The Indianapolis journal., 1896-03-23
IN STARVING SICILY
ITALY's TROUBLES ARE NOT ALL IN
PARKWAY ABYssINIA.
The whole Formulation Of the Island
mt starvation POint-ExactiOns
of Absentee Landlords.
,lermo Letter in New York Post.

Palermo Letter in New York Post.
The troubles of Italy in far-off Africa
should not draw the public attention away
from the ruin which already exists at home.
Sicilians like Cr.spi Rudini may rule III
Rome but the people of Sicily starve. 1t is
time the world should give them part OF
that pity which was forced on them when
they were at least we'll fed under the Bour-
bons.
The country people of Sicily have but two
things to live from-their sulphur mines and
the land Both are worked by middlemen in
the name of absentee owners. Both, too,
have suffered greatly from recent competi-
tion with other and newer countries. 1t is
not the absentee owner who will consent TO
a diminution Of his revenues. 1t is the pro-
fession of the middlernan to secure all he can
for himself after his employer is served. The
workman and the peasant must learn to be
| content with what is left. In the last few
| years nothng has been left.
Fire on us-lxI us!' was the answer of
the sulphur workers a year and more ago
when the soldiers of United Italy were sent
to disperse them where they. had gathered
10 express their need. XIII us-better that
| than TO hear our children cry with hunger"
| The Tribuna, of Rome, newspaper which
| cannot be suspected OF any disloyalty to
| United Italy. sent one of it's staff, Signor
| Adolfo Rossi, to investigate the actual con-
| dition of the Scilian common people. A
| peasant, the father of six children, said to
| him: For eight days We have not had a
mouthful of bread in the house. We cheat
our hunger with BarDary figs"
1t is not that the soil is barren or worked
| out. On the contrary, the island is as fertile
| and delightful in climate and all natural adj
/ vantages as when it was a center of Greek
L hQ
| its country life. And the people are neither
| idle nor lawless, SO far as any law has been
| made for them. Under the Bourbons, their
| land owners at least lived at home. 1t was
| so for a time after Garibaldi made revolu-
| ton for them, which was to benefit only the
| middle classes. Even now these common
| people. shorn like the obedient sheep they
are, yield 10 the only two laws they know
| that OF the rent collector and tax gatherer,
An Italian officer. in farming district
/ near Palermo, narrated what he had seen TO
Signor Rossi. I'm the month of last July
! stopped a march by a threshipg floor
| where they were measuring grain. When
| the shares had been divided, the one who
had cultivated the land received single
| tumolo Qess that a half-bushel) The peas
| ant, leaning on his spade, looked at his share
| as If stunned. His wife and their five chill
toll of year, this was what was left to him
with which TO feed his family The tears
rolled silently down his cheeks. And, re-
| the shares have been measured out, are left
| not with little Of the grain they have
| cultivated, but with debts to their masters"
IN THE MINING DISTRICT.
In the mining regions notary of the
place said to another journalist: Here the
people die of hunger. No one can under
stand or describe their wretched state. Their
destitution may be seen. But hunger is
felt and does not speak to others.' The
Partisan lady who has won esteem in the
Do
returned from tour of observation with
nightmare of skeletons, of worn faces, of
children. pale and rickety. that cry L am
few suffering from want, such might
be seen in France itself 1t is whole popu-
What do peonfe do do here o for J iivins?';
The girl answered, as il il were a matter OF
course: Here people die of hunger" She
/ was the bread winner of the family. All
her labor earned her three lire (not quite
60 cents) month.
Three-quarters of the land of Sicily is the
always looked on the peasants as the feudal
lord looked on his serfs. Now that the GEN.
ter of public life and pleasure has been
transferred to Rome, they rarely live on
their immense estates. But for them, for
their agents. and the local politicians who
represent them, there ic still one law, while
for the land laborers and the mine workers
that support them there Is another. When
Signor Alongi, of the government detective
| a
where justice was to be done between a
rich man and an accused rustic. rernon-
STRANGE was made openly: What is the use
OF so much expense just to send a beggar
TO the galleys? Make him disappear with
out all these ceremonies,'' The historian
yillari, who has made investigations fol
hmself, says that the party in power does
not pay the excise duties which weigh Sc
heavily on the poor. Certain officers, from
other parts of Italy. insisted on their owr
payments being received. But a major
has the right not to pay" said the aston.
ished collector. Meanwhile the land agent
was driving through his hundreds of beeves
| without paying the tax, while each peasa nj
had vigorously to pay his eight lire (s150
for single mule.
was the possession of the peasants them
selves. But even this is falling into tn,
hands of the great land owners. through tn,
| policy or United ITALY, which crushes tn,
people with taxes to support its expenses al
nation, while ii cannot or will not better
the odous land laws. Thus. according 4
CaItanissetta, from 1888 to 1893 there wer
1852 land sales for unpaid taxes. In on,
commune OF the province of Syracuse i'm {
single day, the goods of 129 persons were re
Gently put up at auctitn at the suit of tn,
tax collector; Seven of these persons owec
less than lire CsD each. and few of tn,
others were as much AS 10 lire in default
With the church lands and communal do
mains of the old regime United ItaIv hs
tried Intellectually to remedy the evil or tn
1900 small proprietors thus created few ar
able to withstand the strain. and so all thi
1
the absentee landlord of the new order 0
things.
THE ROBBER MIDDI.EMAN.
The middeman. between the absent pro
prietor and his laborer. is the gabelotto. II
takes the estate. or oftener part of il. an,
guarantees the owner in the possession of hi
revenue. His own guarantee he must seek il
sharp management of the peasants to whom
he lets morsels OF land on shares. Sometime
he simply hires day laborers to work unde
his overseers. In the first case the peasan
should have, in theory. one-half of the grail
which he has cultivated. But when tn
measuring comes the gabelotto must first b
paid back the seed which he had furnished
This Is deducted from the yield of the har
| vest, plus % per cent by way OF interest. 4
further deduction has usually to be made TO
advances 10 the peasant, who was unable 4
wait for the harvest. On this the interest 1
never less than 20 per cent, even when III
advance was made for only two or thre
months. Villari says that the gabelotto oftel
has two-thirds OF the harvest by contract
Sometimes there is a second middleman L
be satisfied between gaDelotto and peasant
When the peasant, as is often the case
comes out from his years labor in debt hi
masters sometimes continue their usuriou
loans. But, sooner or later, the mules o
oxen for his plouShing are seized. and moth
Ing is left him but TO become one of tn
| gaDelotto's laborers hired by the day.
| These are sent to work IN the uninhabitel
districts There for four months they worl
sixteen hours day under tropical sun
| and are herded together at night in sheds
| open TO the dreaded fever Formerly tn,