Evening star., 1932-07-17
SOCIAL TROUBLES
CHRONIC IN SPAIN
Premier Azana's Task Two.
foId-Anarchists Threat
en- TO Seize Power. =
Special Dispatch to The Star.

MADRID. July l6-Has Spain It's
Glance is there that the Syndtcalist
anarchists viii make GOOD their boast
t,at within six months they will have
seized power, abolished the republic,
ard SET up in its stead their ,paradoXical
system of rule by anarchy? The two
questions are very intimately related,
and both are opposite in any conSidera-
ton of Spain'S future.
The government of Premier Manuel
Azana asserts that it has the situation
we'll in hand. Nevertheless it is evil
dent that social troubles have become
chronic In the first year of the re-
public they were responsible for four
killings a week; now the number has
risen to seven. Yet such troubles are
relatively easy to repreSS, for in this
country of paradoxes most Of them are
announced beforehand by the Or
ganizerS. IN the past few weeks two
projected Anarchist risingS on grand
.cale have come to naUght, but it has
b7cone the custom here for each
Gbortive attempt to be followed soon by
GO ser.
The Anarchists re'y for their follow
ing mainly on the la6oring population
OF the cities. and their agitation is no
new CNlnS- II cannot DS Sdlu IIldI IL ID
more menacmg now than it was under
the monarchy. The social troubles in
the rural districts. especially in An
dalusia, are attributable to what might
be called agrarian Communism. Ienin
, has said that after Russia the first
country to become BolSheviSt would be
Spain. because of the ignorance and
misery of the peasant masses.
-. rIoIu
In Andalusia SIS per cent of the agri-
cultral workers cannot read. Their
wages are barely sufficient to ward off
starvation. They are at the mercy, so
far as employment is concerned, OF
absentee owners of large e5tates-vlr-
tually the only example of the lati-
fundia system left in Europe-some of
when allow many acres to lie fallow
that their herds Of fighting bulls may
have space to diSport themselves. In
such ground the seeds of discomfort,
once sown. germinate rapidly. and all
radicals, be they Syndicalist, Anarchist.
Communist or Muscovite, see to it that
the seed is sown aplenty.
Truth to tell, both in city and coun-
try. workers have been disappointed in
some of the hopes which they associated
with the advent of the republic. In
too many cases they imagined that a
change of regime would bring the mil
lennium. Consequently the industrial
workers are becoming more and more
advanced in their political views, and
the peasantry. conscious of becoming
articulate clamors for something to still
its hunger, more pay and some land.
To satisfy the latter the cabinet is
striving to pass it's agrarian reform bill,
,,t,o, %I,o1 low OF will q
ferred to the state for division among
the workers. 1t hopes also that the
harvest. which bids fair to be bountiful
this year. will prove factor on its side.
When things look ugly, either in city
or country. there is the civil guard. 1t
numbers some 10000 men and it is an
elite. Since Manuel Azana reformed
the army. reducing it both in numbers
and in prerogatives, the civil guard
is the backbone of the state. It's power
is great 1t was the civil guard that
finally determined the downfall of
Alfonso XIII, it was the civil guard
that watched over the early days of
the infant republic and it was the
civil guard that demanded the passage
of the dictatorial law for the defense
of the republic.
Sanjurjo Out, But Guard Stays.
On all those occasions its spokesman
was Gen. Sanjurjo who said publicly:
80 long as I command the civil guard
there will be no anarchy in Spain.
If peradventure the trend to the
Left brought Spain to anarchy, we
should rapidly restore order and as
sumo all responsibility. Our first duty
is to preserve public order. and We
shall preserve it at all cost"
Since then Gen. Sanjurjo has been
deprived Of his command and trans
ferred to the carabineers, an excise
mains with its spirit unchanged.
There are many signs that Manuel
Azana is striving to arrest the trend
of Spain to the Left, he refuses to
become another KerenSki. He makes
full use Of the civil guard to preserve
order in town and country, but it is
evident that at the same time he sees
a possibility of the civil guard becom-
ing the Reichswehr of Spain and i'm
posing its political views. The history
O. Spain is one long record Of mill
t2~v pronunciament0s.
50 that Premier AZana's task is two
fo'd he must repress Ped agitation
reactionary agitation also, for that
matter - with the help of the civil
guard, and yet prevent that guard
from becoming a dominating influence.
Many SpaniardS believe that he is
equal to the task and that he will
emerge from the present period OF un-
rest as the statesman of genius who
consolidated the republic.