New President

The inauguration last week of Juan Antonio Rios Morales as 22nd President of the Republic of Chile was simple and democratic. Entering the Honor Hall of Parliament as a private citizen, he advanced to the rostrum, took an oath to respect the Constitution, donned the red, white & blue sash-of-office which retiring Vice President Geronimo Mendez doffed. As "Don Anonimo" Mendez walked out, Don Juan Antonio briefly announced his Cabinet and policy. Both reflected the man, as the man mirrored the epoch.

The Cabinet was with few exceptions a collection of "illustrious nobodies." The policy, combining sympathy toward the U.S. with determination to maintain Chile's remaining neutrality, perfectly exemplified Chile's dilemma. For the dominant groups in Chile are sharply split on foreign policy. Until their conflicting interests are resolved, they agree that what they need is a firm government of "Center concentration" under a strong-man mediator. It is a case where the policy is the man, and Rios was perfectly cast for the role.

The President. He even looks the part. Iron-grey, over six feet tall, lean, muscular, cold, with a hawk nose, and down-slanting heavy brows that are a cartoonist's godsend, he looks, as he is, a personification of stubborn and violent will. Characteristic was his reply, as President-elect, to banqueting businessmen who proposed certain Governmental measures: "Don't advise me, I prefer to be wrong alone."

Equally characteristic was his behavior during a debate on constitutional law in the Chamber of Deputies, when he crowned his opponent with a copy of the Chilean Constitution, shouting: "This is evidently the only way you can get the Constitution through your head."

No orator, he prefers to read his speeches, which are, like himself, dry and sharp. He is married to a German-Chilean, Marta Ide Perera of the artistic Ide family, has a quiet, formal home life. He disapproved his three sons' music lessons lest culture should sissify them. For himself, he has preferred the wild horsemanship of el huaso, the Chilean cowboy.

The Policy. Of less distinguished origin than any President since Balmaceda, Juan Antonio Rios, at 53, is a tough and dynamic fighter, a stubborn and lonely man, come up the hard way. He stands as supreme arbiter of not yet completed struggles. His specific plans he has so far kept to himself--except for the announcement that he will demand extraordinary financial powers and the right to concentrate public services. But by last week enough evidence was in to indicate something of his policies.

On the internal front, Rios has said that his Government would be "a Government of the Left, but a reasonable Left, a Left of Order." When he further announced "order in the streets and in production" and the replacement of Aguirre's slogan "To govern is to educate" by his own "To govern is to produce," Chilean labor prepared for strikes.

On the external front, until the conflicting sectors of Chile's leading groups can come to some compromise agreement, or until one wins out, Rios will undertake no change in foreign policy.

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