Arias II

Ambitious, hotheaded young Dr. Arnulfo Arias bounced brashly into Panamanian politics nine years ago when he led a handful of youthful revolutionaries into the Presidential Palace, forced the resignation of President Florencio Arosemena. Up to the vacated post stepped First Vice President Dr. Ricardo Alfaro. Last year Drs. Arias and Alfaro toed off for the 1940-44 Presidency.

Candidate Arias accepted the surprise nomination of the well-oiled National Revolutionary Party machine, on a platform of "Panamanian nationalism." Shunted off to the directorship of the Department of Sanitation after leading Panama's first and only revolution, dark-eyed, Harvard-trained Physician Arias had been started up the diplomatic ladder by his brother Harmodio. Harmodio was elected President in 1932, sent Arnulfo as Minister to Berlin, then to Rome. Last year he was Minister to Great Britain and France. Still political small fry, only 38 years old, and accused of Fascist inclinations after his Axis appointments, Arnulfo had hardly been considered a contender for the Presidency this year.

Better known in both Central and North America was urbane, greying, 57-year-old Candidate Alfaro. Minister to the U. S. from 1922 to 1936--except for a two-year hitch in domestic politics--Career Man Alfaro has served on several Pan-American committees, has picked up decorations from Peru, Venezuela, France. As President pro tem after Rebel Arias' coup, he balanced the budget, turned the National Bank deficit into a credit. With the support of the Leftist Liberals he set out to crack the N. R. P., which has dominated Panama's politics since 1936.

Arriving in Panama from Washington, Alfaro lost no time organizing a drive to show the need for social and civil-service reforms. He accused Arias of using Fascist terrorism, pointed to the N. R. P.

Nazi-style party organization, its police backing, the forcible collection of campaign funds from Government employee. Cried Reformer Alfaro: "I am not conducting a campaign, I am fighting an army." As evidence, he declared his meetings and parades had been broken up, that the N. R. P. had tried to break up his campaign at the last minute by planting guns on his supporters and then accusing them of plotting rebellion. Meanwhile Arias sat tight, confined himself to a little Red-baiting, watched his support pile up. His party had already answered the Fascist charges, promised that Panama "will not commit the folly of experimenting with Fascist, Nazi or Communist doctrines." Discouraged, muttering threats to seek power by force when "legal means" had failed, Alfaro scooted for the Canal Zone two days before the elections. Last June the National Electoral Jury announced the results: Arias, 107,759; Alfaro, 3,022.

Last week, while Alfaro, now jobless, told his sad story around Washington, President Arias stood in Panama City's National Stadium before 30,000 of his countrymen, South America's youngest President in the nation's first open-air Presidential inauguration. He promised "peace and friendship to all nations," Pan-American solidarity. Nearest approach to authoritarian discrimination was his suggestion that a democratic electorate should be composed of the educated.

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