Great Italian Exodus.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 26, 25 October 1907, Page 8

Great Italian Exodus.

• . —• —<►- ■' " Unless some new forces intervene, ,we. may livo to discover that the centre of tho Latin races has visibly shifted, across the Atlantic.". This is the thought-provoking conclusion of an article in the "'Nineteenth Century", on "Tho Italian' Exodus," by -A. Meille and T. H. Darlow. They begin by recognising that the last eighteen months have brought times of prosperity to' Italy, but, alas I " emigration has become. a kind of epidemic." . " During the year 1905 no fewer. than .726,000-Italians, crossed the sca.or-the Alpsto seek work and bread m other lands. In tho first six months of 1906', according to o.fficial statistics, as many as 458,613 persons moro left their-native country, most of them never to return. If wo assume that emigra 7 tion continued at the same rate during the second half of 1906 (for which the .official, statistics aro not yet available), and if we: ,add to these figures, as we ,must,, the; large' number of ..persons .who left Italy without passports by simply crossing the frontier; near.which they are living, it -will , hardly, be-an exaggeration to say that nearly a-million; of Italians—or 3.per cent, of the, total population —turned their backs-on Italy last year: ; All provinces in. the. kingdom: contribute - to this immense exodus. And .the goal to which the majority are bound is-the-United-States,-wliere Now. York -alone' contains. 450,000 : Italians—that is to say, more than any. city in'ltaly itself, except There-are also groat colonies of Italians in South America, especially in the-Argentine,'where thoy'tbrranearly one-tenth of the" population., ... . ; . ' " This resistless, over-increasing-exodus has' i already produced two straiigo consequences, in Italy itself. Many. villages aiid smaller towns, especially in the south, are-becoming emptied of all their moro . able-bodied inhabitants, and'large (tracts- of land arrf consequently passing out of cultivation. . . Glowing reports of high salaries and successful. careers and lighter taxes and easier conditions of life beyond the sea act like a magnet on tho young men who would formerly have toiled on in patient poverty athome. In somo regions the Italian landowners aro trying to draw agricultural labour from provinces wliero the rage for emigration lias not as yet becorao so imperious. The Government also is doing whatever lies in its power to promote this ' internal migration.'

"A second result of this exodus-closely concerns the friends of peace. The present military organisation of Italy requires that the conscription shall yield annually one hundred thousand-new recruits for the standing army and twenty-live thousand for-tho roserve. But so largo a proportion of the emigrants consist of young and able-bodied men that every year it becomes more difficult to enlist the quota demanded. For several years past not more than eighty-seven thousand recruits could be. obtained, and last year the total number shrank to seventy-livo thousand. .

■ This alarming state of affairs causes grave anxiety to the Italian War Office; but the only remedy which it can suggest is to maUo the terms of conscription still more stringent, by abolishing most of tho exemptions which have hitherto been allowed for certain personal or' family reasons. VAn attempt,. however, to make the • pressure ' more, severe would; in all probability, only, give' a fresh and fiercer impulse to emigration. The truth is,. tlio' burdensome military systems of the Continent break down as population grows more and ..more fluid and slips away from their constraint. You cannot compress water, beyond certain limits, in a vessel whose valves open outwards. Unless some, nev: forces , intervene, we. may live to . discover'that , the contr<\ of the Latin races has visibly shifted across the Atlantic." . ,