A general wastefulness characterizes all classes, both urban and rural. In many cases this is probably due to ignorance. The very bountifulness of nature has no doubt accentuated a natural disinclination to attend to detail and small economies. If conservation would be studied much more profit could be realized by all. On the _estancias_ this wastefulness is noted in the methods of taking care of the crops and vast herds of stock. In the city one will see it in the administration of municipal governments in the various departments. In private life one will discern it everywhere, and even the common labourer shows the same traits of improvidence and lack of thriftiness so characteristic of the German or French peasant, for example. The railroads are wasteful oftentimes and are unprepared to handle the immense crops produced by a bountiful nature, so that thousands of tons of grain have been lost through sheer inability to get them to market, and the _estanciero_ was unable to take care of his grain because he had no elevators or granaries to hold his crop. Thousands of cattle have been lost in a dry season because the owner trusted wholly to nature and had no food to keep them from starvation when the pasture failed. But then Argentina is not alone in these traits, and it is perhaps easier to find fault or give advice than to do the things ourselves if we were placed in the same position. Like all Latin people, the Argentinian loves politics. The opera bouffe style of government, which can still be found in Central America, has disappeared, so that the melodramatic element no longer exists. With each year the people grow less inclined to indulge in revolution simply as a pastime. The risks of the revolutionists too are greater in a nation of nearly seven million people than formerly, when there were not one-fourth that number, and a country in which prosperity and education have made great strides. Furthermore, there is the feeling on the part of the Argentinians that their country is on its way to take its place as one of the great nations of the earth, and this idea has undoubtedly sobered them somewhat. There are, no doubt, many, even to-day, who enter politics with no other purpose than to enrich themselves. Their methods, however, are far more subtle than the revolutionists of old, and they hedge themselves about with an air of apparent honesty and patriotism that is difficult to penetrate. They have had good examples of genuine patriots in the not distant past, which has no doubt aided in clarifying the political atmosphere. It is in the question of government contracts where the test of honour comes. If the tales that are told are to be believed, then rich pickings often fall to officials. In some cases this has been done openly and yet caused little comment, because such a result seemed to be but natural and expected as a matter of course.