MEXICO: New President

When Calvin Coolidge became President of the U. S. it was known that he had been an attorney and the governor of a state and was a man of abstemious habits. The same things are known about Senor Emilio Portes Gil (pronounced "Heel"), who became President of Mexico last week. Moreover Emilio Portes Gil, like Calvin Coolidge, was enabled to reach highest office by Death.-But there the resemblance ends.

People who watched the pompous inaugural ceremonies of last week saw that President Portes Gil is a stocky man of sturdy frame and strong, squarish face. Vigorous and athletic, he either horseback rides or swims each day, usually before breakfast, and was a potent baseball batsman in his youth. The boom of his great voice is loud and clear, rather than hearty. But with traditional Mexican courtesy he is ever ready to clap mightily upon the back and kiss soundly upon both cheeks any man who is favorably introduced—even bashful U. S. correspondents. Last week the massive personality of Emilio Fortes Gil had an appropriate setting. His inauguration took place in the great bowl of Mexico City's athletic stadium. There the National Congress sat in extraordinary open air session. Sat also 25,000 spectators. Cannon boomed a 24-gun salute as Senor Fortes Gil strode in with the retiring President of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles. Although General Calles admittedly possessed the powers of a Dictator and could easily have succeeded himself he deliberately chose to step down (TIME, Sept. 10) and movingly announced that by so doing he hoped to end the vicious circle of Mexican military dictatorships. It is almost the chief distinction of the new President that he is no soldier but a simple civilian, described in official papers as "Citizen Attorney E. Fortes Gil."

The Dictator, Plutarco Elias Calles. symbolized his abnegation by insisting that the President-Elect should don the presidential cordon immediately before his inauguration. Legally the new President did not become such until the stroke of midnight after his inauguration. The oath of office, as taken by Sefior Fortes Gil, rang loudly and distinctly thus: "I swear to guard and have guarded the political Constitution of the United States of Mexico and all laws emanating therefrom, and loyally and patriotically to fulfill the office of President of the Republic, which the nation has conferred upon me, always seeking the good and prosperity of the union. Should I fail, then may the nation call me to account."

No sooner had the echoes died than President Fortes Gil indulged in the unprecedented innovation of making, then and there, a formal declaration of his policies. This was primarily an assurance that the policies of retiring President Calles would continue unchanged, and secondarily an expression of confidence that national solidarity and order would prevail during the coming electoral campaign. "I hold firm in my intention," boomed President Fortes Gil, "not to restrict liberty of expression, oral or written! The liberty to criticize me will have all the attributes of impunity."

Since Senor Fortes Gil, as Governor of the State of Tamaulipas (1925-28), actually did maintain the right of free expression, contrary to all Mexican precedents, his promise of last week had greatest weight.