Word from the Jefe

In the sprawling Casa del Pueblo, Apra headquarters in Lima, baggy, beaming Apra Chief Victor Raul Haya de la Torre faced his weekly "leaders' class." This time the men on the hard benches in the whitewashed, barnlike hall got no lesson on public speaking or Peruvian finance.

The Jefe, just back from a flying trip to the U.S., wanted to tell about his trip to New York City and especially of his visit with Albert Einstein at Princeton.

The great mathematician had been interested in Haya's theory of relativity in history.* He had agreed enthusiastically with Haya that only continental American unity can save the U.N., and had said that unity must be achieved "now."

Afterwards, Pedagogue Haya, whose left-wing political movement began as a workers' university a quarter of a century ago, got down to party business. Because gringo eyes are on Apra, he warned, Aprista pupils must work harder than ever. Classes must be expanded. Discipline, already tight, must be tighter. Aprista workers, said Haya, must learn that strikes are weapons of last resort and must not be used irresponsibly, for "that would be like a traffic cop pulling out a revolver and shooting every time someone crossed the street on a red light."

If Peru's anti-Apra press ever printed anything about Haya, this last injunction would have been news. Apra had often used gangster methods in politics; it had been blamed for the still unsolved murder last January of Rightist Editor Francisco Grana (TIME, Jan. 20). Perhaps now Peru's dominant party was going to restrain itself. At least the Jefe had given the word.

*Its essence: in history, time is a function of space; whereas all Europe lives roughly in the 20th Century, in Peru the coast is 20th, the Indian highlands 16th, the Amazon basin still prehistoric. The main conclusion: European theories cannot be applied mechanically to America, as the Marxists vainly think.

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