The Coolidge examiner., 1937-08-12
Malaga, Spain. before shot

Washington, d. C.-WNU Service.
CIVIL war in Spain signal
~ ICES the startling changes
which have swept that an
cient land in recent years.
In the swift rush of daily
news, more is said of military
leaders and their campaigns,
of statesmen and changing
governments, than of the deep
social and economic transfor-
nations behind the news, or
the character of this land and
its people.
Long before King Alfonso fed.
these changes were of course under
way. and because of them his mon
archy failed.
These transitions have gathered
momentum, until today this once
romantic land of duennas. mOnas-
teries, bullfghts and leisurely pas
toral life has written a new and
dramatic chapter in its long history.
Where centuries-old country lanes
and mountain trails used to wind,
fine new concrete roads now streak
over the hills. To a large degree,
men have exchanged their saddle
mules for flivvers. and the high
wheeled. clumsy oxcart yields to
the whiZzing motor truck.
Senoritas Bob Their Hair.
From the Bay of Biscay down to
the blue Mediterranean. traditional
peasant costumes are being dis
carded and men are dressing in
plain blue overalls. Black-eyed SEN
oritas today lay away the time-hon-
ored mantilla, get their hair bobbed
and hunt city jobs as typists. tele-
phone girls and shop clerks. as do
their sisters in many lands.
New thinking. as well as new
machines, changes the way of Span
ish life. Bullfghting still goes on,
but now the intrepid toreadors be-
long to a labor unioni You may still
find guitars and fandangos, for Span
iards are ever a music loving peo-
pie, and possibly you may find
here and there a lovesick couple
incoming at each other through an
old iron-barred window. More and
more, however, the radio super
sedes the guitar and the girl has
come out from behind the historic
grillwork and gone to the movies
with her sweetheart-or to the street
barricades to fight with him!
One fact to grasp. in understand
ing the social muddle here, is that
Spain is divided into so provinces;
and not so many years ago it was
commonly said that it also had so
different national dances and CO.'S
tunes, together with almost as
many dialects.
Comparatively sudden advent of
new high-speed roads, faster vehi-
cles, speeches and news broadcast
by air, and the breakdown of church
influence, all combine now to dis
sipate this old conservative provin-
cial spirit. Thus has Spain been
turned into milling, restless land.
For the first time country and town
life are freely blended, and the
peasant can hear the exciting talk
of city radicals and revolutionaries
that yesteryear came only as a
remote murmur.
Spain is now becoming so mod
ernized that busses of every kind
and color race along from village
to village, from town to city. Till
a few years ago, many country
people never journeyed more than
20 miles from home in their lives.
Now by cheap, or even free, rides in
war times, they travel all over the
country!
Political Parties Are Many.
With the rise of the republic
came, of course, more liberty of
speech and action; but, born of the
so provinces and their so different
ways of thinking, came also wide
division of opinion and action.
Political parties of all shades
sprang up in great variety and num-
Der. Certain factions held that prog
ress should be attained gradually
through education of the masses
masses as yet unframed in the art
of government. This is obviously
slow process and one would suppose
that in romantic land of manana"
slow process would be accept
able.
But the manana idea is another
of those old Spanish customs so
rapidly disappearing; many now de-
mand a quicker approach, faster
progress.
Thus a peek at Spain of today
reveals a startling modernity of
thought, civilization and up-to-the-
minute comforts and contrivances,
superimposed upon the stupb ,rn