Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/778

Rh ARGENTINE

704

ARGENTINE

Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (1809). The revolutionary movement which ended in the inde- pendence of the coimtry, began in the Argentine territory, as everywhere else in South America, in 180S, at the time of the imprisonment of King Ferdi- nand of Spain by Napoleon. The formal declaration of independence was made, 9 July, 1816. In 1853, after the country had passed through the ordeals of several civil wars, a war with Brazil, and the Rosas Dictatorship, the federal Constitution which is now in force (amended in 1860) was framed and promul- gated. Since then the Argentina has prospered and developed rapidly.

Sources of We.^lth. — The most important factors of the wealth and prosperity of the Argentine Re- public may be grouped under three different heads: agriculture and agricultural industries, cattle-raising and its cognate occupations, and commerce. The chief agricultural pursuits are the cultivation of wheat, maize, linseed, alfalfa, sugar cane, tobacco, and grapes. The whole area of cultivation, in 1904,

was estimated conservatively at 7,500,000 hectares, or 18,750,000 acres (Urien and Colombo, "Geografta Argentina," Buenos Ayres, 1905). According to official information of 1901, the area of cultivation of the different products was as follows: —

Acres

Acres

Wheat

8,449,372

Tobacco

131,740

Maize

3,638,365

Sugar cane

115,000

Alfalfa

3,125,000

Grapes

110,825

Linseed

1,530,000

The agricultural industries are chiefly the manu- facture of flour, sugar, cigars, wines, spirits, and ales. The exportation of flour in 1901 represented a total of 71,742 tons, estimated at 82,711,208 in gold. Cattle-raising and its cognate industries constitute the most lucrative business of the Argentine Re- public. Nature has endowed Argentina with ad- vantages for agricultural and pastoral farming hardly to be found in any other country of the world.

Foreign Trade. — The foreign trade of the Argentine Republic is mainly with the countries enumerated in the following table. The values of this trade are given in gold. —

Imports

from

Exports to

1904

1905

1904

1905

§64,517,103

$68,391,043

$36,445,139

844,826,670

17,109,716

21,248,202

30,596,559

37,594,281

24,926,278

29,083,027

29,522,112

37,058,221

9,069,123

8,727,076

17,566,034

20,780,850

24,473,877

28,920,443

10,214,989

15,717,458

19,127,902

20,284,673

4,344,952

6,468,941

6,032,973

5,328,004

10,427,012

13,039,395

Countries

Great Britain

France

Germany

Belgium

United States

Italy

Brazil

The commercial statistics of the United States give the trade with Argentina for five years, as follows

1901 1902

Imports (to U. S.) $8,065,318 .SU, 120,721

Exports (from U.S.) 11,537,668 9,801,804

The chief imports from Argentina into the United States in 1904 were hides and skins, $4,389,123; the chief exports from the United States to Argentina were agricultural implements, $4,996,476; timber, $2,996,912, and mineral oil. 81,868,957.

1903

1904

1905

$9,430,278

$9,765,164

$15,316,492

11,437,570

6,902,027

23,564,056

Shipping and Navig.\tion. — In 1902, the reg- istered shipping consisted of 101 steamers of 38,770 tons, and 151 sailing vessels of 38,071 tons; total, 252 of 76,841 tons. In 1904, the number of ocean- going vessels which entered the port of Buenos Aires was 2,072 with an aggregate tonnage of 3,896,197 tons, as against 1,842 of 3,461,208 tons in 1903.

I. Public St.\tus of the Church. — Under the second article of the federal Constitution, " the Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion". According to the last com- plete, official national census, referred to above, of every thousand inhabitants of the country there were 991 Catholics, 2 Jews, and 7 Protestants and dissenters of whatever kind. The total population (3,954,911) is distributed as follows: native Catholic population, 2,944,.397, of whom 1,449,793 are male, and 1,494,604 female; foreign Catliolic population, 976,739, divided into 617.470 males, and 359,269 females. The total Catholic population is 3,921,136. The non-Catholic population included 26,750 Prot- estants, 6,085 Jews, and 940 other non-Catholics. Tlie federal congress appropriates every year a cer- tain amount of money to as.sist the Church in meet- ing its cx|)cnses. For the fi.scal year of 1905 these appropriations amounted to $857,420 in the na- tional currency. Out of this .sum, 8617,420 were Ket aside for the salaries of Churcli functionaries and eccle.sia.sties of all kinds, and for defraying the necessary expen.ses of Divine worship. The balance (8240,000) represented " subsidies " to certain churches in the provinces.

II. Hierarchy. — The Argentine hierarchy con- sists of the Archbisliop of Buenos Aires, and the Bisliops of Cordoba, La Plata, Parand, San Juan de Cuyo, Santa F6, Salta, and Tucumdn. The right to appoint a bishop belongs, of course, to the Holy See; but the federal Senate has the right, when a vacancy occurs, to .send three names to the President of the Union for transmission to Rome, where the choice is to be made, if made at all, out of the three nominees. Each cathedral is provided, aceortling to Spanish usage, with a chapter, i. e. a number of canons and ecclesiastical officials appointed by the Government upon nomination of the respective bishops. There is an ecclesiastical seminary in each diocese, under the control of the bishop, for the support of which an appropriation is made yearly. The Holy See is represented at Buenos Aires by an Apostolic inter- nuncio, who ranks as the dean of the diplomatic corps. The .Argentine Nation has in Rome a cliarg^ d'affaires. Until lately the representation of the Argentine Republic at tlio Pontifical Court was en- trusted to the Argentine representative in Paris. The Catholic .spirit which animated the framers of the federal Constitution is forcibly illustratcil by the provisions of article 76, which requires as a condition of eligibility for the position of President, or Vice-President, of the Union, "to belong to the Rom;in Catholic Apostolic religion"; and by those contained in clauses 15 and 20, article 67, which respectively empower the federal Congress " to pro- mote the conversion of the Indians to the Catliolic religion ", and " to admit into the territory of the