The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-12-15
Initiation Hits Latin
America
Rv SYDNEY A. CLARK

| RIO DE JANElRO
Aroarcans who are bored by the constantly
recurring talk of initiation might wei stuoy
Il and in practical vein feel it, In the local
laboratories of this hemisphere, wnlcn Is 70
cav every country south of the Rio Granoe
and Florida. One may partially except ar
gentina. which has managed to nolo prices
within sight of former levels, and TO LESSER
extent one may except Peru sano MeAico:
Every other country which have expeiasncea
IA in all on this present trlp-nas suAe. .
living increases, since !S4!' iansns
from shs rp to gri1nly fantastic. And notable
fling is that the countries where costs were
the cheapest-in dollars-are now the most
expensive.
In the late 1905, the New York Herald
Tribune made survey of costs in dollar cur
rency in all the world and published Its ind
ings. And 10! Brazil's name LED all the
rest' My own experience corroborated the
report on Brazil and my diaries, letters, and
published writings burbled about the delicious
cheapness of Rio, Sac Paulo, and other Bra
lillian cities Hotels, meals, and tax1s,
wrote, "are so uncostly as to seem actual
mistakes in tariff
It is different now-and utterly The mil
refs, called a crueziro since 1913, still ex-
changes for nickel, as it has for more than
a decade, but instead of doing the work for
dime, or perhaps a quarter, 1t does only
the work of British penny or even an Amer
lean penny One pays to cruzeiros for
dubious bottled orange drink IN the land OF
oranges, 8 for a Sc sandwich, 10 for small
tube OF Brazilian toothpaste, and so to rs for
a Brazilian-made necktie. Provincial hotels
ask 100 cruzeiros day, American plan, and
city hotels perhaps twice that. In secondclass
restaurants 1t takes 80 cruzeiros to buy
meal, and in better places 40 or SO.
so it goes" one says, with mournful
glance at ones shrinking sheaf of travellers
checks. And so it goes. in TAR more alarming
vein, for Brazilisns themselves. Il in many
cases salaries have advanced greatly, prices
have advanced much faster. The middleclass
Brazilian is caught in q cruel squeeze. 1t may
t. Ike weeks salary to buy pair Of decent
Shoes a months to buy a suit. How do
they live at all?" is the universal question OF
foreign visitors. 1--WE DON'T" said a Brazilian
to me- 1--WE hang on, somehow, hoping for
miracle, but you can't call it living"
The wage Garner, in the lowest brackets,
does not do 80 badly. for We ges-as against
salaries-have gone up enormously. One may
say that this is as it should be, but Of course
those who are not wage earners see nothing
but politics in 1t. Getulio Vargas, like many
another dictator in many country, and like
the flashy strong man Of Argentina today, has
been at pains to declare himself repeatedly
the friend Of the working man. Throughout
his Is years Of power he 'coddled' labor and
gave iEmsny say-advantages all out of pro-
portion to the general picture. A laborer's
vote-had Getulio fallen so low as to ask for
votes-was as coed as that of a salaried man,
and in Brazil there are five or ten times
as many Of him." The rocket-like rise in
wages has been, Of course, a major factor in
Brazirs too-familiar pattern of the rising
spiral Of costs.
Chile, with its Scent peso, was also travel
er's dream before the war, is also trs veler's
nightmare now. A Scent peso is fine for the
travelling American until he discovers that it
takes about 80 Of these small dollars to buy
good meal in Santiago. In Chile, as in
Brazil, the middle Gle sand 1t is strong and
vigorous there, with lot Of Basque blood
giving special characters deplorably "out
of luck" Looking at prices in sny ship win.
dow, one asks the same old question: How
on earth do they get by-paying $50 pesos
for shirt with white collar?"
I am not an economist, but know high
price when see one. I have seen too many
of them in too many countries and can see
that always there is deep cruelty involved in
quill q sAt0oIAO11 Lie dS41e cu1 cpl SASuI INDY
not suffer at all. The laborer may not suffer
very much if he is organized and aggressive.
Mr.. and Mrs. and Miss-In-Between suffer bad
ly and sometimes terribly. Imitation eats their
living standard as fire eats finder. Most Amer
leans in the States know well that 'it cam
heppen here Millions dread it like nothing
else. Those who strive for some immediate
personal advantage, regardless of the welfare
of the Notion, are worse than short-sighted
They are whetting the appetite of the bird
of prey. which can devour the United States
way Of life.-Christian Science Monitor.