384 



ITALY. 



597,669,688 lire for rentes and interest, and 

 1,230,787 lire for amortizement. 



According to Baron Sonnino's exposition of 

 the financial situation, there had long been an- 

 nual deficits of 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 lire, 

 and during four years, from 1889 to 1893, the 

 Government had added 1,150,166,300 lire to the 

 nominal capital of the public debt, not counting 

 various floating liabilities, and increased the 

 annual interest charge by 48,503,350 lire. For 

 1894-95 there was a prospective deficit of 177,- 

 000,000 lire, and for the five succeeding years it 

 would be necessary to provide the average sum 

 of 12,000,000 lire per annum to meet maturing 

 temporary obligations. The receipts were di- 

 minishing, owing to the stagnation of commerce 

 and industry and agricultural depression, and 

 a sinking of values and general impoverishment 

 were observable. In raising a loan of $50,000,- 

 000 lire to pay the coupons due in January, 

 1894, the Government was compelled to give 

 80,000,000 lire of bonds, or 4,000,000 lire of an- 

 nual rente. The Minister of Finance proposed 

 to economize to the extent of 27,000,000 lire by 

 cutting down the civil-service force, without re- 

 ducing military expenditure, and withholding 

 subventions that had been paid to local author- 

 ities. He proposed new taxes that would pro- 

 duce 100,000,000 lire a year, more than half 

 coming from higher taxation of incomes derived 

 from stocks and bonds, and the remainder to be 

 obtained by levying higher salt and spirit duties, 

 increasing the import duty on wheat to 5 lire a 

 quintal, and placing an additional duty on in- 

 heritances and bequests. Most of the remaining 

 deficit he proposed to extinguish by converting 

 the 5-per-cent. rentes at par into 4-per-cents. ex- 

 empt forever from taxation. The income tax on 

 stocks and bonds was raised from 13'2 percent, to 

 20 per cent., and it was imposed on gross income, 

 without exemption of Government bonds; hence 

 the conversion proposed was a forced one, since, 

 unless they exchanged their bonds, the holders 

 would have to submit to the same reduction of 

 interest without a guarantee against further re- 

 duction. He further proposed a conversion of 

 internal 5-per-cents. into 4-per-cent. currency 

 bonds, likewise exempt from taxation. To pro- 

 vide small change, he proposed to issue 2-franc 

 silver certificates and 20,000,000 lire of 20-cen- 

 time nickel coins. 



Revolutionary Developments. Crispi was 

 recalled to office, Dec. 15, 1893, with a nonparti- 

 san Cabinet, to put down the agrarian and so- 

 cialistic disturbances in Sicily and the province 

 of Massa-Carrara, and to devise means to extri- 

 cate the Government from its financial embar- 

 rassments, and the country from economical de- 

 cadence. The Chamber adjourned till Jan. 25, 

 1894, while the Government sent Gen. Morra 

 with 40,000 troops to Sicily, proclaimed martial 

 law, dissolved the Fasci and other societies, sup- 

 pressed newspapers, arrested the leading agi- 

 tators, and disarmed the people of Sicily. When 

 the day carne for the meeting of the Assembly it 

 was prorogued by royal decree till Feb. 20. 

 When leave was asked of the Chamber to try by 

 court-martial Giuseppe de Felice Giuffrida, the 

 explosion of an anarchist's bomb in the Monte- 

 citorio piazza on March 8 put the Chamber in 

 the mood to grant it, and the socialistic Deputy 



was condemned to eighteen years' solitary con- 

 finement for conspiracy against internal security 

 and incitement to civil war. The popular indig- 

 nation at this harsh punishment vanished when, 

 on May 30, bombs were exploded in front of the 

 Ministries of Justice and of War. 



The Sicilians wanted Crispi, the most popular 

 of Sicilian politicians, who knew their wrongs, 

 to be Prime Minister, because he had often 

 promised to redress their grievances. The 

 owners of the latifundia and their farmers and 

 the mine operators, by favor of the ring of local 

 politicians called the Mafia, are enabled to op- 

 press their tenants and workmen, and to make 

 them pay the bulk of the communal expenses in 

 octroi duties, which yield 36,500,000 lire a year, 

 while the land tax is evaded and brings in 'only 

 5,350,000 lire. Laborers there work from dawn 

 till dusk for half a lire a day, and must live on 

 brown bread and stewed chicory. There were 

 166 of the affiliated associations called Fasci dei 

 Lavoratori, with 289,000 members. Originally 

 they were laborers' unions for mutual benefit, 

 but they had been turned into socialist societies 

 by Giuffrida, Garibaldi Bosco, Bernardino Verro, 

 Dr. Barbato, and other propagandists. These 

 were dissolved after the state of siege was pro- 

 claimed on Jan. 3. The factory operatives and 

 quarrymen of Carrara and the surrounding dis- 

 trict, thoroughly indoctrinated with revolution- 

 ary ideas, were more difficult to deal with than 

 the Sicilian peasantry. Encounters little short 

 of pitched battles took place between the strikers 

 and the soldiery, and on Jan. 17 a state of siege 

 was proclaimed in the province of Massa-Carrara. 

 At Massa the insurgents attempted to seize the 

 military arsenal, and fought the troops from be- 

 hind a barricade. Deputy di Felice Giuffrida 

 appealed against his sentence without success. 

 With him were convicted his associates, Dr. 

 Barbato, who was known as a philanthropist; 

 Bosco, an expert accountant, who was a prom- 

 inent socialistic organizer; Verro, a leader 

 among the peasants; Montalto, a Sicilian lawyer; 

 Pico, a student ; Patrina, an editor ; and Benzi, 

 a merchant. The first three were sentenced for 

 twelve, the others for ten, five, three, and two 

 years. Students and workingmen made public 

 demonstrations against the convictions, but no 

 serious disturbances occurred. Crispi's waning 

 popularity was revived by his courageous bear- 

 ing when an attempt was made upon his life by 

 an anarchistic carpenter named Paola Lega, 

 who shot at him with a pistol as he was driving 

 to the Chamber on June 16. After the assassi- 

 nation of President Carnot Signor Crispi intro- 

 duced antianarchist bills, which were passed by 

 both houses. Anarchists who were considered 

 dangerous were sent, upon conviction, to the 

 small island of Ustica. Italian police agents 

 were sent to France and England to aid the au- 

 thorities there in identifying anarchists and 

 keeping them under surveillance. The Govern- 

 ment proposed the establishment of a central 

 international bureau of information and ex- 

 change of intelligence regarding anarchists. 

 One of the antianarchist bills made it a pcna 1 

 offense to incite to crime or apologize for crime 

 in speeches or newspaper articles; another dealt 

 with crimes committed by means of explosive 

 substances; and a third enforces a fixed resi- 



