Population

increases

more rapidly than wealth

Contrast be

ern and southern Italy

The total wealth of Italy, valued in francs at forty-six tho sand millions in 1880, rose to fifty-two thousand millions 1900; but this increase loses all importance if it is place beside the increase in population, which was about four millio inhabitants during the same period, a large increase in spit of the already considerable exodus of emigrants.

No one will question the economic advance of Italy, I least of all. However, I am obliged to state that the supply of workmen in this country still exceeds the limit of the demand, that is to say, the power of absorption of available capital. This fact is the more evident since the agricultural development is not far behind the progress of industrial capitalism. In the north where industry is implanted in the midst of the fields, the question has been settled; the peasants go elsewhere to supplement their wages, and then return. But in the south the problem assumes a gravity quite different, for the lack of capital has prevented, up to the present time, a rational transformation, and on a sufficiently vast scale, of the methods of agricultural exploitation.

To the south of Tuscany there commences a new world, the tween north-southlands of Italy, under conditions of sadness and misery. The Roman Campagna with the Pontine Marshes and the Maremmes, which unite them geographically, constitute the first evidence, how eloquent, alas! — of the profound differences which mark the two portions of Italy. In one there is a feverish activity, a prosperity that time and labor will undoubtedly assure; in the other there is veritable desolation. A first characteristic of the southlands from the point of view of agriculture is the immense extent of marshy land or land imperfectly cultivated. The great landed property dominates there; and, except in Apulia, is almost everywhere devoid of the necessary farming equipment. The untilled lands in Italy extend over a surface of 3,774,000 hectares. They are divided into 2,500,000 hectares of dry land, and 1,274,000 hectares of swampy land, and nine tenths of this waste area belongs to southern Italy, where untilled lands cover one fifth of the territory.

In spite of this, or rather because of these extremely distressing conditions in the south taxation oppressive in the

north, literally exhausts agriculture in the south. The Italian land tax is, on the average, about 6.48 francs per hectare. It is about 3.41 francs in the Netherlands; 3.17 in France; 1.51 in Austria; 1.39 in Prussia; and 0.89 in England. If, on the other hand, one considers, instead of the tax on land, the tax on incomes, one finds that it rises to II per cent in France; in Prussia to 15 per cent; in Belgium to 18 per cent; in England to 22 per cent; in Italy to 24 per cent. Italy is only surpassed by Austria, where the tax on landed income is about 30 per cent. Unfortunately this lower rate of Italy in comparison with its neighbor, Austria, is made up by the additional charges levied for the communes and the provinces, the amount of which never exceeds 25 per cent of the State tax in other countries, including Austria, although in Italy it attains at times 100 per cent. In 1871 the Italian government received 128,487,480 francs of land tax, which fell to 106,625,456 francs in 1897. It has wavered, since that year, around 106,000,000. But the local taxes rose during the same period (1871-1897) from 55,000,000 to 81,000,000 for the communes, and from 29,000,000 to 54,000,000 for the provinces. Thus if, on the one hand, the State has diminished its tax on landed income about 22,000,000, the local administrations have, on the other hand, increased it about 50,000,000. And this increase has not been abandoned since.

I have calculated myself, with the official statistics as a basis, about 5,000,000,000 francs, as the value of the annual agricultural produce of Italy. The [net] revenue, properly speaking, taking account of the average of the costs of farming would not exceed the fifth part of that sum, namely 1,000,000,000. Thus, to speak very moderately, we have the following fiscal charges which burden this income, for a country essentially agricultural, possessing superficially about 28,000,000 hectares and a population of 34,000,000 inhabitants:

State tax
Additional

106,000,000 francs

९९

250. Bismarck's view

tutional

crisis in Prussia

(condensed)

CHAPTER XXII

FORMATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND THE
AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN UNION

Section 66. Prussia assumes the Leadership in Germany

King William I of Prussia and his chief minister, Bisof the consti- marck, who became the head of the Prussian ministry in 1862, were firmly convinced that the long-desired union of Germany could only come by force of arms; accordingly they bent every effort to increase the army for the conflict which they believed inevitable. In this they were stoutly opposed by the liberal members of the Prussian diet, which had been created under the Prussian constitution of 1850. Although the king dissolved the diet several times, the opposition steadily continued. So the king and Bismarck determined to proceed with the increase of the army and the levy of money without the consent of the diet. The following extracts from two of Bismarck's speeches give his view of the Prussian constitution and the right of the king, under the law of necessity, to do what he deemed best in the matter of preparing his country for the impending conflict.

This conflict has been viewed too tragically, and taken too seriously by the press; the government seeks no conflict. Could the crisis be avoided with honor, the government would gladly welcome it. . . . But Prussia must keep her strength intact for the favorable moment, which is too often missed. Prussia's

Blood

boundaries are not favorable to the development of a strong The policy body politic. Not through fine speeches and majority resolu- of Iron and tions will the questions of the hour be decided - that was the mistake of 1848 and 1849 - but by Iron and Blood. .

If you [gentlemen of the Prussian lower House] had the Attacks on the ministry right to determine by your own resolutions the total budget are really on and its individual items; if you had the right to demand from the crown his Majesty the dismissal of those ministers who do not have your confidence; if you had the right to determine by your resolutions relating to the budget, the organization of the army and duration of military service; if you had the right, which you do not constitutionally possess, to control absolutely the relation of the executive power to its officers, then you would be in full possession of sovereignty in this country. You formulate your demands in such a manner as to intimate that the constitution is violated in so far as the crown and House of Lords do not bend to your will; you bring the charge of violating the constitution against the ministry, not against the crown, whose fidelity to the constitution you do not question at all. Against this distinction I protested in the sessions of the committee. You know as well as anybody in Prussia that the ministry in Prussia acts in the name and at the command of his Majesty, and that just the very measures of the government in which you profess to see violations of the constitution, were carried out on this principle.

Prussia and

You know that the Prussian ministry in this respect stands Ministerial in a different position from the English ministry. An English systems of ministry, whatever it may be called, is a parliamentary one, a England ministry of a majority of Parliament. We, however, are min- contrasted isters of his Majesty the king. In denying the separation of the ministry from the crown I am not moved by a desire to make the authority of the crown a shield with which to cover the ministry. We do not need this cloak; we stand fast on the ground of our good right I reject this doctrine of separation

Necessity justifies collecting taxes

without sanc

diet

As to what is the law when no budget is voted, many theorie are advanced, the justification of which I will not consider here The necessity that the State shall exist is enough for me; ne tion from the cessity alone is authoritative; we have taken this necessity in to account and you yourselves would not wish us to stop paying officers' salaries and interest on the debt. The Prussian mon archy has not yet fulfilled its mission; it is not yet ready to form a mere ornament for your constitutional structure, to be no more than a useless wheel in the mechanism of parliamentary government.

251. King William explains to his people the cause of the

war with Austria

(June 18, 1866)

Section 67. War of 1866 and the Formation of the

North German Federation

Bismarck availed himself of the complications involved in the disposal of Schleswig-Holstein to put Austria in the wrong. On June 14, 1866, the king of Prussia declared that Austria had violated the principles upon which the union of 1815 was founded, and that the union had, accordingly, ceased to exist. A few days later William issued a summons to the Prussian people (“An mein Volk”).

At the instant when Prussia's army is advancing to a decisive conflict I am moved to address my people, · the sons and grandsons of those brave forefathers to whom half a century ago my father (now resting in God) spoke the never-to-beforgotten words, "The country is in danger." Austria and a great part of Germany are armed against us.

It is but a few years since, when there was a question of 'freeing a German land from foreign domination, I voluntarily, and without a thought of previous grievances, extended to the emperor of Austria the hand of friendship. From the blood shed together on the field of battle I hoped that a brotherhood in arms would spring which might in turn lead to a firmer union resting upon mutual respect and gratitude. This, I trusted, would bring with it that coöperation which should have as its fruit the domestic welfare of Germany and the increase of its prestige among the nations.