The sun., 1919-07-07
ny r. EUGENE ACKERMAN.
Formerly Director Bureau Of Lotir
American Affairs Committee on
Public Information.

y
Formerly Director Bureau Of Lotin
American Affairs Committee on
Public Information.
Nowhere in the world where organized
government is still maintained unim-
paired has the phenomenon OF labor un.
rest been more accumulated than In the
Argentine republic. The virus Of revolt
seems to have impregnated the entire
economic system as represented by the
workers. and organisation Of labor,
practically in It's infancy in the Argen-
tine. has almost overnight included
crafts and guilds that generations Of
organizers In the United States have
been unable to band together.
Yet these disturbances, far from weak
ening the control of organised govern
ment. have apparently strengthened 1t:
and tho settlement Of each difference be-
tween capital and labor, and between
the Government and the people has
marked an advance toward more equable
and stable economic conditions that can
not fail to benefit the Argentine people.
Behind these strikes, which have In.
cluded the workers in department stores
the clerks In banks, the police of the
cities, the tenant farmers of tho PAM
pas and the skilled and unskilled labor
ers. lies an absorbing story of a coun-
try's development under the pressure Of
the world war and domestic political
conditions.
Universal male suffrage. granted the
people by Rogue Saenz-Pena. resulted in
the election by the people of their own
80 h. - IL.
political figures in the history Of South
Ametica-Hipolito Irigoyen. He Is a
direct contradiction to the popular con-
ception OF the politician-especially a
politician In public life in South Amer
lea, where the personal and emotional
appeal In greater asset than In the
United States.
Avoids Pomp OF once.
Irigoyens career has been that Of
revolutionist. A nephew of Bernardo
Alem, who during his life led various
assaults on the Argentinian Government
he followed in the footsteps Of his uncle
and at different times has attempted to
overthrow the republic. He Is the idol
of the common people. and yet he 4ppar.
petly makes no effort to gain their fe-
atty. He 10 never known to have made
a public address His habits are of the
simplest He lives in a modest house on
Gale Brazil. disdaining the magnificent
chambers set aside for the Chief Execu-
tive in the Casa Roja-the White House
Of the Argentine. His official visits are
either made on foot or In Il taxicab. al
though there is at his disposal the gildei
coach and four horses, which unit, he
became Chief Executive were part Of the
panoply Of the Presidency.
His communications to the Legisla-
lures are made ''in absentia," either be-
ing sent to be read by the Vice-President
or merely incorporated in the records.
His first message was delivered by the
Vice-President to a Congress which did
not have a quorum; his last message
was merely read into the record, and
yet each message deserves to be ranked
as a state paper of note. embodying in
its pages constructive legislation model
led to large degree on that which has
proved effective in the United States
Irigoyen holds the faith of the people
because he is honest. Attacks have been
made on him; he has been accused OF
being an anarchist, OF favoring Germany
and OF having contempt for organized
government. Yet his bitterest enemies
have never attacked his personal hon.
esty or his faith and belief in his pro-
nounced doctrines. One OF his eeverest
critics-a banker OF international renown
and a man whose interests in the Ar
gentine are immense-said to me with a
shrug of his shoulders:
"Irigoyen Is an idealist; he believes in
the people. which is right. but he re-
fuses to believe in the wealthy class who
control the financial destinies Of the Ar
gentine, which is wrong"
Views Beginning to Broaden.
And therein lies Irigoyen's greatest
weakness and the one. which competent
observers have told me, may make him
fall He ID so deeply imbued with his
conception of the wrongs OF the people
that he can see no wrong in anything
they do to assert what they believe are
their rights. He has refused to sanction
efforts by the wealthy classes to obtain
remedial legislation because It's first eff
feet would be a benefit to these classes
He has been their enemy so long and
he has absorbed during his stormy revo.
lutionary career such bitter antagonism
to the small coterie of men who con-
trolled the destinies of the country dur
ing the period of its development that
until recently, he could not believe that
a new era with new gospels had set its