Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-13
Spain Will Find the
Republican Road Hard

To the Editor of The Star:
We look at Spain and see another
| republic coming into being; another
| King goes down, and government
! predicated on the will of the majority
| daunts its flag to the breeze. On the
| spur of the moment we are prone to
rejoice with Spain that she has achieved
| republicaniSm at last, but a little in
! troSpection on our experience in estab-
! fishing republic on satisfactory lines
and maintaining it tempers our en-
| thusiasm bit, and we wonder if Spain
had not done better to carry on under
her old order, considering her tempera-
| ment and experience, than to rush in
on something new, totally incompatible
| with her traditions and education and
| manner Of living.
Spain is alarmingly illiterate Nearly
| 40 per cent of. her population falls
under the category 'illiterate," although
doubtless some of these have some ele-
mentary knowledge of the three RS"
The prime requisite of republicanism is
literacy and as literacy takes a down.
ward curve, SO does chance for a sub
Stantial republican government.
And Spain has been stepped in this
King tradition for 900 years. Long
live the King!" will burst forth from
the average Spaniard's lips two sec
onds after any trumpet blows. The
King Is as necessary to the CaStilian
as the Pope Is to a Catholic. It's go
ing to take a mighty long time to
change this temperament among the
old guard, and the new republican re-
gime is going to find 1t out, too.
And we must not, lose sight of the
fact that republicanism is heavy, pom
derous and unelastic. A monarchy
manipulated with intelligence, patriot
ism and idealism Is capable of achiev-
ing much with small force; its mind
can be made up overnight, and cheap
politicians don't have to be consulted
We have a case of this in our recent
soldiers bonus legislation. President
Hoover sat down with his pen and
wrote three or four thousand words,
laying down facts for Congress, show
ing that the law which he was veto
ing was extremely foolish, unwise for
the country at large and doing the
most damage to those whom it pur-
| ported to help; 1t was keeping unem-
ployed, men who needed Jobs, not a
dole. And the sad part of 1t was these
very congressman whom Hoover was
preaching to already knew that his
philosophy was sound. But did they
| vote according to their conviction? No.
| They played the part of the cheap poll
| bill which thrust the country into a
| $750,000,000 deficit. Imagine a law
making body of 531 members, supposed
ly sane, passing bill which the Secre-
| tary of the Treasury estimated would
cost over a billion dollars and not pro-
viding the money to pay the cost! No
doubt Congress voted the will OF its
constituency. 1t just goes to show that
the people sometimes are poor COVER
nors Of themselves. Suppose President
Hoover had had the say all to himself
under a monarchy. He could have
saved the country.
So as We view the happenings over
| In Spain we wonder whether she Is
| going from bad to worse. Lord knows
that under the monarchy Spain had
no Federal Farm Board buying wheat
to store away, millions and millions OF
bushels, bought at a false price to
bolster the market, and which will hang
as a sword OF Damocles over the wheat
market for months to come, defeating
the very purpose 1t was intended to
| mitigatei
Spain. we wish you WELL but your
road Is hard-and how we'll we know it
CHARLES L. MORRIS, Jr.