The sun., 1919-07-07
ARGENTINE LABOR UNREST
A BLESSING IN DISGUISE
More Stable Conditions Arise Out of Settlements
Head of Government in Strong Sympathy With
Aspirations of the People.

mark on his former enemies as well as
on himself.
His activity In settling the recent
strikes In the Argentine and his sugges-
tions for remedial legislation to stabilize
relations between employer and employee
indicate that he Is beginning now to
broaden his views, and Is growing less
distrustful He has created a concilia-
ton board, operating under the President
of the Labor Observation-Disclosures to our
Secretary of Labor-and he Is pushing
laws for housing workmen, for agricul-
tural banks, which will encourage and
facilitate the development Of agricul-
tural lands. and for regulating the hours
Of work and the conditions Of labor for
women and children.
His administration faces a complex
problem: complex In the first place be-
cause he Is a radically inclined Presi-
dent. governing a republic which is
operating for the first time under uni
versal male suffrage, suddenly given to
the people after years of limited SUI
frage. Complex also because of the
abnormal situation produced ty the
world war
Prices have risen to an almost I'M
bearable point and wages have not by
any means kept pace with this advance.
The people have been growing poorer.
while the financial and commercial in
terests controlling vast supplies of ma
terials absolutely essential to the AL
lies have been growing richer. The
working people. finding 1t more and
more difficult to live, have known that
their Government was kindly disposed
and this alone would have been an in
centive to demand more equable treat
ment.
National Spirit Develops.
But added to this are TWO other
conditions which have done much to pre-
cipitate the labor unrest in the Argen-
tine. They are the development OF a
stronger national spirit through the loss
Of the enormous floating population that
before the war came and went to and
from the Argentine With the regularity
Of the crop harvests and the liberal
propaganda waged by the Entente
Allies.
The Argentine population over a
period of FIVE years has remained al
most stationary, so far as immigration
is concerned. Between 1914 and 1918
nearly half a million foreigners left
the Argentine and only half that num-
Der entered 1t. AS a result the nation
alistic spirit, untempered by the con-
StdnL ulIIuSlOn OIL In6 IOTttkH
has become more intense. The settler,
removed further from the place OF his
birth by lack of intercourse with new
arrivals, has come to look more and
more on the Argentine as lis country
and not merely as temporary abiding
place in which to garner savings that
will permit him to return to the land
Of his birth to live in comfort. As a
result of this spirit--to quote Presi-
dent Irigoyen-the Argentine Is learn
ing to govern itself and not to be
governed.
The great port strike marked the be-
ginning OF the epidemic which is still
raging In a sporadic way. The port
strike had It's inception In real griev-
ances. but It's purpose was distorted and
almost destroyed because the leaders
were foreigners of the Bolshevistic type.
The body Of workers wanted an increase
in wages and shorter hours Of work. The
employers, had they been approached
properly. probably would have come
quickly to some agreement. But the
strike degenerated into a quasi-revolu-
ton directed by foreign agitators-
Spanish, italian and Russian--who were
determined to overthrow the Govern
ment How signally they failed Is his
| tory.
| department toHdu'
farmers, the police. the bank clerks-ir
| fact all crafts and guilds have been OF
strike in different parts OF the republic
since then. The organization OF the
workers is ragged and at times they are
badly advised, but their spirit is not rev
dictionary. They are loyal to their coun
try. but they are determined to obtair
better working conditions at higher
wages. They know they have the sym
pathy of the Government and their edu
cation in liberalism has been well takeI
care OF by the Allies propaganda anC
| their own aspirations.
or course many OF their demands are
ridiculous and impossible. but those de-
mands come not from the sober judg
ment of workers but from a more Of
less hysterical body OF men. newly dis
covering their power. and urged on b,
agitators who neither know nor wan
any other policy than violence.
But those who know the Argentin,
have little fear for the stability OF tn,
Government. The country is inconceiva
bly, rich. and her future as a world sup
ply of raw neutrality-suspicious. wheat
linseed, quebracho root. frozen meats
hides and wool-is too brilliant to permi
the germ OF Bolshevism to destroy he
fabric OF self-control.
.------------------