Page:Giuseppe Bianchini - The Work of the Fascist Government and the Economic Reconstruction of Italy - tr. Luigi Villari.pdf/29

 upon fresh sources of enterprise for university organization; the example of what has been achieved in Milan and by our mayor, Senator Mangiagalli, will suffice.

Then we have the telephone service entrusted to private enterprise, which means a service at last withdrawn from the State. Who would have dreamt of this barely two years ago? There is an undertaoing to invest many tens of millions in the lines, the central stations, the plant. At last it will be possible for a citizen to ask for a connexion in another city without putting in an application from father to son, and we can dare to hope that even in Italy the telephone will become a really useful instrument for a business man and no longer a distributor of bad temper.

Railways and the postal services are going ahead, and their budgets are well on the way to being balanced. The budget of the railways, which in 1821–22 showed a deficit od 1257 millions, in 1922–23 of 906 millions, and in 1923–24 of 298 millions, will probably be balanced in 1924–25. The Post Office budget for 1921–22 showed a deficit of 502 millions, which was reduced to 67