El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-03-19
SPAIN AND THE SPANISH.
Interesting Facts About the Ohce
Greatest Nation on the Globe.

Greatest Nation on the Globe.
1t is interesting to know that the
total population OF Spain is II, 565, 632
| Many people, without looking up the
matter. would say at a guess that
Spaiu's population was 30, 900, 900 or
40. 600. 600. But IL is, 10 reality, not
| $4,000, 0UO. Spain has an area of 1877, &c
square NJ les. The area of France is
only few thousands square miles
gr- ater, and yet France mas q popu-
lation of very nearly 10000, 900. Texas
has an area of PA 1856 square % les.
Spain could BE- laid out on Texas and
| Texas would have IS $50 square mile E
left over. The states of Pennsylvania,
New York, Illinois and Alabama have
more population together than has
Spain. and are immensely more
wealthy. These states could borrow
enough rloney, with their whole field
| of C ,mmodiiies, men and capital be-
hind the loan, to pay off at one coup
| the whole national debt of Spaip.
They could raise, pay and mainta u
| bigger army than Spain could. Their
! natural resources could Outtast Spain 8
ten to one. Their steam power ia in
| initely gre ater, and as man power
| IAN always be gagged by steam power
| you can imagine the difference. These
four states could exist if they seques-
tr&ted from all the rest of the world.
Spain could hardly live day.
Spain was once the greatest nation
On the face of the globe. Say, rather,
she was twice SO. First as center of
learning and science under the Sara
Genie rule, when the City of Cordova
tains OF quicksilver played in the pa
lace yard of the Csliph. S cond when
she was the greatest military power
in Eur pe. If you look at the names
of countries, cities and places in the
western hemisphere you will realize
what a grand empire Spain once was
and what a power she welded over
men. But Spain could not stand the
march of modern invention. She has
steadily shrunk and shriveled and lost
her poss essions, until now all she has
left worth speaking of is Cuba. The
Philippines are Insignificant posses
sions.
Why has Spain lost all her power?
The theorist who holds that education
is the cause of progress will point you
the answer in the statistics concerning
Spain's i'literacy. Only one nation in
Eu ope is lower in enlightenment than
Stain. That is Italy. OF all the popu-
lation of Spain only % per cent can
read aud write, per cent can read on
ly and 60 per cent can neither read nor
write. When you come to think of it
this fact staggers the mind. Here is
nation in the heart of civilizat on, aud
68 per cent of it's people have no con-
ceptiOn whatever of the marvels of the
printiug press or of the letter that
| Cadmus br. ught to Europe. But let
US go little deeper into this M after of
| il,iteracy. 1 do not desire to talk about
| causes; TIE sociologists can do that.
But were Cne in the mind to do it
| sociological study of Spain would be
worth the writing. Spain. as l have
said. has population of less than
Is, 600 900, and 60 per cent of her people
can not read or write. The United
States has - population of, let us say,
O,OOO, 600. OF the native white popu-
| latiOn of tois country only per Get t
can not read or write. OF the foreign
whites only l3 per cent can not read or
write, and of the cOlOred population So
| per ceot can not read or write. But,
| accounting for the foreigners and the
! negroes in the computation, there is
but ID per cent of the population in
| this country that can not read or write.
Think of it! Out of nearly 10000, 900
| native white Americans only 6 per
| cent eau not read Or write, ana Spain IS
percentage is IS.
/ Let US see how Spain compares in il
literacy with her ghbors 1t is not
precisely just to Spain to mptrs her
v it'll such a wonderfully fortunate peo-
ple as we are In England, (London),
3 per cent Of men and per cent of wo-
| men make their m arks on the maria ge
register. English illiteracy reaches q
, little higher percentage in some Of the
counties Sweden has hardly auy il
literacy a. all. Only OIL per cent of
! the recruits cannot read or w ite. Of
the re cruits in the German a 10y only
one quarter of PR cent cannot rad
or write. In Austria Sc per cent of TT e
children Of school age are at school.
In the RUSS an army recruiting it was
found that My 20 per cent O. the men
were ignorant Of LETT ers. Rus SLAMS at
large may be as ilIiterate as are Span
iards, but the statistics available do
rot go to show that such is the case
book show Italy to be coUsiS erably
noe iliterate than Spsiu, bul outside
of Italy SPANS ienoi ance is monsfrous
10 Europe. SPANS banking power.
like her steam power, is practically
nil. She has in all got quite 1000 mil
of railroad It is ia lbiOnable to laugh
at China with her sevente-eight miles
Of steam railroads and her back ward
ness in point of civilization. But 1t
must be adm ed, however much we
dislike to do so, that, making alio W
ances for her environment and her
advantages, Spain is worse than Cbifa
Who are the Spaniards? What is
their blood, their ethnography, their
race? We have no end of history
about Spain Philology tells US they