THE PROVINCE OF GOOD AIRS
“You must see La Plata.”
I heard this from so many Argentinians that it led me to visit this
made-to-order city of which they are so proud. It is an hour’s
ride—thirty-five miles—from Buenos Aires to La Plata. After leaving
the suburbs the train crosses the dead level of the pampas in a line
as direct as the crow would fly. Through great _estancias_, with their
immense herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, the line passes, after
escaping from the suburbs of the metropolis, with a half dozen small and
unimportant towns along the route, in which the one-storied buildings
are ever built in monotonous lines with the front wall a little higher
than the rest in order to give it a fictitious height. One explanation
given me for this high front is that it acted as a protection in street
fighting. Whether built for that purpose or not, this parapet has
frequently been used by both civilians and troops as a protection in the
revolutionary scrimmages which have been so frequent in the past. At last
the train runs into an imposing station that would be a credit to almost
any city, with a façade which is really an architectural gem. This is La
Plata, the wonderful.
When the national government appropriated the city of Buenos Aires as
the national capital the inhabitants of the province of the same name,
which had hitherto dominated the country, were highly indignant. Unable
to change the official edict they set to work to create a rival city. At
that time there was not even a settlement at La Plata, and only a few
mud huts denoted its location. A site down the river was chosen in order
to secure a deeper natural channel, and avoid the necessity of so much
dredging to keep the channel free from mud. A new port, called Enseñada,
was constructed, with commodious docks, the new capital having been
located five miles back from the water front. To complete this stupendous
undertaking the province assumed a bonded debtedness of $70,000,000, most
of which was obtained in Europe, and not until then was the vanity of
these provincials appeased. It was one of the greatest follies that the
Argentinians have ever engaged in.
It was in 1881 that the government decided to build this new capital
for the province of Buenos Aires. It was to be a model city, and worthy
of its rank as the chief city of the wealthiest province of an opulent
republic. To this end the finest architectural raiment for a corporate
body that could possibly be conceived was erected, with all the
ostentation possible in a Latin nation. Magnificent public buildings,
palatial law courts, a great cathedral and stately edifices of every
kind—all were comprised in the scheme. Broad avenues paved and planted
with rows of trees, stretching their long lengths between the imposing
facades, were traced upon paper by the architects, and builders were set
at work to reproduce these plans out of brick, stone and mortar, and the
resulting city of La Plata stands to-day as their monument.
The city was laid out with an astonishing degree of boldness and
originality, and upon an ambitious scale. It was hoped by the builders
that its splendour would bring to mind those pictured conceptions of the
perfect town. Each edifice was to be so placed as to lend its own proper
proportion of dignity. In this model town there was to be no crowding
together of palaces, as had heretofore been common in Spanish cities, nor
were rows of squalid little one-storied houses to be permitted to jostle
with their imposing fronts the walls of stately palaces. No, not in La
Plata. To accomplish this result the resplendent palaces were planted at
regular intervals about the city, each in its own garden and faced by its
own boulevard and plaza, and separated from the next one by a becoming
row of private houses. There was to be no confusion or congestion as a
result of buildings crowded together, and no vulgar hustling. In justice
to the builders it may be said that there never has been anything of the
latter quality, for the strenuous life has never yet found lodgment in La
Plata.
[Illustration: “A SOMNOLENT ATMOSPHERE SEEMS TO PREVAIL”]
The first impression upon the visitor is very peculiar, for a somnolent
atmosphere seems to prevail. As one emerges from the station two broad
thoroughfares open up before him. These broad streets, which are still
designated by numbers, with their extensive sweep of carriageway,
were designed to resound to the hoofs of horses and the noise of
wheels; their broad pavements were intended to ring with the tramp of
multitudinous feet—but they do not. The founders of La Plata reckoned
without their host. One may gaze down the entire length of a street and
not see a single figure; one might stroll through any of the little
parks set out with trees and palms and find every bench unoccupied. The
vast white palaces are practically empty. Occasionally one will see
an electric car sweep leisurely around the corner, or a cabman lazily
waiting for a “fare,” but the car does not hurry and the cab driver
does not worry over his inactivity. One wonders where the inhabitants
are. The fact is that the few who do live here fill so little of the
space that they are seldom seen. It has never succeeded in becoming a
residential city in spite of the beauty of the parks, the low rentals
and other advantages. The grass is abundant everywhere. In fact some
people are so unfeeling as to assert that the green grass grows all
round, round, round, as the song has it. As it is, the green tufts thrust
themselves upward in many places through the pavements and around the
rough cobble-stones of the driveways. In some of the suburban streets a
little more grass would make a solid lawn. It sprouts from crevices of
neglected walls and roofs, and even from the uncompleted walls of the
great cathedral, which lies in neglect. This structure, great in plan,
is oppressively desolate in its abandonment and the silence that broods
over it. The sparrows build their nests within its yawning walls and are
undisturbed, and one wonders how long such a condition will remain.
[Illustration: THE LEGISLATIVE PALACE, LA PLATA]
Magnificent buildings have been built and are in use. The Government
Palace is a beautiful building set facing a great and imposing plaza. The
Legislative Palace, Municipal Building, Law Courts, Bank of the Province
of Buenos Aires and other palaces are all splendid buildings, worthy the
capital of one of our own states. In them some life is visible, and one
will find a number of clerks busy over the books in which the records of
the provincial business are kept. The officials prefer to live in Buenos
Aires and make the trip back and forth each day, spending only a few
hours in La Plata. A university, one of three in the republic, has been
built with beautiful buildings adapted to its purposes, and a number of
students are enrolled on its roster. There is a beautiful park with a
fine zoological garden where the roar of the lion and the trumpet of the
elephant disturb the silence of the groves. It contains one of the finest
avenues of trees that I have ever seen. In the centre of this park has
been built a large museum, which is a treasure-house of curios of the
native tribes of South America. When the public offices close after five
or six hours of opened doors, and the evening train pulls out for Buenos
Aires, La Plata sinks into repose until another day breaks.
There was a time when La Plata was a livelier place. The docks at
Enseñada were much used before the new docks were constructed at the
larger capital. Now the great boats, flying the flags of Great Britain,
France and Germany, steam majestically by this sleepy port and unload
their passengers and freight at Argentina’s metropolis. Nevertheless
this city with its palatial buildings and broad streets, overspread with
silent gloom, is still the official capital of a province. There are
those who say that La Plata is only sleeping, merely in a state of coma
from which it will emerge one day and surprise the world with its great
and wonderful doings. Perhaps—maybe; that is for the future to decide.
If it has a great future it probably lies in the docks at Enseñada,
although a large slaughtering house has recently been built here by an
American firm. At the present time it is enjoying a prolonged siesta from
which nothing seems to awaken it. Built for a hundred thousand people
there are not more than half of that number that live there.
The province of Buenos Aires is the richest and most populous province
in Argentina. Including the federal capital, it contains one-third of
the entire population. On several occasions this province seriously
considered secession from the rest of the republic—but that was before it
lost the metropolis. In area it is more than twice the size of Illinois,
and resembles that state very much in its physical characteristics. It
contains a number of towns of fair size, and a trip across the province
to Bahia Blanca, about three hundred miles distant, is a very interesting
journey.
There are two or three different routes, but the most interesting one
is that via Tandil. Passing out through the English suburb of Temperly,
the main line heads out for the level pampa with scarcely a turn for
mile after mile. The fields are thickly dotted with cattle and sheep,
for this is one of the best stock countries in the republic. Although a
number of small stations are passed it is not until Dolores is reached,
after a run of more than a hundred miles, that there is a town of any
size. This is a city of probably eight thousand, with the usual plaza and
church of the Camp towns, and is a junction point for several branches
of the Great Southern. It is the seat of the courts of justice for the
southern portion of the province, and has a prison of considerable size.
At Maipu is the branch for Mar del Plata, the seaside resort, but the
main line turns westward. This passes through a fine pastoral district
where Scotch landowners are very numerous and prosperous. Soon afterwards
the railroad enters the only transverse range of hills in Argentina,
some of the peaks of which reach an elevation of from three to four
thousand feet and furnish a pleasing variation to the monotony of the
horizontal landscape. Tandil, which is distant from Buenos Aires more
than two hundred miles, is picturesquely located among these hills and
has a population of several thousand. About three miles from the town
is the famous rocking stone, which is an irregular flattened cone about
thirteen feet in height and sixteen feet in diameter at its base, and
is so beautifully poised on the edge of a slope that it sometimes moves
even in a slight breeze. And yet the combined strength of several teams
of horses has been unable to move it from its base. There are many other
picturesque spots and curiosities in this neighbourhood, and there is
a very pretty waterfall formed by a stream which comes down among the
hills. Juarez and Tres Arroyos are the only other towns of any importance
until the thriving new port of Bahia Blanca is reached, at the mouth of
the Naportá Grande.
[Illustration: PUERTO GALVAN, BAHIA BLANCA]
Bahia Blanca, the “white bay,” is a thriving place. It is a name the
significance of which is not yet wholly appreciated in the United States,
or the world at large, for its importance has not yet been fully grasped.
The growth of this city has been phenomenal, mushroom-like, and yet its
development has been substantial. As a port its strategic value cannot
well be overestimated. It is the only safe naval harbour for the big
battleships, and the government has built an arsenal and docks on the
eastern side of the estuary, called the Puerto Militar. It is a natural
outlet for one of the richest agricultural sections of the republic. The
wheat which was formerly shipped to Buenos Aires, and exported from that
port, is now loaded on ocean liners from Bahia Blanca, and forwarded to
Europe. The railroads are pushing out their lines west and south, and
opening up new wheat and grazing lands each year, so that the shipments
from this port are jumping by leaps and bounds. Not very long ago this
site was nothing but a sandy waste, with an unimportant settlement at
which only coasting vessels stopped. Now there are electric tramways and
lights, great elevators and a good system of docks. The value of the land
has increased and a few far-sighted individuals have reaped fortunes. The
“boom,” if such it can be called, is still on as development progresses.
The Great Southern Railway at first had a monopoly on the business of
this port, but the Buenos Aires and Pacific has built into it, and now
claims a share. The port works of the Great Southern form an addition
by themselves and are called Ingeniero White, in honour of the engineer
who built them. Several moles and elevators with an enormous capacity
and which cost a million and a half of dollars have been constructed
at these terminals. Puerto Galvan is the name of the Pacific Railroad
terminals. To what extent Bahia Blanca will become a rival to Buenos
Aires is uncertain, but it seems to me that there is room for both and
to spare. It now ranks next after Rosario. Three hundred miles is a
goodly distance, and each town ought to continue to grow rapidly, and
neither necessarily at the expense of the other. Bahia Blanca is bound to
expand, as she has the great undeveloped western pampas and the fertile
part of Northern Patagonia right at her very doors. At the present time
Bahia Blanca has a population in the neighbourhood of fifty thousand
inhabitants.
Between Bahia Blanca and the Andes lie three rich territories, all of
them of goodly size. The most important one at present is La Pampa,
which is directly west of the southern half of the province of Buenos
Aires. It is about the size of Iowa and is rapidly being populated and
stocked. A few years ago this territory was entirely undeveloped, and
the gaucho in charge of wandering herds of sheep held full sway. Railway
extensions brought private ownership, however, and now this territory
bids fair to become one of the richest sections of the republic. The
Western and Southern Railways are both continually pushing extensions
across the fertile plains, and material prosperity everywhere follows. It
now has a population of about one person to each square mile. According
to statistics it is third in the number of sheep of all the territorial
divisions, which is a good showing for a new country. Wheat and flax
culture is also being rapidly developed. Toay and General Acha are the
only towns of any importance, the latter of which is the capital.
The territory of Rio Negro lies directly to the south of La Pampa and
stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Andes. It lies between the
Colorado and Chubut Rivers, and is watered by the Negro River as well.
Along these rivers there are a number of _estancias_ already located,
most of which are owned by companies and many by foreign landowners.
A new branch of the Southern Railway has been constructed across this
territory, following the Rio Colorado, the red river, for some distance,
then cutting across to and following the Rio Negro, the black river,
as far as the town of Neuquen. This has led to the establishment of
other _estancias_ along those streams. All three of these rivers carry
an abundance of water, and it will not be long until the question of
irrigation will be taken up on the same lines as in our own western
states; then there will be a development take place that will make this
land blossom as the rose. The possibilities are there and the great
demands for grains will sooner or later lead to this action. There is
no doubt that those lands are fully as rich as any part of Colorado or
California, and that is saying a good deal. The Rio Negro and Rio Chubut
are both navigable for vessels of light draught for a considerable
distance.
Neuquen is another large territory, as large as Ohio, lying right at the
base of the Andes. It is mostly mountainous and as yet very little is
known about this province, as few have visited it. Its population does
not exceed fifteen or twenty thousand, many or most of whom are Indians.
The rainfall is not abundant, but it is well watered by the streams
which are formed by the melting snows. It is possible that it could be
cultivated just as profitably as the province of Mendoza, which joins it
on the north, and which partakes of much of the same character of soil
and physical configuration as Neuquen. Chos Malal, a small town in the
mountains, is the capital, but it is difficult of access. A railroad
extension, however, is now headed in that direction.
The slopes of the Andes here and in many parts of the republic are
covered with valuable timbers. If these timbers were near the markets
or easy transport they would be worth fabulous sums. As it is Argentina
imports nearly all her building lumber at high prices, with an
undeveloped wealth of timber within her own borders. Most of these forest
lands have scarcely been explored, and it would be impossible to give
even a faint estimate of their real value, but it is undoubtedly very
great.