NEW LAND POLICY FOR ITALY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 54, 27 November 1928, Page 3

NEW LAND POLICY FOR ITALY

DRASTIC CHANGES SHORT SHRIFT FOR BAD LANDLORDS For a long time Mussolini has appealed passionately to his countrymen to “go back to the land” (writes a correspondent of the London “Observer ). Eager to get to work, he does not wait for the ratification of the new law by Parliament, but issues an order, dated October 2, to the Prefects of Italy, proclaiming that “the work begins to-day. There are three main facts for Italians to realise and digest: — . (1) The scheme for the integral development and improvement of land is on so large a scale and necessitates the expenditure of so much money that it entails a radical alteration of the rights of property over a vast part of the country. (2) The State is prepared to find the money. (3) Landowners or associated owners are obliged to avail themselves of the plans of the Government experts for the transformation of their properties so as to carry them out with the least possible delay. In the event of any failure on the part of proprietors to follow the Government programme, the Prefect of the district is authorised to take over the work in collaboration with the official body of experts in the place of the proprietor; and, furthermore, to issue those executive measures thought to be necessary in each case.

As the new legislation has not been made public, the majority of people are mystified by the communication. Fortunately, two leaders were published in the “Corriere della Sera” on September 1 and 29, by H. E. Alberto de Stefani, who is the chief exponent of the Premier’s policy in his capacity of president of the associations for land reclamation and irrigation. He is as keen as his chief “to ruralise Italy.” I asked him recently what the plans were for the Roman Campagna. His answer took my breath away. “The scheme for, irrigation, harnessing rivers for the work, building roads, improving communications, and housing workers, embraces the whole of Italy and the islands. When the work is in full swing, some 200.000 labourers will be employed. When the work in view is finished, I believe that the increased rate of production can be calculated at between forty and eighty milliards of lire, and that some ten million more Italians can be fed from home produce " Warning to Landlords.

His two articles are in the nature of open letters to landed proprietors and directors of savings banks. He gives the new theory of the right of private property in one phrase, “The State takes precedence of the individual.” The proprietor who, either because he is an absentee-landlord, a bad agriculturist, or is without capital, fails to carry out the Government’s programme, must give way to those who are in a position to succeed in increasing land productiveness. Each case must be judged separately. In the meantime, landowners will have to

realise that henceforth private ownership depends on ca'pacity and good conduct from the point of view of agriculture. . De Stefani says that the official experts show divergence of opinion as regards the basis on which to settle the amount of indemnity to be given in the case of confiscation of property. None pretend that the State should give more that the market value or less than the capitalised interest of the land. These questions will be determined by the State, and, says the writer, “should be settled in Solomonic style without right of appeal, since Fascist work must not be paralysed. Our country needs not ordinary, but war-time legislation, and the immobility of centuries must give way before such measures, which are thoroughly in keeping with the Fascist revolution.” “The Old Mentality of Bankers.” In the matter of finance, Mussolini has already provided against friction and delay which might arise from “the old mentality of bankers,” by appointing two prominent Fascists (De Capitani and De Vecchi) as Presidents of the Savings Banks of Lombardy and Turin. it is rumoured that Count Volpi disagreed so strongly on the subject of State guarantees of loans for the land scheme that he resigned his office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The present Minister, Senator Mosconi, is unlikely to raise any difficulties. If, indeed, the Government succeeds in realising this vast and courageous scheme of increasing production, reclaiming unhealthy districts, and raising the standard of living of the people in the south to that of the Tuscans or Lombards, and succeeds without impairing credit institutions, or without Injustice to proprietors, a work of capital importance for the entire stretch of the twentieth century will have been accomplished. But success is not. entirely in the hands of the Government. If Italy is to become a vast agricultural administration, Virgil’s “magna parens frugum,” it means that the present generation are to sacrifice themselves for the youth of to-morrow.