of prevailing conditions. I do not refer to those who have invested
their money in the many channels known to the River Plate circle. But
men holding high official positions speak of our commercial interests in
Argentina as "something between a hundred and a hundred and fifty
millions," and then in a whispered side-speech indicate the dangers of
revolution.

Often it is suggested that the chances of death from small-pox, yellow
fever, and even from murder are a serious drawback to what might
otherwise be a country possible to live in. It makes one very indignant
to hear these statements from the lips of those who probably have never
left their own country. Let me assure you they may be swept aside, and
were it not for their frequent reiteration it would be unnecessary to
say that there is not one grain of truth in these suggestions as applied
to the state of things to-day.

Nearly one-fifth of the population of Argentina is centred in and around
Buenos Aires. It is a city of 1,200,000 inhabitants, many of whom are
millionaires; but at the same time there exists much poverty within its
precincts--poverty caused in no small degree by the viciousness of the
rich, but to a far greater extent by the rooted objection of certain
classes to go out to the camps where, during the harvest time at least,
wages are high and labour is anxiously awaited.

When we compare the health of this city of Buenos Aires with that of
other large cities, we can see what has been done in the way of
improvements in the last few years. A glance at the following tables
will give some idea of what has been accomplished. The natural increase
of the population of Buenos Aires between 1898 and 1907 was 19.1 per
1,000, and no other city equals this.