Report to the Nation

In the streets of Mexico City, near the chamber of deputies, chauffeurs turned up the radios in cabinet ministers' cars and little knots of people gathered around to listen. All over the Republic, in the village plazas and city zocalos, Mexicans gathered near the loudspeakers to hear President Miguel Aleman's sober address at the opening of Congress. "This report," said he, "cannot be as alluring as we might have wished."

Acts of God. Mexico, one of the most confident of Latin American countries, is full of the desire for better food, better education, more comforts. That is the legacy of the Revolution. But its hopes are still far from fulfillment. Land reform is 30 years old--but Mexico does not yet raise enough food to feed itself. War-born industries are wobbly. Unemployment is growing. Furthermore, in recent months, nature has been anti-Mexican. Aftosa, the destructive foot-&-mouth disease, has crippled the basic cattle industry. A locust plague has stripped the Tehuantepec Isthmus. There has been widespread drought. There have also been torrential rains that have blocked highways and washed seed from the ground.

Aleman reminded his listeners of these troubles. Said he: "We must work, produce ; work, produce.. . . While our economy remains anemic, we can only alleviate the disease; we cannot cure it completely. . . . Our population [now 22,000,000] increases by 50,000 yearly. This increase assures our capacity for economic development."

"None of our problems," he warned, "can compare in gravity with the spread of aftosa among the cattle." Last fortnight, the joint U.S.-Mexican commission directing the anti-aftosa campaign reported that it would last from one to five years, depending on the cooperation of the Mexican people. But sullen unrest against the slaughter of diseased cattle is spreading among farmers, and cooperation may be hard to get.

Acts of Man. Bad news was tempered with good. Aleman pointed to the Papaloapan River project that would set up a sort of Mexican TVA (TIME, March 31), a related plan to expand facilities for farm credit, and another to return to silver coinage, a move that would help the mining industry. His best piece of news had been written into the address at the last minute: after a nine-year controversy, Mexico had finally settled the oil expropriation row with Britain. For Royal Dutch Shell's subsidiary, the El Aguila Petroleum Co., Mexico would pay $81,250,000 over the next 15 years, plus 3% interest.

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