Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-03
REVOLUTION is AV[R|[D
Italy on the Verge OF a Great
Upheaval Of Social
ism.
Nearly Every Workman in Italy
Belongs to League OF Re.
sistence.
General Strike Was Prevented
Only by Prompt Action OF
Government.

reVOlutlOn--ln Italy mas Deel dNei.e1
by the narrowest margin in the last few
DAYS. The only news sent abroad has
been the mobilization of nearly 100000
troops, and the government assumption
of control of all the railroads in order
10 prevent a national strike of railroad
employees.
The far greater truth was suppressed
partly by the censorship and partly by
official intimations to foreign CORE
spondents that the transmission OF
alarmist reports would be followed by
severe disciplinary measures.
| Italy is in the presence of socialist
PLOT of enormous proportions. The So
cialist leaders have within a year or
ganized all the popular forces of the
country, While the government strange
ly enough has not attempted any inter-
| ference, being apparently ignorant of
the real objects of the movement.
| A chamber of labor was created in
every town, and great number of
| leagues of resistance. Each class Of
workmen has it's league, and each
league obeys the local chamber. Nearly
| all the workmen in Italy and a large
proportion of the agriculturists We're
gradually enrolled upon the league
themselves, numbered 10000, and the
total membership more than a million.
| The whole of this organizations un-
der the control of central committee
in Rome, which is actually the parlia-
mentary socialist body. This group
gained such strength that it was within
it's power to send a million men into
open revolt and paralyze in twenty
four hours the industrial. commercial
and agricultural life of the country.
A spondent who. in defiance of
the warning of the authorities, sent a
telegram from the Swiss frontier Sat
urday night, says:
The central committee was to have
given the word for action on Friday.
when general strike on all the Italian
railways was to be begun. The revolu-
tlonary plans We're upset by the stupid
haste of Sig. Morgani, the socialist dep
uty for Turin who six days before the
appointed date ordered general strike
in that city.
This opened the eyes of the govern
ment, and by the prompt mobilization
of the entire personnel of the railway
system of the country--11O,O 900 men
and the calling to the colors of the re-
servists of the class of 1878. numberjng
$4,000 men, two formidable blows were
dealt at the revolutionists under which
they are still staggering
The government next by decree dis
solved all the chambers of labor and
all the leagues of resistance, and today
the plotters are reduced to what the
government hopes may prove to be per-
manent inaction."
From all of which it may be seen that
the Italian revolutionists are not made
of stern stuff They showed some grit,
however, at Turin, and that important
city was practically in the hands of the
mob from Saturday morning to Monday
night. During the period an immense
amount of damage was done to prop
erty The trouble commenced with a
general strike of gas workers. Other
trades Joined in and the bowling mob
of from $4,000 to 10000 men and wo1n-
en-, with Morgani at their head paraded
the streets. overturning tram cars
lamp posts and carriages, and smash
Troops We're hurried into the city UNI
TIL by Monday afternoon there We're 49,
600 soldiers under arms. Then the riot,
ers We're taken in hand seriously. The
cavalry made many wild charges, and
many of the rioters We're badly hurt
and at least a thousand arrested, the
bulk of whom are still in prison.
1t was big job and suggested what
might have happened had the scenes in
Turin been simultaneously enacted all
over Italy.
1t is impossible to regard this serious
situation In Italy and the still greater
outbreaks of violence at Trieste, Bu-
charest and Barcelona as mere COIN
cidence. They constitute as whole
an indication of the economic condition
of Europe, which is far more alarming
than is generally imagined.
The Spectator does not exaggerate
when it says: I'VE believe that wave
of commercial depression has struck
the whole continent being most visible
to outsiders in Germany, and that in
the south, where the margin of comfort
is always thin, the wave produces in
tense suffering. State taxation is heavy
and municipal rates are cruel and I'M
fairly levied. Wages are low. COM
pared with the price of food. Debts for
rent accumulate, and at last the leaders
of the workmen seeing the despair Of
their followers and filled with the idea
that 1t is the fault of the rich and pow
erful order strikes as the best means of
manifesting the unbearableness of the
situation. That means for the indus
trial masses simply temporary starva-
ton
The Spectator is extremely pessimis-
tic regarding the outlook and possible
remedies. Its most significant remark
is: THE true doctrine of commerce.,
that If you would sell you must buy or
go without being paid, can no more be
driven into the head of a continental
than into that of an American"
1t is unnecessary to point to observant
Americans that in these days of tre-
mendous expansion of the American
trade this crisis in Europe is of more
concern to them than to any other
country not directly involved.
The Spectator concludes: "The pop
citation of Europe constantly increases.
The competition of Asia is visibly be-
ginning. The rush from the land to in
dustrialism never ceases. And it may
we'll be that more is produced than the
world will consume at price leaving
any profit. That has happened already
as regards wheat and we see no reason
in the nature of things why the indus