PROGRESS OF ITALY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 80, 24 May 1911, Page 5

PROGRESS OF ITALY.

Ernesto Nathan, the Jewish Mayor of Homo, lias a most interesting paper on “The Industrial Progress of Italy,” in the “Century Magazine. It is written in celebration of the bitty Years of Italian Unity. ‘ “i n 1882,” he writes, “two and a half million tons of coal was sufficient for our boilers; now wo require over nine, besides half a million horsepon or of water. In our textile -production, mainly cotton cloth and fancy materials, wo produce more than Belgium, and not on.lv supply our home markets almost entirely, but export a considerable amount. I bus, the mixed fancy goods or Pisa have such a reputation as to he completely monopolised by the Loudon market. This is not altogether an isolated example, lor the black silks of Como, the umbrella silks, and the brocades are taken up exclusively by the lug English houses. ■OUR PEOPLE EAT MORE BREAD. “The manufacture and use of artificial manure, once almost unheard of, have become familiar in all parts of the land, to fertilise fruit, corn, and pasture. As a result, we have doubled our head of cattle, and our wheat ci'op from forty-two million hectoliters has crept up to fifty-seven. In 1882 our wine crop totalled twentyeight million hectoliters; now it is over forty. Little by little there will be more wheat to eat, less wine to drink; for like all wine-growing countries, wo are over-stocked, while tho consumption does not tend to increase. Notwithstanding our heavier crops, our import of wheat increases yearly, and surplus population does not account for it. There is a more satisfactory reason: our people oat more bread, drink move wine, consume more animal food, than in the past, decreasing or stamping cut pellagra, malaria, and' other terrible ills due to insufficient nourishment of the human body. “With no fear of race-suicide, as in "Franco (for the population is increasing with a tendency tp outrun subsistence), a higher standard of wages is a guarantee of progressive economics, • evidence of a greater amount of well-being throughout the whole country, filtering down to the most needy. This increase applies not only to' men and women, but to boys and girls. Within my remembrance the agricultural labourers’ salary averaged one lira (nineteen cents) a day; now it is two .and a half lire. Haymaking and harvesting double those figures. So tho. increase runs throughout the whole range of skilled labour, with one dreary exception common to all countries, and exemplified in ‘The Song of the Shirt,’ sung with tears of bleed in all languages wherever the jetsam and flotsam of life abounds and sweaters abide. “Figures of imports and exports, of roads, of railway traffic, of our merchant fleet—all those and dozens of other data might supplement the main facts outlined here. The economic renaissance of Young Italy is, I hope, clear to me ids eyes, showing how liberty and unity bear fruits of material prosperity" and economic progress. “As everywhere else, the country people, thirsty for bigger gains, greater comforts, and more sense-satisfying amusements, crowd into tho towns—a questionable benefit. Our principal cities have doubled their populations, increased their areas, widened their streets and let in more air and light. All have to deal with the special difficulties attendant on old towns, vested secular interests, and historical association. In following modern lights, our "birthright is not tho least of our encumbrances.

ITALY’S INDTSTRIAL RENAISSANCE.

“Romo, for instance, grows at an alarming rate, and under Italian rule it lias tripled its population. In 1882 it had to double its available building area. This lias all been covered, and now has been doubled again, leaving a presumptive margin for twenty-five years’ growth. “Were proof required of Italy’s economic vigour, it is patent to all. From our ironclads to our fruit and flower culture, from our textile stuffs to our artistic furniture and earthenware, from our foodstuffs to our motor-cars, the whole world can witness an industrial renaissance which, if yet in its infancy, gives an earnest of a vigorous future.”