The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1942-11-26
Chile Sitting on
the Fence
BY Waldo Frank
(WNU Feature-Through special arrange
n1ent with Golfers Weekly

have been hypnotized, despite their
democratic antecedents, by the vic
tories of the fuehrer.
There is a drama here. To see
it and Chile's importance within the
Pan-American picture. we must
have a sense Of the Chilean people.
The Chilean is half mariner, halt
mo%untaineer. He lives in a land
whose geography a famous Chilean
writer has called insane" Chile
is 1000 miles long and about 100
miles wide, shaped like an earth
worm. One side of it is sea, the
other ice and rock. In square miles.
it is larger than France, but a bare
ten per cent of its soil is cultivable,
the rest being desert, mountami and
poor sheep pasture. That's not the
worst of it. Chile is the land Of
earthquakes. Every Chilean remem.
bers Ibis earthquake" He may be
fifty, and the frightful experience
may have shaken his body when he
was six, but his soul cannot forget.
Havoc of an Earthquake.
visited Conception, the country's
third city, where. only three years
ago, a quake in 80 seconds destroyed
thousands of lives and shattered
hundreds of houses. The ruins are
there still-the cathedral, the dwell
ings, the commercial structures;
and on and about them Conception
moves, disorganized and dazed, like
a city bombed by an enemy which
the people cannot have the salts
faction of hating.
All this has made the Chileans
slow, r%eticent, stubborn, intellectual.
ly matter-of-fact; a people of depth
and will. rather than surface sensi.
bility and color; a long-suffering folk
whose noble music is almost buried
in their hearts, as different from their
charming and brilliant neighbors
across the Andes as their rocky land
is different from the Pampa.
Chile Advanced Politically.
Politically, Chile is the most ad.
vanced nation of South America. Its
Industrial workers are all unionized,
every Chilean belongs to a political
party, and the elections are honest.
The two largest parties are the
Radicals corresponding to the Lib
erals in this country and the Con-
servatives like our die-hard Repub-
licans). Socialists and Communists
are highly respected. important
minorities with representatives in
the ministry and congress. Yet this
sturdy. conscious folk with the ex.
ception of Uruguay, the most homo
geneous in all South America) re.
mains economically poor and ex.
plotted.
So hard has been the life of the
Chilean worker. so hard the soil, so
uncertain ever the survival of his
house when his earth quakes, that
when he gets a bit of money, he
doesn't - like the American - buy
goods; he buys rest. Poor food.
ragged clothes, a howell Of a house,
he has got used to. What he wants
is a week off, with plenty Of wine
to remove him from his troubles.
The average l~abor-year of the fully
employed, skilled Chilean industrial
worker is 80 weeks.
The people are democratic from
top to bottom. An example: The
new minister Of health, DR.. Miguel
Etchebarne, still works as a subordi.
nate Of DR.. Orrego who, officially.
is under him. At 8 a. m, the min
lister takes orders from Orrego in
the State hospital; at II a. M, in
his ministry. he gives orders to
Orrego.
Another instance is the Church
Everywhere. there are good Catholic
Democrats. In Chile alone, as far
as l know, there is an organized
Catholic Democratic party which
works with Radicals, Socialists and
Communists against the Fascist dan.
ger. Schnake. the minister of labor,
is of this party.
Not far from Valdivia, hear of
German Chile, in the village of San
Jose de la Mariquina, lives the
noblest Of the country's anti-Nazis.
a bishop and a full-blooded German!
I went to e Guido Benedict Beck
de Ramberga, Capuchin bishop. He
told me of his fight against his fellow
Germans and Chileans Of German
descent, who send him threatening
letters.
The Nazis have one great virtue:
They know their enemies and fgh,
them. The Gestapo in Germany
warned him of reprisals if he did not
stop publishing his anti-Fascist lit.
erature. The magazines and pam.
phlets kept on flowing from the Dish.
ops print shop.
This brings me back to the Nazl
embassy in Chile. A few weeks ago.
Minister Of the Interior Morales
made a speech forecasting an early
break with the Axis. The Axis EN-.
bassies got busy on the cables, and
Morales cracked down. refusing to
pass their messages.