Evening star., 1933-12-31

and gloom-ridden racial fa-
i naticS could have had their way,
Fiorello La Guardia would be
not mayor-elect of New York but a
that in the obscure by-pathS of Italy;
Ferdinand Pecora would be an unsung
toiler in the fastneSS of Sicily: Mr.. Tos-
canini would be as alien to New York
as the Sultan of Sulu; and even the
great Balbo would have been received
here with frozen face and icy hand
If at all
If We have any thanks to give. let
us give them that NOrdiciSm run mad
did not have all its way Long it had
carried on an intensive campaign to
make the United States exclusively
and disastrously - an Anglo-SaXon
country. To achieve this. it pointed to
the terrible menaceS to our life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness involved in
the flood of immigration from what was
called Southern Europe" The term
was merely dishonest camOuf1age. What
was really meant was Italy, what Nor
diciSm really desired was to shut all
Italians from our shores Glory be that
the attempt only partly succeeded. If
it had gone the limit, not only would
Congress have missed enc of its most
interesting. courageous and dynamic
members, the Senate Committee an in
genious and skillful investigator and
music in America its most popular eH-
poSitor, but the great, composite, many
blooded America would have missed a
most valuable element the element that
in the eventual mixture will help to
salvage all the rest.
For there is no blood like the Italian.
We Of the proud and arrogant Nordic
strain are always unwilling TO admit the
-I,1.,
history. When we rant and roar
against the loWly despicable South
European" we are biting at the hand
that saved US. Our shaggy ancestors.
or some of them. skin-clad ana staring
vild-cyed through masses of lOW-groW-
ing hair, came down in hordes from the
jungle and supposed they had con-
quered Italy They did bat dream. 1t
was Italy that conquered them. over
whelmed them. led them as vasSa-s and
bondmen to the fOU tain and COM
pelled them to drink Physically, they
overran the country: Intellectually and
spiritually. which alone count in any
lust estimate they were the vanquished
To the strange mystical, wonderful, in
domitable, persisting spirit OF Italy they
surrendered language customs. culture
and even psychology; yes, as they gave
uD their skin clothes and rude hatchetS.
Italy did not become Goth; Gothland
became Italian
ItaIy's Influence.
There is nothing in history or phil
osophy more wonderful OF more in
struCtlVe. when We stop to think of 1t.
Yet it is only the beginning Of the
story. Out OF the southern periphery
CT Europe sticks a peninsula of no
great size nor physical Importance.
largely filled with mountains, a stretch
Of land in no way better than many
another terrain, and, compared with
the continents bulk. thing incorSid-
cradle. Yet out Of that little peninsula
has come a force that has dominated
In, world Wnat it is.
0I the whole Of what We call West
C civilization is, in It's origin, anatomy
e. essence. the ancient Roman en-
r.a To its remOtaSt bounds, wherever
: Y may b9, our civilization is chiefly
Curse the damn dago," was the
hale cry Of the furious Nordlc, Ob-
.r5sed about what he was pleased to
Gil his Anglo-SaXOn inheritance. Well.
il culture, in art, n letters, in law. in
Institutions We are all damn dagos."
The spirit of Italy, the indOmltable the
mystical the strangely persistent,
Spreading through Northern forests,
crossing seas as easily as rivers radl-
aUing out CT the insignificant Campagna
TO the FarallonS and beyond, is the
substance of the best We have-aslde
from soup bones and frankfurters.
Like it or not there is no escaping
the fact. How do You account for 1t?
Other nations have arisen and shone
and made a loud noise in the world
and vanished-'risen from eastward,
fallen to westward and forgotten"
sings SWinburne. This Italy alone
shines on from century to century,
spiritually undimmed amid the wreck
of empires and the clash of thrones
and that sort of thing. Bad govern
montS and good governments, dictator
ships and democracies, absolutism and
freedom. trampling armies and crooked
statesmen have not quenched nor es-
Scntially changed it. Now On the map
a nation. now Dartitiored among inter-
national bandits: now in MetternlckS S
cynical phrase, "a geographical express
ton" and now united. free and in the
front rank of battle, and all the time
intellectually culturally. eSthetlcally
one thing-the first cultural influence
of the world.
Empire of Mind.
And not by any mixture of force of
arms, at that. The physical structure
of the Roman empire that once cast
its shadow over the known world went
long ago with Osymandyas, king of
kings" Dwell on that fact. o blether
ing imperialiSt, and try to be wise.
Nothing else is so fragile and so evan
escent as these glittering empires you
build out of so much blood and pill
feringS. The human highway Is lined
with their fragments and heavy with
their dust. But the true empire OF
Italy was never physical; it was mind
and spirit. and nothing is better worth
the worlds attention than lust this fact
of the bewildering vitality of that en-
pire.
Let us see some Of its most proml-
nent phases, remembering that it is. in
reality, not geographical but universal.
We think much of our form of govern
ment. 1t is the Roman Senate and
Forum We base our government upon
the ballot: we got the ballot through
italy. We think highly of our common
law. It came from Italy by way of Eng
land. We cherish the names of heroes
who have died to establish the princi-
piles of human freedom. The principles
for which they strive were developed
largely though not primarily by way of
Italy.
I skim a few of the high places; to
catalogue all would require a book
Think for a moment of the cultural
aspect. Where did the renaissance
come from? Italy. Who taught, in
spired and led the painters of Flanders