Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-04
Charles MI Pepper Says Argentina Desires to
1~Cultivat@ Better Relations With United States.

have less dependence. financial and eco
nomic, on Europe There is no political
dependence worth speaking of, nor need
it be inferred that Argentina is going to
cease to be influenced largely by Europe
financially and commercially by Eng
land and Germany and racially by Italy,
France and Spain. The streams of lmmi-
grafton alone would settle the racial
question. AS to finance and commerce.
England is SO solidly established that
her bankers, steamship owners and man
ufacturers can afford to smile at the sug-
gestion that their influence will be weak
ened. They may be iolted out of their
complacency occasionally by an invasion
such as that of the Chicago packers. and
the ltra-conServative railway boards in
London may wake up almost any morn
ing and find American railway promoters
trespassing on their supposedly sacred
territory. In this case it would be with
English or French capital But on the
whole England will not suffer in her
commercial and financial relations with
the Argentine Republic.
What seems to be in the mind of the
Argentine statesmen is to assure their
country a stronger position In the fu-
ture by inviting investments of capital
from other countries which will serve as
something of counterpoise to prepon-
derant British influence. That Is one
reason why they look SO kindly on the
increase Of trade with the United States
and why they give commerce the pref
erence over idealistic conceptions of In
ternational relations as related to the
United States and Argentina.
In other respects the Argentine Repub-
lie has solid basis of sympathetic
alliance with the United States. 1t is
one of the few Latin American coun.
tries that. having copied the leading
principles of the United States Consti-
tuition. has shown some conception of
their practical application. The spirit
of democratic institutions, while some
times interpreted under oligarchic
tutelage, has been observed, and the
is one Of the problems before the edu-
Gated classes who so largely constitute
the governing classes. They are even
going ahead of the United States in
as that of obligatory voting.
Argentina has some very grave eco
nomic problems to solve. and these may
temporarily interfere with her political
progress. The financial crisis which ex-
lists in all the South American countries
is not absent here. The management
of the national finances presents the
very common difficulty of keeping the
outgo within the limits Of the income,
since the very great material progress
of the country had engendered a spend
thrift spirit. The gradual reduction of
enormously inflated land values is an
other problem of the state as well as
Of the individual since 1t affects all
forms of agricultural production, es-
pecially that of beef There is, more
over. the perplexing problem of immi-
grafton, and of giving the immigrants
proper protection when they can be in
duced to leave the city and go to the
country. The centering of population
in Buenos Aires put the country in a
position of an inverted pyramid with
the big city as the apex
These and other questions, neverthe-
less, are of internal and domestic char
acter. and need not interfere with Argen-
tina's aspiration to occupy her place in
the concert Of nations alongside the
United States. final suggestion of
my own would be that while the process
of educating the United States about
Argentina is going forward, a reciprocal
to educate the mass of the
Argentine people about the United
States, it's institutions and it's actual
attitude toward South America would
not be out of place. This knowledge
appears now to be limited to the edu-
Gated classes. and there is every reason
why it should be spread among the
for there are unmistakable
signs that the masses in Argentina are
going to make themselves felt in the
political life of the country
CHARLES NJ PEPPER.