The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-07-21
WHAT SPAIN NEEDS.
IMPROVED MACHINERY SAYS
J.. T. BRAMHALL.
MCdernized Mechanical Labor Savors
Would Make a New NatiOn-Sad De-
generation Of q Fruitful Landau
Opportunity for Men Of Brains.

wonderful success of America and the
equally unexpected collapse of SPANS
military and naval power in the wal
lately closed is the problem which is
now absorbing the attention =" the
military critics and statesmen OF rWo
h~emispheres. The secret may be said
to lie in modern machinery, using the
term in its widest sense, as including
the genius to create and use, as well as
the mechanism itself. For machinery
II be considered as the direct out
growth of mans ingenuity; the ex-
ponent of his creative skill. He ar
ranges a cunning continuance Of
wheels and levers, of cranks and
springs, and 10! he multiplies the ef-
~fectlveness of his hands ten fold-a
hundred fold. But the skill of the me-
cnanlc must ever go with the machine.
Give it to a savage and the life goes
out OF 1t at once. 1t becomes a clumsy,
inert mass of bands and rods and cast
ings. The modern gun is a machine,
loaded, sighted and fired by a touch
OF the hand. controlling powers Of cleo
tricity or compressed air. But it is
the man behind the gum" no less
than the Il itself, that wins the VIC
tory. Spain had a navy which Euro
pean experts classed as superior to that
OF America. Her guns We're as power
full as ours, and more numerous. her
ships were as new, as stOutly armored
and more fleet, while her men were
thought to be better trained than the
Americans. But modern machinery is
a complex idea, and the "Dons'' over
looked the vital fact that it includes
not only the shining brass and steel
but the brain, which constantly directs
and animates. Like China, in her re-
cent war with Japan, Spain had her
war machines, but she lacked the
trained men to run them. They were
ignorant of the proper care and han
ding Of the complicated mechanisms,
and were unable to make a quick re-
pair or improvise a required move
ment. They did not even comprehend
it sufficiently to make it perform its
scheduled duty, and generally neglect
ed its proper care, SO that, to take an
example, a vessel capable of making
twenty-five knots on her trial trip
would in actual service be able to per-
form no more than sixteen or eighteen.
Technical schools and machine shops
are few and far between in Spain. and
manufacturers of machinery Of any
kind are not common. a glance at
Michel's European commercial direc-
tory shows the truth of this statement
very graphically. While whole col
umns are devoted to manufacturers of
various kinds of machinery in Great
Britain, Germany and the United
States a very meager list sufices for
Spain. In the department of machin-
cry at the Chicago worlds fair Spain
had eleven exhibits, against 81 from
Great Britain, her Anglo-Saxon neigh
Dor, and some 600 from the United
States. In manufactured goods Spain
was way behind Japan, with 1856 en-
tries against 2,0S9 from the sunrise
empire. SPANS two entries in the
ordnance class are interesting in the
light of recent events; "a special APP
paratus for aiming and firing drill of
great guns" which was probably never
used, and, a compressed bronze cannon
from IS. M. ell Rey de Espara, d. AL
fonso Kill In naval armament Spain
had no exhibits at all, again falling be-
hind Japan.
worlds eXpositions, at Philadelphia,
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and
Chicago, may be read the story; that
while all the world has been moving
forward to the steady rhythm of ma
chinery constantly undergoing i'm
provement by the genius of civiliza-
ton. Spain has fallen to the rear
among the wielders of primitive hand,
tools. The machinery of Spain today
is scarcely more modern than the full
ers' water mill and the wind mill OF
Don Quixote's day, and the modern
loom and press are as much n solecisn
in the land of bull-fghting as the mod.
ern battle-ships proved to be in the
war just closed.
Why should we not send mission.
aries to Spain? Not of the religious
kind, but missionaries Of modern ma,
chinery? The Spaniard is, after all, n,
Ounce. Indolent he undoubtedly is
which may be largely attributed to eli
mate, but he loves the reward of la
Dor, and when his pockets are empt,
he learns the hard lesson of necessity
and gets out and hustles with the rest
The Spaniard is proud, but he has hat
a grievous fall, and the Castiiian ant
the Catalan are not above learning. tn,
better that wisdom comes with tears
The Mexican has experienced a refor
nation and is now marching in the va
Of progress and enlightenment; an,
surely there is hope for the S~paniard
Why should we not send him our mod
ern machinery, with missionaries t,
teach him how to use and care for it
We have, indeed, done Spain a dis
tinguished service in amputatins tn
members gangrened through her ow,
neglect; now let us teach her how t,
develop her own fair land; a land a
fair as any that borders upon tn,
blue Mediterranean or the stormy At
lantic. A commission from Chicago
were such q thing possible, like tina
which so splendidly managed our xrea
Columbian exposition, could run" AL
fonso's kingdom and pay a handsom
bonus into his treasury. Spain is tn
most fruitful land in Europe, and tn
most neglected. Every kind of graf,
and fruit known to the temperate an,
semi-tropical zones grows to perfec
ton, and the vine especially fiourishe
as it does no where else in Europe