The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-07-28
ITALY FACING
POLITICAL CRISIS
Complete sociaIistic Government Is
the Menace Which is Staring
the Country in the
Face.
PARTY IS POWERFUL
The King Himself Leans That Way
and Victory at the Polls
Would Not be
Surprise.

/ by Henry Wood, Rome correspon.
dent of the United Press.l
ROME, July 2S.-Italy is today fac
ing political crisis SO acute that |
before the end of the year it may re-
time In the worlds history. of COM
plete socialistic government.
AS the situation now stands It
needs only slight swing of the pen
dulum of fate to bring about this end. |
while there is goodly portion q
| thinkers in Italy who are confident
the change will come even without
the Intervention of fate. In either
event, the change. it is certain. would |
be so complete that it would mean
not only a socialfstic parliament and
a socialistic cabinet but also a king
whose sympathies are SO manifestly
socialistic that he would be consider
ed of the real "dyed-in-the-wool"
brand
Naturally, the present government
is leaving no steps unturned to pre-
vent this catastrophe. Unfortunately,
at least from its point of view. the
very steps it is taking to save itself,
have an odd persistency of working
out to the advantage OF the other
side What is considered as one OF
the most fatal errors it has yet made
in this respect was the postponing of
the coming parliamentary elections
from June till October.
At these elections, some 100000
new voters will exercise the right Of
suffrage for the first time The great
bulk of these will come from amongst
the laboring classes where 1t is most
easy for the seeds of socialism to
take root From the moment, over
two years ago, when it became GER
tain that these would be admitted to
suffrage the socialists have conduct
ed a most efIicacious campaign to see
that these first votes should be cast
for their cause.
It was the astonishing progress
the government to postpone the cleo
ton for four months in order to give
time to counteract the tendency. The
first two months of this postponeme1t
however, are admitted to have work
ed only to the advantage of the So
cialists and their campaign during
the remaining two months promises
to be more unrelenting and productive
than ever.
It is the success Of this campaign
and propaganda that many In Italy
are pinning their faith, in a socialistic
victory without the Intervention of
fate. On the other hand the possibil-
ity OF this Intervention is SO great
that the socialists themselves have
fully prepared the way for profiting
by 1t should It come
This Intervention of fate will mere
ly be something that will turn the
tide OF popular feeling in Italy agains,
the past and present conduct of the
war in Italy's two new African colo
MES of Tripoli and Cyrenaica. Before
the declaration of war which resulted
In the seizure of these two provinces
from Turkey, the socialists In parlia
ment opposed the move on all the
grounds which they ever take agains
war. Once the war was declared
however, they patriotically. supported
1t until the italians were victorious.
Now, however, they have raised The
cry again against the cost of life am
money which the complete conques
of the two provinces is and the Ital
ian public Is beginning to heed thei
A No. toct 80
cent parliament, Leonida Bissolat,
the socialist leader, outlined the oppo
siton which the socialists are nov
utilizing as campaign material.
They insist that, with the two prov
inces now fully annexed to Italy, tn,
government cease its efforts to con
quer the tribes in the interior con
tending itself with the coast position
which 1t now holds and with tn,
| gradual recognition by all of thes,
| tribes of the italian sovereignty, leav
| ing them, however, to conduct thei
own local affairs and government al
In the past. The conquering and TIN
maintaining Of the conquest OF thes
tribes, Dissolati declared. would NEAR
the keeping of an army of $4,000 mel
constantly in the two provinces at
cost of 100000 day to the Italial
people. The cost in human life h,
made no effort to compute.
Up to the present moment, the gov
eminent has succeeded In keeping tn
italian public fairly content with it
colonial policy. The public has "com
across" both with the money and witt
the human life, but lately there ha
been unmistakable evidence tina
sooner or later it would like to begil