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Show SPAIN ALSO CURSED WITH HIGHPRICES Oppression and Graft Help Keep Agricultural Development De-velopment Badt. WORKING HEN CAN NOT AFFORD MEATS Poor Classes Never ThlnK of Having Sugar and Few Have Coffee. BT FBEDEBJO J. HASKIX. MADRID, Spain. Tha superficial observer ob-server in Spain gets tba impression that he ia visiting a country in which the cost of living is cbenp. Surely the price of ment and bread mnat be moderate moder-ate when it is possible to live at a good hotel for 2 a dayf . If not where doea the hotel get ita profit t But it is a fact that tha prices at whieb Americana buy food look low to a Spaniard. Spain's variations in climate ara suck that it should niduea nearly every table necessity nnd Many of tha luxuries in plentiful supply. But backwardnesa of agricultural development, indifferent transportation facilities, grinding' inter-, inter-, nal taxation, high import dntiea and awkward land tenure problems combine to prevent the highest possibilities of the soil from bring renliied. While the rlpnniards arc not n rare of hungry men end women, like the inhnbitnnta of the Indian peninsula, they are ill-fed and an a mass get little out of life beyond mere sustenance. tireat relief might come from suitable irrigation to take the best advantnge nt an unequal rainfall, but tba misgov eminent of Kpain haa been such that little haa been ilonn in thia direction. Must Support Idlers. (ialician landlord hold their proper tr under n .yetem that originated in the middle ages' nnd is unchanged today. The owner lets his lsnd for n long term. rie tennnt lets it in smaller parcela for shorter term nnd his subtennnts ngnin partition and sublet. The reeult is that the actual cultivator baa a large burdens to bear and the soil supports a number ef idlers. Tha total ground rent is brought to such a figure thnt the small , farmer, the man at tha bottom of the ) ladder, is impoverished. - Thia condition i driving so many Utllclans to south America that it is predicted tha province prov-ince will become depopulated. ' Trnnsportntion facilities- fairly match the backwardness of ugriruf-tnre ugriruf-tnre in the greater part of Spain. The highroad are for the moat part hardly worthy of the nam cava in the vicinities vicini-ties of the Inrger eitiee. The railroads are a revelation of the out of date to the traveler who is fsmilinr with Americn, Germany, England or France. Moth eaten "trains da luie," and second sec-ond nnd third clnsa carriage that are hardly better than American freight cars, provide tha patron with a sorry choice. Poor Train laiahua, Fast trains nre expensive and not very fnst. Slow one nr lose expensive expen-sive nnd very alow. There ia one compensation com-pensation for tha passenger on the slow train, nnd it is not neglible if one is not in n hurry. The engines move so slowly that no smoke or cinders find their way back to the carriage. As indifferent ns tha railroads are, their poor quality and low speed are not an bad as the inadequate mileage and ontrngeous freight tariffs. There is, for example, bo railroad connecting Valencia, Valen-cia, the second port of Spain, with Madrid. There nre only 7500 milea of railroad ia all Spain. It ia actually iiossible to ship freight from a port ob the coast of Spain to Englnnd and back to another Spanish port for leas money that it cna be shipped from one Spun-iah Spun-iah port to another bv rail. Thia affects , the price aad availability of fruit ia a striking manner. While oranges and grapes abound nt low firicee ia Andahj-ia Andahj-ia they ara rare and .high priced in Madrid. For Flab 11 a Fotmd. They can be bought mora reasonably ia London or Edinburgh after having mnde a jouraev by sea and paeaea through several hands. Vegetablea are, uf course, affected the aama way. The faeilitiee for marketing cereals raised ia the interior ara ao poor that tha Argent- tiue republic enn compete with Spain in furnishing wheat to ita own coast cities. Madrid, aitoated la the geographical geo-graphical center of Spain, woald, if Spaia were properly developed, be within with-in eaay reach of everything to ant it could wish to buy. But aa Madrid is not on wnter, the citizens of the capital pay 75 ceata, aad sometimes a dollar a Kuad for freak ash. Only a few of em, of course, -can afford it. Added to these "natural cause" of the high cost of living there ia overwhelming over-whelming tnzntion. (lustoma dntiea are high, and ns Spain ia not ret n great manufacturing country thia affect the cost of living mere then it might otherwise other-wise do. Taxes oa trades, professions and business, nnd tha "consumo, " tha sale of monopolies and other forma of taxation, mnke the burden n crushing one. The results ar quite startling to the fareigner. He flnas tinned butter selling at SO eenta a pound. Breakfast baros is 50 eenta. Mutton is only n little lees expensive. Beef soars around 50 and 60 eenta a pound. All canned goods sell at ruinous prices, eepaeiajlj preserves. Awful Industrial Tax. - Tba industrial tax ia known as tit 'eoatribneioB industrial. " It ia aa arai through whirk the government reach aut aad lava almost everyone uy the seels. Hotels, shops, banks, brokers, newspapers, publishers, aad, ia fact, parsons in almost all railings are taxed in thia manner.' Ia some rasas the tax takes the form ef a stipulated fee. Ia others it is aseaspred by th amount of business doaa, aa ia tat ease of a contractor; or by the aixa of tha eity, as la the rasa of a banker. If a (toausaed oa page -) . SPAIN ALSO CUSSED WITH HIGH PRICES (Continued from page 1.) poor man goea fishing and cntches a good string hs must psy the "consumo before be-fore lis msy hawk them from door to door to turn a few honest pennies. His calling is not tsxed for the " contribution contribu-tion industrial," but his catch ia taxed under the other law, which amounta to the aame thing. Tbs "eonsumo" is ths equivalent of the "octroi" in some other European countries. There is no business too pitifully email to be mulcted mulct-ed by the "eonsumo." This is strictly strict-ly a local tax and is levied independently independent-ly in every town snd village. The poultry poul-try raiser who takes his chickens to one town and pays the "eonsumo" must dispose of them there or psy it sgain in the next msrket he visits. Government Monopolises. There is no "egg trust "' operating a highly organized syatem of market control con-trol through cold storage. But eggs sell for 40 cents a doien. They present pre-sent one advantage over the average egg of commerce in America. They are fresh. Tobacco is a government monopoly mo-nopoly as it was ia the Philippines when Spain held the ialands ana Filipino Fili-pino planters were compelled to raise tobsreo for the government and not allowed al-lowed to raiae it for themselves, so that ths wood sold for $1 a pound in Manila. ins sugar trust absolutely controls sugar and puts tba commodity ao high that it ia quits out of ths question for tko 8panish peasantry to use it. A heavily capitalised syndicate entered Into the business to refine boot sugar. It absorbed the supply and turned out ao much mora sugar than ths market euuM stand, that about fnuf Afths of the planta were closed. The remaining one-fifth are not paying a good dividend on the total capitalization. capitaliza-tion. Ths Spaniarda who are rich enough to eat sugar pay the piper. The sugar trust fixed the tariff on sugar to meet its needs and left Spain help-less. help-less. Ths trust is composed of cacique ca-cique of large magnitude belonging chiefly to tba clique that runs toa central cen-tral government. Bribery la Common. Formerly the government collected the taxea directly. Nowadays they are for the most part farmed out, and the contracts are in some instances aold at auction. Smuggling at sea port s and fraud all over the country mark the collection of the taxes. Enormous sums are lost to the government through bribery of customs officials. It is so easy to smuggle whole cargoes of good" into Spain that merchants who would not engage In such practices elsewhere 1 consider it quasi-legitimata in this country and do not heeitata to increase their profits by it. The ingratiating smile of the oolite and underpaid customs cus-toms officers Is aa open invitation to cross an itching palm. And the invitation invi-tation is commonly accepted. The whole system of tax collecting Is Quite as rotten with corruption ana Kaft aa the system of laying taxea. neither tba levy nor the collection are the interests of the poor considered. consid-ered. The eaciquea fix the tax to suit themselves and the machinery of collecting col-lecting then ia used by tba eaciquea for rewarding their political hangers on. Tba masses foot the bills. No Wonder Thar Emlrat. The cost of maintaining one of the most corrupt governments of modern times is capped by an annual eivil list bill that amounts to approximately 12,00(1.000. Ths royat palace at Madrid Ma-drid Is not so extravagantly built or maintained as wss Versaillea, nor ia it tha scene of debauchery that the French palaces were at various times before ths fall of the monarchy, for King Alfonao ia a well ordered 'young man who is devoted to his domestic life and his routine duties. But the burden of maintaining ths traditional dignity of the Spanish eourt ia an item of ex- nse in keeping with others borne by the impoverished Spsniarda. The eoat of what ths average American Ameri-can laboring mas regards as the neces. flsh, rsaned goods and sugar, ia aueh in epain that ths poor do not consider them necessities. , They eontent themselves them-selves with a diet consisting chiefly of vsgetables. There is occasionally a "puchero" made of vegetables of various va-rious kinds enriched by bits of fat pork or other meat, but oftener ths working man dines on vegetables alone. If he haa no sugar for his coffee hs does not feel the hardship, for as s rule hs haa as coffee, Tbs conditions of lifs are so hard in overtaxed aad underdeveloped Spain that the constant stream of emigration that drains ths eeuntry is a eause of serious eoacsrn. But nothing is done to reaovs ths csuse. , |