"Inflexible Austerity"

'Inflexible Austerity' For six years, under the fumbling administration of Juan and Eva PerOon, Argentina's historically rich economy has been running down like a much-abused mechanical toy. While the inner clockworks gradually fell apart, Peron's method of dealing with the problem was to shout down all warnings at the top of his voice; only three months ago he looked a group of visiting U.S. Congressmen straight in the eye and told them: "From the economic point of view, Argentina has absolutely no problems."

Time for Sacrifices. Argentina has many. One of the world's great agricultural countries, it now finds itself with almost nothing to sell abroad. Inflation is running wild at home, with prices jumping at an average rate of 3% a month. Last week Peron finally changed course and-began to face the facts. In a somber speech to the nation he proclaimed a program of "inflexible austerity," of sacrifice, of less food and more work. For the famed Republic of Beef, the meatless day announced four weeks ago had seemed almost like a joke in poor taste. Now Peron decreed two meatless days each week, and to make the rule stick, he ordered butcher shops to shut down. Packing plants will also close one day a week, and on another day process meat for export only.

Peron went on to tell his loyal labor following the gloomy news that they would have to get along with little or no wage increases. (He offered a formula for 40% to 80% pay rises, but these were to be based on 1949 wages, and almost all workers have had hefty pay hikes since then.) To boost farm output 20% for the export market, Peron promised his old whipping boys, the farmers, one-third more for their grain. This meant scrapping his policy of paying farmers peanuts for their crops, then selling abroad for millions to finance his lavish industrialization schemes. The President also promised to slash his huge public works program.

Time for Reminders. To Argentines, the speech was a breath-taking turnabout. Evita Peron's newspaper Democracia rose loyally to the new challenge by delivering a forthright attack on meat: "It will wreck your liver, undermine your health, poison you with proteins and provoke serious digestive disturbances." But the presidential conversion gave the Radical Party weekly Adelante a first-class chance to trounce the regime.

Adelante charged that PerOon had advanced the date for the presidential elections, originally scheduled for this month, to last November, because he knew he could never win under present economic conditions. Now, it added bitterly, Peron suddenly calls for sacrifices and promises persecution of profiteers. "He forgets that around him . . . are persons who have enriched themselves unscrupulously."

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