68 



RAILWAYS. 



Due to the natural conditions, Railways for the Ar- 

 gentine Republic are practically the sole medium of com- 

 munication; they play a still greater r,ole here than else- 

 where since they constitute the only means of transport. 

 Neither roads nor rivers can attempt to replace railway 

 transport; in this respect railways are pre-eminently in- 

 volved in the progress of the Argentine Republic. 



Contrary to what occurred in Europe, railways here 

 have not been evolved as a more rapid and efficient 

 means of transport, as against road or river, or even as 

 a relief to the terrible condition of the roads. Trade 

 and railway transport went hand in hand from the very 

 beginning of progress here, and the utility of railways 

 has never been questioned. During the recent strikes 

 which affected the entire country and reduced travelling 

 to the roads and rivers, the fact that certain trips were 

 made from one part of the country to the other by road 

 was hailed as a remarkable feat, which evidently implies 

 that for the average inhabitant no other means of com- 

 munication exist except by railways. The efficiency of 

 railways can never be called into question as a means for 

 transporting our produce, whatever may be the criticisms 

 hurled against the manner of administrating them, a fact 

 which is sometimes lost sight of. Every attempt to in- 

 troduce other means of transport, even, to the extension 

 of the use of our waterways, one of the cheapest forms 

 of transport conceivable-or to the return to the time hon- 

 oured method of "arreo" for moving the herds .and 

 flocks, speedily relapses into plans and projects, in which 

 few are disposed to take more than a perfunctory inter- 

 est, despite the innumerable and undeniable advantages 

 which might accrue to the country in general, and the 

 farmers and estancieros in particular. 



Railways are, in fact, Argentine roads; probably 

 the facility for constructing them against the difficulties 

 of building good transitable roads accounts for the dev- 

 elopment of one against the backwardness of the other. 



In freights there is no comparison ; over the railway 

 lines the cost of transport is one third of that by road, 

 frvr even short distances, in actual charges. In time rail- 

 ways are ten times quicker, in precision and security 

 they are incomparably superior, in losses one-fiftieth of 

 that experienced by road. 



How great a part railways play in the national eco- 

 nomy is again and again impressed on the general pub- 

 lic, whenever labour difficulties crop up, or any parti- 

 cular thing happens to interrupt their services. Nearly 



