From the article by Miquel dels Sants Oliver (Campanet, Mallorca, 1864 - Barcelona, 1920) to The Vanguard (II-1916). My own translation. Today marks one hundred and ten years since the government of the Count of Romanones officially ratified Spain's neutrality in the Great War then being waged between thirteen nations. It had been just a few days since the declaration of war between Germany and Portugal. The fighting was very intense in the theaters of operations at Verdun, the Adriatic, and the Caucasus. Miquel de los S. Oliver, trained in law, a historian, poet, and journalist, was then the director of The Vanguard and founding member of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
The present moment is anything but flattering. The situation is fraught with adversities and problems, some insoluble: strikes, demonstrations against the rising cost of living, factory closures, forced unemployment due to a lack of raw materials, and the emigration of workers and peasants spreading from province to province, from region to region. The war is lasting much longer than the optimists thought; it will probably last much longer than some now "want to believe," and will therefore return the difficulties and the pressures with greater force than before, for the suffocation of war, the pressure of war on neutral countries, will be felt with ever-increasing intensity and in a progression we did not foresee. [...] Europe has lived, for quite some time, on accumulated reserves. In normal times, there is a quantity x of natural or manufactured products far exceeding immediate and direct consumption. War depletes these reserves. [...] A war of this magnitude is bound to have repercussions in countries like Spain, neighboring or close to the belligerents, with economic and production autonomy that is far from perfect. All of this was inevitable, inexorably, as it has come to pass, but it could have been mitigated by a policy of foresight, which was urged in vain from Catalonia at the beginning of the conflict. But in the end, makeshift remedies and a short-sighted view of the crisis have been applied. [...] It is necessary for everyone to see the need to treat the conflict for what it is: a case of public salvation. It is necessary for everyone to accept this reality, abandoning vain and dangerous illusions. We are facing a serious situation that must be addressed not as an isolated conflict, nor as a series of localized and scattered problems, nor by applying topical and incoherent remedies, nor by prolonging the fiction of doctrinal and legal normality. We had to treat the symptoms of a disaster that was already foreseen in these very columns in August 1914. This is a catastrophe in which it is essential to act as in other calamities such as fires, earthquakes, floods, or epidemics—as in everything that exceeds the provisions of the law, the resources of the State's power, which, in order to be effective in these circumstances, requires the cooperation and sacrifice of all. [...] May God grant that the end of the war comes soon and that the predictions prove useless; but if the conflict continues as it has until now, it is necessary that it find us prepared for moments far more serious and difficult, perhaps, than those experienced to date. Governments and public opinion must face with courage and determination the adversities that time may hold in store for us. Let no one be deceived. We must assess the scope of the disaster and adjust it not to our desires, our comfort, or our intellectual and nervous laziness, but to the set of precautions, measures, efforts, and sacrifices that will be indispensable. We are facing a major case of public calamity, and as such, it must be treated by the country and its leaders.
Miguel de los Santos Oliver 1916
