Why Smitest Thou Me?

Why Smitest Thou Me? The Bolivian regime of Provisional President Gualberto Villarroel last week discovered and scotched a plot to overthrow it. Warned in the nick of time, the Government caught one conspirator actually handing out cash to soldiers. Bigger fish captured were ex-Minister of War Ernesto Hertzog, two generals, and Lawyer Nestor Galindo, charged with distributing a 20,000,000 peso ($450,000) corruption fund. Biggest fish: German-born Argentine-naturalized Tin Magnate Mauricio Hochschild, jailed as principal.

Hochschfld's arrest meant that the Villarroel Government had declared total war on the three great tin companies (Patino, Hochschild, Aramayo), which traditionally dominate Bolivia. Last President to oppose the tin barons was German Busch, who died in 1939. Officially he committed suicide, but many Bolivians believe that he was murdered.

Company Town. Bolivians call their country a company town. Tin mining supplies 70-90% of Bolivian economy. The 65,000 ragged, sickly miners average about 60-c- a day, live on the edge of starvation. In December 1943, a revolt of social-minded intellectuals allied with young Army officers attacked tin-company control by driving President Enrique Penaranda into exile. The people of La Paz ran cheering through the streets, wrecked the office of Aramayo Co., stoned the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. State Department was sure that the Villarroel regime had the backing of the Nazis or of Argentina's nationalists. "Prove it!" cried the Bolivians. But the State Department persisted in nonrecognition, so far has kept all Latin nations except Argentina from accepting the Villarroel Government. Enraged by this pressure, Brazil and Uruguay have urged the State Department to give way, accept Villarroel & Co. as worthy Good Neighbors. The Bolivians protest that they have been condemned without hearing, that the U.S. has ignored their many attempts to prove their good will. Say they, quoting the Gospel of St. John: "If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?"

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