Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/269

 ITALY

225

ITALY

which is found especially in the cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants. In 1907 there were 4-33 for every 100 births, including those born dead. The lowest averages of mortality are furnished by Pied- mont and by Liguria (19-7) ; and the highest are those of Lombar<iy (23), Apulia (25), the Basilicata (27), and Sardinia (24). Tubercular and intestinal mala- dies and pneumonia furnish the highest figures to the death-rate, together with acute and chronic bron- chitis and heart disease. In 1907 there were 1315 homicides (3-9 per 100,000 inhabitants) and 2312 sui- cides (6-9 per 100,000 inhabitants).

(3) Emigration. — Italy is subject to this very im- portant sociological phenomenon, not only on account of over-population, as some believe, but, because capital does not promote industries, which is due to a moral as well as to an economic cause, the former being a lack of confidence between lender and bor- rower, and the latter, an exaggerated fiscalism antl the want of a protective tariff; it is due also to a social cause, namely the subverting theories with which socialism inspires the working classes. These are the true mediate reasons for Italian emigration that pro- duces a lack of labour, and, therefore, economical dis- order, which itself is the immediate cause of Italian expatriation; all the other causes, such as the example of relatives and of friends who emigrate, the cheapness of travel, the facility of receiving news and of return- ing home, and the propaganda of navigation companies are of little consequence, when they do not rest upon economic uneasiness — which has been the determining element of every migratory movement in the world — nor can any human power prevent its effects. The law of 31 January, 1901, regulates emigration, and it is to be hoped that its provisions will remain in force, be- cause the State should not promote, encourage, or guide the currents of emigration. Figures are clearer than words in these matters.

who had emigrated returned to their country, and there was a suspension in emigration — only a suspen- sion, because in the first six months of 1909 tnere were 216,432 emigrants, of whom 187,086 went to the United States, an increase of 152,320 and 151,406, re- spectively, over the corresponding figures for the first six months of 190S. The undesirable element in Ital- ian emigration is not furnished by the illiterate ca/one, who has given — and continues to give— actual value to lands in the United States, but rather, by ungodly educated emigrants who use their unfortunate fellow- countrymen, as well as the native of his class, for their own ends. Is Italian emigration a good or an evil? For the economy of Italy it is a good, seeing that the credit of Italians in foreign countries, on 31 December, 1908, in the savings postal accovmts amounted to 290,- 979,711-94 lire (.'$12,000,000 nearly), and the deposits of emigrants for the period of 1 January, 1909, to 31 August, 1909, amounted to 21,702,004-20 lire. In other words, there are nearly 4,000,000 Italians scat- tered over the world, like the overflow of a prolific and sober race, in search of better living; and over the world is said advisedly, because the Italian emigrant, overcoming all ob.stacles, as poverty and ignorance, goes, exploited and little protected withal, into dis- tant lands, among peoples whose customs are totally different from his own, and whose languages are un- known to him. This adaptability to climate and to social life is indicative of liis cosmopolitan character. (4) Language and Religion. — Although the popula- tion of Italy is ethnically mixed, and although there is considerable variation in its physical types, it is never- theless different from that of all the other countries of Europe in the astonishing unity of its culture, of its language, and of its religion. That which is foreign is soon absorbed; and the Italian nation lias the fur- ther advantage that, although it has a population of nearly 36,000,000 inhabitants, only 2,000,000 of

Total Emigration

Kmigration to Europe and to Mediterranean Countries

Transoceanic

Years

ACTUAL NUMBER

100,000

ACTUAL NUMBER

100,000

INHAB.

PER 100

ACTUAL NUMBER

100,000 inbab.

PER 100

EMI- GRANTS

1876-80

1881-S5

1886-90

1891-95

1896-1900

1901-05

1906

1907

1908

108,797 164,141 221.977 256,511 310,435 554,050 787.977 704,675 486,674

390 536

744 831 972 1683 2356 2094 1435

82,201

95,146 90,694 109,076 148,533 244,808 276,042 288,774 248,101

295 331 304 353 465 744 825 858 732

76 62 41 43 48 44 35 41 51

20,596 58,995 131,283 147,444 161,902 309,242 511,935 415,901 238,573

95 205 440 478 507 939 1531 1236 703

24 38 59 57 52 56 65 59 49

The difference between temporary and permanent emigration is no longer taken into account in statistics, for the very good reason that it does not show positive facts, either because of the facility of translocation, or because the emigrant, having found work and com- forts at the place to which he has emigrated, may establish there his home. In any case, temporary emigration occurs more frequently from the provinces of Venice, Lombardy, and Piedmont, and is directed more especially towards France, Switzerland, Austria, and the Balkans. Sixty-four per cent of the emi- grants are farm labourers. The regions that furnished the largest numbers to the total emigration in 1906 were Piedmont, Venice, the Marches, the Abruzzi, Campania, the Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. With relation to transoceanic emigration the largest pro- portions per 100,000 were furnished bv Mie Marches (2222), the Abruzzi (.3.593), Campania (2677), the Basilicata (3764), Calabria (3953), and Sicily (3.390). From 1 July, 1906, to 30 June, 1907, there emigrated to the United States 285,731 Italians, neariy 43 per cent of the total of emigration. In 1907, during the economical crisis in the United States, 154,500 Itahans VIII.— 15

them are subject to foreign governments. The Ro- man conquests spread popular Latin, first, over Italy, and then over the known world; it was at first slowly altered by the linguistic habits of the various coun- tries, and then, more rapidly, through the decay of the Roman Empire and through distance from Rome. Thus originated the Romanesque or neo-Latin lan- guages, and the first of them, by its historical excel- lence, is the Italian, which is the pure and clear con- tinuance of vulgar Latin, because the latter, in Italy, was unaccompanied by other tongues. Formerly it was the principal commercial language known by foreign peoples, especially by those of the Levant. At present it is spoken by nearly 36,000,000 people.

The dialects that properly belong to the Italian system are the Tuscan, which is the typical and the literary language of the Italians, the Venetian, Cor- sican, Sicilian and Neapolitan, the Umliro-Roman, and the Marchisan. To the Gallo-Italic system belong the dialects of Liguria and of Piedmont and the Lombard- Emilian. Those are the principal dialects, spoken in the various regions after which they are respectively named, having themselves subdivisions that are due