any REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES MSTTO, GAGUTOT!
GOGS IT IG. TIIU proy.
201 931 TOJ 195745642 Mithat is grenson GWISS:7930 also been claimed that the administration proposes or even passes legislation for the political effect and then fails to follow. it up in action. The social guarantees proposed for inclusion in the Constitution were not followed up in the face of public disapproval. The administration of the Social Security Board has been severely criticized and especially because of the expenditure of 210, 000 for administrative purposes as against 67, 387 for benefit payments. In so difficult an enterprise as social security, and especially in its first six months, this does not seem especially blameworthy. member of the Technical Labor Board, however, informed a member of the Legation staff that there were enough laws govering the wages and hours of labor, we well as other statutes, to give all possible protection to the workers, if they were only enforced.
This was the same man who so highly praised the President for his interest in the workers in Costa Rica. comparison of the labor code and a compilation of existing laws relating to labor, prepared by Alberto Duran Rocha, Chief of the Technical Labor Office, will show that the new code goes much further. Copies of this compilation are enclosed.
The question of the President sincerity in proposing labor legislation is one which it would be extremely hard to decide. It is perhaps not pertinent to the discussion at the moment since the President has greatly advanced social legislation in his administration. That he has done so for political reasons cannot be denied. It is the almost unanimous opinion of all Costa Ricans, however, that in dealing with Manuel Mora he is dealing with a politician who is much more brilliant than he and that in the end, Mora, not the President, will be the gainer. It is very probable that the President has been jockeyed into a position which is not completely agreeable to him but that he is now powerless to stop the movement which he has aided.
He did not foresee the results and is unable to refuse to make commitments which go further than ho desiros. Costa Rica is not an industrial country und the labor vodo, 011 mentioned above, may effootively prevent the inventmont of any considerablo umount of onpito horo ond by running, wages and other expongo8 in connection with lavor OOMLA, make the exportation of its prime orop, coffee, un profitable, which would be a major disaster. Had the President been strong enough to resist Mora pressure, it is likely that he would have considered these problems carefully, with the result that the labor code would not have been presented in its present form. But in his message to Congress proposing the labor code, the President, as he did in his message proposing the Social Guarantees to the Constitution, chose to speak in broad, general terms rather than discuss the concrete and specific reasons why such a code was beneficial to all groups of Costa Ricans. He made reference to the Papal Encyclicals dealing with social reform, to similar legislation in other countries, whether or not such countries had similar problems, and to the general and highly idealistic public statements of President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Vice President Wallace and other world state smen on the subject of a better life for all men, regardless of their status.
The President has not taken a strong stand in any of the labor disputes, which have lately arisen in Costa Rica.
He has