Cold Wind

Free, liberal Chile last week felt a bone-chilling wind blow down from the Andes. The Government announced that it had discovered a subversive plot involving "Latin American neighbors." Not much more was told. No names. No arrests as yet. But every Chilean thought of the arrogant "Colonels Clique" of Argentina and of its suspected desire to organize similar Fascist regimes in neighboring countries. Said Arturo Espinoza, Army commander in chief: "The Army is awake with its eyes wide open and will defend the Constitutional Government."

For those who looked beneath the surface of Chilean democracy, there were disturbing signs. Ever since the war began to affect the Western Hemisphere, Chile has suffered increasingly from inflation. Her upper and middle classes are reveling in paper profits. Nightclubs are jammed. Landlords have seen their properties increase five times in paper value.

But the people of Chile, the rotos or "broken men," go dressed in rags, eat beans and rice in miserable portions, live in one-room hovels for which they pay extortionate rents, find that their few pesos buy less & less food and goods.

Many of these conditions antedate President Juan Antonio Rios. Their root causes lie deep in an anciently depressed economy. But informed Chileans agree that amiable, pliant President Rios could have done much more than he has even tried to do to stem the immediate effects of inflation. He has abundant powers, recently augmented by a long-pending economic-control bill. But he has hesitated to offend any loud, well-organized pressure group such as the landowners (Farm Bloc) or the middlemen (Little Business). Should Chile turn out to be another feeding ground for Fascism, part of the blame must rest upon democrats who failed to keep Chile's democracy strong.

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