A Revolution Stalled
President Peron would have -been well advised to take to heart the warning of another dictator—Stalin—who assured his disciples last autumn that the laws of economics are the same the whole world over and therefore worthy of respect. For President'Peron is caught in the meshes of inflation, the direct result of his attempts to industrialise Argentina and to give the increasing multitudes of town workers more money and better welfare services for less work. The corollary to this policy has been neglect of agriculture and exports, with the result that the new factories are short of raw materials and the workers are hungry. It is not a situation that can be met by fixing prices and sending shopkeepers to prison. It is not a situation that can be met by patriotic appeals or denunciations of foreign intriguers. If Senora Peron had still been alive she might have- succeeded in keeping the town workers faithful to the regime a little longer. But she is not alive and, moreover, most of her former collaborators are out of favour. Peronismo, which envisaged a vast Welfare State covering South America below the River Plate, is falling to pieces, not because it made too many promises but because it tried to carry them out. All the same, whatever the outcome of the present crisis, and whether President Peron's survival is to be reckoned in terms of days or of months, Peronismo has left an idelible mark on Argentina's life. Whether Peron moves left, right or out, the old Argentina—the country where beef and grain were pro- duced to feed the outside world—has gone for ever.
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