Panama to Patagonia

by Charles M. Pepper

The Chilean government is measurably independent of ecclesiastical dictation. It always has insisted on its right to nominate the Archbishop, and when Rome has been unwilling to recognize this nomination the Archbishopric has remained vacant. That was the condition for several years previous to Balmaceda’s election as president. Then a compromise was effected by the Vatican recognizing the choice of the administration. A Papal legate is maintained at Santiago, and the intrigues and manœuvres to give him precedence have caused unpleasantness in the Diplomatic Corps. Of late years the Church influence has been decidedly reactionary. This was accentuated on the death of Pope Leo, when the Bishop took occasion to preach a political sermon, aimed not only at the Italian government but at Liberal governments everywhere. The leading public men resented this reactionary tendency. When the priests expelled from France sought an asylum in Chile, they were frigidly received.

The efforts to reform the political system relate both to the executive and to the legislative branches. One group wants the vice-president chosen, as in the United States, to succeed to the Executive functions on the death or incapacity of the president. Under the present form there is no elected vice-president. That functionary is the Minister of the Interior, and usually he is a member of the House or of the Senate. When the president desires to forego temporarily the responsibilities of office or becomes ill, he can withdraw and turn the administration over to the vice-president. The latter official during the interim exercises all the powers of the chief magistrate, but in case of the president’s death a new Executive is chosen to fill out the term. The agitation for an elective vice-president is not very pronounced, though it may be made a part of the programme of one or the other of the political groups.

The movement for a change with regard to the Congress is more definite. One phase of it relates to the form. Some want to dispense with the formality which takes place at the opening of Congress when the president is escorted to the hall of the Sessions by the troops, is attended by the cabinet, and delivers his message in person in the presence of the Diplomatic Corps and of distinguished officials. It is not a live question. I attended an opening session in company with Minister Wilson, and thought that the message acquired dignity through its ceremonial delivery.

The vital reform which many Chilean public men think necessary in order that national policies may be carried forward and the government placed in harmony with popular sentiment, is a complete overturning of the present parliamentary system, with its frequent and ridiculous ministerial crises, the consequent cabinet changes, and the interruptions in the Executive’s policy. The theory of parliamentary government is carried to an extreme which hardly could be conceived of in England. It would make a Frenchman envious of the ease with which ministries can be upset and new ministries set up to be overthrown in their turn.[12] It is a panorama of lightning parliamentary changes. The consequence of the present system is to continue the power of the family groups who call themselves by various names and who may or may not reflect distinct political tendencies. All of them must be represented in the cabinet. Occasionally by means of a coalition or a fusion the Executive may secure something like a political majority, but it does not hold, because the elements composing it have too many selfish interests and too many individual ambitions to gratify. Sometimes, too, the House may be satisfied with the cabinet, while the Senate refuses to accept it. That was the condition in the Fall of 1904, when the Liberal Alliance was the power behind the ministries.

12 The Chilean correspondent of a London newspaper gave this illustration: “Valparaiso, February 11. The changes effected in the composition of the Chilean Ministry, and especially the Finance Department, have at times been so frequent that not very long ago both the British and the United States Ministers informed the President that for the future they would be unable to recognize any change. They complained, not without sufficient reason, that no sooner had they entered into arrangements with one Minister of Finance than these had to be suspended and commenced de novo with his successor, who, again, at the final stages, referred the foreign representatives to his successor at the Treasury Department.”

The leading men who are agitating for a reform are radical in their programme, for they want Chile to adopt the practice of the United States, and nothing can be more opposite than our own system and that which now obtains in Chile. These reformers would have the Executive sustained by a political party in the Congress; but even when he may not have a partisan majority back of him, they would have his administration, chosen as it is for five years, assured the voting of the necessary appropriations and the power to continue the policy on which he was elected. That, they argue, would give continued internal tranquillity and strength abroad. This was lacking to Balmaceda, and its lack caused him to defy the Congress and go outside the Constitution. A long time must pass before Chilean public sentiment can be educated up to the point where a hostile partisan majority in the Congress will not dare to refuse to vote the ordinary appropriations of the government. When that point is reached, there will be simply two political parties instead of half a dozen groups centring around individuals.

When I was in Chile in 1903, there were four parties who were recognized, and these were split into so many sections that it was hard to distinguish them. The parties were the Liberals, the Radicals, the Conservatives, and the Social Democrats, or Populists. But the Liberal party was composed of middle-of-the-road Liberals, moderate Liberals, and liberal Democrats, while the Conservatives were divided into regular Conservatives and clerical Conservatives, with a shading off into minor groups. The general tendencies were clear, and an alignment was forming between Liberals of all shades in order to combat the Conservatives. The growth of the Liberals is a revival of the Balmaceda policies. Their success means reforms in the parliamentary system, more freedom for the Executive, and perhaps a broader foreign policy including the frank recognition of the influence on the Panama Canal on all the Pacific coast of South America. It is generally assumed that no president can now be elected in Chile who is not satisfactory to the Balmacedists. President Jerman Riesco, who was chosen in 1901, gave a liberal and temperate administration.

But these tentative suggestions of reform in the political system, and even the tendencies in regard to public policies are only surface ebullitions if they are studied without an insight into the deeper social and economic conditions, for Chile has social and economic questions of a more pronounced character than any other country in South America. I defer their analysis for another chapter.

CHAPTER XVI

PALPITATING SOCIAL QUESTIONS