The Monticellonian., 1917-12-07

bania may or may not bear fruit, but the benefits of Italian occupa- tion 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 a certain quality which one can call by no better name than civiliZing genius. Where Rome passed Roman footprints still finger indelibly, says Edgar Ansel Mowrer in letter to the Chicago Daily News. Though the empire of Trajan is less than memory, the Roman road, the Roman bridge, the Roman building ar wall have lasted long after other later constructions son that the least of the Roman en- terprises incorporated the Roman idea" one of the strongest conceptions European humanity has ever known.
 Those old stern soldiers and goyer- nerS civilized and embelliShed the peo- pies and lands they ruled. But they not only built cities and pushed roads 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 it's way Italy hankers 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 sententiously an- nouneed
 Only to limited degree can this work of amelioration be attributed to any but generous motives.
 Race That Does Not Progress.
 Southern Albania, a rough, wild tract of sparsely cultivated land. is thinly inhabited by an old race, the so-called 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, q 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 indieines. who, though wild, have rare ly managed to present any organized resistance to an invader. For the Tos- Xii do not apparently share the admir- able love of independence of the north ern Albanians. They are indeed a 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 Il quick-witted peo- ple. 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 one place to an other.
 First Census Since Augustus.
 Space is lacking for more than a brief survey of the accomplished works. First of all. 1t 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 total population of 165,459 persons