The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1917-12-14

7 ITALIAN military operations in Al
/ bania may or may not bear fruit,
but the benefits of Italian Occupa-
ton will prove lasting. In more
! than one respect the satisfaction which
! italians have always found in likening
| themselves to the ancient Romans is
| justified. For the Romans possessed
certain quality which one can call by
! 40 better name than civiliZing genius.
Where Rome passed Roman footprints,
| still linger indelibly, says Edgar Ansel
| Mowrer in a letter to the Chicago
Daily News. Though the empire of
Trajan is less than memory, the
Roman road, the Roman bridge, the
Roman building or wall have lasted
long after other later constructions
| have crumbled into sand, for the rea-
son that the least of the Roman en-
terprises incorporated the Roman
ldea," one of the strongest, conceptions
European humanity has ever known.
Those old stern soldiers and COVER
nors civilized and embellished the peo-
pies and lands they ruled. But they
uOI OiiJ DuIiI ClIlSS anu DuSllCN IOtlNto
to the ends of the earth wherever the
cohorts advanced but more enduring
cities, more substantial bridges and
better roads than this earth had seen
before or has known since.
Modern Italy has inherited much of
the Roman idea" Italy today shares
the old love for bureaucratic govern
ment, for order, for solid construction
outwearing the mere ''utilitarian"
product, for in its way Italy bankers
after the same vicarious immortality
Of lasting monuments which possessed
the builders Of ancient: temple and
basilica. And, like the legiOns of long
ago, the Italian army of today advances
to civilize and builds for an entire
age. Ample evidence for this state
ment may be found in the roads and
military works at the Italian front
but, better still, in the occupied terri
tories Of southern Albania, which Italy
has either taken for itself, as Avlona,
or is holding for the barely conceived
state of Albania, whose approaching
birth it has so sentcntiousiy an
nounced.
Only to limited degree can this
work Of amelioration be attributed to
any but generous motives.
Race That Does Not Progress.
Southern Albania, rough, wild
tract of sparsely cultivated land. is
thinly inhabited by an old race, the
so-calied Toski, forming the southern
branch of the Albanian family. The
district has been conquered more than
once, but it has always remained some
what backward. During the civil wars
In ancient Rome, a number of old sol
diers and other partisans Of the beat
en- factions, migrated thither. But
their number was too small to enable
them to give durable backbone to the
lndigines, who, though wild, have rare
ly managed to present any organized
resistance to an invader. For the los
XII do not apparently share the admir-
able love of independence of the north
ern Albanians. They are indeed q
mild race and unless pushed to hope
lessness by extraordinary oppression
easy to govern. And, strangely enough,
all the Albanians, though they prove
themselves in foreign lands amid other
surroundings to be quick-witted peo-
pie, capable of many things, though
they obviously possess many of the
major virtues, have at home remained
essentially semibarbarouS Today,
though they do not oppose, they do
almost nothing to aid the Italians in
their great work of transforming the
country, and their general impassivity
Is rather like a stodgy burden which
the civilizers must constantly be lift
Ing and moving from enc place to an
other.
First Census Since Augustus.
Space is lacking for more than a
brief survey of the accomplished
works. First of all, it is fitting to
speak of administration. The entire |
occupied region north Of the London |
frontier has been divided on the Ital- |
Ian model into the province of Avlona, |
the province Of ArgirokaStrOn and the |
district {circondario, of Chimara, with |
n