Message of Hope

A 21-gun salute one day last week heralded the arrival of a green leather-bound volume at the opening of Brazil's Congress. The book contained President Juscelino Kubitschek's 294-page state of the nation message. Its tone, as a House of Deputies secretary droned it out, in summary, was proud and hopeful.

As Kubitschek had already made clear in his New Year's message to the people, the first year of his five-year development plan had to be spent mainly in the unspectacular business of laying the groundwork. Nevertheless, 1956 did produce unexpected progress. Almost as though he could hardly believe Brazil's good fortune, Kubitschek reported that:

P: The balance of trade hit an astonishing $495 million in Brazil's favor, "mostly due to exceptional coffee sales and to the government's firm policy of defending the market against pressures apt to cause a fall in prices abroad."

P: "The government took steps abroad to attract foreign capital for investments, and the entrance of capital to Brazil in 1956 reached a level never before attained in the same space of time."

P: Inflation continued, "principally because of the increase in government and military pay" decreed by the previous Congress, but the administration is fighting it by holding down on bank credit. Showing his awareness of the problem, President Kubitschek warned that "in order to reconcile development with stability, it will be necessary to subordinate the carrying out of our objectives to the raising of noninflationary capital through taxation and other forms of compulsory capitalization."

P: "The serious political crisis that shook the government has been overcome. Common sense, tolerance, zeal of liberty, respect for the opposition, decision and firmness permitted the government to restore a fully democratic regime."

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