Evening star., 1923-09-24

per cent? owing to Great Britain and
the United States are not included.
italy ls taking about $50 out of
every $50 OF national income for
| taxes. 1t is a terrific drain. Her
| taxes are almost the heaviest In Eu-
rope. Yet she. can't bring in enough
| taxes to meet her expenses. The diff
| ference she makes UP by selling her
bonds. or still further Initiating her
| credit. Her banks and others still
| puy ner bonds and her money has not
J been so greatly corrupted as some
others, But with interest charges
with worldwide production slowing
down, and with a deficit facing her
kor years to come, Italy's salvation
centers on her ability to pay her
way by delivering each year to the
people OF other countries goods and
services whose value is sufficiently
great TO pay for the goods and serv-
| ices Furnished by other people to her
and In addition meet at least the in
terest on her obligations held abroad.
y y
Can she do 1t? Let US look at the
facts.
| Italy must import all her coal, one
half her food, besides much of her raw
materials like cotton and wool.
| In the five-year period ending 1913,
4 uOllaTS
more goods each year from other
countries than she sold to other
| countries. This charge she paid lust
as England. France and Germany had
by means of her invisible exports.
For italy these items are chiefly re-
mittances from abroad and tourist
| expenditures in Italy From the first
she received about 100 millions of dol
lars year and from the second about
70 millions. She also received about
20 mlIllons year from her ships,
| besides smaller amount from her
foreign investments. Altogether she
| was able to pay the yearly "unfavor-
able" balance of trade.
During the war. her purchases from
| abroad greatly increased while her
sales to other countries greatly de-
creased; She ran up bill of about
| 5000 millions of dollars, for a great
part, of which (3,500) she gave her
bonds. That Is how Great Britain
and atsi,. the United States have now
| purchases outside have been large
and her sales small. She has bought
/ SINCE the war approximately 1900
millions OF dollars more goods than
she sold. Her invisible exports can
not pay 20 per cent of the amount.
| X X +
Her ability to purchase outside of
her country what she must have
and that includes food, coal, cotton
and wooi-is growing less and less.
| The demand for her goods-like cot
ton and wool-is smaller, too. for her
| customers in central Europe are grow
ing poorer. In plain English, the
national income of Italy is decreas-
ing. not increasing. 1t has today de-
| creased in my opinion at least 20 per
cent below pre-war times. She has
q Il g.
| outside and her sales are slowing
! down because the surplus income of
Europe has gone too. Factories are
! closing. unemployment Is growing,
| ~ per cent of her merchant marine
lies idle. Her national income with
| ers. Italy-poor and populous before
lis still poorer and more popuious
than ever. Now she can't seem to
| get rid of either her expenses or her
people. Both continue to increase at
too many mouths to feed. This ex-
plains why the people of Italy are
| half starved. 1t may show. too, why
her workingmen are in revolt. They
have been caught in a vicious ma
| tionalistic trap-in an economic and
political state not now able to buy
| enough bread to feed itself properly.
/ A debt reputation or revolution
looms up on the horizon. Mussolini
or no Mussolini. the salvation of Italy
\ AAhC th1t VI itSS IN inter
national trade. She will achieve it
not through intense nationa1ism not
!by imperialistic action nor by war
with Greece, n poor country with less
than one-eighth the population OF
Italy. She will attain it first by a
financial shakedown which will elm
mate much of her debts-and then
by restoration of the machinery of
international trade and good will.
In the meantime a new dark age
economically speaking. will appear in
Italy and the struggle for bread will
become harder and harder Modern
warfare and modern civilization are
deadly enemies. The bitter expert
ence of Italy proves it,
| Next: Belgium's struggle for life.
4 (Copyright 1928 in C. 8 and Great BFita in