The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-01-30
Primo de Rivera Steps Out

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Primo De Rivera has abdicated his military dictator
ship over Spain, giving Europe a If t-class political
sensation, for it has not been the habit OF postwar die
tators to resign, while none died. Here. then. is the
first recession in that sardonic political tide which over
whelmed so many of the European nations in their slo-
ganized ambition to make the world safe for democracy
by a great World war comparable to Armageddon.
It has taken six years for Spain to get this oligarch
off its neck. It has been an eventful period in dictator
ships. In that time Mussolini has coordinated and
strengthened his grip on Italy. King Alexander Of Jugo-
slavia has entered the ranks Of rulers governing even
to the extremity Of within by personal fiat. and Ad-
niral Horthy has stood between the restoration OF mon
arcty and the people in riveting his rule on Hungary.
Then there is Russia under the dictatorship Of the pro-
letaYiat. These countries and Spain seemed doomed to
q long period of tyrannical rule all this while. Now the
first link in the chain binding these countries snaps.
There is not much hope, however, for the other ma
tions held in the hollow Of dictators' hands. In Italy,
especially. Mussolini is too strongly entrenched to expect
his retirement or removal. except by death. He has
built up q vast machine In his Black Shirts. His fas-
cisn has q counterpart in the red rule which tyrannizes
and communistically experiments as q republic Of soviets
in Russia. Neither Of these rules show any signs Of
c~rumbling. being bound in that cooperation which is not
inherently SO different, after all, in both lands, though
The political principle is clothed in varying forms and
professions of political faith. In each the breath Of free
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tinctioc.
with Primo De Rivera the situation was different
again. He held his place as long as army and navy
leaders propped his authority. When they lost enthus-
iasm for him, he abdicated. It is even held by some
students of European politics that DE Rivera masquer-
aided as the puppet of King Alfonso. coming into the
picture at a critical time when Spain was well honey
combed with the sedition Of revolt and the monarchy
might have courted expulsion in trying to handle con-
diti0nS itself. Parliamentary rifle had broken down c01.
lapsed. t':ets came and went and the strong man de-
manded as premier Of the constitutional type by the &C.
CaSiou was not in evidence.
Failure Of SPANS venture in Morocco, where its army
Of conquest was drubbed piecemeal at times by the Riffs
was knocking .Castillian prestige into a cooked hat and
humiliating the proud dons before the whole world. Two
courses could happen. one of them Instruction and the
overthrow OF the throne. The other happened instead.
De Rivera was set up as dictator. Spain was kept from
revolution. national order was enforced by ruthless mea-
sures and censorships, but under the crust Spain seethed
with degradation and indignation.
Now that the top has blown of, this Indignation is
coming to the surface and finding vent in fury against
the dictator or in half-hearted Juror for a rebellion, but
there is no reason to believe that it will cause any real
trouble. It has been reduced to harmlessness by the
long process Of evaporation to which the regime of Dc
Rivera subjected it.
The outcome Of Spanish return to parliamentary gov
ernment will be watched with deep interest by the rest
of Europe and possibly with some concern at a time when
90 many grave questions affecting attempts to renounce
war and to establish ornament peace as an international
policy are on the diplomatic council table at London. It
also will be Of interest to note the repercussion, if any.
on the other relationships Of Europe. There have been
times when political events in Spain were most moment
Gus to the peace and history OF Europe, as the war of the
Spanish succession. known in American colonial history
IS one Of the French and Indian wars, and that other
Spanish succession war which in 1870 set France and
Germany at each others Threats and gave the world
that masterpiece Of Biamarckian statecraft, the welding
of the German empire.
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