New-York tribune., 1919-12-07
Barcelona Orders
Lockout to Break
Industrial War
City Described as 'Chamc-
leon"; Home of Aristoc.
racy That Deplores the
Discovery of America


-nited States is coping with the coal
- strike Spain has industrial
: of an opposite sort--a national
of workers. Barcelona, meet
ac of the employers congress,
ordered, this drastic action, is
K bject of the following bulletin
rom the National Geographic Society:
Barcelona is the chameleon city Of
Spain. In some quarters streets are
narrower and more crooked than those
of old London; in others are avenues,
boulevards, shops and cafes, which vie
with those of Paris. The city has an
aristocracy which lives so far in the
past that its scions still deplore the
discovery of America. These gentle
patricians are undistributed by the
agitators for all sorts of political and
economic novelties.
"Until 1892, Barcelona was the New
York of the Mediterranean. Its posi-
tion in the northeastern coast of Spain,
actually about the same latitude as
New York City, relatively is to the
Mediterranean world what the Western
city is to Atlantic trade routes. Co
lumbus's voyage was considered bit
Of impertinence on the part of the
Castilian government to upset the bal
ance of trade in favor of cities in
Western and Southern Spain.
Wanted to Join France
"Soon a movement swept the Castal-
an provinces, of which Barcelona is
the center, for annexation to France.
In 1910, Catalonia did rebel against
Philip w, gave itself over to French
protection, but it's old allegiance was
renewed in 1852 and cemented by the
peace of Ryswick before the close of
the seventeenth century.
I'm four centuries this resentment
had ameliorated enough to permit the
placing of a statue of Christopher Co.
of Barcelona. After the Spanish Amer
lean War mobs of Barcelona citizens
stoned and egged the explorers statue
as punishment for his having ventured
to find so troublesome a new world for
Spain
"Despite it's commercial subsistence
when the Atlantic replaced the Medi
terranean as the major water route of
civilization, Barcelona fourished. A
year after the late war between George
Dewey and Spain, as O. Henry put it,
Barcelona paid more than a tenth Of
the Kingdoms entire revenuesfrom in
dustrial taxation. Before the World
War some two score important ship
ping companies nAQ maze IL port OF
regular call and to-day the city has
a population exceeding half a million.
Frowns on Publicity
"In respect to publicity Barcelona
has hardly put its best foot forward,
since it is heard of most often as a
center Of riots, strikes and rebellions.
Though one traveller found the citizens
pleasantly surprised that King Alfonso,
who had just visited there, had es-
capped with his life, he concluded, after
staying time that, with all her repu-
tation for turbulence, Barcelona seemed
an enlightened and thoroughly progress
sive city, Havelock Ellis paid more
glowing tribute, after admitting the
city's faults, by saying, Barcelona is
a revelation of what great CONNER
cial city may be when humanity and
harmoniously organized. In a beautiful!
and exqusitely tempered climate, a
robustly independent and clear-eyed
population has here freely expanded
itself, loving work and loving play
and combining these two fundamental
human impulses more completely and
more admirably than in any other
equally great city,
"Despite its disorders and it's mod
ernism, Barcelona retains many relics
Of those mellow times when Cervantes
made it the setting for Don Quixote's
later adventures. There still are
church professions, lottery ticket SELL
ers, policemen with red coats and he'll