Evening star., 1936-09-17


Ionid, Ara0on and NeD CASTLE.
BY WALTER DURANTY.
BY Radio TO The Star.
TOULON. France, September IT,
I was sent to Spain to cover Fascist
rebellion which had developed into a
civil war. found that the rebellion
had developed not only into a civil
war but into a revolution.
On this last point. the rebels are
not incorrect in saying there is
revolution in Spain, but 1t is not, as
they assert, Marxist Revolution,
and, what is more, it is they who have
provoked it and made it possible.
The facts of the case are plain
enough, and cannot be hidden by any
cloud of propaganda, however black
or inky.
Last February, the Spanish people
voted for a left democratic govern
ment to replace the right center
oligarchy which had held power since
the death of Primo de Rivera The
election was free, with no great meas
ure of coercion on either side, and Its
verdict was unmistakable.
Amnesty Was Voted.
Accordingly, the first act Of the
new government was vote of amnesty
for the tens Of thousands of political
prisoners who had been arrested by
the Oligarchy. After that, like the
present Blum government in France
tFnrrn-f
new regime at Madrid, which. by the
way, did not contain a single Socialist,
Anarchist or Communist, somewhat
cautiously began a program of social
reform.
To tell the truth, conditions in
Spain were not greatly different from
those which caused the bolshevik
revolution, or the French revolution,
130 years earlier. Eight-tenths of the
population were peasants, either land
less workers on the estates Of great
landlords or, at best, small tenants,
with a tiny smattering Of peasant
owners. Another tenth was the urban
proletariat. working long hours for low
wages. The remainder was made up of
smaller ultra privileged minority who
owned practically everything in sight
and profited unconscionably from the
sweat and toll of the people
Last, out not least, there was
the church, which had become the
greatest single proprietor of landed,
financial and industrial wealth.
have been told the church owned one
third of all the wealth in Spain.
Perhaps this is an exaggeration, but
there is no doubt its holdings were
enormous and disproportionate. In
Madrid alone, it controlled banks,
street railroads and subways. gas
works and electric light and power
plants, besides millions of acres Of
land throughout the country.
In short, here was a revolutionary
situation in the true Marxist sense of
the phrase: that is to say, great
majority of the population had been
so exploited By the special privileges
of the minority that it felt it had
little to lose but its chains. I
The "frente popular" government
knew this we'll enough. 1t saw that
something must be done to curb spe-
cial privilege. and began, therefore,
somewhat cautiously, as have said,
to redress the more obvious grievances
of the Spanish masses. 1t introduced
laws to provide by purchase of land
for the pasants, to increase wages and
diminish the Labor day of the indus
trial proletariat, to restrict the holdings
and authority of the church and sub
NIT 1t to taxation, to control high
finance and big business.
Under Primo De Rivera the military
leaders had been an essential part of
the regime. They were hardly less
SO under the right republican oil
garchy which followed Rivera's death.
The advent to power of the "frente
popular" showed them of into the
background, and they did not like it.
The consequence was that, in the
months between the February elec-
tion and the July rebellion, the forces
of reaction-the military clique, the
church, the great landlords and the
big business and financial interests
drew together. They refused to ad-
NIT that the measures which the gov
eminent was taking were so far from
revolutionary that they might dimin-
tsh popular discomfort and avert revo-
lution.'
EmbOldened by Examples.
Emboldened by the example of Mus
solini and Hitler, they said, as have
heard it said by similar reactionaries
elsewhere, This regime is making a
revolution at our expense. To prevent
1t we must fight"
1t was not true III Spain, but the
reactionary forces of Spain were
stronger than those of France or the
United States and far more accus-
toned to authority over their coun-
try. They saw how cautiously the
'frente popular" government was mov-
ing, and they knew how deep were
the biological and political differences
Of the various units which composed it.
So they decided to strike q blow
for power, and struck on July 10. I
have been told that their move was
premature, that their day" was set