The Argentine in the Twentieth CenturyMartínez, Alberto B.
History
The Argentine in the Twentieth Century
Martínez, Alberto B.
Argentina -- Commerce; Argentina -- Economic conditions; Finance -- Argentina
To sum up: the Argentine nationality appears to a foreigner under
two distinct aspects; there is its political side, characterised by
instability and lack of organisation, and the economic side, in which
an intense national life and progress are manifested. Will this truly
abnormal situation, containing both very bad and very good elements,
perhaps, terminate favourably, making of the Argentine people not merely
a rich, but also a great nation? Will the development of public affairs,
left so far to the hazard of politics, even reach the plain of our
economic development? Will the Argentine nation eliminate, under the
pressure of material progress, the leaven of anarchy left behind by
a century of civil dissension? This is the secret of the future; this
is the great achievement which remains to be accomplished in order to
consolidate the present prosperity of the country.
In short, we must not lose sight of the fact that this prosperity has
hitherto been less the work of man than of nature, which has been
prodigal of her gifts to this fortunate land. This is a thought which
has been expressed in a speech in the Argentine Senate, in which Senator
Uriburu shows that Providence is always coming to the rescue by repairing
the fault of the State.
“It is Providence,” he says, “which so opportunely sends us the rains
to water our lands and to raise our marvellous crops; it is Providence
that has given us the greatest Minister of Finance we have ever known,
our fertile soil and our clear sky; the supreme Minister who looks after
all our needs, who saves us from all difficulties, and who, despite
our errors, continues to ensure the greatness of the Republic. Let
man appropriate his work, but let him render unto Cæsar that which is
Cæsar’s.”
And now if by some impossibility the situation were to change: if in
spite of the enormous extension of cultivated lands a period of bad
harvests were to follow the present period of fat cattle: would there not
be reason to fear that the whole national edifice, founded as it is on
prosperity, might become disintegrated, and crumble under the stroke of
adversity? This is the peril we must indeed seek to avoid; it is for this
reason that the intervention of a strong power seems necessary, in order
to restrain the germs of evil brought by so many races, and to prevent
the Argentine from falling back into the state of anarchy and revolution
which for her is only a distant memory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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