POSTBELLUM VAGARIES
It seems incredible that we who have chanted "Peace on earth, good-will
to men" for upward of two thousand years, professing the Christian
religion and enjoying its benefits, should have in the year 1914
proceeded to discredit our professions and our protestations.
It is interesting to have lived in those times, for it brought into
one's thoughts and imagination sentient recognition of qualities or
characteristics of individuals and of peoples which, until the advent of
the war, one didn't know existed. Students of events curious to know and
to understand the factors and forces that had shaped the world,
geographically, politically, socially, religiously, were obliged until
1914 to rely upon the written records of the past. After that they had
but to observe daily events or read of them in the public press to
become apprised of what is meant by world progress. It has been a
universal belief that greater reform, politically and socially, flowed
from the French Revolution than from any premeditated, organized
violence that the world has ever seen. In the years preceding that
momentous event the peoples of Europe, and more especially those of
France, were living in a state of intellectual and physical oppression
which is almost impossible for the individual of average intelligence
and education to appreciate. Although republican forms of government had
frequently existed and had been conducted in many instances with much
success, there was no indication that any of them had left the smallest
trace of democracy in Europe, and the idea of social equality on a
physical, intellectual, moral basis did not exist. I fancy there is
scarcely an observer of the events which transpired during the Great
War, or a person who gives any concrete thought to the matter, who will
not admit--indeed, who will not maintain--that the results which have
issued and which shall issue from that conflict and particularly those
that have to do with men's relationship to each other in every walk of
life, whether it be governmental or individual, conductual or spiritual,
will be so radically changed that the issues of the French Revolution
will seem trivial compared with them.
It was vouchsafed me to be in a position during the last year of the war
to see at short range and sometimes from a vantage-point the workings of
the minds of a people who have had liberty, unity, and nationality on
their tongues and in their hearts for half a century and more. The
Italians were in the lime-light from the day Germany threw a brand laden
with explosives and poison gases into the different Christian countries
of Europe. Her conduct as a whole since that time has been one of
dignity, honesty, responsibility, and the exponent of the highest ideals
of nationality. Whether or not she succeeded at any time in gaining the
complete and absolute confidence of her allies, it would be difficult to
say. To get the confidence of an individual or a country you must trust
them, and the more implicitly you trust the greater will be the
confidence and the finer the quality. Every one knows that Italy's
alliance with Austria was an unnatural one and the majority of her
people have always believed that the issue of it would be disastrous.
Even the most shallow student of history knows that Austria stood
menacingly over Italy during the entire period of the unholy alliance,
but never more insultingly so than in 1912, when she veritably defended
Turkey, while Italy was at war with that country. When Italy decided to
throw her lot in with the Allies, there is no doubt whatsoever that it
was with the hearty approbation of the vast majority of her people. The
treaty which her minister of foreign affairs, Sonnino, made with the
Allies, and which is known as the Treaty of London, and which sets forth
what Italy was to have when victory was hers, although not known to the
people, was satisfactory to the government, and one who reads it now can
readily understand why it was so. The question was--would it be
satisfactory to other governments? Was it an instrument consistent with
the new liberty? Was it not at variance with what was going to be
considered a fundamental right of the people, the principle of
self-determination?
Italy's conduct during the first two years of the war drew forth the
approbation, the praise, and the admiration of the whole world. The
quality of approbation was undoubtedly merited. Whether the quantity was
merited is another question. Then came their colossal disaster of
Caporetto, the explanations of which have been many--some partially
satisfactory, others not at all. One of the undeniable results of it was
that upward of a half-million of her vigorous fighting men were marched
into Austrian detention-camps and prisons. The results of this
defalcation upon Italy and upon her internal resistance everybody knows.
It was a greater shock to Italy and far more sinister in its effect than
it was upon the Allies. Following it, she gave an example of capacity to
put her house in order, and to present a solid front, the like of which
has rarely been given by any country of the world. She cleaned her house
to good purpose. How thoroughly she cleaned it no one can possibly know
who was not permitted to enter it. The account which she gave of her
courage and her strength when the enemy attempted to cross the Piave, in
June of 1918, and which she gave in maintaining her lines in the
mountains against an enemy infinitely superior in numbers, was the
earnest of her honesty and determination.
There were, however, some things that awaited, and still await,
satisfactory explanation. When the war began Italy had a population of
about thirty-six millions, Austria-Hungary about fifty-four millions.
Italy had an army of upward of four millions of men. It was currently
estimated that Austria-Hungary had an army of between six and seven
millions. It is believed by the Italians that the greater part of the
dual monarchy's army was on the Italian front, and Italy convinced
herself that she was standing out practically alone against an army of
greatly superior numerical strength and larger military reserves. She
admitted that a few Allied divisions were with her, but she maintained
that she was giving far more to the western front than she received from
all the Allies. There is no doubt that there were a hundred thousand
Italians in France, both in the lines and behind them, and there is
likewise no doubt that there was no such number of Allied soldiers in
Italy. She had called to the colors boys born in 1899 and 1900. Indeed,
youths of the 1899 class were sent to the front after the military
reverses of October, 1917. Italy looked upon this in the light of a
sacrifice which she was obliged to make in order to resist the forces of
the empire which was at her throat. She believed that the Italian front
was of signal importance to the alliance as a whole, and she made no
secret of the fact that she was counting on the immediate assistance of
American divisions. Her government frequently said that very nearly a
tenth of her entire population was in the United States, and that
America had always been her most trustworthy friend, and that two
hundred thousand American soldiers would not only be a great moral
force, but would impart fresh vigor to the national resistance.
No one denied the truth of these statements, but cogitating on them one
is led to certain reflections, and they are: With an army of four
millions of men, why is it they were able to put only a million and a
half on the front? I understand that men were needed for munition
factories, for the essential industries that provide for war
consumption, and for the maintenance of the civil population; that
fields must be tilled, mines must be worked, water power must be
guarded, and railways must be manned. These things have to be done in
every country, but soldiers do not do them. Other countries have
militarized workmen, but they do not count them when they are
enumerating the man strength of their army. In reality Italy had called
to the colors all her healthy men between eighteen and forty-five in
order that she might more easily manage them, govern them, discipline
them.
The outsider who sees Italy through the veil of her statesmen's oratory
and polemics knows her only pleasantly masked. One is led to think
sometimes that they are more concerned with the appearance than the
substance. It often looks as if they were banking too much upon her
great and glorious past, and not looking to the furthering of conditions
that make for the happiness and efficiency of their people. The
conditions produced by the war have reminded the politicians in control
that the people love their government in proportion to the benefits they
derive from it, and I fancy it has at times felt that the people were
not giving it that strong support which is rooted in love and
consideration. "Four-fifths of the Italians have always lived on the war
footing," said Prime Minister Orlando in one of his speeches to
Parliament. He meant to convey that the Italians, being accustomed to
hardships and sacrifices, could stand war better than others. He claimed
to see in this a source of strength. Yet he must have known that the
soldiers lying down by the roadside in the days of Caporetto, awaiting
with Mohammedan indifference the coming of the Austrians, were replying
to the officers who were urging them to retreat to some place of
reorganization: "We have always lived on polenta, and we shall always
have it, and it will always taste the same even if the Austrians win."
Though not responsible for the sins of the past, it seems incredible
that the authorities were not aware of this wide-spread feeling among
the people.
It is in the hour of great trial that our conscience shows us, as in a
mirror, all our past shortcomings, and it admonishes us that we reap
what we have sown. Reviewing the past, the Italian Government must have
known that it could not have the unswerving loyalty of a people who for
fifty years had been fed on promises, big words, and magniloquent
speeches covering illiterateness, oppressive taxation, obstacles to
activity, and necessity of emigration. It is not with words alone that
one gives happiness to a nation and receives love and support.
Emigration and Bolshevism are the two symptoms of the disease that
threatens the nation. Nearly a million Italians emigrated in 1913, and
socialism has a firmer footing in Italy than in any other country.
Surely these facts have far-reaching significance. The conclusion is
that there can be little doubt that men had to be called to the colors
so as to manage them better with martial discipline. Possibly it was a
wise measure and a necessary prologue to the rigid censorship and to
Sacchi's decree, which was a kind of _lettre de cachet_.
I have often asked myself, What is the Italian's most dominant
characteristic? What is his most conspicuous idiosyncrasy? One day I
answer it in one way, another in another. But on mature reflection I
think it is that he believes what he wants to believe and that he does
not trust any one implicitly. He trusts his own fellow citizen least of
all. He says he trusts him, but when he puts him in a position of trust
he puts somebody in to watch him and to report on him. The Italian has
not that confidence in his fellow human beings that a normal man has in
his honest wife, that a normal mother has in her dutiful child, that a
normal lover has in his trusted _innamorata_. I am so prejudiced in the
Italian's favor that I must defend even his infirmities. For centuries
Italy was divided and weak, and countless times she has been the tool of
the ambitious, the insatiate, and the predatory. She has been used over
and over by more powerful nations as tongs to get their chestnuts out of
the fire. For every favor she has received she has had to pay dearly,
and she has learned by sad experience that promises are usually made of
fragile material. Leaving out the treatment she received from France and
England in the nineteenth century, more particularly during the years
when she was big with nationality and unity, and during the period when
she gave birth to these beloved terms, the treatment she received from
these nations in 1911 and 1912, while she was waging the Libyan War,
still rankles in her bosom. Despite Salisbury's promises and his parable
of the stag, they recall England's disparagement of her initiative and
of her conduct of her righteous War. They recall the sinister frenzy
that France displayed when they took the S. S. _Carthage_ into one of
their ports because they believed she was carrying aeroplanes to the
Turks, and the S. S. _Manouba_ because she had Turkish passengers
camouflaged as doctors and nurses. She recalls also that when the Hague
Tribunal practically decided in her favor, neither France nor England
displayed the slightest graciousness.
Despite these stabs of yesterday, Italy must purge herself of distrust,
which is the ferment and leaven of weakness. She must make good her
alleged trust of France, her professed confidence in England, her hail
of the United States as her deliverer. It is difficult for me to believe
that often she has not had one language on her lips and another in her
heart. The time has come when she must make the words of her heart and
her tongue one. The moment has arrived when she must put her cards upon
the table and say: "That is my hand and I play the cards face upward."
If she can be made to realize it, Italy is big with the prospect of a
glorious future and her delivery will not be long delayed.
Nothing impressed me so much in Italy during the momentous last months
of the war as her ideas of nationality, the ideas that found
dissemination, if not birth, in the prophetic soul of Mazzini and which
began to germinate nearly a century ago. "Great ideas make peoples
great, and ideas are not great for the peoples unless they go beyond
their boundaries. A people to be great must fulfil a great and holy
mission in the world. Internal organization represents the sum of means
and forces accumulated for the performance of a preordained mission
without. National life is the instrument; international life the goal.
The prosperity, the glory, the future of a nation are in proportion to
its approximation to the assigned goal." These words were written by
Mazzini several years after his ideas had made Italy great, and during
the war they were on the tongue and in the pen of every constructive
statesman who was satisfied to live only under liberty's banner.
For fifty years or more, but particularly since that fateful day, the
20th of September, 1870, when Italian union became a reality, she had
professed the profoundest sympathy for the oppressed nations of her
hereditary and actual enemy, Austria-Hungary. Since the beginning of the
World War the proud spirits of these oppressed nations, now commonly
spoken of as the Czecho-Slovaks, had been active in devising plans that
would liberate them and their peoples from the jaws of the monster. The
whole civilized world who love liberty were in sympathy with them. No
one denies that they accomplished results that were almost miraculous.
Those who had real knowledge of what was going on in the world knew that
in a measure we owed to them the secrets of Germany's diabolic
machinations in our own country when we were on terms of amity with the
Central Powers. It was not denied that Italy's success on the Piave in
June, 1918, was in some measure at least due to the information that the
Czecho-Slovaks were able to give the Italians.
In April, 1918, there was a congress of Czecho-Slovaks in Rome, which
was warmly received by the Italian people and by some representatives of
the Italian Government. This congress formulated the principles upon
which it was waging war against Austria-Hungary. It set forth in
language that even a child could understand its ideas of nationality. It
put before the democratic nations of the world the ideas that they
represented and proposed to represent. Their claims received the
approbation of the prime minister of Italy, but for some inexplicable
reason the stamp of approval of Italy's minister of foreign affairs, the
only one who was in a position to represent the government
authoritatively, was withheld from them. It was necessary, apparently,
to bring the country to the brink of dissolution of its government by a
public agitation of the question initiated by the _Corriere della Sera_
before Sonnino's official approval of their aims could be secured.
Despite the fact that France, England, the United States, Japan had in
turn accorded to the Czecho-Slovaks the right of nationality, and
despite the fact that it was well known that that organization called
into being by Italy's noble, loyal sons known as the Fascio was warmly
and industriously championing the cause of these oppressed people, yet
the governmental hand had to be forced before she would put it on the
table and play her cards face upward. When the _Corriere della Sera_ was
able to throw off the manacles of the censorship and bring the subject
of discussion into the public arena, the influential journals that
represent the standpatters in the government, such as the _Giornale
d'Italia_, the _Epoca_, and even the _Messaggero_, denied that there was
any dissension or shadow of dissension between the prime minister and
the minister of foreign affairs, and they continued to deny it in the
most determined and deliberate way up until the very last moment.
Sonnino's champions maintained that the position he took was necessary
that Austria-Hungary's intrigues be rooted up and killed. The fear was
expressed that the new policy favorable to the Jugoslavs might
circumvent the stipulations of the Treaty of London, which were
favorable to Italy, and sacrifice them to the exaggerated claims of the
Jugoslav ideas of nationality.
The _Corriere della Sera_ pointed out the futility of too great
adherence to the Treaty of London and asked: "Can we expect Wilson to
feel bound by the I. O. U. given to us in London if he did not sign it?"
It insisted that the maintenance of the London treaty in full force was
incompatible with a policy favorable to Czecho-Slav aspirations. This
embittered those holding the opposite view. The _Tempo_ rejoined: "An
attempt is made to make Italians believe that there is a conflict
between Rome and Washington due to our 'imperialistic ambitions,' which
are looked upon with distrust by Washington. It is for this reason, they
tell us, that the United States is loath to give us the help of their
forces on our front. The nation rebels against this and will not allow
anybody to put a noose around her neck and blackmail her by any such
dilemma: either we must have a change of policy, with consequent
revision of the London stipulations, or abandonment on the part of the
Allies. We are not defending Sonnino, but what is much nearer our
heart--the interests of Italy. We defend the Pact of London as the only
guarantee of our interests. You can't tell us that an effort is not
being made to diminish those stipulations: It is not true...." (Here the
censor intervened.) "We entertain no prejudice against the Czecho-Slavs
provided they do not insist stubbornly on crossing our path, and prove
that they can do what is necessary in their own interests instead of
expecting sacrifices from us. Let them meet us halfway by implicitly
recognizing the integrity of the rights guaranteed to us by the Treaty
of London, which are the reasons for our having entered into this war."
In the same paper, August 20, 1918, appeared this editorial statement:
"Either this war will make us secure in the Adriatic or it will be
a complete failure as far as we are concerned. In politics there
are no friends. There are interests only. The friends of to-day may
be the enemies of to-morrow. It doesn't profit us to take away the
control of the Adriatic from Austria to give it to those who up to
yesterday have been the bitter enemies of our race and who now,
because it is convenient to them, pose as our friends. We are not
surprised that this is of no concern to Mr. Steed (the English
pro-Jugoslav journalist, for many years correspondent of the London
_Times_ in Italy and now its editor). Were we English instead of
Italian we also would not mind to see the Czecho-Slavs inherit the
vantage position of the Adriatic held to-day by the Central
Empires. This may be sufficient for those who only see in this war
an Anglo-German conflict, but it is not sufficient for those who
look only at Italian interests. It is easily conceivable that
others may be interested in perpetuating our weakness in the
Adriatic which will prevent our further development, but it is
absurd that Italians should blindly follow such foreigners. Ask our
navy officers, defenders of Italy, what they think of those who
advise us to give up our just claims to the Dalmatian coast and
islands, which is not only a pistol aimed at Italy's head, but a
series of machine guns. The Treaty of London covers also our rights
on the Ægean islands, eastern Mediterranean, and colonies. If we
establish the precedent that this treaty can be abrogated or
diminished, we do not know where this may lead us--all our
interests protected by it may be questioned sooner or later. This
fact has surely not been grasped by those who intoxicate themselves
with demagogic magniloquence, who believe that after the war men
will go to play the bagpipe in the shade of ilex-trees, and that
the kingdom of Saturn will be restored. It can be understood only
by men still in possession of their full mental powers, who know
that this is a conflict of political and economic interests, after
which men will continue to forge weapons for the great competitions
in the vast world, resuming the struggle for the control of
colonial markets and supremacy of the seas. Only such men
understand the necessity of defending _unguibus et rostris_, even
against our allies, the juridical ground we have conquered. The
London treaty must not be discussed, as it is the only
justification for our war, conceived as a war, for national
development and balance of power among the nations which will
constitute the new world which will be born out of this conflict.
Whosoever thinks differently is a traitor to his country."
This is what may properly be called "tall talk." After this climax of
virulence, a tendency developed in the press tending to mitigate the
effect of such rancor. An attempt was made to show that the variance of
opinions was more formal than substantial, and that it was for
Parliament to decide. Even the _Idea Nazionale_ expressed this opinion,
though for years it conducted a campaign to undermine the authority and
prestige of parliamentary institutions in Italy.
The _Tempo_, however, did not back down, but asked: "Is it true or not
that during the meeting of the oppressed Czecho-Slavs in Rome no
territorial agreement could be arrived at because the Czecho-Slav
representatives did not want to accept the Adriatic limitations involved
by the Treaty of London?" It also sarcastically remarked that the Treaty
of London is now being called the "Pact of London," that somebody has
already started to call it a "memorandum," and that it is to be expected
that soon it will be called a "laundry list." And it continued: "Is it
true or not that our requests, contained in that document, are an
indispensable minimum to insure our safety in the Adriatic such as will
justify the enormous sacrifices we have made in this war? Are we not
right, then, to distrust this policy favorable to the Czecho-Slavs which
tends to postpone the solution of geographic points without first
recognizing the Italian claims as being fundamental? Let the
Czecho-Slavs first recognize our right to safety and let them dispel our
legitimate diffidence. All this discussion seems to have been the
pleasant outcome of those who entertain the jolly notion that we are
waging a poetic war instead of trying to solve in our favor vital
military and political problems, and that we should be perfectly
unconcerned about knowing whether on the other shore of the Adriatic
there will be either Germans or Slavs, Republicans, Catholics, Orthodox,
Conservatives, Democrats, musicians, or poets."
Gradually the thunder-clouds began to disperse and a conciliatory
element was introduced into the discussion. "Rastignac," who drives an
authoritative quill, and who is one of the leading and much-listened-to
journalists and lawyers of Italy, wrote in the _Tribuna_, the newspaper
identified with Giolitti:
"Would it not be better to keep silent instead of creating currents
of ideas hostile to Italy, all on account of the Pact of Rome
between an Italy which is still invaded by Austria and a Jugoslavia
which still exists in dreamland? Is this new pact, born through the
efforts of the Anglo-French friends of the Czecho-Slavs, capable of
diminishing the Treaty of London, which is fundamental for our
interests? Poor Italy, if this should prove to be the case. We are
quarrelling as if the war had ended, Austria had been conquered and
dismembered, and as if we were already seated before the green
table for the signature of that treaty which will assign to this or
the other power the shreds of Austria. Meanwhile we forget that
there are seventy-two Austrian divisions on our soil, and that the
war is continuing without the possibility of foreseeing when it
will end. I am well aware that our friends of England and France,
prompted by their great love for Jugoslavia, seem quite ready to
sacrifice the Treaty of London to the new Pact of Rome. These
friends are strongly inclined to be very generous, at our expense
unfortunately. We are being lulled into the belief of a sure
dismemberment of Austria, on which dismemberment is based this new
creation of our allies, _i. e._, Jugoslavia. It is strange,
however, that there are in France some political parties who
reproach Clemenceau for having ruined the rich possibilities of
which the letter to 'dear Sixtus' was full.... It is no mystery
that tradition is not easily uprooted in England and that one of
the deepest-rooted of them has always been that of friendship with
Austria. There are roots much older and stronger than the new ones
of the "Society of Nations." ... Let's not base our policy entirely
on a hope which will last we do not know how long, _i. e._, the
destruction of Austria. Do not forget, please, that this, the
greatest conflict of history, is nothing but a conflict of
interests ill-concealed under the rosy cloak of the highest and
noblest idealism. Its true essence remains a struggle for political
and commercial supremacy. It is no time now to read the 'Fioretti
of St. Francis.' We shall have time later on for this."
The _Corriere della Sera_ stuck to its guns. It was neither blinded by
the rhetorical dust which the pro-Sonnino organs kicked up, nor was it
asphyxiated by their noxious gases, and Sonnino had to line himself with
England, France, the United States, and Japan in according the
Czecho-Slovaks nationality and rights of allies.
Italy's trials, ill fortune, and good fortune since then are much better
understood if they are contemplated in light of that discussion and of
her momentous election of the autumn of 1919.