ARGENTINA RAVAGED BY EXTRAVAGANT GOVERNMENT.
THE Morning Post publishes the revelations of Argentina corruption and misgovernment which are appearing in a Rome paper. The description is startling.
Politics are a lucrative profession because of the opportunities they afford of stealing public money. The army has one officer for every five men. The police, who have many criminals among them, are more dangerous than useful.
Argentina, though six times as large as Germany, and very fertile, has more than 10,000 unemployed in a total population of 5,000,000.
DEBT, £15 PER INHABITANT.
Its debt amounts to £80,000,000, or more than £15 a head of the population, and nearly all its railways, and most of its public works, are owned by foreigners.
The public extravagance is shown by the water reservoir of Buenos Ayres, built in the form of a French Renaissance castle, the external decoration of which alone cost £100,000.
In the little city of Cordova there are more than 400 gaming houses. Usury prevails to an astonishing extent, the usurers lending money at rates varying from 5 to 20 per cent. per month.
Lastly, there is no justice, the police even committing murder, of which they escape the penalty by being allies of those in authority.