THE AWAKENING OF ARGENTINA AND CHILE 



Progress in the Lands That Lie Below Capricorn 

 By Bailey Willis 



WE NORTH AMERICANS, 

 who live in a vast continent 

 that lies nearly all in the tem- 

 perate and cooler zones, scarcely realize 

 that South America is four-fifths tropical. 

 Fields of wheat and oats are familiar to 

 us, but in South America are scarcely 

 seen outside of Argentina and Chile, ex- 

 cept in high, cool valleys. South America 

 might be called a banana country. 



Bananas grow from Paraguay to Mex- 

 ico ; wheat and oats flourish only in the 

 tapering tip of the southern continent ; 

 and this gives to Argentina and Chile a 

 peculiar interest among South American 

 countries as the homes of vigorous, ener- 

 getic peoples competent to rule them- 

 selves. To Argentina and Chile we may 

 add Uruguay and the highlands of south- 

 eastern Brazil, and also the limited areas 

 of the tropical Andes, whose altitude 

 gives them cool climates. The rest of the 

 continent, the vast interior, is the land of 

 the siesta — the land to be developed and 

 administered by peoples of the temperate 

 zones. 



The great task and obligation of Ar- 

 gentina, southern Brazil, and Chile, the 

 A, B, C powers, is to guide the develop- 

 ment of the tropical Americas, through 

 the exercise of wise statesmanship, to- 

 ward stability, peace, and prosperity. 



Rio de Janeiro, on the Atlantic coast, 

 and Antofagasta, on the Pacific, mark 

 the southern limit of the tropics, and 

 thence southward the southern continent 

 narrows rapidly to the point of Cape 

 Horn. The equivalent distance in North 

 America is from Florida to Labrador, or 

 from oranges to reindeer moss. Florida 

 and Rio are both renowned for their 

 oranges, and Cape Horn shares with Lab- 

 rador a most inhospitable reputation ; but 

 it is more like Scotland than Labrador. 



the; Scotland of south America 



The southernmost land, tapering south- 

 ward between the oceans, is nowhere so 



cold as the broad expanse of North 

 America is in similar latitude, and Tierra 

 del Fuego, a region of bogs, fogs, and 

 snow squalls, is a congenial home for 

 Scotchmen and long-wooled sheep. 



Buenos Aires, the focal point of life 

 and intercourse south of Rio, lies half 

 way between Rio and Cape Horn, in the 

 latitude corresponding to Charleston. 

 Palms grow there in the public gardens, 

 and yet, the houses being unheated, a 

 northerner may greatly enjoy on a damp, 

 chill winter day the soft coal fire which he 

 will find where Englishmen congregate. 



Neither very cold nor very hot, the 

 seasons are similar to those of our coast 

 from Norfolk to Charleston ; but they are 

 reversed. As the sun circles northward 

 past the Equator their summer ends, while 

 our winter half year begins. There is 

 always summer, north or south ; always 

 winter, too. When we are preparing to 

 leave the cities Argentine society is gath- 

 ered from the country estates for pleasure 

 and politics in the greater metropolis, 

 which alternates with Paris and vies with 

 the French capital in seasons of gaiety. 



the; metropolis of the; southern 

 hemisphere 



Buenos Aires is to Argentina what 

 Paris is to France — the center of the na- 

 tional industries, thought, and culture. 

 Commerce, journalis m, politics, the 

 drama and music, literature, art, and so- 

 cial life are intensely focused there. The 

 brilliant activity of the greatest city of 

 the Southern Hemisphere ( the fourth city 

 of the Americas, after New York, Chi- 

 cago, and Philadelphia) draws the Ar- 

 gentines to it as a flame attracts moths, 

 and one-fifth of the population of the 

 country struggles there in feverish com- 

 petition for pleasure and gain. 



No traveler to the southern countries 

 but stops as long as he may in Buenos 

 Aires to enjoy or to study the most cos- 

 mopolitan, yet most latinized, of the 



