The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-06-01

The Lossss In Life and Money, and
the Outlook.

tne outIook.
In casting the balance sheet OF Mes
sina, the chief loss. speaking merely
In terms of economies, is that OF hu-
man life. How many are dead we
shall never know exactly, but the ma
terials for tolerable estimate are
already at hand--in the condition OF
the ruins. the rough statistics OF the
escaped, and the Impressions OF the
cooler observers in the first hours and
days Of the catastrophe. One who,
like Capt. de Angels, counted the dead
and living in the villages toward the
Faro. visiting also the ruins of the
city, is In position to make pretty
close estimate. In the commune Of
Messina he believes $1,000 souls have
perished, or considerably more than
half the population which was roughly
100000. My reckoning was made on
the conviction that two-thirds Of the
inhabitants Of the city proper, con-
tanning 92.4G0 people, had perished.
and of these three-quarters instan-
taneously or through slow exhaustion
deep In the ruins. The first shock Of
the earthquake, believe. either killed
or trapped no less than 10000 people
In the city. In the outlying district
where the houses are lower the deaths
from subsequent exposure and famine
perhaps exceeded those caused imme-
diately by the shock.
Reggie, across the straits, had an
urben population of $1,000. The whole
commune, large one, had $4,000 in
habitants. Here help came slowly;
there were no mistaken prosperous
towns near by TO give aid and asylum,
and the tidal wave drowned many.
The dead at Reggie (the communel
win hardly be less than 5000. We
must add the dead in Sicily outside
the commune of Messina, and in Gala
biia those who perished outside OF
Reggie. How many these we're is
mere guess. But think 10000 is not
an excessive estimate. In these out
lying districts. with ,dearth OF food,
water and surgical aid, the death rate
among the refugees was appalling II
we say that in the entire Geld of de-
struction 100000 men, women and
children persisted, we shall not be
very far from the facts. aud Il think.
well within them. ....
:, The Mattino of Naples, which Is
uncommonly well informed in this
case, writes; I'VE may reckon as de-
stroyed the hoses of 100000 .inhabi-
tants in the province of Reggio, and
of 250.0o0 in that of Messina." II pro-
ceeds to quality these figures In a fav-
orable sense, but roughly they give
the measure of the work that must be
done. Nearly half a mdllion people
must be housed In this region. The
Mattino, basing its figures on Official
valuations, estimates the value of the
destroyed houses on the tax roll at
$l8.O000OO. Including the little houses
not taxed, and the cost of rebuilding
the public structures, the construction
bill In sight cannot be less than s24.-
100000. Evidently this is wide
guess. Public building is notoriously
expensive in Italy, while Il is da,ubt
ful IL private owners will be in haste
10 rebuild, But something like $50.
100000 may represent the loss in real
estate. But recent emigration from
these regions makes me suspect that
the figures are based on a census OF
eight years ago. The true figures
muEt be somewhat smaller.
Evidently the proprietor who can
roughly calculate his loss and plan
even vaguely toward repairing 1t may
be esteemed lucky. We have here al
Capri Messinian capitalist every
cent of whose Investment was in local
rentals Suppose he avails himself OF
government assistance and rebuilds
First he may not be allowed to use
the old sites al all. He surely will not
be permitted to put up high apartment
houses like those that have fallen, aud
last he may by law be required to Sc
lecl a form Of structure that will not
return q profit on its cost. cite these
cold, II obvious, facts, because there
ls SO much sentimental prating about
5000 years OF history, and rising like
tho phoenix. The rehabilitation OF
Mcssina is an enormous problem the
very terms of which are as yet hardly
understood. The present site is al
ready condemned. Removing the
wreckage is out o. the question,
proper razing OF the walls AMI leveling
OF the remains. a task the expense
and general practicability of which
may only be surmised The emergency
law applies the building regulations
framed for shattered villages of Gala
bria In previous earthquakes. Evi.
IDENTIFY II may not be humanity possible
to recreate great commercial city In
this fashion. "a .t,
Messina contained many wealthy
citizens and did great trade in all
products of the soil. Her harbor re-
ceived annually 26OO steamships with
an export and import tonnage of 50O,-
600. Commercially she was falling
behind Catania and Palmero, but evil
dently with her superb situation and
long-established trade Messina cannot
a