Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-17
Continued From First Page.l


along a certain road, the Spaniards
have, advanced much further along
that road. having begun the advance
long before We did. And II Spain
found bankruptcy or defeat further
along that road, 1t is by no means
certain that We are not beginning to
do the same. II we ever fail as they
failed. it is only fair to say that they
einned very much as We are SHINING.
Romantic Pity Fiatters Spain.
or patronage extended to Spain is really
much too f1attering to Spain. Even so
intuitive and imaginative a poet as Mr.,
Vachel Lindsay, in a spirited poem
about the galleonS of Spain, falls into
the generous error of supposing that
every Spaniard was like Don Quixote
He writes as If the national hero had
followed a merely glamorouS vision
against reason and reality; until wan
dering fire misled him and his galleon
was really on the rocks.
But the later history OF Spanish i'm
perialism was not too romantic, but
rather too realistic. 1t was never so
vulgar as modern imperialism, but then
vulgarity Is a rather modern thing. We
may proudly claim that it was one of
the great discoveries of the nineteenth
century. But in the matter of money
grubbing, greed, corruption and bribery,
deeaying monarchy might have disputed
the supremacy of the most liberal
political constitutions or the most
enlightened economic system that We
enjoy. Spain was not wrecked by TO-
nance and superstition. Spain was
wrecked by business government. by
big business, by a boom in trade. by
trust in bankers, by all things that have
left our own civilization at this moment
in q most bewildering mess.
1t was a gradual victory Of new COM
meFcial forces over old ehivalric forces
in the Spanish Empire that marked and
steadily accompanied the decline of that
empire. A modern financier had much
more influence over one of the Spanish
Bourbons in the eighteenth century
than such a man would have had over
Ferdinand and Isabella. Ferdinand and
Isabella had less finance; only they had
more money. 1t may have been noticed
that the intelligent advice of financiers
generally becomes NEST influential and
important when people have no money.
The amazing and in many ways brilliant
organization of international finance
the cosmopolitan power which now
makes the Spanish Empire and the
British Empire look like small nation
alities is largely due to the relative i'm
poverishment of all nationalities, small
and big The great fnancier is greater
than he was at the beginning of the
nineteenth century. when England was
really rieh. or at the beginning of the
twentieth century. when America was
really rich. In that sense We might
slmoSt say that finance is the antithesis
of wealth. Our time will be known in
history as the age of bankers because
1t was the age of bankrupts.
Real Property People"
The people who can best survive such
conditions are those who have what
legal text booGs very rightly call real
property Perhaps real property" are
the only two words In legal text book
that are really true. Those who have,
in any shape or degree, the habit Of
producing what they consume, and
consuming what they produce are out
side the trick of the trade cycle and
cannot claim common cosmopolitan
right to be ruined by somebody that they
never saw. II the peasantFieS of Eu-
rope will only stick to their land and
their long tradition they will outlast
the whole commercial and industrial
phase Of history, but to do this certain
strong and special moral elements are
required. Men must be in q very &C.
centric and Independent frame of mind :;
in which he would actually rather see
his own cattle going to pasture or his
own apples ripening on the tree, than
pay small sum to see cattle moving
arlittle quicker than life. or large heaps
OF somebody else's apples, reproduced
by the marvellous photography Of the
'cosmopolis cinema"
1t is, as the flnancier will say 4 mat
ter Of sentiment. But the peasant Is
sentimental about wealth that really
exists. The f1nancieF is often calm and
scientific about wealth that does not
exist. I happen to be convinced, there
fore, that the real future Of the world
lies with whatever society has most Of
the habit of sticking to real posses
sions. and at the same time has least
OF the influences and suggestions that
have drawn men away into unreal spec
ulati0ns and indirect dependence Il
there be anywhere in the world a social
type especially tied by honor or domes-
tic tradition TO his own possessions. 1t
Is exactly that type which will in such
welter give an exhibition of the survival
OF the flttest. The future will be with
the man who cares most for the farm
and who cares least for the film.
IN that sense. what has been least
progressive in the immediate past will
be most progressive in the immediate
future There Is a story in Spanish
history which / have read xomew where
which gives us a glimpse OF an older
struggle between these two spirits as
revealing as a snapshot OF the crisis of
a crime. The story may not be true.
but 1t sums up and symbolizes the whole
tapgle OF truths. It tells how q Spanish
king told one OF his gentlemen to en-
terrain in his castle one OF the new
nobility. a millionaire of the colonial
sort: figure of brass covered with gold.
And the Spanish gentleman. accepting
obedience rs part Of his loyalty, said:
Size, l VIII entertain him with all !
possess, and will burn down my house
afteTwsrd Whether be did so 1 do
not know, but the story marks a stage
in the struggl" by which the standards
OF the new mobiles oVercame the stand
ards Of the old
Degeneration Of Chivalry.
In such defeat and degeneration Of
chitalry 1t is only too probable that
everybody gave way Perhaps the
Spanish knight did not burn his castle:
perhaps. in fact. he did mortgage it.
Perhaps he Hlortgagsd it to the wealthy
gentleman against whom he had 80 re-
grettabls q prejudice. In that case. the
point to seize Is that the castle no longer
really belonged to anybody. in the sense
OF giving absolute security 10 snybody
i! the poorer man was so far tempted
OF the devil. for instance. as TO mortgage
his castle and then burn it down, there
vas no more to be got out OF him ex-
cept vengeance; which, as there Is no
money In II. the new noblsman might
very properly deSpise
In such q case We see the entrance
OF the modern, indirect and, therefore,
INSECURE type Of ownership-which de-
Veiops into mere ownership OF debts,
shares, speeulations and bits OF paper
Up to very little while ago II was
eyerywhere assumed by economists that
those who developed these indirect and
complex claims or dependencies we're
stronger and more scientific states and
men. I do not think the iilusjnn will