More Mouths, Less Meat

Dictators and their apologists like to say that authoritarian government makes for economic efficiency, that loss of liberty is balanced by material gains. Not even that illusory apology holds up in the case of Argentina's Juan Peron, whose government last week released the first full and coherent set of statistics on how the economy has fared since Peron took over the government of Argentina in 1945.

The record, by Peron's own accounting, is mediocre at best. Gross national product climbed by about one-third between 1945 and 1954. But meanwhile the population increased from 15 million to 19 million, so that the net per capita gain amounted to only 10%--an unremarkable showing for a decade in which many Western nations raised their living standards by a good deal more than 10%. (U.S. gain: about 18%.) The index of industrial output rose from 76 in 1945 to 100 in 1950, but at that point stagnation set in: last year the index was still 100. The construction index, 62 in 1945, actually shrank between 1950 and 1954, from 100 to 90. Agricultural output, apart from grazing, went up by about one-third under Peron; grazing declined. The combination of more mouths and less meat cut beef exports drastically, and total exports fell off 10%. With less foreign exchange to pay for imports, Argentina last year imported 13% less (measured in 1950 pesos) than in the depression year of 1935.

Along with its dismal record, the government issued an eight-point statement of revised economic policy. By putting at the top of the list more exports and more crop and cattle production, the Peron regime at least showed that it has learned one hard lesson: Argentina's most direct way out of economic stagnation is to become again a great exporter of the products of its wondrously fertile soil.

After the June 16 revolt against President Peron sputtered out, the singed strongman ordered 56 navy and air force officers tried by secret court martial. The sentences revealed last week were mild, considering that the prescribed penalty for rebellion by members of the armed forces is death. Seven revolt leaders, including Rear Admiral Samuel Toranzo Calderon, the alleged mastermind, were sentenced to life imprisonment, 30 others drew terms of from one to three years and the remaining 19 went free.

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