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SOUTH AMERICA
TO-DAY
A STUDY OF CONDITIONS, SOCIAL
POLITICAL, AND COMMERCIAL
IN ARGENTINA, URUGUAY
AND BRAZIL
BY
GEORGES CLEMENCEAU
FORMERLY PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1911
Copyright, 1911
by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
INTRODUCTION
I have been asked for my impressionsas a traveller in SouthAmerica. I had no sooner promisedthem than a difficulty presenteditself. I have no notes of my journey,and I should be sorry to have them, for it isannoying to record impressions in black andwhite at the precise moment when one feelsthem most vividly. And I pass over in silencethe hour when it is wisdom to remain quiet.
The task of Christopher Columbus was lightenedby one fact. America was there, stationary,in the middle of the sea, only waiting forsome one to knock against it. I even found inBrazil an eminent Senator for the State of SaintPaul, Señor Almeida Nogueira, who declaredthat the principal event of that Friday, October12th, was the discovery—by the original Americans—ofEurope in the person of the greatGenoese. They had this advantage over him—theyhad not left their homes.
What was I going to discover in my turn, atthe risk of being myself discovered?—unknowncountries?—unheard-of peoples?—virgin civilisations?—orsimply points of comparisons for newjudgments on myself and on my country?
Our self-satisfaction will not allow us readilyto admit that we have anything to learn fromyoung communities, though we are too readyto talk in generalities about them. We cannotdeny, however, that their effort is fine, and tendscontinually toward success.
In such a result the least quick-sighted of usmust be interested. Facility of communicationhas multiplie