The dour, dedicated man in Argentina's presidential Casa Rosada deliberately projected, soon after taking office last year, a period of intense personal unpopularity bound to stem from painful economic reforms. Last week Arturo Frondizi was bumping bottom—and still coolly determined to get on with his task.
A Frondizi decree cut the lunch period for government employees from an hour to 30 minutes, forced them to work a 9:30-5:30 shift, scrapping the six-hour day. "A danger to health!" cried the Union of Civil Servants, and public workers accustomed to holding second, private jobs, grumbled that the longer hours might force them...