LA PLATA 25 



while waiting. We labeled our baggage and put it in a 

 van, or rather had porters do it as in England, and en- 

 tered small compartment cars with first- and second-class 

 sections, all quite European. The rates for travel were 

 high, and we learned that the terms granted to the rail- 

 roads in their "concessions" were very liberal to the rail- 

 roads, in some cases even guaranteeing them certain profits. 

 Freight rates were also high and very irregular, some short 

 hauls of not over 120 miles costing more than the charges 

 on the same goods, from England to Argentine, 6,500 

 miles. These rates are fixed by their "concessions," a 

 word full of meaning all through South America. A 

 "concession" is usually purchased and consists of more 

 than franchise rights, being a form of special privilege. It 

 seemed as if everyone had or was trying to get a "con- 

 cession." While these usually help the city, state, or 

 national treasury for the moment, and often satisfy a 

 much-felt need, they of course have to be paid for by 

 future generations, often several times over, and become 

 great drawbacks to steady progress, especially as it is 

 about them that the worst forms of graft hang. 



The trip to La Plata took us through the rich farming 

 country about Buenos Aires, most of which was being 

 used for grazing cattle. During 19 10 there had been a 

 great drought all over this northern portion of the republic, 

 the effects of which we saw in that hundreds of carcasses 

 of cattle were still lying in the fields where they had died 

 of starvation a few months before. The rains had come, 

 however, and the brilliant green of the new grass suggested 

 anything but starvation. 



The farm houses were small, one-, two- and three- room, 

 box-like structures, the older ones made of half-baked 

 bricks and stucco, the later ones of corrugated sheet iron, 

 and all looking very poor. These we found were the homes 

 of the laborers. Much if not most of the farm land in 

 Argentine is in large tracts, as granted by the old Spanish 



