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 Social Evolution of the Argentine 
 Republic 
 
 By 
 Ernesto Que s a da 

 
 \
 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE 
 
 REPUBLIC 
 
 BY 
 
 HON. ERNESTO QUESADA 
 
 Attorney-General of the Argentine Republic; Professor in the Universities of 
 
 Buenos Ayres and La Plata 
 
 Publication No. 636 
 
 American Academy op Political and ^Social Science 
 
 Reprinted from The Annals, May, 191 1 
 
 Price 25 cents
 
 This Reprint is made from the May, 1911, volume of THE 
 ANNALS, the complete contents of which are 
 
 INDIVIDUAL EFFORT IN TRADE EXPANSION. 
 
 Hon. Elihu Root, United States Senator from New York. 
 THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE 
 AMERICAN STATES. 
 
 Hon. Henry White, Chairman of the American Delegation to 
 the Fourth International Conference of the American 
 States. 
 THE FOURTH PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCE. 
 
 Paul S. Reinsch, Delegate to the Fourth Pan-American Con- 
 ference; Professor of Political Science, University of Wis- 
 consin. 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE AT THE FOURTH PAN-AMERICAN 
 CONFERENCE. 
 
 Hon. Alejandro Alvarez, Of the Chilean Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs, Santiago, Chile. 
 
 BANKING IN MEXICO. 
 
 Hon. Enrique Martinez-Sobral, Chief of the Bureau of Credit 
 and Commerce of the Mexican Ministry of Finance. 
 THE WAY TO ATTAIN AND MAINTAIN MONETARY REFORM 
 IN LATIN-AMERICA. 
 Charles A. Conant, Former Commissioner on the Coinage of 
 the Philippine Islands, New York. 
 CURRENT MISCONCEPTIONS OF TRADE WITH LATIN- 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Hugh MacNair Kahler, Editor of "How to Export"; Vice- 
 President, Latin-American Chamber of Commerce; Pub- 
 lisher of the Spanish periodicals, "America" and "Inge- 
 nieria." 
 INVESTMENT OF AMERICAN CAPITAL IN LATIN-AMERICAN 
 COUNTRIES. 
 Wilfred H. Schoff, Secretary, Commercial Museum, Philadel- 
 phia. 
 COMMERCE WITH SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN PERU. 
 
 Albert A. Giesecke, Ph.D., Rector of the University of Cuzco, 
 Cuzco, Peru. 
 THE MONETARY SYSTEM OF CHILE. 
 
 Dr. Guillermo Subercaseaux, Professor of Political Economy, 
 University of Chile. 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Hon. Ernesto Quesada, Attorney-General of the Argentine Re- 
 public; Professor in the Universities of Buenos Ayres and 
 La Plata. 
 COMMERCIAL RELATIONS OF CHILE. 
 
 Hon. Henry L. Janes, Division of Latin-American Affairs, De- 
 partment of State, Washington. 
 CLOSER COMMERCIAL RELATIONS WITH LATIN-AMERICA. 
 
 Bernard N. Baker, Baltimore, Md. 
 IMMIGRATION— A CENTRAL AMERICAN PROBLEM. 
 
 Ernst B. Filsinger, Consul of Costa Rica and Ecuador, St 
 Louis, Mo. 
 
 Price $1.50 bound in cloth; $1.00 bound in paper. Postage free. 

 
 
 O 
 
 a. ^ 
 
 THE SOCIAL EVOLUTION OF THE ARGENTINE 
 
 REPUBLIC 1 
 
 By The Hon. Ernesto Quesada, 
 Attorney-General of the Argentine Republic; Professor in the Universities 
 
 of Buenos Ayres and La Plata. 
 
 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. 
 
 A century after the commencement of the conquest of the Amer- 
 ican 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 otber 
 direction it stretched from the chain of the Andes, which runs like 
 
 •lid wall the length <>f one of its flanks, to the Atlantic ' >cean, 
 
 'The Arfldftny wlahes to rxpros* its appreciation t" Layton D. Register, Bteq., 
 r.f the I. «w Department <<r the University <>r Pennsylvania, and t.> Mr. Bnrlque 
 on. of tii.- National University of La Plata, <<t ti i<- Argentine Republic, for the 
 translation "f thin article. 
 
 (7°7) 
 r: <y?r f 
 
 r
 
 130 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 which bathes its extensive coasts. This enormous territory thus 
 embraced every sort of climate, and was inhabited by a hetero- 
 geneous 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. 
 
 The "Leyes de Indias," 2 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 regime of the encomiendas 3 the mitas* and the ya'na- 
 conazgos. 5 The Spanish colonies were founded and developed in 
 the midst of a mass of people, who, because of their enormous supe- 
 riority 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 differ- 
 ent traits, according to the region of Spain from which they came, 
 and naturally they sought to group and to settle themselves in obe- 
 dience 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 inde- 
 pendence, their concentrated energy and their buoyant temperament. 
 From this it resulted that in whatever corner of America a particu- 
 lar Spanish strain of blood was found, there were reflected the 
 traits of the corresponding district of Spain. 
 
 As the native races varied according to the region, from those 
 
 *01d Spanish legislation for the Spanish-American colonies. 
 
 *Encomienda 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 Encomendero was the recipient 
 of such a concession from the crown. 
 
 'Mita. Spanish term for the distribution by lot of the native Indians for pur- 
 poses of public work. 
 
 "Yanaconazc/o. 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. 
 
 (708)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 131 
 
 of a peaceful and civilized character to those of an untamable and 
 warlike nature, and even to ferocious savages, the Spanish settle- 
 ments 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. 
 
 In those regions lying between the two great rivers the popula- 
 tion 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 uncon- 
 querable 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 knowl- 
 edge, 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 smug- 
 gling trade carried on with the Portugese neighbors — the source of 
 the centuries-old controversy of Sacramento colony. These settle- 
 ments 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 (he "products of their country." with the 
 toleration and secret complicity of the government officials and with 
 
 ("09)
 
 132 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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. 
 
 x The interbreeding of these different classes of population re- 
 sulted 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 encomenderos. 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 gaucho. 6 Found 
 amidst a scattered population and inheriting the far from sedentary 
 habits of the Spanish mother race, the gaucho 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 ganchos of the pampas. In the south the aboriginal races re- 
 mained pure, except for the insignificant mixing which came from 
 the Spanish captive women, victims of the attacks of the Tehuelches 
 of the north, from Santiago del Estero to the Bolivian frontier, 
 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 tristcs 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 dis- 
 tricts about the cities tenderly preserve the quichua, or native lan- 
 guage of their ancestors, by intermixing it with the Spanish. The 
 same close affinity with the native element is found in the river 
 
 e The cowboy of th? Argentine Pampas. 
 
 (7IO)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 133 
 
 provinces, and especially in Corrientes, where in the rural and 
 semi-rural districts the dregs of the missionary population have pre- 
 served as their most precious possession the guarani dialect. But, 
 where the native population was more scattered and nomadic, the 
 creole population became transformed and converted into the gaucho 
 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 (gaucho) has upon the imagination.*' 
 
 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 inhab- 
 itants of Spain were free to go and come, so that this triple char- 
 acteristic — that they were Spanish, monarchical and orthodox Cath- 
 olic — 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 gov- 
 ernors 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. Put 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 
 
 (7")
 
 134 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 be carried away by that spirit of self-seeking which led them to 
 look upon America as a mine to be exploited. 
 
 Doubtless there were zealous officials both civil and religious 
 who performed the best type of service. The Spaniards were estab- 
 lished amidst a native population, who devoted themselves to com- 
 merce 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 tempo- 
 rary 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 uncon- 
 sciously trying to enlarge their hold upon affairs of all kinds. They 
 felt themselves, as it were, rooted to the soil, and far from proceed- 
 ing 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 estab- 
 lishment of the cabildos or Spanish town council, were diligently 
 at work on their own municipal problems. They thus became accus- 
 tomed 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. 
 
 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-occu- 
 pied 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 ultima 
 Thule of civilization. In the northern provinces, which had reached 
 the final stage of perfection under the old Inca conquest, the native 
 
 (712)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 135 
 
 population preserved and protected its pre-Columbian traditions by 
 the use of their dialect, the quichua tongue. The regime of the 
 encomienda, the mitas and the yanaconazgo had produced only a for- 
 mal 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. 
 
 Amongst the missionary converts, the Jesuits had erected cities 
 that nourished 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 patriarchally by the priests and without any 
 vitality of its own. Hence, the expulsion of the priests by the 
 coup d' ctat 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 dis- 
 tributed over the colonies, did not coalesce with the rest of the inhab- 
 itants, 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. 
 
 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 pos- 
 sessed themselves of the horse and overran the boundless pampas. 
 The Creoles of the country districts and the gauchos in their turn 
 vied for the possession of the horse. No longer abie to remold their 
 life to that of the savage tribes, they checked their bold and fero- 
 cious 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 ^aucho 
 
 (713)
 
 136 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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 adapta- 
 bility to his new life and created the most curious types, from the 
 zumbon compadrito with his peculiar cloak and chiripa, 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 gauchos came in contact with not a few of the city popu- 
 lation, 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. 
 
 In the River Plate region, leaving aside the factor of geo- 
 graphic interest, to which I have just made allusion, the racial 
 history was limited to the Spanish population and its creole inter- 
 breeding 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 mini- 
 mum, and even these, upon the breaking out of the war of indepen- 
 dence, 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 character- 
 istic of this country. 
 
 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, 
 
 (714)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 137 
 
 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, un- 
 known among the rest of the population, the best classes of which 
 in those days of unrest, were a turbulent and irrepressible element. 
 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 mer- 
 chants, 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 con- 
 centrated 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 Codoba. 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 disso- 
 lution which took place in 1820, was such that a multitude of affairs 
 
 (715)
 
 138 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 demanded attention, and as yet it was hardly possible, outside of 
 the large cities, to turn to such questions of reform. 
 
 The winning of independence was the cause of the sad dismem- 
 berment 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. 
 
 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 coun- 
 try. In order to establish something approaching unity within each 
 section, the people organized themselves ofter the pattern of the 
 urban centers of Spain with their Cabildo 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. 
 
 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 
 
 (716)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 139 
 
 the interests and pretensions of the crown as formulated by the 
 "Council of the Indies," they preferred the authority of the vice- 
 roy and of the intendants, but their main preference was the munici- 
 pality 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 them- 
 selves 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. 
 
 Federal sentiment made its appearance profoundly rooted in tra- 
 dition and blood, and the tendency towards centralization only eman- 
 ated 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 regime. 
 Argentine society issued from the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies 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. 
 
 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 balls 
 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 withoul a university and 
 without an aristocracy. At the periodic auctions of titles of nobility, 
 
 (7'7)
 
 140 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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 peo- 
 ple held them in no esteem. 
 
 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 govern- 
 ment, 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 con- 
 ditions of intense individualism developed of necessity in a cattle 
 raising community. 
 
 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 regime of 
 the encomenderos. 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 com- 
 merce, which in the main was carried on illegally by doggedly per- 
 severing 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. 
 
 From Buenos Ayres started the movement for independence, 
 and the Cabildos of the interior cities fell in with the move- 
 ment with more or less alacrity. Hence the further inland these 
 
 (7i8)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 141 
 
 cities were, the less enthusiastic. The Paraguayan region iso- 
 lated 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 cement- 
 ing, in spite of the righteousness of its cause, the independence pro- 
 claimed 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 inde- 
 pendence 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. 
 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 govern- 
 ment 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 
 
 (719)
 
 142 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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 exer- 
 cised the least influence, but audacity, the impulse of the local leader, 
 the mob instincts of the city population and of the rural gaucho. 
 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. 
 
 The local leadership, like the legendary tyranny of ancient Rome, 
 demolished everything which tried to rise above the obedient, pas- 
 sive, 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. 
 
 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 govern- 
 ment would be the agent. 
 
 Rosas met this situation and put an end to it. After the dis- 
 memberment 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 pro- 
 posed 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 man- 
 agement of foreign relations. He left the interior provinces to 
 
 (720)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 143 
 
 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 central- 
 ist party was ambitious, arrogant and factious, plotting within it- 
 self, and when it was not exciting to rebellion, or leading an invasion 
 it was provoking foreign intervention. Finally the terrible and mer- 
 ciless 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 dif- 
 ferent parts the cohesion of a nation capable of victoriously resist- 
 ing 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 politi- 
 cal but also from a sociological point of view. The chasm that sepa- 
 rated 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. 
 
 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 govern- 
 ment. Despite the local character of the revolution of Buenos Ayres, 
 on the eleventh of Sept ember the country at large adopted the funda- 
 mental constitution of [853, at the Congress of Santa Fe. The gov- 
 ernment of the recalcitrant province of Parana realized but slowly 
 the new organization, with which it finally incorporated itself, while 
 the nation continued developing in the path established by its con- 
 stitution. Without losing sight, therefore, of the bitter lessons of this 
 
 (721)
 
 144 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 phase of our evolution, it is but fair to show an appreciation of its 
 benefits. 
 
 The characteristic of this intermediate epoch is the very slight 
 introduction of the foreign element. To-day this element is scat- 
 tered 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 Ger- 
 man 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 pro- 
 duced 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 gauchos 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. 
 
 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 inade- 
 quate 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. 
 
 When the passions of his contemporaries had been assuaged, he 
 became the "grand old man" of the nation, growing in stature as 
 
 (722)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 145 
 
 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 From 1880 till the present, the work of multiplying the tele- 
 graphs 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 rail- 
 road 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 ganchos, 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 tl>c river districts have been the 
 combined work of these three progressive elements. Immigration 
 has helped immensely toward this same end, but the settlement of 
 
 (723)
 
 146 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 new lands does not advance by leaps and bounds, but spreads 
 gradually. 
 
 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 gaucho 
 of the metropolis of Santa Fe 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 
 recources, in turn, has given birth to such conservative interests that 
 it is incomprehensible to the new generation that the former genera- 
 tion 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. 
 
 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 there- 
 with 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 trans- 
 formed 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 
 
 (724)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 147 
 
 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. 
 
 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 char- 
 acteristics of the previous period it has not relapsed into their 
 heresies. 
 
 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 tben 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. 
 
 This docs 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. 
 
 (725)
 
 148 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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 con- 
 sequences. 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. 
 
 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 
 
 (726)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 149 
 
 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 manage- 
 ment, 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 develop- 
 ment. 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 count- 
 less tentacles of a gigantic octopus and absorbs a great part — some- 
 times 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. 
 
 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. Rarelv in the history of humanity has it 
 been possible to contemplate a like spectacle. The United States 
 
 (7V)
 
 150 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 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 pf 
 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. 
 In Argentine there are no ethnic problems. The social 
 antagonism raised by an arrogant plutocracy on the one hand 
 and povery 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 divison of descendants' estates, it soon 
 returns to the common mass of the population. Social conditions in 
 our evolution, present distinct problems from those which char- 
 acterize 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 Cen- 
 tenary of our independence has made prominent the fact that such an 
 evolution is much more advanced than one would think. There still 
 
 (728)
 
 The Social Evolution of the Argentine Republic 151 
 
 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 off- 
 shoots 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 con- 
 sume 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. There- 
 fore, 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 
 pax nutlta with the whole world. We need to give attention 
 exclusively to our development withoul intermeddling in that of 
 others. In this is summed up everything. Hence our intor- 
 
 (729)
 
 152 The Annals of the American Academy 
 
 national 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. 
 
 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 ot 
 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. 
 
 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 sug- 
 gested by the experience of the other nations in order to realize 
 the new evolution easily, prudently, and successfully. 
 
 (73o)
 
 SPECIAL VOLUMES 
 
 The United States as a World Power 
 The United States and Latin America 
 The Government in its Relation to Industry 
 American Colonial Policy and Administration 
 Foreign Policy of the United States— Political 
 
 and Commercial 
 Federal Regulation of Corporations 
 Federal Regulation of Industry 
 Administration of Justice in the United States 
 Corporations and Public Welfare 
 Tariff Problems — American and British 
 Tariffs, Reciprocity and Foreign Trade 
 Tariff Revision 
 
 Railway and Traffic Problems 
 Electric Railway Transportation 
 Child Labor, Vols. I, II, in, IV and V 
 Race Improvement in the United States 
 The Public Health Movement 
 Social Legislation and Activity 
 Problems in Charities and Corrections 
 Philanthropy and Penology 
 Woman's Work and Organizations 
 Social Work of the Church 
 Political Problems 
 
 Municipal Ownership and Municipal Fran- 
 chises 
 
 Municipal Problems, Vols. I and H 
 Control of Municipal Public Service Corpor 
 
 tions 
 City Life and Progress 
 Insurance 
 
 Insurance and Commercial Organization 
 Business Management, Vols. I and II 
 Business Professions 
 American Business Conditions 
 Industrial Education 
 Bonds as Investment Securities 
 Stocks and the Stock Market 
 Lessons of the Financial Crisis 
 Banking Problems 
 Labor Problems, Vols. I and U 
 The Improvement of Labor Conditions is the 
 
 United States 
 Labor and Wages 
 The Settlement of Labor Disputes 
 American Waterways 
 Regulation of the Liquor Traffic 
 Conservation of Natural Resources 
 Chinese and Japanese in America 
 The New South 
 Public Recreation Facilities 
 
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