Giving In to Inflation

There is only one thing worse than Argentina's usual kind of public service. And that is no public service at all. Yet to all intents and purposes, that has been the country's unhappy lot for the past three months.

The paralysis set in during November, when President Arturo Illia attempted to call a halt to inflation-nurturing pay raises for 900,000 public employees. The unions, which were demanding another round of 25% to 45% pay hikes, responded with an unending succession of strikes and slowdowns. At one point this month, 300,000 telephone, railroad, postoffice, airport, merchant-fleet and port employees were on strike; even casino croupiers and street cleaners left their jobs.

Argentina's long-suffering citizens are getting fed up with it all. Last week a riot erupted at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza airport when ground crews refused to unload baggage--including the wheelchair of a 14-year-old paraplegic boy. In another part of town, an enraged 65-year-old pension applicant whipped out a pistol and killed a go-slow clerk when she foisted still another form on him and suggested that he return in a few days; it was the fifth time he had been put off, and each refusal meant a 70-mile round trip from his home in the countryside.

President Illia's solution to the mess was to give in. Last week, with an eye to the March congressional elections, he granted a 28% pay boost to telephone workers, another 25% raise to railwaymen--all of which should add another few percentage points to Argentina's disastrous inflation, already up 30% in the past year.

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