The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-18
SPANISH INDIFFERENCE.
Lack of Agitation i'm the Peninsula
Lamented by Conservatives.

Lamented by Conservatives.
LONDON, Aug. 1.-THE Madrid CORE
spondent of the Times says: 1.-THE philo-
sophie resignation Of the educated classes
and the fatalistic apathy of the masses
seem to be alarming even the Conservatives.
To-day their organ, Ell TEMPO, in an ar
ticle commonly attributed to Senior Silvela,
sounds warning note which is attracting
much attention. After quoting a passage
from Isaiah expressing regret that in Spain
there is no man like the Hebrew prophets
of old to reproach the rulers for their hard
ness of heart, the writer laments the fact
that there is no perceptible agitation in the
public mind and no movement among the
people. A short time ago, the article says,
it was feared that foreign complications
might produce internal disturbances threat
ening the very life of the nation. Now the
contrary result is apprehended. The nation
has been so chloroformed 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
continues decomposition and oeath must
ensue.
The war with the ungrateful sons of
Cuba failed to stir national sentiment and
even the struggle with an aggressive foreign
power with it's disasters, receptions and ter
ritorial losses, hardly stirred the surface of
popular sentiment Spain is expelled from
vast regions which she discovered, con-
quered and civilized without even the pa
triotic consolation of occasional military
success. Yet one remarks no spasm of ma
tional conscience and so great is the gen.
eral Indifference that large section of the
public regards with sympathy the press
consoript which prevents the newspapers
All this indicates only too clearly a pre-
found 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 his ad-
monitions to his hard-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. 1t is necessary, he says. without
being deferred 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 Republicans do
not shout in the towns and the Carlists do
not rise in the noun aims, when officers do
not conSpire in barracks and the country
does not object to be nystified in elections
If new course is not steered very soon
we will run the risk of condemning our
SERVES 10 uedln DIS a european natlOn ana
some one will soon be found to execute the
capital sentence
IF this authoritative utterance was not
actually written 1t was at least sanctioned
by Senior Silvela and it is regarded in many
quarters a semi-official announcement
that the Conservative party intends to
abandon the attitude of benevolent neutral
ity which it has maintained toward Senior
Sagasta and his Cabinet since the COM
mencement of the war. Such seems indeed
the only logical inference to be drawn from
the article as a whole but Spanish politi-
clans, even those who are most logical in
their discourses. are not always logical in
their conduct. If not a party declaration of
war. it is at least a friendly hint to Senior
Sagasta that. in the opinion of the Con-
servative party the time has come for the
antees and the convoking of the Cortes.''