Sept. 5 Comes in May

By glancing out of the window of his office in pillared, grey Moneda Palace, Santiago's White House, Pedro Aguirre Cerda can look across the Calle Morande to the scene of the massacre that made him President of Chile. On Sept. 5, 1938, the Nacista Party of an ineffectual little Hitler named Jorge Gonzalez von Marees tried to stage a Putsch in behalf of onetime President General Carlos Ibanez del Campo. In the course of the proceedings 60 Nacista youths and a couple of innocent insurance salesmen who had barricaded themselves in the Caja de Seguro Obrero (Workers' Insurance Building) were shot or bayoneted after surrender. Popular disgust with the Government of President Arturo Alessandri, as well as with the Nacistas, brought to power the Popular Front, and to the Presidency the onetime high-school professor who is called Don Tinto because his complexion resembles the good red wine he makes.

Glancing at the Caja de Seguro Obrero, as he must have done many a time in the last few critical weeks, Don Tinto could pull his bushy mustache and reflect on the dual perils which have beset his administration from its start. To the left of him was the danger that the Popular Front would disintegrate; to the right, the danger of another Sept. 5. Don Tinto's recent veto of two bills passed by Congress brought both perils upon him last week.

Trouble on a Flat Car. One bill granted amnesty to political offenders. Congress overrode President Aguirre's veto, and back to Chile went one firebrand whom Don Tinto would have loved to keep in exile: onetime President Ibanez, who made his return in state, sitting in his automobile on a flat car of a freight train. On his way back was another: General Ariosto Herrera, leader of the Movimiento Nadonalista, a Nazified party which made another unsuccessful Putsch in 1939.

Ready and waiting for them was Jorge Gonzalez von Marees, who had changed the name of his Nacistas to the Popular Socialist Vanguard and who had attained the dignity of a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Only a word from Gonzalez was needed to set off another Rightist revolt.

Trouble in a Hall. Without Communist support the Popular Front could not have existed. With Communist support it could not endure, since patriotic Leftists of other parties are convinced that the Communists take orders from Moscow. The second bill Don Tinto vetoed was one outlawing the Communist Party This time the veto stuck, but Don Tinto's own Radical Party ordered six of its members to resign from the Cabinet in protest. This they did, but the President persuaded them to reconsider. Thereupon they were kicked out of the Party.

Last fortnight the Radical Party held a convention in Santiago's Teatro Municipal. At stake was not only the fate of the six ousted members, but also the whole broad question of Party policy; whether the Party should swing left or right--appease the Communists in the Popular Front or cooperate with the Socialists and oust the Communists. As the 600 delegates strolled into the hall one evening there was a sound of swiftly running feet in the Calle Huerfanos. Somebody shouted "Los Nacis!" Shots rang out and three delegates fell.

Later that night Minister of the Interior Arturo Olavarria Bravo announced to the convention that Delegate Fernando Pinto Sepulveda had died of his wounds.

The delegates showed their temper by electing as president of the convention Senator Rudecindo Ortega Masson, who showed his temper by saluting the convention with an upraised fist. That gesture broke the Radicals' promises to the Socialists.

Strong Hand Wanted. With the Popular Front teetering beneath him, and with a new Congress, elected in March, about to convene, Don Tinto needed a strong hand to keep the country in order while he patched up his differences with his own Party. The Party had already reinstated five of the six Cabinet members on their promise that hereafter they would obey Party discipline. One who would not so promise, and who was not reinstated, was Minister of the Interior Olavarria. Minister Olavarria was Don Tinto's strong hand.

Arturo Olavarria had managed Don Tinto's campaign in 1938, had entered his Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture. In that post he pushed through many agricultural reforms, became so able an administrator that last year President Aguirre made him Minister of the Interior, which in Chile is tantamount to being both Prime Minister and Vice President. A disciplinarian and a man of strong loyalties, when he had to choose between Party loyalty and loyalty to his President, unlike Jim Farley, he chose the President.

During the administration of President Ibanez, Arturo Olavarria had been imprisoned and exiled, and so he had good reason to fear the old General's return.

Last week he gave the General's most rambunctious supporters a taste of his kind of discipline. One day carabineros went from door to door, arrested 32 members of the Popular Socialist Vanguard.

On one they found a letter written to a provincial leader: "I report to you that the unanimous opinion of the people is that we must embark on another Fifth of September." This was the evidence Don Tinto's strong hand wanted. A few days later, on orders of Minister Olavarria, the police went after Little Fuehrer Gonzalez. He met them with a pistol, but tear gas brought him around. To prove he meant business Minister Olavarria got a medical commission to test Nacista Gonzalez' sanity.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.