The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-02-25
Who Are the Spanish?

II is interesting 10 know that the total
population of Spain is 1I.5e5. 6S2 Many peo-
pie, without looking up the matter would
say at a guess that SPANS population
was So. 900, oo0 or 20 coo. 00o But il is, in re-
aiity, not 100000. Spain has an area of
1850 square miles. The area of France IS
only a few thousand square miles greater,
and yet France has a population of very
nearly 20 O00,0 900 Texas has an area of 274,-
355 square miles. Spain could be laid out
on Texas and Texas would have 1856
square miles left over. The states of Penn
sylvania, New York, Illinois and Alabama
have more population together than has
Spain, and are immensely more wealthy.
These states could borrow more money,
with their whole fehJ Of commodities,
men, and capital behind the loan, to pay
off at one coup the whole national debt
Of Spain. They could raise, pay and main
tain a bigger army than Spain could.
Spain was once the greatest nation or
the face of the globe. Say, rather she
was twice so. First as center of learn
ing and science, under the Saracenic rule,
when the city of Cordova had mile OF
gas-lit streets and fountains of quicksilver
played in the palace yard of the caliph-
Second when she was the greatest mill
tary power in Europe. If you look at the
names of countries, cities and places in
the western hemisphere you viii realize
what grand empire Spain once was ard
what power she welded over men. But
Suain could not stand the march of mod
ern invention. She has steadily shrunk
and shriyeled and lost her possessions, ur-
til now all she has left worth speaking of
is Cuba The Philippines are Insignificant
possessions.
Why has Spain lost all her power? asks
NJ A. Lane, and answers: The theorisJ
who holds that education is the cause of
progress will point you the answer in the
statistics concerning Spains illitecacy.
Only enc nation in Europe is lower in en-
lghtenment than Spain. That is italy. Of
all the population of Spain only Is per cent
can read and write, 4 per cent can read
only and SIS per cent can neither read nor
write. When you come to think of it this
fact staegers the mind. Let US see how
Spain compares in illiteracy with her
neighbors. In England CLondon) per cent
of men and per cent of women make
their marks on the marriage register.
English illiteracy reaches little higher
percentage in some of the counties Swe-
den has hardly any illiteracy at all. Only
oil per cent of the recruits cannot read
GA per cent cannot read or write. OF the
recruits in the German army only one
quorter of per cent cannot read or write
In Austria Sc per cent of the children If
school age are at school. In the Russian
army recruiting it was found that only 20
per cent of the men were ignorant of let
tiers. SPANS banking power, like her
steam power, is practically nil. She has in
all not quite 1000 miles of railroad. 1t Is
fashionable to laugh at China with her
seventy-eight miles of steam railroads and
her backwardness in point of civilization.
But it must be admitted, however much
we dislike to do so, that, making allow
ances for her environments and her adj
yantages, Spain is worse than China
Who are the Spanish? What is their
blood their ethnography, their race? We
have no end of history about Spain. Phil
oIogy tells US they are Latin. Their Ian
guage was once vulgar Latin, such as the
Romans spoke. But it was corrupted by
invaders from the north and grew to be
what it now is. There are traces in the
language of ancient dialects which the
Spanish got from the Greeks, the Cartha-
geuians and the Phoenicians. The GOths
took the vulgar Latin which the Romans
had left and made the language of Espa-
ma. In remote antiquity there were GER
tain Celts who mixed with the Iberians
Original inhabitants of SPAIN. Then
came the Phoencians and the Carthage
mans and later the Romans and last the
Goths and the Visigoths. And there you
have the story of Spanish blood and race.
The Vandals conquered part of Spain and
their section of it was called Vandalusia
(whence the modern Adalusia). I do not
think we can say the Spanish have had
any worse origin than the rest of us. We
have the same ancestors, but the other
Mediterranean races have left Spain al
most as far behind as they have left the
MongolS.