LEADING ARTICLES. 



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engine. It made its appearance ages 

 before Watt's invention. We find it as 

 early as the seventeenth century in 

 capitalist manufactures, and later in 

 factories with hydraulic power. The 

 proletariat may be regarded as a result 

 of the dissolution of the feudal system, 

 the closing of the cloisters, the expul- 

 sion of the peasants from the country 

 by the abolition of communal owner- 

 ship and the sale of church propertv. 

 Then followed capital and drove those 

 hordes of landless proletarians into in- 

 dustrial occupations. 



This creation of an industrial prole- 

 tariat took place in Argentine also. 

 After the May revolution of 1810, 

 which secured the necessary " order " 

 for the bourgeoisie and took care to 

 guarantee its interest, there ensued a 

 period when the immeasurable stretches 

 of land were greedily seized, and, as 

 the pushing advance of the rich was 

 bound to encounter resistance, the 

 famous civil war broke out, the issues 

 being the total subjugation of the rural 

 population by the " cultured " money- 

 bags, or the relative freedom and in- 

 dependence of the Gauchos (peasants). 

 Though the latter were formerly vic- 

 torious, even Rosas could maintain the 

 victory only for a brief space. 

 Peasant dominion split upon the rock 

 of the political incompetence and ignor- 

 ance of the Gauchos, who thereunon 

 gradually sank into complete bondage. 



How far this exploitation has pro- 

 gressed in a country which boasts of 

 encouraging small holdings, is clearly 

 shown, says Thiessen, by such facts as 

 that, in the Province of Santa Fe, 472 

 proprietors own about 60 per cent, of 

 the land area. Under these conditions 

 tenant- farming plays a tremendous role, 

 and thus recently there was a regular 

 strike among the farmers, which led to 

 the founding of the peasants' league 

 (Liga agraria). Furthermore, with the 

 sparse population, il is readily com- 

 prehensible how little of modern life 

 is to be found on these farms. 



The reign of terror recently ••discovered" 

 in the rubber region of Peru is nothing new 

 to ns Argentines. Our young "smart" en- 

 signs win their first spurs there in these 

 wilds. Year alter year, hungry, desperate 

 tenants storm the shops (almacenes) , or field- 

 labourers take forcible possession of railway 

 trains in order to flee from this " land of 

 milk and honey." The rural population, 

 the field-workers, have, moreover, no organ- 

 isation and not the faintest feeling of class- 

 consciousness, because their economic servi- 

 tude has imbued them with a slavish spirit. 

 The rural masses have from remotest times 

 been the pillar of the despotic rule of the 

 provincial potentates. As to the provincial 

 towns, bureaucracy is the dominating factor 



SOCIALISM THE ONLY HOPE. 

 If this were all, says Thiessen, Ferri 

 might be right. But the economic con- 

 ditions in Buenos Aires and in some of 

 the inland towns are different. In 1908 

 Buenos Aires, with a population of 

 1,200,000, had over 118,000 wage- 

 earners, among them over 88,000 fac- 

 tory workers. Here, then, elements are 

 ripening which offer a firmer basis for 

 Socialism in Argentine. The only 

 followers of Marx come from these 

 labour-circles ; they do not wish to 

 neglect work of immediate practical 

 effect, but they believe that it must be 

 permeated with the Socialist spirit if it 

 is to benefit the movement in the future. 



THE FIRST SOCIALIST M's.P. 

 In last year's elections in Buenos 

 Aires (April 7th, 191 2), the Socialists 

 polled 18,000 votes, and, for the first 

 time, two Socialists appeared in the 

 National Parliament. Although thev 

 could achieve very little practically, 

 their mere presence, says Thiessen, ac- 

 complished wonders. They brought 

 new light into the corrupt political 

 system. Thus the idea that it is impos- 

 sible for .1 in. m to act at once as a re- 

 presentative of concerns subsidised by 

 the Government and as the people's re- 

 presentative who grants the subsidies, 

 has at last been brought home to the 

 people, .Hid certain gentlemen who are 

 disqualified by this principle have been 

 kept out of Parliament through the 

 rts of (he S< icialists. 



