Abstract

Modern Spain: III. Censorship

The flood of official notes by Primo de Rivera, which all newspapers are required to print without remuneration and to which no one is permitted to reply, reveal a man whose overweening ego is childishly sensitive to criticism, vulgarly avid for flattery, arrogantly boastful, capriciously vindictive, or absurdly generous yet utterly ignorant of the broader canons of justice and equity, disconcertingly subject to sentimentality, anger, or false pride; more full of undignified pose than Coolidge with his five-gallon hats; fond of Rhetoric and inflated adjectives; condescendingly paternal yet somewhat humanized by his weakness for wine, women, and gambling, however inappropriate these may be in the administration a national enterprise.