REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 198711420 421 pishat 917 WAT VUOGIR BLISS7930 TITS D32 DI those in agriculture, and that the President had proved this by many of his administrative acts. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Mora said that he and the President did not always see eye to eye on the manner in which such interests are best served and for this he blamed the immediate political confusion (See Legation despatch No. 1171 of December 16, 1942. Mr. Mora demanded that the State should always struggle for the greatest possible protection of the family, the wife, the children, and the poverty stricken, and he asked, Can such a noble cause possibly place democracy in danger?
Guarantees of work to both the manual and intellectual classes, wage scales promoting proper standards of living, and minimum comforts and maintenance of health, were also called for by Mr. Mora, and he stated that only the Constitution could offer such guarantees to the workers against unscrupulous employers. The Constitution, he added, should also prohibit working more than eight hours a day or six hours for night work with 50 percent more paid for overtime work. Paid vacations for each person of at least fifteen days a year should also be granted. Mr. Mora upheld the right to strike and collective bargaining, insisting that the laborer should not be made to treat with his employer individually where the la borer was placed at too great a disadvantage. He advocated cooperatives among laborers, demanded cheap houses, adequate conditions of health and hygiene, and equal consideration for workers in the agricultural districts and workers in the cities. He characterized the condition of agricultural workers as worse than the average animal, and called on the law to correct this situation. In an undisguised reference to the frequently heard complaints that the United States Army Engineers Office is paying American labor higher wages than it is paying Costa Ricans for similar work on the Highway, he called upon the Government to insist that a definite percentage of Costa Ricans (the labor code specifies 90 percent) should be employed in foreign enterprises and that these Costa Ricans should receive the same rates of pay as the foreigners engaged in the same type of work.
The social reforms referred to in these two radio addresses are included in the labor code. Through these speeches, Mr. Mora tried to create favorable public reception for the code which he knew would be introduced to the Congress within three days. By his promise of political support to the party which supported the code he hoped to obtain, if possible, political backing, and he concluded his second speech with a call to his followers to stand by President Calderón Guardia in this matter and to become their own politicians and demonstrate that labor could take Costa Rica out of feudalism.
Mr. Mora influence and political ability are great.
Even though he is the Secretary General of the Communist Party here and was known as being the prime mover in having social guarantees added to the Constitution, he was able to keep himself sufficiently in the background and to manoeuver So well that the Archbishop of Costa Rica came out in the press in favor of such guarantees (see Legation despatch No. 389