Since the beginning of the struggle against the mining industry in this province, we have framed this question within the context of the interests of the working class. We stated at the outset, and we have maintained since and shall always maintain, that this mining industry—in any of its forms, industrial or agricultural—is highly respectable; for us, everything that represents labor and capital was and is of the utmost importance. We held that if, to resolve this question of smoke and sulphur, formulas were or are given in the future that diminish said labor in any way, they should not be accepted.
If, in resolving this matter in the present sense, our prudent warnings have been disregarded, we find at least the consolation that the workers are grateful to us for them. They demonstrated this the day before yesterday when a commission of more than thirty individuals appeared at our editorial office to offer their thanks and encourage us to persevere in our conduct. If we required any stimulus to fulfill what we deem our duty, there could be no greater nor more honorable one than this. As for the injurious reticence, the insults, and the crudeness directed at us by El Reformista… poor colleague!… they inspire only our pity. For our part, we shall continue—and let no winds that blow move us from this path—for the conduct of these workers shall be the best balm to heal those wounds.
In the face of this, what could the insults matter to us from someone who believes that the day he donned a glove he ceased to belong to such an honorable class, or that he has ascended the social scale because, instead of earning a wage by crushing iron in a workshop, he earns it by crushing and mistreating common sense and grammar in some office?
La Provincia has suffered on account of our correspondent in Nerva for his article entitled “What is Happening,” published on the 6th of this month. The truth is that the paragraph in which he told the workers that the Albareda decree was being fulfilled because the Government relied upon the peaceful and kindly spirit of those dismissed could not escape the notice of the Public Prosecutor, especially in such critical moments as those we are currently traversing. Our generous colleague continued:
“We promise to deal with this matter at greater length tomorrow, and for today we only desire, as good Spaniards (it is plain to see!), that the Tribunal look upon our prosecuted companion with eyes of compassion. What we require is justice.”
This is what yesterday’s El Reformista said; see now what it says today: “It is not true.—The rumour that circulated the day before yesterday in this capital regarding a denunciation suffered by the local colleague La Provincia is denied. The colleague believed it so, or said it without believing it, and for that reason, we gave the news yesterday. Had we not believed it, we would not have said it, for in something we must differ from our colleague. For some time now, our colleague has not been right in the head.”
The day before yesterday, the court was in this editorial office to seize originals, copies, etc. Yesterday, our director was in court to testify. What, then, does this news mean? Perhaps where the lightning bolt against La Provincia was forged, there is repentance and fear, or is it desired to reach the very end?
Yesterday, Mr. Bath, the representative in Madrid of the Rio Tinto mines, conferred at length with the Governor. The commission of workers from Nerva has departed from Huelva without having achieved anything, and everything proceeded as it had during the other days of the year. Before their departure, the commissioners presented themselves to the Governor, stating that they represented the 400 workers dismissed from Rio Tinto, for whom they requested employment in the public works of the State.
“To Her Majesty the Queen Regent.—Madam: The undersigned, for themselves and in the name of 400 workers dismissed from Rio-Tinto, residents of the town of Nerva, from this capital—where they have arrived in commission with many others to represent before the authorities and influential persons their most sorrowful situation—implore Your Majesty to deign, for reasons of humanity, to intervene with the Government to suspend the effects of the decree of February 29th, until such time as the establishment’s operations diminish and cast into the arms of despair and the most appalling misery each of the 400 workers who have a right to existence.—For the contractors, Juan Gomez Avila.—For the mechanical fitters, Domingo Garcia Fuentes.—For the administrative interests, Juan Reyes.—For the other workers, Manuel Luis Santos.”
Another analogous message was directed to the President of the Council, to whom the authorities of the town also sent the following: “President of the Council of Ministers.—The Authorities of Nerva, who see an entire population sinking into misery due to the dismissal of 400 of its operatives initiated at the Rio-Tinto establishment,—Implore Your Excellency to deign to use your valuable influence with the Company, to the end that it might show preference to a neighborhood that possesses no other industry or element of life than mining.”
According to a letter we have before us from a respectable person worthy of the greatest credit, the day before yesterday there was a demonstration of dismissed Rio-Tinto workers in the town of Zalamea la Real, in which they asked the mayor for work to earn bread. On that same night, groups began to form in that town, and the mayor ordered them to disperse under penalty of doing so by force.
It is asserted with insistence—continues the friend who writes to us—that the workers are prowling the fields of Zalamea, gathering acorns and hearts of palm so as not to die of hunger. When they reach estates where there are guards, such as those of the “Señorito,” they do not respect them and continue gathering the fruits as if it were nothing.
This is the future offered to them by the anti-smoke party, says our correspondent and friend as a commentary on the above. Now it is known by those who have provoked this conflict: the anti-smoke party out of patriotism, politics, or personal interests; the anti-smoke party out of material necessity to live, and wherever and however they can; and the anti-smoke party, finally, because the mining companies overshadow them and expose the smallness and meanness of their conduct, their crude and personal avarice, in the face of the splendor and generous sentiments of the mining enterprises; that, that is what we say.
But it is not yet the hour for us to settle accounts; we shall settle them soon and to our complete satisfaction. Today is a day only for grieving over what is occurring in the province of Huelva—in the very province of Spain where hunger had not been known for many years, the one that was envied by all, the one known by everyone as the “Little Cuba.”
What are the notable orators doing? What are the representatives of the province doing in the Cortes and the Senate? What have they resolved in the face of the grave crisis that is now beginning, with the dismissal of only 1,000 workers? What have they obtained from the Government, or what are they going to undertake with their own capital to provide employment for that mass of workers who, through their maneuvers and only through their maneuvers, are stripped of work and condemned to die or to emigrate? What they will do, we already know, and the public knows it as well. And those who lived off the proceeds of indemnities, what do they say, what do they do? They will say and do in due course; for now, patience and calm.
(As published in La Provincia)
