Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1910 — DEBT OF ARGENTINA. [ARTICLE]

DEBT OF ARGENTINA.

Ooetlr SxfcntM of Tyt U»d Is. eludes Two Dresdnsszkti. The public debt of the Argentine Republic has Increased enormously since the nationalisation of the City of Buenos Aires at the end of 1880, but the nation has much to show of permanent value for the money expended. The Buenos Aires Standard says in 1880 the foreign and internal debt of the nation amounted to $65.970,000. In 1908, according to the message, ofthe president accompanying the budget, the foreign debt alone had risen to more than 1367,015,000, and the internal debt exceeded $100,360,000; thus the total public debt of the nation was more than but this Included a large amount of foreign debts contracted by the provinces and the loans and Issues of bonds by means of which the nation was able to construct the- port of the capital, the military port, the sanitary works, state railways, roads, telegraphs, public buildings, etc.; also the acquisition of a navy and or armaments for the army. The foreign debt has been Increased this year by contracting a loan for 148,250,000, thus making the total debt more than 1606,626,000; but of the former amount about 131,230,000 has been expended, and the bank of the nation received $16,405,000 for the Increase of its capital. Besides, a fund Intended to restore, In no distant future, the convertibility of the paper currency has been accumulated In the bank of the nation and now amounts to $27,020,000. The debt represents, however, about $86.85 per head of the population, and the service may be roughly stated at ,$4.80 per head per annum. One of the largest ltenpi of expenditure to be Incurred during the next .three or four years Is the cost of two Dreadnoughts and fifteen destroyers, which are to be acqulrd by the navy, and of guns, etc., for the army. The amount fixed by the law directing such acquisitions is about $35,705,000. Congress has also authorized additions to the debt for expenditure on public works as follows: $45,355,000 for enlarging the port of the capital and for the construction of the Mitre canal from the port of the Parana de las Palmas; $2,805,000 for a port at Quesquen; $9,650,000 for a railway from Diamante to Curuzu-Cuatia; $7,642,800 for the first part of the extension of the sanitary works of the capital, and a larger amount for carrying out the plan for the Other part of the works when the first has been completed; $7,642,800 for school buildings; $5,519,800 for military works; $8,916,000 for public works in execution of article 18 of the budget law in operation and of that which congress has approved for next year.