SPAIN: Rebel into Hero

The hotheaded, toothbrush-mustached Spanish Catalan, Luis Companys, became a rebel when he added to the chaos of Spain's October 1934 revolution by declaring his native province, rich, industrial Catalonia, an independent republic. He became a martyr when the Government sent him to jail for 30 years. He became a hero when the Left victory in the Spanish general election last month sent him and 30,000 other rebels of 1934 rollicking out of Spain's jails. This week he became a liberator when he wangled from Spain's Republican Premier Manuel Azaña "local autonomy" for Catalonia. In Spain old issues never die, and States' Rights is the deathless battle cry of Catalonia & Companys.

Moderate Premier Azaña had anticipated Companys' States' Rights demands, but he was flabbergasted last week by another demand of the Left parties that had put him into power. It was that Spanish employers be forced to take back every employe they had dismissed since Jan. 1, 1934, for any reason whatsoever. This demand covered not only Socialist work men who had murdered loyal employes and bosses during the revolutionary troubles but also embezzling cashiers and dimwit incompetents.