SPAIN'S TROUBLES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XL, Issue 9198, 8 January 1920, Page 5

SPAIN'S TROUBLES

ONE-niG-TJNION TACIICS

Mr Frank A. Vandcrlip, writing to . the "Now York Tunes'' on labour unrest in .Spain, and how'it 'in regard- ' 'ing'.;tho' 'renaissance, of the • ountry, ' s -.state's:-—-The population ol' workers is dominated by Syndicalist-?,' utid in. Barcelona I'learned for the '£*.bt time, what syndicalism really is. ..it; there ; exemplified, syndicalism _ provides to compromise with the present order of society, It is Bolfihovik in it* aspirations'and its methods. It id'uses to accept the presont capitalistic organi- • sutioii' ol' society, and is determined to overthrow the present sot;i:il order completely in order that it itay build a socialistic .State on the ruins of the. capitalistic State. ' Its method of accomplish)^ ihis is through the agency of a synd'wate, at) organisation which might be 'inscribed in one sense as n. Universal Trade Union, embracing the- worker oi' alt trades. - Unlike a trade union, however, ihe directing force is shadowed in complete mystery. 'So ono known who directs the Kio'"Cmcnt, and when L say "no one?." I mean almost literally that even tbo workers . who are members of the -^udicato know quite ns little as> do iue outsiders The-' organisation partakes of tho secrecy of tbo Molly Maguire-j and of . the terrorism or an Italian Mafia. Somewhere back in it there is | presumably a. head or a committee, ir.it who composes that directing forto is kept' a secret from even the active workers . in the organisation. The meihod of communication is all by groups of twos. Starting with the central organisation, whatever if is, cL is presumed thai each member has: direct re- . lationship with two other members in- " the organisation. In turn, each oi" theso, other members has direct contact Vwiih two additional members,' and • so on in arithmetical progression. Tim series has been traced back, bj secret', agents of the Government thipugh v l4; w , different ■ strata, and still -ohe real leaders have not boon reached ' Gprie- ■ ' ral strikes are called merely n.i assort. ■ of organisation • gymnastics, without/ any demand being made., and; with no • one put forward with whom ' negotiation might be made to end -Jw strike. Such a strike may last a day _or a week, and as suddenly and mysteriously '■ a=! work stopped it nill be resumed. All this is done to impress the'public: , and to train the organisation. The essence of the .Syndicalist methods as exhibited in Barcelona 1 is assassination. /Uw to the thno I, was „ there, there had been 72 erdpJoyers ov industrial foremen mysteriously slain. „ •Xof a single eonvictipn had i'ollowed this great n'limber' of murders. Usually, even, no arrests weio 'made. Ii there were, witnespe? ai:tl juries wi re terrorised, judges were cd. and justice totally miscarried... , . . TJiere was clear evidence T.hat ,thn Syndicate was receiving monetary aid • from Russian Bolshoviki and. froi\» German Socialists. The head of agreat , industrial organisation, at) . >limerican who had formerly been a rosi'lent in. Mexico, told iao that in ' • Mexico he had knowu a-Up/nan'who was there a man of wealth imd an 'Gfganifcer of enterprises, parucularly of one which fo" a time cut a la:i£e figure in New York speculative eirciea* My American frientl discovered^ u'ais German acrjuainipnee in overalls rxt.worlv in a machine- shop in Barcelona, obviously there for tho solo pvjrpo^e of; dGeminating German i>ropt>.i?isida- ol unrest. .• ■■ „ . Five Russians had recently .landed , at Barcelona, raying tliey bail -b^en shipwrecked, and presenting'^eiy ap-'-." pea ranee of extreme.'; po veyty and' distress. It v. Ms discovered' that' tnoy liad under their clothing ? , wmploto lining, ol" Spanish "pesetas., I _tyas tol<l_ , the examination of a branch of a. German bank- locateil in l^arcriona disclosed payments of :K)O,(XX) pesetas to the Syndfc-ali^t representative^ and at tlie time I wa? there the manager ol , tin's bank \v!K presumed to bo m Government custody. The day after I left, the C:vil Governor, obedient to Hi rent* of yisa^sination within 12 hour*, threw up hi* post and went to Madrid. o>i.o of the results was the lal! of ihe Roma nones Mini^t.ry. The day before, thni 7 had hod a lon<* talk with th^ Wavernor ; nnd he had"" inipn'^si-d' me a'- a man of irjvrt force of ehivs-a'-tor. wit,!) sound, i"hough perhaps nofvei^y Übt'i'iU, views regarding '■■ocial conditions. Opposed to this myM.eviou«i organisation of workmen there is :;^owing up what we would term a Vigilantes, but what is calW m Catalonia o , This is now said to omhraco . 40^000 ficizons, who are banded* to^^tiier tt> fight the sort of domiiiiition :.J>^ Syndicate stands for.

Europe nowhere iiresenTf-i «1 more interesting field ih?.\\ Spain iv watch, Iho pla.v of nvrV-vi ' t'^ros t/» their rcnvtion," upon' Old Varld fc:u{itione. Spain i« a strnviio»s« i, of mturaJ •-/ •riches. . - ■ - y 1 1 was told liy :iuthonti«s- whanr 1 • \ arh l)onud to believe that Spain iias- ' the- riffT'bt, nndovi'Jmed nf-r-r.vcen to . ■be'found rtnywh<T'» in Euror^;. The fonserviitism' of the Church on ono hand r.nd tlie rapacity of iha no&fifr en %\\o othi-)- have h«ld wck tho modernisina;, af Spain, s-o thni outsxdo of the m-infipal HtiVs one i»eh as iJ h( 5 had been tvaiv.p->vtt>d ha'-k into the s-oeial atinocphere of a eontur v or two "Spain has boon hlewd w:i-n nn an-t-llifrcnt monarch. E\-erv?-noro r hep'-d "-ood wordi said oi Aiphons>o XIII "I had the interesting esperionco'of an hour's wnver^it-,011 with him, a conversation hanipwed by no eoreinonies of royal dignity.