SPAIN: Behind the Windbreaks

From Spain a TIME correspondent brought this report:

The winds that blow Spain toward economic bankruptcy are sharper now than ever before. High prices for food fan the little man's desperation to a sharper pitch. The stink of governmental inefficiency and corruption is rising above normal. But the best guess is that Generalissimo Francisco Franco will probably not reap his whirlwind just yet. For he holds as tight as ever the only windbreaks that count—the army and the police.

Walk along Madrid's Gran Via in the early evening—the hour of the Paseo. Smart women in furs and well-dressed men jostle along the avenue, huddling in their mufflers against the chill wind from the Guadarramas. Street lights gleam on neatly cleaned streets, on the chaste, well-stocked windows of expensive stores. The roadway is crowded with French, German, Italian, British and American automobiles and with rickety taxis that are always full.

Behind the discreet curtains of the cafes, crowds jam the tables drinking wine or coffee and eating little plates of grilled shrimp or fried baby octopus tentacles. Silent, grey-coated policemen stand discreetly in the background with little to do. Order is so perfect that Spaniards—against all their temperament—wait for the green light before they cross the streets.

That is show-window Spain—sleek, animated, and very, very expensive.

Life on $1 a Day. But go instead to the house of, say, a streetcar conductor about 10:30 p.m., when most Madrilenos eat dinner. Ask your host, who earns less than $1 a day, to show you his week's ration of food at controlled prices. He can put it in a soup plate. His wife may serve to a guest the best dinner they have had in weeks—soup with meat and noodles, a dish of chickpeas, cabbage and sausage, with an orange for dessert. To buy that meal for four people, he had to spend $2.28 on the black market. And in his household, where two people work, the combined income is $1.80 a day.

Most Spaniards agree that if Franco could bring down the price of food, the country would accept his police state without too much grumbling.

On the Chute. Spain's economy is sliding inevitably down the chute to bankruptcy. Since 1936 Spain has had little new machinery. Its railroads are 50 to 20 years out of date and seriously inadequate. The three years' drought has ended and reservoirs are full, but Madrid still has no electricity three days a week for lack of efficient dynamos.

The Caudillo should be given his due. Spain is orderly and there is relatively little crime—thanks to police in overwhelming numbers and varieties. In recent months there have been fewer political arrests and no political executions. The Falange is currently on the wane—to the gratitude of every Spaniard except the Falangists. There has been a certain mellowing over the years; individuals may criticize discreetly, although the newspapers are still government-cast stereotypes.