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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Part of Taltal harbor and city, with typical appearance of Coast Mountains. 



quintal. At that time the selling price, on board ship, was 7.50 pesos 

 to 8 pesos per quintal. Under favorable conditions, therefore, this 

 oficina could market about 2,000,000 quintals a year, with profits 

 amounting to 4,000,000 pesos. This particular oficina cost more than 

 6,000,000 pesos, but with the trade good, it would pay for itself in two 

 years and give annual dividends of 10 per cent, at the same time. 

 About five and a half square miles of nitrate lands have been set aside 

 for the Pinto, a supply calculated to keep it going for twenty years,, in 

 most of which time the plant has nothing to do except pay dividends. 

 The making of nitrate millionaires, therefore, is easy to understand. 



The construction of a modern oficina uses supplies from widely 

 separated places. Most of the buildings are of corrugated iron, for it 

 withstands the intense dryness better than wood does. It commonly 

 comes from Europe. The timber which is used is likely to be Oregon 

 pine, for it is strong, durable and about as cheap as the Chilean product. 

 German steel for tanks, cement from the United States, boilers from 

 England, Belgian locomotives to haul the tiny cars and United States 

 electrical equipment are found at one oficina. 



Most of the laborers are Chileans, Peruvians and Bolivians, at- 

 tracted there by the higher wages than are to be had elsewhere in most 

 other pursuits. In fact, the complaint is often made that the nitrate 

 industry has retarded development of other activities in Chile, espe- 

 cially greater agricultural progress in the south, by absorbing not only 

 the capital, but the labor as well. About 40,000 persons are said to be 

 employed directly in the oficinas, some of the larger of which have more 

 than 1,000 hands each. "Wages run from about 3 pesos to 4 pesos per 

 day for boys and 6 pesos per day for the poorest paid men, up to as 

 high as 15 pesos for some of the men working in the maquina. Per- 



