Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-30
A Revolutionary Epidemic.

SCUM America seems to have been
plunged into an epidemic of revolutions
this Summer. First, Bolivia, then Peru,
and now threats and runibles of revolt
IN Argentina and Brazil. The old
regimes at La Paz and Lima have been
definitely overthrow. For the mo-
ment, trouble in Argentina and Brazil
Is confined to certain ominous signs that
it is in the offlnR.
Indications Of smoldeTing unrest are
more concrete in Argentina, where
President Irigoyen is already living in
state of siege, and two military off,
GERS, supposedly under suspicion of
plotting against the state, are under
arrest. In Brazil, it is the great cattle
breeding state of Rio Grande do Sui,
in the south, that is reported to be in
turmoil. Revolutionary rumors are dis
credited at Rio de Janeiro, but with
neighboring republics afiame with po-
litical disaffection, the Brazilian au-
thorities appear to be taking time by
the forelock and resorting to precau-
tionary measures.
All of Latin America, like our United
States itself, came into republican being
through revolution. That fact is fire.
quently cited when this or that one of
the twenty-one Americas rises against an
unpopular regime and by force insta1ls
another. We of North America have
been accustomed so long to lock upon
many established Latin governments,
particularly in Argentina and Brazil,
as impregnable, that the news from
Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro car
ries a distinct element of shock and
surprise. Dictatorships come and go
among our Latin neighbors, but withal
government continues to be exercised
on more or less stable lines.
Conditions in Argentina for four
teen years have provided the ingredients
of a revolution at almost any hour.
President Irigoyen acceded to once
in 1916 under circumstances that did
not reveal him as statesman overbur-
dened with punctilious regard for con-
stitutional niceties. Yet when DR.. Iri-
goyen sought reelection in 1928 for
another six-year term, Argentina gave
him a majority so overwhelming as to
leave no doubt that he was the peo-
pies choice. Meantime, the eighty-year-
old President has used the federal
power in a way to violate the suscep-
tibilities of those who believe In states
rights. It is Irigoyen's interference in
the provincial affairs of the Argentine
republic that is at the root of present.
hour disturbances,
Brazil is weathering a desperate eco
nomic crisis not unlike the distress af-
flicting many other countries in the world.
1t may be that popular dissatisfaction
with resultant conditions gives rise to
revolutionary temper in the vast realm
of the Amazon. One explanation OF
revolt rumors is that acts Of banditry
in the cattle regions of Rio Grande do
Sui may have induced the belief
abroad-the rumors emanate from adj
jacent Uruguay-that Brazil faces revo-
luton.
The Government and people of the
United States view political disorder
in Latin America from but one angle
that Of a sincere wish that 1t may
prove ephemeral and work out to the
enduring betterment and contentment
of the nations involved. Domestic
tranquility in the other Americas Is
almost as much Of a North American
as it is a Central and Latin American
interest. The ideal of American
ism, to which the Colossus Of the North
is heartily committed, can never be
fully realized if chronic instability pre-
walls on either side of the Isthmus OF
Panama.