Chapter I: Front Matter

ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY

ARGENTINA AND
URUGUAY

BY
GORDON ROSS

FORMERLY FINANCIAL EDITOR OF “THE STANDARD,” BUENOS AIRES
AND OFFICIAL TRANSLATOR TO THE CONGRESS OF AMERICAN
REPUBLICS, BUENOS AIRES, 1910

WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS, FOUR DIAGRAMS
AND A MAP

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

_First Published in 1917_

TO
SIR ROBERT JOHN KENNEDY, K.C.M.G.
THIS BOOK
IS DEDICATED IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE
OF THE MANY KINDNESSES SHOWN
AND VALUABLE AID GIVEN
BY HIM
TO THE AUTHOR
IN HIS
LITERARY WORK AT MONTEVIDEO
IN 1911

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

An allegory of the Pampa—Patriarchs and Oligarchies—National
and local politics and administration—Patrician government—The
landed aristocracy—Patriotism and foreign railways—The
problem of agricultural labour—Propaganda, in theory and in
practice—Needed and unneeded immigration—The peon of to-day
and the _gaucho_—Urgent need of rural population—Industries in
waiting—The INCALCULABLE future of the River Plate countries—Lack
of Uruguayan statistics 1

CHAPTER II

THE WAR

The shock falls on existing local depression—Vigorous and
prompt action of the River Plate governments and banks—No
“Mañana”—Mr. C. A. Tornquist’s views—Again the need of rural
population—Socialism from above and below—Buoyancy of national
securities 18

CHAPTER III

HISTORY AND POLITICS

The Declaration of Independence—Subsequent chaos—Rozas and
Artígas—Sarmiento—Mitre—Juarez Celman—The Argentine financial
crash of 1891—Uruguay; “Whites” and “Reds”—Uruguayan patriotism
and honesty—“State socialism gone mad”—The commencements of
modern River Plate history—Dr. Saenz Peña—Sound financial
policy—Future peace and prosperity—The ballot in Argentina and
former electoral corruption—The people a new factor in Argentine
politics 29

CHAPTER IV

RACIAL ELEMENTS AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS

The Argentine of the future (?) and of the past—Spanish
and Italian immigration—Young patriots—Argentine and
Uruguayan sources of immigration—River Plate Spanish and
philology—Argentines and Uruguayans contrasted—Manners and
characteristics—The true signification of “Mañana”—Some advice
to immigrants—Land and the foreigner—Much learning and little
application—Lower-class illiteracy—Argentine women, households,
and children—_Jeunesse dorée_—Further contrast of Argentines and
Uruguayans 40

CHAPTER V

NATIONAL, PROVINCIAL, AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT

The constitutions of Argentina and Uruguay, advantages and
defects of each—Dr. Figueroa Alcorta—“Revolución de arriba”—A
“Coup d’État”—Former Argentine electoral practices—Doctrinaire
government in Uruguay—An autocratic democrat—General strike
and general festivities—Certified milk-cans—Provincial
authorities—Freedom from corruption of National governments—The
“making” of internal politics—Finance—“A fat thief better than a
lean one”—Childish things, soon to be put away 62

CHAPTER VI

MONTEVIDEO AND BUENOS AIRES

History and modernity; music and verdure—Theatres
and Bathing—The ambition of Montevideo—Carnival—The
origins of two great fortunes—More historic buildings
and the “Palace of Gold”—The Buenos Aires “tube”; its
tramways—Comparative expense of living—Opera houses and
theatres—Night and day—Ever-changing Buenos Aires—The
Jockey Club—Palermo and the Avenida de Alvear—Fashion moves
northwards—Corso and race-course—Gambling—The agricultural
show—Hurlingham—The Tigre—The Recoleta—“The Bond Street of the
South”—Hotels—Buenos Aires _not_ a hot-bed of vice—Marriage and
mourning—“Conventillos”—Fashion in Buenos Aires and Montevideo 79