The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of EnterpriseFraser, John Foster
History
The Amazing Argentine: A New Land of Enterprise
Fraser, John Foster
Argentina -- Description and travel
One reason is that Australia is so much farther off than Canada, and
there is a belief amongst the country people of Great Britain that the
prospects of success are not so immediate. Further, there is the
unfortunate but undoubted and growing idea amongst Englishmen that
Australians, as a whole, are not kindly disposed to new-comers, and that
the fresh arrival has a rough time of it before he shakes himself down
to the fresh life. I do not discuss these points. I mention their
existence as some reason why Australia is not able to play the part it
is entitled to play as a great wheat country.
Now the best wheat lands of Argentina lie within the semi-tropical or
temperate zone. I have already explained why it does not have the
attractions which British colonies can offer to the man with grit and
muscle who desires to secure independence. But it does draw to its
shores a big army of workers from Italy and Spain, without the ambition
of Britons and content to be the servants of other men. Labour is
comparatively cheap. The country is easy to reach. The drift is not to
the towns but to the agricultural districts. The range for wheat
growing is boundless. But the possibility of drought is not to be
overlooked.
The money invested in agriculture falls short of that invested in live
stock. But there are more persons directly interested in the growing of
cereals, and I am one of those who believe it counts more for the
genuine, happy prosperity of a nation that a large proportion of the
population should be attached to the soil than when greater wealth is
secured by a smaller number. In my opinion it would be better if there
were easier means for the comparatively small holder, the man with
anything from three hundred to a thousand acres, to settle. I was not
unconscious of a movement, such as there is in Australia, to break up
the big estates, but at the present it is nebulous, merely something in
the air; and though the Latins, when they act, will act swiftly, the
type of colonist and labourer who lands, though he votes Socialist when
he gets the chance, is not of the brand to take vigorous political
action to secure land. His conditions are improved in comparison within
his native country, and he is inclined for the present to be content.
There is, however, a rustling amongst the leaves. There is a feeling
amongst Argentine politicians that the peon and the colonist have little
chance of becoming owners of small farms unless they are assisted by
credit banks. Various proposals have been made; but the one now before
the Chamber of Deputies, fathered by the Minister of Agriculture,
provides for the establishment of agricultural banks and the erection
of warehouses to receive produce as a pledge against cash advances.
It is reckoned that between £8,000,000 and £9,000,000 is necessary to
set the scheme on its legs, and the idea is that the State should find
half the money and private capital provide the other half.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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