31 



OUR REAL WEALTH. 

 $1,500,000,000 Less Than Need Have Been. 



I think that few will dispute the accuracy of my 

 prognostications made in 1914, that is, that we would lose 

 or rather fail to profit by the war to the extent of 

 $500,000,000 annually in the event of our being favoured 

 with good harvests: three years and a half of war, of 

 good crops, of unparalleled opportunity for making mo- 

 ney, a true occasion for "hacer la America" not alone 

 for the immigrant but for the whole country, and what- 

 ever we have gained by what has been done, we have let 

 slip the opportunity for making twice as much; instead 

 of an increase of some 500 millions yearly in our national 

 wealth, we could have doubled it, and still lent our clients 

 twice the sum we have given them in credits. 



However, it is useless to be concerned with what we 

 might have gained ; it is only worth while recalling, as it 

 serves as a lesson for the future and pushes us on to 

 resolve the difficulties of the present. 



Let us return to the present situation and its prob- 

 lems. 



1,000,000,000 PESOS IN CEREALS. 



Can We Realise on Them. 



At the present moment we have enormous stocks of 

 cereals in the country, the sale of which has become pro- 

 blematical. 



How are we to dispose of these millions of tons of 

 wheat, maize, oats, linseed and if we cannot dispose of 

 them at once, what are we going to do ; allow them to rot 

 J and lose all the vast amount of labour and capital invest- 

 ed in their production, and at the same time ruin half 

 our agriculturists. 



The same question was presented last year for the 

 consideration of a commission specially appointed by the 

 Government to examine into the sale and disposal of our 

 vast stocks of cereals . 



After studying the question for some time the Com- 

 mission issued their report which, whilst demonstrating 

 the close application and the best of attention on the 

 part of the gentlemen who occupied themselves with the 

 problem, nevertheless was most desultory reading ; it pro- 

 vided no permanent solution for the question, offered no 

 explanations as to the probable causes, and much less 

 tendered any practical advice as what might be done. 



The commission contented itself with remarking that 

 as far as wheat was concerned the world's production 



