davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1916-05-21
eutrality as am American Asset After War

progress in a general scheme OF finance
ing the existing Spanish railways and
building some new lines. King Alfonso
intensely interested in the plans
for enlisting American capital and he
extended most hearty cooperation:
One feature of the proposed railway
development is the readjustment of the
gauge of the Spanish railways. Tho
lines running to the Pyrenees are mar
row gauges. reason of state which
used to be given was that Spain did
not want the French railway system
to be extended through the Pyrenees
by equalizing the gauges because that
would make a military invasion from
France easier.
Spains relations with France have not
always been cordial as they are to-
day, though 1t requires a stretch of.th
imag agination to suppose that at any
time within the last half century
France has had any designs on SPANS
territorial integrity. But now that re-
lationS are very cordial even this sus-
picion disappears from the Spanish
mind.
As a part of the railway reconstruct
ton the electrification of some of the
lines also has been suggested. 4 vast
amount of waterpower now goes to
waste which might be proftably
utilized.
A steamship line between the Atlantic
port of Nigo and New York is also
part of the general scheme. At pres
ent there is a line from Barcelona,
which is a Mediterranean port; quick
steamship communication with the
Atlantic port would undoubtedly be a
means of facilitating the commercial
intercourse of both countries.
The opening of American branch
banks similar to those which have
been established in South America Is
further prospective chapter in the
general plan of American financiering
for Spain. If bankers in this country
are to furnish capital for industrial
and commercial development they
would get much better return by hav-
ing financial institutions of their own
through which the operations would
be connected. That is how England
has built UP SO profitable a trade with
South America.
The main proposition which recurs is
that the United States is almost as
much interested in Spain remaining
neutral as she is in keeping neutral
herself for, since this country will
have good deal to do with financing
Spain after the war. there will be a
much stronger disposition to do it IL
Spain has no legacy of newly created
debts. This is one of the economic
aftermaths of the war which both
Spanish statesmen and American finan-
ciers perceive.
Evening star., 1916-05-21

and the conservatives. One party has
been strongly pro-German. The other
has been equally pronounced in support
of the allies. Each has sought to force
the government to accept it's views in
determining the general policy.
The pro-German party. 1t has been
declared. is the court party, but TINS is
not strictly correct. It's main support,
apparently. has been from the CONNER
cial classes whose trade leanings are to
Germany rather than to England. They
have close financial relations with Ger
many and it is not unreasonable to
suppose that their business associa-
tions have influenced their views on
Spanish national policy.
Some of the officials undoubtedly
have favored Germany and possibly the
predominant sentiment of the court is
pro-German. King Alfonso's mother,
who during the years before he be-
came of age was the queen regent, is of
the Austrian royal family. Her entour-
age hardly could be expected to SYM
pathiZe with the allies.
On the other hand. Alfonso's queen
is of the British royal family. While
she could not expect the same cordial
ity that is felt by the Spanish people
toward the queen mother. she has met
with favor and is said to enjoy rea-
sonable degree of popularity.
X X
King Alfonso is in the position of
several other monarchs of neutral
countries with whom ties of blood and
kinship are crossed in the lignment of
the belligerents. 1t is the universal
testimony that he has borne himself in
these trying circumstances with wis
dom and has mana ged to avoid pitfalls.
He has been determined in his stand
for neutrality.
The anti-German or pro-ally party
consists in large measure of what is
known as the intellectuals. These are
college professors. lawyers and doctors,
editors and other men of the liberal
professions Some of them also are
identified with the group of anarchists.
but by this is meant political rather
than practical anarchists
The intellectual classes include some
pronounced republicans. They are anti
They maintain that the
hope of republican institutions in Eu-
rope lies with the allies. They are
antagonistic to everything
that German "Kultur." in the sense of
efficiency, represents. although
many of them are theoretical socialists.
They are also unalterably opposed to
Prussian militariSm.
If the secret history of The war is
fully written, the Spanish chapter
Evening star., 1916-05-21

doubtless will contain many interesting
revelations There have been intrisues
and counter intrigues. Nobody can
guess how much Spain has been prom
ised in the way of territorial compen-
sation and other advantages if she
would join one set of belligerents or
the other.
1t is possible. as was claimed by the
English newspapers. that the kaiser
offered to restore Gibraltar to Spain.
in the event of victory. If size would
range herself on the side of the CEN
trail powers. But even the pro-German
Spaniards would realize that the cen
trail powers must first win an enduring
victory. and even then II Gibraltar
were restored 1t would take n first
class military power to keep England
from getting it back. Gibraltar rs not
OF very great Importance to Spain.
since she does not aspire to be first
class military power. and if she did
her aspiration could not be realized.
The allies, on their part. were said
to have given assurance of vast ma
terial benefit to Spain if she would join
with them. The complete reconsuruc-
t1on of the Spanish navy was one o. the
reported pledges. This reconstruction
began years ago, when the government
made contract with some of the great
English shipbulding firms to rebuild
the Spanish shpyards and also to pro-
vide some new war vessels.
Whatever the promises may have
BEEN Spain has not cut loose from her
neutral moorings and there is every
prospect that she will be able to keep
free from entangling alliances. 1t
even has been said that the kaiser now
looks upon Spain as one of the medi-
ating countries through which peace
terms may be arranged and, therefore.
does not want her to engage in the
Evening star., 1916-05-21

We want things to be easy. Nothing
of value can be obtained easily. Meat
cannot be cooked without labor. Bread
cannot be baked without both skill aud
abor. II is hard, patient and never
ending toll to bring up children prop
erly. The tendency of modern life is
to spend money unwisely. and to do as
little work as possible. Women are not
the only delinQuents.
Every man of affairs knows that II
is the habit of manufacturers. mer-
chants. bankers and railroad managers
to gather at their clubs each day for
luncheon. 4 great many of them spend
two hours or more in eating. smoking
and talking. They say, as an excuse,
that they are transacting business. Not
their clubs. but the desks in their Of
fees were intended to be- used for that
purpose.
when I see a supposedly busy man
wasting the heart of each day at his
club. l say that he has a fine orsaniza =
ton of assistants and workers-in
which event, perhaps, they can get
along without him-or that his busi-
ness is not being attended to as IT
ought to be, and in that case he is
falling short in his duty. l know that
former methods of living and working
present generation. but the funda-
mentals do not change and they include
industry. application, conscientiousness
and economy.
we begin to slacken our speed. There
are bitches. rocks and breakers ahead in
the road Ever since the beginning of
the twentieth century the people of
classes-have been living at higher
and higher standard from year to year
1t is my opinion that the day has come
when we must stop, take stock and
get our minus to working normally
again.
therefore. l would begin in the
homes, which are the units that con-
stitute our nation. Man for man,
woman for woman and child for child,
we are consuming nearly twice as
much food as were the people of
France before the war started. We are
not eating it, you Should understand.
but wasting it. throwing it into the in
satiable NAV of the American garbage
can. Furthermore, the food that we do
eat should not transform us into a
morbid, hollow-eyed and yellow col
ored race of dyspeptics.
Il have walked in the gloom of pow
erty myself and know how it feels to
be hungry. My mother. the wife of
Abraham O. Smoot. a former Ken
tuckian. was an Industrious. frugal and
able woman: She taught her seven
children to he loyal to their God. to
their country and to themselves-and
to work. She wove the clothing for
her family.
'One summer large black crickets
destroyed our crops. Our mother gath
cred dandelions in the fields, the leaves
of which we ate as green's and the
roots of which we dried and put away
We had no leather shoes that winter,
but our mother made US shoes out of
heavy cloth.
Mormon boys and girls have always
been taught economy, industry. obe-
dience and self-control." Senator Smoot
continued. Ours is not melancholy
religion. The young people dance and
give parties and musical entertain
ments. Their amusements. however. are
regulated. The church condemns cards
and tobacco. There is less tobacco
Evening star., 1916-05-21

Abandon
-
ship the Royal Family With Rulers Among BeIgent-South
of
Evening star., 1916-05-21


and meat. the freshest and sweetest of
vegetables and the most luscious of
fruits were being ruined by the great
majority of women.
Thousands of wives-yes. millions of
them-do not know how to cook pota-
toes | have seen strawberries, just off
the vines, dumped into tin pans, sug
ared and let stand overnight to fer
ment and generate poisonous acid. 1
have tried to eat bread in the houses of
acquaintances and comrades that was
almost as heavy and sticky as putty.
Then on all sides I saw other forms
of waste. ! was called, ! remember. to
the home of a close friend. There was
illness in his family and he sent for
me. He lived in another town. / had
never seen the members of his family,
but had known him for a long time, and
understood that he was perpetually in
trouble over money. He was good
fighter, it seemed to me, and capable,
but he couldn't get ahead.
''At his home We talked as men be-
longing to the same church often will.
He told me of his difficulties. which he
couldn't explain. When he took me into
his garden l saw the household garbage
can on the back porch. 1t was open and
in plain sight.
There. John 1 said. is the cause of
your failure
Where he asked, eagerly looking
around.
"In that cam 1 answered. Enough
of your food I said, to feed two
families for a couple of days has been
thrown away
II preach sometimes to the Mormons.
being an apostle in the church. One of
my sermons is on the garbage can. l
got the text in the manner 1 have re-
iG or h.
sounding subject for sermon. but 1t
is Of real Importance to the everyday
life of thousands upon thousands of
American households.
The sermon. in its essence. was de-
livered the other day in the Senate.
have no excuse to offer for what may
be looked upon by some as an uncouth
violation of senatorial conventionali-
ties. Nor will I hesitate to use my gar
bage can sermon whenever j think 1t is
pertinent.
We are constantly hearing and read
ing lectures prepared for the moral
ply steal and mental guidance of fathers
and husbands. They are all wholesome.
Men need to be rebuked and disciplined.
Their backs are daily inviting and de-
serving the rod of chastisement. But
isn't it about time for some one to
stand up and talk to American women
in a new fashion? We have been telling
them for centuries that they are good
and beautiful and. waving our gallant
and ill-inciusive right hand in their di-
rection. have been patroniZingly say
ing God bless you
Now I God bless our women with as
much sincerity and fervor as any man
can, but ! am in position to tell them,
having no one at home to make me
afraid, that food intelliEently and care
fully cooked and houses spotless In
their cleanliness and I'm perfect order
are the realities, among others, on
which the nation must depend in the
future for its success.
IAN Industrious, orderly and ecconom =
teal woman makes a good mother. 1t
Evening star., 1916-05-21

is. far better for the child to thave
worthless nonentity for father than
that it's mother should merit such a
description.
much of the worlds poverty. misery.
drunkenness and disease is the re
suit of poorly prepared food. Fortu-
nately, for the promotion Of peace and
most of the men who have dyspepsia or
are getting it. and whose money is
going straight through the kitchen into
the garbage can, do not know the cause
of the calamities that are besett1ng
them.
Something. they feel, is wrong with
their digestive machinery. with their
tempers. their view of life and their
circumstances, but, not seeing 1t, they
cannot locate 1t. Where ignorance Is
bliss, so we are reminded, 1t is folly
to be wise. That may be so in some
cases. but when an entire nation Is
being endangered in It's health and sub
stance it is the duty Of those who per-
ceive the danger to point it out.
"If 1 could assemble the women of
America into a great audience and my
voice were loud enough, 1 would tell
them that they should teach their
daughters. or have them taught. how to
cook, bake, sew and keep house. Girls
nowadays. in their folly, boast that
they do not even know how to boil
water without scorching it. And their
pitiful look while they are saying
it. and with smiles and mods, indorse
the truth of the unblushing statement.
Suppose that young man, poor
young man, just as poor as the mothers
and daughters to whom l am referring,
Dragged that he didn't know how to
earn his living, that he couldn't tell
the difference between a hand saw and
a Jack plane, between a promissory
note and bill of lading or between
field of corn and field of hay. What
would the girls say? Or their mothers?
1t Is useless to ask what language their
fathers would employ-it would be too
hot for your purpose.
Cooking. baking. sewing, bedmak-
ing and dusting have become menial
tasks, in the opinion Of our American
women-similar to ditch digging among
our men. Hired girls, moreover. are
rearing the children of our middle
class families and sometimes teaching
them bad language and practices. And
what. by and by. is to be the harvest of
such parental idleness. lack of con-
science and indifference? 1t doesn't
take wise man to frame an answer to
that Question.
Boys are educated for. trades or pro-
fessions: II is time that we began edu-
eating girls for the most serious work
Evening star., 1916-05-21


Many Financial Physical Failure Speech Senate Has Big
O Housekeeping and Coo1ng--Teachmg the Girls
Evening star., 1916-05-21

Agadir as commercial base. 1t was said
that they expected to make Agadir the
connecting point for steamship line
with Genoa. which is the railway outlet
not only for northern Italy. but for south
ern Germany. The Germans would pre-
sumably have built the railway from Ceuta
to Agadir. just as is now proposed
When peace is once established. If this
fast railway and steamship dream is
realized. Germany would still be in a
position to take advantage of it.
Practical projects for the industrial
development of Spain have a very direct
interest for the United States After the
war all the lending countries of Europe
will have too much to do taking care Of
their war debts to supply capital to any
of their neighbors who have not had to in
cur such debts. There is now con-
siderable English. French and German
prospect that the amount can be sub
stantially increased before the next quar-
ter of century
Spain. on her part has no surplus to
spare for vast enterprises. and conse-
quently will have to look abroad. The
United States is the only country to
which she can look with any promise of
success.
1t is likely that she will find Ameri-
can f1nancierS in very receptive mood.
To help finance Spain by peaceful loans
would be in line with the present tend
ency to encourage foreign trade by
making investments in foreign coun-
tries. This tendency has been noted
chiefly in connection with South Amer
lea, but Spain is an equally good field
American fnanciers might not feel
particularly interested in furnishing
capital which would increase the facil-
tiles of Spain and her European neigh
bors for trade with South America,
since they are cultivating this field for
themselves. But this, after all. is an
incident. Any development of Spanish
industries and transportation projects
through American capital would be
bound to increase American commerce
with Spain and the indirect loss of
business with South America would be
more than offset
American capital before the outbreak k
of the world war had reconnoitered
Spain as a field for investment, and
even had gone into some development
enterprises. DR.. Pearson of Massachu-
setts. who was one of the Lusitania
victims, and who had engaged in public
utility enterprises in Brazil and Mexico
on vast scale, had also undertaken a
big plan of development at Barcelona.
The capital was English and Canadian,
as well as from the United States, but
the enterprise was generally looked
upon as an American one.
Banking interests also had made some
Evening star., 1916-05-21

be hanging over his door before a great
while
And what would his wife's family
say about him? They would declare.
and it would be so. that William was a
hZzle and that Sallie had thrown her
self away when she married him. Matri-
moay is coequal partnership of duty
and love. man. society expects. must
do his best. What is true of him is true
of his wife
I'm most instances the husband has a
boss at the shop, store or office where
he works. and it is well. with an excep-
ton here and there. that such is the
case. His wife. almost invariably. is at
nome alone. surrounded by her chill
dren. She is her own mistress There
Tore, she should learn to boss herself
to manage her business and to main
tain her place in the partnership she
assumed.
Ninety per cent of the money spent
in the United States for food is paid out
Dy women. 1t totals hundreds of mil
lions of dollars annually Men take
their money home and their wives and
daughters dispose of it, The responsi-
bility is simply tremendous. Yet ven
ture to say that half of the women have
no realization whatever of the worth OF
dollar Indeed. sociologists at the
University or Wisconsin go so far as
10 say tnat ~ cents in every dollar paid
out for food by women passes through
the hands of those who possess little
knowledge of money values
moreover. once the food is in the
mouse, II Is turned into mixtures that
are unfit to eat. Immense sums of
money have been appropriated bv Con-
gress to be expended in the teaching
OF better crop methods to farmers. This
mas been done with the theory that i'm
proved and increased crops will he of
profit to the farmers and likewise to
the consumers. The money has been
well spent.
Evening star., 1916-05-21
BY CHARLES M. PEPPER.

PAIN is still in the list of the for
~ tunate neutrals. When Portugal
~ was drawn into the vortex by
~ the allies there was a possibility
that Spain also would be swung into
the maelstrom, whether with the allies
or with the central powers was an open
question. But Spanish statesmen,
doubtless rejecting the real sentiment
of the people. have managed to keep
the country out of the whirlpool. III
they can continue to do it Spain mas
the prospect of very great advantages
whenever the war closes.
There is no reason why Spain should
abandon what has been the legitimate
profits of neutrality any more than
should the United States or other neu-
tral countries. She has prospered as a
consequence of the war, though not
perhaps so much as some of her neigh
hors. In the beginning, and especially
before Italy Joined the allies, very
good trade was carried on with Ger
many in supplying copper. iron ore
and other war commodities.
Iron ore was possibly even more val
uable to the central powers than cop
per. How the cargoes reached Ger
MANY was one of the war mysteries
The Krupps had their own mines in
northern Spain. and it was long time
after hostilities broke out before they
were shut off from these supplies.
Spain was, in fact, base of supply Tor
munitions for the central powers.
Complaint was made of this condi-
ton in England. and Spain was charged
with ingratitude. 1t did not occur to
her British critics that Spain also was
supplying England with the raw ma
terial which was needed in the manu-
facture of munitions. The British iron
and steel manufacturers had their own
copper and iron mines and drew stead
lily from them. Since the British navy
Is fairly effective in keeping the sea
open to British commerce, England still
draws on these reserve resources in
Spain. There have been few instances
of German submarines sinking vessels
laden with Spanish ores.
While Spain has thus profited by her
neutrality, there have been fierce po-
litical struggles between two parties
which are not divided on political lines.
They do not follow the line of cleavage
which usually is between the liberals
Evening star., 1916-05-21

Il am now urging that funds be vot-
ed to instruct the wives of farmers
how to cook and keep house. Thousands
of them are VIGOROUSLY bad cooks-bad
plain cooks: and plain cooking. I am
almost willing to say, done in the right
manner is thes greatest need of the
American people at this moment The
human stomach can make the world
sad or cheerful and in time can turn
an energetic and ambitious man into a
faultfinder and failure.
Il am afraid that the people of the
United States are slowly getting into
wrong attitude of mind toward old
fashioned economy and hard work.
Idleness will destroy nations, and it
has more than once. 1t will destroy
men and women and boys and girls.
He that is idle and I quote sentence
from the book on Mormon doctrine.
shall not eat the bread nor wear the
garments of the laborers'
Evening star., 1916-05-21
Senator Reed Sm00t Says All Ameri

young man | realized that good -four
and meat. the freshest and sweetest of
vegetables and the most luscious of
fruits were being ruined by the great
majority of women.
Evening star., 1916-05-21

0 ARGE canvas bags filled with
III Reed Smoot's speech in the SEN
= ate the gluttonous American
C@ parhaps csp and the ignorant
Evening star., 1916-05-21

PAIN is still in the list of the for
~ tunate neutrals. When Portugal
~ was drawn into the vortex by
~ the allies there was a possibility