1938: Colombia

On Aug. 7 Dr. Eduardo Santos, a prominent 'middle-of-the-road' Liberal, was inaugurated President. The fact that his election in May was uncontested is not remarkable since the opposition forces have abstained from elections for several years. The real battle for the presidency took place within the Liberal party itself. The rival candidate, Sr. Daría, a scholar and a radical, withdrew from the race shortly after the party convention in July 1937, nominated Dr. Santos. His election has been interpreted as a reaction against the allegedly extremist tendencies of his predecessor, Alfonso López, whose administration since the summer of 1937 had been in difficulty over its efforts to remedy agrarian abuses, notably through Federal regulation of the banana industry. Dr. Santos was Foreign Minister in the Olaya administration; represented Colombia at the League of Nations at the time of the Letitia controversy with Peru; and for twenty-five years has been publisher of El Tiempo, the most powerful organ of national opinion. In his campaign speeches he expressed himself against 'political labor unionism,' desiring from the outset to keep clear of the charges of demagoguery brought against President López because of his concessions to labor groups. He stressed, too, the need for revision of the concordat with the Vatican, dating from 1888, an agreement which gives a disproportionate control over education to the Church, and which the Liberals, ever since 1930, have been trying to get liberalized. The secondary schools, a majority of which are Catholic, were established during the Conservative regime, and are opposed to supervision by the Liberal Government. It is charged that four-fifths of them are sub-standard. A student strike in May, of a political nature, led to a ban on all popular demonstrations and on the broadcasting of news relating to public order.

The country's problems are more economic and social than political, however. The chief export is coffee, which accounts for over 50 per cent of the value of all Colombia's exports. Here, as elsewhere, the Brazilian decree of November 1937 has caused 50 great a decline in coffee prices that the Executive has been invested with emergency powers. Customs receipts and other revenues have run below estimate; hence, prudence has been urged in expenditures, although the budget for 1938 calculates income and expenditures to balance at 81,567,970 pesos, including a carry-over from 1937 of a surplus of 2,977,306 pesos. An additional appropriation of 5,000,000 pesos for defense was authorized in May. (It has been denied that this increase is due to renewed Peruvian activities on the Letitia frontier.) No budget since 1934 has included a provision for external debt service, but an advisory committee has been appointed by the new government to negotiate with Colombia's foreign creditors, and negotiations have commenced.

Import restrictions have been recently established by the Exchange Control Board. Colombia's trade balance with the United States runs strongly in Colombia's favor, and the United States takes 60 to 70 per cent of the total value of Colombian exports. In March, the most-favored-nation trade agreement with Great Britain, dating back to 1866, was discontinued, indicating a change in Colombia's trade policy, and putting it on a compensation basis (see URUGUAY). The treaty of 1937 with Germany, on the other hand, has been extended for two years from December, although Colombia buys from Germany twice as much as it sells.

Labor troubles with the Government are thought responsible for the reduction of the United Fruit Company's activity in Colombia and its transfer to Costa Rica. A banana strike in March was averted by agreement between workers, employers and the state, providing for a tri-partite labor board, collective agreements, and a minimum wage. In the last eight years 464 labor unions have been recognized, bringing the total number of duly established unions up to 558, with a membership of 31,062 men and 3,374 women.