public men. The student may contemplate this most interesting transformation, displayed before his eyes like the moving film of a gigantic cinematograph which permits him to grasp at once the different phases of the social problem which it presents. Rarely in the history of humanity has it been possible to contemplate a like spectacle. The United States presented it a half century ago, to the astonished gaze of men of that day who were but little familiar with social problems. The Argentine Republic is repeating now the same phenomenon, with this difference that it can observe itself and be guided by the experience acquired elsewhere. Other countries of the world, in the future will, no doubt, in their turn repeat a similar evolution, though perhaps in a different environment. But the interesting part of the present moment is that the Argentine Republic is sailing upon the same course in the twentieth century that the United States did in the nineteenth. Our evolution is proceeding with greater care because it is being worked out amid better conditions. We can now take advantage of the costly experience gained by our brothers of the north and so by avoiding many of their errors, seek to escape the shoals upon which they stranded and the mistakes which they involuntarily committed, even though we have in our turn special problems which they did not have. Thus the tremendous politico-social crisis of the North American War of Secession will not be repeated in the southern hemisphere and the Argentine social evolution will not have to solve the profound anthropological problem of the rivalry of races, which, in the United States, arises from the white, black and yellow races, living together side by side.

In Argentine there are no ethnic problems. The social antagonism raised by an arrogant plutocracy on the one hand and poverty stricken proletariat on the other, is not presented as an Argentine problem, because riches are still in process of formation there, and easily pass from one hand to another. A monopoly of riches cannot be prolonged beyond a single generation because with the system of compulsory division of descendants' estates, it soon returns to the common mass of the population. Social conditions in our evolution, present distinct problems from those which characterize other nations and demand, therefore, a direct study on the ground and must not be viewed through the doctrines developed in other nations and amid other conditions. The molding of the national spirit by uniform and compulsory schools and the slow adaptation of the mass of the immigrants to historical traditions and to future national aims, demand much time and they are now in the full process of being worked out. The celebration of the Centenary of our independence has made prominent the fact that such an evolution is much more advanced than one would think. There still remains, nevertheless, not a little to be done in this direction, though the national compulsory school system and the army conscription are factors of great importance which are working for fusion. But, in the country districts and in those places where the error has been committed of permitting the formation of settlements, homogeneous in race and religion, which regard themselves as autonomous offshoots of their mother country, resisting the Argentine school or any intermingling with the mass of neighboring population—in such districts, the fusion, though inevitable, will be necessarily slower.

All these sociological problems might and should have been exhaustively studied in the history of the United States during the nineteenth century, a history which, as I have said, the Argentine Republic is repeating in the twentieth. Foreign immigration at this time has no outlet more profitable than the River Plate. The doors of North America are gradually being closed, and the other regions do not yet present the same advantages as those offered by our country. The same thing that happens with the excess of population of other nations also occurs with its surplus capital; no other quarter of the globe offers better prospects for the investment of capital and for a greater rate of return. The "manifest destiny" of Argentine depends for the present entirely upon the development of its commercial relations with the rest of the world. It must convert itself into the granary and the meat market of Europe.

The closest bonds of mutual interest unite Argentina with Europe, because being producers of unlike commodities, the European markets consume our exportation and our markets consume theirs. With the rest of America our interchange of trade must be upon a smaller scale, because for more than a century to come we shall be countries producing similar commodities. Therefore, our respective markets will not reciprocally serve to buy the excess of production, but only that which by reason of climate or industrial development is to be found or manufactured in any other country than our own. This has happened to us notably in the case of the United States with its tremendous industrial expansion. In order to fulfill this "manifest destiny," we need pax multa with the whole world. We need to give attention exclusively to our development without intermeddling in that of others. In this is summed up everything. Hence our international policy has to be pacific and neutral; we must be every man's friend, and shun imperialistic fancies. The "splendid isolation" of England fits her condition and her inclination. We must work and we must be allowed to work. Our social evolution still requires a century to acquire a definite contour. Though results may be foreseen from their beginnings, it is not possible to foretell what will be the future Argentine type, physically, mentally or materially.

For the present, the only proper thing for us to do is to devote ourselves exclusively to the exploitation of our resources for we have seen how much effort will be required to assimulate our population, to form a national spirit, to build up a great future nation, to develop an administration which shall be a model of honesty and scientific preparation, and to adapt the republic to its future needs by public works and institutions, and by showing ourselves firm in faith and effective in works.

The present social tendencies in Argentine evolution give promise of a great future for the country. The nation is not hesitating or vacillating before the realization of its manifest destiny. It follows with profound interest the new and colossal social experiment, which is unfolding to the view of the world the different phases of the formation of a nation in whose development the shoals are being avoided where others were wrecked, and which is putting into practice the improvements suggested by the experience of the other nations in order to realize the new evolution easily, prudently, and successfully.