Split-Healer

It was bright, auspicious weather on President Juan Antonio Rios' name day last week. In the red salon of the Moneda Palace he welcomed members of the Cabinet, chiefs of the Chilean armed forces, friends and school children, some of whom brought gifts. Among his name-day gifts one outshone all others: the official text of the Emergency Bill, giving Rios such power as few Presidents enjoy.

Strong-Man Rios, since his inauguration last April, has itched to use strong-arm methods in healing splits that World War II has brought to Chile. Last week in Santiago, 20,000 Chileans, clamoring for Pan-American solidarity, demanded an immediate break with the Axis. Only the President had power to grant their demand. Had Rios been there, he might have reminded them of Chile's 2,660-mile unprotected coastline; he might even have said that his Government has already gone as far as it intends to go in placating Pan-Americans: it has warned the Axis that Chile will declare war if Axis subs sink any Pan-American ship in the southern Pacific or attack the Panama Canal.

Trouble at Home. Besides, President Rios had more exclusively Chilean problems to think about. Victim of an acute war-born economic crisis, Chile suffers severe shortages in gasoline, tin plate, rubber, steel. Since 1941 the cost of living has gone up 39%. With no palliating wage increases, labor grows daily surlier.

Though elected by components of the now dead Popular Front, President Rios has already got tough with labor. While awaiting full powers under the Emergency Bill, he used its threat to outlaw and smash strikes, to clap strike leaders in jail, to intervene in and control trade-union elections. Among the semi-dictatorial powers the new bill grants the President is that of declaring "emergency zones" and a "state of siege." suspending constitutional guarantees and permitting the "militarization" of labor elements.

Neutral Against Whom? Elated by the bill were pro-Axis landowners, with eyes still fixed on post-war markets, and Chilean industrialists, suffering from lack of U.S. export licenses. The Rios regime was turning out more Rightist than they had hoped. Senator Fernando Alessandri Rodriguez had whipped behind the President the full support of the Rightist Liberal Party. Semi-Fascist Falangists had begun to appear in key posts. Rightists were trying to get rid of Socialist ministers, one of the most pro-U.S. groups in Chile.

In a counter-move last week, Leftist parties organized a new National Democratic Front. Its avowed aims: to put down Nazi & Fascist activities, work for a break with the Axis. But some of the Rightists are anti-Axis, too, and approve Foreign Minister Ernesto Barros Jarpa's recent cautious statement that Chile is "non-belligerent" on the side of the U.S. What all Rightists chiefly want is to see internal splits healed along strongman. Rightist lines. And cold, hawk-nosed President Rios looked like their man.

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