The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-10-14

ley, as several informed Hail.
Ians told me; while the middle
lclass is severely pinched between
high living costs and low wages
land the working classes are
reduced to the utmost poverty. II
is strange picture. this postwar
Italy, with all its beauty and high
living on one hand, and working
class families with no hope of re-
lief-except that which comes
from friends and relatives in Ann
erica, through such agencies as
G.. A. R. E., the American Loyola
Society, and other u. S. relief
organizations.
There. are thousands of beg
gars, Of all descriptions. In Rome
one night l saw a grizzled man
with almost sightless eyes, his
clothes tattered and patched and
patched again, carrying the still
form of a child in his arms thru
the streets, begging for money.
On the sidewalk near my hotel
in Naples lay. a woman, part of
her face apparently blown off,
the nose area red, infected and
badly bandaged, her hands out
stetched for money. These are
only a few of the thousands of
people, now professional beggars,
pickpockets and thieves who
have to resort to this kind of
practice to live.
The reason for it is obvious
when one realizes that the aver
age Italian laborer receives as
wages only $1,000 lire per month,
plus one meal a day assured by
his employer. A suit of clothes
costs him 6,152 lire, a pair of
shoes, 4,500 lire. A furnished
room rents at 1900 lire per
month. One meter of wooden
cloth-to be used for coat or a
suit-costs him 1000 lire while
cotton is priced at $50. He pays
$50 lire for one liter of olive oil
His living costs, all told, are so
high that the SO lire Qess than
Zoe in American money! which
he spends per day for bus or au-
to transportation is so large an
expense that he goes without
food or clothing to pay it. His
average food consumption is
about 1900 calories per day-23OO
are essential to health.
/ The housing neutrality-suspicious.
because of normal population in
creases-has been aggravated by
the war, which reduced a large
number of housing units to COM
plete ruin. Bomber out families
which sought refuge in natural
caves near the Roman Forum are
still living there as squatters for
lack of other accommodation
some have even developed vege-
table and flower gardens. In a
pre-war resettlement project de-
veloped by Mussolini, l visited
one typical working class family
lime in all, living in two rooms
plus a small kitchen. One of these
rooms was an addition to the
house, constructed by the ten
ants themselves. No running wa
ter, no heat, no floors - a ocm-
munity lavatory and laundry for
all occupants Of the project.
The penury of the working
classes provides good soil for
Communism = anything would
be better than this"
Business is hampered by gov
eminent restrictions, particularly
in the export-import trade, for
which federal licenses are re-
uired. Ir addition, businessmen
developing dollar credit in the
United States, by means of ex-
ports, are reuired to ealmark
80 percent of this for expendi-
ture in Italy: The credit must be
used within sixty days. Unless
the businessman is large opera
tor, handling various kinds of
merchandise, he cannot use this
credit. He can, however, sell it
to the government or the other
private firms-usually at a loss.
The result is that the small bust
nessman is being forced out of
the export-import market be-
cause he cannot afford so per-
cent risk.
The paradox in the whole Itali-
an situation is the amazing total
OF reconstruction which has been
completed. One sees it everywhere
and while the scare of war,
bombed out buildings, she'll holes,
concrete building fronts clipped by
gunfire, are still to be seen all
over Italy, repairs and RECONSTRUCT
ton are under way throughout the
country. So much so that an Am
erican CT with whom / visited
Anzio was unable to find his way
around in this former battlefield,
which after four months living on
The sceen, he thought he knew
well.
AT the same time--in this coun-