COSTA RICA: Vaccinated & Feeling Fine

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In San José last week, Costa Ricans once again could boast that their country's schoolmasters outnumber their soldiers. This happy state of affairs had been accomplished by the simple method of abolishing the army.

And why not? The revolution of 1948 was long past; the 18 months of junta-bossed reconstruction were over. Under Otilio Ulate, who was installed last November in the presidency to which he was elected just before the 1948 uprising, the little (pop. 813,000) Central American republic was fast winning back its old reputation for peace and progress.

Ulate resumed the presidential custom of walking to the San José post office every day to get his mail. He also walked to work. Coming out of his two-story stucco house on the capital's north side one day last week, he struck out as usual past the corner grocery and crossed the Parque Morazán toward the palace. In the park, a fat waiter passed him. "Buenos dias, Don Otilio," said the waiter. The President of Costa Rica tipped his hat.

One evening, passing up a Club Unión reception, the President took in the dancing in the Parque Central. As he sat on a park bench watching the capital's famously handsome señoritas walk by arm in arm, some drunks raised a cheer for the government's bitterest enemy, exiled ex-President Rafael Calderón Guardia. Ulate forbade their arrest. "Let them viva whom they wish," he said.

Ulate was also a citizens' President at his palace desk. Proclaiming that "a little Franciscan poverty" was necessary if the 1950 budget were to balance, he slashed his own salary 23% (to $570 a month), fired a block of office workers, reduced the total number of cars available for government officials to 15. His explanation for abolishing the army was short and to the point. "So long as the government has the confidence of the people," he said, "it has an army."

To the disappointment of his conservative backers, Ulate showed no inclination to modify the 10% tax on capital imposed by Junta Boss José Figueres. But as long as coffee continued to bring record prices, well-to-do Costa Ricans would not grumble too much. Congress and country seemed to agree that things were going just about right again. Said a satisfied planter in San José: "Costa Rica has been vaccinated. The revolution did it. We had to have it. Costa Rica is protected against power-grabbers for the next 50 years. We have regained the democracy we lost."