Eduardo Dato
Eduardo Dato e Iradier (La Coruña, August 12, 1856-Madrid, March 8, 1921) was a Spanish lawyer and politician, several times minister and president of the Council of Ministers during the Restoration period.
A prominent figure of the Conservative Party, he came to occupy the portfolios of the Interior, Grace and Justice, State and the Navy, as well as the presidency of the Council of Ministers on three occasions. When the outbreak of the First World War occurred in 1914, Dato held the presidency of the government and decreed Spanish neutrality in the conflict. Later on he had to face the violence that was plaguing Barcelona due to labor conflicts between employers and workers, applying a repressive policy against the anarcho-syndicalist movement. In March 1921 he would be assassinated during an attempt against his person.
Throughout his political career he also held the positions of mayor of Madrid and president of the Congress of Deputies, also being a deputy in the Cortes for the districts of Murias de Paredes and Vitoria several times.
Biography
Origins
Born on August 12, 1856 in La Coruña, son of Carlos Dato y Granados from Murcia with Rosa Lorenza Iradier y Arce from Alava and paternal grandson of Carlos Dato Camacho y Marín and Cayetana Ruperta Granados y García, he moved to Madrid very young with his family.
He studied at the Central University and in 1875 graduated in Civil and Canon Law.
Throughout his life he maintained poor health, spending long stays in mountain sanatoriums. According to Maximiano García Venero, Eduardo Dato could have suffered tuberculosis "of very slow evolution".
Political career
He traveled abroad, which provided him with a broad culture and knowledge of other languages. He soon gained prestige as a lawyer, due to his oratorical skills. The professional reputation of his Madrid law firm and his relationship with Francisco Romero Robledo opened the doors to high politics for him, since he was 28 years old he had joined the Conservative Party of Cánovas del Castillo. However, after his assassination, his political career was interrupted by joining the dissidents led by Francisco Silvela.
In the 1884 elections, he obtained deputy certificate for the electoral district of Murias de Paredes, managing to revalidate his seat in the elections of 1891, 1893, 1896, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903, 1905, 1907, 1910 and 1914. In the 1914 elections he also won a seat for the district of Vitoria. From that moment on, he would appear in the capital of Álava, revalidating his deputy certificate for this district, successively, in 1916, 1918, 1919 and 1920.
On the death of Alfonso XII, he joined the positions of Romero Robledo, who disagreed with the transfer of power that Cánovas, the head of the party, made to the leaders through the shift system. The discussion of this matter in the Cortes caused a rupture between Cánovas and Francisco Silvela and the dissidence of Dato and an important sector of the party.
After Cánovas died and the Sagasta government that had presided over the Disaster of 1998 was liquidated, Dato held the Interior portfolio in the regenerationist cabinet led by Silvela (1899, 1900). to shape the first labor legislation programmed by a Restoration government.
In 1902 he appeared as Minister of Grace and Justice in the Silvela cabinet, which brought the Local Administration Bases Law to the Cortes.
With Antonio Maura as party leader, Dato did not hold ministerial posts during his government, 1907-1909. He was nevertheless important mayor of Madrid between January 28 and May 7, 1907 and president of the Cortes Generales.
In 1913, after the assassination of José Canalejas and the liberal mandate of the Count of Romanones exhausted, Dato accepted the King's order to form a government in Antonio Maura's place, who had set unacceptable conditions for the monarch. Since then the party would split between the "ideal" (the majority group) and the "Mauristas", followers of Antonio Maura and more radical in their approaches.
Presidency of the Council of Ministers
His first term as President of the Council of Ministers took place between October 27, 1913 and December 9, 1915. By royal decree of December 18, 1913, he approved the Canalejas bill of 1912 that It included part of the requests of the Catalan provincial councils formulated by Prat de la Riba in 1911, allowing the constitution of the Commonwealth of Catalonia in 1914. Regarding foreign policy, Dato decreed after the outbreak of the First World War the neutrality of Spain on July 30, 1914. He knew how to keep Spain in that position of neutrality during the years that the conflict lasted, despite the division that formed in the country between the so-called "Germanophiles" and supporters of the allies.
In the shadow of the world conflict and the extraordinary enrichment of certain economic sectors, during these years there was a sharp rise in prices that translated into a drop in the standard of living for the less affluent social classes.
After the liberal biennium from 1915 to 1917 of the Count of Romanones who had won the 1916 elections, Dato returned to power at a time when protests over working conditions and the high cost of living were raging. His second government took place between June 11 and November 3, 1917. The day after assuming the presidency of the Council of Ministers, he legalized the Defense Boards, which had been formed a few weeks and had been the starting point of the so-called crisis of 1917. In addition, on June 25 he decreed the suspension of constitutional guarantees for all of Spain. In Barcelona, while the Assembly of Parliamentarians convened by Cambó was meeting, the revolutionary general strike of August 1917 broke out with the support of the two big unions (UGT and CNT). Faced with a social and institutional crisis of this magnitude, Dato did not hesitate to resort to the army to quell the strike. Despite the repression used, for the month of October the protests continued to be very active and the Dato government enjoyed less and less authority. On October 25, the Defense Boards issued an ultimatum to the government with their claims, which would end up precipitating a government crisis. To facilitate a way out of the crisis, the king replaced him with the liberal Manuel García Prieto, at the head of a government of national concentration in which a Catalanist, Juan Ventosa, also participated.
In March 1918 there was a new government crisis. In what Manuel Tuñón de Lara has described as "encerrona", King Alfonso XIII met in the palace with the main political leaders -among them Eduardo Dato- and told them that, if no agreement was reached, he would leave the crown and abandon the country. As a consequence, the conservative Antonio Maura formed the so-called "Government of national concentration", which incorporated liberals, conservatives and members of the Regionalist League. Dato also became part of the cabinet as Minister of State, which he would hold between March 22 and November 9, 1918.
Last stage and murder
In May 1920, as head of the Conservative Party, he would preside over the Council of Ministers for the third time; In addition to being the head of government, Eduardo Dato also held the Navy portfolio. Reflecting the socioeconomic situation of the moment, this cabinet incorporated a new department: the Ministry of Labor.
During his presidency, the atmosphere in Barcelona between employers and trade union centrals reached great virulence. To deal with this problem, he initially sought a compromise policy: he placed the moderate Francisco Bergamín García as Minister of the Interior and the engineer Federico Carlos Bas as civil governor of Barcelona. However, during the following months street violence intensified, to the point that the Count of Salvatierra —former civil governor of Barcelona— would be assassinated by anarchists. Subjected to great pressure from the Catalan industrialists, Dato finally named the candidate suggested by them for the position of civil governor of Barcelona in November 1920: General Severiano Martínez Anido.
Far from putting an end to the chronic violence that had prevailed in Barcelona, since his arrival Martínez Anido promoted a campaign of violence that sought to end the great union power held by the National Confederation of Labor (CNT). ignoring the directives of the central government and acting independently, also ignoring the repeated application of the "Ley de fugas" by the security forces. The Catalan employers were euphoric with the new situation.
On March 8, 1921, while he was driving to his home in an official car, Eduardo Dato was the victim of an attack. At around 8:14 p.m., near the Puerta de Alcalá, three anarchist gunmen —Pedro Mateu, Luis Nicolau and Ramón Casanellas— approached on a motorcycle with a sidecar and fired several bursts at their vehicle, using Mauser C-96 pistols. reaching the president of the government. He would later die, despite the efforts of his assistants to transfer him to the Casa del Socorro. According to the version held by various historians, Dato would have been assassinated due to the impossibility of attacking Martínez Anido, which was very protected.
After his assassination, three days of official mourning were decreed and during his burial he was even given the honors of Captain General. His funeral procession, presided over by King Alfonso XIII, walked through the streets of Madrid and constituted a demonstration of popular mourning. The maurista Manuel Allendesalazar would succeed him as head of government.
Semblance and ideology
Framed within the so-called conservative regenerationism, Feliciano Montero has highlighted in Dato a "social-reformist" position. In a 1910 speech at the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, Social Justice, was critical of the solidarity coming from France; he nevertheless considered Christian charity and social justice compatible.
A member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences since 1905, he was also a member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation, an institution of which he would be elected president on three occasions (1906, 1907 and 1907). As a man of law, since 1913 he was the representative of Spain in the Court of The Hague —of which he became vice president— and director of the Revista General de Legislación y Jurisprudencia. The fundamental note of his political career was the firmness of his convictions, his loyalty to the Bourbon dynasty and his defense of the law. Initiator of social reforms, he was concerned about female and child labor. He was the creator of the Ministry of Labor, legislating on work accidents and on promotion in the magistracy by seniority.
Family
Married to María del Carmen Barrenechea y Montegui, 1st Duchess of Dato, with whom he had three daughters:
- Isabel Dato and Barrenechea, 2nd Duchess of Dato. She died single in 1937.
- María del Carmen Dato and Barrenechea, 3rd Duchess of Dato (Madrid, December 6, 1885 - 1954). Married with Eugenio Espinosa de los Monteros and Bermejillo, with whom she had two children
- María de la Concepción Dato y Barrenechea (Madrid, 2 May 1890 - Madrid, 16 September 1973). Marquess de Álava, Viscounts de Casa Blanca (Bilbao, 26 April 1892 - Madrid, 9 September 1969), a diplomat, including also a diplomat Eduardo de Zulueta and Dato (1923-2020).
Awards
He received the following decorations: the necklace of the Order of Carlos III from the King of Spain, the gold penitentiary medal and the great cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great and of the Order of Christ of Portugal. As a posthumous tribute, King Alfonso XIII conferred the Duchy of Dato on his daughter and his heir.
Eduardo Dato is the adoptive son of Vitoria and has dedicated the name of its main street. They also have streets labeled in his honor Zaragoza, Calatayud, Córdoba, Madrid, Palencia, Palma de Mallorca, Seville and Alicante. He has a dedicated bust in the Palacio de la Mutualidad de “La Alianza”, in Barcelona.
Works
- Dato Iradier, Eduardo (1915) The government and the economic question. Speeches delivered by... in the Senate. Madrid: (S.i.). 41 pp. (Senado, Sig. F.A. Box 243-22).
- Dato Iradier, Eduardo (1915) The Military Reforms at the Congress. Address by His Excellency. Mr. D... President of the Council of Ministers at the Congress of Deputies on 24 November 1915. Madrid: Fortanet, 21 x 13’5 cm, 16 pp.