Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-30

amount to the national treasury, a. do the
Basque provinces and Navarro.
Oyer-taxation. however. undoubtedly ex-
lists in Spain, and constitutes a very real
and serious danger.
The government has repeatedly promised
TO reorganize expenditure. to convert tho
national debt and to institute a graduated
income tax. So far from carrying out this
undertaking. the Slvela majority has
thrown reform to the winds. and actually
saddled the people with largely increased
burdens of taxation.
But though Barcelona is the center of
the separa;ist agitation. she is by no means
serious sufferer from over-taxation. She
pays annually to the treasu in taxes of
all kinds 3I.21o.92 pesetas as against co.
l4.6S9 pesetas paid by Madrid. and pays
in industrial taxes 1929. 3si pesetas as
against l1Sl.9l3. the total of Madrid's bur-
den. On houses and other taxable proper
ties Barcelona pays less than half the sum
Madrid pays.
The movement begun in Barcelona is thus
obviously a political one. pure and simple.
and the danger is that since II has already
spread to Madrid 1t is impossible To esti-
mate how far it will extend. In a month
all Spain may be seething with discomfort.
backward Season.
While you are warm in America. warmer.
II reports can be believed. than is COM
Portable. We are freezing over here. 1t is
cold in London and at most places on the
continent. Snow in Vienna and Berlin
ton. Weather experts who wisely remind
us that the cold snap which has kept peo-
pie shivering since Wednesday last Is not
the worst that recent Mays have brought,
should pardon little impatient increduiity.
IL discomfort. If not in actual temperature,
this lingering spell of winter has been spe-
cIally bad to bear Spring has come /
dull and backward mood, and there
districts where, since few warm days
brought out the leaves and the blossoms like
a touch of magic. vegetation has stood
quite still. Such delays are always resent
ed. People insist on the kinder reputation
given to the month by the old poets who
wrote of May the "Fayrest Mayl on
Ground, when May came twelve days
later: and now. when one has hoped against
hope. and the high price of coal. there
sweeps an arctic anti-cyclone. with high
winds that pierce to the dividing of the
marrow. The fruit blossom, however. has
generally escaped destruction in the north
OF England. In 1891 and 1873. when. in one
night the temperatures fell some thirty
degrees-though with little tempest-there
was enormous destruction in orchards and
fruit gardens. We may yet escape without
this. But the Times forecast for the next
few days promises no great improvement,
ard the proverb is perhaps old Spen-
ser that you should not east clout till
May be OUT
High Price for Chocolate.
A box of the queens chocolate sold
at Reading on Saturday for twenty-scven
and a half guineas. But for one circun-
stance of this high bidding it would bring
to the hammer good many boxes more.
Ii is explained, however. by the charitable
purpose of the auction. which was to pro-
vide little money for the mother of
soldier who died of typhoid at Moddar
river. The bids jumped up to f2o in thirty
seconds. and went on to the finish amid
much cheering. After the hammer fali Il
collection made among the disappointed bid
ders brought up the total sum raisel by
the auction to f:si. Sentiment is against
the sale of the queens gift but the queen
herself may be pleased to hear of this good
use Of II in one instance.
Mark Twain opened Mr.. Poultney Bige-
lows new house in Elm Park gardens last
week. Mr.. Anthony Hope. Mr. Frankfort
Moore. MIR. Zangwill and several other lead
ing literary men were present. Mark Twain
delivered an impressive little lecture on the
social hearth. He leaves England in about
six weeks.
Among those who have registered at The
Washington Star office in Trafalgar Square
are Miss f. r. Scidmore and DR.. STIR
ling Ruffin of Washington; Alfred II.
Hale, Jno. Steward and William Tice of
New York; DIR. Thomas Hearn and J. and
7. Sullivan of Boston. and Herbert Adams
Gibbons of Philadelphia.
L. II. MOORE.