Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-21
DUGE'S OUTBURST
LEAVES us. CALM
Blaming itaIy's Economic
Woe on America Is Laid
to Home Politics.
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.
Senito Mussolinis outburst In the
Roman Senate, in which he blamed the
American economic slump for Italy's
own financial woes, has aroused intense
interest, but neither excitement nor i-
xtJatton in Washington. The chief OF
the Fascist state is considered to have
spoken, as he frequently has in the past,
exclusively for home consumption.
Specifically Mussolini is believed to
have been mainly bent upon present.
ing a persuasive abb for the recently
ordered cut of IL per cent in the SAL
aries of Italy's more than SOC, 900 gov
eminent employees. For that purpose,
the picturesque premier resorted, as he
Is prone to do, to spectacular utter
ance and to manipulation of facts and
figures designed to put a good face
on Italy's economic plight.
Like the rest of civilized mankind.
the italians have been hard hit by the
worldwide arrangement in business,
Washington opines that MuSSolini, look
ing for the best talking point in ex-
PLANTATION of Italys share in the de-
preston, decided to pick on Uncle Sam.
II Duce has been harboring a number
of grievances against the United States.
Before the Senate in Rome on December
1S he got some of them of his chest.
Quota Law Disliked.
Soon after the Black Shirts took pos
session of the Italian government, the
United States Congress enacted our
new immigration laws. No country felt
itself more Disseminated against by
the quota system than Italy. Mussolini
didn't like it at all. Up to its adoption
Italians poured through Ellis Island
in annual tens of thousands. In 1918.
the year before the war, $50 of
them came. Under the 1924 quota law,
only 3,845 Italian immigrants are ad-
Missile a year, or fewer than liz per
cent of the peak total of II years ago
The emigration to America was not only
important to Italy as q population
reducing factor, but was perhaps even
more vital because of the lavish flow
of gold back home" which was kept
up by Italians resident IN the United
States.
In the year 1922, when the Fascists
took over the reins at Rome, the Bank
of Naples estimated that the huge sum
of sos, 900 900 reached Italy from her
sons and daughters pro6perously settled
in this country. In 1929, according to
Department of Commerce figures in
Washingt admittedly only incom-
plete eStimates-"immigra remit.
tances" to Italy had fallen to $46,I7O,-
600. This represents q drop during
seven years of FasciSm OF more than
SO per cent. With fewer italian ar
rivals in the United States, there were
naturally fewer remittances &c the old
folks at home. Hence, Washington
authorities point out, at least some of
the financial tears MusSolini sheds in
our direction.
Tariff Hit Italy Hard.
Italy has been foremost among the
many countries which have protested
the Hawley-Smoot tariff. The new
rates struck devastatingly at virtually
all Of Italy's important exports to
America, such as cheese, macaroni, to-.
mato paste, straw hats, olive oil, rayon,
silk and certain fruits Ten years pre-
viouS, prohibition ruined a once profit
able trade in Italian wines. Washing
ton, ofncials stress the fact that it isn't
the Hawley- Smoot tariff alone that has
slashed Italian sales to us. Our Inn
ports from all countries have been
heavily diminished because of the state
OF the times here and correspondingly
curtaiied foreign purchases.
Most Italian stuff sold In the United
states, moreover, Is of the luxury or
semi-luxury class For the first 10
months of 1880 there has been a de-
crease Of practically 2O,0Oo 600 in
italian exports to America, which nor
mally are in the neighborhood of $780,
round 500 900 900 worth of goods She
for reasons Of economic recession, has
cut down her buyings of us, too.
Italian steamship lines have been do
ing an increasingly big business with
the United States, carrying some az
per cent of our total export overseas
and bringing in about 3.3 per cent of our
Imports. The fine italian merchant
marines American earnings In 1928
totaled around $40 0O0, 600. Business
oppression has, OF course, ripped a hole
IN this item, too.
Tourist Traffic Reduced.
Another so-called invisible" Amer
lean export-immigran ren1ittances
come within this category-is the
American tourist traffic in Italy. For
obvious reasons, this has fallen of. AS
Tar as Government departments at
washington are able to tabuIate tour
Isl trade, an aggregate of $50 900 ,OOO-
odd was spent by Yankee giobetrotters
IN Italy in 1929. The 1890 returns are
pound to show a considerable cut in
these figures.
On the whole. Mussolini would ap-
pear to be justified in attributing at
least material portion of Italy's di-
minished prosperity to American eco
nomlc conditions. There is less GER
tairty as to exactly what inspired him
70 turn loose the batteries of his clever
irony and sarcasm against US at this
ussie. Washington Is persuaded that
there Is little foundation for the sup
position-which found expression in
Congress during the week end-that
perhaps II Duce was sore over the re-
puted inability of Count VoIpi. late
Fascist minister Of finance, to interest
American bankers in a huge new pri-
vate loan to Italian power interests
Count Volpi was recently in New York
eno washington on such a mission.
Attention is called here to the fact
that Mussolini might, with good grace,
have shown the other side of the ItaIo-
American financial medal by recalling
the generous war debt settlement the
United States made with his govern
ment in 1925.
Liberal Terms Made.
The original principal of Italy's debt
was 81 CAT 1863, 1877. Funded interest, at
the time OF the Mellon-Volpi agree
ment, amounted to 1894, l30,802. The
aggregate funded debt was $2,042, 0OO,-
00o Under the pact, Italy secured a
substantial cut in her actual obliga-
tons to the American Treasury and a
liberal arrangement for payments over
q long term Of years.
The crack" Mussolini takes at the
number Of automobiles, radios, tele-
phones and other "luxuries' owned per
capita in the opulent United States
may be reference to material on that
score used by Herbert Hoover during