REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Stateletter Mhz By me NARI Date 249814 doctor. He called all opponents of the labor code Blind men who worked within four w218 ini complete unawareness of the needs of the people, and referred to the coming September 15tn as the first time that Costa Rica would celebrate not only its political Independence but its economic independence. This reference extends from the fact that the Labor Code goes into effect on September 15th, and a large demonstration is planned for that day. Negotiations are also under way to have the Mexican labor leader, Lombardo Toledano, come to Costa Rica at that time. Manuel Mora has confided to an intima te friend of his that all agricul turists are going to be told to let a large percentage of their la bor come to San José on that day. As it is a national holiday, industrial and business concerns will be closed and the Government will pay the bill to bring as many persons as possible to the mass demonstration. The idea is to gather more people than the 40, 000 who greeted Charles Lindberg in 1928, according to Mora.
La Tribuna of August 31st which devoted the whole top of the front page to the President speech also gave a prominent headline to the fact that the Bishop of the Diocese of Alajuela was at the President side during the parade which took place, Con trasting with the publicity given to the President activities in La Tribuna, the Diario de Costa Rica has published no information regarding the demonstrations which took place except paid advertisements on the inside pages. In its edition of August 25th, in fact, a halfpage editorial was devoted to attacking the President and mentioning, not without sarcasm, that certain groups of laborers proclaimed the President as Savior of the working classes, as though the President were acquiring Divine status. Naturally, the President was piqued by this editorial, He replied the following day in the columns of La Tribuna, and made specific reference to the fact that Señor Ula te did not re port his speech or the demonstration in Limon, and accused Ulate of seeing only what he wanted to, since Ula te made no mention of the thousands of Costa Ricans who filed past the Diario de Costa Rica, on August 20th, the day the Labor Code was finally passed.
From all accounts that the Emba ssy has been able to receive it appears that bo th the demonstration at Limon and that at Alajuela were organized by the Vanguardia Popular Party which chartered busses and filled the trains with laborers to assure the President of a sufficiently large audience. As the Department is aware, Alajuela is one of the strongest pro Cortés districts in Costa Rica, and without such organization it would probably have been difficult to obtain a large or enthusiastic audience.
818. 00 18121 DET reliable source close to Manuel Mora has informed the Embassy that five trains are going to be provided, at Government cost, to transport the audience to the political rally this coming Sunday in Puntarena This audience, continued the Embassy informant, will have certain persons sprinkled about primed to shout Viva re election at oppor tune moments. The Embassy has long been aware of a definite lack of popular enthusiasm for Teodoro Picado, the National Republican Party candidate and since the break between Picado and the President, which has not been completely healed (see my despatch No. 425 of August 18, 1943. it appears more likely than ever that the Administration is thinking PS MEL