Mârmaduke Grove: a Political Biography Dissertation
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This dissertation has been 63—4709 microfilmed exactly as received THOMAS, Jack Ray, 1931- MARMADUKE GROVE: A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1962 History, modem University Microfilms, Inc., Arm Arbor, Michigan MÂRMADUKE GROVE: A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jack Ray Thomas, B. A.,M. A. ****** The Ohio State University 1962 Approved ^ Advisers Department of History CONTENTS Chapter I. Chilean Political Development to 1929. 1 II. Marmaduke Grove, Military Officer .... 24 III. The First Alessandri Administration and the Uprising of September, 1924 ........... 48 IV. The Revolt of January 23, 1925 and Alessandri's Return ...................... 94 V. Ibanez the Dictator, Grove the Revolutionary .................132 VI. The Socialist Republic of C h i l e ............ 173 VII. The Rise of the Socialist Left and of Marmaduke G r o v e .................... 235 VIII. Attempts By The Conservative-Liberal Coalition to Prevent the Rise of Reform P a r t i e s ................................. 283 IX. The End of the Popular Front ...... 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................345 AUTOBIOGRAPHY.................................... 351 PREFACE In the late afternoon of September 6, 1924, a group of military officers walked into the presidential palace in Santiago, Chile. Dramatically, they presented President Arturo Alessandri Palma with a series of demands for social legislation, army reform, and a program to eliminate graft and corruption in government. Alessandri acquiesced by resigning. Later he sought asylum in the United States Embassy and took his family to Europe. Thus began a chaotic eight-year period in the history of a Latin American nation renowned for its political stability. In late 1932 this same Alessandri was again elected president, this time serving out his complete six-year term. However, disorder was not ended in 1932 but arose at intermittent intervals up to the election of Alessandri's successor, Pedro Aguirre Cerda. When order once again reigned, Chile was a vastly different nation. Profound and far-reaching changes had occurred in the political structure which ultimately affected every citizen of the republic. ii Throughout the years of confusion Marmaduke Grove Vallejo moved about the political stage, sometimes as a hero of the people, at other times as a forgotten exile on a lonely Polynesian island. Grove's life in these years is illustrative of a new breed of Chilean, search ing for solutions to the plethora of social, economic, and political problems which had gone unattended through out the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Grove's approach was seldom orthodox, and he often felt the wrath of the various governments in power as he attempted to change Chile's political structure. Yet Grove and men like him continued their agitation until Chile today has more social welfare legislation than any other nation in South America except Uruguay. The following is a biographical study of Marmaduke Grove, with emphasis on the tumultuous years between 1924 and 1938, when a welfare state emerged from a nation long dominated by a system resembling the manorial structure of Europe in the Middle Ages. The transition was relatively bloodless since the military, in most cases, allied itself with those who fought to put an end to the old political and social organization of the Nation. Nevertheless, the iii changes have been profound, making of Chile a nation far different from that which existed in the nineteenth century. IV CHAPTER I CHILEAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT TO 1920 In September, 1810, the first national government of Chile was established. More than a decade passed before the Americans finally drove the Spanish from South Amer ican soil, but Chile dates her independence from 1810. The leaders in the independent nation were military heroes, one of whom was Be^^ardo O'Higgins. O'Higgins became the "Supreme Dictator" of Chile in 1818, and for the next five years he ruled his country under a quasi- monarchial system. All the while the fighting raged the Chilean aristocracy welcomed the assistance of the popu lace, many of whom had acquired ideas of equality, liberty, and democracy from Europe. But once the fighting ceased, the aristocracy wanted no part of such ideas, nor were they willing to permit those who honestly espoused these views to rule the nation. Therefore, form 1823, when O'Higgins was forced from office, until 1830, when the conservative aristocracy finally gained complete control, a struggle between liberals and conservatives kept 1 2 the nascent Chilean nation in almost perpetual chaos. With conservative victory, order and stability reigned. In 1833 the conservatives drafted a consti tution which was designed to keep the aristocracy in power. This document declared that the Roman Catholic religion was to be the religion of the state, "with the 2 exclusion of the public exercise of any other." This drew the Church into an alliance with the aristocracy, not because the conservatives were particularly devout, but because they recognized the potential value of the church in preserving the status quo. The drafters of the new constitution established a strong centralized 3 government headed by a powerful chief executive. The presidential term was set at five years with the possi bility of a second term. The president was to be elected indirectly by special electors. With the accord of a council of state, which advised him, the president was Alberto Edwards Vives, fronda aristocratica (5th ed.; Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico S.A.,1959), p. 37. “ / Ricardo Donoso, Desarrollo politico 2 social de Chile desde la Constituci$n de 1833 (Santiago: Imprenta Univers- itaria, 1942), p. 13. 3 ^ Alberto Edwards Vives, organization politica de Chile (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico,S.A.,1943),pp.l36-32 authorized, subject to the approval of congress, to declare a state of siege "in case of war or interior 4 disturbance." As a result, personal rights,guaranteed in the constitution, could be suspended if the government so desired. The legislature was bicameral with the lower house elected for three years and the upper for nine years. The major power granted congress was authority to approve or disapprove the annual budget submitted by the president. In addition, it had the power to authorize the president to make use of "extraordinary faculties" and thereby 5 suspend individual guarantees. Under this conservative, centralized document the next forty years of Chilean history were stable and orderly. Strong conservative presidents made full use of their constitutional powers. Those of a more liberal bent were effectively held in check by the amy,clergy, and landed aristocracy. With stability and domestic peace the aristocracy consolidated its position, Donoso, Desarrollo politico 2 Social de Chile desde la Constituci6n de 1833, p. 34. Edwards, La organizaci<m politica de Chile, pp.136-37 economically as well as politically. Still, liberal sentiment persisted, and in 1871 the conservatives were forced to rule jointly with the liberals during the presidency of Federico Errazuriz Zanartu. Five years later the liberals elected a candidate on their own, finally breaking conservative mile. Liberal victory in 1876, however, could scarcely be. termed a turning point in Chilean history. The men who adhered to the liberal program were generally from the same economic and social element as the conservatives. Their basic differences centered about clerical matters. Once in control in 1881, the liberals instituted a series of anti-clerical measures. They broke diplomatic relations with the Vatican; reduced state payments to the church; required civil registration for marriage, births,and deaths;. 6 and the state took control of cemeteries. Liberals continued to grow strong, and with their support Jose Manuel Balmaceda was elected president in 1886. As a result of the War of the Pacific, 1879- 6 ~ ^ ~ Domingo Amunategui, El progreso intelectual 2. politico de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Nascimento, 1936), pp. 124-25. 1881, in which Chile gained valuable nitrate fields from Peru and Bolivia, government revenue soared giving Balmaceda funds with which to finance many domestic 7 improvements. Near the end of Balmaceda's term trouble broke out between the president and congress. For some time senti ment had been growing for a parliamentary-type government in which the president would be subservient to congress. Then in 1890 Balmaceda sought to make a cabinet member his successor. Congress vehemently protested this electoral interference and refused to approve the annual budget. This caused the president to retreat temporar ily, but when congress tried to institute electoral changes which would insure the defeat of the president's candidate, Balmaceda adjourned congress. When time for a new budget came, he issued a manifesto to the effect that the previous year's budget would be in effect for 1891. Congress promptly revolted, and with navy support, set about to overthrow the president forcibly. The army, upon whose support the Congressionalists also Julio César Jobet, Ensayo critico del desarrollo economico-social de Chile (Santiago: Editorial Univers- itaria, S.A.,1955), pp. 80-81. counted, remained loyal, and a short, bloody, civil war occurred. Nine months after the fighting began the Congressionalists took the cities of Valparaiso and Santiago. Balmaceda had to seek asylum in the Argentine legation, where he committed suicide on September 18,1891. The major cause of the civil war, in addition to a sincere desire on the part of many Chileans for a parliamentary form of government, was the landed aris tocracy's dissatisfaction with Balmaceda's program. The President had utilized funds for a program of public works. The landed aristocracy wanted this money to be used to redeem depreciated paper currency and to pay off the national debt. Also, the president proposed the creation of a national bank which would give credit to small and medium-sized commercial elements.