Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-27
Manufacturing Industries in the Ar
 genuine RenuhIfc.

genuine Republic.
 From 'The Argentine Capital by Theodore
 Child, in Harper's Magazine for March,
 In the newspapers, in advertisements and in official reports, there is much self congratulation on the subject of the pro- gress of manufacturing industry in the republic. The moment there is question of creating an ''industria nacional' the government is ever ready to impose pro tective customs tariffs on the article con- cerned, the only result being, in nine cases out of ten, to put heavier tax on the consumer, who is still obliged to have re- course to the foreign producer. In reality Argentine national manufacturing indus try is at present, with certain exceptions. small and often fictitious affair. Statis- tics, however, would make it out to be very important. Thus the official census of 1857 mentions more than six thousand industrial establishments in the city of Buenos Ayres, giving employment to more than forty thousand persons: but in order to make up this total the census includes seven hundred shoemakers, of whom some are mere street corner cobblers; four hun dred and siIty-six tailors, two hundred and forty-three bakers, six hundred and fifty-one carpenters, four hundred barbers, one hundred and fourteen eonfectioners, two hundred and seventy-nine modistes, and so forth. These are certaintly mann. featuring industries, but not precisely such as to entitle country to great indus trial renown. There are, however, certhiu national industries in course of develop ment which are worthy of note. Such are the oil manufactures of Buenos Ayres producing good table oil from the peanut, or mani, which grows in abundance in Santa Fe, Entre Rios, Corrientes and the Chaco, and also common oils, from other olesginous seeds. Cart, carriage and har- ness making are likewise truly national and hourishing industries, as well as brew ing, milling and distilling, canning and preserving meat, fruit and vegetables. and the manufacture of macaroni and alimen- tary pastes, cigars, wax matches and fur niture. There are some fifty macaroni manufactories in Buenos Ayres, and about one hundred and twenty cigar and cigar. cite factories, where only infsrler cigars are produced, but where cigarettes are made by millions with imported tobacco, chiefly Havana picajura. The homemade cigarette monopolizes the immense Argen- tine market; the marks are very numer- ous, each being popularized by artistic chromo-lithographi wrappers and catchy names, such as Excelsior, Tip-Tip, Chc- Clac, etc.; and the competition between those engaged in this profitable industry, combined with the Argentine love of showy novelties, necessitstes the continual creation of new designs. At the time of my visit counted nearly a hundred varie- ties of cigarettes in the shops of the capi- tai. The native wax matches, put up in dainty boxes after the French and Italian fashion, have monopolized the market since 1880, having driven out the Italian matches that held the monopoly from 1870, up to which latter date the French were the exclusive purveyors of this arti- cle. In no city in the world, in propor- ton to the population, are more wax matches used than in the Argentine me tropolis, where every man and every boy above ten years of age smokes cigarettes from morning until night. The cigarette is tolerated everywhere, in the tram-wsys and trains, indoors and out -of-doors, in the ministries and public offices, in the warehouses and offices; even the clerks in the banks smoke their cigarettes and puff smoke in your face as they hand you your count of paper dollars or orc sellado, and the orninary commercial employe may gen erally be found with a cigarette behind one ear and wooden toothpick behind the other, always ready to take advantage of & moments leisure.