Man of the Hour

For a while last fortnight many a Brazilian feared that constitutional government was in danger. President Dutra's own P.S.D. (Social Democratic Party) had splintered beneath him. In a highly significant local election last week, Fascist-minded Getulio Vargas, dictator for 15 years, and sallow Luis Carlos Prestes, the Communist he kept jailed for nine of them, had joined to get control of rich Sao Paulo State. To get some democratic backing against this alliance, Dutra had only one course, and he took it. He called on the opposition U.D.N. (National Democratic Union) Party for support. To steaming Bahia sped an Air Force plane to pick up State Governor Octavio Mangabeira, the U.D.N. leader.

Back in Rio last week, silver-maned Mangabeira, a kindly, top-heavy-looking politician with shoulders like Joe Louis' and legs like Babe Ruth's, found himself the most important man in the country. He was right in his element. For months he had talked coalition; now he had a chance to do something about it.

Mangabeira had long sessions with close-mouthed President Dutra. In the wicker-chaired lobby of the musty-genteel Central Hotel, Army officers, party leaders and Cabinet Ministers waited their turn to join the sessions in his room. The likely outcome: an agreement to forget petty politicking in Congress and tackle the nation's considerable economic ills together. Perhaps later Brazil would have a coalition cabinet.

Unexpected Journey. Except for the Communists and the Vargas well-wishers,

Brazilians generally agreed that Octavio Mangabeira was the man to get the democratic lines together on a sound program. He knew politics, from the ward to the chancellery, and he had seen the world--by request. His traveling days began unexpectedly back in 1930 when Dictator Vargas rode into Rio at the head of his gauchos and kicked out President Washington Luiz and cabinet, including Foreign Minister Mangabeira. For the next four years, Mangabeira lived in eleven European countries. He went back to Brazil, spurned a Vargas peace offering and had the courage to blackball the dictator for the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Kicked out again, Octavio got along in Europe on handouts from his brother Joao, a rich socialist. World War II sent him, along with many another refugee, to the U.S. Friends, who found a New York hotel suite for Mangabeira, wife Esther and their two grown children, told him that the rent was $90 a month and paid the difference. He has since repaid them. Within six months, Mangabeira had picked up enough English to get a job doing translations for the Reader's Digest. Not so apt with languages was wife Esther, who sometimes had to order honey at Manhattan delicatessens by imitating bees.

Life Begins at 59. The Army's ouster of Getulio Vargas two years ago was Mangabeira's invitation to pick up, at 59, the political career cut short 15 years before. Since then, he has worked fast--guiding U.D.N., helping to write Brazil's new constitution, getting himself elected governor of Bahia.

At week's end, Mangabeira and other good democrats heard some cheering news.

The Vargas-Communist candidate (for vice governor of Sao Paulo) was taking a shellacking, although the count is not yet official. The heat might be off for the moment, but Octavio Mangabeira only worked harder. "They used to say that Brazil couldn't get rid of a dictator," he said. "Then they said we couldn't write a workable constitution. Few thought Brazil would ever again have a free press. We have done all that. Now we are faced with the fourth great step along the road to democracy--a constitutional program for governing. Brazil cannot afford to fail. We have to succeed--and we will!"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.