embers
of legislatures suspected of Autonomist-National leanings were to
be replaced by individuals who enjoyed the confidence of the
Administration. Pretexts for such action were not hard to find under
the terms of the constitution; but their political interests suffered so
much in the effort that the promoters had to abandon it.

Owing to persistent obstruction on the part of Congress, which took the
form of a refusal either to sanction his appointments or to approve the
budget, the President suspended the sessions of that body in 1908 and
decreed a continuance of the estimates for the preceding year. The
antagonism between the chief executive and the legislature became so
violent that, if his opponents had not been split up into factions,
civil war might have ensued in Argentina.

To remedy a situation made worse by the absence--usual in most of the
Hispanic republics--of a secret ballot and by the refusal of political
malcontents to take part in elections, voting was made both obligatory
and secret in 1911, and the principle of minority representation was
introduced. Legislation of this sort was designed to check bribery and
intimidation and to enable the radical-minded to do their duty at the
polls. Its effect was shown five years later, when the secret ballot
was used substantially for the first time. The radicals won both the
presidency and a majority in the Congress.

One of the secrets of the prosperity of Argentina, as of Brazil, in
recent years has been its abstention from warlike ventures beyond its
borders and its endeavor to adjust boundary conflicts by arbitration.
Even when its attitude toward its huge neighbor had become embittered
in consequence of a boundary decision rendered by the President of
the United States in 1895, it abated none of its enthusiasm for the
principle of a peaceful settlement of international disputes. Four
years later, in a treaty with Uruguay, the so-called "Argentine Formula"
appeared. To quote its language: "The contracting parties agree to
submit to arbitration all questions of any nature which may arise
between them, provided they do not affect provisions of the constitution
of either state, and cannot be adjusted by direct negotiation." This
Formula was soon put to the test in a serious dispute with Chile.

In the Treaty of 1881, in partitioning Patagonia, the crest of the
Andes had been assumed to be the true continental watershed between the
Atlantic and the Pacific a