formations, and the effect upon the character of man has not been beneficial.

To all this, the nineteenth century, in its exultant pride in its conquest of the invisible forces, was almost blind. It not only accepted progress as an unmistakable fact-mistaking, however, acceleration and facilitation for progress-but in its mad pride believed in an immutable law of progress which, working with the blind forces of machinery, would propel man forward. A few men, however, standing on the mountain ranges of human observation, saw the future more clearly than did the mass. Emerson, Carlyle, Ruskin, Samuel Butler and Max Nordau, in the nineteenth century, and, in our time, Ferrero, all pointed out the inevitable dangers of the excessive mechanization of human society. Their prophecies were, unhappily, little heeded. * * *

POSSIBLE REMEDIES

There are many palliatives for the evils which I have discussed. To rekindle in men the love of work for work's sake and the spirit of discipline, which the lost sense of human solidarity once inspired, would do much to solve the problem, for work is the greatest moral force in the world. If we of this generation can only recognize that the evil exists, then the situation is not past remedy.

I have faith in the inextinguishable spark of the Divine which is in the human soul and which our complex mechanical civilization has not extinguished. Of this, the World War was in itself a proof. All the horrible resources of mechanics and chemistry were utilized to coerce the human soul, and all proved ineffectual. Never did men rise to greater heights of self-sacrifice or show a greater fidelity "even unto death." Millions went to their graves, as to their beds, for an ideal; and when that is possible, this Pandora's box of modern civilization, which contained all imaginable evils, as well as benefits, also leaves hope intact. I am reminded

of a remark that the great Rumanian statesman, Take Jonescu, made during the Peace Conference at Paris. When asked his views as to the future of civilization, he replied: "Judged by the light of reason there is but little hope, but I have faith in man's inextinguishable impulse to live."

But what can the law and our profession do in this warfare against the blind forces of nature? The law can do something to protect the soul of man from destruction by the soulless machine. It can defend the spirit of individualism. We must defend the right to work against those who would either destroy or degrade it. We must defend the right of every man not only to join with others in protecting his interests, whether he is a brain worker or a hand workerfor without the right of combination the individual would often be the victim of giant forces-but we must vindicate the equal right of an individual, if he so wills, to depend upon his own strength.

BULWARK IN THE CONSTITUTION.

Of this spirit of individualism the noblest expression is the Constitution of the United States. That institution has not wholly escaped the destructive tendencies of a mechanical age. It was framed at the very end of the pastoral-agricultural age and at a time when the spirit of individualism was in full flower. The mechanical. civilization has greatly modified the dual character of our Government.

If, however, in this respect, the Constitution has proved little more than a sandy beach, which the tidal waves of elemental forces have slowly eroded, yet we can proudly claim that in another and more important respect the Constitution has withstood the ceaseless washing of the waves of changing circumstances, as the Rock of Gibraltar itself.

The greatest and noblest purpose of the Constitution was not alone to hold in nicest equipoise the relative powers of the nation and the States, but also to maintain in the scales of

justice a true equilibrium between the rights of government and the rights of an individual. It does not believe that the State, much less the caprices of a fleeting majority, is omnipotent, or that it has been sanctified with any oil of anointing, such as was once assumed to give the monarch infallibility. About the individual the Constitution draws the solemn circle of its protection. It defends the integrity of the human soul.

In other Governments these fundamental decencies of liberty rest upon the conscience of the Legislature. In our country they are part of the fundamental law, and, as such, enforc

ible by Judges sworn to defend the integrity of the individual as fully as the integrity of the State. Therefore, the greatest service that the bench and bar can render in combating the evils of a mechanical age is to defend and preserve in its full integrity the Constitution of our fathers. Let us, then, as its interpreters and guardians-and as such the civilian soldiers of the State-do all that in us lies to preserve this inspired vision of the fathers, for again the solemn warning of the wise man of old recurs to us: "Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is hę."

AUG. 4, 1921, was a sad day for the in

habitants of the island of Heligoland. It was the seventh anniversary of the British declaration of war on Germany, and it recalled to the Heligolanders the fact that the outcome of this war was the Versailles Treaty. The connection is as follows:

This rocky stronghold in the North Sea, lying off the mouths of the Elbe and Weser Rivers, twenty-eight miles from the mainland, had been British since 1807, when the English took it from the Danes. It was ceded by Great Britain to Germany in exchange for the German island of Zanzibar in 1890, a bargain in the making of which British diplomacy, for once, was caught napping, if not soundly asleep. Bismarck had fully realized the military value of the island, but it was his successor, Caprivi, who persuaded the Marquis of Salisbury, then British Foreign Minister, to negotiate the exchange. The statement issued by Salisbury at the time showed that he was entirely blind to the weapon he was putting into Germany's hand.

The Kaiser at once removed the oldfashioned English defenses, and replaced them with armored turrets, mounting guns of heavy calibre. As a base for Germany's growing navy, it was ideal. In 1892 the

The

island was incorporated formally with Prussia, when it was provided that all natives born before 1880 should have the right to choose either British or German nationality. Until 1901 no additional import duties or taxes were imposed. Since then the iron hand of Germany has been felt more and more. Customs duties have been increased: new taxes, previously unknown, now bear heavily on the inhabitants. Many rights guaranteed by the Anglo-German cession compact of 1890 have gone by the board. The Heligolanders have organized a home rule movement, and have made appeal after appeal to Great Britain. latter country is powerless to help themand the reason is the Treaty of Versailles. By that treaty all former treaties and agreements lapsed, including that of 1890. Under Article 115 of the Versailles pact, the only right Great Britain retains is that of compelling the dismantling of the island's fortifications. Beyond that Great Britain cannot go. Hence Aug. 4 was a day of mourning in the rocky, mist-wrapped island, which longs vainly to go back to the good old days when Heligoland was a British possession. The forlorn hope of an appeal to the League of Nations was tried by the Heligolanders in September.

THEN the Mayor of Cork died

W

the windows of the British Consulate in Barcelona were smashed to the cries of " Long live the Republics of Ireland and Catalonia!" A few months later I saw the Spanish yellow and red bandera torn down from the Gran Via Arguelles, and in the Teatro del Liceo heard the "Royal March" drowned in hisses. Cambo, the leader of the Catalan Nationalist movement, recently declared that the Lliga Regionalista de Catalunyathe Home Rule League of Cataloniaconstituted the only orderly governing force in a State torn by official, military and syndicalist terror. He felt himself to be speaking for more than 4,000,000 people, occupying a territory embracing not only Catalonia, but the eastern half of the adjacent provinces; the gem-like islands of the Balearic Archipelago; the quaint, dirty city of Alguër in Sardinia, the tiny, crag-perched Republic of Andorra, and Roussillon of the French Department of the Eastern Pyrenees.

This nationalism is recrudescent, not new; and though altered in spirit and purpose, its roots run deep into the soil of prehistoric Spain. The Cataláns believe themselves to be the only true descendants of the Iberians and the Romans-the Spaniards being Celts, Goths, Arabs and lesser breeds without the law. They support this contention with semi-scientific data showing that the cranial measurements of the Cataláns are, if

not superior to, at least different from, those of the Castilians. They proudly ask if it is not true that the Ebro (Iberian) River is born in the Catalán Pyrenees and dies in the Tarragonian Sea in order to divide Catalonia for all time from the rest of Spain a postern castle-moat, as it were, to a Catalonia that should ever face toward Italy, the Mediterranean, the Orient.

Their pride in their Roman parentage is not unfounded. The Roman impress left its most indelible traces in Catalonia. The remains of the ancient walls and gates that enclosed what for a time was the greatest Roman city of the Peninsula may still be seen in Barcelona's plazas of Regomir and Angel. Did not the Romans also use the River Ebro to divide Spain into Hispania Ulterior and Citerior, the latter-the civilzed portion--remaining more or less intact down to the seventeenth century? Even now the streets bear Catalán names that are reminiscent of the Roman conquest, and so strange that the bewildered Spaniards have insisted that the Castilian equivalents be placed beneath; and the foot-pilgrim in the fertile Llanos of Urgel of the Valley of the Segres, or in the mountains behind Barcelona, will be wise

*Mr. Beals, who holds degrees from Columbia. and the University of California, was for a time Principal of the American High School in Mexico City and instructor in English to the staff of President Carranza. He has traveled extensively in the last three years, especially in Latin countries, and has contributed articles to Spanish as well as American publications.

if he freshens his Italian and French, for both will prove more useful than Spanish in communicating with the peasantry.

Nor is the history of Catalonia without glory. Following the early union of Aragon and Catalonia under the Barcelonian dynasty of the Berengueres, the two States were projected upon a brilliant imperial career. Alfonso V. died ruling over all Eastern Spain and the Balearic Islands; over Corsica and Sardinia, where the guttural dialect and the sallow skins of the people attest to this day those centuries of occupation; over Greece, Sicily, Naples and Milan. The Cataláns claim this glory equally with the Argonese, and point to the cultural prominence of Barcelona during this period, when that city rivaled Genoa and Venice as the great mart of the Mediterranean.

ΤΟ

But the tide of Aragonese and Catalán supremacy turned, leaving Castile pre-eminent. Castile owed its ascendency to fortunate marriages and a series of strong rulers. Madrid flocked the fortune-seekers and the scribblers; even the great Catalan, Boscan deserted his native tongue for the popular Castilian. These occurrences were symptomatic of the economic decline of the Mediterranean world, resulting from the break-up of the Eastern trade routes. Castile, furthering the Westward movement of discovery, exploration and conquest, embodied the spirit of the new age.

But Castilian dominion over Catalonia was not easily maintained-the memories of old glories died hard. As late as 1640 occurred the uprising of the Catalán harvesters, who on Corpus Christi Day-known as El Corpus de Sangre-descended upon Barcelona to massacre all the Castilians, singing as they came the savage "Hymn of the Reapers "-" Els Segadors." That is still the anthem of Catalonia and drives the people crazy with excitement." No wonder that in 1652 Felipe IV. was willing to cede Roussillon and the adjoining

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Catalán districts, with half of Sardinia, to the French, in the hope of extinguishing, or at least dividing, the strong local patriotism. From that day the obliteration of that patriotism proceeded apace, until by the time of the repulse of the Napoleonic invaders, Catholic Catalonia was bitterly alienated from revolutionary, atheistic Roussillon, and had completely identified its interests with those of Spain.

REVIVAL OF NATIONALISM

Yet the last sixty years have witnessed a resurrection of catalanismo, heralded by the trumpet calls of the poets, who since 1849 in annual competition for a public award of flowers and the title of Master of the Gay Science have gathered at their Jochs Florals to declaim their patriotic odes.

We all are born of the same great height,
And drink the waters from its snow:
With equal rhythm our songs we write;
Our cries in common echoes grow.*

Thus sang Margall, the most passionate of them all; and the common echoes awoke a concerted artistic, scientific, linguistic, political and economic renascence, which has strained at the barriers of Castilian paternalism and for two decades has threatened to sweep them away altogether.

The Unio Catalanista was launched upon the turbulent waters of rushing nationalism with all the enthusiasm. the bigotry and bitterness of a newfound faith. It was soon superseded by the Catalán Home Rule League, which, although backing a much more liberal and intelligent program, has had a tempestuous .career. It brunted every Central aggression and headed into the violent storm of 1909, when Catalán impertinence was engulfed and annihilated in blood and iron.

Even more sanguinary were its struggles with the Republican movement, which centred in Barcelona.

*Tots devallen de la mateixa alçada

tots bevem raigua de les mateixes neus; nostres conçons tenen igual tonada

i nostres crits desperten idéntics tonaveus.

Republicanism perforce postulated program for the whole of Spain; it could not be regional. Much of the energy of both sects was for years dissipated in bloodshed on the streets of Barcelona-a recurring spectacie relished by the aristocrats of Madrid, to judge by some of their piquant and nasty personal correspondence.

But after the bloody setback of 1909 the Nationalists, with that easy shifting of levers that makes all Latin politics so speed-burning, united with the Republicans on the sensible program of local autonomy and peninsular federation. But the Republicans, guided by the noisy Lerroux, soon betrayed the Nationalists for their own interests. Lerroux entered the Liberal Cabinet of the Conde de Romanones, the most clever scene-shifter of the Spanish political stage, on a compromise that gave the Count a free hand in twisting the neck of Catalán nationalism.

After a period of disheartening dissolution and sporadic violence, the national sentiment again flooded its banks in the violent uprisings of 1918, when secession was averted only by a clever alienation of the principal Catalán leaders with the promise of Cabinet representation and posts in the Government. Yet, in spite of such betrayals, the Home Rulers did not lose their spirit, and only await a favorable opportunity to set up an independent government. In 1919 they even expected to carry their appeal to the newly formed League of Nations, but the great powers' hasty desertion of the principle of the rights of small nations saved that august body from one more embarrassment.

WHAT CATALONIA DEMANDS

The existing program was adopted in the Congress of the League held in 1916. It was summarized in the España for June of that year, as follows:

1. The State of Catalonia to be autonomous, with sovereign control over its internal affairs.

2. A Parliament or Legislature to be responsible to the Catalán people.

3. An Executive Power responsible only to the Catalán Parliament.

4. The enforcement of Catalán law, the Parliament to be the instrument of its resurrection. (This refers to the old rights and privileges guaranteed to Catalonia by Aragón and later by Ferdinand and Isabella at the time of the union in 1649. These were abolished by Philip V. in the eighteenth century.)

5. A Catalán judicial power, with a Supreme Court to have final jurisdiction over all trials and suits of Catalán origin.

6. Official use of the Catalán tongue, and its unrestricted use in all private and public activities.

7. A federated union, Spanish or Iberian, directed by a central power which shall have charge of foreign relations, interstate relations, the army and navy, communications, money, weights and measures, customs, &c.

With this program Catalonia for the first time enlisted strong sympathy in other parts of Spain. Bitter experience has taught the futility. of fighting Castile single-handed. Mere Catalan independence has been recognized as too narrow an aim, and by example and propaganda the Home Rulers have stimulated that disintegrating sectionalism-the love for the patria chica to be found among the Basques, the Galicians, and to some extent among the Andalusians.

This program has also won the support of the Liberals. Their position is best stated by Señor Luis Araquistain in his "Spain in the Crucible" (Barcelona, 1921, Page 118) :

At the same time that Catalonia demands autonomy, it expresses the desire that other districts also organize themselves in such manner as to promote their economic development, with the double objective of energetically constricting the Spanish State and of paving the way for the political reorganization of the country, perhaps of the Iberian Peninsula, on a federative basis, with Catalonia as the guide and centre. This idea of an Iberian federation, freely concerted, is not foreign to the minds of the leaders of the Catalán movement for autonomy. It is an idea so momentous that it cannot fail to preoccupy the thought of any individual in the Iberian Peninsula who has any historic understanding. Iberia, or the United States of Iberia, would then have four large capitals-four ports of