The Leon reporter., 1900-11-22
HOTBED OF ANARCHY
SOME CAUSES WHICH GIVE
ITALY THAT REPUTATION.
A Goographer Expresses an Opinion on
the seuest.on-Low Wages In Italy a
Serious Cause of Discomfort Among
Day Laborers.

Why Is Italy the present hotbed Of
anarchy, is question which has been
frequently asked since the recent as
sassination of King Humbert. A lead
ing Italian gentleman, a doctor of phil
osophy and geographer, recently
expressed an opinion on this question.
There are many reasons" he said
In the first 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-
tlons of the labor market which make
his income infinitesimally small A
day laborer in Italy is lucky il he
makes Is. Cd. a day. But if he had a
wife and children, how can he sup
port them? If he is out of job, as
ne may be for months at time, will
he not be maddened by the cries of
MS 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
porn politician, and politician 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-
pudlates 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 heather and the pub
llcan. 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
convlcts. 1t applies no form of law
to the people who fall under the ban
OF suspicion. There is Malatesta, fol
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. day for his ex.
penses. He escaped through the in.
terventlon OF his friends, and came tc
this country more embittered than
ever against the system which made
1t possible for an innocent man to suf-
fer for other peoples sins.'' This, is
all true. There is no doubt the Italian
government has acted against the an,
archists and the men whom it sus-
pected of being anarchists with un-
necessary and, indeed, culpable fero-
city. There is, of course, another side
OF the question. 1t has acted with
ferocity, not because of it's own essen
tial wickedness or cruelty, but because
1T has been attacked with fiendish in
senulty and fiendish violence by the
anarchists. Nevertheless, though a
red-handed anarchist may be treated
as dog, it becomes the state to see
that it is not doing anything to pro-
duce mad dogs, and is doing all it can
to prevent dogs from going mad.