It has been heretofore, and perhaps always will be, the case that Europe will devote greater attention to the River Plate countries than North America. There are two good reasons for this: first, the temperate regions of South America provide an outlet for the surplus population of the Latin nations of Europe; and, secondly, these countries are depended upon to furnish a large part of the food supplies for the thickly populated nations of that continent. The Anglo-Saxon has a choice of the many colonies of his own land, such as Canada and Australia, and he, together with the German, finds the United States a congenial country in which to live. The Frenchman, Spaniard and Italian finds conditions in Argentina, Southern Brazil and Uruguay more in accordance with his traditional customs. For the Spaniard the language is the same, and the Italian soon masters the difference in idiom. So this nation forms and should form the natural haven for these people, when the struggle for existence drives them from the land of their birth. As the government improves it will become still more attractive for them, and it is to be hoped that the stream of Italian immigrants who now seek our shores will head for the River Plate. This will redound in every way to the interest of the whole world. If the production of cereals and meat in that quarter of the world is sufficiently augmented, it will mean a substantial reduction in the price of these essential foodstuffs—it will mean cheaper bread and a lowering of the present almost prohibitive prices of meats. Another reason is that the La Plata ports are more accessible to Europe than the United States, while on the north and west coast of South America the conditions are reversed and the North American influence is much more pronounced.