New Gospel

Early every Wednesday morning, a Polish-born ex-peddler rides in a chauffeured limousine to the Pink House, headquarters of Argentina's federal government. Smiling and confident, he takes his place among the high officials gathered for the weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by early-rising Strongman Juan Peron. The ex-peddler is Jose B. Gelbard, 38, a well-to-do clothing wholesaler and president of the fast-growing General Economic Confederation (C.G.E.), a government-sponsored association that speaks for Argentine business.

Prop & Counterweight. Until a little more than a year ago, business had no effective voice in Peron's councils of state. Peron came to power as the business-baiting leader of Argentina's workers, and he made the General Labor Confederation (C.G.T.) the main prop of his regime. In labor-management disputes. Peron's government and courts almost always sided with the C.G.T.

The creation of the C.G.E. in 1953, as a counterweight to the 6,000,000-member C.G.T.. fitted in with Peron's vague variety of Mussolinian corporate-state philosophy, but as usual his reasons were practical rather than philosophical. By setting up a business federation he expected to 1) broaden and stabilize the base of his power, and 2) boost the nation's industrial output. Said Peron, in a recent speech sounding remarkably different from the rabble-rousing Peron of yesteryear: "We may get some results if we try to persuade people to produce more by appealing to their national spirit and ethical principles. But we get better results if we include the stimulus of profit . . . To improve the standard of living, we must work harder to produce more."

Strongman's Eye. Peron reached far afield for C.G.E. Boss Gelbard, who had caught the strongman's eye by organizing a local businessmen's association (pro-Peron) in the city of Rosario in 1950. Last week Gelbard moved into a glittering new office, decorated with an enormous portrait of Peron, in a C.G.E.-owned seven-story building near the stock exchange. Nearly every sizable business in the country belongs to the C.G.E., and from each member-firm Gelbard extracts an initiation fee of .1% of capital investment, plus dues equal to .4% of the yearly payroll. Ultimately, Gelbard promises, the money will be spent on an elaborate program of social services, lectures, scholarships and research.

Gelbard has no governmental authority, but Cabinet ministers, big businessmen and labor leaders all listen to him respectfully. Together with Eduardo Vuletich, head of labor's C.G.T., he is organizing , nationwide "Congress of Production and Social Welfare," scheduled for late March. Deputies of Gelbard and Vuletich have made scores of speeches at joint C.G.E.-C.G.T. meetings, preaching the new gospel of increased production through labor-management cooperation.

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