Page:Nation v71 no1832.djvu/7

 Aug. 9, 1900]

The Nation.

107

admirable in the national ideal. If loyal- ty to the kingship goes, the last inform- ing {dea of the present order goes with it, and the time will be ripe for revolu- tion. This ts mere sentiment, some will say; but it is by such sentiment that na- tions live. It is unfortunate that Victor Emmanuel Ii. is not what his compa- triots call uomo simpatico; it ts generally believed, however, that he has unusual abilities, and there is hope that he may be, like his father and grandfather be- fore him, moderator of the cruel tempest in which the Italian state drifts almost pllotiess—“nave senza nocehiero in gran tempesta.

The parliamentary system has rela- tively falled in Italy, but the nation has suffered more from internal corruption and from bad finance than from simple ‘maladjustment of political system to na- tional temperament. The official class, not excluding the army, is notoriously corrupt. We know on indubitable author- ity that at Naples a paltry fee will se- cure for an attorney the papers deliver- ed by his opponent for the private in- formation of the court. The Deputies en- rich themselves at the public expense, and the principle of combinazione is all- Powerful. The result 1s that there ex- ists in Italy @ profound contempt for its own political institutions. “They [the Deputles] are all corrupt, or quickly be- come #0,” eald an intelligent proprietor last spring to an American, “and the only remedy is general abstention from yot- tng.” It must be a desperate condition indeed that suggests, even as a whim, the protest of folded hands and ellent lips. Gtustt son due, sald Dante of the Florentine leaders of his time; it were an optimistic Italian that would admit as many just leaders to-day.

Oppressive taxation is the crying evil of Italy. Here lie the greatest perlle to the state and, as well, the greatest pos- sibilities of reform, The peasants of the Apennines, a thrifty, laborious race, live chiefly on chestnuts and cheese; in Ro- magna—the garden spot of Italy—tne workers suffer peculiar and distressing diseases because they cannot afford salt, heavily taxed as it is, for their polenta; in the farming districts of southern Ita- ly, we are credibly informed, the taxes amount to 50 per cent. of income from all sources. The selling of small prop- erties for defaulted taxes of lees than 100 lire ($20) 1s of common occurrence. ‘The unification of Italy was at best an ex- Densive necessity, and s corrupt adminis- tration and an ambitious military and naval policy have made the burden dou- bly galling. These taxes are pald by those who are least able to bear them. ‘The peasant pays on his land, and pays day by day for every pint of milk or bunch of vegetables he car- ries to market; the wealthy citizen is often favored by statute (luxuries are curiously enough generally ex- empted from taxation as “non-pro-

ductive”), and more by collusion with the assessor. Northern Italy, which in 1891 possessed 48 per cent. of the nation- al wealth, pays less than 40 per cent. of the taxes, while southern Italy, holding 27 per cent., contributes 32 per cent.; 60 unequal is the distribution of a burden ertevous enough in any case.

It ts in this matter of taxation that Italy must make or break. Tho average Italian takes his polities lightly enough, but he knows well that he {s taxed, and taxed cruelly. The principle of revolt is not in him, still lesa that of reform, but actual distress and hunger may bring about the real “bread riots” that the dis- orders of May, 1898, profeased to be, un- Jess reform first come to relieve an in- tolerable situation. Reasonable honesty in administration, average Justice in tax- ation, passable economy in expenditure —this fs all that the Italian state requires for {ts safe continuance. The alternative 1s clearly enough dismemberment and a return to the old condition of indepen- dent states and communes. But we can- not believe that the work of the Risor- gimento 1s 20 to be nullified. There is remnant working for the revivification of the body politic; and with this despis- ed remnant of intellectuels, of whom 8i- gnor Villari is the type, the future of Italy largely lies. ‘The public life, Ike the art and iterature of Italy, has been in dan- ger of perishing for want of ideas, The old ideas of the unification have worn out. The idea of reform and the civic courage to carry it into effect are the only hope of the Italian nation. The King, from the Constitutional limitation ot his powers, can contribute little di- rectly to this work; but by representing in his person the solidarity of national feeling, through which alone reform can come, he may indirectly contribute much,

JACOB DOLSON cox.

‘Thirty years ago this very month which witnesses bis decease, Mr. Cox, then Secre- tary of the Interior, received from President Grant such treatment as seldom falls to the Jot of an upright Oabinet officer. One Mc- Garrahan, who bad for years been endesy- oring in the courts to establish a fraudulent claim to Caltfornla mining lands really be- longing to the United States, and had four times been repulsed in disgrace by the courts, was working upon Congress, where his success was no greater. However, his claim had, in 1870, been again referred to the House Judiclary Committee, and he had as counsel Lewis Dent, the President's Drother-in-law. Meanwhile the New Idrla, Mining Company lodged an application with the Interior Department for a patent to the same lands. Through the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, promptly and sharply overruled by the United States Supreme Court, McGarrahan pro- cured an injunction against the applica- tlon taking its natural course. This falling, he induced the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee to request Secretary Cox to sus~ pend proceedings in view of posalble Con- grosstonal action in favor of the pretender.

‘The Secretary, upon this impertinence, asked the advice of Attorney-General Hoar, who replied that the rights of the New Idris, Company were determined by law, and were not subject to requests from judiciary com- mittees or even from Congress itself. Ac- cordingly, Secretary Oox ordered the Land Office examiners to pursue thelr usual rou- tine, with due notice to all parties inter- ested.

Tt was now midsummer, and President Grant had gone to Long Branch, whither the McGarrahan interest pursued him, and drew from him an executive order to Sec- retary Cox to disregard the Attorney-Gen- eral’s advice, and to leave the matter in the hands of the Judiciary Committee. The Secretary, who had in vain urged that Grant return to Washington and submit the con- troversy to a special meeting of the Cabinet, gave plain notice in his reply that such interference on the part of his cblef, if per- sisted in (and this was not the first in- stance), would compel him to resign.

‘The occasion was not long in coming. The Pennsylvania election was approaching, and the Republican party managers made thelr customary appearance in Washington to Dlackmall the clerks of the departments in a ‘manner now prohibited by law. The Intertor Department, however, had been put by Sec- retary Cox, of his own motion, and long be- fore any civil-service reform regulations ad been enacted, on a merit basie—no dis- missals except for incompetency, no appoint- ments except after examination. He ac- cordingly forbade a levy fixed in the case of each clerk or class by the party collectors, ‘with threat of dismissal for non-compliance. From this moment he was doomed. Simon Cameron and Senator “‘Zach” Chandler led ‘& powerful movement to oust the indepen- dent Secretary. ‘The President, on his part, ispleased at finding his {rregular, semi-mil- itary interference resented—moreover, al- ready seeking a renomination—gave no sup- port to Becretary Cox, who in October hand- od in his resignation, following Hoar, who had been previously forced out. “Stalwart” Republicans like Col. Forney of the Phila- deiphia Presa, acting as Grant's mouthplece, Insinuated “personal reasons” for the resig- nation, and then attacked the retiring officer for his “‘sickly sentimentality” in taking the civil service out of politics, as well as for his action tn the case of the McGarrahan claim.

Secretary Cox's virtual dismissal at the dehest of the machine was vigorously con- sured by the press of the country without Gistinction of party. President Woolsey of Yale and his professors held a meeting to swell the chorus of reprobation. In fact, the incident of Secretary Cox's political martyrdom materially conduced to the ulti- mate triumph of the reform movement, then struggling into being. It was still fresh in the public mind when the opposition aroused by the progress of ofMfcial corruption under Grant's first Administration engendered the luckless Cincinnati Convention of 1872. Gen. Cox was a natural candidate of the re- form party, with which he had publicly den- tiled himself. A lawyer by profession, he had had clvic experience as State Senator of Obto, when with Hayes and Garfield he vir- tually directed legislation; at the close of the war he had been elected Governor. His versatile talent bad found tree play as ‘executive head of the miscellaneous De- partment of the Interlor. His services on the battlefield had been conspicuous and

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