Crabs' Progress

Crab's Progress

Within five days last month, an Argentine Deputy rushed from the halls of Congress, pumped a bullet through his brain; another resigned; two others whipped out their pistols in a sunrise duel; two generals were whisked off to jail; President Roberto M. Ortiz resigned. All these were ripples spread by an investigation of a graft scandal.

Last week President Ortiz was back in office, his honor intact. The scandal was blowing over. It had never amounted to much anyway: the War Ministry had authorized the payment of $558,669 for some airport land that was worth perhaps one fifth as much. But the scandal and its repercussions had given some astute political dealers a chance to deal the President out of the game.

Ever since Argentina's hard-shelled, old-guard conservative politicos combined with a rebellious branch of the Radical Party to put President Ortiz and Vice President Ramon S. Castillo into office in 1938, they had wriggled with impatience.

For Ortiz had quickly repudiated the conservatives, had lined up with the liberal urban politicians of his nominal Radical opposition. Last July diabetes forced Ortiz into temporary retirement. Ultraconservative Castillo became acting Head of State.

All the conservatives needed was the right opportunity.

That opportunity came with the Senate investigation. Though the sale had been approved by the preceding administration, Ortiz' longtime friend, War Minister Gen eral Carlos D. Marquez, was held morally responsible, since he had authorized payment. The conservatives lost no time in making political hay of this, used it as a reflection on the whole Ortiz regime.

Cautiously, like a colony of Patagonian crabs, they began to sidle ahead sideways. When Ortiz resigned, they joined his supporters in voting to refuse his resignation, thereby clearing his honor of any stain. At the same time they gained the cooperation of the Socialists in insisting that President Ortiz revise his Cabinet, last week forced his ministers to hand in their portfolios. By week's end their crablike progress had brought them to their goal. Ortiz handed over to Castillo authority to select a new Cabinet, which he promptly filled with six conservatives and only one nonconservative, a doff of the hat to the President.

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