65 



-their refusal to buy for gold, have ended by practically 

 forcing the State to take a hand in the business of the 

 country, and eventually to .the State lending its name as 

 security ere we could dispose of the greater part of our 

 cereals. 



The participation of the State in the business of the 

 land has had to be extended in unexpected directions. 

 The scarcity of tonnage for delivering our products to 

 our consumers has involved the Government in a ship- 

 owning and freight chartering enterprise. Its efforts, 

 however, have not been commensurate with the problem, 

 and freights are as high as ever, ships as scarce as before 

 and the programme of State intervention, here as else- 

 where, has proved insufficient to change the aspect of 

 affairs in regard to business. 



STATE INTERVENTION. 



It is a great pity that the Government, instead of 

 being led into a shipping scheme, which, to be of any real 

 utility would have to be extended to dimensions superior 

 to the needs of the moment or the resources of the State, 

 was not, from the beginning, induced to devote the same 

 sums and enterprise, towards constructing elevators, and 

 adequate storage deposits. 



For the same amount of money, $6,000,000, cost of 

 acquisition of .ss. "Bahia Blanca" our present facilities 

 for handling grain could have been doubled, and a start 

 made towards sound business methods which, would have 

 left behind it a real statesmanlike record of sound Gov- 

 ernment to the credit of those at present managing State 

 affairs . 



What has been accomplished by the acquisition of 

 -one steamer, the "Bahia Blanca'', and the conversion of 

 ex-cruiser ' ' Patagonia ' ' into a merchant vessel, is hard to 

 define, but we have every evidence that it has not hinder- 

 ed the constant rise in freights, or alleviated difficulties 

 in the transport of our cereals. Both these objects would 

 have been attained had the same money been inverted in 

 amplifying our elevator services. 



Had an adequate number of elevators existed at our 

 ports there would have been no need for our authorities 

 to undertake a shipping scheme at all, for no matter what 

 ^hindrances cropped up we would have been in position 

 to meet them. Even at the last moment the inversion of 

 8 million pesos in elevators (instead of in ships) by the 

 Government would have gone a long way to alleviating 

 ^difficulties regarding shipment of our goods. In any 

 ease the spending of such sums in the country would have 



