Education.--Education in the elemen tary grades is free and is carried on under subsidiaries by provincial boards of education. There are nearly 9,000 public primary schools, with over 1,000,000 pupils and about 32,000 teach ers. There are also about 1,000 private primary schools, with about 77,000 pupils and about 4,000 teachers. Sec ondary education is carried on through 37 national colleges, which are attended by about 12,000 pupils. There are also many normal schools and schools for special instruction, etc. There are 5 na tional universities, those of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Cordova, Santa Fe and Tucuman. There are over 10,000 stu dents at the University of Buenos Aires. The total expenditure for educational purposes in 1918 was about 60,000,000 paper dollars.
Finanee.—The total revenue in 1918 was 373,412,306 paper dollars, and the expenditures 390,989,480 paper dollars. The paper dollar has the value of about 42c. in American money. The chief ex penditures are for the public debt, edu cation, army, navy, and pensions.
Trans portation.—There were in 1918 about 22,500 miles of railway, of which about 4,000 belonged to the state. Ves sels entering the harbors and ports number nearly 50,000 annually. There were about 3,500 post offices and about 44,000 miles of telegraph, of which about 24,000 are national.
Army and Navy.—There is a compul sory military law which has produced an efficient army. There are five mili tary districts, each of which supplies a division of 20,000 men, with a reserve of about 250,000. The navy includes two large dreadnoughts of nearly 30,000 tons each. There are also armored cruisers, protective cruisers, gun boats, torpedo boats and miscellaneous craft.
People.—As a whole, this vast country is very thinly inhabited, some parts of it as yet being very little known. The native Indians were never very numer ous, and have given little trouble to the European settlers. Tribes of them yet in the savage state still inhabit the less known districts, and live by hunting and fishing. Some of the Gran Chaco tribes are said to be very fierce, and Euro pean travelers have been killed by them. The European element is strong in the republic, more than half of the popula tion being Europeans or of pure Euro pean descent. The typical inhabitants of the pampas are the Gauchos, a race of half-breed cattle-rearers and horse breakers.
History.—The river La Plata was dis covered in 1512 by the Spanish navi gator Juan Diaz de Solis, and the La i Plata territory had been brought into the possession of Spain by the end of the 16th century. In 1810 the territory cast off the Spanish rule, and in 1816 the independence of the United States of the Rio de la Plata was formally de clared. The present constitution dates from 1853, being subsequently modified. The executive power is vested in a President, elected by the representatives of the 14 provinces for a term of six years. A National Congress of two chambers—a Senate and a House of Dep uties—yields the legislative authority. The capital of the republic is BUENOS AIRES (q. v.). Argentina was the only important South American country which did not break off diplomatic rela tions with Germany during the war. This caused great discontent among the people of the country. The failure to sever relations with Germany was at tributed largely to the activities of Count Carl Luxburg, the German min ister. He was extremely active carry ing on German propaganda and this came to a head in September, 1917, when telegrams from him to the German War Office were made public. These telegrams contained extremely damaging matter, the most famous con taining the advice from Luxburg to the German Government to sink Argentine dhips "spurlos" (without leaving a trace), if they were to be attacked at all. The publication of this correspond ence caused great excitement both in the United States and in Europe. Lux burg was recalled. Public sentiment even before this had been strongly against neutrality, and President Iri goyen, who had apparently strong Ger man sympathies, was bitterly attacked. In April a mob wrecked the offices of the German newspapers in Buenos Aires and attacked the German legation. These disturbances were quieted, but broke out again on thepublication of the Luxburg correspondence. There were serious industrial disturbances in 1919, including strikes in the port of Buenos Aires. Collisions between strik ers and police occurred and many per sons were killed. The strike spread throughout the country and threatened to be general, but was finally ended without more serious trouble. During the year there were over 260 strikes, involving about 265,000 workmen.