The aristocracy and the latifundia.
Assuming that it would be desirable, can Spain advance any farther along the highway of democracy? If she would do so, she must contend with the aristocracy, which in fact rules the country. The modern Spanish aristocracy is composed of the nobility, their relatives, rich merchants, the clergy, and the military. The richer members of the aristocracy, especially those of central and southern Spain, control the greater part of the best Spanish lands, which they cultivate just enough to ensure wealth to themselves. Thousands of acres are given over to the raising of bulls for the bull-fights, and even the late Duke of Veragua, a descendant of Columbus, was engaged in this industry. One often wonders why Spanish towns are so far away from the railway station, especially in level tracts where it would be normal to expect a growth toward the railroad. The usual answer is that the land belongs to a personage of the realm, who would not think of selling it, and does not care to develop it himself. The agrarian problem is particularly acute in Andalusia, where the evil of latifundia, springing out of the later reconquests from the Moslems, is more in evidence than elsewhere.
Life of men of the better classes.
The life of the men of the better classes is singularly free from care. They arise late, and go to their favorite café or club to read the newspaper. In the afternoon they frequent their club, passing the time in discussion or in general conversation. Late in the afternoon they go for a drive along the paseo, or driveway, the same place every day, where the principal object is to see, or be seen by, the others who are doing the same thing. In the evening they return to the club. Perhaps at 9:30 or 10 o’clock they go to a play, for the theatre begins late, following this by a visit to their favorite café and a late departure for home. The program varies little from day to day. In the summer they go to a watering-place, but it usually amounts only to a change of cafés. These men rarely drink to excess, and they are the most charming people in the world to talk to, but they never study and, if possible to avoid it, never do any work. Unknowingly perhaps, for they are bred to this type of life by centuries of training, they are a drain on the land, the most serious element in the vested interests which stand in the way of effective reform. Those of this class who have to work are provided with sinecures at state expense. The social, economic, and political betterment of Spain cannot proceed very far while the aristocracy is in control. On the other hand the experience of the past has not demonstrated that democracy could maintain order, and this the present régime does. Furthermore, the aristocracy is by no means an exclusive caste, but is open to the entry of all.
Social problems of contemporary Spain.
In addition to the wealth and political influence of the aristocracy other factors in Spanish life abound to aid and abet in their maintenance of control. One of these is emigration. Spaniards do not expect to rise from poverty to great wealth, as men do in America, for so few of them rarely can, under the existing system, that there is not the stimulus of other men’s successes to spur them on. The more ambitious of the poor and moderately well-to-do, therefore, make their way to the Americas, especially to Argentina, and, prior to the recent era of civil war, to Mexico. The poorest and the least ambitious, who are less likely than the others to give trouble, remain behind. A second aid is the lottery. The lottery, which has its agencies in every hamlet and city of Spain, is government owned and operated, paying some of the highest prizes offered in the world at the present time. Few human passions are so strong as that of gambling, and Spain has surrendered to the lottery. The poor people welcome this insidious system, believing it to be almost the only avenue of advance to the envied ease of the wealthy, and invest their spare savings in a ticket. Hope and even expectation of getting a lucky number have come to be a national disease. A third abettor of the aristocracy is the bull-fight. It is not the cruelty, but rather the corrupting influence of this sport which should occupy those who protest against it. The game is so emotional, so wildly exciting, that it grips the people to the exclusion of almost every other interest; in Seville, one can almost be certain, if he hears men quarreling at the top of their voices, that they are disputing the merits of this bull-fighter or that, for that is the absorbing factor in life, every hour in the day, in every day of the year. Men who have caught the fever of the bull-fight rarely have interest in national reform; they do not want it, as it might sweep away the sport which is the major part of their life. A fourth factor would seem to be the extensive character of charitable enterprises. Thousands depend upon the unused food of the army, and line up each day to receive it. Enormous sums are also provided by the church or by charitable organizations to enable the poor to get meals free or at slight cost. The object, no doubt, is benevolent, but the result is that many men will not work. Especially is this true in the mild climate of southern Spain, where not a few contrive to exist without homes to sleep in and on the dispensations of charity. A fifth factor is the extreme poverty of the masses. Wages are unthinkably low. Men who can barely keep body and soul together are not the ones who agitate reform. A sixth aid in the maintenance of things as they are is the lack of a good public school system. Schools are inadequate and teachers poorly paid. Few Spaniards get beyond the primary grade, and many do not even go that far. The need of education is undoubtedly the sine qua non of any effective Spanish advancement. To change the form of government, without an accompanying or a preliminary instruction of the masses, would be, as a French writer puts it, “to change the label of a bottle, without transforming the contents.” It is also necessary if any appreciable reform is to be made in the social and economic system of the country. None realizes this better than the men who, like Altamira, Azcárate, Costa, Giner de los Ríos, Posada, and Unamuno, stand for the new Spain, as distinct from the old,—for a country which shall break with the past to the extent which may be required in order to place itself in the current of modern world progress. Their ideal is not impossible of achievement, despite the forces which are against them, for the Spanish people, at bottom, are admirable material, still virile and altogether sane.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Writers on the history of Spain whose works are in Spanish, French, and German.