New Pilot

In the troubled days following Strong Man Getulio Vargas' suicide, Brazil's outlawed Communists tried hard to keep the pot boiling. But new President Joao Cafe Filho was ready for the Reds. When they organized a 24-hour general strike last week in industrial Sao Paulo, he relieved the local army commander as a suspected Red sympathizer, ordered troops and police to keep the public services going, and, most important, ended the day without gunplay or violence.

Unruffled by reports that the Reds planned to make further trouble before the October congressional elections, the new President settled down to run the government with a new, informal touch. The hard-faced bodyguards of Vargas days vanished. Spurning the luxurious palace quarters, Cafe Filho continued to live in his three-bedroom Copacabana apartment. When the usual motorcycle fleet arrived to escort him on his first morning's drive to the palace, he ordered the escort abolished. At least once in the first week he dashed home, stripped off coat and tie, and lunched in comfort with his wife and son Eduardo, 11. He some times likes to relax with his collection of stuffed Amazonian birds and beasts, or putter around making coffee in the kitchen (see cut). Said Cafe Filho: "I see no reason why as President of the republic I should change my lifelong habits of a simple man who always lived among the people."

A Flight to Asylum. Brazil's new president is proud of his long career as a champion of the little man. As an editor-politician from northeast Brazil, Cafe Filho bucked the old Vargas dictatorship so vigorously that he had to flee to asylum in a Rio embassy. When he returned to Congress after World War II, as floor leader for the Social Progressive Party, he sat at his old desk on the opposition side. But his party bosses, after nominating him for Vice President in 1950, withdrew their own presidential nominee in return for Vargas' support of Cafe Filho. Thus, Cafe Filho was swept into office in an administration with which he had little sympathy.

Though barred constitutionally from running for President in 1955, Cafe Filho well knows that the problems that toppled Getulio Vargas cannot wait until after elections. A moderate conservative and a warm friend of the U.S., he believes that Brazil cannot solve its tangle of economic problems without the help of the country's chief trading partner. Said the President to a TIME correspondent last week: "An improvement of Brazilian living standards can only be obtained through the economic development of the country. This development cannot be achieved without a policy of collaboration and exchange with other countries. The U.S. and Brazil are tied together by mutual interests, of which our countries are becoming more and more aware, and which must be intelligently faced for the benefit of both peoples."

A Glass of Water. Last week President Cafe Filho went to the Chamber of Deputies to take his formal oath of office. As he stepped into the elaborate, gilded presidential elevator, he halted, and his eyes twinkled behind gold spectacles. "Just one moment, please," he said. "I must have a glass of water. I cannot go to Congress for the first time as President and start asking for water right off the bat. They'll think I shall never stop asking for things."

Moments later. President Cafe Filho made his first request of Congress--for "a few days to learn the new ropes of governing." This week he will hold his first Cabinet meeting to plan the recovery of troubled Brazil.

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