Plugger's Victory

More than two years after the overthrow of Tyrant Gerardo Machado, Cuba last week went to the polls in boredom, suspicion and disgust, to elect a President, a Congress, provincial Governors and mayors. Cuba had had no election at all for eight years, no election even moderately honest for 20. Most politicos, who preferred their own voices to the people's votes, had made certain that last week's election would prove as little as possible. It was the quietest election in Cuban history, for which U. S. bigwigs in Havana gave much credit to able U. S. Ambassador Jefferson Caffery.

The election had been postponed half a dozen times. The Negro Communist Left and the semi-Fascist ABC had refused to put up candidates, their leaders being either in exile or in mortal fear of Army Chief of Staff Colonel Fulgencio Batista. Meanwhile, over a year ago, a black-browed, cigar-sucking little man named Miguel Mariano Gomez began plugging steadily at building himself into Cuba's dark horse. He was the son of Cuba's second President, Jose Miguel Gomez. He had been an insurgent "Liberal" Mayor of Havana opposed to tyrannical "Liberal" Machado. He had a plump, dazzling wife. He proceeded quietly to wangle alliances with all the Right Center "sectors," to acquire some semi-radical friends and to find a man with a much better radio voice than his to make incessant radio speeches in his behalf. A year ago it became an even bet that new Candidate Gomez would win any election against the old favorites.

Chief of old favorites for 20 years has been handsome, elegant General Mario Garcia ("The Beard") Menocal. now 70, longtime leader of the Conservatives (now the National Democrats). La Barba is beloved of back-country farmers because he was President in the glorious "time of the fat cows," during "the dance of the millions," (1919-21). when Cuban sugar sold for 22-c-. Of the millions he grafted then he has almost nothing left; his superb estate has fallen to ruins. Decrepit, distinguished, an old-fashioned leader, he was too weak this time to stump the country.

La Barba won seeming advantage last November when Cuba's Supreme Electoral Tribunal ruled that Gomez' independent Liberal backing could not support Gomez, if the regular Liberal Party put up any other candidate. Summoned in haste to advise Cuba, Princeton's President Harold Willis Dodds told the Liberals to choose between Gomez and his opponent, Carlos Manuel de la Cruz. They chose Gomez. Menocal tore his beard indignantly. Dr. Dodds thereupon drew up the final electoral code (TIME, Dec. 16). New factor was that Cuba's pious, conservative women had the vote for the first time. Meanwhile, unwilling to accept the responsibility of either holding or postponing the election, provisional President Carlos Mendieta resigned his job to his meek Secretary of State Jose A. Barnet y Vina-gres (TIME, Dec. 23). Of all the dozen "sectors" and their might-have-been candidates who once shrilled for Cuba's attention, only Gomez and Menocal last week actually ran for President. As the ballots were counted by the lazy and inefficient clerks, it appeared more & more certain that Gomez had won. This week, four days & nights after the voting ended, the Government did not yet have final returns. But Gomez' Fusion ticket was well in the lead in the voting for President, for the Governors of all six provinces and for all the Senate candidates. Since the Coalition parties had split up when it came to nominating candidates for the House of Representatives, Menocal's men seemed to have pocketed the House. Prime election after-problem : to what extent had Batista's Army, which searched voters for weapons, stuffed the ballot boxes? An oblique answer by Cuba's Secretary of the Interior Maximiliano Smith: "The elections have been the most honest ever held in Cuba. The Army and the police were not only impartial, but also exceedingly gentlemanly."

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