Castillo for Ortiz

Proudest and richest of Latin American republics, with some 35% of South America's trade, 60% of its gold, Argentina has often yearned to control the South American bloc. But President Roberto M. Ortiz has kept Argentina in the Pan-American fold, has plugged hard for intra-hemisphere cooperation, for a solid democratic front against real and threatened Fascist infiltration.

Last week sleek-haired, plump-jowled President Ortiz broke under the strain of continual struggle against diabetes, walked weariedly out of the Casa Rosada (Pink House). Into his office stepped silver-haired Vice President Ramon S. Castillo. The Vice President was authorized to take over the executive powers for an indefinite period, was possibly destined to wield them until the end of the Presidential term in 1944 if President Ortiz continues gravely ill.

Biggest question in Argentina was how President Ortiz' policies would be modified if Castillo should remain in power. Conflict between the two top executives, long smoldering, broke out in open strife in February and March when Ortiz reran the questionable Catamarca and Buenos Aires provincial elections, ousted Castillo-supported candidates, threatened to oust Castillo himself for expressing open sympathy with the victim of the Catamarcan reversal.

Basis for the strife lies in conflicting political ideologies. Onetime Finance Minister under his predecessor, General Agustin Justo, Ortiz gained popular favor by reducing Argentina's debt to the U. S., vaulted into the Presidency in 1938 with Justo's support. Argentine politicians soon found him no pliable tool, watched with dismay his efforts to maintain democratic decentralized government, based on honest elections.

Ultraconservative Castillo pleases the Old Guard better, is one of them himself. Like Ortiz he was a member of the Justo Cabinet, resigned his position as Minister of the Interior to accept the Vice-Presidential nomination. But unlike Ortiz he has always urged strong central authority, has never allowed ethical considerations to interfere with vote-counting.

Though accused of Fascist leanings, Castillo's first public utterance called on Argentina to watch with care events abroad, warned that "when the stability of a nation is endangered it is not enough to proclaim and sustain juridical principles in order to assure its independence."

Elsewhere in South America the turbulent fifth-column alarms of the past fortnight diminished to a few convulsive spurts of excitement as the Latin American republics concentrated on selecting delegates for the Havana Conference.

>Principal spurt was in Guatemala. The U. S. Embassy in Mexico heard tales of a purported "popular" revolution to overthrow Guatemala's President, General Jorge Ubico. Later tales branded Nazi fifth columnists as instigators of the incipient revolution. Guatemala City dismissed all rumors as "entirely false."

>In Rio de Janeiro blow-hot, blow-cold President Getulio Vargas took international law in his own hands, threatened to intern merchant ships of belligerent nations if they sought safety from attack in Brazilian ports.

>Only South American country without conscription, Uruguay took steps toward conformity as the Senate passed a compulsory military service measure, handed it over to the Chamber of Deputies.

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