A Letter from Spain to Frank Chodorov

A. Matheu Alonso

[Reprinted from The Freeman, March, 1939]

The following letter from Tarragons, Spain, was dated December 20, 1938, received January 24, 1939. By that time Tarragon a had fallen into the hands of the rebel army. We wrote to the Spanish Ambassador in Washington D. C., with the forlorn hope that he might give us the new address of Dr. Alonso. The letter will have to remain unanswered until we hear again fom our Spanish, confrere.

"Dear Mr. Chororov: I have received the number of The Freeman of the month of February. (1938). Many thanks for your appeal in my behalf.

Our movement is stopped, but as soon as the war in over. It. will be resumed with more courage than ever before. The upheaval of the Civil War bus had practical effect on the land system of Spain, equivalent to a measure of land reform.

Since July 1936 the purchase and sale of rural lands have been prohibited. Moreover, since that date the peasants of Catalonia have not paid any rent to the land owner? In the other parts of the Republic, most of the land owners have been expropriated and their estates have been turned over to agrarian collectivists.

The non-payment of rent to the landowners la supposed to be a temporary measure, but nobody seriously believes that such payments will ever be resumed.

However, the net result has been that the ground rent has been allowed to remain in the private pockets of the peasants. On the other hand agricultural products and all food supplies have reached astronomical prices due to monopolistic control of international trade by the State. Under these conditions and with the further aid of cheap money, the peasant class is becoming very rich. They are paying off their debts and mortgages. Unemployment has disappeared. It is very difficult to find servants or laborers. Wages are very high.

The tax system, however, is worse than before the revolution. They put taxes on everything, restaurant meals, hotel beds, all business profits, but nothing on land values. In short the condition of the poor and that of the peasant class has been greatly improved, that of the others is worse than ever. The power of the landowners has been transferred to the land tenants and these are the new masters.

I carry my teaching of Georgism into my professional activities as an attorney, but mainly in the chair I occupy in the National college and also in the Mastery School. I am in need of books.

I wish to be placed on the subscription list of The Freeman, but since I cannot get foreign money I can only pay you in Spanish money or stamps or ask you to give me credit.

I intend to use "Progress and Poverty" as well as some of George's pamphlets as textbooks in my classes, and a copy of the Teachers Manual used in the Henry George School of Social Science would be very useful to me. I enclose a copy of a chart I use on the blackboard in my classes. Perhaps you may use it too.

I still keep the pleasant memory of my visit to New York when I went through the school building with Prof. George R. Geiger." Please believe me, Yours very sincerely, A. Matheu Alonso