[Illustration: ARGENTINA & URUGUAY] ARGENTINA AND URUGUAY [Illustration: A PART OF THE IGUAZÚ FALLS] 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