i2 4 ITALY 



have learned to write, so that they could attach 

 their signatures to the necessary papers. All 

 these and the various other conditions following 

 from fraternal association have had their reflex 

 action on village life in Italy, investing it with 

 interests and possibilities hitherto undreamed of, 

 and filling the peasants with new hope and trust 

 in the future. 



Finally, we have the significant fact that this 

 economic and moral transformation in Italy has 

 been due much more to individual initiative 

 than to that Government intervention on which 

 many people of despondent temperament are 

 apt to place far too great a dependence. Italian 

 Governments have certainly shown their sym- 

 pathy with the movement by widening the func- 

 tions and improving the legal status of the 

 banks ; by giving practical encouragement in the 

 setting up of co-operative dairies, and in other 

 ways besides. But the conception of the Italian 

 system and the remarkable success with which 

 it has thus far been carried into effect are alike 

 primarily due, not to State aid, but to the 

 wisdom and the personal energy of a compara- 

 tively small number of individual patriots. 



