Corruption Rampant
Corruption is a long and miserable story, and is blatant on almost every level. Everybody tolerates graft, and almost everybody expects it. Adhemar de Barros, former governor of Sao Paulo and a towering political figure, became a very rich man in his years of public office, and a remark attributed to him is widely quoted, "They say that I steal. It is true. I steal. But I also get things done." The picturesque Governor Barros was once found guilty of malfeasance, but was subsequently cleared by the Supreme Court. Former President Kubitschek was stripped of his civil rights in 1964 on a charge of "corruption" as well as for other reasons. One former governor is said to have appointed six hundred different men to the post of state taxidermist— "enough to stuff every man, woman, and child in his state"—and then collected their "salaries," as well as filching the entire appropriation for public highways ($6,400,000).But the man most talked about in this field is the engaging Joao ("Jango") Goulart, the president who was displaced in April, 1964. Charges against him are being assembled, but, since he lives in exile in Uruguay, it is difficult to press them. Stories about Goulart's acquisitions have acquired the quality of folklore. He was a very rich man when he assumed office, but his wealth grew bv spectacular dimensions if stories about him are to be believed. Goulart is said by his enemies, who of course have an interest in discrediting him, to have bought up fantastic amounts of land during his presidency; his holdings in Goias alone have been estimated at 494,200 acres, and one of his deals in Mato Grosso was supposed to be the largest transaction of its kind in Brazilian history. During this period Goulart's salary as president was $350 a month. Once this beguiling man is reputed to have run up expenses of $100,000 in two hotels in Brasilia in a brief period—of course charged to the government.
Dummy corporations, phantom payrolls, rake-offs on construction projects are familiar devices not merely in politics but in "normal" commercial affairs. Business goes by pull. One airline will use "unnatural methods," i.e., bribery, to keep a competitor at a disadvantage. A favorite trick is the use of foreknowledge of the route of a new road, so that speculators can buy up the adjoining land. Such larcenous peccadillos are not, of course, unknown in other countries; Boss Pendergast once paved a riverbed in Kansas City. But the point is that a rich country like the United States can afford a modicum of corruption, unpleasant and immoral as this may be; undeveloped coun-tries in South America cannot.
Not long ago citizens of Sao Paulo, indignant at the mishandling of their public and political affairs, put up a rhinoceros named Cacareco to run for alderman. This was meant to be an ironic gesture, but the animal got more votes than any other candidate. It died some years later, and, to keep up the sardonic joke, its supporters gave it a "state" funeral. Similarly in Recife a billygoat accustomed to nibbling grass outside the governor's palace was put up for state senator. Its name was Cheiroso (odorous).
But anybody who thinks that Brazil is a comedy country is dead wrong. This stupendous land is not merely vital in itself and the essential key to the rest of South America but it is the only country in the western hemisphere, not counting the United States, capable of becoming a great power. It has the basic geography necessary, the potential resources, and, in the tumultuous ebb and flow of the modern world, the priceless advantage of a mixed racial heritage. President Kennedy once called it the "India" of the western hemisphere if only because of the scope, variety, and positive grandeur of its problems, challenges, and hopes.
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