CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

An allegory of the Pampa—Patriarchs and Oligarchies—National and local politics and administration—Patrician government—The landed aristocracy—Patriotism and foreign railways—The problem of agricultural labour—Propaganda, in theory and in practice—Needed and unneeded immigration—The peon of to-day and the _gaucho_—Urgent need of rural population—Industries in waiting—The INCALCULABLE future of the River Plate countries—Lack of Uruguayan statistics 1