Evening star., 1948-05-30

Mexico appears more peaceful
bloody history. Yet she is midway
she considers the security of state
consider the freedom and progress
of private planning. In Mexico, left
and right touch, for result which
no one yet predicts.
Oficial Mexico today denies its
Communist-or call 1t radical-par-
ent. In the same way, no Mexican
revolutionist of the '20s cared to ad-
nit that capitalism had sired his
lands economic inheritance. So do
styles change. World tension over
Russian plus Mexicos good-neigh-
borliness with Ito Sam" have made
Mexico's own brand Of un-Russian
socialism temporarily unstylish. Yet
look around:
Back in the teeming old quarter
of the capital, covering the stone
interiors of the Education Ministry
and half a dozen state-run schools,
are hundreds of murals guaranteed
to arouse angry protests if they were
displayed in public buildings in the
United States. One shows workers
of the world brandishing spades and
pitchforks; another, Mexican farm
ers dividing the landlords wheat;
again, an assembly of bankers tries
to dine on bags Of gold garnished
with ticker tape, and bigger-than-
life picture has angry proletarians
knocking champagne glasses from
the hands of evening -gowned bour-
geoisie.
Murals Tell a Story
These are old paintings, yes-if
being born about the time of Charles
Lindberg's flight to Paris makes
them old-but their theme is being
resketched in todays Mexico OF
President Miguel Aleman.
Since a Radio City building COM
mittee declined to use Diego Rivera
mural showing the fight of world
revolutionaries, the painting has be-
come the proudest exhibit in Mexico
City's government museum of Bellas
Artes. While Washington is devils
ing new loyalty tests for employees.
while union leaders sign anti-Com-
munist pledges, no one in Mexico is
shocked when the nations most
articulate labor chief, Vicente Lom-
bardo Toledano, thunders:
Il? I am a MarXist!"
Not that most people fear Mexico
is going Red. Shiny new American
cars smuggled across the border and
bought for $4,000 and up jam the
capitals streets-yet no barefoot
peon casts a stone. In fact, few
poems go barefoot these days, and
there is surplus of shoes.
On the other hand, Mexico is nc
fortress of individuaIsm, either. Anc
between these two extremes the
leaders have vowed to steer theil
course. 1t is big job in a world o1
opposing ideologies. AS she tries the
balancing act, Mexico remains the
most contradictory republic in the
New World. She Is:
A leftist state at the doorstep Of
the worlds biggest capitalist nation
A country of Catholics where the
church has no temporal power.
An economic hodge-podge of pri.
vate companies and public monop.
olies.
The chief Latin American market
for American investment-and oul
investors chief hemisphere worry
| Contradictory Republic
For these contradictions in Mex.
ico's experiment, We have helped
clear the way. Mexico has Wash.
ington's permission to work out 1t!
destiny-capitalistic socialistic o.
points left. That's new freedom
below the border, still hardly real
lied here. As late as 1946, backer!
of Ezequiel Padilla warned that Il
he were not elected President, ths
former Ambassador to Washington
might go back to the American Cap
ital and re-enter Mexico with troops
The absurd idea, which Padills
never backed, won him more laugh!
than votes. He lost the election ans
there was no gurlf1re.
Mexican orators still shout abou
the "Yanqui colossus" sometimes OF
local Fourth of July occasions. Ye
every leader here and in Washing
ton knows that our "big stick O
interference was laid away lonl
ago in back closet.
Sometimes lately our small neigh
bor's freedom has embarrassed
Washington's most beloved policies
Our reciprocal trade program ha'
just hit a serious snag in Mexico
Washington hoped Mexico woult
agree to only moderate rises II
Mexican tariffs. and protection
only for industries with economic
Justification" l.
At first her leaders-Ramon Be
teta, the secretary of the treasury
for example-seemed in their pub
lie speeches to agree with us II
favor of moderate tariffs. But Mex
lean manufacturers and wage earn
ers had other ideas. Posters wer'
plastered in factory towns. Protec
ton was demanded for everything
and anything-"so that Mexico
may catch up with the industria
giant of the north"
As a result American and Mex.
ican tariff experts who sat dowr
together this spring in Mexico City
faced probably the stiffest demand
for tariff rises in the history OF oul
reciprocal trade negotiations. Now
Washington wonders If other eco
romically weak" nations will join
the demand for higher walls. Our
dealings with Mexico make news all
taround the hemisphere.