aspecf: REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES no 288 20bfempel 50 290 10ap. 69248 CECLASSIFIED. Authority State Letter Fuhr MYILED LVLED OL VWEBOW BML, NARS Date 2498 FERREION OE LHE nese VE VIES OLI VIWELINESHOP TUAIDINDIC Gutierrez; Manuel More and President Calderon Guardia were among the speakers. notable omission was Teodoro Picado who, as head of the National Republican Party and as such the Administration candidate, did not speak, though he sat on the platform. in All of the speakers stressed the point that the gains labör had made by the social legislation of President Calderón Guardia would not be allowed to lapse through the election of any candidate of the reactionary or opposition forces. Even Father Nuñoz. spoke of the desire of the Catholic Church to see that justice was done and intimated that the Church itself, if necessary, could and would go into hiding, like the early fathers had hidden in the Catacombs, rather than relinquish its firm desire that social justice be established.
The most conciliatory speech, on the program was made by the new Minister of Labor, Manuel Brenes Gutierrez.
Señor Brenes called for cooperation between labor and capital and said that if it were true that capital was indispensable for progress, it was no less true that capital must be progressive and human or become a negative factor. He called for discussions between capital and labor in a spirit of fraternity and said that labor on its side must likewise be inspired by principles of honesty and by a desire to fulfill its duties. Rodolfo Guzmán asserted that labor would not sit with folded arms in the coming political contest. This statement also formed the theme of Manual Mora speech.
Mora was the next to the last speaker and cheers for him were the loudest and most spontaneous and more people were said to have been present in the park when he spoke than at any other time.
Referring to the plight of labor in France and in Spain, Mora insisted that the Costa Rican laborers would not, as was the case in those countries, gease fighting to make the labor legislation that they had obtained a vital and lasting part of the life of the country. We will defend what we have won, he declared, against the enemies of the laboring classes who are marching under a banner of false democracy. The reactionary elements have said that they would respect the Labor Code, Señor Mora pointed out, but, he added, previous laws in favor of labor were respected only in the sense that they were allowed to remain as dead letters on the statute.
books. They were not carried out, but the new Labor Code will not be allowed to become here literature. for labor is now a belligerent army and organized with standards which tomorrow they will exchange for rifles, if necessary, to defend their rights.
Kes Señor Calderón Guardia will return to the Presidency in 1948, declared Mora, but we must win the next election and we shall. The President successor will carry out. in words and in deeds his social legislation. The great demonstration