Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1918 — ITALY IS MAKING SLACKERS FIGHT [ARTICLE]

ITALY IS MAKING SLACKERS FIGHT

Minister of Treasury Routs Out 148 Officers and Sends Them to Front. SEARCH IS ON FOR OTHERS Great Disaster to Cadorna’s Army May Be Blessing In Disguise—Volunteers In Minority—Deserters Are Shot By PHJLIP R. MACKENZIE. Rome.—On the eve of the great war, while General Cadorna was hard at work creating the Italian army destined to unite Trent and Trieste with the kingdom 148 officers of all ranks, from colonels to sub-lieutenants, were given special work. This work consisted in finding out how much money was wasted during the Tripoli war. A corridor m the ministry of the treasury accordingly was set apart for these officers, who during the last three years have been auditing accounts and taking their time in doing it, while their comrades fought the Austrians and were wounded or killed in action. There is every reason to believe that the great task of auditing the accounts of the Tripoli war would have been prolonged indefinitely, but the new minister of the treasury, Signor Nitti, discovered the 148 officers hidden in the corridor. Signor Nitti was disgusted at the sight of so many professional officers calmly working on the four simple rules of arithmetic, and in 24 hours he had the case brought before a cabinet council and a royal decree was issued postponing the work of the 148 officers, who were ordered without delay to the front. No figures are available as to the number of men physically fit yet exempted from active military service. Cases of so-called “imboscamen|o,” meaning literally “hiding in bushes to evade military service, have been frequent in Italy. The socialists, who oppose the war and whose peace propaganda contributed toward the recent military disaster, repeatedly told the masses that in Italy the war was being fought by the peasants. The rich people do not fight, said the socialists, as when one has money he can easily “hide in the bush.”

The sons of well-to-do tradesmen and farmers as a rule, are drivers of motor lorries and ambulances, and those of upper middle classes and nobility, who should be officers, often prefer to drive staff officers’ automobiles unless they succeed in getting clerical work in offices away from the front. It is true that many young men volunteered for active service as officers in Infantry regiments and sacrificed their lives for their country, but they were a minority. ’lt must be admitted that up to t£e present the mistaken impression prevailed that the hardest share of fighting was borne by the peasant and laboring classes, who suffered most of all from the war. This impression increased to such an extent that a great proportion of the men who returned on ?hort leave from the front felt discouraged and dissatisfied when they realized that every city and town in the country, was crowded with young men who evaded military service or who even if called to the colors succeeded in remaining away from the front- and saw no actual fighting. As a result, besides those men who returned to fight when their short leave expired, others felt justified in deserting. Some of the latter, were arrested, court-martialed and shot, and their comrades were not impressed with such exemplary punishments, which, instead of serving as a warning, had the opposite effect of exciting pity arid irovoklng dangerous comffarisons between the fate of those evaded

military service and that of others who had done their bit and yet paid with their lives for a moment of weakness. There were, no doubt, other concomitant causes that contributed to weaken resistance on the Italian front when the well planned Austro-German offensive was timely initiated. Thanks to their superior intelligence services at the front and their espionage system in this country the Austro-Germans knew where and when to attack with success. They resorted to propaganda among the Italian troops holding positions where no fighting had been going on for a long time. It is known now that after the riots at Turin most of the munition workers who were socialists had been sent to the front and attached to the units holding these positions? It was among these men that the enemy propaganda was successful, and the deficient resistance, due to weakness or treachery, that rendered the invasion of Italy possible originated at a point which could be easily defended by a handful of men, as it was naturally strong and formidably fortified because it afforded the shortest way for invasion. Unfortunately the men who held this point gave way.