New Constitution criticized in Spain

The New York Times, 13 de diciembre de 1931

Haste in Drafting It Ascribed to Regime's Fear of Dangers Called Largely Illusory.
DRASTIC REVISION FORECAST
Reaction to the Right in the Next Elections Is Seen as Likely by the Parties in Power.
By MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO. Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

MADRID, Dec. 10.―The Spanish Constitution has been made too quickly under pressure of the desire to end the government's provisional nature in order to defend the regime from dangers believed by many to be close but which in reality are largely illusory.

The new code also is over-prolific and in great part purely theoretic. It is theory and nothing more, for instance, to declare that Spain is a republic of workers of all classes. The guarantee of work for all Spaniards is not a legislative precept but a campaign promise. It is stated that Spain renounces war, as if this depended on Spain alone. Excessive powers have been granted to Parlamient, due doubtless to fears of another dictatorship with the Senate coincidentally suppressed because it was an attribute of the monarchy ―as if it could not be one also of any other régime.

No one believes this Constitution can long endure withouth radical modifications, and the parties now dominant foreseeing a probable Right reaction at the next elections, perhaps in the coming year, wish to prolong the life of the Cortes called solely to make the Constitution.

The Constitution began under the shadow of the Catalan statute influenced by the so-called compact the members of the government had concluded with the Catalan sutonomists. Then it was attempted to make it a federative Constitution, but with general lines that resulted in leaving the door open to constant dissension. A kind of double citizenship was granted for certain reasons where Spaniards not natives are in conflict with native Spaniards. Bilingualism in institutions of learning will give rise to a sort of civil war with Catalonia, but not with Galicia nor the Basque country, where the question of the language to be taught is unimportant.

The most outstanding constitutional problem involves the separation of church and State and the position created for religious orders. The orders have been deprived of the right to teach, but this cannot be effective for a long time, perhaps years, because the State will be unable to take over the teaching of the population. Moreover resistance of a great proportion of the people who are opposed to lay instruction will have to be overcome. Action against religious orders, depriving them of certain liberties that other associations enjoy, it has not been attempted to justify.
However, in the end, when inevitable drastic revision has been achieved, the Constitution may be expected to accord well with Spanish tradition.