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5o4 IN SPAIN AND IN EXILE [chap. xxv.
I went from Madrid to San Sebastian by motor-car,
and the country I passed through left a deep impression
in my mind, particularly the beautiful old town of Burgos
with its splendid cathedral, and the ever vivid memories
of the Cid. The corn was already ripe all over Old
Castile; the Basque country with its green mountains,
its beautiful groves of chestnut trees, its large square
farms surrounded by orchards, its magnificent roads, was
most restful to the eye after the sad but grand aridity
of the interior of the country. The population seemed
to me to be dignified, sober, polite, as undaunted in work
as they have always been in the fight. It is quite usual
to describe Spain as a backward country and her
population as wretched. In any case this does not strike one
at first sight. But well-informed persons have explained
to me the difficult position of the Spanish people—of
the peasants and workmen—due to the very small
revenue from their properties, and the low wages paid
for labour; this state of things is mainly owing to
Spain’s difficulty in competing—as regards
production—with the other European countries and
particularly with America. Centuries had been wasted
for the industrial and economic organisation of the
country: Spain is behindhand with her neighbours
and hence in an inferior position in the general
competition.
Moreover, for centuries the Spanish nation has
chiefly produced devotion, heroism, moderation; a time
came when these " commodities " were no longer
marketable, because the preference of the European public had
been given to great industrial effort, and to the rapid
increase of material needs. The events which have just
occurred have caused many long forgotten things to
become fashionable again, and will force the entire
world—if it does not wish its civilisation to perish in
terrible convulsions—to moderate the appetites of the
few and the many, to simplify and restrain their needs.
This evolution will be advantageous to the Spanish
people if they are capable of preserving their old
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