This is
Spain today

GENERALISSIMO Francisco Franco this week announced a reorganization of his
J

fascist government to adjust it to the needs of a ““modern’’ state. Actually, what

he did was to replace several Falagist politicians with
stem the inflationary spiral which is threatening th
regime. Here a correspondent describes life in Spa
feat of the Spanish Republic with German Nazi

HE moment we crossed the
French-Spanish frontier we

were struck by the masses
of soldiers, ill-dressed, often
slovenly, and the _ various
types of armed guards.

Whether they were police or
civil guards, they ‘bore pistols
or machine guns.

Why so many armed guards?

First, because of the working
conditions. Outside the town
ef Bailen I saw women at
work on the roads.

They worked in the midday
heat, their heads covered with
rags. Two of them followed
the team roller, keeping the
rollers cleaned.

The 16-year-old boy at the
place where we stopped for
the night in Bourgas worked
from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. He earn-
ed three pesetas a day, apart
from his meals. And a loaf of
bread costs six pesetas.

In another road-house the
“maid-of-all work earned 65 pe-
setas a month. At an exchange
rate of 40 pesetas to the dollar
the average rate of pay is less
than $6 a week.

Officially there isan eight-
hour day, six-day week,
though in fact, the worker is
only “permitted” to be absent
from work on Sunday, as a

“holy day.” Likewise the paid
annual holiday is “permitted.”

Then housing conditions. At
San Augustin we saw some
“new” houses. Cooking was
done on an open fire in a cor-
ner of the living room, the
smoke carried away through a
funnel-shaped opening in the
ceiling.

The floors were roughly ce-
mented, the staircase to the
bedroom a glorified ladder;
no chimney, no running water,
an electricity supply that did
not work — and no toilet.

Rents are high—650 pesetas
a month for three rooms and
key money the accepted thing.
Food, vegetables, fruit and
wine are cheap. But meat is
dear, milk rare.

Medical services musti be

seen to be believed. In La
Linea, ‘on the Gibraltar bor-
der, there is one hospital —
it looks like a prison — for
100,000 people. The “ambu-
lance” is an open trolley that
bounces the patient over the
cobbles,
’ Blind people are everywhere
living by selling lottery tick-
ets. If a worker is sick and
the doctor’s bill comes to $30
or over the government will
pay half.

economic experts in an effort to
1e shaky foundations of his fascist
in today, 18 years after Franco’s de-
and Italian fascist aid.

But what if a worker can-
not pay his half?

One doctor in La Linea re-
fused to operate on a 16-year-
old girl who had a ruptured
appendix. The parents could
not pay their “half” and the
girl died. This was during my

Stay.
*

Outside Granadas, hundreds
of gypsies live in caves. But
we saw many wandering, fil-
thy, without shelter, by the
roadside, their children naked,
the women plucking leaves to
boil for soup. All over Spain
they swarm, begging their way.

But then ,there are the priv-
ileged. Apart from the armed
individuals, these are the Fal-
angists (Franco’s party men)
and the priests. Government
employees, mostly. Falangists;
get free medical aid.

The priests are everywhere,
in charge of the schoolchild-
ren. in charge of the soldiers.
While ordinary people travel
on foot or by donkey, they
can be seen careering around
on their motor cycles and
scooters.

Three mechanics to whom I
spoke, were surprised to hear
how trade unions in Britain
have successfully fought the

employers. For in Spain, Fran-
co’s men run the unions.
Any worker who stands up
for himself soon disappears.
After the great Barcelona
strikes, world protests freed
the strike leaders, but soon

_after their release they died

mysteriously.

After the Civil war ended,
18 years ago, Communists were
sentenced to “12 years and a
day..” They .are still in prison
and the authorities’ cynical
comment is: “We didn’t say
what day.”

How do the prisoners fare?

I have heard them screaming
in the jail in La Linea. Once
I saw a prisoner walking hand-
cuffed, along the road, while
his guards beat him with their

In the cities children beg on the streets

rubber truncheons.

To’ get a break from the
brutal treatment~ prisoners
will feign illness to reach the
comparative rest and better
food of the hospitals.

They will take asafran pow-
der, which turns their skin
yellow, to counterfeit yellow
fever. They will place a spe-

‘cial bean soaked in water on

their leg. Overnight a huge
blister will swell and burst.

Anything to escape for a
while from the prison regime.

Just how widespread is the
hatred against him can -be
seen in the recent nominal
wage increases which Franco
has awarded. Even he cannot
remain indifferent to the peo-
ple’s feelings.

This, then, is Fascist Spain,
1957.

Burnerd Sho’s alfabet cawz lots of trubl fr lernd jujz

G. B. SHAW

By JACK PHILIPS

When fish turns to ghoti,

and liquor become likr;

When a league is a leg,

and a leg is a lag;

Don’t blame our pronter

and don’t blow your tawp;

It all began with Burnerd Sho,

The Irish poeat, whit and
arthur.

’ eet Bernard Shaw, who
died at age 94 in 1950; was
not the first or the last man
to entertain the idea of re-
forming the English language
and making it phonetic. As
long gs we have words like
snuff and enough, and rhyme
and grime, the field is wide
open to fonetic reformers.

If some of the U.S. experts
had their way, the opening
sentence of a buginess letter
would read something like this:

“Nelsd pls fnd owr chq n t
amt v $200.”

Or, a young man writing to
his sweetheart might express
himself in ‘this fashion:

“Drst Dring: Iv msd u trbli
& cn hrdli wt 2cuagn..Ilvyu
vry mch.” (CUR telegram, col-
lect.)

To be fair, we must admit

that these two examples are
from the simplified shorthand
school, a style of fast, abbrevi-
ated longhand. Vowels are cut
out where possible and sym-
bols and idea association play

prominent roles, thus cutting .

the use of our 26-letter alpha-
bet to a basic minimum.

But Shaw’s plan, which is
still wrapped in mystery,
would make the written lang-
uage as phonetic a& possible by
increasing the alphabet to 40
letters and by transliteration.
For example, the Londoner
says “Lester Square” for Lei-
cester Square. By the magic
of transliteration, our minister
for external affairs in Canada

- becomes Leicester Pearson.

Recently, a British judge
ruled the clauses in Shaw’s will
leaving $270,000 in a charitable
trust for the reform of the
English language were invalid.

But the Shaw Society of Bri-
tain has announced it will
launch an appeal and that
plans are under way to print
“Androcles and the Lion” in
the Shavian alphabet.

What puzzles some literary
critics is the fact that Shaw

left no completed system of

writing for- prosterity’s bene-

fit.

Supporters of the Shavian
system make the following
claims on its behalf:

+ Books printed with the new
alphabet would cost only
half the price.

+ The British Museum would
save many ~-millions*by re-
ducing shelf space.

+ Newspaper reporters could
learn the new alphabet in
a week.

Shaw, anticipating that the
courts, with their traditional
distaste for simple language,
would set his will aside,
directed that in such case the
$270,000 would be shared
equally by the British
Museum, the National Gallery
of Ireland and the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Art.

Whatever comes of this ap-
peal, one thing is certain:
There’s still a lot of room for
improvement of English as she
is writ. zi ¢

Soviet H

OVIET scientists have
converted hydrogen into
helium at normal tempera-
tures — without multi-mil-
ion degree temperatures ac-
-cording to Moscow radio.
(The combining of hydro-
gen atoms into the heavier
gas helium, through a com-
plex series of collisions in-
volving carbon and nitro-
gen atoms, is believed to be
the source of the sun’s ener-

,

8Y-

discovery

The broadcast said that —
the successful experiment
was carried out by the So-
viet Nuclear Physics In-
stitute, headed by Igor Kur-
chatov, a member of the
presidium of the Soviet
Academy ‘of Sciences.

Theoretical foundation for
the reaction had been pro-
vided in 1954 by a member
of the academy called Leon-
tovich, the Moscow Radio
reported,

MARCH 1, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10