Cañon City record., 1900-12-13

why ts Italy the present hotbed Of
anarchy, is question which has been
frequently asked since the recent A.
sassination OF King Humbert. A lead
ing Italian gentleman, doctor OF phil
osophy and geographer. recently
expressed an opinion on this question.
There are many reasons he said.
In the frst place, the Italian laborer
is the poorest in the world. On the
one hand he is ground down by taxes
which increase his outlay. and on the
other hand he Is oppressed by condi-
tions of the labor market which make
his income innnitesimally sman. 4
day laborer in Italy Is lucky IL he
makes Is. Cd. day. But IL he had a
wife and children. how can he sup
port them? II he is out of a job. as
he may be for months at time. will
he not be maddened by the cries Of
his family for even the bread he can
not give them, Those cries drive him
to the wrathful despair which well
comes crime against the social order
responsible in his eyes for his pow
erty. For remember the Italian is a
born politician. and apolitician of the
most uncompromising sort He pos
sesses that subtle Latin mind, which
makes him reason out his own phil
osophy Of life. But his philosophy is
rooted on his own standpoint. He
averts his mind from all arguments
that may come from the outside He
Is enclosed in the hermitage of his
own thoughts. and he Indignantly re-
pudiates all intrusion Of alien ideas.
He sees vividly, intensely. but narrow
ly. You will meet in England men.
even OF ordinary intelligence, who are
willing to read papers representing
their own views and also papers rep
resenting antagonistic ideas. They
read not only to master the arguments
which are advanced by their own side.
but the arguments OF the other side.
SO that they may combat them Ital-
ians are different They will not toll
crate the views OF others They will
not pay them the compliment of read
ing them. the heathen and the pub
lican- They are anathema. Another
reason why Italians are likely to be
driven to extreme views is the extreme
position taken up by the Italian gov
ernment The Italian government per
sists In looking upon all suspects as
eonvicts- 1t applies no form OF law
to the people who fall under the ban
OF suspicion There is Nslatesta, for
example. He was believed to have
taken part in the Milan riots. There
was no evidence against. But he was
railroaded at once to a penal colony
on an island near Naples. There he
was allowed Cd. a day for his ex-
penses- He escaped through the in
tervention of his friends. and came to
this country more embittered than
ever against the system which made
1t possible for an innocent man to suf-
Ter for other peoples sins" This Is
all true There is no doubt the Italian
government has scted against the an.
archists and the men whom IL sus-
pected Of being anarchists With un-
necessary and. indeed. culpabie fero-
city There is. OF course, another side
Of the question II has acted with
ferocity. not because OF it's own essen
tial wickedness or cruelty. but because
IT has been attacked with fiendish in
genuity and fendish violence by the
anarchists. Nevertheless. though a
red-handed anarchist may be treated
as dog. 1t becomes the state to see
that II is not doing anything to pro-
duce mad dogs. and is doing all Il can
to prevent dogs from going mad