REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES DECLASSIFIED Authority Statele fer lahz MENARI Date 24981 5Sud out that he had certain complaints to make with ward to the abaca project, Hamer arranged to go with Suora representative and the Minister of Labor to the a baca area on the Atlantic Coast. The result of this visit was that some adjustments were made and Mora admitted that the treatment of its laborers by the United Fruit Company was equitable. further result of this getting together was that mora instructed leaders to lay ompany. Later when Mr. Walter Turnbull, Vice President of the United Fruit Company in charge of tropical area, visited Costa Rica, he saw Mora and said that his company was anxious to improve labor conditions and suggested the theory of diversified crops. When Mora explained that there was no land available to him to try to put this theory into practice. Turnbull gave some thousand acres of abandoned banana land and 50, 000. to the Costa Rican Government which agreed, in collaboration with Mora, to make the diversified crops experiment on the land in question.
pas ther ar pa (2) his e von itral. ha form le VII wh: The Fruit Company has improved housing and sanitary conditions of its laborers and has erected schools rather than raising salaries which it was found merely caused workmen to drink more and work less.
pr Les The Rerum Novarum Unions are practically non existent among the Fruit Company laborers, and this is one cause of Father Nuñezbitterness.
It Tho he The Fruit Company does not make any loans to the Government but occasionally makes advance payments on monies which will be due the Government.
The above proves Mora sincerity up to date in his dealings with the Fruit Company, and a hint from the Embassy to the head here of the American Foreign Power Light Company has resulted in Mr. Gehrels having had a conversation with Mora, which we both believe may help to solve certain problems of the company. My final conversation, a memorandum of which is also enclosed, was with Manuel Mora himself. This conversation is summarized below.
Conversation with Manuel Mora: General subjects were touched upon first. Mora advocated guaranteed prices in the United States market for the agricultural products of Latin America. He emphasized the problem was one of working out a plan which would include all of the nations of the continent, but added that it is particularly important for Central American countries to cooperate in economic matters.
The subject of foreign capital was then brought up and Mora emphasized that it was the sincere intention of his party to collaborate with American companies. He recognized the need for foreign capital in Costa Rica and mentioned specifically the possibility of exploiting oil, although he emphasized that foreign enterprise in Costa Rica must operate on a basis equitable to labor. Mora described his relations with the Fruit Company as proof of his sincerity and said that he intends to tell Mr. Gehrels of the