in 1897 and for telegraphy lines in 1898. Director and Mayor of Ijuí In December 1898, Pestana was appointed by the State government as Director of the settlement (colônia) of Ijuí, created in 1890. The settlement was facing then a severe crisis caused by bad management and by quarrels among the more than ten ethnic groups present in the region (mainly Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Poles, Afro-Brazilians, Austrians, Swedes, Spaniards, Latvians and Arabs). Upon his arrival in early 1899, Pestana gathered the leaders of all immigrant communities in a place currently known as Union Hill (Alto da União) and managed to pacify them. He rationalized the policy of rural settlements, favoring families with previous experience in agriculture, and attached priority to investments in education and infrastructure, helping to diversify the economy of Ijuí'. During Pestana's thirteen-year tenure, the population of Ijuí rose from six thousand to 28 thousand inhabitants. His administration built approximately 200 miles of roads and bridges over all rivers crossing the settlement. 16 public schools and 16 private ones were opened, catering for two thousand pupils. Thanks to the environment created by Pestana, the settlement, nearly moribund in 1899, boasted in 1912 more than 100 food factories, 70 shops, 32 grist mills, 42 sugar mills, a typography and four hotels. Half of the local production (especially timber, furniture, tobacco, corn and lard) was exported to other areas of Brazil. The steep demographic and economic growth of the settlement allowed Ijuí to gain political autonomy in 1912. Pestana was the first Mayor of the new municipality, one of the best examples of racial and cultural integration in Southern Brazil. Congressman, founder of the Railway Company of Rio Grande do Sul and State Secretary After a brief period as Director of the Minas Gerais Western Railway Company (Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas), Pestana was elected in 1915 and 1918 to the National Congress of Brazil, representing the RIograndense Republican Party. As a congressman, he advocated new investments in rail transport and criticized the lack of an adequate regulatory framework. In 1920, in a joint effort with the Federal Government, he assured the nationalization of the Belgium-based Compagnie Auxiliaire de Chemins de Fer au Brésil, owned by Percival Farquhar and concessionary of the Riograndense railways since 1905. The Auxiliaire was transformed into the Railway Company of Rio Grande do Sul (VFRGS or Viação Férrea do Rio Grande do Sul), entirely