Interior Department was directed by Dr. Ramon Gomez through- out Irigoyen's term, the Ministry of Justice and Public In- struction by Jose S. Salinas, and that of Public Works by Pablo Torello. For the first time in the history of Argentina the Ministry of War was filled by civilians, Dr. Elpidio Gonzales (until 1918) and his successor Dr. Julio Moreno. An engineer of some distinction, Federico Alvarez de Toledo, was Minister of Marine until his resignation in 1919, when Julio Moreno was entrusted with the Navy portfolio also. After Pueyrredon left the Ministry of Agriculture in 1917 Alfredo Demarchi, an engineer, assumed charge of that Department. The Vice-President, Dr. Pelagio B. Luna, from the province of La Rioja, who was sup- posed to represent the Radical influence in the interior of the country, died June 25 1919. Benito Villanueva then became president of the Senate and therefore next in succession to the presidency, although he did not belong to the President's political party. The elections in 1919 strengthened the hold of the President and the Radical party over both Houses of Con- gress and gave the Radicals reason to hope that they would continue in power and win the 1922 presidential elections, in spite of differences of opinion among some of the leaders in the party and the inevitable disputes as to who should be the candidate.
With the entry of the United States into the World War in April 1917, the attitude of Argentina, like that of many other Latin-American countries, became divided. One strong party desired a rupture of relations with Germany, while another believed that Argentina's future position of independence should be safeguarded by a strict neutrality. The general mass of the population was strongly in sympathy with the Allies, with the natural exception of the 26,000 German subjects and the 40,000 others of German origin. Their influence was particularly strong in Argentina because of the excellent German organiza- tion there and because of the feebleness of the Allied propaganda until the war was nearly over. For some time after the outbreak of the war in 1914 it had been feared that all the skilled workers and other immigrants of the better class would return to fight for their native lands; and during 1917, 1918 and 1919 44,285 more persons did leave the country as steerage passengers than entered it ; at the same time the cost of living rapidly advanced, and there was a corresponding spread of social unrest, partly due to the popular feeling that the President had espoused the cause of labour and so was disposed to listen sympathetically to the claims of the various labour organizations. This attitude brought him into conflict with the English-owned railways, which com- prised 74% of the railways of Argentina, and did not discourage the serious strikes of 1917, which were supposed to have been instigated by German agents. The most disastrous of these was the general railway strike which paralyzed traffic throughout the country from Sept. 23 to Oct. 17 1917. Moreover, labour agitations and strikes of all kinds continued to develop in all parts of the country. They distracted public attention from international to local issues.
On Sunday, Sept. 8 1917, the Buenos Aires newspapers published certain cablegrams which had been sent in May and June 1917 by the German Minister at Buenos Aires, Count Luxburg, to the German Foreign Office, in one of which he said : " As regards Argentina's ships, I advise that they be compelled to go back or that they be sunk without leaving any trace (spurlos versenkt) or not allowed to pass." Four Argentine merchant vessels, the " Oriana," " Monte Protegido," " Toro " and " Curumalan," were sunk by the Germans. The publication of these cablegrams caused great excitement in Buenos Aires and four days later, on Sept. 12, Honorio Pueyrredon, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, notified Luxburg that he was persona non grata to the Argentine Government. Pueyrredon had been personally offended by Luxburg's allusion to him as a " notorious ass " in the published telegrams. On the evening of the same day a large mob destroyed the largest German club in Buenos Aires, attacked the premises of the three pro-German newspapers and seriously damaged a number of German business establishments. Popular indignation was increased by the operation of a high-powered German radiograph station near Buenos Aires designed to communicate with Nauen, near Berlin. Pam- phlets and leaflets were circulated telling of German designs on South America. Intense excitement reigned in the Argentine capital, and on Sept. 19 the Argentine Senate voted by 23 to i in favour of breaking diplomatic relations with Germany. On Sept. 24 the Chamber of Deputies voted a like resolution by 53 to 1 8. A large number of senators and other prominent persons took part in a large and significant pro-Ally parade on Sept. 20, which was one of the most notable demonstrations in the history of Buenos Aires. In spite of all this anti-German manifestation, however, the President maintained an attitude of strict neutrality and the German legation continued to function in Buenos Aires under Count Donhoff as charge d'affaires, while German intrigues in Argentina continued unabated, spreading thence throughout Latin America. But a large number of volunteers joined the Allied armies, and all the Argentine communities gave freely to Allied Red Cross and relief funds.
Education. The following table gives the amounts appropriated for Education in 1910, 1915 and 1920 in U.S. dollars.
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Federal Government . . $15,480,305.69
Provinces:
Buenos Aires
3,632,227.56
Santa Fe"
700,801.00
Entre Rios
519,465.82
Corrientes
250,764.76
Cordoba
819,297.89
San Luis
101,851.41
Mendoza
325,362.18
San Juan
177,035-17
La Rioja
101,947.90
Catamarca
116,512-30
Santiago del Estero
304,034.24
Tucuman .
414*165.50
Salta ... . . . 236,389.30
1915 $21,943,708.46
4,464,213.73 1,182,212.82 762,557.19 435,858.42 979,644.96 101,831.41 325,463.18 144,670.41 105,506.30 127,041.00 285,990.00 710,032.00 251,956.37 165,009.00
1920 $28,280,897.60
6,262,464.92
1,173,831.87
1,074,034.91
467,749.36
1.509,741-94
88,430.76
459,559-00 300,069.47 97,476.73 125,619.29 306,418.93 775,495-15 213,838.40 167,882.79
$23,300,133.66 $31,985,696.15 $41,303,511.12
(C. L. C.)
ARGONNE, BATTLES IN THE, 1914-6. On Sept. 14 1914 at
early dawn the advanced guards of the French II. Army Corps
left Ste. Menehould with orders to reach Grandpre the same day.
The II. Corps was en fleche, about half a day's march ahead of
the IV. Army Corps, which was on its left, and of the left corps
of the III. Army on its right. At about 12 o'clock one of the
advanced guards of the II. Corps carried, by a forced attack, the
village of St. Thomas, a kind of natural fortress dominating the
valley of the Biesme. A German staff officer was killed, on whom
was found an order of the IV. German Army commanding them
to hold the " fortified positions marked by La Justice (2 km.
south of Cernay), hills 147 and 148, height 140 (between Servon
and the Bois de Cernay), the Mare auxBceufs, Bagatelle . . ."
In the evening of the i4th the French Colonial Corps was stopped
by the resistance of the enemy at Ville-sur-Tourbe; the II. Corps
carried Servon, but, isolated by the delay of the III. Army and
the check to the Colonial Corps, it could not emerge therefrom.
It may be said that on the evening of Sept. 14 mobile warfare
ceased in Argonne and trench warfare began.
The German staff had left the valley of the Biesme to take up its positions farther back; this decision seems to have been speedily regretted, for on the morning of the i $th great efforts were rpade by the Germans to regain the heights dominating the Biesme. The French forces tried at first to continue their northward march, but they soon felt the uselessness of their efforts. Then position warfare was accepted, but so regretfully that immobility was found difficult to observe; time was wasted, and, in war, time is blood. Nevertheless, the return towards the Biesme attempted by the Germans as early as Sept. 15 had not yet been completely successful by July 1918, at which moment the debacle for Germany began. On Sept. 15 1914 the Germans retook Servon, but could not debouch from it. Their efforts to do so remained fruitless during the whole of the war.
Further westwards the II. Corps in vain attempted to reach Binarville. The Germans retook the south edge of that village and gained ground in the woods of La Grurie; but they came up against the most tenacious resistance and were never able to seize Vienne-le-Chateau, of which they did not leave a stone
