Better Late

Almost everyone agreed that Jan. 17 would be a poor time to open the Inter-American Conference at Bogota (TIME, Nov. 17). The U.S. would be deeply involved in Marshall-Planning; its first-string team of diplomats, Senators and Congressmen would be too busy with Europe to think about Latin America. Latin Americans wanted to be sure that their pleas for economic aid would be heard by the right ears. Besides, the diplomats still had a lot to do before they were ready for the conference business of strengthening the hemisphere system.

Last week, the Pan American Union governing board postponed the conference until March 30, promised that this would be the last postponement. (The meeting had been originally scheduled for December of this year.)

Nowhere did this action meet with greater approval than in Bogota itself, where Bogotanos had despaired of having their mountain capital spic & span for the January meeting. For seven months, 500 men had been on the job from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., refurbishing the century-old Capitolio Nacional, where the sessions will be held. Behind locked doors, Artist Martinez Delgado painted until 2 a.m. on a fresco depicting Bolivar's inauguration in 1821. The block-long Ministry of Government building on the Avenida Jimenez de Quesada was only half-scoured, the cleaned marble and sandstone contrasting sharply with the dingy, unscrubbed sections. Municipal inspectors were touring Bogota to make sure that citizens were painting and scrubbing their houses, as ordered by the City Council on pain of fines up to 50 pesos ($35). Streets have been repaved, potholes filled in.

Bogota's sober, influential El Tiempo spoke the Colombian mind: "Never has the country been in such a trance, and it is all due to the impact of the conference. We hope that March won't find us as January was going to catch us."

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