</i> preferred the free and roving existence of the +pampas. He lived by the herds of semi-wild animals, which had multiplied +amazingly since Mendoza's expedition had introduced the very limited +stock, destined later to be converted into the stupendous riches of this +country. In the central, more mountainous region also, the interbreeding +of the races produced very definite results and the creole population of +the rural districts acquired traits as though living closely associated +with the <i>gauchos</i> of the pampas. In the south the aboriginal races +remained pure, except for the insignificant mixing which came from the +Spanish captive women, victims of the attacks of the Tehuelches +populations. Wherever the native population was dense and attached to +the soil the creoles living in the country and about the cities show a +closer affinity with it, than with the Spanish blood. They adopt native +habits and conform to native peculiarities, even to the extent of +adopting the melancholy rhythm of the music and songs, those unique +<i>tristes</i> which are heard even to-day in the Argentine provinces of the +north, from Santiago del Estero to the Bolivian frontier. There the +creole laborers of the land and the half breeds of the districts about +the cities tenderly preserve the <i>quichua</i>, or native language of their +ancestors, by intermixing it with the Spanish. The same close affinity +with the native element is found in the river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> provinces, and especially +in Corrientes, where in the rural and semi-rural districts the dregs of +the missionary population have preserved as their most precious +possession the <i>guarani</i> dialect. But, where the native population was +more scattered and nomadic, the creole population became transformed and +converted into the <i>gaucho</i> or cowboy of the pampas, a very handsome +half breed, full of energy, of noble instincts, accustomed to the freest +sort of life over boundless plains, where each one depended solely upon +himself and recognized no superior. Here we have the explanation of the +great hold which this type (<i>gaucho</i>) has upon the imagination.</p> + +<p>In spite of these differences, however, the colonial life was stamped +with a certain uniformity which served as a background for these local +peculiarities. Spanish-American society was zealously preserved from +contact with other European nations. Only inhabitants of Spain were free +to go and come, so that this triple characteristic—that they were +Spanish, monarchical and orthodox Catholic—was the salient feature +common to all South America. The person of the monarch and the supreme +authority of the colonial office were very distant and the tribunals of +the viceroys and governors holding actual sessions there upon the +territory, were the real and tangible personifications of the monarchy. +The Pope himself was also very distant and had given over the +superintendence of ecclesiastical affairs to the crown, which had in +turn confided it to the respective viceroys. The bishops and religious +orders were, strictly speaking, the visible representatives of religion. +In this way throne and altar came in touch with the colonial +populations, who took heated sides in the formidable conflicts which +used to arise between the representatives of each. But they retained +respect for them; they recognized their high merits and prerogatives and +obeyed them as representing that which could neither be questioned nor +altered. Public officials of all grades were drafted from Spain and +remained for definite periods. The laws forbade them to mix with the +populations and they kept themselves aloof, with the ostensible purpose +of assuring their complete impartiality. But the result was that they +tried to take advantage of their period in office to swell their +personal fortunes, without allowing themselves to be deterred by any +scruples or drawing rein to their appetites. The priests even, both +secular and those regularly ordained, allowed themselves to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> be carried +away by that spirit of self-seeking which led them to look upon America +as a mine to be exploited.</p> + +<p>Doubtless there were zealous officials both civil and religious who +performed the best type of service. The Spaniards were established +amidst a native population, who devoted themselves to commerce or to +mining in the north, and to the raising of cattle and lesser trades in +the river and central districts, and they always looked upon their +residence in this part of American territory as a temporary sojourn, +during which to acquire riches. The creoles, of every class, both of the +city and of the country, perhaps because they seemed to be looked down +upon by the Spaniards, were unconsciously trying to enlarge their hold +upon affairs of all kinds. They felt themselves, as it were, rooted to +the soil, and far from proceeding only from selfish motives of money +making, they took an interest in local affairs, which, for them, were of +greater importance than those of a crown, only vaguely known to them by +report. The city creoles, thanks to an advanced communal spirit, aroused +by the establishment of the <i>cabildos</i> or Spanish town council, were +diligently at work on their own municipal problems. They thus became +accustomed to limit their horizon to the limits of their own city and of +the immediately surrounding country district, because communication +between the cities was slow, difficult and dangerous, a condition which +resulted in their virtual isolation from each other. The city might +almost be regarded as the center of their universe. From the rest of the +world news arrived months and years later, tempered or misrepresented. +It awakened not the faintest echo. It might as well have been the news +of far away ages and peoples.</p> + +<p>The mass of the natives, with whose women the military and civil +population cohabited, since relatively few Spanish women came to +America, took no interest whatsoever in the affairs of a monarchy which +was not that of their ancestors but of a race different from themselves. +They showed, rather, such a passive indifference that each community +seemed a world unto itself, occupied and pre-occupied only with its own +matters. The religious and civil officials, in their turn, were soon +contaminated by this environment. They gave to local affairs so +excessive an importance that it also appeared to their eyes as if the +boundary of the Indian city was the <i>ultima Thule</i> of civilization. In +the northern provinces, which had reached the final stage of perfection +under the old Inca conquest, the native<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> population preserved and +protected its pre-Columbian traditions by the use of their dialect, the +<i>quichua</i> tongue. The régime of the <i>encomienda</i>, the <i>mitas</i> and the +<i>yanaconazgo</i> had produced only a formal subjection of the natives. In +the depths of their souls the natives preserved and fostered traditions +of bygone centuries. In this way the creoles, the product of +interbreeding, were recast into the dense mass of the Indian population +and became more conversant with American traditions than Spanish.</p> + +<p>Amongst the missionary converts, the Jesuits had erected cities that +flourished artificially under their care. They were inhabited only by +Indian races, and the Jesuits zealously guarded them from contact with +the Spaniards whom they removed far from their admirable theocratic +empire as though they were the very incarnation of evil. An unreal +civilization was thus created, governed patriarchially by the priests +and without any vitality of its own. Hence, the expulsion of the priests +by the <i>coup d' état</i> of Charles III brought about the destruction of +these populations, which had realized during the century of their +existence, the ideal of the most exacting of Utopian civilization. But +the results were not such as had been desired. These Indians, on being +distributed over the colonies, did not coalesce with the rest of the +inhabitants, but returned to the depths of barbarism or, as in the +present province of Corrientes, constituted the mass of the population, +an element indifferent to national interests just as the old +missionaries had been to those of the crown and sensible only to the +recollection of their ancient and traditional life, that is to say, to +their own local affairs.</p> + +<p>In the central and river provinces, the marvelous increase of animals +capable of domestication but still in a wild state brought about a +profound transformation. The native tribes, sparser than in the north, +without losing any of their savage customs, soon possessed themselves of +the horse and overran the boundless pampas. The creoles of the country +districts and the <i>gauchos</i> in their turn vied for the possession of the +horse. No longer able to remold their life to that of the savage tribes, +they checked their bold and ferocious habits and became keen and +cautious, forming a race of special type, midway between the Indian and +the Spaniard. They were extreme individualists, for in the immense +pampas, authority, both civil and religious could obtain but a weak +hold. The <i>gaucho</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> made so complete a face-about from his former self +as to devote his life solely to cattle raising. He evolved a special +fitness or adaptability to his new life and created the most curious +types, from the <i>sumbon compadrito</i> with his peculiar cloak and +<i>chiripa</i>, who flashed his sarcastic jests with such grace and elegance, +to the poet troubador and famous animal tracker who was but little less +keen than the hound in scenting and following the trail of man or beast. +As the <i>gauchos</i> came in contact with not a few of the city population, +upon whom they were dependent for obtaining the things they needed in +exchange for pelts and the products of the country, they formed with +such of the latter as came most closely in touch with them, a community +of ideas and aims. Thus by busying themselves only with their own +special lives, they became independent and without attachment for any +but their respective municipal centers. Each region possessed its local +feature, each was separated from the rest and all were but nominally +linked and united with their remote and common monarch.</p> + +<p>In the River Plate region, leaving aside the factor of geographic +interest, to which I have just made allusion, the racial history was +limited to the Spanish population and its Creole interbreeding with the +native races, because the negro population had no importance whatsoever, +in this part of America. The quantity of negro slaves introduced by the +"dealers" was reduced to a minimum, and even these, upon the breaking +out of the war of independence, were killed off, for now that their +masters were freeing them, they formed the great body of the troops. In +this way they helped the American cause. The mulattoes, consequently, +were also reduced in number. This process was carried to such a point +that the singular scarcity of pure negroes or even of mulattoes was a +real characteristic of this country.</p> + +<p>Foreign influence could only penetrate by way of the Atlantic, and even +then only covertly, unless it were by crossing the rocky barrier of the +Andes. The Portuguese influence was limited to the profitable commercial +relations with the smugglers. That of other nations only made itself +felt through the occasional visits of ships forced to take shelter in +the La Plata from time to time, or dropping anchor upon various +pretexts, but always with the intention of smuggling. This was an open +secret to the then few inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, the possibilities of +which as a port,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> although gainsayed by the crown, had been ordained by +nature. When, during the last days of colonial domination, commerce was +permitted to the port of Buenos Ayres, there was no longer time for +foreign influence to penetrate to the heart of the country. The English +invasions left a greater residue of influence through the distribution +of the English prisoners, who in great part established homes in the +midland regions to which they were sent. There, in the midst of the +Spanish families, with whom they were left, they disseminated ideas of +liberty and standards of independence, unknown among the rest of the +population, the best classes of which in those days of unrest, were a +turbulent and irrepressible element.</p> + +<p>The revolution of May, 1810, wrought a fundamental change in the social +situation. Distinguished officers of the Napoleonic wars came to the +country to offer their military services. English merchants, attracted +by the reports of the English invasions of the Argentine Republic in +1806 and 1807, hurried over in increasing numbers. Soon they were +influencing the society of Buenos Ayres which adopted London fashions, +many of its customs, and became accustomed to the English character. +Foreign commerce was concentrated in the hands of the English and many +of these merchants finally married in the country. During the colonial +epoch only books expurgated by the Inquisition had been admitted, but +now the revolutionary movement unmuzzled these mysteries and flung wide +the doors through which penetrated a flood of French and English works. +The doctrines of the French revolution were at that time the passion of +the majority of our public men, and its influence, even its Jacobin and +terrorist phases, is traceable from the first instant. This is revealed +in the "plan of government" of Moreno. On the other hand, the +constitutional doctrines of the Anglo-Saxons were embraced only by the +few. Dorrego went to the United States and there absorbed them. During +the first decade after the revolution, the educational system scarcely +advanced at all but followed closely to the traditional path of teaching +taught by the University of Cordoba. The University of Buenos Ayres was +founded in the second decade, and made an effort to reform public +education. But the war of independence was not yet over and the internal +situation of the country at the end of the anarchical dissolution which +took place in 1820, was such that a multitude of affairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> demanded +attention, and as yet it was hardly possible, outside of the large +cities, to turn to such questions of reform.</p> + +<p>The winning of independence was the cause of the sad dismemberment of +the viceroyship of the River Plate and the statesmen of the period could +not have prevented it. From what was once a single historic province +there have gradually been detached the province of High Peru, to-day the +Republic of Bolivia; the province of Paraguay, to-day the Republic of +the same name; the eastern missions which now constitute the present +Brazilian provinces of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catalina and Sao Paulo. +The Banda Oriental has since become the Republic of Uruguay; the +Falkland Islands were snatched by England; the territory about the +Straits of Magellan was ceded later to Chile, under color of regulating +the boundary line. The Argentine Republic, during the first century of +its existence as an independent nation, far from acquiring a single +square mile of territory, has continued to lose territory at every point +of the compass. Her international policy, from that point of view, has +been lamentable and the memory of it is still a bitter lesson.</p> + +<p>Within the enormous territorial expanse which now constitutes the +Argentine Republic political integration was effected slowly. The +different populations settled at intervals along the routes which +connected Buenos Ayres with Lima on the one side, with the Andes on +another and with Asuncion on still another. Each settlement was an oasis +of Spanish population set in the midst of a savage country. In order to +establish something approaching unity within each section, the people +organized themselves after the pattern of the urban centers of Spain +with their <i>Cabildo</i> or town council as the communal authority, which +controlled and regulated the extremes of opinion and conditions and +brought the whole municipal life to a focus. Each settlement lived a +life apart, separated from the others. In fact they were cast in the +mold of the ancient Spanish village society, and the central authority +only made itself felt at infrequent intervals.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of each village thus developed an aptitude for municipal +life and for self-government, and a concentration upon local interests +which became the basis of their political development. They fostered a +local character which was the very foundation and essence of their later +federal tendency. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> the interests and pretensions of the crown as +formulated by the "Council of the Indies," they preferred the authority +of the viceroy and of the intendants, but their main preference was the +municipality itself, whose frank and loyal mouthpiece was the +traditional Cabildo. For this reason, when the movement for independence +commenced, each village and each city was led by its own Cabildo, and it +was the Cabildo which gave vigor and form to the revolution. Around the +Cabildo the inhabitants of the vicinity grouped themselves in the +different organic or anarchic revolts which followed. It was for this +reason, too, since the present republic possessed no basis of political +division, that each one of the cities formed a nucleus in its respective +province of the same name, and that the whole territory was subdivided +according to the radius of authority exercised by the principal cities +of colonial times, without any account being taken of economic autonomy +or of demography.</p> + +<p>Federal sentiment made its appearance profoundly rooted in tradition and +blood, and the tendency towards centralization only emanated from +certain groups of dreamers at the metropolis who with their eyes closed +to the past believed along with such deluded men as Rivadavia that, by +destroying the traditional Cabildo, they would wipe the state clean of +such precedents, just as the Jacobins of the French Revolution did with +the institutions of the ancient régime. Argentine society issued from +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries already shaped toward local +self-government and local loyalty. It already appeared a federation in +fact which was easily transformed into a federation in law, because the +federal idea was at bottom the very heart and soul of things.</p> + +<p>The development of our colonization also indicated that of our +civilization. As we approach the north, the brilliant center of +civilization of Lima society becomes more aristocratic, infatuated with +its learning, luxurious and fastidious. The youth of the Plate Valley +were attracted to the University of Chuquisaca, where, amidst its +cloisters, they acquired a grave and disputacious manner. Later the +University of Cordoba, like a pale reflection of the former, drew upon a +part of these youths and, if they left its lecture halls also practiced +in the art of sophistry, they did not imbibe in return that atmosphere +of aristocratic aloofness, pomp and presumption. Buenos Ayres and the +river country were without a university and without an aristocracy. At +the periodic auctions of titles of nobility,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> the receipts of which were +added to the colonial contributions and were intended to meet a certain +deficit in the Spanish treasury, not a purchaser appeared and there was +not a single herder of the pampas nor a single rich smuggler who would +bid. The titles which were thus put up to sale remained unpurchased, for +the people held them in no esteem.</p> + +<p>With no resources other than its commerce and industry which were both +of a contraband nature, Buenos Ayres developed more rapidly than other +cities and with a greater freedom from "red tape" and formalism, in +spite of its being the seat of the general government, with its Spanish +officials, its civil, military and religious authorities and an +administrative machinery identical with that of the other capitals of +the viceroyship. For here there was not the same atmosphere, the life +was simple and democratic, the officials had no stage from which to +display their importance, and within the narrow walls of the modest home +of the government, the few inhabitants of this metropolis used to mingle +in its marshy, unpaved streets, or in their unpretentious and simple +adobe houses. They treated each other with a certain equality, which was +due precisely to those conditions of intense individualism developed of +necessity in a cattle raising community.</p> + +<p>In the northern and central districts society was cast in the Peruvian +mold, a reproduction of Spanish civilization, aristocrats adopting +primogeniture and, in modified form, the feudal régime of the +<i>encomenderos</i>. In the river and mountain region, the urban was a +reflection of the rural population, independent, haughty, brave, +accustomed to making forays upon horseback over the endless pampas, +trusting to its own decision and in the end to the knife, which was a +symbol of the worship of personal courage, inherited from Spanish +ancestors who had developed it during the centuries of the struggle +against the Moors. In the river district the commerce, which in the main +was carried on illegally by doggedly persevering merchants who plied +their trade fearlessly with pirates and foreign smugglers, caused a +certain spirit of self-confidence to grow. This spirit made itself felt +in the popular movement of the reconquest of 1806, and in the impulse of +the revolution of May, 1810.</p> + +<p>From Buenos Ayres started the movement for independence, and the +Cabildos of the interior cities fell in with the movement with more or +less alacrity. Hence the further inland these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> cities were, the less +enthusiastic. The Paraguayan region isolated itself and followed the +conservative policy of the Cabildo of Asuncion. The province of High +Peru, in spite of its efforts, was the last to revolt and never followed +with any ardor the movement initiated by the metropolis. Indeed, the +revolution of May, which had spread to the banks of the Paraguay river +and over the plateau of Bolivia, might not, perhaps, have succeeded in +so closely cementing, in spite of the righteousness of its cause, the +independence proclaimed in Tucuman in 1816, had not the inspiration of +San Martin added that powerful impulse which flung armies across the +Andes, liberated Chile from Spanish dominion and brought independence to +Peru. He might have pursued this glorious course toward the independence +of the whole continent, if the colossal egotism of Bolivar in that +tragic conference of Guayaquil had not placed our national hero in the +dilemma of either eliminating himself and leaving his selfish rival to +wear the laurels planted and nurtured by Argentine blood or of +sacrificing the fruits of the campaign for independence, by not being +able to obtain from him the military assistance he was in need of. He +placed his country before his own glory and yielded the field to one to +whom personal renown was preferable to all else.</p> + +<p>For the social evolution of Argentine the sacrifice of San Martin was of +incalculable importance. Upon eliminating himself, he left to his rival +the army which he had himself led until then and this country was +deprived of its one organizing force. Disintegrating tendencies +manifested themselves without counter-check. In the second decade of the +century, various little republics were defiantly established in the +interior. They were constructed upon the plan of the old settlements +which had risen to something greater. They were governed by Cabildos, +and these in turn obeyed the local leader, who was raised to +dictatorship over the districts. Each province was sufficient unto +itself. It barely communicated with the others and retrograded towards +barbarism without regularly organized government or other will than that +of its respective tyrant and the free-lances who were his immediate +followers. Schools closed; families took refuge within the walls of +their dwellings; terror pervaded; life was everywhere insecure; those +who could, emigrated, leaving behind them on the land the sick, the +women and the children. Men were bedfellows in misery; there was no +industry, no commerce; sin flourished and virtue was trampled under +foot. These thirty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> years of bloody and merciless civil strife made +prominent the idea of the rule of force. People were taken from peaceful +work, efficient teaching languished, every social bond was weakened and +in the end a society evolved in which not education, ancestry or fortune +exercised the least influence, but audacity, the impulse of the local +leader, the mob instincts of the city population and of the rural +<i>gaucho</i>. The local leaders and their followers alone wielded any real +power. They dominated without possibility of counter-check and an entire +generation tolerated this condition during that terrible period.</p> + +<p>The local leadership, like the legendary tyranny of ancient Rome, +demolished everything which tried to rise above the obedient, passive, +resigned and common level. It brutally choked it or forced it to +emigrate, and Argentine society had to develop in these anaemic +surroundings. There was no possibility of foreign immigration, or of +establishing industry and commerce.</p> + +<p>The idea of nationality was observed by party passion and the factions +were ready to launch out upon some fight upon the slightest pretext. +Social classes were divided into irreconcilable parties, the reds or +federalists, and the blues or centralists, those who believed in the +local leader, and those who detested him. The former were called +federalists, because they believed that each locality ought to adopt the +kind of government which best suited it; the latter were called the +centralists, because in their weakness they leaned upon the influence of +the national government in order to give to the whole country a common +unified administration of which the local government would be the agent.</p> + +<p>Rosas met this situation and put an end to it. After the dismemberment +of the ephemeral republic of 1825, and the national convention, and +following upon the Brazilian war, the centralist party, deceived in its +principles and in its men, closed its doors to counsel and committed the +error of executing Dorrego at Navarro. The mass of the rural population +resisted the straight jacket proposed by the doctrinaires of the +centralist party and in this they showed themselves unrelenting. Then +Rosas came into power in the government of Buenos Ayres and also secured +control of the situation in the provinces. He succeeded in bringing +about the organization of each province with a view to forming the +Argentine Confederation. He was entrusted by the federation with the +management of foreign relations. He left the interior provinces to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +organize themselves after the pattern of the government of Buenos Ayres. +Doubtless, during the long quarter of a century while he was dictator, +real security and peace were never enjoyed, for the centralist party was +ambitious, arrogant and factious, plotting within itself, and when it +was not exciting to rebellion, or leading an invasion it was provoking +foreign intervention. Finally the terrible and merciless war between the +centralists and the federalists developed a state of terror which +culminated in the excesses of the year 1840. The dictator treated his +adversaries without mercy and they in their turn had none for him. To be +strictly truthful, neither party can be absolved from wicked and +culpable action. Nor can I shut my eyes to the fact that the great power +bred pride, and that pride bred hatred of the subject class. But this +prolonged dictatorship saved the country from the anarchy of the petty +republics of 1820, it solidified the country into a sovereign entity and +it gave to the different parts the cohesion of a nation capable of +victoriously resisting the French and Anglo-French interventions. This +much is owed definitely to the centralist party, who in this way solved +the difficulty traditional to our national organization and so guided +along the right road the severest crisis of Argentine history, not only +from a political but also from a sociological point of view. The chasm +that separated the social classes of the capital city from those of the +provincial districts was bridged; the prejudices of blood, of caste and +fortune were destroyed and there was established complete equality, +where every man was the heir of his own labor and depended only upon his +own hands.</p> + +<p>After the battle of Caseros, in 1852, the government which had so used +and abused oppression and patronage fell, leaving the country, however, +in such a condition of stability and internal organization that the +different provinces grouped themselves logically under the Convention of +San Nicolas. The Argentine Federation was maintained and Urquiza was +placed at the head of the government. Despite the local character of the +revolution of Buenos Ayres, on the eleventh of September the country at +large adopted the fundamental constitution of 1853, at the Congress of +Santa Fé. The government of the recalcitrant province of Paraná realized +but slowly the new organization, with which it finally incorporated +itself, while the nation continued developing in the path established by +its constitution. Without losing sight, therefore, of the bitter lessons +of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> phase of our evolution, it is but fair to show an appreciation +of its benefits.</p> + +<p>The characteristic of this intermediate epoch is the very slight +introduction of the foreign element. To-day this element is scattered +over the land, but at that time such as were firmly rooted in the +country, principally in Buenos Ayres, were very few. Of these the +English formed the greater part, for the infusion of German blood, which +resulted from the distribution of prisoners taken from the German +regiments at Ituzaingo, though they included some estimable families +constituted a very subordinate factor. English commerce was always +respected and in spite of the bitterness produced by the naval +interventions, it was left to develop peacefully. But as it did not +increase in volume and was never reinforced by that of other nations, it +did not become great. The path of social evolution was in the direction +of the commingling of the city and rural population, and of the +participation of the <i>gauchos</i> in public life, either by forming a large +and worthy element in the army or by becoming the active nucleus of the +popular civic movements. The democratization of the country was +complete, for in general, the upper classes of society in the cities +affiliated themselves with the centralist party, while the populace +supported the federal party. Hence the bloody triumph of the latter +brought about its complete predominance and from this period the social +and political problems remained more enduring in nature, while +differences of blood and tradition were put aside.</p> + +<p>Since the constitution of 1853, the social evolution of Argentine has +been guided and carried forward by two factors, immigration and foreign +capital. Under their influence, the characteristics of the prior period +were gradually modified to a certain extent. The administration of Mitre +struggled against the difficulties of inadequate means of communication +between the distant cities and against traditional custom of guerilla +warfare. Force was employed in order to remain master of the field and +to break up the resistance which the men of the interior set up against +the prominence of those of Buenos Ayres, and a cruel war against +Paraguay was undertaken. The ability and consistency of this Argentine +statesman was great.</p> + +<p>When the passions of his contemporaries had been assuaged, he became the +"grand old man" of the nation, growing in stature as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> posterity forms +its judgment on his policy. That administration, like the following one +of Sarmiento, had to cope with two factors, the great uninhabited tracts +of land and the survival of ancient custom. On the one hand the +different Argentine regions lived in isolation from one another, +communication between them being difficult; on the other hand there +still survived the custom of local chieftainship and of the constant and +armed movements of different political factions, who would set out upon +guerilla forays on any pretext whatsoever, raising their banners on high +as though their behavior was patriotic and praiseworthy, whereas it was +but the vicious habit of a barbaric and backward age.</p> + +<p>The administration of Avellaneda continued the task of combating such +tendencies by the establishment of the telegraph which would unite all +these centers to each other; by the construction of railroads to +facilitate communication; and by the encouragement of European +immigration for purposes of settlement and in order to mix other races +with that of Argentine and so modify its political idiosyncracies by +more conservative standards and interests. The conquest of the +Patagonian wilds, with the final subjugation of the warlike native +tribes of the south, opened and ushered in an era in the Argentine +evolution. This occurred contemporaneously with the historic solution of +the problem of federalism versus centralism, which silenced forever the +old antagonism between the inhabitants of the metropolis and those of +the provinces.</p> + +<p>From 1880 till the present, the work of multiplying the telegraphs and +railway routes has gone on, as has also the increase of foreign +immigration. These have produced the desired effect in the social +transformation of the country. The telegraph and the railroad have +definitely killed the seditious germs of guerilla warfare and of local +chieftainship. Local uprisings are no longer possible. The city and +rural populations have become convinced of this, and the popular mind is +at peace since the generation has disappeared which saw the last revolts +of the <i>gauchos</i>, and other forms of popular uprising. Foreign capital +commenced and encouraged the exploitation of our natural resources. The +sugar industry of the northern provinces, the wine culture of the Andes +provinces, even the stock raising and agriculture of the river districts +have been the combined work of these three progressive elements. +Immigration has helped immensely toward this same end, but the +settlement of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> new lands does not advance by leaps and bounds, but +spreads gradually.</p> + +<p>Starting from the port of arrival, the stream of immigration continues +to spread clinging closely to the land and little by little it mixes +with the existing population, inter-breeds with it, fuses with it, and +gives a great surging impulse to agriculture, industry and commerce. The +social transformation of the river provinces is due to this junction of +the two currents as a result of which the <i>gaucho</i> of the metropolis of +Santa Fé or of Entre Rios, who, formerly famous for his bold and lawless +tendencies, has to-day been so fused with the different foreign elements +that all but the memory of this ancient type has disappeared, and the +country is covered over with populous settlements, laborious, prosperous +and progressive. The great fertility of the soil has returned with +interest the foreign capital which first watered it, and has enriched +marvelously all who have engaged in its cultivation. The development of +the national resources, in turn, has given birth to such conservative +interests that it is incomprehensible to the new generation that the +former generation could, at the signal of a semi-barbarous chief jump on +their horses and, rushing over the fields, kill, pillage and destroy. It +is true that the transition has been effected at the cost of producing a +certain political indifference in the new generations, which no doubt, +will be overcome in time.</p> + +<p>The social evolution of the Argentine Republic has finally found its +true channel and to-day is in full course of development. In proportion +as the foreign immigration continues bringing therewith its happy +complement of foreign capital, the country will continue to develop +industrially. The astonishing increase in industries, with a total +production out of all proportion to the growing population, is only +explained by the use on a large scale of the most advanced machinery. +But such a metamorphosis spreads from the river districts toward the +interior of the country. It does not jump from one point to another +without connecting links between them, but always preserves a channel +through which a relation is maintained between the different zones +already transformed or in process of transformation. The first effect of +each infusion of foreign blood into creole veins is to appease the hot +political passions of other times, abolish the old institution of the +local chieftainship, even blot him from memory and replace it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> by an +absorption in our growing material interests. These material interests +appear to have conspired to bring about that indifference towards the +state, as such, which makes men look mistakenly at a political career as +a profession which thrives off the real working classes. For, our +government both municipal, provincial and national appears to be the +heritage of a well-defined minority—the politicians—who devote +themselves to politics just as other social classes devote themselves to +agriculture, stock raising, industry, commerce, etc.</p> + +<p>Public life with its complex machinery of elections and governing bodies +has been, so to say, delivered into the hands of a small group of men +who at present are not productive of anything new in the general social +situation of former times; that is to say, these men form a definite +class, moved by the influence of this or that personality. Though it has +suppressed the bloody characteristics of the previous period it has not +relapsed into their heresies.</p> + +<p>Little by little this shadow of the old system changes into that of the +"boss" of the settlement and ward. The boss makes his business that of +the mass of the voters, he stirs them up from their indifference, makes +them go to the polls, deliberately falsifies public opinion, and so wins +for himself a political managership, which gives him a marked influence +in the back offices of officials and in the lobbies of legislatures. +From such methods there spring no little censurable legislation of +privilege and a great loss of contentment on the part of the people. +When public spirit strengthens and shakes from itself the dust of +inertia, and when the laboring classes have passed beyond that first +stage of money grabbing, all the inhabitants of the nation will commence +to busy themselves about the common weal. The thorn of the "boss" will +prick them and they will then be able to form into political parties +with unselfish programs and platforms. Every voter will cast his ballot +to send to the legislature candidates who uphold the principles of his +particular platform. As yet the people have not even reached the gateway +to this goal. The past is still seen in full process of evolution and it +is not easy to foresee the end.</p> + +<p>This does not mean that the present moment of transition is valueless. +On the contrary, it is of very great importance, because the social +situation in the Argentine Republic is in process of making.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> The +politicians, now that they look upon themselves as called to stand forth +above the heads of the rest of the people, have to be real statesmen. In +this historic period, such statesmen, have the personality of the +chauffeur who directs one of those swift engines of our century upon its +dizzy course, the mechanism of which is so sensitive to the controlling +pressure of the hand that it can deftly avoid all accident or cause a +catastrophe of fatal consequences. There is required in such a man +extraordinary coolness, clearness of vision as to responsibility, +perfect knowledge of the course to be run, besides ceaseless vigilance, +iron nerve when the time of trial arrives and a complete concentration +upon the task. The legitimate tasks of government, in this very grave +period of Argentine evolution, require a special training on the part of +public leaders. They must study thoroughly the problems of our social +evolution, and they must form a clear idea of the necessary solutions. +Towards this they must steer with undiverted eye. The necessity of +further exploitation of our national resources, the successive expansion +of enterprise over zone after zone of our territory, the assimilation of +the foreign immigrants by the creole population, the slow formation of a +national spirit in the new generation, all these monopolize for the +present the national energies and prevent them from turning to other +problems. The country is converted, as it were, into a giant boa +constrictor. It is entirely given over to the task of converting its +food into nourishment, of abstracting the juices from the hard and +resisting substances, of passing a multitude of different elements +through its living organs so that they may later form a new tissue, +adapted to the present and future needs of the country.</p> + +<p>From this point of view the present moment in the evolution of Argentine +is of immense sociological interest. We are permitted to be present at +the visible transmutation of a society, too weak even to direct itself, +and absorbed in the fusion of different influences. The direction of +this process has been handed over without counter-check to public men +who are obliged to dictate and put into practice legislation and +administrative rules of every kind, as though they enjoyed absolute +power. Furthermore, by the very nature of things, the administrative +functions in such periods have to discount the future and effect in the +present a series of public works or social regulations which will weigh +upon future generations not only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> from the point of view of the general +finances but even from the point of view of national character. The +national transformation of the land with ports, canals, railroads, +telegraphs and every sort of means of communication, indeed, with every +kind of public work, cannot be accomplished with present resources. A +call must be made upon those of the future, by means of loans which will +be a burden upon coming generations. If such a governmental policy is +not accompanied by a skillful and prudent financial management, the +burdens of our descendants will be considerably increased. They may even +be committed to a policy that will cause eventual bankruptcy and an +inevitable retrogression in the national development. The intellectual +metamorphosis of the nation by a proper system of primary, secondary and +higher education and by special schools of technical training, in order +to form the national spirit of the future type of Argentine citizen, is +certainly our most difficult governmental problem, because it is a +question of molding the very soul of the nation. To teach different and +contradictory systems, to do and then undo, each day changing the +courses of study to successively adopt antagonistic standards and show a +real lack of fixity in pedagogic methods, is to commit the greatest of +all crimes, because it is not a crime against the exchequer of posterity +but against its very soul. To accomplish a fusion of the currents of +foreign immigration, to sort out the best from them, and to direct the +formation of the new type which is being evolved, melting it in the +crucible of the school, of the army, and of public life, is perhaps, +to-day our task of transcendent difficulty. Such a problem is greater +than that of directing the stream of foreign capital which, while +fructifying the national soil, clings to it like the countless tentacles +of a gigantic octopus and absorbs a great part—sometimes too great a +part—of the riches produced only to transmit them through the arteries +of the Republic, to foreign nations who employ it to their exclusive +profit.</p> + +<p>Perhaps no moment in the history of our nation requires a greater +combination of qualifications in its public men. The student may +contemplate this most interesting transformation, displayed before his +eyes like the moving film of a gigantic cinematograph which permits him +to grasp at once the different phases of the social problem which it +presents. Rarely in the history of humanity has it been possible to +contemplate a like spectacle. The United States<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> presented it a half +century ago, to the astonished gaze of men of that day who were but +little familiar with social problems. The Argentine Republic is +repeating now the same phenomenon, with this difference that it can +observe itself and be guided by the experience acquired elsewhere. Other +countries of the world, in the future will, no doubt, in their turn +repeat a similar evolution, though perhaps in a different environment. +But the interesting part of the present moment is that the Argentine +Republic is sailing upon the same course in the twentieth century that +the United States did in the nineteenth. Our evolution is proceeding +with greater care because it is being worked out amid better conditions. +We can now take advantage of the costly experience gained by our +brothers of the north and so by avoiding many of their errors, seek to +escape the shoals upon which they stranded and the mistakes which they +involuntarily committed, even though we have in our turn special +problems which they did not have. Thus the tremendous politico-social +crisis of the North American War of Secession will not be repeated in +the southern hemisphere and the Argentine social evolution will not have +to solve the profound anthropological problem of the rivalry of races, +which, in the United States, arises from the white, black and yellow +races, living together side by side.</p> + +<p>In Argentine there are no ethnic problems. The social antagonism raised +by an arrogant plutocracy on the one hand and poverty stricken +proletariat on the other, is not presented as an Argentine problem, +because riches are still in process of formation there, and easily pass +from one hand to another. A monopoly of riches cannot be prolonged +beyond a single generation because with the system of compulsory +division of descendants' estates, it soon returns to the common mass of +the population. Social conditions in our evolution, present distinct +problems from those which characterize other nations and demand, +therefore, a direct study on the ground and must not be viewed through +the doctrines developed in other nations and amid other conditions. The +molding of the national spirit by uniform and compulsory schools and the +slow adaptation of the mass of the immigrants to historical traditions +and to future national aims, demand much time and they are now in the +full process of being worked out. The celebration of the Centenary of +our independence has made prominent the fact that such an evolution is +much more advanced than one would think. There still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> remains, +nevertheless, not a little to be done in this direction, though the +national compulsory school system and the army conscription are factors +of great importance which are working for fusion. But, in the country +districts and in those places where the error has been committed of +permitting the formation of settlements, homogeneous in race and +religion, which regard themselves as autonomous offshoots of their +mother country, resisting the Argentine school or any intermingling with +the mass of neighboring population—in such districts, the fusion, +though inevitable, will be necessarily slower.</p> + +<p>All these sociological problems might and should have been exhaustively +studied in the history of the United States during the nineteenth +century, a history which, as I have said, the Argentine Republic is +repeating in the twentieth. Foreign immigration at this time has no +outlet more profitable than the River Plate. The doors of North America +are gradually being closed, and the other regions do not yet present the +same advantages as those offered by our country. The same thing that +happens with the excess of population of other nations also occurs with +its surplus capital; no other quarter of the globe offers better +prospects for the investment of capital and for a greater rate of +return. The "manifest destiny" of Argentine depends for the present +entirely upon the development of its commercial relations with the rest +of the world. It must convert itself into the granary and the meat +market of Europe.</p> + +<p>The closest bonds of mutual interest unite Argentina with Europe, +because being producers of unlike commodities, the European markets +consume our exportation and our markets consume theirs. With the rest of +America our interchange of trade must be upon a smaller scale, because +for more than a century to come we shall be countries producing similar +commodities. Therefore, our respective markets will not reciprocally +serve to buy the excess of production, but only that which by reason of +climate or industrial development is to be found or manufactured in any +other country than our own. This has happened to us notably in the case +of the United States with its tremendous industrial expansion. In order +to fulfill this "manifest destiny," we need <i>pax multa</i> with the whole +world. We need to give attention exclusively to our development without +intermeddling in that of others. In this is summed up everything. Hence +our <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>international policy has to be pacific and neutral; we must be +every man's friend, and shun imperialistic fancies. The "splendid +isolation" of England fits her condition and her inclination. We must +work and we must be allowed to work. Our social evolution still requires +a century to acquire a definite contour. Though results may be foreseen +from their beginnings, it is not possible to foretell what will be the +future Argentine type, physically, mentally or materially.</p> + +<p>For the present, the only proper thing for us to do is to devote +ourselves exclusively to the exploitation of our resources for we have +seen how much effort will be required to assimulate our population, to +form a national spirit, to build up a great future nation, to develop an +administration which shall be a model of honesty and scientific +preparation, and to adapt the republic to its future needs by public +works and institutions, and by showing ourselves firm in faith and +effective in works.</p> + +<p>The present social tendencies in Argentine evolution give promise of a +great future for the country. The nation is not hesitating or +vacillating before the realization of its manifest destiny. It follows +with profound interest the new and colossal social experiment, which is +unfolding to the view of the world the different phases of the formation +of a nation in whose development the shoals are being avoided where +others were wrecked, and which is putting into practice the improvements +suggested by the experience of the other nations in order to realize the +new evolution easily, prudently, and successfully.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> The Academy wishes to express its appreciation to Layton D. +Register, Esq., of the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, +and to Mr. Enrique Gil, of the National University of La Plata, of the +Argentine Republic, for the translation of this article.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Old Spanish legislation for the Spanish-American colonies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>Encomienda</i> is the Spanish name for the concession, +granted by the crown during the Spanish Colonial period, of a certain +number of native Indians, to a Spanish conqueror for purposes of +service. The <i>Encomendero</i> was the recipient of such a concession from +the crown.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> <i>Mita.</i> Spanish term for the distribution by lot of the +native Indians for purposes of public work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Yanaconazgo.</i> Spanish term for that peculiar kind of land +tenantship by which the tenant has no title to the land, but receives a +proportion of the product of his labors upon the land.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The cowboy of the Argentine Pampas.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Social Evolution of the Argentine +Republic, by Ernesto Quesada + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE *** + +***** This file should be named 38086-h.htm or 38086-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/8/38086/ + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Martin Pettit and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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