Evening star., 1937-11-14

10000 Of the unemployed to the prov
inces through his r. A. At the same
time he started extensive P. w. A.
operations in building roads and har-
bors. He did not dig Florida ship
canal, but he ordered a survey for
canal through the isthmus at Corinth
He projected reclamation projects
the draining of the Pontine marshes
and Lake Fucinus-in order to in
crease the farm area.
After his murder by two republican
fanatics, his successor, Augustus
(whose 2000th anniversary is being
celebrated this year,, carried on his
work. The problem of unemploy-
ment had not been solved. The treas
ury, however. was flush with the
spoils Of conquest, including Cleo
patra's Egyptian holdings.
Paid Virtual Soldier Bonus.
So Augustus was able to pay a
virtual soldier bonus by the purchase
of land costing S3o,000,oO0 for the
veterans. His P. w. A. was extern
Sive and costly. All this activity
put up prices. When the money ran
out and the spending had to stop
there was a severe dehation in the
last years of Augustus; and under
his successor, Tiberius, the fall of
prices eliminated In the great panic
Of 33 A. D.
There was a run on the banks of
Rome and the government was obliged
to establish the first R. F. c. and make
deposits Of s4.000,0O0 of treasury
funds to tide them over. Lenders
refused to renew mortgages and it
proved necessary for the government
to set up H. o. L. c. and grant three
year loans without interest to real
estate owners.
But the panic passed, as panics
always pass, and recovery set in
Some fundamental defects in the Ro-
man economic system were covered
up by the rapid development of COM
merce, industry and agriculture that
came with the long Augustan peace
and the efficient government and
magnificent civil service that AuQustu,
had organized.
Account by Gibbon.
Gibbon in his happy account of the
second century Of the empire expresses
the opinion that up to his time (the
18th century, the race never had
known such period of general we'll
being as had existed under the Anto-
nines-the emperors from 1873 to 18O
AID.
But conditions were too easy. life
too carefree-at least for the well-to-
do-and the plight Of the poor was
forgotten. Wealth flowed in from the
conquered provinces and investments
in them yielded large returns. Moral
lists began. to say that Rome had won
the whole world only to lose her own
soul.
With paternalistic government
looking after everything, men lost
energy and public spirit. THE chief
object Of economic activity" says
Rostovtzef, was to secure for the
individual or for his family a placid
and inactive life on q safe, if mod
crate, income. The activity of
the urban middle class degeneratec
into a systematic exploitation of the
toiling lower classes"
So far as the upper and middle
classes were concerned. Rome became
predominantly a nation of coupon
cutters. And DR.. Frank remarks that
coupon cutting on a vast scale does
not make for national morale"
Smart society in Rome became as
worthless as the smart set of the At
lantic seaboard described in Cornelius
Vanderbilt's Farewell to Fifth Ave-
nue." Evidence of its supreme triv-
lality appears in the race suicide un-
der which the old Roman families
died out.
Farmers Hard Hit.
AS has been indicated the Italian
farm population never recovered from
the blow Of Hannibals invasion and
the loss Of small holdings to the rich
absentee landlords of Rome. Not ali
the small farmers were dispoSessed
But they suffered from competition
from the new lands of Africa, which
could raise grain more cheaply than
it could be produced in Italy. The
farms under absentee ownership de-
Perforated. BY the end Of the lst
century AID. the farm problem had
become so acute that the government
was forced to institute q farm credit
administration IF. G. A., which made
loans to distressed farmers at low
rates Of interest
With the decline of farm purchas-
ing power city factories were hard hit
and unemployment grew. The gov
ernment had to support large idle
population. In the latter part of the
second century the expense Of relief
and Of defending the vast empire
brought Rome to the verge of ruin.
Then came long series of military
relationships. 1t was a proletarian
army and the state was ruled not by
relationships of the proletariat, but
by proletarian dictators, sympathetic
with the aim Of redistributing wealth.
The surviving well-to-do classes we're
plundered. Life and property had no
protection. Curiously, at this time
occurred perhaps the first sit-down
strike in history. It was IN . gov
srnment mint.
rsv.. A>aauaa "a haa1y., that y,aaS.fa