The struggle for independence has been long and bitter for the Nicaraguan people. Back in 1821, Nicaragua gained its independence from Spain, only to have British imperialism establish domination. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Washington helped Nicaragua oust the British—so that U.S. interests could move in.

In 1912, U.S. intervention was direct. The U.S. Marines were sent in to police the country. They remained until 1925.

In 1926, a rebellion began to develop among the Nicaraguan people. The Marines were sent back in to put it down.

Washington sent 4,600 Marines to “pacify” the tiny, impoverished country.

The Somoza dynasty proved totally reliable. In 1954 Nicaragua was the staging ground for the CIA-organized overthrow of a reform government in Guatemala. And in 1961 Nicaraguan camps were used to train counterrevolutionary Cuban exiles for Washington’s ill-fated invasion of Cuba.

In return for their services to Washington, the Somozas were permitted to steal Nicaragua blind. When Somoza split for Miami, he was reputed to be worth more than half a billion dollars.

The suffering of the Nicaraguan people has been in direct proportion. An estimated 60 percent are unable to read and write.

The absence of medical care was a scandal, with the resulting widespread disease and high infant mortality rate.

Today Washington watches, enraged, as the Nicaraguan people take over the big sector of the national economy that had fallen into Somoza’s hands and begin to use those resources for the benefit of the people.

We can only say, it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving gang of butchers—and their sponsors.  
 
August 16, 1954
The government continues to manufacture weird statistics on the economic situation. Official unemployment figures border on sheer fantasy.

For the month ending the second week in July, farm employment fell by 142,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Census. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in the same period non-farm payrolls decreased 289,000. Manufacturing payrolls alone dropped by 227,000.

What does all this add up to? Why, a “decline of 1,000 in the total number of unemployed,” according to the Census Bureau, which lists July unemployment at 3,346,000. Out of a rise in farm and factory layoffs of almost 400,000, the government contrives a fall of exactly a “1,000” in the jobless total. That’s as neat a feat of statistical legerdemain as we have ever seen.

Even the Aug. 9 Wall Street Journal approaches these government figures with caution. “In contemplating such statistics, it is well to remember, of course, that they are only estimates, or even guesses, based on pretty small samplings.”

Here are a couple of ways the government improves its “guestimates” to conceal the real extent of unemployment.

Instead of the usual 1,800,000 students who enter the labor market after June graduation, this year the government figures account for only 1,500,000. What happened to the other 300,000? For some reason, they just “aren’t looking” for jobs this summer.

Now, suppose the boss tells you you’re laid off, but come around again in thirty days and he might have something for you. The Census Bureau counts you as “employed, but not working.” The July figures contain an estimated 298,000 such “temporary layoffs” which the Census Bureau uses to swell, not the unemployed, but the employment total.  
 
 
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