REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter ihr ay me NARA Dato 24 18. 16 he has not led the way, he has, however, bowed almost continuously to the will of the Congress in this connection, and has sanctioned many laws distasteful to the moneyed interests. It is most unlikely that the Governmental interference in and control of private initiative, industry, finance and credit matters which have appeared in recent years will cease in the future.
The growth of social unrest, attested to by the expansion of the Communist party in Costa Rica (Cf.
the banana strike in the Atlantic zone. is a clear indication that measures of social improvement are needed. It is almost a foregone conclusion that whatever the government, it will have to interest itself in these matters and contribute to improvement of conditions by liberal, fair social legislation. In fact, there is every likelihood that these matters will have to be given much more attention during the rest of Ricardo Jiménez term as President than they received during his first two years.
There is no dearth of problems confronting Costa Rica. well planned and well executed economic and social program could solve most of them, but the difficulty is that the country has few men competent enough to devise and carry out such a program. Of all the prospective presidential candidates discussed in this despatch, only one, Manuel Francisco Jiménez, has any conception of economic fundamentals, and most of his credo is FILED blind