CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE--WAGES AND COST OF LIVING--IMMIGRATION
The Condition of the People question, as Carlyle says, is the most
pressing of all. But it is a question almost impossible to answer, and
few inquiries are more futile than the attempt to ascertain the
comparative well-being of different countries. Two inquirers with
equal knowledge of a country will collect statistics and compile
elaborate volumes, and one will come to the conclusion that the people
are extremely well off and the other that they are in extreme
destitution. They will then apply themselves to another country with
the same contradictory results. Carlyle complains: "Hitherto, after
many tables and statements, one is still left mainly to what he can
ascertain by his own eyes, looking at the concrete phenomenon for
himself. There is no other method; and yet it is a most imperfect
method. Each man expands his own hand-breadth of observation to the
limits of the general whole; more or less, each man must take what he
himself has seen and ascertained for a sample of all that is seeable
and ascertainable. Hence discrepancies, controversies, widespread,
long-continued; which there is at present no means or hope of
satisfactorily ending." Wages, price of food, rents, and the other
weapons of the statistician are of very little use in attacking the
problem. The Hindu peasant may be too poor to buy meat, but if he is
non-carnivorous, the deprivation is no hardship, and he may enjoy much
greater material well-being than many who eat meat daily. But
knowledge of the elementary facts about the life of a people seems to
have little effect in elucidating the question, for, as just remarked,
people with long experience come to diametrically opposite conclusions.
Those who have lived all their lives in England or Ireland disagree
_toto cælo_ in their opinions as to the well-being of the working
classes. Many observers, of course, believing that facts are silent
until they are interpreted by theory, use their facts for the sole
purpose of making their theory speak, but, as a matter of fact, entirely
disinterested persons differ quite as profoundly. One is tempted to
believe that in the Condition of the People question there is nothing
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Probably no one could get
an idea of the condition of the poor approaching in any degree to
accuracy without living long among them in exactly their way, and even
then his conclusions would be warped in every way by reference to his
own standards and by the fact that the circumstances, which to him were
temporal, were to his associates everlasting. Further, his imperfect
knowledge would apply only to one people and so would be useless for the
purposes of comparison.
It is not likely, therefore, that a visitor will be able to impart
much information upon the subject, but the opinions of the experienced
and the testimony of statistics form a rough guide, and these may be
given.
In Buenos Aires, of course, wages are higher than elsewhere and the
cost of living is also high. The following table shows the rate of
wages in some important trades in that city:--
WAGES AND COST OF LIVING
BLACKSMITHS-- £ s. d.
Leading hand _per diem_ 0 8 9
Bellowsman " 0 7 10
Labourers _per month_ about 6 10 0
CHAIRMAKERS--
Carvers _per diem_ 0 10 6
Polishers " 0 7 0
Seatmakers " 0 7 0
Labourers _per month_ about 6 17 6
FOUNDERS--
Head bellowsman _per diem_ 0 10 8
Foreman " 0 8 9
Turner " 0 8 0
Smith " 0 8 9
Labourer " 0 5 3
Founder " 0 7 0
FURNITURE MAKERS--
Leading polisher " 0 8 9
Second polisher " 0 7 0
Cabinetmaker " 0 8 9
Carve " 0 8 9
Chairmaker " 0 8 9
MASONS--
Decorating foreman " 0 14 0
Foreman " 0 8 9
Mason's mate " 0 7 0
Labourer " 0 4 3
MECHANICAL CARPENTERS--
Leading hand _per month_ about 17 10 0
Carpenter _per diem_ 0 7 0
Assistant carpenter " 0 5 3
Furnishing carpenter " 0 8 9
Plasterers " 0 10 6
PRINTERS--
Compositors _per month_ about 12 0 0
Litho engravers " " 19 0 0
SADDLERS--
Foreman " " 13 0 0
Leading hand _per diem_ 0 8 9
Labourer _per month_ about 7 0 0
TAILORS--
Cutters " " 25 0 0
Tailors " " 12 10 0
TURNERS _per diem_ 0 8 9
UPHOLSTERERS--
Leading hand " 0 8 9
Second hand " 0 7 0
Labourer _per month_ about 7 0 0
The above figures, then, give a rough idea of the rewards of the
labour market in Argentina. In Rosario also, where there are great
railway works which compete with other occupations and so raise the
standard of wages, the figures are probably high. But in smaller
centres wages are lower and probably the figures before us are
somewhat optimistic, for they are compiled with a view to encouraging
immigration. It must also be remembered that their advantage is
discounted by the cost of living, which is very high everywhere and
especially so in Buenos Aires and Rosario. All imported goods are, of
course, extremely dear, and in many cases this fact does not affect
the labourer, seeing that most of his simple luxuries can be procured
in the country, but in the matter of clothes he gets very poor value
for his money. Tobacco also is extremely dear. That foreign goods
should be expensive is not strange, for not only is it the policy of
the Government (hitherto not very successful) to stimulate home
manufactures, but also the customs are absolutely necessary for
revenue purposes. However, it is surprising that all other articles
follow suit. Meat, for example, although Argentina supplies most of
the markets of the world in increasing quantities, is nearly as dear
as in England, and, in fact, a very tiny sheet of paper would have
ample room for a list of the articles that are cheaper in Argentina
than in the Old World. The people have not learned to regard the day
of small things; they will not take trouble in little matters; in
dairy-farming, gardening, cookery, all the little arts that make for
comfort, they are extremely negligent; it is too much trouble to put
on the market the hundred and one little comforts that are cheap and
ever present in England or France. This is, of course, the case with
all new countries, but particularly with those of South America.
[Illustration: THE PERMANENT WAY, BUENOS AIRES CENTRAL RAILWAY.]
The poorer classes certainly suffer by it, both in being deprived of
numerous conveniences and also in the absence of these industries
which, in France for example, give a livelihood to more poor people
than are contained in the whole of Argentina. House rent also is
extraordinarily high. In Buenos Aires this is always attributed to the
vast improvements which were made in the Celman times, and which have
certainly transformed Buenos Aires from a very dingy into a very fine
city. Complaint is made that the better streets and better buildings
have sent up the price of rents, that the ramshackle old tenements
which were swept away afforded cheap and central lodgings which the
poor now lack, and that in all ways splendour, cleanliness, and health
have cost money. But in Rosario, where there is ample room for
expansion, the same complaints are made, and at Mendoza, which is
almost a garden city, site values are doubling in value every few
years. The secret probably is imperfect industrial organisation.
Labour is scarce and not very efficient, municipal dues weigh upon all
classes, every circumstance contributes towards making building a dear
operation. It may be added that any man, still more any woman, who
would consent to wait at table, would be assured of a comfortable
livelihood. Servants are abnormally scarce and dear; a domestic
with six months' character is rare treasure, the subject of eager
competition, and mistresses (according to their own account) are quite
at their mercy.
It cannot be said that Argentina is a poor man's paradise, in the
sense that his interests and general well-being are carefully
regarded. Indeed the newspapers are full of complaints of the
"oligarchies of office" and the scuffle for power among lucky cliques,
who appropriate all the good things and leave the uninitiated
multitudes to take care of themselves. An inquiry as to why Mendoza
had no tramways elicited the reply, "Oh, the people in power here have
carriages. As long as they can get about comfortably themselves, they
do not care about the others." The authorities squeeze the poor as
much as they can, but the latter yield most reluctantly to the
process. A standing subject of wrangle is licences, which are like
Sydney Smith's taxes; everything is licensed; the most petty trader or
porter has to pay handsomely for the right to live, and this licence
question is a perpetual source of friction. Besides the cost to
the poor, it is excellent matter for the ingenuities of police
persecution. Licence regulations are bulky and complicated, and
licence-holders are, of course, liable to the attention of the law of
street-traffic and the like; consequently the police have powerful
weapons to hold _in terrorem_ over the refractory, for it is easy to
awaken a sleeping statute and effect an arrest under it. As might have
been expected, there is considerable discontent among the working
classes, and strikes are frequent. Trades Unions exist, but it does
not appear that they are very well organised, and the South American
mind is so permeated with politics that industrial strikes tend to
become wholly political. About a year ago the whole of Rosario went on
strike against the municipal dues, and the movement was by no means
unsuccessful. A few months later there were repeated attempts at a
universal strike in Buenos Aires, and a considerable amount of
bloodshed resulted from the sharp repressive measures which were taken
against it. If the poor complain, they have considerable
justification.
But it would convey a very false impression to suggest that the condition
of the people was miserable, or even that it was unsatisfactory, as far
as an observer can judge. The worker is no doubt harassed by petty
officials and exactions, but in the Latin countries, whence he came, he
probably suffered as much or more; he was therefore acclimatised before
he arrived; and he has now, what he seldom had before--a bellyful of
food and some pocket-money, and, if he is enterprising, the chance of
rising to competence or wealth. If we make allowance for different
standards of comfort, it would be correct to say that any man who is
willing to work hard with his hands can live in Argentina in as great
comfort as the worker in any country in the world, and infinitely better
than in most lands. It is a testimony to the prosperity of Argentine
labour, that swarms of reapers come from Spain for every harvest, and
return with £30 apiece in their pockets. The evils, from a material
point of view, are upon the surface, while it is a fact that the working
man in Argentina has, besides a fair livelihood, that hope which is at
the same time the main factor in individual happiness and the best
security for the economic efficiency of the country.
[Illustration: PLATELAYERS, BUENOS AIRES CENTRAL RAILWAY.]
This subject leads us to one which is the crux of the situation
in Argentina--that of immigration. The natural growth of the
population[67] is not very considerable; it may be that, apart from
immigration, it would remain stationary. Thus the matter is one of
great import, and all rulers since Rosas have done everything in their
power to encourage the influx from foreign countries. Several
different views have been taken about the subject. We have the
pessimistic view of Mr. Theodore Child,[68] who, while praising the
"urban development" of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, says that: "In the
rural districts, however--even in the provincial capitals of the old
colonial days, but more especially in the new colonies, where the scum
of Spain and Italy has been deposited in ever-increasing numbers
during the past twenty years--one sees aspects of humanity that fill
one with sadness rather than with satisfaction, or even hope."
This extremely superficial work has formed the material for a few
contemptuous sentences by M. Gustave Le Bon,[69] in which he dismisses
South America as an instance of "the terrible decadence of the Latin
race." On such slight foundations do philosophers erect their
edifices. Again, there is a natural but perhaps somewhat Chauvinistic
view which regards Argentina as a "puissance nouvelle qui suffirait à
elle seule à réhabiliter la race latine à laquelle elle appartient et
à la relever de cette espèce de dechéance et d'inertie dont elle
semble frappée, dans ce dernier quart de siècle, devant la brutale
expansion du monde saxon et germanique."[70]
It may be added that these two views well illustrate the power of the
human mind, to which reference was made in a previous page, of drawing
diametrically opposite conclusions from the same premises. Thirdly,
there is the view of the statesman, which is doubtless shared by all
Argentines and their well-wishers, and which has been expressed by the
veteran statesman M. Charles Pellegrini:[71] "The unity of language
strongly encourages this fusion and explains the fact, elsewhere
illustrated by the United States, that the descendants of immigrants
of races differing in speech, religion, manners, and customs have the
power of effecting a complete fusion into a mass of people perfectly
homogeneous, with the same mental characteristics and sentiment, and
thus making a new nationality, both young, vigorous, and strongly
characterised."
The first view may be ignored. To speak of the "scum of Spain and
Italy" in connection with immigrants whom the mother-countries would
give anything to retain--sturdy peasants who are the life-blood of
Argentina--is absurd, and indeed the danger of the country is not that
it may become the common sewer of Madrid and of Rome, but rather the
tendency of the people to crowd into those examples of "urban
development" which the writers regard with so much complacency. As
regards the second view, it is natural that Frenchmen should look with
satisfaction upon the stately cities and wide plains in which the
ageing Latin race is renewing her mighty youth; but people do not
emigrate to illustrate theories. The Latin races are no doubt glad to
find other Latin races to welcome them across the Atlantic, and also a
congenial climate, but they go abroad in search of bread. It is
undoubtedly a good thing that the Latin races should flourish in
the New World, although hitherto they have been sterile from an
intellectual point of view; but the forces that impel them are
economic, not racial. The loss to Europe is undoubtedly great, but the
third view is naturally that of Argentina, which is every year
receiving an abundant stream of white colonists to develop the
industries which cry aloud for labour. The figures are indeed
remarkable. In 1857 there were 4,000 immigrants, in 1908 there were
255,710. The following table shows the rate of progress:--
1857-1860 20,000
1861-1870 159,570
1871-1880 260,613
1881-1890 846,568
1891-1900 648,326
1901-1903 223,346
It will be noticed that during the eighties, when trade in Europe was
indifferent, while the progress of Argentina was rapid, the figures
were very high, and that after the crash they fell considerably,
though they recovered somewhat before the end of the century. The
following are the figures for recent years:--
1904 125,567
1905 177,117
1906 252,536
1907 209,103
1908 255,710
It will be seen that the influx is now larger than ever.
It is important to observe the nationalities of the new subjects.
Between 1857 and 1893 Argentina received peoples in the following
proportions:--
Italians 1,331,536
Spaniards 414,973
French 170,293
English 35,435
Austrians and Hungarians 37,953
Germans 30,699
Swiss 25,775
Belgians 19,521
Others 92,238
In 1895 the total population was 4,044,770, and of these 1,005,487
were immigrants who arrived after the age of eighteen. That the people
came to settle rather than as pioneers or temporary labourers is shown
by the fact that the proportion of men to women was considerably less
than two to one. The population is now estimated at over 6,300,000. In
1907 the proportions show considerable variations upon those of former
years. The figures were:--
Italians 90,282
Spaniards 82,606
Russians 9,531
Syrians 7,436
French 4,125
Austrians and Hungarians 3,439
Germans 2,322
English 1,659
Portuguese 1,118
The remainder came chiefly from the Balkan States or from other
American Republics.
It will be noticed that Italy[72] still leads, but that Spain has
nearly caught her up; indeed there is hardly a limit to the migration
from Spain except the fertility of the home-staying Spaniard. A
moderate increase in Spanish emigration would cause the population
returns of that ancient and famous monarchy to show a positive
decrease. Greeks and islanders are included under the term Syrian, and
it is probable that this head will show rapid increases in the near
future. The French are declining in numbers, and indeed that nation
has favoured the Argentine Republic as a place of settlement to an
unusual degree. It is said that in San Rafael more French is spoken
than Spanish. The Germans prefer Brazil. Englishmen do not emigrate to
Argentina in large numbers, and they are often warned against so
doing, as the environment is not suited to the English working men,
though of course mechanics and others find lucrative billets--which,
however, should be secured before leaving home. In 1865 a small Welsh
colony was founded at Chubut, and, favoured by the climate, it has
attained considerable prosperity. Reference will be made to it in the
chapter on Patagonia.
The largest class among those who enter the Republic is that of
agricultural labourers, while ordinary day labourers are also
numerous. Many also are tradesmen and domestic servants, but it is
probable that the latter abandon their old calling, for the most part,
after landing. The Consular Office in London gives the following
advice: "The best chances of employment are, of course, for those who
can speak some Spanish, and are farm labourers, dairymen, or stockmen
of practical experience; but mechanics are in fair demand, especially
in the building and allied trades. Clerks, shop-assistants and others
in search of office work, &c., are strongly advised not to emigrate,
unless they can count beforehand on a good chance of immediate
employment. Persons with some capital, and not burdened by families
having many members unable to work, may find good openings even in the
towns; but as a rule there is more chance of success in agricultural
or pastoral enterprises." All children born in the country are _ipso
facto_ Argentine subjects, and the males are liable to military
service. This has been made a ground of complaint, but it cannot
be seriously maintained that a State must maintain a huge alien
population, enjoying all the benefits and few of the burdens of
citizenship, who might in course of time actually outnumber the
Argentines.
At Buenos Aires there is an Immigration Office, which looks after the
welfare of the new arrivals, and the Immigration Law[73] is conceived
on liberal and favourable principles. The London Consul-General
remarks: "The people who arrived in the year 1908 coincide with the
requirements of the country. They were not outcasts or people who were
forced to leave their native country; on the contrary, they were sound
and healthy people, honest workers, and well disposed to establish
themselves, especially up country." This is one of the chief needs of
Argentina--a rural population, for the towns are increasing out of all
proportion to the countrysides.
This constant stream of workers to the River Plate is one of the most
hopeful signs; young, healthy, hard-working people bring prosperity to
the country and fill up the vast tracts that require only labour for
their development. In the past the settlement of the southern regions
has been hindered because the Government imprudently offered great
blocks for sale at prices low enough to tempt speculators to buy them
up, but now the importance of the matter is thoroughly realised, and
every attempt is made to attract immigrants.[74] There are few
countries to which immigration is more vital, and settlers of the
Latin race are likely to benefit themselves by the change hardly less
than they benefit Argentina.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] The figures on this subject are striking. In 1904 it was computed
that in Argentina 1,000 Italian women gave birth to 175 children,
1,000 Spaniards to 123, 1,000 Germans to 96, 1,000 Uruguayans to 93,
1,000 English to 92, 1,000 Argentines to 85, 1000 French to 74. (See
"L'Émigration Européenne," by M. R. Gonnard.)
[68] "The Spanish-American Republics," pp. vi. vii.
[69] "The Psychology of Peoples," p. 152.
[70] L. Guilaine, "La République Argentine," p. xxiii.
[71] "L'Argentine au XX^{e} Siècle," p. xxviii.
[72] "The Argentine is, one may say, Italy's finest colony--a colony
'without a flag,' but prosperous" (R. Gonnard, Ibid. p. 219).
[73] Some particulars as to the law upon this subject may be of
interest. Foreigners may obtain naturalisation papers after residing
two years in Argentina, or earlier if they can prove service to the
State. They are immune from compulsory military service for ten years
after naturalisation. After from four to six years naturalisation they
are eligible for election as national deputies or senators, but
persons not naturalised may hold administrative positions in the
executive Government. Article 20 of the National Constitution says:
"Foreigners may freely exercise their callings or any profession for
which they are qualified, navigate the rivers and coasts, make
testamentary dispositions, marry in accordance with the laws of the
Republic, own and deal in real estate and exempt from differentiated
taxation, travel, associate for lawful purposes petition and do all
such things as may be legally done by born citizens of the State."
[74] In the Chaco it is said that there are 13,025,450 hectares of
State land for sale or renting.