The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-05-12
Italy Recovers Trade From
 Tourists

Rome. May l2-For the first tiute since the beginning of the great war Italy has recovered her tourist trade. Already her hotels are filled from one end of Italy tc the other In Rome. where English and Americans always come on sightseeing tours, it 5 ss almost impossible to get a rcoTa- fn Florence, where Princess Mary and V.scount Lascelles spent a part Of thsir honeymoon, it is almost iHn- possible to find rooms, and even Ven ice has an extraordinary number of tourists.
 Italy is recovering say the ItaI- inns.
 Out of the recent turmoil created by the failure of the Banco 1taliana, : di Sconto-one of the four largest banks of Italy has come a loud cry of "Back to Normalcy and Recon struction.-' Especially from the peas ants many of whom were depos1tors in the bank, come complaints against the past programmes and demands for a new one.
 AprsrentIy tie most rapid way Italy see of returning to normaIc% is to make up the difference Tn eA- change between the Tires ana Eng fish pounds or American dollars by oubling her hotel rates ana her prices on every article tuorlst rom the Middle West of America could think of wanting on a vacation
 Hotels Increase Rates.
 A wear ago Americans complained bitterly against this kind Of welcome 5 from Italy but this Spring Anerl- cans. like all other tourists. are de- lighted if they can find a hotel that will take them at any price Second- class hotels raised their rates Of B lire for room and board to 50, and when 1hey were filed the third class ljoiels did the same.
 In very dirty little pensione l was told that the rate was now 50 af wa a ago. and that if 1 didn't like the dirt I could go somewhere else, because there are plenty of other English who don't mind paying 50 lire for dirt and all and that they would go out for tkeir meals besides, rather than eat the food the hotel served at that price 1 explained in my best Italian that I was an Americana and not English and that the hotel mana ger was a prCGteer- Whereupon he burst forth indignantly against any Amercian who objects to paying out any sum of money
 That was only the beginning of my conversations with Italians about ex- change. As a matter of fact every Italian is sure that Americans are burning with wealth, but after all remarks about Americans
 Italians Admire Americans
 They admire America and Ameri- cans; they wish they could be as clever; they are proud of their own great industrial city of Milan because they imagine it is ''just like Ameri- ca'' and certainly it's streets of con- crete apartment houses and factories seem very like new Brooklyn, N Y
 It is when Italians talk about the difference between French francs and Italian francs or lire that they be come bitter. One French franc will buy almost two lire France returned to white bread while Italy was still eating dark bread. France had milk and butter while Italy was still hun gry.
 That" says the Italian laborer or is the Italian business man. "is what Italy got out of the war"
 And usually he adds, We should never have gone in" which after all is what most of Italy honestly thought before she went into the war They are anti-German even now, as a result of the war, but Italian com merce understands only too well that her large commercial interests used to be with Germany; and Italian la bor has not forgotten that Italy used to send her excess population out of the country-nearly 100000 emi- grants a year, many of them to Ger many.
 Blame Misfortunes on War.
 Whatever misfortune come to Italy you may be sure the people will say: '"TT1at is what we got from the war" A year ago Fascist were saying: The Socialists are running the country. That is what we got out of the war Employers added: Look at the wages. That is what we got out of the war" Socialists blame the war for Communists; Communists blame the war for the Right Socialists, and l the Popolare or Clerical Party planes 1 the war most particularly for Giolitu and for the power of FasciSti-
 And everyone planes the war for the exchange. See what Italy has suffered" they say 'We alone of all the allies have got nothing for our suffering but hunger and political in trigues.