Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

His Life and Work. 31
the general supervision of Bartolomeo Gabarro, a former
priest. But the new body failed to surmount the difficulties
of the situation, with the result that it soon became
disintegrated, owing to governmental persecution on the
one hand, lack of means and proper methods of instruction,
on the other.
The factor which brought new life into the educational
movement of Spain was Francisco Ferrer. . .
.—From
Mother Earth.
)t' «r' «i
THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN SCHOOLS
By William Heaford.
FROM its
own point of view—that of the bigot morbidly
afraid of Freethought—the Spanish Government
was guided by a sure instinct in attempcing
to suppress the schools founded by Francisco Ferrer. The
Escuela Moderna sprang Minerva-like from the fertile
brain of one man, and the destruction of that man— by
fair means or foul—would preserve intact the faith of
Catholic Spain, at least for another generation. But
the work initiated by Ferrer had rooted itself in the
very fibres of the Spanish democracy, and its activities
had become an invaluable asset of Freethought in its
wider international implications. It thus happened that
the prosecution of Ferrer ministered to the success of
the pedagogic purposes which the founder of the Escuela
Moderna had in view. From the Carcel Modelo itself,
where already he had been incarcerated for more than
seven months, Ferrer, with absolute indifference to his
fate, but watchful of the interests of the schools, wrote
to me in the following terms : "Everybody thinks I am
bound to be acquitted, but Becerra del Toro (the Public
Prosecutor) declares that he wants my head, because he
believes I must have been acquainted with Morral's intentions.
Who can say which will conquer : the truth
or Becerra del Toro with his Jesuits In the meantime
I do not complain, because the longer I remain in prison
the stronger will grow the movement in favor of the
Escuela Moderna; and I prefer that it should be so."
In the same letter (it is dated February 10, 1907) he
told me that every day he was encouraged by receiving,
fresh demands for professors, and renewed orders for