The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-08-17
SPAIN is DYING.
GEL TEMPO" Appeals For New
Life in the Government.

London, Aug. 1.-THE Times cores
pondent at Madrid says:
''The philosophic resignation of educa-
ted classes and the fatalistic apathy of
the masses seems to be alarming even
the conservatives. Today their organ,
Ell TEMPO, in an article commonly at
tributed to Senior Silvela, sounds a
warning note which is attracting much
attention. After quoting a passage
from Isaiah and expressing regret that
in Spain there is no man like the He
brew prophets of old to reproach the
rulers with their hardness of heart, the
writer 1aments the fact that there is
no perceptible agitation in the public
mind and no movement among the peo-
pie. A short time ago. the article says,
it was feared that foreign complications
might produce internal disturbances
threatening the very life of the nation.
Now the contrary result is apprehend-
ed. The nation has been so chlorofOrm-
ed that it seems in danger of collapse
from weakness of the hearts action.
No matter where the doctor puts his
finger he feels no pulse. If this con-
tinues decomposition and death must
ensue.
THE war with the ungrateful sons of
Cuba failed to stir national sentiment
and even the struggle with an aggres-
sive foreign power with it's disasters
and territorial losses, hardly stirred
the surface of popular sentiment. Spain
is expelled from vast regions which she
discovered, conquered and civilized
without even the patriotic consolation
of occasional military success. Yet one
remarks no Spasm of national con-
science, and so great is the general
Indifference that a large section of the
public regards with sympathy the press
pers from disturbing their comfOrta BILE
repose. All this indicates too clearly a
profound and regrettable change in the
national character and it becomes the
duty of those who have the direction of
public affairs to find a remedy for the
dangerous disease which threatens to
undermine the vital forces of the body
polite. So far this modern emulatOr
of the Hebrew prophets is clear enough
in admonitiOns to his ahrd-hearted
and stiff-necked fellow countrymen;
but when he comes to recommend a
remedy he is not quite as clear and
practical as could be wished. Tt is nee
essary, he says, without being de-
tered by the sorrows, sacrifices and
risks of party dissensiOns to raise the
moral sense of the central government.
Those will find themselves deceived
who imagine that public order and the
stability of the throne will be assured
when the repu blicanS do not shout in
the towns and the CarliSts do not rise
in the mountains. when officers do not
conspire in barracks and the country
does not object to be mystified in cleo
ton
" If a new course is not steered very
soon we will run the risk of condemning
ourselves to death as a European ma
tiOn and some one will soon be found to
execute the capital sentence
IF this authoritative utterance was
not actually written it was at least
sanctioned by Senor Silvela and it is
regarded in many quarters as a semi
official announcement that the cOnserv-
ative party intends to abandon the at
titude Of benevolent neutrality which it
has maintained toward Senor Sagasta
and his cabinet since the commence
ment of the war. Such seems indeed
the only logical inference to be drawn
from the article as a whole; but Span
ish politicians, even those who are most
logical in their discoures, are not al
ways logical in their conduct. If not a
party declaration of war, it is at least
a friendly hint to Senor Sagasta that
in the opinion of the conservative par
ty, the time has come for the re-estab-
fishing of the constitutional guarantee
and the convoking of the cortes."