Uruguay

Heat. [music] [music] Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> What is the look of Uruguay? It meets the eye placidly, comfortably, as if it were made partly of Ohio, partly of our western cattle and sheep country. Nothing spectacular. The other countries of South America have all the mountains, all the deserts, all the jungle. U has none of these, but nearly all of its land is useful. [music] Southeast of Miami, Florida, about 5,000 miles lies Uruguay. It is only 1/4 larger than Florida. It is the smallest of all the South American countries. [music] It is wedged in between two big neighbors, Brazil to the north and Argentina to the south and west. The Uruguay River and the great arm of the sea called the Rio de la Plata separate Uruguay from Argentina. And on the shore of the plata is Mononttoale, Uruguay's capital. It is one of the world's great seapports. [music] Mivido is modern. It is 100 years younger than New York or Boston. There are few reminders of colonial days in Monte Vado, but plenty of evidence that this is the chief city of a dynamic and progressive country. Of Uruguay's 2 million people, about onethird live here in the capital. [music] [music] Monado is modern, but one old tradition thrived. Each year there is a gathering of La Creoia society to pay tribute to that key man in Uruguay's past and present, the Galo, the cowboy. [music] These are cattlemen. Some are ranch owners [music] or executives. Some are workers from the ranches. The whole affair is the city's tribute to the countryside [music] on which it so greatly depends. For in Uruguay, as truly as in Argentina, the gaucho is the symbol of [music] an important part of the nation's life. [music] [music] Another symbol, La Kareta. Monado's tribute to Uruguay's pioneer. From Spain and Italy, they came and drove their covered wagons into the back country along the plata. They came with their good, their family, and with their love of the soil. Today, their descendants are still working these pleasant farmlands. >> [music] [music] [music] >> Introduction of modern methods has enabled Uruguay to increase its agricultural output. The climate is temperate. The rainfall is dependable. And in the south, in the regions nearest the rivers, the soil is good. [music] These farm workers are drinking mate. To the true Uruguayan, life would be unendurable without this teaike brew. One of the surprising things about Urugua, one of the unique things is that the national minimum wage law and the 8-hour day apply to farm workers. Agriculture claims only a small share, not more than 10% of the country's usable land. But Uruguay feeds itself and even exports a part of its crop. The rivers give Uruguay an easy way of starting farm products, barley, oats, corn, wheat, linseed toward foreign market. But the total is small compared to the export of wool, meat, and hide. From 80 to 90% of all Uruguay's land is given over to raising cattle and sheep. [music] Though we must think of the gaucho, the ranch hand, as Uruguay's number one worker. [music] >> [music] [music] >> If the cowboy of Texas or Wyoming has his equal anywhere, it is here in the South American cattle country. [music] Gauchos have a long record, too. For there have been cattle on the plains of Uruguay for hundreds of years. [music] There are nine times as many [music] sheep in Uruguay as there are people. Proportion to population, Uruguay has about 18 times as many sheep as the United States. Uruguay looks to millions of sheep [music] primarily for wool, the country's leading single export. >> [music] >> The state controlled school system reaches every child, even those in the rural area. Education is free, and it is also compulsory. The government furnishes free textbooks. Later on, these youngsters can go on to secondary school, college, and university. All three, where Uruguay pays the cost of training its lawyers and doctors, its engineers and architects. There is less illiteracy in Uruguay than in any other country south of the United States. [music] It's roundup time at least once a year on the Big Rancher. And each year over a million head of cattle make the trip to Martin. [music] [music] [music] [music] On the outskirts of Monado is the largest cattle market in the world. Unlike our stockyard, there are no fenced in enclosures. [music] [music] [music] The men we see here are the cattle buyers and sellers. >> [music] [music] >> The leaner animals go to the salad where their meat is salted. [music] >> [music] >> To the Frigarifico, a plant for freezing and packing beef for export, go the top grade cattle. [music] The shower bath gives a good cleansing to their hides and hooks. [music] [music] So, here in full swing is Uruguay's other major industry. All of this beef is for export. The best customers are the British. [music] Today, much of the beef before it's frozen is bone. This saves a lot of cargo space. The bones and other waste products will be ground up and exported as chicken feed and fertilizer. [music] >> [music] [music] >> barn markets for its meat products and its wool, good harbors and easy access to the world free lane. These have meant economic progress and security for Uruguay. [music] Uruguay's beaches are among the finest in South America. By national law, every Uruguan is entitled to two weeks vacation each year with pay. A lot of these vacations are spent on the shore. Besides, thousands come here every summer from Argentina. [music] >> [music] [music] >> As for the casinos, some of them are stateowned and all of them are operated under official scrutiny and with the government sharing in the profit. State share is turned back into public benefit. In the long run, the real winners are the common folk, the Uruguayan people [music] [music] [music] in Monado. Everybody seems to buy tickets for the public lottery. Many loyal citizens criticize government lottery, but the officials point out that all the people share in the profit. [music] A hospital, a fine one, built with public fund. Casinos in the lotteryies helped in raising those funds. Here, the poor receive free medical care, including the services of doctors and dentists. Other patients are here because the government's health insurance plan entitles them to hospitalization. It doesn't cost much to be sick in Oregon. [music] The stateowned banks control all banking throughout the country. Government banks handle nationwide business in insurance which is a government monopoly in mortgages, housing, social security, pension and other forms of financing public welfare as well as in straight banking. The whole system utopian though it is is taken for granted by the Uruguayan. Very few people are rich, very few are poor. There is little unemployment and anybody can retire at 60 with a pension. A state-owned theater, a state-owned hotel, the headquarters of the government's unemployment insurance and pension administration. [music] [music] The government owns grain elevators just as it owns factories for processing cement, alcohol, and petroleum. A citizen is free to go into business. The government will help him and in many cases the government will compete with him too. [music] Uruguay is well supplied with railroad. Some of the roads are Britishowned and some are owned and operated by the state which has provided its lines with streamline diesel tray. [music] These are looking tanks on automobiles are charcoal burners without oil except by importation. So there's much use of charcoal burned in these tanks to form gas as a substitute for gasoline. [music] [music] Lack of coal and oil has forced the use of wood as fuel and factory as in this paper mill. [music] [music] But the straw isn't to be used as fuel. [music] That's going into paper. [music] [music] Factories like this will increase in number when more motive power is available. [music] to that problem. The new hydroelectric dam on the Rioenegro is a large part of the answer. The new dam financed by the government was started by German engineers using German equipment. But specialists from the United States are helping Uruguayans finish the job. Even with increased electrical power, Uruguay is not likely to become a manufacturing country on a large scale. It lacks raw materials, especially minerals. [music] Stadium in Monivale is a particularly good one. The brand of soccer played in the stadium is particularly good, too. The Uruguayans just naturally take to this game. In 1924 at Paris and again in 1928 at Amsterdam, they won the Olympic soccer championship. The stadium seats 80,000. That leaves only about 2 million Uruguayans outside doing something else. [music] Umpires are the same the world over. Always wrong. Notice that this one is given police protection. [music] [music] The crowd is much like a baseball crowd in the United States. One reason why a visitor from the States feels at home in Uruguay. The fundamental and important reason for that feeling is that Uruguay has a large middle class. >> [music] >> the Senate building where there has been plenty of proof that Uruguay is a real democracy. Representatives of the people meeting in this chamber have given the country its amazing structure of laws dealing with labor, education, suffrage, public works, and public health. >> [music] >> Note that some of the senators are women. [music] Uruguay has no censorship of news or opinion. [music] >> [music] >> There is complete freedom of speech, a right which is often strenuously exercised here [music] in the Senate. It is an outstandingly progressive and democratic land. Monado is indeed a handsome capital. But in spite of modern skyscrapers and magnificent boulevard, Uruguayans know that the strength of their country has its roots in the soil and pastures of the interior. La Republica Oriental del Uruguay to give it the full and official name is wide, sunlit, and productive. The gauchos and sheep herders are important citizens of one of the most likable of all countries. >> [music] [music]