Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-13


UrquixA IA an effort to overthrow the dc
tatorship Of President R0xas. which was
one Of the worst the world has ever seen.
The movement was successful A con-
federacy was formed and an assembly WAS
called. which framed national constifu-
ton. What is now the state OF Buenos
Ayres did not enter the union, however,
for Gen Mitre. it, mott influential leader:
realized that its future prosperity and
progress demanded closer union of the
states under national sovereignty. He went
to war to enforce this opinion. and In
September, 1861 he won the battle OF
Payon. which indicated the principles he
had proclaimed.
This event Il not q mere incident in
Argentine history. but marked the be-
We are only forty-tiye years old. ana We
owe our national existence to Bartolome
Mitre, whom we place beside Washington,
not only because he was first in war and
first in peace. but because he was the
father Of our country, the first president of
nation he had created. He devoted his
great ability and zeal to the concentration
of national energies and the development
OF patriotism. He made the Argentine
During his administration az president
Domingo +. Sarmiento was sent to the
United States as minister plenipotentiary.
He had visited this country some twenty
years before and had become the friend
and confidante of Longfellow, Emerson.
Whittier, Sumner and other Of yeur great
men, and was especially fortunate In his
friendship with Horace Mann, who, was
then in the prime of his career as an edu-
cational reformer. With the cooperation
of Mr.. Mann. DR.. Sarmiento sent an army
of Yankee school teachers to the Argentine
Republic to establish an American system
of education, which prevails to this day,
and has been one the most forceful agencies
in the development Of our national charac-
ter and policy.
Leader of His People,
when he retired from the presidency.
General Mitre founded La Nacion, a news
paper of the highest type, in order to direct
his feilow-countrymen into the right paths
Of national progress We consider 1t to-
day the leading paper In Latin-America.
General Mitre then undertook an equally
patriotic duty by engaging in literature.
He placed himself in new light before
his people as historian and a poet. He
was what Mommsen has been to Germany
and Bancroft to the United States He
has left thirty-eight works of history and
five volumes of a purely literary character,
including the best Spanish translation of
Dante and Horace.
During the latter part Of his life he was
the nestor OF his people, who sought his
advice and counsel in all emergencies. He
was far removed from political jehlousies;
his personal ambition was satisfied; he was
so disinterested that he could be absolutely
impartial His judgment was unclouded by
personal or political prejudices, and his
only thought was for the prosperity and
welfare of his fellow-countrymen. They
considered him the greatest of living men,
and that is true. IL we can measure his
stature by the value and Importance of his
work. No man Of the present age has ever
been privileged to contemplate the results
of his own work SO fully as Rartolome
Mitre."
Mr. Nelson is enthusiastic In his descrip-
ton Of the progress the enterurise and the
yieor of his country.
vigorous ana droW1ng Nation.