Sixty-two and Nine

The four-in-the-morning stillness of the Palace grounds at Guatemala City was broken one day last week by the blasts of a military band playing Happy Birthday To You. Two hours later, at 6 a.m., the forts of San Jose and Matamoros sounded off with a 21-gun salute. Early the people arose, dressed themselves in their best, and hurried to the patios and salas of the Palace, where they saw floral compositions representing harps, marimbas, Guatemala's shield, books, a motorcycle, a locomotive, a train. At the end of a long, polished-mahogany chamber they were greeted by a trim, steely-eyed man. Officials addressed him as Chief, humble folk as Father. He was Jorge Ubico, celebrating his 62nd year of life, his ninth year as President of Guatemala.

Jorge Ubico has made Guatemala the glamor girl of the Central American Republics. He has reduced the national debt 50%, has got his paper currency covered 100% by gold, has built and paid for public works. He has granted the Indians property rights, their own courts, their own military uniforms. But taxes are high, and Indians who cannot pay are forced to work their taxes out on Government projects.

After coming to power President Ubico introduced a Probity Law, requiring that public officials register their assets upon taking and leaving office. He also doubled his own salary and made it payable for life.

He is a gadgeteer. Once he fixed a radio after an expert had tinkered in vain eight hours. He wins photographic contests, chats over the radio incognito, and is often to be seen testing the country's roads in the saddle of a motorcycle. When he finds a bumpy stretch, he gives the local boss holy hell.

Though he loves his own power, he has made love to the ideals of democracy. Diplomats and barefoot peasants drank champagne together on his birthday. On the eve of the Battle of Britain he suspended agitation for return to Guatemala of British Honduras on the ground that no Latin could kick a prostrate man.

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