The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-01
By FRANK G. CARPENTER

Copyright, 1915, by Frank G. Carpen-
 ter)
 NHCAME from Argentina to Uru- IMlII quay in a night. The two kS@ez countries are separated by lSswsEJ the Rio de la Plata and the
 Rio Uruguay, and they both form a part of the great Parana basin, which is destined to be one of the mightiest food lands on Gods fat earth. Argentina is far the larger and richer. It has more than 15 times as much territory more than eight times as many people, and it's capital city, Beunos Aires, Is four times the size r of .Montevideo, where I am writing. Euenos Aires has, at least, 1,600,000. Its people clam 1,S00,000 and they say that 1t will have 3,00o.0o0 by 1925. Mohtevideo claims 100000 and its claim is not far from correct. Buenos Aires lies on one bank of the Rio de la Plata Montevideo is on the opposite bank but one is near the head of the river and the other on the edge of the sea, |, so that the two cities are about 12O miles apart. It takes nearly eight hours to go from one to the other. and
 
 ply nightly between them. These steamers are somewhat like those be- tween New York and Boston. You go to bed at night in Buenos Aires and wake up in Montevideo. The fare is $5 and you have included a good nights rest and some coffee and bread upon rising.
 The traffic Is great, for the two cities represent not only their own popula- tion, but the countries of which they are the commercial, financial political and social centers. You might say that Buenos Aires is the Argentine and that Montevideo is Uruguay, as far as these things are concerned Buenos Aires contains about one-fifth of the popula- tion of Argentina, and Montevideo has almost one-third of Uruguay living within it's bounds. In addition to this, the citizens of Buenos Aires and Non tevideo practically own the two coun- tries, so that the story of each Is not that of the city alone. but of the great industrial empire which lies behind 1t I have already written of Argentina. That country is about one-third the size of the United States, but it has great Istrip of mountains at the back and some deserts in the far south Uruguay is not much bigger than Missouri and Connec- ticut combined. but it is rich all the way through. To use a merchants ex- presson, it is yard wide and all wool or, in the language of the butcher, it is great chunk of tenderloin steak with the fat trimmed off around the edges. These comparisons are apropos. The coun- try produces 100,000O00 pounds of wool every year, and it has so many beef cat tie that it is now shipping meat to our American markets.
 Indeed, Uruguay is the smallest of all the South American republics. It is only about one-fortieth the size of Brazil, which country. by the way is bigger than the whole of the United States prop CT. It is only one-fourth the size of Chile, one-seventh the size of Colombia, one- eighth as big as Venezuela and about one- ninth the size of Peru. Ecuador comes next to it, but it could make UruQuay and have enough land to spare to equal a state as big as Illinois. This gives you some idea of the area of the country. Now see where 1t lies! Uruguay is in 'tha heart of the great bread lands of the southern part of this continent. It is 8 pocket of rich soil at the lower end