The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-07-21
Italy's Needs.

The 4 400 Italians who sailed from
New York the other day for their home
land are said to have carried a sum of
more than S8,000.000 with them The
figure seems large, but the estimate il
reasonable, for the voluntarily return
ing Italian laborer or trader usually
makes it a point to have laid up $1,000
before he returns to his native country
Time was when the interest on $1,000
would support an Italian laborer, peas
ant or proletarian, as long as he lived.
One hundred dollars year was, in his
Galabrian, Sclian or Apulian village,
enough for his comfortable subsistence.
And it was neither a very long nor
very difficult matter for him to save
$1,000 in the United States. Now. to be
sure the conditions are somewhat diff
ferent. The cost of living has risen so
! heavily in Italy that fund of $4,000
| is needed where $1,000 formerly suf
| feed. But as the Italian laborer's wa
ges in this country have fully doubled,
lit would appear that $4,000 ia now as
easy for him TO get as $1,000 was former
| ly And if every one of these AGO ltal-
/ ians who returned to their native land
in one day had taken 5000 with him.
the total amount would have been S22,
100000 instead of 100000.
| Few Italian laborers or tradesmen
have returned home in the past four
years. Those who go back now win ex
peet, perhaps, to find the same Italy as
that from which they emigrated more
than four years ago. They will find no
such Italy. The mountains will be there,
and the smiling wales. Naples still
/ CLEANS by her curying shore, and the
volcano broods and frowns Sicily still
nestles in the shodow of Aetna, All the
/ land possesses now, as ever, the fatal
| gift of beauty" but perhaps now, more
! than ever, it will be borne in upon the
returning worker from America that a
! land cannot live on its beauty, and that
Italy is dolorously suffering for her want
of coal and of iron. The war has wasted
the substance of the nation, and in the
| industrial reconstruction which must
now proceed there must be heavy inn
portation of both coal and iron at famine
prices The loss to the country from
| the discontinuance Of the tourist traf-
| fc has been enormous, nor is it likely
that there will soon be perceptible re-
sumption Of that traffic. Italy starts
out on the path Of reconstruction handi-
capped more heavily even than France,
for many of her fields and cities have
also been ravaged, and she gains no
Briey or Sarre mines with which to re-
coup her losses Americans. whose
country exports so vastly more than
it imports. and whose chief concern now
is to know where the world is going
to get the money to pay for its prod
ucts that the world must nevertheless
buy, have little conception of the econ
omie situation of a country like Italy. In
1917 the imports Of Italy amounted to
81 ,546, 430,575, and its exports to only
S466, 7S5, 900. The balance Of trade has al.
ways been against Italy, but during the
war it has been unprecedentedly unfavor
able. All raw silk, olive OIL wines, fruits
and cheese exported from Italy in 1917
did not suffice to pay more than half Of
her coal and coke BILL
Nothing keeps Italy going except the
money of tourists and returning emil
grants. We may realize, therefore, the
satisfaction which the economists and
| statesmen of the country will feel in
seeing the stream of returning immi-
grants begin once more-that Paetolus
flood Of thrifty toilers, gold laden, from
the United States and Argentina They
have reason to wish that the tourist
business will soon begin again Immedi-
ate conditions, especially in view of high
prices and widespread labor disturbances
do not seem to favor that. But lovers
/ If Tta1v-wbich means all tha world
will surely cherish the intention to visit
the land of their sentiment and admira-
ton at as early a date as possible. Italy
has strong reasons for welcoming them
Boston Transcript.