The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-10
SPANS Neglected Industries.

Most Americans think of Spain as a
country of sparkling wine and handsome
women, OF dates and dances and dulcet
melody from twanging guitars; think of
il, indeed, as a land of fruitfulness and
beaIty, but at present handicapped by
internal discussions and foreign war. Any
such picture is overdrawn; the coloring
is too high and hattering Mr. Edward
D. Jones, in the North American Review
for the current month, presents the real
Spain in striking contrast to the ideal
Spain, In which We are wont to build
castles"
The decadence of that country, Mr..
Jones tells US, has been steady ever since
the Moors were driven out Of 1t.
The conquerors of the barbarians nave
not only failed to build upon the safe
agricultural and industrial bases estlb-
lished by their predecessors, but have
actually destroyed those bases and with
them the national prosperity. All of the
forests of the once fruitful interior have
been swept from the face Of the earth,
thus eliminating the natural storage reser-
voirs for moisture and disturbing the eli
matte equilibrium. As a consequence SEA
sons of excessive drought and of torren-
tial rainfall succeed each other, The only
artificial irrigating systems in the coun-
try which amount to anything were built
by the Moors and the Romans hundreds
and hundreds Of years ago The destruc-
ton of the forests and the lack of arti-
fetal irrigation account for the fact that
large tracts of the interior have become
barren and bereft of population.
The Spain of to-day therefore, instead
of being the soft, rich and voluptuous
country we are apt to imagine it, is for
the most part, except in some of the mari
time provinces, "a stern, melancholy
country. with rugged mountains and long,
naked, sweeping plains, destitute of trees,
and invariably silent and lonesome, par
taking of the savage and solitary charac-
ter of Africa" Originally the country
was well wooded and well watered, and
its agricultural products and possibilities
were almost unlimited. But the Span
iards have lived upon a system of vast
ing natural resources at home, of seek
ing colonial possessions, and plundering
the colonies. Unuk recent years mining
in Spain was discouraged by exces-
siVe taxation. and the same is true cf
manufacturing enterprises. Spain has
taxed everything in sight, and everything
possible that was out of sight. The re-
suit is that Spain's agricultural resources
have gone to decay and her mineral re-
sources are still undeveloped. The
greater part of the minerals mined within
her territory Is shipped out of the coun-
try in the ore, to be refined elsewhere.
The mines of the country are now being
fairly well worked but the capital en-
ployed is not Spanish; 1t comes from and
is owned in France and England.
"Spaln's whole industrial life" says Mr..
Jones' lis In so backward a condition that
no great localization of industry has yet
taken place. The agriculture of Spain Is
characterized by crude and expensive
methods of operation. Only a little over
one-half of Spanish territory is classed
as productive. Wherever irrigation has
been tried 1t has produced remarkable Ie-
suits" But the Spaniards have not cared
anything about the peaceful and wealth
making pursuits of the husbandman.
Honest toll in the farms and orchards,
and the mines and the workshops, has been
despised by the rising generations.
Nothing but adventure, and conquest CT
territory, and plundering helpless resi-
dents In the colonies, has appealed TO the
young men. No employment outside of
the civil lists and the army and the navy
has been regarded as respectable The
whole policy of Spanish national life, polit-
ical and industrial, has been that of kill
ing the goose that laid the golden egg
Carelessness and neglect of home Ie-
sources, and spoliation of her colonles
has marked SPANS career, until at the
present time, when her colonies are slip
ping out of her grasp. she finds herself
poor indeed. A London journal recently
expressed the opinion that it would be
a positive benefit to Spain il her colonies
We're taken away from her. She would
then be thrown upon her own resources;
she would have to rehabilitate her now
barren farms, vineyards and other waste
places, and develop the resources which
she has neglected for so long time. 1t
may be that the war with the United
| States will teach her a lesson, and that
profting by it she may raise herself once
more to a high place among the nations.
--S-~ae-e