The Fate of Spain.
The Invention of ærial warships. In 1924 an International Congress
is held at Washington. Law passed prohibiting the use of ærial
warships. Spain is first to violate the compact. The penalty is
extermination from the face of the earth.
Spain, in 1999, was reduced to a mere geographical quantity. Ever after
the Spanish unpleasantness with America, in 1898, Spain's unhappy
history had been sliding down a greased pole. From the moment that
Columbus discovered America, Spain became a spoiled child of fortune.
In 1492 Spain had a population of 40,000,000 people,--frugal,
industrious and prosperous. In the arts and sciences they led the
world in those days. In military science and navigation none could
equal them. The discovery of America utterly ruined Spain in less than
three hundred years. Spaniards thereafter ceased to depend upon their
own energy and resources. Intoxicated by the brilliant discoveries
of Columbus, the dazzling conquests of Pizarro, Cortes and De Soto,
Spain has endeavored since the fifteenth century to enslave the New
World and live upon the sweat of others' brows.
The acquisition of sudden and prodigious wealth in the New World;
the steady flow [The Dangers of Sudden Wealth.] of money brought
into Spain by slave labor; the luxury and voluptuous ease of life
thus engendered, form important factors in the history of Spain's
decline. After losing all of her vast possessions in the New World, it
was left to America in 1898 to give the Spaniards their coup-de-grâce
and check their baggage for Madrid.
In 1942 Spain ceased to possess a government of her own. After a
devastating war, (une guerre à l'outrance,) Spain ended her official
existence and was parcelled out among the European nations. England,
with Gibraltar to start with, secured a generous slice of the Spanish
booty. In the twentieth century England was still well inclined to
make the best possible use of her opportunities, and America was
always glad to advance her cause, whenever it was practicable to do so.
The annihilation of Spain came about after the following manner:
In the year 1917 the world rejoiced at the prospect of a permanent
solution of the war problem. The new devices invented and perfected by
the deviltry of man, to be employed in the destruction of his fellow
men, had reached in that year such a degree of perfection that war
simply meant the wholesale destruction or total annihilation of those
who engaged in it.
In 1917 ærial navigation was practically solved, and a new and vast
element had [A New Element in War.] opened its possibilities to
the will of man. At the close of the nineteenth century the "blue
etherial" was wholly unobstructed in its vast extent and still defied
the skill of our best inventors. Prof. Langley and his disciples had
not yet solved the great question of ærial navigation. In 1899 this
most inviting and ever tempting field of research still remained an
unsolved mystery. The old fashioned balloon, with no will or control of
its own, subject to the whim or caprice of every breath of air, was the
best apology we could offer in 1899 for purposes of ærial navigation.
In 1917 the problem of ærial navigation had been practically solved
by Tesla, in [Ærial Navigation Perfected.] whose brain many profound
secrets of nature had long been harbored. With the aid and potentiality
of electricity, (the slave of the twentieth century), ærial navigation
had been perfected. One of the first devices invented for use in the
air was the ærial warship, operated and controlled by electricity.
Loaded with a quarter ton of dynamite, these deadly warships, without
anyone to navigate them could be made to hover over a city and threaten
its population with total annihilation. They were popularly called
"death angels." The sight of one of the warships blanched the cheeks
of the most intrepid, filling the city or town over which it hovered
with utmost consternation.
The human mind recoiled with horror at the thought of war with such
fearful engines [Simply Wholesale Murder.] of destruction. In fact
war carried on with ærial dynamite ships was no longer worthy of being
called by that dignified name, it was simply a wholesale destruction
of lives and property. With strange inconsistency, the world in
1917 appeared to be willing to wage war on the "retail plan." It
was apparently willing to sacrifice human beings in terrible battles
fought between powerfully armed vessels, with heavy rifles and rapid
firing guns. The world was willing to slaughter life by one method,
yet it held in abhorrence these "death angels," which accomplished a
wholesale instead of a retail destruction of life and property. With
an inconsistency peculiarly its own, the world in 1917 appeared quite
willing that 50,000 men should be destroyed in a single battle by
rapid-firing guns, which could mow down a whole regiment at a time, but
the proposition to destroy an army of 50,000 men with one of the deadly
ærial warships, was everywhere regarded with horror. By this decision
the world placed itself in the position of a man who was willing to
be killed by the shot of a six-inch rifle, yet strongly objected on
the score of humanity to being riddled by the shell of a 14-inch rifle.
War at best is but a relic of barbarism, and, be it waged with ærial
warships, or submarine torpedoes, with Mauser rifles or smooth bore
guns, it accomplishes the same end; nations are plunged into ruin;
the family circle is broken; widows and orphans are left disconsolate.
Be this as it may, in the year 1924, a Congress of the leading nations
was held in the city of Washington, (then situated in the State of
Mexico,) and, as a result of its deliberations a solemn compact was
entered into, signed by the Ambassadors of every civilized nation, and
a treaty of the most [Ærial War Ships Prohibited.] binding character
was ratified, in which it was stipulated that under no conditions,
named or unnamed, would the use of ærial warships ever be permitted
as an instrument or medium for waging war among nations.
It was furthermore agreed and stipulated between these nations that if,
at any future period, any nation on the habitable globe should ever
permit itself to employ a system of ærial warships for the prosecution
of war, the other signatories of the treaty would make common cause
and combine in an attack against the offender. They would proceed to
invade its territory, destroy its cities and monuments, lay waste its
plains, obliterate its flag and name from the family of nations. The
remaining property of the violator of the treaty must also be seized
and sold, the proceeds to be donated to charitable deeds.
It was further stipulated between the signatory powers that the
punishment meted out to any violator of this solemn treaty would
be in the same kind as its offending. In other words, a nation that
employed the use of ærial warships and practiced the horrible system
of dropping from great heights heavy charges of high explosives upon
cities, fleets or shipping, would be wiped out from the face of the
earth and annihilated by the same methods of destruction.
The first violator of the Washington Treaty of 1924 proved to be
Spain, the [A Bad Rascal Caught.] ancient home and abiding-place of
the Holy Inquisition, that reprobate among nations; the emaciated
and wasted offspring of priestcraft. To her in 1930 was meted out
the condign punishment which she richly deserved for her flagrant
violation of the Washington Treaty in prosecuting her war against
Morocco. During this war, in the year 1929, Spain had resorted to the
use of ærial warships and by employing a fleet of "death angels,"
she had utterly destroyed the ancient city of Fez, the capital of
that barbaric North African State, reducing the city into a heap of
ruins and causing the slaughter, in less than thirty minutes, of over
175,000 people. Tangier, on the northern boundary of Morocco, a city
of 75,000 population, had also suffered the same fate from the Spanish
"death angels." Tangier, with its inhabitants, was reduced to ashes
in less than ten minutes.
In order to chastise Spain for her wanton cruelty and open violation of
the international convention of 1924, a peremptory note was served upon
the Madrid authorities, signed by the Treaty Powers, with the names
of America and England at the head of the list. It was particularly
observed that the signature of the United States of the Americas was
underscored, as though to remind Spain that America had not forgotten
the wrongs of Cuba.
On the 21st day of April, 1930, (just thirty-two years after the
declaration of our [Hoisting the Storm-signal.] first war with Spain,)
notice was served upon the Madrid authorities that within thirty days
from date, the allied nations of the world would mobilize their ærial
war fleets and proceed to devastate Spanish territory. This ultimatum
included Ceuta, the Balearic islands, as well as the ever-faithful
isles of the Canaries.
This international ultimatum was dispatched in conformity to the
terms of the Washington Treaty of 1924, which demanded, irrevocably
and without appeal, the extinction of any nation that employed such
barbarous methods of warfare as ærial warships and the practice of
hurling gun-cotton, dynamite and nitro-glycerine from the skies upon
defenceless cities.
At last Spanish pride was humbled. With a terrible doom to face,
with no friend to counsel, succor or comfort her, Spain was at last
brought to the dregs of humiliation. [Spain Sheds Crocodile Tears.]
In vain did that unhappy country plead for leniency and mercy. Spain
was willing to sue for peace and safety upon any terms, but in vain
did that stricken nation wave the olive branch.
The countenance of the world was withdrawn from Spain. The Treaty
Powers were obdurate and Spain must suffer for the terrible slaughter
of Fez and Tangier. The world in 1930 demanded that an example should
be made. It was determined to settle, once and forever, the important
question of using dynamite and other fulminants as a weapon of war
thrown down from airships. It had been determined that any nation
employing such barbarous methods of warfare should be uprooted from
the face of the earth.
The object and purpose of the thirty-day notice was to allow the entire
population, men, women and children, ample time to leave the doomed
kingdom. The Treaty [Thirty Days to Leave Spain.] Powers, in seeking
to punish Spain, did not wish to sacrifice life. The punishment Spain
was to receive consisted in the annihilation of her kingdom and the
destruction of her cities and monuments. Like modern Jews, who had
lost their Palestine, they were thereafter to be scattered over the
face of the globe, with no country and no national ensign of their
own. Such was the fiat of the nations in 1930 and this decree was
fulfilled to the letter.