Evening Star Newspaper, May 4, 1930, Page 104

14 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MAY 4, 1930. Argentina Is Great Trade Center of South America BY GASTON NERVAL. HE magnificent commercial and finan- cial relations between the United States and Argentina offer the best proof of the spirit of understanding and co-operation which exists be- tween them. In the present-day international life, the economic factor is much more expres- sive than diplomatic discourses or the set phrases of politicians. Ours is an age of figures and numbeu The life of peoples, like that of individuals, is today dominated by economic factors. Commercial statistics give the true measures of interna- tional relations. And these statistics, as re- spects the economic bonds between Uncle Sam and Argentina, could not be more satisfactory. The total trade between the United States and Argentina last year reached a total of ahqut $327,000,000, and the from this country amounted to $210,288,027, the southern republic being at present the most important market in this continent for United States manufactures, after Canada. Also with the one exception of Canada, Argentina is the largest purchaser of American automobiles in the world. While before the World War ex- ports from the United States to Argentina were but 14 per cent of the total foreign of that country, or $72,458,000, thus taking second place after Great Britain, the United States now occupies first place by a considerable margin, supplying over 25 per cent of the total. Last year Argentina bought in the United States some $20,000,000 worth of automobiles, $12,000,000 worth of motor trucks and busses, $10,000,000 worth of gasoline and naphtha, $9,- 000,000 worth of industrial machinery, $10,000,- 000 worth of manufactured cotton, ete. T the same time, the Argentine comes sec- ond as a source of supply for the United States. Only Brazil sells to the United States a greater amount of raw materials than Ar- genting. Last year Uncle Sam bought Argentine products to the value of about $117,000,000. Although Great Britain and Germany purchase more from Argentina than does the United States, since this country produces in abundance {he agricultural products which constitute the principal exports of Argentina, the position of the United States has changed considerably in the past 15 years. Before the World War the United States used to take about 4.5 per cent of the total of Argentina’s exports; in 1928 she took almost 10 per cent. The greater part of these purchases is composed of two products, with which this country supplies' herself almost entirely from the southern republic; flaxseed, which she bought in 1929 to the value of $44,- 195,819, and cattle hides, which were bought in 1928 to a value of $32,381,000. Aside from these two products, the United States imported from the Argentine large quantities of canned meats, furs, casein, quebracho extract, que- bracho logs, wool, etc. Besides these statistics, which reveal the im- portance of the trade relations of the two na- tions, it is interesting to note that the United States has investments in the Argentine totaling about $600,000,000, according to estimates of the Department of Commerce in Washington. These investments are composed of govern- ment, provincial and municipal bonds, banks, public utilities, industrial and railway securities, etc. A surprising fact in respect to these in- vestments of capital is that in 1913 the United States had invested in Argentina scarcely $40,000,000. F all the countries of Latin-America the one -+ Which most resembles the United States, geographically as well as economically, is the Argentine. Its extension from north to south takes in practically all climatic zones, from the subtropical of the north to the cold-tem- perate of the south. Its principal port, Buenos Aires, is situated on the east coast, and is the most important gateway to the interior of the country. In addition to being to the Argentine what New York is to the United States, Buenos Aires has still other characteristics which make in resemble in many ways its gigantic neighbor of the north. It is not only the principal port, but also the largest and most important city of the country and of the South American con- tinent; it is the commercial and financial cen- ter of the whole River Plate region, and its cosmopolitan character—a laboratory for the fusion of many races—makes it comparable only to that other melting pot of nations, the skyscraper city of this country. And the likeness goes even farther. A great plain, like that of the Middle West of the United States, forms the central part of the Argentine. A considerable part of this plain is well watered and devoted with great success to agriculture, which constitutes the principal source of pro- duction and wealth. In this sense the Argen- tine, a country essentially agricultural and pastoral, resembles the United States of two generations ago, when agriculture still predomi- nated over industry and the construction of moads and railways was the most serious and pressing problem. Apart from this economic aspect, the general conditions of life in the well settled regions cf the Argentine are the same as those of today im the United States. Electric lights, telephones, trolley roads, automo- biles of the latest models, radio—all these are found in all the important cities of the Aggen- tine, and Buenos Aires is the only South Amer- ican capital that has a subway. Buenos Aires is a great metropolis, not merely relatively speaking; it is the first city of ail Ibero-America and the second Latin eity of the world, surpassed only by Paris. In the United States only New York and Chiggago are larger than the Argentine capital. On the one Mayo avenue, Buenos Aires. Fast-Growing Southern Republic Is at Present the Most Important Market on This Con- tinent for the United States, After Canada, and Is Second to Brazil as a Latin American Source of Supply. The Argentine Capitol. " side, its architecture, its wide avenues, its boule- vards, its sidewalk cafes, its art exhibits re- mind one of Paris; on the other, the industrial and commercial activity that one feels in its atmosphere, its modernity, its cosmopolitanism remind one of New York. And this process of amalgamation of two distinct civilizations which one notes in Buenos Aires is distinctive of the general development of the country. The Latin culture, inherited from Europe, is being trans- formed by the vital energy and progressive at- titude of its people, made necessary by the newness of the country and the vastness of its undeveloped natural resources. Just as in Buenos Aires the Argentine has her Nevw York, in Rosario, the second city of the re- public, she has her Chicago, the center of the wheat and corn trade. And in “Cordoba the Learned,” dedicated for centuries to letters and art and history and tradition, where there is ;og':l’lvmlty older than Harvard, she has her n. T!!L' history of Argentina also resembles, in certain aspects, that of the United States. After the independence of the country had been achieved there followed a long and bitter strug- gle between Unionists and Federalists; between those who favored a centralized government, like that of France, and those who believed in a Federal form, giving more liberty to the sev- eral states. In the end the latter won, and the Federal republic of Argentina was finally es- tablished with a form of government very sim- ilar to that of this country. The 14 provinces of the republlc have their own governors and very much as do the States of this eountry ‘There also are 10 terrlmdes and a federal district, which is the capital city, as is the District of Columbia here. The usual three branches of the government—judicial, legislative and executive—are established under the same principles as in the United States, and although the President and Vice President are elected for terms of six years instead of four, they are chosen, as in this counrty, by indirect vote, which is not the case in any other of the Latin republics. In Gen. Jose de San Martin, who freed the country from the Spanish crown, the tines have their Washington. And in Gen. Mitre, who definitely established national unity and or- ganized its administration, they have their Lin- coln. These two men, whose lives have notable resemblances with the two most illustrious men of North American history, together with that other great Argentine, Domingo Sarmiento, had the greatest influence in the formation of the political structure of the southern republic, as well as upon the psychology of its citizens. San Martin, the liberator; Mitre, the organiser, and Sarmiento, the educator, are the three founda- tions of the Argentine culture and prosperity of today and of the grandeur of the Argentina of tomorrow. However, in spite of all these geographic, economic and historical resemblances between these two nations, about all the average reader of American pers knows about the Ar- gentine is that it is hndolth pampas, of the romantic tango and of Luis Angel Firpo, the only man who ever pushed Jack Dempsey out of the boxing ring. And here, when they want to show an Argentine tango dancer in the movies, they still picture him with Spanish castanets and a huge, gay Mexican sombrero. Analostan Island. Continued from Ninth Page Va., and the pictures of Gen. and Mrs. John Msson are published through the courtesy of Mr, Cooper Dawson, son of Nicholas Dawson, Janies Murray Mason is historically known as a Senator from Virginia and as having been selected by Jefferson Davis, together with John Slidell, as commissioners to England and France in the interest of the Southern Confederacy, and as having been the medium of a stupendous bluuder made by Capt. Wilkes, U. 8. N, in taking them off the English vessel Trent, for which the United States soon found it con- venlent to offer an apology to the offended country and to release the prisoners. Though James M. Mason was born on Ana- Jostan Island in 1797 and lived there for a nutaber of years, it is quite likely that he never held title to it. He died at Clarens, near Alexe andria, Va. April 28, 1871, and, singularly enough, Slidell died the same year. John Mason, jr., the other son, must have been an unusually popular man, for, as a mems ber of Potomac Lodge, F. A. A. M, in Decem= ber, 1841, he was taken from the floor and made grand master of Masons of ‘the District of Columbia, being one of only three persons thus elevated in the history of the local craf:. Before the Civil War he was the captain of the Potomac Dragoons, a local military organ - zation, He married the daughter of Gen. Alexander Macomb and for a while Yresided at Evermay, on the Heights of Georgetown. In Washington he resided at different times on the north side of Pennsylvania avenue between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth streets and at the corner of Twelfth and G streets. He died in 1859 and is buried in Christ Church Cemetery, Alexan- dria, Va. Toward the close of the Civil War Analostan Island was turned into a pleasure resort, where fairs, picnics and the like were held. And here took place one of the first tournaments eve:r held in this vicinity, a form of unusemem still popular in certain sections. In more recent years a bout club had its quarters here until a flocod washed away the wharf and fire destroyed the house. All its beauty and attractiveness have gone—its charm has vanished and only the dream of the Poet Paulding offers consolation for its present abane doned and unattractive appearance, for we really did once know it as he tells us in his beautiful lines: On either side, and all around, The we'tering wave is seen to flow, Noiseless, or, if you hear a song, 'Tis but a murmur, soft and low. The great trees, nodding to and fro In stately conclaves not a few, Whisper as secretly and slow As bashful lovers ever do. The tinkling bell, the plashing oar, ‘The buzzing of the insect throng, The laugh that echoes from the shore, The unseen thrush's vesper song— And when I count the earthly hours ‘That I shall cherish most of all, That walk in Analostan’s bowers Will be the first that I recall.