All who write on labor in Latin America call attention to the worker’s low estate and declare it a condition that should be remedied. But some writers, once established that the condition exists, seem to believe it necessary to pinpoint a person or a social class to blame for it. If an evil exists there must somewhere lurk a villain who overtly perpetrated it.
Professor Alexander, a profound student and prolific writer in the Latin American field, is too much the sage in its lore to fall into this error. His readers, while left in no doubt that an unsatisfactory situation prevails, learn to how great an extent it arises from a lack of cultural maturity on the part of the Latin American worker himself, as well as from economic facts of life which, lamentable though they may be, cannot justly be laid at the door of any one individual or class.
This prepares the reader for the author’s further conclusion that, before outside aid can really benefit the Latin American laborer, he must become conditioned psychologically to receive it—necessarily a long-term process. An increased income will not prove a boon to the Latin American peasant if he invests the increase in a larger family, in a stepped-up consumption of alcoholic beverages, or if he views the increase as a means whereby he may sustain his present level of living with fewer hours of work each week.
Professor Alexander bases his study on Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. These three countries, while similar in many respects, display real differences in their approach to government-management-labor relations. After sketching the economic, political, and social background of each, he writes informatively on labor conditions to be found in them, under such headings as labor-management relations, government intervention, collective bargaining, labor unions, and labor recruitment and commitment.
This is a book for which a need has long been felt among those who know Latin America. Previously published writings on the subject too often have lacked objectivity and have appeared too heavily overladen with the “forgotten man” philosophy.
