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Rural Unrest and Agrarian Policy in Argentina, 1912-1930*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Carl Solberg
Carl Solberg*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
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Extract

From 1912 until the late 1920s Argentina faced an agrarian social and economic crisis of proportions unprecedented in the republic's history. Trapped between unstable prices and the exactions of landlords, thousands of tenant farmers organized, went on strike, and at times sabotaged agricultural production. This unrest swept across the cereal belt, a 160,000,000-acre zone of extremely fertile soil in the provinces of Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, Córdoba, and Buenos Aires, and in the national territory of La Pampa. After 1919, rural unrest acquired new complexity when tens of thousands of landless workers employed by the tenant farmers began strike movements of their own. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the origins and characteristics of this rural upheaval and then to examine the responses to it formulated by the republic's national political leaders.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 18 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1971

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Footnotes

*

Financial assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities and from the University of Washington Graduate School Research Fund made possible the research for this article.

References

1 The value of the gold peso until 1933 was US $ .9648. An excellent source of agricultural statistics is Tenembaum, Juan L., Orientación económica de la agricultura argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1946)Google Scholar. Data on area under cultivation is on pp. 21-22. Another important statistical source is Tornquist, Ernesto & Cía. Ltda., El desarrollo económico de la República Argentina en los últimos cincuenta años (Buenos Aires: Ernesto Tornquist & Cía. Ltda., 1920). Export statistics are on pp. 133–134 Google Scholar.

2 Phelps, Vernon L., The International Economic Position of Argentina (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938), p. 141 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Duvall, Laurel, “The Production and Handling of Grain in Argentina,” in Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture (Washington: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1915), pp. 284–285 Google Scholar.

3 Oddone, Jacinto, La burguesía terrateniente argentina, 3rd ed. (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Populares Argentinas, 1956), pp. 182–185 Google Scholar. The standard historical study of Argentina land policy and of the concentration of ownership is Miguel Cárcano, A., Evolución histórica del régimen de la tierra pública, 1810-1916 (Buenos Aires: Librería Mendesky, 1917)Google Scholar. An important recent treatment of the evolution of the land tenure system is Scobie, James R., Revolution on the Pampas: A Social History of Argentine Wheat, 1860-1910 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964)Google Scholar.

4 Gallo, Ezequiel (h), “Santa Fe en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Transformaciones en su estructura regional,” in Rosario, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Anuario del Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas 7 (1964): 150 Google Scholar.

5 Greffier, M. E., “La propiedad rural en la Provincia de Córdoba,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 13 (August 1919): 113 Google Scholar. For data on the valorization of rural property in the cereal zone between 1886 and 1929, see Boglich, José, El problema agrario y la crisis actual (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Aras, 1933), p. 154 Google Scholar. Boglich's data are reproduced in the standard economic history of Argentina, Ortiz, Ricardo M., Historia económica de la Argentina, 1850-1930, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Raigal, 1964), 2:106 Google Scholar.

6 In 1911 68 percent of farmers were tenants in Buenos Aires; 62 percent were tenants in Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, and 72 percent were tenants in Córdoba. See Pavlovsky, Aaron, La cuestión agraria (Buenos Aires: Talleres de la Casa Jacobo Peuser, 1913), p. 27 Google Scholar. This work by a well-known agronomist carefully outlines the land tenure situation in the cereal provinces. In La Pampa, 68 percent of farmers were tenants. For statistics on land tenure in the territories, see Argentine Republic, Ministerio del Interior, Asesoría Letrada de Territorios Nacionales, Censo general de los territorios nacionales. República Argentina. 1920. 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Establecimiento Gráfico A. de Martino, 1923), 2: 22 Google Scholar. Ortiz, , Historia económica de la Argentina, 2: 112–118 Google Scholar, presents data on the size of farms in the cereal belt. In 1914, 96.5 percent of farms were less than 500 hectares and, of these, the average size was 176 hectares.

7 Jefferson, Mark, Peopling the Argentine Pampa (New York, 1930), p. 142 Google Scholar; Slutzky, Daniel, “Aspectos sociales del desarrollo rural en la pampa húmeda argentina,” Desarrollo Económico 8 (April-June 1968): 97 Google Scholar; Hotschewer, Curto Érico, Evolución de la agricultura en la Provincia de Santa Fe (Santa Fe: Ministerio de Hacienda, Economía e Industrias, 1953), p. 198 Google Scholar. Large landowners also hesitated to sell because land ownership conferred social prestige. See Estabrook, Leon M., Agricultural Survey of South America: Argentina and Paraguay (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1926), p. 60 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Gibson, Herbert, The Land We Live On (Buenos Aires: R. Grant & Co., Printers, 1914), p. 17 Google Scholar; Coni, Emilio A., “Cuestiones agrarias,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 26 (June 1926): 371 Google Scholar.

9 In 1913 there were thirty-four agricultural cooperatives in Argentina with 13,371 members. Almost all were in Entre Ríos Province. Tobar, Juan B., “Las cooperativas agrícolas,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 1 (July 1913): 57 Google Scholar. The first cooperative grain elevator in Argentina was inaugurated at Leones, Córdoba, in July 1930. See La Prensa, 13 July 1930, p. 13. At that time there were only twenty-three grain elevators in the entire republic, with a total capacity of 400,000 tons. For analyses of rental contract provisions, see Pavlovsky, , La cuestión agraria, p. 27 Google Scholar; and the work of another agronomist, Campolieti, Roberto, La chacra argentina (Buenos Aires: privately printed, 1914), pp. 50–51 Google Scholar.

10 Duvall, , “The Production and Handling of Grain in Argentina,” p. 296 Google Scholar.

11 For contemporary analyses of the intermediary system, see La Prensa, 8 July 1912, p. 13; Miatello, Hugo, Investigación agrícola en la Provincia de Santa Fe (Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco, 1904), pp. 279–280 Google Scholar; Justo, Juan B., La cuestión agraria (Buenos Aires: Tip. “La Vanguardia,” 1917), p. 22 Google Scholar; and Rutter, W. P., Wheat-Growing in Canada, the United States and the Argentine (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1911), pp. 133–134 Google Scholar and passim. A recent evaluation by a distinguished Argentine scholar is Gori, Gastón, El pan nuestro: panorama social de las regiones cerealistas argentinas (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Galatea-Nueva Visión, 1958), p. 113 Google Scholar.

12 Lezama, Julio B., an inspector of the Departamento Nacional del Trabajo, made this report to Minister of the Interior Indalecio Gómez. It was published in Argentine Republic, Ministerio del Interior, Memoria del Ministerio del Interior presentada al Honorable Congreso Nacional, 1912-1913 (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de la Penitenciaría Nacional, 1913), p. 519 Google Scholar.

13 Gibson, , The Land We Live On, p. 16 Google Scholar. This pamphlet is a fascinating critique of the land tenure system by a wealthy English-born landowner. Also, Scobie, , Revolution on the Pampas, p. 65 Google Scholar.

14 Miatello, Hugo, “El hogar agrícola,” Boletín del Museo Social Argentino 3 (1914): 565 Google Scholar. Mariano Vélez, a teacher at Alta Italia in La Pampa, made a local education census in 1931 which revealed that the bulk of rural children were not attending school and that many could not read or write. See his La situación agrícola de La Pampa (Buenos Aires: Imprenta “La Vanguardia,” 1934), p. 119. As late as 1943, reports Taylor, Carl C. in Rural Life in Argentina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948), p. 316 Google Scholar, in Buenos Aires province 15.9 percent of the children between the ages of 6 and 13 never had attached school. Percentages for Santa Fe were 11.8, for La Pampa 12.7, for Córdoba 14.4, and for Entre Ríos 20.7. Taylor's work is a useful study of farm life in the mid-1940s but does not analyze the period under consideration in the present study.

15 Statistics on road mileage are in Bunge, Alejandro E., La economía argentina, 4 vols. (Buenos Aires: Agencia General de Librerías y Publicaciones, 1928-1930), 4: 85 Google Scholar. See also Islas, Guillermo Garbarini, “Consideraciones sobre el estado de nuestro régimen agrario,” Revista de Economía Argentina 21 (September 1928): 212 Google Scholar; and Rutter, , Wheat-Growing in Canada, the United States, and the Argentine, pp. 133–134 and passimGoogle Scholar.

16 Bustos, I., “Caminos, transportes y elevadores de granos,” Revista de Derecho, Historia y Letras 43 (October 1912): 223 Google Scholar. The Argentine national government did almost nothing to promote road construction. In Congress, organic highway laws were proposed in 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1925. But no concerted action on highway improvement occurred until the Justo administration of the 1930s. See The Review of the River Plate 64 (2 November 1928): 9.

17 Massé, Juan Bialet, Informe sobre el estado de las clases obreras en el interior de la República, 3 vols. (Buenos Aires: Imprenta y Casa Editora de Adolfo Grau, 1904), 1: 120 Google Scholar.

18 A number of observers pointed to the speculative character of Argentine agriculture. See, for example, the socialist author Borras, Antonio, Nuestra cuestión agraria: en defensa de la producción y del productor (Buenos Aires: Editorial “La Vanguardia,” 1932), p. 37 Google Scholar. Also, La Prensa, 21 June 1912, p. 13; and the perceptive French traveller Denis, Pierre, The Argentine Republic: Its Development and Progress, trans. Joseph McCabe (London: T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., 1922), p. 201 Google Scholar.

19 Corn, quoted in Buenos Aires at 11.35 pesos per 100 quintals in January 1912, fetched 6.65 five months later. For background to the 1912 farmers’ strike, see Grela, Plácido, El grito de Alcorta (Rosario: Tierra Nuestra, 1958), pp. 46–47 Google Scholar. Grela's work, the only significant secondary source on tenant farmer discontent, contains useful information despite its disorganization and despite the author's estabinterpretation of the events of 1912 from the viewpoint of the Argentine Communist party in 1958. Other useful background sources include Nemirovsky, Lázaro, Estructura económica y orientación política de la agricultura en la República Argentina (Buenos Aires: Librería y Casa Editora de Jesús Menéndez, 1933), pp. 216–218 Google Scholar; Torino, Damián M., El problema del inmigrante y el problema agrario argentino (Buenos Aires: privately published, 1912), pp. 145, 252Google Scholar; and Ramos, Jorge Abelardo, Revolución y contrarrevolución en la Argentina, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Plus Ultra, 1957), 2: 155–156 Google Scholar.

20 La Prensa, 24 March 1913, p. 12; Grela, El grito de Alcorta, pp. 18-19.

21 Tomás García Serrano, a Rosario historian who took part in the events of 1912, sets the number of strikers at 100,000. See his Esteban Piacenza: Apuntes biográficos, 2nd ed. (Rosario: Librería y Editorial Ruiz, 1967), p. 40 Google Scholar. A recent study by Juan Carlos Grosso accepts this figure. See “Los problemas económicos y sociales y la repuesta radical en el gobierno,” in Romero, Luis Alberto et al., El radicalismo (Buenos Aires, 1968), p. 313 Google Scholar. Grela, , El grito de Alcorta, p. 14 Google Scholar, estimates that there were 120,000 strikers. A good brief summary of the 1912 agitation is Spangemberg, Silvio, “El conflicto agrario del sud de Santa Fe,” Boletín Mensual del Museo Social Argentino 1 (1912): 522–531 Google Scholar

22 La Tierra, 1 August 1914, p. 1. The formation of the FAA and the struggle to define its direction are outlined in Grela, El grito de Alcorta, pp. 366- 376. Also see La Vanguardia, 23 August 1912, p. 1.

23 For analysis of the heterogeneous composition of the Radical party, see Smith, Peter H., Politics and Beef in Argentina: Patterns of Conflict and Change (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), p. 23 Google Scholar; Ezequiel Gallo (h) and Silvia Sigal, “La formación de los partidos políticos contemporáneos: La U.C.R. (1890-1916),” in di Telia, Torcuato S. et al., Argentina, sociedad de masas (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1965), pp. 136–137 Google Scholar, 152, 163; and Ramos, , Revolución y contrarrevolución en la Argentina, 2: 59–60 Google Scholar.

24 Members of the committee were Ricardo Caballero, J. Daniel Infante, and Toribio Sánchez. Infante reviewed the committee's work and the provincial government's desire to reach a settlement in a pamphlet, El problema agrario (Rosario: Establecimiento B. Tamburini y Cía., 1912), see especially pp. 3, 50, 63, 71. Grela, , El grito de Alcorta, pp. 132–133 Google Scholar, 140-141, quotes important sections of the committee's report. Also see La Prensa, 16 July 1912, p. 12; and 23 July 1912, p. 13.

25 La Prensa, 16 August 1912, p. 18; interview with Antonio Diecidue, librarian of the Federación Agraria Argentina, Rosario, 2 August 1969.

26 Argentine Republic, Cámara de Diputados, Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (29 July 1912): 815-832. (Hereafter this source will be referred to as Diputados). In his opening message to Congress on 6 May 1913 Sáenz Peña attempted to justify his government's policy by claiming it lacked authority to intervene. See Peña, Roque Sáenz, Escritos y discursos, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: Casa Jacobo Peuser Ltda., Editores, 1935), 2: 567 Google Scholar.

27 Lahitte, Emilio, the Director of Rural Statistics in the Ministry of Agriculture, investigated the conflict and then recommended the formation of arbitration committees. The Review of the River Plate 38 (9 August 1912): 335 Google Scholar; Lahitte, Emilio, La cuestión agraria (Buenos Aires: Ministerio de Agricultura, 1912), p. 5 Google Scholar; La Prensa, 4 July 1912, p. 16.

28 In a series of editorials, La Prensa attacked the president's lack of intervention as unjustifiable: 12 July 1912, p. 7; 1 December 1912, p. 11. See also Cárcano, , Evolución histórica del régimen de la tierra pública, 1810-1916, p. 477 Google Scholar.

29 For analysis of the impact of the Balkan War on the Argentine economy, see Phelps, , The International Economic Position of Argentina, pp. 22–25 Google Scholar.

30 Netri emphasized the farmers’ bitterness over the rent question in an interview with La Prensa, 6 March 1913, p. 16. Also see The Review of the River Plate 39 (14 March 1913): 655; and Bengolea, Abel, Conflictos agrarios (Buenos Aires: Dirección General de Agricultura y Defensa Agrícola, 1913), pp. 2–3 Google Scholar. si La Vanguardia, 15 January 1913, p. 1; La Prensa, 7 February 1913, p. 13; 20 February 1913, p. 14; Jaime Molins, W., La Pampa (Buenos Aires, 1918), pp. 354–355 Google Scholar.

32 A vast polemical literature exists on Yrigoyen, but as yet there is no scholarly biography. The most informative study, by Manuel Gálvez, bears the significant title, Vida de Hipólito Yrigoyen, hombre del misterio (Buenos Aires: Kraft, 1937). On Yrigoyen's landholdings and his addiction to rural life, see Sommi, Luis V., Hipólito Yrigoyen: su época y su vida (Buenos Aires: Editorial Monteagudo, 1947), pp. 292–295 Google Scholar; Luna, Félix, Yrigoyen (Buenos Aires: Editorial Desarrollo, 1964), pp. 57–59 Google Scholar. Smith's Politics and Beef in Argentina carefully analyzes Yrigoyen's relationships with the Sociedad Rural and his policies towards the cattle industry. See especially pp. 48-50, 71-88, 129-136.

33 For evaluation of the impact of krausismo on Yrigoyen, see Sommi, , Hipólito Yrigoyen, pp. 286–288 Google Scholar; and Landa, José, Hipólito Yrigoyen visto por uno de sus médicos (Buenos Aires: Macland S.R.L., 1958), pp. 254–257 Google Scholar.

34 Yrigoyen was not a systematic writer and one must glean his social philosophy from his speeches and messages. Particularly revealing is a 1923 manuscript left unpublished until 1957 in which Yrigoyen justifies and rationalizes his “spiritual leadership.” See Yrigoyen, Hipólito, Mi vida y mi doctrina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Raigal, 1957), pp. 46–47 Google Scholar, 56-57 and passim. For sympathetic analysis of his social thought, see Mazo, Gabriel del, El radicalismo: ensayo sobre su historia y doctrina, 3 vols. (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Gure, 1957), 2: 209, 228-229Google Scholar.

35 Quoted in Ybarra, T. R., “Mystery Man of Argentina,” World's Work 59 (March, 1930): 88 Google Scholar.

36 Campolieti, Roberto, La organización de la agricultura argentina (Ensayo de política agraria) (Buenos Aires: Pedro M. Aquino & Cía., 1929), p. 11 Google Scholar; La Tierra, 22 September 1930, p. 1. The 1937 agricultural census revealed that 38.1 percent of “agricultural producers” in the four agricultural provinces and La Pampa territory were unnaturalized immigrants. Since “agricultural producers” included landless laborers, most of whom were native-born, and cattle raisers, most of whom also were nationals, the proportion of immigrant farmers was probably considerably higher. See Argentine Republic, Comisión Nacional del Censo Agropecuario, Censo nacional agropecuario, Año 1937, 4 vols. (Buenos Aires: Guillermo Kraft, Ltda., 1939-1940), 2: 3 Google Scholar.

37 Statistics on naturalization are found in Argentine Republic, Tercer censo nacional, levantado el Io de junio de 1914, 10 vols. (Buenos Aires, 1915-1917), 2: 403-417. Also see Spinetto, Alfredo L., Ciudadanía conferida a los extranjeros (Buenos Aires: Tip. “La Vanguardia,” 1917), p. 23 Google Scholar. The distribution of naturalized immigrants by provinces, based on Ministry of the Interior statistics, is found in La Vanguardia, 19 April 1913, p. 1. There were 3981 in Buenos Aires province, 1875 in Santa Fe, 633 in Entre Ríos, 104 in Córdoba, and 27 in La Pampa.

38 Quoted in Serrano, García, Esteban Piacenza, p. 51 Google Scholar. In the editorial columns of La Tierra, Piacenza strongly opposed the tendency of immigrant farmers to remain unnaturalized and repeatedly urged farmers to apply for citizenship. La Tierra, 17 May 1918, p. 1; 28 March 1922, p. 1; 17 February 1923, p. 1.

39 The point is discussed more fully in Solberg, Carl, Immigration and Nationalism: Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970), pp. 124–125 Google Scholar. Also Dickmann, Adolfo, Los argentinos naturalizados en la política (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos Juan Perrotti, 1915), p. 23 Google Scholar; La Vanguardia, 2 August 1920, p. 2; and La Época, 8 September 1928, p. 2.

40 The use of corn for fuel for locomotives and power plants is discussed in Havens, V. L., “Fuel in Argentina,” Power 52 (26 October 1920): 649–650 Google Scholar. For background to the 1917 agrarian strike, see La Prensa, 12 May 1917, p. 12; and The Review of the River Plate 45 (16 June 1916): 1309. Sources for the impact of World War I on farm prices and production in Argentina include Telia, Guido di and Zymelman, Manuel, Las etapas del desarrollo económico argentino (Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires, 1967), especially pp. 299, 301Google Scholar; Hanson, Simon G., Argentine Meat and the British Market (Stanford, 1938), pp. 199, 255Google Scholar; and Brewster Smith, L., Collings, Harry T., and Murphey, Elizabeth, The Economic Position of Argentina During the War (Washington: Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Miscellaneous Series, no. 88, 1920), p. 85 Google Scholar and : passim.

41 La Prensa, 1 May 1917, p. 14; 8 May 1917, p. 13; 9 May 1917, p. 14; 10 May 1917, p. 13. Also La Vanguardia, 8 May 1917, p. 1; 11 May 1917, p. 1.

42 La Prensa, 28 May 1917, p. 13; La Vanguardia, 25 May 1917, p. 1; Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (22 May 1917): 159-160.

43 For description of the government's budget procedures during this period, See Peters, H. E., The Foreign Debt of the Argentine Republic (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1934), pp. 107–111 Google Scholar. Debate on the 1918 agricultural budget is in Diputados, sesiones extraordinarias, VIII (24 January 1918): 318-319, 688. Debate on the 1920 budget is in Diputados, sesiones extraordinarias, VII (27 January 1920): 441.

44 Videla, Ricardo, “La cuestión agraria argentina,” Revista de Economía Argentina 8 (March 1922): 201 Google Scholar.

45 La Tierra, 15 April 1921, p. 1.

46 Cárcano, Miguel Ángel, “Organización de la producción: la pequeña pro piedad y el crédito agrícola,” Revista de Economía Argentina 1 (1918): 524 Google Scholar. The number of agronomists employed by the Ministry of Agriculture may be found in Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, Memoria presentada al Congreso por el Ministro de Agricultural Ing. Alfredo Demarchi, 1920 (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1921), p. 64.1

47 The creation and early years of Defensa Agrícola are discussed in Scobie, Revolution on the Pampas, pp. 145-147. Statistics on invasions of insect pests in Argentina are found in Libonati, Vicente J., La langosta: su historia en la Argentina (Síntesis) (Buenos Aires: Editores Casartelli y Fiol, 1927), pp. 37 Google Scholar, 78-123 passim.

48 La Prensa, 24 April 1930, p. 15; Islas, Guillermo Garbarini, Derecho rural argentino (Buenos Aires: Librería de Derecho y Jurisprudencia Restoy & Doeste, 1925), p. 281 Google Scholar. The most thorough denunciation of Yrigoyen's use of Defensa Agrícola was made by Conservative Senator Matías Sánchez Sorondo. See his Historia de seis años (Buenos Aires: Agencia General de Librería, 1922), pp. 355–359 Google Scholar. The farmers themselves were well aware of the corruption. The Second National Agricultural Congress, meeting at Rio IV, Córdoba, in 1919, passed a resolution to the effect that Defensa Agrícola served no useful purpose and ought to be suppressed. See Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (3 June 1919): 331-332. The president's use of Defensa Agrícola for political purposes also became a theme in Argentine literature. See Arturo Cancela's widely acclaimed short story, “El cocabacilo,” in his Tres relatos porteños, 2nded. (Madrid: Calpe, 1923), pp. 15-115.

49 A convenient summary of the history and achievements of Argentine agricultural education is Amadeo, Tomás, La enseñanza y la experimentación agrícolas (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1916), especially pp. 53–59 Google Scholar.

50 Budgets for agricultural education between 1898 and 1929 are summarized conveniently in Allen, Rodolfo, Enseñanza agrícola: documentos orgánicos (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1929), p. 30 Google Scholar.

51 Ibid., p. 106.

52 Statistics on prices of bags in the provinces are in Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria del Ministerio de Agricultura. Aplicación de la Ley N° 10.777 (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1921), pp. 73,75.

53 The Review of the River Plate 50 (18 October 1918): 977.

54 A report of the terms of the agreement with the Royal Commission and á defense of the latter's policies appears in “Report on the Supply of Bags by the Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies for the Grain Crop of 1918-1919,” The Review of the River Plate 51 (11 April 1919): 855-861.

55 La Prensa gave the bag shortage and the Royal Commission's performance close scrutiny. See 9 January 1919, pp. 11-12; 25 January 1919, p. 9; 29 January 1919, p. 7. Also, The Review of the River Plate 50 (18 October 1918): 977; 50 (20 December 1918): 1551. The influential socialist congressman Nicolás Repetto, who was also a farmer, Córdoba, describes the difficulties and expense of obtaining bags in Mi paso por la agricultura (Buenos Aires: Santiago Rueda Editor, 1959), p. 179 Google Scholar.

56 La Prensa, 5 January 1919, p. 9.

57 Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (6 August 1919): 367-368, 401-417; also Argentine Republic, Congreso Nacional, Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Senadores, sesiones ordinarias, I (16 September 1919): 585, 625Google Scholar (hereafter this source is referred to as Senadores).

58 In an article entitled “Las bolsas del gobierno nacional,” Cooperación Agrícola, the newspaper of the Entre Ríos cooperative farmers, complained that the law was useless for the 1919-1920 harvest, 1 (November 1919): 268.

59 La Vanguardia, 12 December 1919, p. 2; La Prensa, 27 September 1921, p. 10. The congressional investigating committee's efforts were frustrated by the refusal of the executive branch to cooperate and by the opposition of the Radical majority in the Chamber of Deputies. For information of the committee see Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, II (21 July 1921): 216; (3 August 1921): 408; III (1 September 1921): 272. The committee reported to the Chamber on 27 September 1921, sesiones ordinarias, IV: 341-349. Charging lack of cooperation by the president and by his Radical party followers in Congress, Conservative Matías Sánchez Sorondo and Socialist Antonio de Tomaso, the committee's two most prominent members, resigned 21 July 1922. See Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (21 July 1922): 291. The government attempted to defend its actions in a report, Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria del Ministerio de Agricultura. Aplicación de la Ley N° 10.777, especially pp. 3, 8, 9, 12, 16.

60 For analysis of the 1918 export tax, see Bunge, Alejandro E., Riqueza y renta de la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Agencia General de Librería y Publicaciones, 1919), p. 194 Google Scholar; and Peters, , The Foreign Debt of the Argentine Republic, pp. 70–71 Google Scholar.

61 La Tierra, 6 June 1919, p. 1; Molins, La Pampa, p. 32. Most of the congressional debate on the legislation emphasized that the farmers and the nation would benefit greatly if the proposal became law. See Diputados sesiones extraordinarias, IV (21 December 1916): 2970-2974; sesiones ordinarias, III (20 August 1917): 495-503; and Senadores, sesiones ordinarias, II (25 September 1917): 1071-1080. For criticism of the law by a respected intellectual and head of the Progressive Democratic party, see la Torre, Lisandro de, Obras de Lisandro de la Torre, 6 vols. (Buenos Aires: Editorial Hemisferio, 1954), 6: 30 Google Scholar.

62 The press sharply criticized Yrigoyen's refusal to enforce the law. See, for example, La Prensa, 11 March 1919, p. 6; 4 August 1921, p. 10. Deputies attempte a full-scale investigation, but the executive branch refused to cooperate. Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, II (21 July 1921): 228-238; (29 July 1921): 341-345; (3 August 1921): 412-413, 437-438. Yrigoyen informed the Chamber of his reasons for opposing the law through a Radical party spokesman, Deputy José A. Amuchástegui of the Federal District. See Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, II (9 August 1922): 724-731.

63 The Review of the River Plate 52 (10 October 1919): 929. See also Hanson, , Argentine Meat and the British Market, p. 255 Google Scholar; and Telia, Di and Zymelman, , Las etapas del desarrollo, p. 301 Google Scholar; and La Prensa, 31 March 1919, p. 5; and 13 April 1919, p. 5.

64 The petition is in La Tierra, 7 March 1919, p. 1. Also see ibid., 1-2 May 1919, p. 1; 9 May 1919, p. 1. Piacenza reemphasized the farmers’ plight in an interview with La Prensa on 10 April 1919, p. 12.

65 La Vanguardia, 1 January 1920, p. 1. A University of La Plata Faculty of Agronomy seminar, which surveyed cereal belt farmers on the land tenure question, found that almost without exception farmers aspired to become landowners. The seminar's published report is Coni, Emilio A., ¿Arrendamiento o propiedad? (La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1920), p. 11 Google Scholar. The results of the survey also were summarized in La Vanguardia, 19 September 1920, p. 2.

66 La Tierra, 11 February 1916, p. 1; La Prensa, 24 March 1919, p. 10; 17 April 1919, p. 6; The Review of the River Plate 51 (11 April 1919): 855. Also see Grosso, , “Los problemas económicos y sociales y la respuesta radical con el gobierno (1916-1930),” p. 143 Google Scholar.

67 La Época, 15 January 1919, p. 1. For an anarcho-syndicalist viewpoint of the causes and events of the Semana Trágica, see Santillán, Diego Abad de, La F.O.R.A. Ideología y trayectoria del movimiento obrero revolucionario en la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Nervio, 1933), pp. 259–260 Google Scholar. An account by a Buenos Aires police officer who served during the Semana Trágica is Romariz, José Ramón, La semana trágica (Buenos Aires: Hemisferio, 1952)Google Scholar. For an apology of Yrigoyen's role in the 1919 events, see Babini, Nicolás, Enero de 1919: los hechos y los hombres de la “semana trágica” (Buenos Aires: S.E.P.A., 1956)Google Scholar.

68 The Buenos Aires newspapers chronicled the minister's inspection tour with great interest. See La Época, 14 April 1919, p. 1; 25 April 1919, p. 4; La Vanguardia, 22 April 1919, p. 1; 21 May 1919, p. 1; La Prensa, 13 April 1919, p. 5; 18 April 1919, p. 4; 21 April 1919, p. 5; and The Review of the River Plate 51 (18 April 1919): 917; 51 (2 May 1919): 1043. The government's principal offer to the farmers was expanded short-term credit for seeds and sowing expenses. See La Época, 29 April 1919, p. 1; The Review of the River Plate 51 (4 April 1919): 789.

69 The ministry's circular is reprinted in La Vanguardia, 16 April 1919, p. 1. Also see The Review of the River Plate 51 (23 May 1919): 1233.

70 The Review of the River Plate 51 (20 June 1919): 1445. Also see La Vanguardia, 10 April 1919, p. 2; 15 September 1919, p. 1; La Prensa, 11 May 1919, p. 10; 22 May 1919, p. 12; and Repetto, Mi paso por la agricultura, pp. 160, 167.

71 La Tierra, 16 May 1919, p. 1.

72 For the Chamber's debates, see Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (28 May 1919): 146-155.

73 For an overview of the Socialist party's agrarian program, see Palacios, Alfredo L., La justicia social (Buenos Aires: Editorial Claridad, 1954), pp. 178–179 Google Scholar, 399-402; Justo, Juan B., Discursos y escritos políticos (Buenos Aires: “El Ateneo,” 1933), pp. 140–189 Google Scholar; and Socialista, Partido, Él Partido Socialista y los agricultores. Doce años de acción y de propaganda (Buenos Aires: Tip. “La Vanguardia,” 1913)Google Scholar.

74 Carlos J. Rodríguez, a Radical congressman from Córdoba province, introduced legislation in 1919 calling not only for a national land tax but also for an immediate moratorium on all rural rents. See Diputados, sesiones extraordinarias, VI (9 April 1919): 652-653; ibid., sesiones ordinarias, II (16 July 1919): 729-730. The Progressive Democratic party, led by the great intellectual and political reformer Lisandro de la Torre, poposed compensated expropriation of large estates followed by division and sale to small farmers. De la Torre, Obras, VI: 17,23-27.

75 M. A. Pueyrredón, “Panaceas,” La Razón, 5 May 1919; Castex, Alberto E., “El malestar agrícola,” Anales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina 53 (April 1919): 199–200 Google Scholar.

76 One may read Yrigoyen's proposals in Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, II (2 July 1913): 612-615; ibid., sesiones ordinarias (September 29 1919): 717-719.

77 The reform of the Mortgage Bank also contained provisions to aid cattlemen, which probably explains its rapid passage. Analysis of the impact of the reform, passed as Law 10,676, may be found in Bonino, Alfredo and Carril, Pedro del, La subdivisión de nuestras tierras y la evolución agraria del país (Buenos Aires: Estudio de Agronomía y Colonización, 1926), p. 39 Google Scholar; Podestá, , La pequeña propiedad rural en la República Argentina, pp. 101, 114Google Scholar; and Ortiz, , Historia económica de la Argentina, 2: 120–121 Google Scholar. For the debates, see Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, IV (1 September 1919): 28-50.

78 Statistics on agricultural workers are found in Ortiz, Historia económica de la Argentina, 2: 194. For analysis of the origin of these workers, see Gori, , El pan nuestro, p. 100 Google Scholar; Pages, Pedro, Defensa de la producción agropecuaria (La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata, 1928), p. 50 Google Scholar; and La Tierra, 30 November 1917, p. 1. Unemployment in the Argentine cities increased markedly during World War I, when the government suspended most public works. For analysis of urban working conditions during this period, see Panettieri, José, Los trabajadores (Buenos Aires: Editorial Jorge Alvarez, S.A., 1967), pp. 169–183 Google Scholar.

79 The value of the paper peso was 44% of the gold peso, or about US $.42. The words quoted come from Tardati, José Rodríguez, “Los trabajadores del campo,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 26 (June 1926): 386 Google Scholar. Other analyses of bracero wages and working conditions are in Estabrook, Agricultural Survey of South America, p. 67; Alvarez, Juan, “Obrerismo agrario,” La Prensa, 28 March 1920, p. 6 Google Scholar; La Capital (Rosario), 18 November 1920, p. 4; and La Vanguardia, 31 December 1919, p. 5.

80 La Prensa, 30 November 1919, 7. On an index of 1940 = 100, real wages of industrial workers in Buenos Aires fell from 68 in 1914 to a low of 42 in 1918. They rose to 57 in 1919. Dorfman, Adolfo, Evolución industrial argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, S.A., 1942), p. 241 Google Scholar. Also see Panettieri, , Los trabajadores, p. 174 Google Scholar.

81 Urban newspapers, alarmed at the extent and intensity of the rural labor strike, gave it close attention. For detailed reports, see La Vanguardia, 20 December 1919, p. 2; 29 December 1919, p. 1; 18 January 1920, p. 1; 14 April 1919, p. 1; La Capital (Rosario), 1 January 1920, p. 3; 6 January 1920, p. 4; 19 January 1920, p. 4; La Prensa, 30 November 1919, pp. 7, 13; 13 December 1919, p. 12; 23 December 1919, p. 12; 18 January 1920, p. 12.

82 The Review of the River Plate 52 (17 October 1919): 995; 53 (2 January 1920): 17; La Vanguardia, 26 December 1919, p. 1; La Prensa, 20 December 1919, p. 13; La Época, 24 January 1919, p. 2.

83 La Tierra, 16 May 1919, p. 1.

84 La Tierra, 26 September 1919, p. 1; 14 November 1919, p. 1; 26 December 1919, p. 1; 5 October 1920, p. 1. For the position of the Entre Ríos colonists, see “Movimiento agrario,” Cooperación agrícola 1 (March 1920): 486-488.

85 The Sociedad Rural viewed the rural labor strike as an anarchist plot. See Castex, Alberto E., “Propaganda anarquista en la campaña,” Anales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina 53 (15-30 December 1919): 1017 Google Scholar.

86 The proposal to form the study group is in Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (1 June 1920): 407. The Argentine government enacted no significant legislation to protect rural workers until 1944.

87 Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, V (21 September 1920): 341-377. The Radicals held 84 of 152 seats in the chamber during 1920. For information on the composition of the Chamber of Deputies by political party, see Zalduendo, Eduardo, Geografía electoral de la Argentina (Buenos Aires: Ediciones Ancora, 1958), p. 226 Google Scholar.

88 La Tierra, 18 January 1921, p. 1; 25 January 1921, p. 1.

89 For reports of the 1921 Farmers’ March, see La Tierra, 18 August 1921, p. 1; 30 August 1921, p. 1; and 25 March 1925, p. 1; La Vanguardia, 27 August 1921, p. 1; 28 August 1921, p. 1; and La Prensa, 27 August 1921, p. 11; 28 August 1921, p. 5.

90 Senadores, 20 September 1921, pp. 492-496; 24 September 1921, pp. 573-599.

91 The law's complete text is reprinted in Palacios, La justicia social, pp. 403-405. It is also found in the standard collection of Argentine legislation for this period, Augusto da Rocha, comp., Colección completa de leyes nacionales sancionadas por el Honorable Congreso durante los años 1852 a 1933, 27 vols. (Buenos Aires: Librería “La Facultad” de Juan Roldan & Cia., 1918-1933), 21: 58-62.

92 La Tierra, 21 February 1922, p. 1; La Vanguardia, 19 November 1921, p. 1.

93 La Tierra, 28 October 1921, p. 1.

94 La Tierra, 13 October 1922, p. 1; also see 15 November 1924, p. 2. Yrigoyen's father was a French Basque Immigrant; his mother was a native of Buenos Aires and was probably of mestizo background. Luna, Yrigoyen, pp. 15-16.

95 For data on farm prices during the 1920s, see Hanson, , Argentine Meat and the British Market, p. 255 Google Scholar; Telia, Di and Zymelman, , Las etapas del desarrollo, pp. 356 Google Scholar, 381. Most “farm prices” recorded terminal market data, but for a set of statistics that reported the amounts farmers actually received for their crops, see Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (5 September 1928): 683-692.

96 For data on rising land rents in the 1920s, see Repetto, Nicolás, “La defensa de la producción agrícola nacional,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 33 (September 1929): 731 Google Scholar; and Nemirovsky, , Estructura económica y orientación política, p. 112 Google Scholar.

97 The Review of the River Plate 59 (2 February 1923): 267; Estabrook, Leon M., “Agricultural Statistics in Argentina,” ibid. 62 (8 August 1924): 359 Google Scholar; Cárcano, Miguel Ángel, “Nuestro régimen agrario,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas 29 (October 1927): 1115 Google Scholar. The reorganization of the ministry is outlined in Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria correspondiente al ejercicio de 1923 U presentada al Congreso de la Nación por el Ministro de Agricultura Dr.Le Bretón, T. A. (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1924), pp. 5–13.Google Scholar

98 The Review of the River Plate 59 (2 February 1923): 267; 64 (29 October 1926): 7; 66 (30 March 1928): 13. Also Schleh, Emilio J., Semillas para el agricultor (Buenos Aires: Imp. Ferrari Hnos., 1924), pp. 13—15 Google Scholar

99 La Tierra, 6 May 1924, p. 1. Enrollment statistics in agricultural schools are from Allen, , Enseñanza agrícola: documentos orgánicos, p. 106 Google Scholar

100 Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria correspondiente al ejercicio de 1927 presentada al Congreso de la Nación por el Ministro de Agricultura Emilio Mihura (Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos del Ministerio de Agricultura de la Nación, 1928), p. 73 Google Scholar.

101 La Tierra, 25 August 1925, p. 1.

102 The Review of the River Plate 54 (26 February 1926): 5.

103 Laws 11,380 of 30 September 1926 and 11,388 of 10 December 1926 dealt with agricultural cooperatives. Law 11,212 of 6 September 1923 appropriated one million pesos for emergency seed distribution. Law 11,280 of 20 November 1923, appropriated fifteen million pesos for Defensa Agrícola.

104 For detailed analysis of methods of evading Law 11,170, see Vélez, , La situación agrícola de La Pampa, pp. 90–96 Google Scholar. On the same theme, La Prensa, 28 October 1921, p. 9; and Paoli, Pedro de, La reforma agraria (Buenos Aires: Editorial A. Peña Lillo, 1960), p. 31 Google Scholar.

105 The FAA survey was summarized in Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, II (1 August 1928): 775. Also see ibid., sesiones ordinarias, V (29 September 1928): 599-600.

106 Reform of Law 11,170 was introduced in the Chamber in 1923, 1925, and 1928, and in the Senate in 1927 and 1928.

107 The proposal is reprinted in Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (21 August 1924): 480-481.

108 Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Memoria correspondiente d ejercicio de 1923, p. 5. For statistics on area cultivated, see Tenembaum, , Orientación económica, pp. 21–22 Google Scholar. For comparative export data, Estabrook, Agricultural Survey of South America, pp. 3, 69.

109 On low yields in Argentine agriculture, consult Scobie, Revolution on the Pampas, p. 87. For analysis of the impact of the land system on agricultural diversification, see Tenembaum, , Orientación económica, pp. 23–24 Google Scholar; Torino, , El problema del inmigrante, p. 250 Google Scholar; and Vélez, , La situación agrícola de La Pampa, p. 145 Google Scholar.

110 The Review of the River Plate 63 (12 June 1925): 31.

111 La Tierra, 26 August 1924, p. 1; Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (21 August 1925): 686.

112 The Review of the River Plate (24 October 1924), p. 1067; 12 September 1924, p. 679; 65 (25 March 1927): 25. Hectares cultivated with cereal and flax increased from 15.1 million in 1924-1925 to 19.5 million in 1929-1930. Tenembaum, , Orientación económica, p. 22 Google Scholar.

113 La Tierra, 25 August 1925, p. 1.

114 Ibid., 10 April 1923, p. 1; 10 June 1924, p. 1.

115 García Ledesma, H., Lisandro de la Torre y la pampa gringa (Buenos Aires: Editorial Indoamerica, 1954), p. 55 Google Scholar.

116 In 1945 land rents were frozen; in succeeding years they actually fell because of inflation. In 1948 Perón's Congress passed Law No. 13,246 which extended the minimum rental contract to eight years. Also “provision was made for periodic review and adjustment of rent.” Other clauses authorized the Bank of the Nation to loan farmers up to 100 percent of the purchase price to buy the land they were renting. Peronist legislation also established special arbitration tribunals to settle contract disputes, a reform government experts had recommended in 1912. Most of these reforms were rescinded after General Perón's fall in 1955. For additional information on his government's agricultural policies, see Fienup, Darrell F., Brannon, Russell H., and Fender, Frank A., The Agricultural Development of Argenitina (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1969), pp. 302–303 Google Scholar and passim; and de Paoli, , La reforma agraria, pp. 42–54 Google Scholar.

117 La Época, 17 August 1928, p. 1.

118 Statistics on agricultural prices between 1927 and 1930 are in Telia, Di and Zymelman, , Las etapas del desarrollo, p. 385 Google Scholar. La Prensa, in its issue of 10 January 1930, p. 15, recounts the ravages caused by drought.

119 Campolieti, , La organización de la agricultura argentina, p. 7 Google Scholar; Gastón Lestard, “La actualidad agrícola,” La Razón, 5 November 1930; La Tierra, 1 October 1930, p. 4.

120 La Tierra, 15 November 1928, p. 1; 24 November 1928, p. 2; The Review of the River Plate 66 (30 November 1928): 7; La Prensa, 29 November 1928, p. 19.

121 Yrigoyen's use of the army is narrated in detail in La Tierra, 8 December 1928, p. 2; La Época, 2 December 1928, p. 1; 3 December 1928, p. 1; and 12 December 1928, p. 1. For the farmers’ opposition to rural labor legislation, see La Tierra, 16 June 1928, p. 1; and 28 July 1928, p. 1.

122 The Review of the River Plate 67 (21 June 1929): 15; La Prensa, 18 June 1929, p. 17; 2 April 1930, p. 13.

123 For reports of opposition to further land tenure reform, see La Prensa, ‘ 23 December 1929, p. 10; García, Genero, “Leyes agrarias peligrosas,” Revista de Economía Argentina 24 (May 1930): 340 Google Scholar. Only one vote was cast against the reform in the Chamber. See Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (18 September 1929): 618. For discussion in the Senate, see Senadores, sesiones extraordinarias, III (25 January 1930): 311-356.

124 An excellent analysis of the congressional crisis of 1930 is in Smith, Robert, “Radicalism in the Province of San Juan: The Saga of Federico Cantoni (1916-1934),” Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1970 Google Scholar.

125 Disputados, sesiones ordinarias, III (25 September 1929): 909-913, 1070.

126 La Prensa, 5 March 1930, p. 17; 20 April 1930, p. 16; La Época, 8 June 1930, p. 1; 2 August 1930, p. 1.

127 La Prensa, 20 February 1930, p. 13; 10 March 1930, p. 19; 11 April 1930, p. 11; 19 May 1930, p. 8. ;

128 La Tierra, 10 September 1930, p. 4; 12 September 1930, p. 4.

129 The 1937 agricultural census reported that in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba and in La Pampa territory, 59 percent of rural producers were renters, 35 percent were owners, and 6 percent held land under other forms of tenure. These percentages included cattle raisers; the proportion of renters among farmers probably was higher. See Argentine Republic, Ministerio de Agricultura, Comisión Nacional del Censo Agropecuario, Censo nacional agropecuario, 1: 46.