Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/59

 THE FINANCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK OF ITALY.

IT is an undeniable fact that foreigners in general and English- speaking peoples in particular are too often prone to overlook the real aspect and the true tendencies of modern Italian life. The highly cultured foreigner of superior taste finds it almost impossible to think of Italy in any other light than as the home of Dante, Michelangelo, Raphael, and the other great masters of art and literature who, by their everlasting work, have enlight- ened even the darkest pages of Italian history. On the other hand, to the average middle-class foreigner, who has probably only traveled through Italy on a Cook excursion ticket, the name of Italy is most likely to suggest the familiar figure of the bootblack or the organ-grinder seen in his own country, or the romantic silhouette of the brigante or the lazzarone, a creation of cheap literature. To both these types of foreigners a dis- cussion of the financial and industrial outlook of Italy might seem, for various reasons, devoid of practical bearing. The truth is that they both have a false and incorrect notion of Italy. There is something else in Italy besides the art galleries, the ruins of Pompeii, and the prolific though somewhat primitive peasantry from which our emigration is chiefly derived. This something is " the real nation " a growing community of active, enterprising, high-spirited citizens, who are fully alive to the exigencies of our time and are not lost in a Buddhistic con- templation of the past, however glorious. They are the true representatives of the country in its younger energies. In spite of obstacles arising from scantiness of natural resources and from social conditions created by centuries of misgovernment, oppression, and political disruption, they are striving to build up a modern Italy on the lines of industrial and commercial activity which have made other nations successful in the world's compe- tition.

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