The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-14
NAVAL EXPENSES
MAY Be REDUCED
Ship and Gun Manufacturers
Become Alarmed
THE LABOR SITUATION
In the Agricultural Districts of Italy
Is Worrying the Oficials-Much
Interest in Coming Naval
Maneuyers

Berlin, August 13.-(Special)-Th
strong desire for reduction in military
and naval expenses, which has long been
dormant among the masses of the Ger
man people, who are signing under bur
den of taxes that has become almost un-
bearable, has at last become so evident
that it has filed the large shipbuilding
and gun manufacturing firms with consid-
cradle alarm.
As long as 1t was possible to make the
people of Germany believe that the policy
of England made it absolutely necessary
for Germany to increase her navy, the
Navy league and the militarsts were able
to have things very much their own way
but when actual proposals that bore ev-
idence of good faith were made by the
English government to put an end to the
ornaments trouble began in earnest, and
now the whole country is involved in a
press campaign for or against an extend
ed navy programme to follow the present,
which shall have been carried out in
little over year
The campaign was opened by the radi-
cal "Berliner Tagebatt,'' which asked
a number of German editors to express
their candid opinion which they did more
than willingly and with great unanimity
against the continuation of the present
naval policy.
This stirred up the ire of the great
manufacturers of implements of war. who
have been smart enough to get control
of number of papers and who are now
using the most INSCRIPTIONS methods to
convince the public that the British offer
is only another instance of the perfidy Of
Albion
The Berlin 'Neueste Nachrichten,"
paper virtually owned by the big firm of
Krupp publishes an article in which it
makes the rather astonishing assertion
that England's offers are due only to
the fact that the English government has
suddenly realized how far superior the
newest German ships are even to the
much praised "Dreadnoughts. and still
more to the fact that English spies have
discovered the fact hitherto hidden from
the German people, that the Krupps are
about to finish a 14-inch gun whose shells
will penetrate the heaviest armor used
in any navy like so much paper and
having double the life of any gun hereto
fore invented.
II the German public cannot see that
this revelation comes direct from Essen
the intelligence supposed to be character
istc of the nation must have sunk to
pitfully low level. Still the article COM
pletely justifes the socialistic paper
''Vorwaerts," warning that big firms are
fighting for their life against the real
public sentiment in favor of an agree
ment.
While the personal popularity of King
Victor Emanuel and Queen Helena Of
italy Is rapidly increasing among the la
boring classes whom the young couple
have at last been able to convince that
they take an active interest in their well
fare, the general labor situation in Italy,
especially in agricultural districts, is
quite alarming.
Some two weeks ago the laborers of the
Romagna rejected proposals of Signor
1,uzzatti and the Agrarian association,
and since then the situation has rapidly
been approaching critical point. To ex-
plain the grievances of Italian agricul-
tural laborers to American readers, it is
necessary to say a few words about the
peculiar systems In vogue In Italy. In
the Romagna district there prevails the
metayer system of farming, but under
two different and hostile forms. The
cases
ants known as "mezzadri, because they
receive one-half of the crop, while in
; others 1t is entrusted to laborers called
"terziar" because they receive only one
third These two classes representing
respectively the aristocracy and democ-
racy of labor, belong to different political
parties, the former being republicans or
''yellows'' and the latter socialists or
"reds" The land owners are united in
the "Agrarian association"
When American threshing machines
came into use, not so very long ago. the
land owners and a little later the vel
lows" were the first who could afford to
buy them. and now the reds having
become better organized, have also
thought machines which they are now
seeking to force '4terziari'' and ''mozza-
fri', alike to use. The innocent Ameri
can machines have. therefore, now as
sumed a political color and are known as
i"red'' or yellow according TO the poll
tics of their owners.
The conflict is then really struggle be-
tween those who attempt to create So
cialist monopoly in American threshing
machines, and land owners, who assert
that they should be allowed to thresh
their grain with whatever machine they
choose, but 1t speaks well for the popu-
larity of the king that even among the
socialists there is an inclination to sub
NIT to his arbitration.
Much interest is being taken here as
well as in Vienna in the coming Italian
naval maneuvers. which will be the first
undertaken by that country on large
scale and under conditions such as would
exist in actual warfare.
The maneuvers will begin on the Both of
this month under the direction of Ad-
miral Bettolo, formerly italian secretary