The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-16

the percentage of skilled and clerical la bor out of employment is simply appall- ing. Conditions so far as unskilled labor is concerned can be readily understood when it is known that every ship which leaves the Argentine today is loaded to the guards with returning emigrants, and that the Italian and Spanish consulates have issued official circulars to their countrymen warning them to keep away until normal conditions have been re- stored
 It can readily be understood that with such situation existing at the eve of the present European outbreak. the Argentine
 will be unable to become large pur- chaser of the luxuries which we have to
 offer unless she is able to market her
 next crop, and that the high prices for
 foodstuffs which will rule in Europe Will
 be of little advantage to her if she does pot have the transportation facilities nee essary to move her products.
 Argentine produces principally cattle. hides wheat linseed maize. wine and quebracho, which she exchanges for prac- 1 tically everything she wears, large pro- portion of what she eats, in the way Of 1uXuries, and almost everything which she
 consumes in the way of manufactured ar ticles, such as furniture, household goods, domestic utensils. building material, agri- cultural machinery, etc Her buying ca
 paeity at any given time consists of the
 market value of her products abroad. less
 the enormous annual amount remitted to
 Europe by her emigrants. the cost of trans
 portation to market. which largely goes to
 swell English and German coffers. and the
 interest and sinking fund on her national
 indebtedness. which is staggering During
 the last three years she has mortgaged her future to such an extent that prac- tically every large importing house in
 Buenos Aires is being kept on it's feet by the credits extended by the representa- tives of foreign banking houses. and il would take very little indeed to bring general catastrophe. In the month oi November alone, Argentine failures to- tailed more than $l2,000000 United States currency, and this in country of only 1000, 900 or S,000,0o0 is more than serious
 matter. The absolute failure of the 1911 wheat crop in the Bahia Blanca region the half crop obtained in the provinces oi
 Entre Rios and Santa Fe from wheat and linseed and the low prices ruling fol the vineyard crop in Mendoza and La
 Rioja were only partially offset by the magnificent corn crop secured in ths
 northern part of the province of Bueno: l Aires, although 1t may truthfully bs said that the humble maize saved tn, republic from bankruptcy. At the time left Buenos Aires the stock of gold in ths l Gaia de Conversion, an institution whici maintains a gold reserves for the purpose 1 of guaranteeing the parity of the Argen
 tine peso at S11. 45 per pound sterling, wal
 steadily decreasing and bankers and finan 1 ciers were to say the least uneasy, a con
 dition which reflected itself very decided I ly in the exchange market.
 1 The Argentine at the moment is not 1T
 any position to purchase in the auantitie. which she has consumed in past years and her ability to pay for even her barr
 necessaries is dependent upon a number