Argentina Part 11

Among weekly periodicals the _Review of London and the River Plate_, which deals princ.i.p.ally with industrial and economic subjects, is a high-cla.s.s publication, and the _Standard_ has a weekly edition. There are several other weekly and monthly journals, and there are numerous comic papers,[87] but few periodicals deal exclusively with literature or special subjects. These matters, however, are treated so generously in the daily organs that it may be supposed that there is little opening for one-subject journals. After all, the circulation of the dailies is very large when we consider the limited population. It is curious to notice how entirely cut off each South American Republic is from the other. In Buenos Aires it is difficult to procure a Brazilian, Uruguayan, or Chilian newspaper, and the commercial intercourse is astonishingly small. For example, the trade of Argentina with Holland is more than twice as large as her trade with Chile.

As is frequently the case with periodical literature, some of its most valuable instances are to be found among the defunct publications.

Prominent among these is the _Nueva Revista de Buenos Aires_, which only lived from 1881-1885. It was edited by Senor V. G. Quesada and Dr. Ernesto Quesada, and, as a monthly review, chiefly literary, but also dealing with politics, history, and philosophy, it was a work of the highest excellence. Nearly all the articles are signed, and most of the eminent Argentine men of letters of those days have either written or been reviewed in its pages. Another good magazine, which lived from 1871-1874 was the _Revista del Rio de La Plata_. This dealt with the same subjects, but was more historical than literary. In Buenos Aires 189 newspapers are published. Of Spanish there are 154, Italian 14, German 8, English 6, and the others are Scandinavian, French, Basque, and Russian.

The excellent journalism of Argentina has not, as yet, developed into literature of a cla.s.s correspondingly high. Those who deal with the literature of a new country usually strike an apologetic note, and their main stumbling-block is the absence of originality, for it has to be admitted that the poets and romancers of the young nations are too often mere craftsmen imitating old European models. This admission has to be made in the case of Argentina, but in other respects her literature may well stand forth on its own merits; the artists are not imported but American-born, and though they may not have produced an indigenous literature, yet their creations are European with a difference. They are Spanish American, not Spanish, and those of Argentina are quite distinct in tone from those of their kinsmen on the same continent.

A foreigner has considerable difficulty in dealing with the literature of a country whose publications are little studied in Europe, and apparently little information can be gathered except from the actual writers. It is, therefore, necessary to begin with Dr. Ernesto Quesada, whose _Resenas y Criticas_ (Buenos Aires, 1893) is a mine of information.

He remarks in the Preface: "In Europe the creations of the mind are kept, polished, revised, accomplished, and completed for publication very slowly and with tender care: in America we look upon writing as a mere incident, and though we may as far as possible do it with the long study and the great love of which the poet spoke, we do not boast ourselves of it, or, perhaps, keep a record. Our life draws us to action and into such strange vicissitudes that it is not possible to see what to-morrow will bring." There is, then, an amateurish air about Argentine literature; it has at present more grace than strength. The writer has been before the public for more than thirty years. "Un Invierno en Russia," a book of travel, was published in 1888, and long before that he produced a youthful work on Juvenal and Persius--an unusual subject, for Latin Americans usually look upon the study of Latin and Greek as waste of time. Dr. Quesada has also written on political and ecclesiastical subjects. In the first-mentioned book of essays he deals with the poetry, history, and jurisprudence of his native land, as well as the Latin-American Congress, the Argentine Universities, the intellectual movement in Argentina, and a number of other subjects which are exactly those upon which a thoughtful observer of a foreign country desires information.

Cultured Argentines have devoted considerable attention to history; their nation has played a great part in the revolutionary wars; they are proud of it and demand chroniclers. Mention must first be made of Dean Funes, who lived in the days of the Revolution and whose "Ensayo de la Historia Civil del Paraguay, Buenos Ayres y Tuc.u.man" is, to one who wants a comprehensive view of Argentine history, the most valuable work upon the subject. Upon the Revolution itself General Bartolome Mitre is the best authority, and D. F. Sarmiento has written well upon the troubled times of the mid-century, but in general English and French works deal with the history of modern Argentina quite as satisfactorily as do her own writers.

Undoubtedly it is in jurisprudence, particularly in International Law, that writers of this country have accomplished most original work.

Prominent among her publicists is Carlos Calvo (1824-1893) who lived chiefly abroad in pursuit of his diplomatic career. In 1868 he published in Paris his "Derecho internacional teorico y practico de Europa y America," which was at once translated into French and took place as one of the highest modern authorities on the subject. Calvo observes: "I have called my work 'The International Law of Europe and America in Theory and Practice,' because I am endeavouring in it to make amends for the neglect of my predecessors and contemporaries who have almost entirely omitted to deal with the vast American continent, which nevertheless is growing daily in influence and power and marching side by side with the civilisation of Europe." The book is a minute a.n.a.lysis of the principles and practice of International Law and is specially valuable on account of its historical treatment and copious instances. Calvo also did good service to Argentine history by his collection of doc.u.ments, but his eminence is in the field of International Law, and he is one of the very few Latin-American authors who have won a world-wide reputation.

While Calvo has surpa.s.sed all other South Americans in the importance of his contribution to the theory of International Law, Dr. Luis Maria Drago has done the same as regards the practice. Towards the close of 1902 England, Germany, and Italy had blockaded the coast of Venezuela on account of certain grievances. On December 29, 1902, Dr. Drago, then Minister for Foreign Affairs, despatched a note to the Argentine Minister in Washington. He maintained that no European State was ent.i.tled to intervene by force in the affairs of an American nation, still less to occupy its territory, in order to recover a debt due from its Government to the subjects of the intervening State, such intervention being an infringement of the sovereignty of the debtor State and of the principle of the equality of the sovereign States.[88]

This doctrine, though never precisely stated, had been foreshadowed by Calvo. It has been pointed out[89] that the blockade of 1902 was not originally inst.i.tuted on account of Venezuela's failure to pay debts, but to obtain redress for outrages inflicted upon the subjects of the blockading Powers, that Venezuela had refused the suggestion of arbitration, that Dr. Drago misunderstood the Venezuelan question, and that the Powers never intended permanently to occupy any part of Venezuela. Further, Mr. Hay, in his reply to Dr. Drago, said: "The President declared in his Message to Congress, December 3, 1901, that by the Munroe Doctrine 'we do not guarantee any State against punishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any non-American Power.'" Although the practice, against which the Drago Doctrine protests is liable to be abused, it would hardly be prudent on the part of European Powers nor conducive to progress in backward States, if the right of collecting debts were surrendered altogether; and this view was taken at the Hague Conference of 1907. It adopted the Drago Doctrine in a modified form, providing that force must not be used for the recovery of ordinary public debts originating in contracts, but the prohibition was not to apply if the debtor State refused or ignored an offer of arbitration, obstructed the process, or repudiated the decision. The resolution was adopted by thirty-nine votes. There were five abstentions, including Venezuela, which had no liking for the modifications. This tangible addition to the public law of the world, which was one of the few successes of the Conference, was a great personal triumph for Dr. Drago, who was then the Argentine Delegate to the Conference. There have been many other meritorious Argentine writers on legal subjects of all kinds, as well as commercial and economic, but this account of two great names must suffice.

After the splendid achievements of Argentina in jurisprudence, the work of her writers in more purely literary fields may appear to be eclipsed. But in the charming branch of essay-writing many good authors have appeared, and these were mostly trained in the excellent periodicals of a quarter of a century ago and upwards. Prominent among these is Martin Garcia Merou, who will also claim notice as a poet. He is an author of long standing, having first appeared before the public in 1880 with a volume of poems which was published at Barcelona. As before remarked, it is a practice of many Argentine writers to publish in Paris or Madrid in preference to Buenos Aires, and indeed the influence of Spain upon Argentine literature is now quite as strong as that of England used to be upon the United States. It was at Madrid that Garcia published, in 1884, an acute critical work, "Estudios Literarios" and also "Impresiones," a book of travel, but since then he has reverted to Buenos Aires. One of his most spirited works appeared there in 1900, "El Brasil Intelectual," which is a rich storehouse of information about a country which is perhaps somewhat neglected by Argentines. Garcia has a deservedly high reputation among his countrymen, and has been warmly praised by Dr. Ernesto Quesada.

Among this cla.s.s of writer J. M. Gutierrez has done valuable editorial and critical work, and some have held that he is the most eminent man of letters, in the ordinary sense of the word, who has appeared in Argentina. M. Daireaux[90] remarks caustically: "He knew no joys but those of literature; he had all the traditional American curiosity, he made researches in the chronicles and caused them to live again, he re-discovered all the thoughts of the greatest men of the world, and illuminated them with the powerful rays of his gigantic intellect. But withal, as he was not a politician with influence at his disposal, nor a lawyer with a numerous group of clients around him, as he had nothing but a great soul, he occupied in society but a humble rank. I used to speak of him with men who appreciated him, and I never drew from them more than a shrug and this word of pity: 'What would you have? He is a literary man!' They did not even say a member of the literary profession; the profession did not exist, was not cla.s.sed; he was only a literary man--not even, as they say in France, a man of letters." The writer adds that the profession is now recognised in Buenos Aires.

Still, in spite of his capacious intellect, Gutierrez can hardly be looked upon as occupying the first place among the men of letters of Argentina, because he produced little original work.

Prose fiction now fills a very prominent place in the literature of almost every nation, and Argentina is no exception to the rule, but it cannot be said that her writers possess any great distinction. Dr.

Quesada considers that Jose Marmol, distinguished in other branches of literature, was the best of the early novelists. In 1851 he published a spirited romance named "Amalia," somewhat after the style of the elder Dumas. It can hardly be called historical, for the scene is laid in 1840 and the subject is the tyranny of Rosas, but the author declares that he wishes to describe for the benefit of future generations, the Argentine dictatorship, and that therefore he has treated in a historical manner actual living persons. The book was a success, but Marmol does not appear to have followed it up.

In 1884 Carlos Maria Ocantos published a juvenile work, "La Cruz de la Falta," which was recognised as showing considerable promise, and in 1888 appeared "Leon Saldivar," which was hailed as a national novel.

This writer, who, like most Argentine authors, is a diplomatist by profession and a man of letters by temperament, does not follow the trend of Argentine fiction, which is towards historical romances. He is a realist, and "Leon Saldivar" is a powerful study of Argentine life, and particularly life at the capital. The more spiritual people of the city were beginning to complain of it as a noisy, overgrown place, devoted to money-grubbing, and indeed its poets and philosophers in general made haste to quit it for a more favourable atmosphere, and often did not even pay it the compliment of allowing it to publish their works. Ocantos strove to elicit the romance of Buenos Aires as d.i.c.kens found out the romance of London. He continued this vein with a still more powerful and sombre work, "Quilito," in 1891. The two writers here briefly noticed ill.u.s.trate the imitative character of the Argentine novel--the first looks to Dumas, the second to Zola.

Many critics think that the strongest Argentine novel which has yet appeared is "La Gloria de Don Ramiro," published at Madrid in 1908.

The author, Sr. Enrique Larreta, lays his plot in the times of Philip II. of Spain, and stirring scenes are described with great verve. The musings of a boy, when his intellect is expanding and his head full of the books he has last read, are always a tempting theme for romancers, and the following pa.s.sage, in the spirit of "the days of our youth are the days of our glory," reflects the glow of boyish dreams:--

"Fascinated by his books, Ramirio began to imagine himself the hero of the story. He was in turn Julius Caesar, the Cid, the Great Captain, Cortes, Don Juan of Austria. To take up the _Commentaries_ was to lead the legions across Gaul, but, on the Ides of March, more sagacious than the Dictator, he discovered the treachery of Junius Brutus and, concealing a sword under his toga, he entered the Senate House and slew the conspirators one by one. He conquered the Moors on countless fields, he offered to Spain the kingdom of Naples or the empire of Montezuma, and finally, planting his foot on the prow of a strange ship, he destroyed for ever the whole Turkish fleet, at a new and marvellous Lepanto, which his imagination evoked from the prints. The result was that he began to deem himself chosen by G.o.d to carry on the tradition of deathless fame. He put away from his mental view the mediocre, the commonplace, the humdrum. All that was not impulsive and heroic seemed intolerable, for he felt in himself an absolute confidence of winning at a blow the highest honours and becoming, in a short time, one of the foremost knights of the Catholic Faith on earth."

The book is in many ways one of the most remarkable works of the imagination that has been created by an Argentine and Sr. Larreta writes pure and nervous Spanish.

Last comes a branch of literature which is probably the most popular, and certainly the most esteemed, in Spanish America, which takes mediocre poets far more seriously than did Horace, or, indeed, than is the habit of the more stolid East. A somewhat sardonic French traveller[91] lately remarked: "Spanish America has only one thought--love. And love has given to it the one art which it practises, if not in perfection at least in abundance inexhaustible--lyric poetry.

It appears that Peru and Colombia and Guatemala possess great poets....

Being a foreigner, I cannot judge about their greatness, but I can see that they are numerous, indeed innumerable. Not a newspaper but contains every morning poems, and their invariable burden is the pa.s.sion of love.

The eyes, the teeth, the lips, the hair, the hands and feet of the American misses are here, one by one, compared to all the beauties of earth and sky. The warmth of sentiment is undoubted, but the expression lacks originality."

There seems, indeed, to be an inexhaustible demand for a kind of verse which a foreigner has a great difficulty in judging, owing to difference in national temperaments and, perhaps still more, differences in national ages. A thousand years makes a great difference in a nation's point of view, and much that seems fresh and beautiful to the younger people is hackneyed and tedious to the older.

The poetry of Argentina and, it is said, of all Latin America, appears to be erotic or spasmodic, or both. It is pretty, but it has not sufficient freshness to conquer a hearing in the great world.

But the earliest work with which we need deal is an anonymous anthology, which forms an exception to the general rule. In 1823 some patriot, by a happy inspiration, collected the s.n.a.t.c.hes of song which the revolutionists had composed and by which they marched to victory, and these form a substantial volume--"La Lira Argentina." It consists of a great number of poems, mostly short--"Marcha patriotica," "Oda"

(por la victoria de Suipacha), "Cancion patriotica," "Cancion Heroica," "A La Excelentisima Junta," "Marcha Patriotica" ("Long live our country free from chains, and long live her sons to defend her"), "Marcha Nacional Oriental," and the like. They are full of fire and simple art; they are really a n.o.ble national memorial and worth a wilderness of love lyrics. But this view has not been developed, although one would suppose that Argentina, with its mountains and Pampas, deserved better local poetry of manhood and adventure than the rude songs of the Gauchos.

Marmol (1818-1873), already referred to as a novelist, in some way carries on the patriotic tradition, for in 1838 he was thrown by Rosas into a dungeon, and inscribed with a burnt stick the following quatrain on the walls of his prison:--

"Wretch! set before me dreadful Death, And all my limbs in fetters bind; Thou canst not quench my moral breath, Nor place a chain upon my mind."

He managed to survive and became a busy man of letters and subsequently Director of the National Library. Marmol wrote a good many love poems, but he is more remarkable for having attempted a field which seems to have little attraction for his countrymen. He wrote at least two poetical dramas, "El Cruzado" and "El Poeta," the first historical, the second a modern comedy. He is a sound and conscientious literary craftsman, and the literary world of Buenos Aires looks back to him with profound respect. He seems to have approached nearer to the type of the professional man of letters than is common in Argentina.

The other poets are extremely numerous, and it is not necessary to particularise them. With them it is always the hour of night, and the same question always arises: "Why do you come to disturb my calm, image of that being whom I adore, image of that being, for whom alas!

I weep, for whom I consume away and die of love?" The quotation in question happens to be from a Colombian poet, but the note is always the same; there is too little distinctiveness about the poets of Argentina to require detailed treatment. The short-lived Adolfo Mitre, who was highly praised for his sincerity and pa.s.sion, or Sr. Martin Garcia Merou may stand as types of the rest.

Garcia Merou, besides being a poet, is an elegant essayist--already noticed--a good historian, and has shown himself highly appreciative of the work of brother poets. It is, perhaps, to the amateurish state of Argentine literature, which does not engender professional jealousy, that the pleasant comradeship and apparent lack of literary squabbles are due. Garcia Merou published many volumes of poems of the usual type in the eighties. In 1891 appeared a different kind of work, "Cuadros Epicos," short poems dealing with various scenes in Spanish-American history. "El Mar de Balboa" is impressive.

The things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme are still the best part of Argentine literature; in new countries material fruit precedes intellectual blossom. This is inevitable in such cases, for it is necessary to live before it is possible to write, and literature is at every disadvantage owing to the scantiness and preoccupation of the people. Prosperity may probably continue to blunt the literary sense, for national dangers and terrors, such as called forth the Elizabethan literature and the Romantic Revival in England, or the modest "Lira Argentina," are unlikely, and the education system, which despises Latin and Greek--_i.e._, literature--does not foster good writers. The matter must be left to time and events. The people of Argentina are practical, and their literary wants are well supplied in the shape of all that the practical man wants. There are excellent and useful writings on law, adequate histories, lucid essays, a few novels, and, above all, a most excellent press, which last probably forms his complete subst.i.tute for a library. He wants no more. Possibly that absence of wants is the most serious want of all; a life that can be satisfied by craftsman, cook, or groom, is at least incomplete, and it may be that earth has something better to show than fat cattle, corn, grapes, or even dollars. These things have not been the distinguishing products of nations in the past which are now inscribed upon the rolls of fame, and, however materialistic men become, such things will not even now hand a nation on to all futurity. The literature of Argentina, though creditable, is by no means on a scale proportionate to her present position among nations.

FOOTNOTES:

[82] See Windsor, "History of America," ii. 322, 3.

[83] "The obligations of religion were undermined, every weapon was directed to the extermination of the unshaken foes of the revolution.

The ignorant and depraved set no bounds to their conduct, every thought of religion and morals, of future welfare and its effects upon unborn generations, were out of the question. Many of the youth of this province have, in consequence, been brought up in a neglect of all religion" (Captain Andrews, "Journey" &c., i. 190).

[84] Primary education is free and compulsory for children between the ages of six and fourteen. It is also, unfortunately, secular.

[85] The following table will show that Argentina is more advanced than her neighbours:--

Percentage to Population of School-going Children.

Argentina 10 Uruguay 7 Chile 370 Paraguay 350 Peru 286 Brazil 2 Bolivia 2

Santiago and Jujuy are the most ignorant parts of the Republic, Buenos Aires City the least.

[86] emile Daireaux, "La Vie et Les Moeurs a La Plata," i. 414.

[87] _Caras y Caretas_ is a sprightly weekly paper of varied interests, which makes a special feature of coloured cartoons.

[88] See the _Annual Register_ of 1907, p. 345.

[89] See the _North American Review_, July 31, 1907.

[90] "La Vie et les Moeurs a La Plata," i. 408-9.

[91] M. de Waleffe, "Les Paradis de l'Amerique Centrale," p. 213.

CHAPTER XV

INDUSTRIAL ARGENTINA--RAILWAYS AND MINOR ENTERPRISES

Undoubtedly at the present time the main interest of Argentina is industrial. The wonderful rapidity of her expansion is perhaps the most remarkable phenomenon of this generation, and can only be realised by a visit to the country. No nation has more thoroughly appreciated this fact than France, which hails with triumph the rapid progress of a Latin race as a counterbalancing force to industrial degeneration in Europe. If able and eloquent essays and elaborate statistics, written with great literary power to call the attention of French capital and enterprise to the River Plate, were sufficient for the purpose, France would have a very prominent industrial part in that region. But, generally speaking, France is enough for the French, and that country only contributes 10 per cent. of the Argentine imports, and is thus only slightly ahead of Italy. The rulers of the United States have also grasped the importance of this new force, and the _Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics_, for fulness and clearness of information, puts to shame all English efforts in the same direction. Yet, in spite of all their exertions, the United States do not possess a single bank in Argentina (possibly not in the whole of South America), and England sends to the River Plate two and a half times as much merchandise. Germany also spares no effort, although Brazil attracts still more attention. If gratuitous advertising could command success, Germany would be first without a rival. For some mysterious reason every Englishman, whether at home or abroad, considers it necessary to boom German goods and German enterprise, and a suggestion that the Teuton has left a little trade to the Anglo-Saxon is received with polite incredulity. In their enthusiasm our countrymen are a little forgetful of facts and proportion, and they somehow manage to persuade themselves that Germany is an absolutely irresistible industrial force. In the Argentine her share of the import trade is somewhat less than half that of England.