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Show HAS REFORM PARTIES BUT iTJEFORH Spain Needs Heroic Leader to Guide It Out of the DarK Wilderness. CORRUPTION NOW RULE IN OFFICE Canalejas One Example of Blasted Hopes of the People Peo-ple for a Savior. BY XEEDE&iq J. HAS KIN, .MADRID, Spain. "Talk, mere talk" ia the reply when the average eyaieal man of Madrid ia asked what will result re-sult from tbe present condition of affairs. af-fairs. A revolution! Oh, perhapa in fifty years, but after a revolutiou whatt Tbe people do little but talk and the leaders do nothing but get themselves elected to office or put ia tha way of graft. This ii the spirit in which reply is often made. The career of Senor Canalejas, the democratic premier, and bead of the present Spanish government, ia sometimes some-times cited aa howing bow little is to be expected from the moet promising reform leaders. Canalejas waa hot for reform until he became powerful aa an office holder, lie then cooled considerably. consider-ably. Oore he wa. premier, say the cynics, he changed from hia anti clerical position and was thenceforward hand in glove with the Jesuits. This is ha mil curbstone criticism. But the facts of Senor Canalejas' career as they are known enow sufficient suf-ficient wabblinesa in the man 'a .atti- tude to warrant some abjection to bim as a leader. His Political Career. Senor Canale.jas was for s revolution mid s republic in the days of bia earli-eet earli-eet political activity. Later he came to the front as one of the organizers of a radical monarchiat party. He first appeared in office as prime minister's minis-ter's secretary under a democratic ministry twenty-eight years ago. Under Un-der Premier Sagasta ha waa the holder of a portfolio, the equivalent of the bureau bu-reau of agriculture, education, public works and trade, as a Liberal. When Canaleiaa returned t polities k ' in 18911, after a period of retirement, X th country wa. in a difficult situation. X The war with the United States had in-"" in-"" creased the aational debt to a point at which strict economies were necessary neces-sary and the immigration of a large number of monks and nuns into Spain bad created a good deal of internal discord. dis-cord. The Conservatives hsd Bllowed the monastic orders to do ss they pleased and the supreme power of the church waa the- cause of loud complaint. People Looked to Bin. Hennr Canaleiaa raised the flag of auti-elericaliem and entered upon a series of sensational epeeebes sgainst the church as a malign snd menscing factor in temporal affairs. Sngssts was swept back into ofSce upon a wave of anti-clerical and anti-conservative aea-liment. aea-liment. Of course, nothing was done in the way of regulating the church to save the country from tbe revolution that it was then declared threatened. And there was, sa usual, bo revolution as a result of that failure. Hut there continued to bs a great deal of talk. Thi. made the way clear for Canaleiaa, the idol of the people, the arch enemy of clericalism, the sworn foe of Jesuitism. He waa liter iilly called by his people to abate strife. His famous address to the public, through a magazine, caled "Tha Last Truce," waa still ringing in tha ears of the masses. In thia ntterance he had declared for the remaking; of the monarchy, citing !reat Britain, -Germany and other liberal European monarchies mon-archies as examples of true democracy under s crown. Socialistic Program. ' It wss time for the Libersls to become be-come socialistic in their policy, he ssid. He hsd mapped out a program of socialistic so-cialistic reform thst should be fol- lowed. He advocated education and the improvement of the condition of the laboring classes. "Power," he had ssid, "must be stripped of its feudsl al tributes." Aad "authority L must be clothed with ths sentiment of V democracy. ' ' He went further and declared boldly that socialism wa. not a doctrine. It waa civilisation I Canaleiaa accepted a portfolio ia a 'new cabinet which Sagaata wss forced to form sfter "The Laat Truce" had produced a crisis. The vigorous snti- clerical program that had been arranged ar-ranged and published as the "plst-form" "plst-form" of the new csbinet, -of which "Butcher" Weyler of Cubsa fsms wss s member, became a dead letter as soon bs ths new government was formed. When Canalejas Baslfnad. Ths vsticaa Interviewed tbe new powers aad wss completely satisfied with the outlook. Tbe reeognitioa of the legality of all religious orders by roysl decree ia violatioa of tha announced an-nounced program waa announced. The whole platform was knocked into a cocked .hat without a word of explanation explana-tion or apology to tbe hosts thst hsd hoped for vigorous aati-eleriral activity. activi-ty. Ths roysl decree was Illegal because be-cause it ignored the provisions of cartels car-tels already existing lawa. but it was enough to set ths Spaniards by the ears. A aew law under which the friars could he regulated, aad most of them expelled, was drafted, and Canaleiaa Cana-leiaa wae credited with having written moet of its provisions. . Bat it was dg-rided dg-rided aot to present it ts the Cortes. Wbea it wss sidetracked Senor Cssa-lejas Cssa-lejas wss ia aa embarraseiag position. Be resigned. , During ths Hsara eoaasi i stive regime la 1893-4 a compact wss signed between tha goveruraeat aad ths vati-l vati-l ' eaa which gavs ths religions orders (r carts blaarhe ia Bpeia aad virtually invited -to this country all ef those e- .ContiBued oa page .) HAS REFORM PARTIES BUT NOT REFORM (Coatlanod from paga 1.) pallad from Franc asd alarwharo. Ajm-Olarlcalljm Acs . Pramiar Uaara fall. M a raault, but two following Liberal adminiatratioat failad t do aoytbisf t acpel or rara-lat rara-lat tk Book. A aaaMratle cabiaat waa formed aad ejrat " antl-elarieal-nm" waa to tk for a battle ery. A bill wa introdned ta tb eortea io line witk tbe proviaioaa of tbt drafted by Canalaja and killed la tbe forte, tavaral year befer. This bill diarupud th Liberalt aad Rcpublirani, aoma of eark party deelia-iag deelia-iag to support a law to ouat th orders. or-ders. Through maeb bickring aad re-formtnff re-formtnff of eablneta the clericaliam re tnaiaea oa top wbea tbe kinf called upon Canalejas, la February, 1910, to form a new cabinet. The cabinet wi formed with Cana)e.iaa aa preaident and at the neat election Canale.iaa secured a majority ia both bouse of tb eortaa. He came into offie immensely popular popu-lar and wholly pledged to anti-elerical-ism. He had aot beea ia oftiee a year before be was pretty generallv charged, with having entered upoa bis duties under a complete understanding with the church that nothing prejudicial to ita interests would be done under bis regime. Fooled People. SeTaral lawa, among them the "padlock" "pad-lock" law, were suggested ostensibly to ragulat tb orders aad received tbe support of tb snti-clericsllsts in th eortea, but were fonnd when lifted to be "fangless." Tbe tanilaja program, anon paper, was aa assUea see. li-iasladed aU clerical legislation, tax reform laws, land rent reform laws, laws to facili- tate tb formation of prartieal labor I unions; laws to regulate contracts he tween em pi oyer and employee for the Interest f the letter; lew to regulste the labor of children and women; and, in fart, a model program of reform legislation leg-islation looking to the carrying out of his much raunted ambition to "En-ropeanize" "En-ropeanize" Spain. Had the program been carried out fepain would have emerged from the darkne of the middle sges into th light of tb twentieth century to stsod near Great Britain in democracy. Bnt in the light of events is It reasonable to aesum that Benor Canalejaa ever expected to see a tenth nf ;t enacted into law I Cansisja Is Alarmed. Tn th man of lSlO th people bed become so disappointed with what was considered the double dealiug of Premier Pre-mier Cnal.i that an upheaval re aulted. A hues meet i n v nf nrntMt waa held in Madrid after certain election frauds had accomplished, according to common report, in tha interest of the clericalists to affect tbe personnel of the eortea. Republicans and socialist a pooled iasues at thia mseting and Meli-qtiades Meli-qtiades Alva res, who formerly favored a monarchy democratised like that of Great Britain, wont ever to the social-iat social-iat eamp and stood shoulder to ahoulder with Pablo Iffieeias. tha one socialist member of the eortea. Thit demonstration of popular rage frifrhtened Premier Canalejaa into unwonted un-wonted activity. He again took a position po-sition against the cburcb. but nothing material resulted, other than the issuance issu-ance of a' roval order requiring the enforcement en-forcement of an edict eight veara old compelling religious orders established in Hps in after ita proclamation to register reg-ister and to pay tarn on trades carried on by tbem. The church party either took this modest step of the former agitator ae an earnest of real activitv. or pretended for tactful reaaona to do ao, and a prodigious to do followed. Ctorrupttos la Offlo The archbishop of Toledo defied the anthoritiea to attempt to enforce the decree, calling Borne and not Madrid the aeat of authority in ao far aa the ehureh ia concerned. Tbo clerical press teemed with articlea epeaking 0f the intention of Canaleiaa to destroy the church and the religion of the people of Spain. Bnt tha Intelligent man in the street laughed at the whole performance perform-ance and declared that Canaleiaa waa aa likely to harm tha church or ffa-t the enrtsilment of it rights aad privi leges a if he seer himself a monk. Th reeord of Premier Canaleiaa. with all it flaws, Is not a discourse;-in discourse;-in a to the student of condition in go'. that of aany othsr leaders. The history of leadership is en of disappointment dis-appointment to" th hopeful. A vet ao heroic Agar ha arisea to point the war out of the wildsrnsss. Oaciouism continues uninterruptedly to ran the government from th management of little municipalities te that of th sfst Corruption in offie is th Tula rather tha the eption. Lacking echools. lacking initiative, lacking honest lead rs, evertaied. diseoorsged. th masses eurse th existing condition without having any great hop of any better condition developing. Reform parties multiple ia number without gaining ia aggregate strength elections eontinne to exhibit an utter rottenness tht would anrpris th most corrupt election worker in America, members of th cortes contina to make Mlphuron with denunciation of mmoralitv in politic while holding their aeat aa the result of it, and a ,pT?f eootinue to print only wht it allowed to publish. Tomorrow: TBS KDTODOlf OT SPAIN. IX To Eesi Xoien. |