14. ITALIAN SOCIALISM. It has often been remarked that Italy during the 19th cen tury, and especially during the period immedi ately preceding the establishment of United Italy, contributed very little to the universal progress of science, letters and arts. The in tellectual activity of the nation was engrossed in the long struggle for national independence. It was the overwhelming absorption in this same conflict which so long retarded the prog ress of Socialism in Italy. Sixty years ago Italy had produced no Marx, no Engel, no Las salk, no De Poepe, no Fourrier, no Owen, no Henry George.
After the accomplishment of Italian inde pendence and union Milan became one of the great commercial cities and Genoa one of the most flourishing seaports in Europe; then the nation witnessed the first efforts of Italian workmen and peasants to secure something more than the expulsion of the oppressive for eigner from her soil, and the unification of their country. In other countries the Internationale exhausted its power in the contentions between Bakonnine and Marx, le Thiers crushed the Paris Commune before the Italian working classes began their struggle against capitalism. Of c-socialism*— so called—Italians had pre viously heard only the, denunciations and theis tic sermons of Giuseppe Mazzini, which, how ever humanitarian, are religious and individual istic and not socialistic.
lyloreover the Italian fight for freedom re tarded the growth of Italian Socialism in a way which has passed almost unobserved and which in the absence of documentary proof is vigor ously denied by Italian Conservatives. It is, however, true that the enthusiasm which prompted Italians to conspiracy and rebellion and high martial valor on fields of battle, to se cure the liberty and unity of their country, was not inspired solely by patriotism. Many Ital ians anticipated that with union and independ ence certain great and radical reforms would be obtained. For some of these warriors the patriotic strife implied socialistic ideals; it cer tainly admitted of a socialistic mirage. Evi dence of this is to be found in many popular sayings and songs current during the early half of the century, and in expressions scattered through many printed and written From the very beginning the National party was divided into a right and a left faction. The satirical Tuscan poet and patriot, Giuseppe Giusti, in his letters often qualifies as commun ists, or adepts in communism, several of the men who afterward fought for Italy. The epi
thet becomes significant in view of the terror which Giusti and every other loyal Conserva tore felt when he detected even a taint of un conscious socialism in this pre-eminently patri otic struggle.
Again! After Giuseppe Garibaldi had glor iously guided his army of a thousand heroes in the conquest of Sicily, and it was necessary for him to assume the statesman's part and, as Dit tatore of Sicily, to establish a new and ade quate government in the conquered land; by the advice of Francesco Crispi and his other coun cilors of experience and wisdom, Garibaldi, in an almost forgotten proclamation, offered to let the islanders divide among themselves the state domain, thus dearly indicating how largely these patriots were imbued with the ideals of socialism. As long as this patriotic enthusiasm continued, there remained a vague hope that economic reform would grow out of political re form. Hence the political revolution checked socialism; both by engrossing intellectual forces that might otherwise have prepared public opin ion for socialistic ideas, and by promising to achieve that economic redemption of the work ing classes, which in other countries socialism promised to accomplish.
But the echo of the last battle for liberty had scarce died away when many Italians real ized that so far as the economic redemption of the lower classes was concerned, the Italian revolution was eloquently described in Dante's line, Some of the very men who with lofty patriot ism had fought for the political freedom of Italy, were among the first who perceived that these expectations had not been realized. They were men trained to plan and successfully ex ecute a political revolution, and believed that the same violent means would be equally suc cessful in the field of social revolution. They believed that an emulator of Garibaldi, strong of will and of dauntless courage, could stand on the field of economic conflict, as he had stood on the martial field, and with equal facil ity achieve not less wonderful victories. Sudi men were prepared to listen to Balcounine's propaganda of violence, but they were not ripe for a socialism which taught respect for exist ing laws.