SPAIN. 



629 



strations were renewed. The expulsion of the re- 

 ligious orders was demanded. A revision of the 

 concordat requiring the Church to share in the 

 financial sacrifices necessary to relieve the treas- 

 ury of its embarrassments was not opposed by the 

 Vatican. All that the Church contributed to the 

 treasury was the fixed annual sum of 3,000,000 

 pesetas, while the hierarchy received from the 

 treasury 2,500,000 pesetas in salaries and the total 

 expenditure for ecclesiastical purposes was 41,- 

 000,000 pesetas. Only a small part of the income 

 of the clergy comes from the state. The number 

 of the higher clergy is 1,313. There were 45,328 

 priests and monks and 28,549 nuns in 1897. The 

 Jesuits, numbering 1,500, exercise a powerful in- 

 fluence through their schools. The teachers of the 

 public schools, 21,546 in number, receive wretched 

 salaries and lead a slavish existence under the 

 domination of officials and clergy. Early in May 

 strike riots occurred in Barcelona of so serious 

 a character that martial law was proclaimed. To 

 satisfy the Catalonian demand for home rule the 

 Government decided to concede a certain measure 

 of decentralization in all the provinces. A court 

 of arbitration for labor disputes was approved by 

 the Cabinet. The general election of Deputies 

 took place on May 19. Election fights and dem- 

 onstrations against octrois occurred in various 

 parts of the country. The Liberals won 238 seats ; 

 Conservatives, 81; Dissident Conservatives, 12; 

 Dissident Liberals, 13; Romerists, 14; Republic- 

 ans, 16; Carlists, 6; National Union, 10; Cata- 

 linists, 4; Socialists, 1; Independents, 6. The 

 Ministerialists numbered 238; the Opposition, 163. 

 The new Cortes were opened by the Queen on 

 June 11. In the speech from the throne it was 

 stated that the time had arrived for beginning to 

 reform the monetary circulation, both paper and 

 coin, the derangement of which was considered 

 to be the cause of the unfavorable state of foreign 

 exchanges. The Government proposed to cease 

 issues of paper and the coinage of coin silver and 

 to repay the advances of the Bank of Spain with- 

 out resorting for the present to large credit opera- 

 tions. The preceding Government had resolved 

 to cease the purchase and coinage of silver. The 

 reduction of expenses and the readjustment of 

 taxes were the means chosen for equalizing the 

 budget. The Government possessed the means 

 of fulfilling its engagements, and no one had a 

 right to doubt the nation's credit. A public- 

 works loan would be utilized for territorial de- 

 fense and the reorganization of the naval forces. 

 The congregations not authorized by the con- 

 cordat would have to submit to the ordinary 

 law, and no objection on the part of the Vatican 

 was anticipated. A bill was to be brought for- 

 ward dealing with the religious orders, declaring 

 which were legal and which could not be toler- 

 ated. A thorough reform of the social organiza- 

 tion was necessary, and this must be accompanied 

 by the development of the wealth of the country 

 and the consolidation of its finances. To this 

 end various bills were to be presented, of which 

 the principal ones dealt with electoral and munici- 

 pal reforms. Municipalities must no longer take 

 part in elections or engage in political intrigues, 

 but confine their work to purely administrative 

 matters. It was proposed, moreover, to make 

 them as far as possible autonomous and free from 

 interference from the Central Government in Ma- 

 drid. The 4-per-cent. unsealed external bonds, 

 the redeemable 4-per-cent. preference bonds not 

 presented for redemption, and the Cuban and Phil- 

 ippine mortgage bonds were to be converted into 

 internal 4-per-cent. stock. In the budget of Senor 

 Urzaiz a surplus of 30,000,000 pesetas was calcu- 



lated for 1902. His main financial measures were 

 not presented till the winter H-M-'IOM. Spain in 

 twenty years coined 1,02(5,000,000 pesetas in sil- 

 ver, obtaining a profit of 141,000,000 pesetas. The 

 Bank of Spain for several years has derived half 

 its profits from excessive note issues necessary 

 to meet the requirements of the treasury. As a 

 remedy for the fluctuations of exchange tho Min- 

 ister of Finance introduced a bill prohibiting the 

 coinage of silver, except recoinage of old coin-, 

 and authorizing the Government to reconvert a 

 part of the existing coinage into ingots for sale, 

 and gradually to issue treasury bonds to repay 

 the advances obtained from the Bank of Spain 

 during the Cuban and Philippine wars. The en- 

 forced conversion of the unsealed external debt 

 into internal bonds would leave outstanding only 

 the part held by foreigners, amounting to 1,026,- 

 000,000 pesetas. Senor Moret left the Cabinet on 

 being elected president of the Chamber, and the 

 Minister of Public Works, on July 15, took the 

 portfolio of the Interior ad interim. The session 

 was adjourned on July 22. Serious anticlerical 

 riots occurred at Saragossa, and sporadic anti- 

 clerical and labor disturbances at various other 

 places during the parliamentary vacation. The 

 Carlists made preparations for a rising in the 

 Basque provinces, but the leaders fled when the 

 Government got wind of it. Anarchistic agita- 

 tions were checked by closing labor societies and 

 arresting the leaders. The Cortes met again in 

 October. Gen. Weyler presented an army bill re- 

 ducing by 40,000 the number of recruits for 1902. 

 Companies paying interest or dividends in gold 

 were required by a Government decree to pay 

 their taxes also at gold rates. A decree of Sept. 

 19 against illegal religious associations prevented 

 an invasion of the religious orders expelled from 

 France. The budget when finally presented on 

 Oct. 28 showed an increase of 25,000,000 pesetas 

 in expenditure. Octroi duties were decreased 10 

 per cent., with a view of abolishing them entirely 

 in ten years. An increase of 16 per cent, in the 

 land tax was proposed. The tax on the revenues 

 of societies was fixed at 12 per cent., and divi- 

 dends on companies' shares were taxed 8 per cent. 

 Banks of issue were required to pay 15 per cent, 

 on their revenues and 5 per cent, on the dividends 

 on their shares. Civil pensions for officials enter- 

 ing the public service since 1900 were suppressed. 

 The Government assumed the care of primary 

 education, and the surcharge on the land tax 

 which had been given to municipalities toward its 

 support was transferred to the treasury. A bill 

 to regulate strikes declares strikes to be allow- 

 able if four days' notice is given to the authorities. 

 In public works and concessions contracts with 

 laborers must be signed in which the hours of 

 labor and the rate of wages are stipulated, and if 

 disputes arise they must be referred to the au- 

 thorities and to arbitrators. Violence or intimi- 

 dation are punishable, and strikes which stop the 

 work of an entire town or tend to produce a lack 

 of the necessaries of life or are dangerous to life 

 are illegal. The Government in November carried 

 a bill for debt conversion and one prohibiting 

 the coinage of silver. The measures applied to 

 illegal religious associations were resisted by the 

 Catholics, who considered that they ought to be 

 exempted from the law of associations. They 

 opposed also the new program of secular educa- 

 tion. Customs duties on iron ships, carriages, 

 cereals, and wines were made payable in gold. 

 The Minister of Finance offered to resign when 

 the Chamber voted 16,000,000 pesetas to cover the 

 rate of exchange on the interest on the foreign 

 debt, when he considered 9,000,000 pesetas suffi- 



