Trek

On the warm, sticky lowlands of the north, sugar cane was being cut. But for the most part, it was off season on the Argentine farm. In the windy, wintry south, the sheep huddled together in the snow. Green shoots of winter wheat sprouted from the rich, central pampas. Wealthy landowners followed regional cattle shows, and farmhands pitched steers' vertebrae at a stake in a game called taba.

For some 75,000 Indians who live communally on the fringes of predominantly white Argentina, the scene was less tranquil. They feared for their land. At the turn of the century, smart operators had sold title to the Indians' land to absentee landlords. Now the legal owners were trying to move the Indians out. To dramatize their indignation, some 200 Indians last week marched into Buenos Aires after a 1,000-mile cross-pampas trek.

The Indians' arrival was no surprise to Juan Domingo Peron. His Government had inspired the march, his official press had reported it handsomely. Peron had campaigned on the vote-getting slogan, "the land belongs to him who works it," and he was out to make a show of delivering.

Share the Land. Despite inheritance taxes, 1,800 Argentine families still own an area greater than England, Belgium and The Netherlands together. One clan, the Unzues, holds 1,000,000 acres in the single, fertile province of Buenos Aires.

Since the '43 revolution, the National Agrarian Council has bought or expropriated an unexciting 850,000 acres to convert into model colonies for small farmers. But Peron dreams of a Greater Argentina, peopled by perhaps twice Argentina's present 14,000,000 population. He knows that freeholders are better builders and fighters than serfs. Neither worried latifundistas (great landowners) nor hopeful socialists really know how far he would go.

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