Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-08-07

the Mississippi River, by far the CREATE
part of which is very fertile. Since
1868, the nation has been at peace witt
the world without and free from in
terneeine strife within. During tht
past ten years it has enjoyed an immi
grafton second only to that of the
United States among the nations of the
world. In climate and resources, in the
character of its people, in its freedom
from disturbance, are found abundant
reasons for prosperity and a strong and
healthy growth.
Yet in spite of such advantages the
Argentine Republic stands to-day with
dishonored credit, a practically bank
rupt treasury, woeful deprecated cur
rency, and state of industrial depression
that has driven the people of its metrop.
oils and of all the commercial provinces
into bitter and bloody revolution that
threatened for time to overthrow the
lawfully constituted government, and
can hardly fail to end in financial repu-
diation, untold suffering, and unmeas-
ured losses to all classes.
The steps that have led up to this
disastrous condition of affairs can be
easily traced, and it will be profitable
for the people of the United States, and
especially that part of them who are now
clamoring for some of the same meas
ures that have proved so ruinous there,
to study them with care From 1868,
when the present form of government
was firmly established and general tran
guilty secured, to 1882, the Argentine
Republic grew rapidly and its financial
affairs were apparently on firm footing.
The boom was not so great as it has
been in the eight years since, but the
progress seemed to be substantial and
the growth of an enduring character.
But in 1882 a reckless financial policy
was fully adopted. Borrowing in the
money centers of Europe was begun on
an unprecedented scale. Great public
works were begun and money was
poured out like water on harbor i'm
provements and great railroad systems.
Already there are over 5000 miles of
railroad in operation, much more than is
required by the commerce of the country
or can hope to earn return on the money
invested.
The interest charge on the money spent
on unproductive public works became
heavy, and the increasing national debt
grew more and more burdensome, but
there was in this no cause for serious
alarm. The improvements in every case
helped to open up the country and en-
courage immigration, and in at least a
majority of cases were not entirely
unwise. The worst that could be said
about the most of them were premature.
The real evil of the time was that a
ruinous financial policy had been inau-
gurated. Without that the public works
would doubtless have been burdensome,
but they alone could not have been dis
as r0us. The banks were allowed to
issue paper money in an almost unlim-
tied amount, and upon very uncertain
security, until there was outstanding
$19l, ,160,496 in 1886, or over $50 per
capita. This was so great an imitation
that in that year specie payments were
suspended, and since then the reign of
fiat money has been supreme. To-day
there is nearly $240,000,00O of paper
money floating in the country, $50 per
capita. When it is noted that the entire
circulating medium of the United States
is only about S23 per capita, one can get
some idea of what an immense bubble
has been blown in the Argentine
Republic.
But the imitation did not end with
this. Cedulas, or land bonds, were issued
by the government in. enormous quanti-
ties. These were simply promises to
pay, based on mortgages on public lands
and private estates, in much the same
manner as the Farmers Alliance wants
our government to loan money on farm
mortgages. An immense amount of
these were issued. With the first issue
land values in both Buenos Ayres and
the provinces took tremendous boom.
The higher the price of land went the
more money could be borrowed upon it,
and so the bubble grew larger and larger
until there is now outstanding the enOr-
nous sum of $415,000,000 of these
cedulaS-in other words, over 800
mortgage for every man, woman, and
child in the country. This is actually
more than one dollar per acre for every
square foot of land in the Republic. As
the population outside of the city of
Buenos Ayres is less than that of Ohio
in an area fifteen times as large, some
idea of how thinly the country is popu-
lated can be gained. The real value of
much of the land is shown by the recent
offer of the government to sell $4,000
acres in Europe at $1.25 an acre or but
a trifle more than it is mortgaged for.
Aside from the ruinous effects this
imitation has had upon the men working
on salaries and now upon the whole in
dustry of the country, it has greatly
enhanced the costs of all public i'm
provements and consequently increased
the national debt, which is now, includ-
ing the debts of the city of Buenos
Ayres and the various provinces, about
$575,OO0,00O, or over $40 per capita.
In other words the present indebtedness
of the ArgentineRepublic is about IS per
cent. larger in proportion to population
than was that of the United States July
l, 1866, when we had just concluded the
most expensive and gigantic civil war of
modern times.
The financial mismanagement has un-