In the middle nineties, when the
Socialist vote in Germany was already approaching the two million mark,
and Belgium was rocked by great Socialist demonstrations, and the
Socialist deputies in the French Chamber numbered fifty, and even England
was beginning to toy gingerly with new schemes of social reform, by
Bismarck out of Lassalle, the total strength of the Socialists of Spain
was still not much above five thousand votes. In brief, the country seemed
to be removed from the main currents of European thought. There was
unrest, to be sure, but it was unrest that was largely inarticulate and
that needed a new race of leaders to give it form and direction.
Then came the colossal shock of the American war and a sudden
transvaluation of all the old values. Anti-clericalism got on its legs
and Socialism got on its legs, and out of the two grew that great
movement for the liberation of the common people, that determined and
bitter struggle for a fair share in the fruits of human progress, which
came to its melodramatic climax in the execution of Francisco Ferrer.
Spain now began to go ahead very rapidly, if not in actual achievement,
then at least in the examination and exchange of ideas, good and bad.
Parties formed, split, blew up, revived and combined, each with its sure
cure for all the sorrows of the land.
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