Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-11
DEBT-RIDDEN ITALY.
The Government Contemplating an I'm
mense Confiscation of Church Property.

Rome Letter in New York Tribune
The government is on the eve Of perpetrating
gigantic act of spoliation. Toward the mid
Ole OF the coming month a bill will he submit
ted TO the chambers for the confiscltion and
sale OF the immense possessions in Italy Of the
various monastic and religious orders known
by the name Of "Opere pie" The value OF
this property is estimated at 5000 000. 900.
yielding an annual revenue of $4,000, O0O
There is hardly country in the world which
has not contributed to swell this vast total,
the American donations, in particular, being
among the most generous. The money
was given to be devoted to religious and
charitable uses in all parts of the world. and
its arbitrary appropriation by King Humbert's
government for purely secular and Italian OBJ
lects Is matter of international importance
The excuse put forward by the prime minister
Is that the money has been diverted by the
church from the purposes which the donors
had in view. OF the yearly income of $780,
100000 he complains that over S20, 900 900 dis
appears in the expenses of the management
and that the remaining $4,000, 900 is devoted
to propaganda by the vatican against the gov
eminent.
The truth of the matter is that the national
treasury is empty, and there isno other method
OF replenishing it. The ministry finds itself
face to face with deficit of no less than S7O-
600, 900. OF this amount, $40. OOO. 600 is due to
the alarming decrease in revenue and the bal
ance to extra expenditure incurred by the war
and navy departments. Moreover it has al
ready been decided by parliament that an addi-
tional sum Of S100,000,000 must be devoted to
the perfection of the national defenses during
the next three years. In order to realize how
completely impossible it is for the treas
ury to grapple with this situation by
any ordinary methods, it should be
stated that the entire revenue does not exceed
$500, DOC, 900. a sum utterly inadequate to meet
even the ordinary annual expenditure. 1t was
owing to his inability to discover any normal
method of either balancing his budget or of
obtaining means to meet the extraordinary in
crease of expenditure that Signor Magliani de-
termined to resign his seat in the cabinet as
minister of finance a couple of weeks ago. 1t
Is impossible to increase the taxes already in
existence, or to create new imposts. The bur-
den Is already too heavy for the people to bear.
The arrears are enormous, and the number of
seizures and forced sales by the government
for non-payment of taxes has become very
great In the south of Italy, especially, whole
villages and districts have been put up
for auction by the sheriff. Most of the
big cities are bankrupt and unable to pay the
interest on the extensive loans with which they
have saddled themselves Real estate has de-
creased in value. The farmer is no longer able
to find any sale for his crops or livestock now
that the tariff war with France has put stop
to the former extensive export to that country
OF agricultural produce and cattle. Misery
reigns supreme everywhere, and in Sardinia it
has reached such a degree that the entire body
OF parliamentary representatives of the island
have decided to resign their seats in the cham
Der, with view of forcing the government to
adopt serious measures for the relief of their
wretched constituents. Matters are equally
bad in the cities and towns