Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 192, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1919 — Italy Is Hard Hit by Coal Famine [ARTICLE]

Italy Is Hard Hit by Coal Famine

All Other Problems Pale Before ! Paralysis of Big Industries LACK OF FUEL STOPS WORK Nation Will Be Ruined if Aid Is Long Withheld —Price of Coal Is SSO a Ton When It Is to Be ==- Had at All. Rome. —Italians are struck by the similarity of problems which face, citizens of this small country and of the big. rich and most prosperous United States. They read of food profiteering, of rent profiteering, of railroad deficits. rub their eyes and exclaim! “Is it possible that even America, that gold-mine amongst countries, has these worries, just-as we have?” Even the Italian public school teachers’ strike which has driven millions of mothers to distraction, seems to have a faint reflection on the other side.. But one problem here has no counterpart in America. It is the coal famine. .This is the wdfet trouble this country has to face. Eyerything else pales before it, for the lack of coal is paralyzing industry, closing factories and casting thousands of men and women out of employment. People who listen with or without approval, to D'Annunzio's wild diatribes against Americans and especially against President Wilson, know at the back of their minds that only the coal famine really matters. Coal Scarcity Threatens Ruin. Every thinking man and woman here knows that unless the coal famine is stopped, ruin will soon stare Italy in the face. Her coal supply which must be entirely imported, is never enough to last for more than a few weeks. Italy pays S3O a ton for coal that costs sls in France, $lO in England and $S in Germany. The Itall x government has tried to get big co*t? contracts with American mine owners. American coal, at the pit’s month Is cheaper than any other. But Italy cannot transports except at such rates that make American coal a prohibitive luxury. Italy had no coal mines destroyed during the war, because site had none to be destroyed, Italy has suffered from coal shortage worse than any other country, and still suffers. - • * h, Lack as Coal Basis Of Problqns. The Question is like a magic Circle,

you go round and round all the problems Which are causing strikes throughout the country —dear living, lack of raw materials, transports, dear foreign money, and you always get back to coal. Without coal there are no industries, without industries there are no exports, without exports there is no money. And so it goes on. Discontent with economic conditions is general, yet Italy has no coal at home and no transports to go and fetch it from America, where she could get it cheaper than anywhere else. - =•-— — ■ —r —-