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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
' ATXUMTTA, GA., 5 NOBTK fOBSYTH ST. \
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SEMI-WEEKLY JOCKS AL, Atlrnta. Gt.
The Selectmen.
The mobilization of the first quota of Selectmen
to be trained for the National army marks a shin
ing epoch in the life of the Republic and in the
lives of the men themselves. Never was democracy
more truly exemplified than in the mustering of
these sturdy young legions. Every man of them
has been called and chosen under the same law,
upon the same basis and for the same exalted pur
pose. There are no distinctions of wealth or posi
tion or family influence or any artificial standards
amongst them. They stand, one and all, on the
broad, high ground of Americanism, freemen and
comrades In their country's cause. Theirs indeed is
a national army and a democratic army. Its mem
bers are drawn from every corner and every nook
of the Union: from city and hamlet and country
side: from shops and banks and farms and offices;
from the homes the highest and the humblest. Into
its making, go the whole nation’s hearj and sinew;
a more united, more intensely loyal people will be
the result.
It is to the recruits themselves, however, that
the prime interest and honor of the day belong. In
entering the cantonments they are entering world
history, as men especially chosen for the most mo
mentous duty that ever summoned defenders of
freedom. They are in deed and truth SELECTED
men —selected as the hardiest, soundest, ablest of
their fellow Americans for the chief work of thia
heroic time: selected to fight alongside the soldiers
of France in the supreme hour of human history;
selected to bear aloft their nation's faith, to vindi
cate their nation's rights and to make their home
land forever secure against brutal Prussianism. Os
all honors that men will covet in years to come,
none will stand out so starlike as that of having
fought for America and humanity in these world
changing times. The Selectman of today is the
hero of tomorrow.
The friends and kindred of these gallant young
men have good reason to feel proud of them, and
good reason, too, to feel assured that every phase
Os their camp life will be as wholesome and as
happy as a resourceful and solicitous Government
can make it. Considerations of efficiency alone
would demand that the health of the men be scrup
ously safeguarded and that the camp environment
be kept purged of demoralizing influences. To this
sound military policy, the Government adds a
hearty, human interest in its soldiers' wellbeing.
There is this vast difference between fighting for
the Kaiser and fighting for Uncle Sam: the Kaiser
regards his troops as so many machines; Uncle Sam
regards his as so many MEN.—so many sons and
brothers.
Co-operating with the Government and supple
menting its work in this connection are numbers
of patriotic agencies, local and national. In Atlanta,
for example, committees representative of the com
munity's best citizenship and broadest sentiment
have been busily engaged 1 for months past on plans
looking to the interest and entertainment of the
men who are to be trained at Camp Gordon. The
city, keenly mindful of the honor of their presence
and cordially concerned in their welfare, will do
its utmost to make their leisure hours enjoyable.
That is the American spirit, the American attitude
toward the National army.
The family and friends of every Selectman,
therefore, may rest assured that his interests are
at the country's heart and are vigilantly guarded.
They have the satisfaction of knowing that the reg
ularity and discipline and outdoor life of the can
tonment are giving him new vigor of body and of
character. They have the keen satisfaction of
knowing that in the days ahead as well as now he
will be under carefully trained, competent officers,
and under a system which is by all odds the most
efficient the world has known and at the same time
the most solicitous of its human units. But their
highest satisfaction is in the honor that he is earn
ing for them and for himself as he answers his
country’s call and proves how sublime a * thing is
duty. '
/ he Kaiser's Confidence.
In permitting the full publication of the Pres
ident’s reply to the Pope, the Kaiser gives the im
pression of complete confidence in the loyalty of his
subjects. Perhaps he calculated that inasmuch as
the message would reach them eventually by one
channel or another, he could best minimize its ef
fect by tossing it over to them himself, along with
the contemptuous and angry comments of the Jun
ker-ridden press. It may be that the Kaiser will
regret his decision, for there is a force and fair
ness in the straightforward American message
which, soon or late, ought to appeal to the war
wearied German masses.
But there is no reason to expect anything like
a favorable response from them in the near future.
People who have been bred to autocracy and taught
from infancy to worship their tyrant are not likely
to wax suddenly enthusiastic over hearing him de
scribed as he really is. It is not especially flatter
ing to be told that one has been bowing down to
a lying despotism. Even those Germans who insist
upon sweeping reforms in their Government are
disposed to resent outside criticism. It will take
time for the persuasive medicine of the President’s
message to work with due efficacy on the German
mind.
The Chief significance
of Southern Prosperity
After a recent visit to the South and a study of
its economic conditions. President C. H. Markham,
of the Illinois Central Railroad, declared that this
region offers extraordinary opportunities. Ampli
fying his opinion, he said;
“The value of the cotton crop last year
amounted to $1,500,000,000. This year the
value will be $2,000,000,000, and this
$1,000,00/1,000 more than two years ago.
Cotton prices continue high. The crop will
equal a medium one, w’ith high pricey, which
is most desired. Sugar, rice, tobacco and corn
are all good crops and command good prices,
suggar selling for double what it did three
years ago. Cars are moving freer, and there
will be no serious trouble moving crops this
fall.”
From whatever standpoint Southern conditions
are viewed —whether that of the railroad executive,
the banker, the merchant, the manufacturer or ftie
farmer —the prospect is inspiriting. There is
nothing one-sided about this prosperity, and noth
ing of a mushroom nature. Cotton is but an inci
dent in the South’s present good-fortune and
happy outlook. Indeed, it is largely to the subor
dination of cotton to food crops that the soundness
of existing conditions is due.
Had cotton been planted to the exclusion or
neglect of food staples, the high prices of the for
mer would have proved profitless, for the grower's
earnings would have been consumed by provision
bills. As it is, howqver, his abundant food- har
vests, by far more valuable within themselves than
the greatest cotton crop would be, will enable the
Southern planter to keep as clear profit a large
portion of his cotton money. Our agriculture be
ing better balanced than ever before, our entire
economic structure is more stable and all fields of
business more flourishing.
That the demand for Southern products will
continue undiminished throughout the war period
and on into the years of peace, is the judgment of
most competent observers. Mr. Frank Hawkins,
who has just returned from New’ York, where he
conferred with bankers and business leaders, states
that he found opinion to this effect virtually unani
mous.
“It was pointed out,” he says, “that the
world must have our cotton, our turpentine
and naval stores, our lumber, our foodstuffs,
in fact, everything we grow and make. The
demand for them after the w’ar will be. if
anything, greater and stronger than today.”
The chief significance of these prosperous con
ditions are that they enable the South to play a
sinewy and vigorous part in the great tasks w’hich
confront the nation. It is a matter of patriotism
as well as self interest to keep all of our productive
sources uncommonly active and all of our economic
processes uncommonly efficient during the w’ar
stress and responsibility, for this is a war of eco
nomic forces no less than of military strength. The
South should rejoice, therefore, not simply because
it is prosperous but because through its prosperity
it can render a larger measure of service to the
cause for which America and its liberty-loving
allies are fighting. .
’■ - '
The small boy realizes that school offers no
grounds of exemption.
The Call for Cattle.
For the entire country and particularly for the
South, there is a vast deal of significance in Mr.
Hoover’s figures showing a decrease of one hun
dred and fifteen million head in the world’s supply
of meat animals since the beginning of the war.
Most of this enormous loss is in belligerent Europe
and is attributed to “the necessity of killing breed
ing and stock animals to keep up the current press
ing needs for meat, the diversion of men from stock
raising into the armies and to the impossibility of
raising enough feedstuff in the w'arring countries
to sustain normal beards.” But the live stock short
age in Europe affects the whole world and will
continue to affect it for years to come. The imme
diate problem of feeding the armies will be fol
lowed by the problem of restocking exhausted
farms and of supplying the civil populations with
the increased meat ration which they probably
will demand upon the return of peace.
It is largely to America that the vitally inter
ested nations, particularly our allies, look for sup
port in this matter. Fortunately, our resources are
equal to the demand if we duly develop them. But
there must be an unprecedented increase in our
production of food animals. At the beginning of
the war the United States lacked a great deal of
producing enough meat for its own needs much less
supplying those of other countries. The rewards
of efficient animal husbandry are now so rich,
however, and so well assured for many years to
come, that we may expect it to be prosecuted with
extraordinary vigor wherever natural and economic
conditions permit. Nowhere are those conditions
more favorable to live stock industries than in the
South. It is to States like Georgia that the na
tion-wide and world-wide needs described by Mr<
Jteover present the greatest opportunity and the
greatest obligation.
Argentine should know by now that German
promises, like glass, should be handled with care.
Winter Food Crops.
The Augusta Chronicle directs attention to the
timely and very Important fact that we are now at
the point "where we can begin to prepare most ef
fectively for wheat planting.” Agricultural author
ities. as the Chronicle recalls, have repeatedly urged
better soil preparation as the chief need of wheat
growing tn the South. Therefore,
This is the logical time to begin to plan
for fall and winter farming. It is not only our
duty to contribute our share toward feeding
the armies at the front by planting as large
an acreage of wheat as possible, but we shall
also be well pleased with the direct results ob
tained therefrom for ourselves.
Georgia and its neighboring States have made
a magnificent showing in food production during
the past spring and closing summer. But if they
are to meet their own needs affd contribute duly
to the country’s urgent needs, it is essential that
they continue the planting of food crops with un
flagging vigor.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1917.
WASPS AND COPPERHEADS.
By Dr.. Frank Crane.
I WOULD like to serve notice right now upon
the various ladies and gentlemen who are
burdentug my mail with appeals to help
them cripple the government, discredit the presi
dent and members of his cabinet and arouse senti
ment against one or another of our allies in this
war that their letters go straight to the omnivorous
wastebasket.
1 am a pacifist. That does not mean I am pas
sive, much as the two words sounds alike. It means
I am for peace. And the only way to get peace is
to put out of business the German military govern
ment, which has broken the peace of the world and
will menace it as long as it continues its present
personnel and policies.
lam for this war. We are in it. We have ad
vertised our ultimatum, that the w’orld must be,
made safe for democracy, and if we go back on that
in any way, if we do not make good, even to our
last man and our last dollar, I should be disgusted
with and* ashamed of my country, and be tempted
to exclaim:
“Then bear me from the harbor’s mouth, wild
wave;
I’ll seek another shore.”
I believe in orderly representative government.
We elected our rulers and I’m in favor of standing
by them, and I don’t want to join any Cave of
Adullam group of malcontents whose activities are
employed in heckling our lawfully elected gover
nors and accusing them of incompetency or treason
if they do not listen to every wild advice.
I have no use for slackers and do not want to
join any society for defending them.
I have nothing but anger and contempt for the
buzzards that are hovering around Washington
trying to make fortunes out of the government’s
necessity. I don’t want any of their literature nor
to listen to their slanders of government officials.
I don’t want to hear diatribes" against England.
She has her faults, but she’s the bulwark today
that has saved the world from overflow by the
hideousness of the Hun invasion.
I don’t want to hear anything about a peace
that does not imply that w’e first lick Germany and
lick her thoroughly.
Uncle Sam has his hands full now. He’s got
his coat off and is in the fight. His quarrel is just.
His heart is sound. He’s my Uncle Sam and is
fighting for me and my children’s children.
And I want no part nor lot with the damned
nasty wasps and copperheads that are trying to get
profit or notoriety by bedevilling the old gentle
man while he’s busy.
(Copyright, 1917, by Frank Crane.)
♦ y
GEORGIA’S PATRIOTIC PRESS
INCENDIARY”PUBLICATIONS.
(Griffin News and Sun.)
The mails are at last to be absolved from the
fearful responsibility ,of transmitting such incendi
ary publications as the Appeal to Reason, more ac
curately called by many\“The Appeal to Treason,”
and other publications, which revel in filth and
thrive on falsehood. A number of these publica
tions seldom contain a line of news or word of
wholesome truth, but concentrate their endeavors
in lambasting a real or imaginary evil in an en
deavor to create untimely strife.
The postoffie’e » department cannot deal too
severely with the editors, who, just at this time,
are specializing in abusing the administration and
selective draft law. Men who possess neither loy
alty or judgment should be compelled to respect
the laws of the land and it is gratifying to know
that relief is in sight.
These eternal agitators care Ititle for the issues
involved and much for the money and personal
aggrandizement derived from campaigns of slime
and muck raking. The News and Sun has always
stood four-square for free speech and the freedom
of the press, pulpit and individual, but desires to
register an objection against the fellow who criti
cises everybody and everythnig not in accord with
his jaundiced views.
The law guarantees freedom of speech and legal
action, but that is no reason why a man should de
• generate into a common scold, liar and public
nuisance. In perilous times or war traitors should
be guarded against, and any man who opposes and
strives to defeat the operations of a necessary law.
is to say the least, an undesirable citizen. He may
not be a traitor in the accepted definition of the
word, but he is traveling in that direction.
«.
The Old Roman Valor.
The Italians’ capture of Monte San Gabrielle
marks another stride in one of the war’s most ar
duous and most heroic offensives. General Cador
na's men now hold the entire chain of mountains
dominating Gorizia and thus are well situated to
drive a wedge into the enemy’s lines. They have
won this vantage ground like that of Monte Santo
against almost immeasurable odds. Fighting along
a frontier which afforded the enemy a veritable
Gibraltar of natural defense and which moreover
had been skillfully fortified, the Italians have man
ifested anew the hardihood and valor of their Ro
man forbears. Nothing less than those stalwart
virtues could have sustained them through their
grim, soul-trying task. The crest of the long, uphill
adventure having been won, the weeks ahead
should yield them truly decisive results. The cap
ture of Trieste is now among the clear probabili
ties. Every effective blow against Austria weakens
the Teuton armor at the spot where it is likely
first to crack. Thus the Italian offensive is a pecu
liarly important part of the Allied plan.
a •
Cows and Cowcatchers.
The Thomasville Times-Enterprise calls season
able attention to the food losses caused by cattle
straying on railroad tracks. Quoting reliable esti
mates to the effect that some seven million dollars’
worth of cattle are thus killed every year, the
Times-Enterprise remarks that "if owners would
take more precautions to keep their live stock
from the railroad right of way, they would save
that much food for the country at a time when it
is most needed.” The fact that these losses are
widely scattered does not lessen their significance
in the nor does the fact that the rail
roads pay out large sums to the owners restore the
lost food value to the country’s sorely taxed supply.
QUIPS AND QUIDDITIES
A brisk young Irishman entered a jeweler’s
shop in Belfast last week to buy a ring for his
wife-to-be. After waiting until he could obtain the
ear of the polite assistant he whispered hoarsely.
“Give me the best ring you have in the shop.”
"Eighteen carats?” queried the assistant.
“No,” snapped the customer, drawing back in
an offended manner. “ ’Atin’ onions, if it’s any of
your business. '
• • • * •
A had borrowed a kettle from B and upon re
turning it was sued by B because it had a large
hole which rendered it unserviceable. His defense
was this;
“In the first place, I never borrowed any kettle
from B; secondly, the kettle had a hole in it when
I borrowed it; thirdly, the kettle was in perfect
condition when I returned it.”
THE CHILD LABOR LAW—By Frederic J. Haskin
WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 3.—On September
1 the child labor law went into effect.
The United States government has consti
tuted itself the guardian of all children under four
teen years of age and some children under sixteen
years of age, depending on certain circumstances.
It will not permit any child under fourteen to
work in a cannery, workshop or cotton mill, and it
1 forbids any child under sixteen to work in a mine
or quarry.
, t * *
Many parents who for years have enjoyed a
comfortable income by the hire of their progeny, as
well as many employers who have enjoyed an even
more comfortable income by the same circum
stanace, are indignant. In many places parents are
constructing clever plans for evading it, and in
North Carolina the matter has already been taken
to court on the grounds that the law is unconsti
tutional.
A visit to the United States children’s bureau,
which has been charged with the execution of the
law, might prove enlightening to the North Caro
lina agitators and save rebellious parents a great
deal of useless thinking. The children’s bureau has
added a whole new department to its organization
for the sole purpose of seeing that the child labor
law is enforced. There are professional investiga
tors, detectives, lawyers, doctors and sociologists in
this department, all trained specialists in child
welfare work.
The chief is a Chicago women, Miss Grace
Abbot, who w r as associated with Jane Addams at
Hull House for several years. “I am very glad the
matter has been taken to court,” she asserted when
asked what she thought of the North Carolina ac
tion. “The sooner it is fought through the courts,
the sooner we will get a decision.” Obviously,
Miss Abbot is not kept awake nights • worrying
about an adverse decision.
Miss Julia Lathrop, head of the children’s
bureau, deserves great credit for the law. She has
long been investigating the question of infant mor
tality in various parts of the country wjjth an idea
to improving, if possible, some of the alarming con
ditions that impair child life.
In this investigation Miss Lathrop soon discov
ered that the great secret of infant mortality was
economic conditions. She found hundreds of homes
where fathers made such low -wages that mothers
were compelled to work too. The babies were left
at home alone all day and at infrequent inter
vals; the homes themselves were naturally un
kempt, the ventilation Inadequate and the flies
prolific. Consequently, many babies die, -which is
fortunate, for those who remain are escorted to the
industrial market at the earliest age at which they
can be smuggled in—usually under twelve —and are
forced to become a part of the Industrial routine.
In some states this means—or meant up to Septem
ber I—workingl—working ten hours a day, or ten hours a
night, according to the shift. The new federal law
establishes eight hours as the maximum working
day.
, Now, of course, the great responsibility for
child labor rests upon the parents. They are usual
ly quite willing to exploit their children for the
sake of Increasing the family income. Many of them
are immigrants who can neither read nor write,
and hence they do not see the necessity of educa
tion for the younger generation. The one thing
they recognize the value of is money, and their
sole problem is earning it in the swiftest and surest
way possible.
In this one particular the lower classes and the
upper classes meet on common ground. It is the
parents of the middle class who put the value of
children above money, who bring them into the
world deliberately, and afterwards struggle and
sacrifice to make them sturdy and well-educated
citizens. Nevertheless, many children of this class
also are in urgent need of governmental protection,
it has recently been shown. s
While the parents are primarily responsible,
however, it is only through the employers that the
government can control the exploitation of children.
Parents even in the face of a law to the contrary
would doubtless invent and connive ways of work-
| POWERFUL GERMAN PROPAGANDA—By Herbert Corey
ADRID. —German propaganda in Spain has
M been intelligent and successful. It has
cost the German government and well-to
do German individuals several mints full bf money.
It has employed practically the entire time of the
80,000 Germans who are marooned in Spain. It
has been direct, cynical and brutal. But it can
not be denied that the propagandists have ac
complished their objects. These seem to have been
three in number;
To keep Spain from joining the war on- the
side of the allies;
To establish such firm relations of personal
friendship and of commercial understanding that
the financial exploitation of Spain by Germany will
be an easy matter after the w’ar;
To keep Spain’s politics in such a state of tur
moil as to make the country an embarrassment to
the allies, and under cover of this “active” neutral
ity to conduct such overt games as provisioning
submarines from harbors along Spain’s coast.
German drummers are even now making their
regular calls upon the trade and showing samples.
They cannot deliver goods, of course, but they can
take orders to be placed after the war, and they
can and do compare their own goods to the dis
favor of the merchandise being shown by the allies.
The prices they are quoting for after-the-war de
livery are ridiculously low as compared to those
being obtained under present conditions.
The 8,000 Germans who were in Spain at the
beginning of the war have Increased to 80,000 by
the arrival of homeward-bound Germans who could
get no further and of a recent flood of new arrivals
from Germany, posing as Swiss, who have managed
to get through Switzerland and France. A good
part of the homeward-bound ones were hard up,
if not penniless, shortly after getting to Spain.
Every man who proved his worth went on the
German payroll as a spy; it is said here. The Ger
man government is not a charitable institution.
Those who got on the payroll had to produce some
thing besides the need of money to stay there.
They spied around Madrid like a set of mountain
engines going through a railroad yard. They were
just as noiseless and Inconspicuous—and efficient.
"It was rough stuff,” said an American, “but
they made it work. They got the vital statistics
about every newcomer in town, if they had to go
through his baggage. If they suspected him of
possessing interesting Information they fairly hung
over his shoulders if he had a conversation in a
public place I don’t know how much real good
they did, but they certainly w’orked at it.”
Bribing Newspapers ♦
In the propaganda department they were as
open as if they had been buying wood. Spanish
newspapers are frequently approachable, through
the business office. In normal times the advertis
ing is scanty and not well paid for, and the top
most circulation of any paper is 100,000. The
average of the more prosperous is from 6,000 to
30,000 circulation. When war came the circula
tion fell for a time and the advertising almost dis
appeared. It was the Germans’ chance. <
“This paper received so much and that one so
much.” one is told here. The names and_sums are
freely hawked about. In consequence there were
some astounding changes of front. Papers which
had been wramly pro-ally one day appeared quite
as warmly pro-German the next. At one time it is
stated there were but eleven papers of any stand
ing in Spain which remained pro-ally. This is the
more remarkable, as observers agree that the
country was warmly French in sympathy before
the war, and the papers were very generally pro
ally in tone immediately after the war began.
These sums were not all disbursed by the Ger
man government. Gomez Carrillo, a Spanish writer
of violently pro-ally sympathies, comments admir
ingly on the trained disciplined manner in which
the German companies and individuals here spent
money to further their national cause. A German
who is said to have done the largest business with
ing their children. But when employers are sub
ject to fine and imprisonment every time they em
ploy a child under fourteen years old, it is prac
tically certain that they are not going to take
any chances. Thus the child labor law places the
responsiblity upon the employers. It reads:
“That no producer, manufacturer, or dealer t
shall ship or deliver for shipment in interstate or
foreign commerce any article or commodity, the \
product of any mine or quarry, situated in the
United States, in which within thirty days prior to
the time of removal of such product therefrom,
children under the age of sixteen have been em
ployed or permilted to work; or any article or
commodity the product of any mill, cannery, work
situated in the United States, etc.”
But in enforcing this law, Miss Lathrop and
Miss Abbot of the children’s bureau intend to
leave no loophole uncovered. They are going to
investigate the registration of* children by parents
as well as their employment. Birth certificates or
other absolute evidence must be produced by
to show that their children are of employ
ment age, and these will be closely scrutinized by
public inspectors. Only the other day a parental
fraud was disclosed by a vigilant inspector in a
small manufacturing town. The parents had
brought an old decrepit family bible as evidence
that their little daughter was fourteen. On the M
fly-leaf was the neat inscription, “Martha Le
jowsky—or some such name —Born July 24, 1903.”
The child was rather large, and the inspector
would have passed her except that it occurred to >
her strange that the birth of only one child should
be recorded on the fly-leaf—and that in a. fine
Spencerian hand —when there were eight, children
in the family. Besides, the ink looked exceedingly
fresh. She decided to do a little third degree
work.
“What did you say your daughter’s name was—
Martha?” she asked.
“Ya,” replied the mother.
“Well, I am sorry, but there is some mistake.
The name here is not Martha.”
She pushed the bible towards them, but they
made no effort to look at the name. As she sus
pected, they could neither read nor write English.
And they were so angry with the Americanized
friend who had made the mistake for them, that
they confessed the whole thing quite naively.
The need for such a restriction as the present
child labor law has been felt for many years. One
by one states themselves took the matter into their
own hands and prohibited the employment of
children under fourteen, in various occupations,
and in some states even greater restrictions have
been placed upon the employment of children than
are contained in the new federal law. California, (
for example, has an age limit of ten years for boys i
and eighteen years for girls engaged in any street
occupation; of fifteen years for both if employed
by a mercantile,’ manufacturing or mechanical es- ■
tablishment, workshop, office, laundry, place of
amusement, restaurant, hotel, apartment house, er
rand, delivery and messenger service, and of six- i
teen years if engaged in any dangerous occupa
tion. Moreover, the eight-hour day, forty-eight]
hour week, is sustained by law.
On the other hand, North Carolina sets the
age limit for employment in mines at twelve years;
at thirteen years for employment in factories, and
sustains an eleven-hour day, or a sixty-hour week.
The state objected to the federal law on the ground
that the work of children was necessary to the
support of their families, yet an investigation made
of one mill district disclosed the fact that the av
erage family income was $25.50 a week. In one
family where the father was a roving hauler, the
mother stayed at home, and four girls and one boy
worked In the mill, the weekly Income was $47.98
a week.
Which goes to show that child labor is not an
economic necessity in most cases, and where it is,
It is up to the Associated Charities to lend a
hand. For from now on the children’s bureau is
pledged to keep every child under fourteen in
school, and give him his chance, no matter what
may be the ideas of his parents.
Spanish Morocco before the war Is reputed to have
spent millions from his own pocket. A German
manufacturer of clocks and watches in Madrid is
said to have bankrupted himself in the same man
ner. Scores of others have Injured their financial
standing through their expenditures is enterprises
calculated to aid Germany or embarrass the allies.
“The extent of the provisioning of German sub
marines off the coast of Spain will never be known,”
said one man. “Spain has a coast line 2,000 miles
long, largely deserted and in some sections hardly
guarded at all. The provisioning of the U-boats
was for a time an open matter, although this has
been put an end to in large part. It is reported
that the expenses of these enterprises were paid
entirely by the Germans resident in Spain, and that
the German government was not put to a peseta of
cost.”
There is a strong church party in Spain, too,
although the church does not enter into Spanish
politics to the extent westerners have been taught
to believe. Its influence is mostly among the wom
en. and the Spanish man very often holds the cyn
ical view that the church “is a place to be mar
ried in and burled from.” Nevertheless the church
Influence is not to be scoffed at, and the clericals
stirred up feeling among their adherents against
France, because of the disestablishment of the
church in France some years ago.
“The kaiser is an instrument raised up by
God to punish the atheists who laid impious hands
upon the holy vessels,” the clericals declared for
a time.
This has very largely been put an end to. The
clergy in Spain have been notified by authority to
let secular affairs alone during the war, It is re
ported. At all events, their activity has abated.
Close observers discount the effectiveness of the
clericals’ campaign. One man who is in a posi
tion to .very accurately assess the value of the
clericals’ efforts said:
“I know many families in which all the women
are pro-German, and every man pro-ally. A strong
sentiment has grown up in Spain of recent years
against the Intrusion of the church in politics.”
The net result of the German propagnada is
not to be underestimated. Pro-ally Spain at the 1
beginning of the war is not now nearly so pro
ally. Spain has been phenomenally prosperous dur- >
ing the w r ar. This statement rests not only upon
the common testimony of business men but on the
explicit declarations of Count Romanones, the
former premier, and Senor Dato, who is premier
today—and tnrough the widespread investments
made by the Germans the moneyed classes are
almost uanimously with Germany.
One oonsequence was that Romanones fell
from power when he rebuked Germany for her
submarine attacks on Spanish boats. Another was
‘.hat while it was thought possible at one time
that Spain would join thje allies it is not now con
sidered at all probable. The allies have wanted
Spain in the conflict, not only for the sake of the
man-reserves that could be drawn upon, and for
the moral effect of the last great European na
tion declaring against the central powers, but in
order that Spain may become a party to the trade
compact which is to hold Germany in check after
the war.
It is this lattdr item which is of the greatest
importance to Germany, on the opinion of observ
ers here. German}" has succeeded in a “peaceful
penetration” of Spain commercially during the
war to an extent not realized until recently by the
allies. Germans have invested not less than $400,--
000.000 in Spain during the war. and they plan a
vigorous commercial campaiari in the only great
neutral market left to them after the war.
“Unless effective action is taken,” according to
3 business man of high standing here, “the end of
the war will find Germany practically in posses
sion of one of the great undeveloped markets of
Europe. To make sure of this they need only to
maintain their present position of commercial *
friendship and to keep Spain out of the war-”
