Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06


ston Hospital an adequate endowment;
but he would also endow a dozen SUBJ
stations at strategic points of the
Sparsely settled hinterland where q
capable nurse would be always on
hand.
For instance. many a case of lock-
jaw or tetanus would be prevented by
a timely injection, and farmers are
peculiarly exposed to this very painful
germ.
The Campagna country has been in
tersected by excellent roads, making~-it
easy for the doctor or his ambulance
to reach his patient--and of course,
the telephone is as common here as
with us.
The schools that have been erected
| in the last eight years are delightful
to look upon-mostly of solid stone or
brick with tile roof and always with
| flowers and vines about them and
ample Fairgrounds. Indeed, had I seen
one or two such schools I might have
suspected them to have been reared as
the toy Z. of rich benefactor as fire.
quently happens along the Hudson.
But here they are-the regular every
day school of the isolated farmer-what
corresponds to our little red school
house with one room, one teacher. one
iron stove, one wood pile and a dozen
or so Of pupils.
Teaching has become a career in
Italy since the Mussolini era and YOU
would not easily find country school
teachers better equipped for their in
teresting task.
School Rooms Attractive.
OF course, I visited many of those
lonesome little schools in the Campagna
and found, invariably, rosy. romping
children, sturdy and intelligent school
marms" and, above all. tastefully
decorated school rooms. At one school
1 found girls of or so diligently
gardening-each one having sole charge
OF her own small plot of soil. There
was a fountain close at hand and EVIL
IDENTIFY lively desire to produce a good
flower display.
In my youth. when first I visited
TINS country, there were virtually no
village schools; or only such as were
conducted by parish priest 1t was
regarded as dangerous for peasants to
read or write. Education was reserved
Tor the clergy. the nobility and the
was not surprised to find in the
country school houses portraits of the
King and of Mussolini.
MuSSolini insists as we do. and as
do Germany and France, on universal
ana compulsory education.
He is himself a nominal Catholic, as
1 myself am nominally one of seven
other creeds, but as lover of his coun-
try and a champion of her interest he
does not permit the emblem of any re-
l1glon to take precedence over the flag
OF Italy, or over her constitutional SOW
ereign and his government. During the
last few weeks in Rome I have been
in many government offices and noted
| sSNTn FlNSNv. IT,
also of the prime minister-but never
one of the Pope.
And on holidays one sees now a gen.
erous display of the national colors
where. in my youth, I would have seen
mostly the papal colors.
Piety Is Evident.
This does not mean that Italy has
less regard for piety: it only indicates
that they have a higher standard of
civil liberty-they act on the Scrip
tural command; Render unto Caesar
the things that are Caesars and unto
God the things that are God's!"
In other words, do not confuse poll
tics and religion. France has a Protest.
ant President and no one is alarmed.
MIR. Hoover is a Quaker, yet we hear
nothing about that side of him MusSo-
lini has not yet been publicly received
by the Pope, yet in the heart of Cath
olic Italy he is none the less trusted
and admired. His daughter has just
been Notwithstanding to Catholic
rites-in the small parish church-only
mates-with parental blessing to say
nothing of most, cordial good wishes
of the King and Queen.
MuSSolini has done so many things
well that it is not easy to frame his
epitaph in one sentence. His redemp-
ton of the Campagna stands out, how
ever, as task unique in history. For
this alone he deserves the Nobel prize,
If that prize. ever goes to one who has
done service to humanity-who has
made two blades of grass grow where
only one grew before.
And that is very much of under
statement, for Mussolini has made
seven crops of alfalfa on land where
nothing grew before, save malaria and
scrubby pasture.
More Development Seen.
This Campagna is today only on the
threshold of It's glorious destiny. To-
day we have here scientifically out
lined beginning-a few hundred farms
with about 1000 families. He who re-
turns in 1910, may find the whole cir
conference of Rome a garden in ra-
dius of so miles the whole of it irrigated
and cultivated to the last square inch,
as in the rich suburbs of Tokio-a mil
lion cultivators, healthy and prosperous,
on land once abandoned to pestilence
and prowling bandits.
You tell me that Mussolini is a tyrant
An autocrat-a despot!
Has anything ever been accomplished
in America save by the one man-one
brain energy? Washington saved his
country, but it was in spite of per-
petually jealous and interfering Con-
gress.
abroad-because Congress could not
reach him.
Fremont annexed all of an empire be-
cause Congress could not recall him in
time.
Mcclellan was deposed because his
army was close to Washington and the
White House.
Grant gathered laurels on the Mis-
sissippi because Congress could not
NEEDLE so far from the Potomac
Our Navy saved us in the Civil War
because Congress left it alone
Dewey ended the colonial power of
Spain because he cut the Philippine
cables and said nothing until all was
over.
Monuments in United States.
The Cuban end of that war was
shameful because Tampa was too near.
The only monuments we have in our
chief cities are those reared by "tyrants"
or "despots" our financial Mussolinis.
New York has today splendid aqua
rum, natural history museum. gallery
of art and also hospitals. Not one of
those but is the gift of one man or
group of private citizens. Even our Gen.
trail Park had to be fought for by pri-
VatA initiative and tOdou RI ha
perpetually defended against attacks by
the Board of Aldermen.
Our chief universities owe nothing to
Congress. but much to the one man