them in greater quantities. The most serious deficiencies in the Paraguayan diet-the lack of calcium and certain of the vitamins can best be remedied by increasing the consumption of milk and green vegetables.

This in turn can be accomplished through expansion of educational facilities such as those offered by the Farm Credit Program and rural schools and by continued cooperation of the nation's doctors.

Medicinal and aromatic plants. A serious difficulty confronting Paraguay is the high cost of transporting its products, because of its landlocked situation. It is evident that permanent benefit would be derived from the establishment of a basic industry with an exportable product of small volume, and therefore suitable for air transport, but of high unit value. For this reason STICA is conducting an investigation of the commercial possibilities of various plants indigenous to Paraguay which yield essential oils and of the prospects of introducing other such plants there.

Among the plants with which experiments have been conducted at the Institute

and on several plantations near Asunción are lemon grass, mint, patchouli, caraway, and vanilla. One of the most promising is a small plant yielding vegetable saccharine which lacks the undesirable characteristics of the coal-tar derivative. Another outstanding plant, known as Capii Cedrón, has an essence of excellent quality that has aroused the interest of New York perfumers and may well provide a new source of revenue for Paraguayan farmers.

By means of development programs such as those just described, STICA has not only demonstrated methods by which the status of agriculture in Paraguay can be improved, but has also emphasized, through its training program, the fact that the practical skills acquired in working with one's hands, while not necessarily superior to book knowledge, are indispensable complements to it. Thus when the present cooperative agreement is ended there will be experienced local technicians available to carry forward STICA's objective-the building of the agricultural economy Paraguay needs and can support.

President of Mexico

ON July 7, 1946, the voters of Mexico went to the polls to elect a new president. The successful candidate was Miguel Alemán, a lawyer by profession and, during the past ten years, an increasingly distinguished figure in Mexican political affairs.

Miguel Alemán, the son of General Miguel Alemán and Doña Tomasa Valdés de Alemán, was born in 1900 in the town of Sayula, located in the Canton of Acayucan in the southern part of the State of Veracruz. At the outbreak of the Revolution, General Alemán joined its ranks without hesitation and fought staunchly throughout the course of the long struggle. As a consequence the family was often on the move and the scene of young Miguel's early education changed frequently. He attended school in Acayucan, Coatzacoalcos, Orizaba, and finally in 1917 he entered the Internado Nacional in Mexico City. In 1920 he became a student at the National Preparatory School, at a time when the influence of the great Mexican educator Gabino Barreda was still felt there and when such venerable and distinguished figures as Miguel Schultz and Federico Gamboa still met with the young students. In 1925 Alemán enrolled in the National Law School where his active mind and keen intelligence enabled him to complete the five-year course and receive his law degree in only three years. The subject he chose for his thesis-Responsibility for Occupational Diseases and Labor Accidents

was an unusual one at that time, when labor rights and legislation were

still very much in their formative stage in Mexico.

When Miguel Alemán opened his law office in 1928, he carried with him all the ideas of social justice that had taken root during a boyhood lived in the midst of the Mexican Revolution and shaped themselves even more definitely during his student days. The humble people, the workers, came to seek his counsel and his aid. Two outstanding examples of his professional work in this field may be cited. Before conciliation and arbitration boards he successfully pled the compensation claims of numerous widows and orphans of railway workers killed during the Revolution; and the many cases in which he acted to secure indemnities for mine workers who had become victims of silicosis were the first in the history of Mexican labor courts.

In 1930 his knowledge of the problems of the Mexican campesino and his studies of agrarian law led to his appointment as

consulting attorney for the Department of Agriculture. In 1935 President Lázaro Cárdenas appointed him Magistrate of the Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District and Federal Territories, a position in which he displayed unusual ability, knowledge of law, and a high sense of justice.

The year 1936 marked the beginning of Miguel Alemán's political career. The citizens of his native state had evidently been taking due note of his activities, for they elected him to the National Congress as Senator for Veracruz. His service in the Senate was short, however, for in November 1936 he was elected Governor of the State of Veracruz for the period 1936-40. Of that term of office he left a noteworthy record. For instance, he gave great impulse to public education, to which effort the many school buildings erected in Jalapa, Córdoba, Orizaba, Veracruz, and in innumerable rural communities bear firm testimony; and the construction of highways, so indispensable to the economic development of the agricultural regions of the state and to travel in general, was the object of special attention. The modernization and improvement of the port of Veracruz were also in large part Governor Alemán's work.

And ever the advocate of the laboring classes, he put into effect higher minimum wage regulations for workers in agriculture, trade, and industry, and established the State Department of Labor to help in the solution of labor conflicts and to cooperate with the Federal Government in all labor matters.

In 1939 Alemán sought and obtained permission of the State Legislature to leave the governorship and return to the Senate of the Republic. In 1939 and 1940 he directed General Ávila Camacho's campaign for the presidency and when the latter took office on December 1, 1940, Alemán was appointed Secretary of the Interior. As head of that Department, he displayed outstanding vigor and a sincerity and loyalty to his country and his fellow citizens that won him high regard and acclaim throughout the Republic. The Interior Department's efficient control of Axis subjects and interests during the war was only one of the many accomplishments that reflected the Secretary's able direction.

Señor Alemán resigned from the Cabinet in order to enter the 1946 presidential campaign. On December 1, 1946 he took the oath of office and embarked upon a sixyear term as chief executive of his country.

COLUMBUS Day, October 12, 1946, was celebrated at the Pan American Union by a significant address delivered before a large gathering in the Hall of the Americas by the Ambassador of Nicaragua in Washington and Chairman of the Governing Board, Dr. Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa. A translation of Dr. Sevilla Sacasa's address follows:

At about this time on October 11, 1492, three light caravels were still sailing along with an uncertain destination, driven onward only by the fevered desire of an adventurous Genoese. Three caravels destined to change the whole concept of world geography, since, about to arrive at unknown beaches, they were destined to make the dazzling presentation of a New World, which would be in the course of time the symbol of liberty and peace, the living example of mutual respect and human solidarity.

They were the Santa María, the Pinta, and the Niña, in whose names the distinguished Spanish author, Salvador de Madariaga, has seen the representation of the spiritual qualities of the Three Latin Sisters: Italy, France, and Spain. The Pinta represented France with its diversity, its clarity of vision, its grace and charm, its liberty which borders on license, its elegance; the Niña represented Italy with its vitality, its pride, beauty, and romance, its sensibility; and the Santa María represented Spain with its religious passion, its conception of the unity of the world, its mysticism, and its gift of admirals, conquistadors, and monks.

They were guided by a humble man, the son of a poor weaver, and a group of brave sailors, with only the stars to mark the way. Searching the horizon, consumed with weariness, almost on the verge of complete despair, and inspired only by the unquenchable faith of the leader, they finally spied a faint light which, like the reflection of a hidden star, shone faintly among the shadows: "a will-o-the-wisp that rose and fell." It was a light hidden in the lands of America, the unknown World in which only the Genoese believed.

Thus it was that, conquering the mysterious

ocean, converting rumor into reality, contradicting legends, and "rising above nature and the incredulity of men," Christopher Columbus gave to the world a new Hemisphere which, rising from the waves at dawn on the following day, supplied the missing half of the earth.

The adventurous Genoese had become the genius of the seas, the conqueror of the ocean, and the unveiler of the globe. He revolutionized the course of humanity, doubling by the force of his prodigious will the area of the earth, and raising in those moments a monument to his own great courage. In the four and a half centuries that have followed, history has recorded very few deeds of such import. According to some thinkers, the effect of the feat of Columbus can be compared only to that of Christianity, the Renaissance, or the French Revolution.

That faint light which, according to the Admiral himself, was like "a will-o-the-wisp that rose and fell," was destined to become a powerful beacon shining in the lands of America, a guide to the future destinies of man "in his eternal longing for happiness and justice." To the land where this light appeared went conquistadors, travelers, missionaries, merchants, and colonists. The lack of opportunity in the Old World drew them to the New where they could develop their abilities with greater freedom. Thus the conquest and colonization of America were made possible. Eventually the colonies were impelled by the force of circumstances to break the ties that bound them to the mother countries, and enter upon an independent life as a group, held together by their republican institutions and their common democratic ideals.

Constituting a homogeneous and coherent whole, the young republics, which had been launched in international life by liberty and for liberty, were naturally inclined toward Pan Americanism-a political system conceived by the men of America to promote peace, law and order, humanitarianism, and justice. This system is characterized by cooperative action of unique structure, the like of which has not been known in any period of history, and by an active sense of American unity. It works for the welfare and unity of a family of independent nations, in respect

to their vital institutions, sovereignties, and customs. The system follows a "fundamental rule of international policy, based on unity and concord, open cooperation, and solidarity among the nations of the Continent." It works for the readjustment of sound interests, and for cooperation in the defense of this Hemisphere that Columbus gave us.

Perhaps there are some who think that Pan Americanism, that majestic undertaking in which the American nations are working hand in hand, encompasses the idea of a certain isolationism of the New World. This is not so. We Americans are simply demonstrating our genuine feeling of loyalty toward one another. We interpret Pan Americanism as the expression of the desire of the participating countries for political and economic bonds "to promote closer relations among our countries and create an atmosphere of continental brotherhood and solidarity." With such an atmosphere we can work harmoniously for the furtherance of our common interests in every field, achieving by collective action the effective and felicitous realization of the great destiny to which America is called in the universal concert of nations.

Pan Americanism is no isolated and exclusive concept. The American Republics have formed, developed, and unified their political ideology with the valuable support of the best liberal principles that have come to us from elsewhere and have here been gathered together and consecrated anew in national and international formulas.

"Here shall all Christians find comfort and good living," said the glorious Genoese, and the Continent he discovered, from Alaska to Cape Horn, has fulfilled his prophecy and become the protector of all men of good will. To the traveler who comes from other lands its nations offer protection and liberty, peace of mind and work, warmth and affection.

It is said that America is another name for human hope. It has been and continues to be the happy home of democracy, the unquestioned dwelling place of justice, the sure refuge of liberty, the authentic depository of one of the keys which guard the peace of the world. America is the dawn of the world, the land of promise and of love; enriched by the glory of its immortal heroes, it is soothed by the eternal music of its oceans, which join the currents of their green waters in a symbol of union and brotherhood.

Tonight we have come together to celebrate the

important date of America's discovery, so closely linked with the memory of the Mother Country. This Columbus Day we ought solemnly to meditate upon the future which destiny has pointed out to Americans, but we must bear in mind that to be worthy of America, we must be united as brothers, without reservation. For America there awaits a great role in the universal history of the present and of the future which it can fulfill only if united. Only thus can it be a source of energy and inspiration in the efforts to mold a happier and more peaceful world.

The happenings of recent years in the field of international relations are proof of the unity of purpose and of the well coordinated plan of action of these nations. These aims found their highest expression in the recent Conference of Chapultepec, which was itself an important factor in the world meeting that took place some weeks later in San Francisco.

We must continue to have a wide-awake consciousness of continental responsibility. We must be Americans of one America, fellow citizens of one Continent, as the Brazilian, Maia, expressed it when he said to Jefferson in 1787, "Nature has made us inhabitants of the same continent, and for that reason, in a certain sense, fellow citizens.” Our America is overflowing with quickened energy, which can be made effective only through solidarity. Solidarity . . . listen well, gentlemen. Regional solidarity within world-wide solidarity. Solidarity, that we may successfully collaborate in the shaping of world peace.

Let us maintain it with honor and loyalty, so we may make ourselves worthy of the heritage of Bolívar and Roosevelt, the stoutest pillars of Pan Americanism. The Liberator and the Idealist. The former, inspired perhaps by the noble aims of his precursors, all sons of America, thinking of continental unity as a symbol of power, gave birth to the idea. The latter injected into it new vigor and modern spirit, making it the essence and the substance of American international law and sagely incorporating it into his Good Neighbor Policy, a realistic pattern in which nations are free and equal-a wise and generous policy that has been eloquently reiterated by his illustrious successor, President Truman. It is a pleasure to me, as an American, to say that Columbus discovered a world, Washington and Bolívar freed it, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt preserved and consolidated it.

Therefore on this day of the Great Admiral, of the "inspired and militant sailor," as the apostle of Cuban independence, José Marti, called him,