One Word

While the U.N. has been pondering the question whether Francisco Franco is or is not a gangster (see INTERNATIONAL), the Generalissimo has been trying in various ways to prove he is no such thing. In Madrid last week, with Franco's broad-minded consent, a book of memoirs by Carlton J. H. Hayes, U.S. Ambassador to Spain from 1942 to the end of 1944, was published in Spanish translation.

Dr. Hayes, a history professor at Columbia, has often said that he is against all forms of totalitarianism. Nevertheless, in his Wartime Mission in Spain (published in English last year), Hayes could make a choice of evils. He took the view that Russia, being both totalitarian and pagan, was worse than totalitarian but pious Spain, and that Franco's regime was not as bad as friends of Russia made out. Much of his comment was distinctly unflattering to Franco, however, and he insisted that his text be strictly followed in the translation. It was, except for the circumlocution of one word, "gangster" (which Hayes used in referring to the Falange). The Spanish publishers said there was no Spanish equivalent of "gangster."

That was true. The good old Spanish word bandido, meaning bandit, is not quite the same thing. Mexicans have imported the word "gangster," unchanged, into their colloquial speech. The Spanish might do the same; but they are more conservative, linguistically, and anyway this hardly seemed a good time for it.

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