Bemidji Daily Pioneer Newspaper, December 21, 1918, Page 3

4 \& b2 RACKS N THE FACE OF APRECIPICE =By DR. FELICE FERRERO, oo AREY “+fnformation. M’ spent in"the successful effort to & Austrin- Hungary out of the war Wfifle Italy’s efforts were not confined ‘fothe Austrian front, her contribution Allied success was greater here than “the other places where her troops ffouiht the battle for civilization. 'Her flmclal and industrial efforts have ipeen equal to her military effort, and “in-all these directions Italy has not “iagged: behind her allles. That the ature and extent of these effrts may ‘be better nnderstood by the American ~public, I wish to review them briefly, “““In considering. Ifaly’s military con- “tributions, let me emphasize the fact “that her soldiers have not confined their fighting ‘to their own.soll. Like those ‘of ‘her.allies, they have gone far afield. “Phegiidontributed largely to the glovi- ous victory on the Balkan front. A ~Jarge contingent In France first gave powerful ald in the defense of Rhéims, “then took part in the advance of the ‘ailfed forces, i< “|taly Had 5,500,000 Under Arms. 7 Since the beginning of the war Italy has called to the colors little less than 6,600 000 men and has suffered a loss ot almost 1,500,000 of them. Of that loss pearly 360,000 died in battle, and 100, noo from ‘disease. Over. 550,000 are totally- Incapacitated, either by blind- “fiess, loss of 1imb or' tuberculosis. At ~the present moment the strength of the Italian army is 4,025,000, including the class of men born in 1900, who “hive been calted to the colors recent- | “1y. It may be sald, then, that the na- tion's man-power has suffered a per- manent loss of nearly a miliion. * But. serious-as is this loss, Italy has “4nflicted an even greater punishment “upon the foe. In Austrian prisoners alone she has taken approximately a i “miflion. The Austrlan loss In killed g “‘and: wounded Is, of course, unknown “to us, but even the most conservative estimates mnke it far greater than ours. In the June offensive on the Plave alone over 200,000 Austrian dead ware left on the field. Fighting Under Extreme Difficuities, - ‘Aside from their achlevements in other theatres of the war, Italy’s sol- diers have fought through fifteen fu- ripus offensives on the Isonzo and the ‘Piave, inflicting terrible losses on the ! foe in each. These campaigns were “enrried on in mountainous regions and under rigorous weather conditions that . taxed to the utmost the genius of the { “military engineers and the endurance | “of the troeps. The foe, when hostill- ties opened, were entrenched In care- o fully prepared and seemingly impreg- | ‘muble positions, backed by a network Tof wilitary roads and railroads. On | “ the Italian side were deep gorges, un- | ‘elers. passes filleq with snow and com- | “manded by Austrian guns. THere were | no suitzble reads or bridges. fmyunting of lhm difficulties has chal- = amn, mauan PHITS From NG “Director ftallan Bureau of Public ‘**Fhe blood and treasure of Jtaly were | “aclable cliffs, almost impassable (.'la-i The sur- | » Efforts in = orld lenged the admiration of the engineer-] ing world. Over 2,600 miles of roads have been constructed on the mountains of Italy and of- Albania, and 1,000 miles of aerial cable raiiroads (Teleferiche) have been built to carry food, ammu- nition and guns over deep ravines. Economic Difficulties. The magnitude of this military effort can be fully appreciated only when one takes inw consideration the economic structure of the nation and the nature and number of its population, = One must remember that out of 36,000,000 inhabitants in Italy at the beginning of the war only 17,000,000 were male. This seeming disproportion is caused by emigration, which was largely com-’ posed of male aduits.. Out of those 17,000,000 only 9,000.000 were adults economically productive, Consequent- ly the subtraction of the mobilized forces has had an acute reaction on the economic life of the nation, It is estima‘ed that on an average only 100 adults remained in each town or vil- lage to provide in each case for some 820 children below the age of fifteen. Furthermore, the traditions of Ital- fan family life render the work of thelr women an economic factor of less im- portance than In some other countries, though it has been utilized to the ut- most and {s becoming more avaflable as old traditions give way to war's-ne- cessity. No Troops From Colonles, - Italy got no help from colonial con- tingents, On the contrary, the scarcity of native troops In Italy's colonies compelled the government to reinforce them with troops from the mother country. Nor has help come to Italy through the co-operation of workmen of neutral or allied countries. Italy, on the other hand, sent a large con- | tingent of skilled workmen to France, thus allowing her to release valued elements for war. Furthermore, near- 1y 500,000 of our male adults residing in America gave to this great nation direct contribution to her economic and military efforts, To meet their military obligations, therefore, the Itallan people have been compelled to ent into the most urgent needs of agriculture and Industry. Her continuous lack of labor has made the { task of feeding the army and provid- |ing it with munitions a mest difficult | one. * And yet Italy, lacking Iubor and in- dustrial developrent, lacking almost | entirely coal and raw materials, has by a miracle of energy been able to| | ereate almost from nothingmn power- | ful organization of war ihdustries. Dxfficult to Obtain Goods. | The very act of entering the war cut | T s NE\V YOHK SLOW TO BRITONS | memwsese Aw-rlcan Cities Which By mpressed Business ess Lelsurely.” Some of the many public men of England who have been engaged in war work in America, it must be confessed, were not so much im- pressed by the business methods | they found in New York as in other parts of the country; as, for .ex- ample, in Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington .and the various busy cities of the middle West, Frank Dilnot writes in the Saturday Eve- ning Post. There was a certain leisureliness in New York that was piquant. The work was -carried through, but nobody was in any } hurry. A lively open-mindedness uhex‘e, a8, elsewhere, was a motive force; but in everyday executive de- tail I have heard more than one English business man remark that there -was. a .slowness alien to the rest of America, even as it was alien to London., That . hustling New York should give this impression is indeed strange; but the fact remains, It was part of ‘the 'unexpectedness which is-one of the uplifting things in-‘America to the European. There has, however, not been one, whethez he be banker, ship constructor, mu. nition expert or organizer, who has not _spoken privately with enthusi- asm- of the copdiality in the Ameri. can’s heart and the virility in his, nind. FINE FOR RHEUMATISM! Musterole Togsens Uj Those : _Stiff_Joints—Drives Out Pain You'll know why thounnds use Mus. experience: the glad re- 0"‘er. 5 Special Map Cov™ - .Bemidji Pioneer Pub. Co. y 3 :Bemidji, Minn, AR Gentlemen: Encloaed find $2.50 to pay for the Daily Pioneer for six months and 32 cents for which :send me one ol your latest State, United. Shtel and ‘War Zone maps, a combination of “three fn ‘ofe” ‘map ‘hangers. War - RO i (T D N s s o PO ‘OPEN EVENINGS UNTIL CHRIéTMAS Closed All Day Christmas Gift Suggestions Im:s, Coats, Waists, - Hose, Gl&v‘u, iKi- ‘monos, Bathrobes, Petticoats, Cam- isoles, Umbrellas, -Quilts WHERE HE ITALIAN LINE CROSSED ATHE HEIGHTS o%euin é’"”m'- r// Neckwear Corsets idru g PR der"": than a mi P an ot blister. -Brings ease and comfort whxle it is being rubbed on! Musterole is recommended by many doctors and nurses, Milliogs of jars are used annthufily for b:&lnclnuf. croup, finfi neck, asthma, neuraigia, pleurisy, rheu- matism, lumbago, pains and aches of the back or Jomlx sprains, sore musclea* bruises, chilblains, frosted feet, colds the cheat (it often prevents pneumonia) 30c cham; pital size $2.50 TRENCH ' SNOW. STORM B o off Italy from one -of the sources of supply of manufactured products. It is not necessary here to enlarge upon the well known fact that Italian mar- kets were largely under the domination of Germany and Austria. That is a situation that is as well krown to Americans as it is and was distasteful to Italians. And it might be said in passing that it is a situation that must | be guarded against by allied co-opera-| tion and sympathetic economic rela- tionship when peace comes. Mr, Francis H, Sisson, vice presi- dent of the Guaranty Trust Company, in a recent article on the’economic situation of Ifaly points out that while Germany ‘before the war dominated the foreign trade of Italy so far as manufactures were . concerned, that coumtry was one of the best customers of the United States in raw materials and foodstuffs, That writer also points out thaf it was the adjustment of her industrial and commercial life to-the burdensome new conditions that has created an entirely new économic fab- ric in Italy. “Italy’s devotion of her resources to war purposes hag been complete,” says Mr. Sisson. “Her pre-eminence in the production of certain-articles of. com- merce marked her as the chief source of supply fer similar products of a warlike nature. Her ordinary produc- tion of automobiles, aeroplanes, tur- bines and heavy oil engines has mere- ly been intensified and modified {n the direction of such a standardization as would permit quantity production.” Financially Italy Responded Well. Financially Italy also bas responded —but just join once i s 2 K e e e i Stz to the demands of war with an open- -y handedness that has surprised even her- Two and three and more 1919 member- i ffi”‘ fdw;; ;“;Efl:;: fi ::;Ji';;te 1;1:- to ships in the Red Cross are not necessary — e el nditures 2 L G e $a0E a0 000, Tead one is enough, and all that is expected of you. i culating on the basis of a monthly aver- thn you jom y?“ will receive a 1919 member- i age expenditure for the war of $§240,000,- :!hlg Cbu“m(':!:‘l:"vlce fl‘l“ and a.folder with ten J 000, the total cost of the war to Italy e TO88 ristmas, scals. would be more than $12,000,000,000. Wear your button on the outside of your coat— H : A {urlther r;rooxt ofhths financial ef- when your button is where it can be seen you won’t P ort Italy made for the war, notwith- be asked to join a second time. B i standing her small means, m:e the five Put your jfla in ih front wind 1 h national loans. The first one ylelded . hy ddgi o sro wuh OW. 9. your home 1 about $200,000,000, and it seemed & —with an additional membership cross. for. each - great‘ s:lrugxizlie, ly;e! still others were one of your fnmlly who joln“ 4 1 , 1 of October, 1917, yielded about §1,- in the opportunity to answer prelent" to the 1919 Red button i 800,000,000, front window Cross Christmas Call. itcanbe goen | It must be remembered; too, that 1abor shortage has meant a food short- age. It has established a vicious cir- ¢le. Our fighters and indastrial work- ers _have accomplished thelr work while forced to endure a regime of restricted diet that has meant real and continuous suffering such as probably is not to be found anywhere among the other belligerent peoples, Jom the RedCross . | - all you need is a heart and adollar | THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BY e ” PATRIOTIC CITIZENS _ . ° _‘ i ive Page t § {