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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



the metropolis of the country, and a tiny 

 Italian village is that the houses in the 

 first have five and six stories and in the 

 other only one or two. Living conditions 

 are similar. 



This very menace of malaria proves the 

 backwardness of agriculture. The dis- 

 ease is unknown where proper drainage 

 and thorough cultivation exist. There 

 was no malaria in the Campagna in 

 Roman days. It is only since the valley 

 about the Eternal City has been allowed 

 to fall back into disuse and neglect that 

 it has become a breeding-place for mos- 

 quitoes and a pesthouse of disease. 



The trouble with Italy, particularly the 

 southern provinces, is that there is no 

 middle class. You have the upper class, 

 living in idleness and greater luxury than 

 the nation can afford, and the peasant 

 toilers under them, obliged to support this 

 top-heavy fabric and an expensive army 

 and navy besides by lives of hardship 

 and deprivation. 



There is a popular belief in America 

 that, although wages are low in Italy, 

 the cost of living is so much less as to 

 make the proportion between the two 

 much the same as with us. This is based 

 on a misconception. A comparison of 

 prices there and here will reveal only 

 slight differences provided an equal qual- 

 ity is obtained. It is the standard, not 

 the cost of living, that is lower there 

 than here. The average American who 

 gets the impression that Italy is a ridicu- 

 lously cheap country in which to live is 

 used to an unnecessarily high standard 

 at home, and, going abroad, accepts un- 

 consciously a lower one without dis- 

 comfort. 



As an Italian who had been in the 

 United States said to me in a train in 

 Sicily, "In America, cost much to live, 

 but everything good. Down here, every- 

 thing cheap, but not much good, too. 

 Italy is a good place to live, you have 

 money. No money, not much good." 



What Italy needs is a revolution in its 

 land system such as was begun a score of 

 years ago in New Zealand, when John 

 Ballance and the Progressive Party went 

 into power. If the government could 



start in buying up some of the disused! 

 and misused estates in south Italy, divide 

 them up, and rent small holding at fair 

 figures, it would give the Italian con- 

 tadino — thrifty, industrious, and simple- 

 man that he is — a chance to become a. 

 farmer instead of a mere farm laborer. 

 In conjunction with this a system of agri- 

 cultural schools and stations should be 

 developed to teach him how to farm,, 

 the means of transportation should be 

 improved, and government education 

 should be extended so that his children 

 may know some of the things to which 

 his eyes are sealed. 



Is such a solution to be hoped for? 

 In the near future, it must be admitted, 

 it is not. The present Italian govern- 

 ment, progressive as it is in many re- 

 spects, cannot be expected to take a 

 radical stand on the land question. 

 American ideas are helping, just as- 

 American dollars sent back by the emi- 

 grant are helping to improve conditions. 

 The exodus of laborers has already raised' 

 wages in many sections, and the land- 

 lords are aware of the danger that has- 

 come to south Italy through the loss of 

 thousands of its young and ablest work- 

 ers. Yet little is to be expected of them r 

 steeped in selfishness and tradition as- 

 they are, and not much more is to be 

 expected of the peasants themselves in 

 the lives of superstition and ignorance to- 

 which they have been reduced. 



Of an Italian boy, perhaps eighteen- 

 years old, whom I met high on the slopes 

 of ^Etna I asked the name of the owner 

 of the land upon which he was working. 



"II padrone," he answered. 



"And what is the padrone's name," I 

 continued. 



He shook his head blankly. "I don't 

 know," he answered. 



The question must become a national 

 one and be taken up by the government 

 in a systematic and adequate way, and 

 that will require time. New ideas are- 

 stirring in Italy. I was surprised to find 

 the strength of Socialism there, and while 

 I was in Italy there was a serious and 

 bitter strike of the agricultural workers- 

 in Parma and similar disturbances ire 



