THE DUCE’S CAPITAL

Evening Star, Issue 20987, 29 December 1931, Page 12

THE DUCE’S CAPITAL

ROME'S QUICK PROGRESS FLIGHT FROM COUNTRY Rome is very proud of her million inhabitants; that is, of Lor 982,000, including the troops and those few visitors who have come this year (stated a London ‘ Observer ’ correspondent recently). To say that the growth is wholly welcome to Fascist ideas and ideals would bo an exaggeration, for it is not wholly due to that increase in the birth rate which Signor Mussolini has been preaching over since the march on Rome in 1922. In 1901 Rome had 520,296 inhabitants, who took a long siesta every afternoon, rode in horse cabs, and knew only such motor cars as a few enterprising private people owned. In summer time, even foreign correspondents looked fofward to a six weeks’ holiday when no despatch need ho sent and the only event that could possibly happen was the illness of the. Rope. Thirty years have changed Roman life enormously. In 1925, when people were beginning to recover from the effects of the Great War, Romo’s population had risen to 746,783 souls all told. Siestas were very much shorter. Office hours, especially in the Jimistries, had been ‘ ‘ keyed up” by II Duco’s strenuous example and l imperative rules. Motor buses were not yet. But motor taxis had grown plentiful, and a good tramway service satisfied the needs of those who could not afford anything better. Wireless took the place of the did State telegraph lines. DEATH RATE AND BIRTH RATE. By 1929 Rome’s population was 870,578. Much of the eighteenthcentury Rome had been demolished. Motor buses hooted and shrieked their way and frightened old women out of their _ wits by the manner of their swinging round nasty Roman corners. Journalists were instructed to leave the number of their host’s telephone when they dined out, and wireless lost in favour because the long-distance telephone was cheaper and more practical. Siestas were taken only in the hottest weather, and many men and women who had emigrated to America, France, and Belgium came back. The Government’s anti-emigration policy also began to tell. Meanwhile, Rome.’s population crept up every month. The death rate, which was reduced to nineteen per thousand by 1925, went down to sixteen per thousand. Slum clearances, new drainage works, and the removal of many hovels in order to widen streets and “ isolate ” ancient monuments, achieved this. FIGHT AGAINST DISEASE. Roman fever, that bugbear of nine-teenth-century Rome, has almost disappeared. Though there is still a good deal of typhoid when people come back from the country, where they are apt to drink bad water, propaganda and the spread of common sense about personal hygiene is doing its good work. Tuberculosis still accounts for over 60 per cent, of deaths in Rome. But the system of sending children away to seashore or the hills for a month in the summer and strict supervision in the elementary schools must improve their health considerably. The growth of Rome’s population is also due to the flight from hill towns and villages in her neighbourhood. This is the case with all Italian cities. They have an ever-growing fascination for the young generation of peasantry. The latest investigations show that of the last 30,000 souls who have swelled Rome’s population only 7,000 are due to increased birth rate. The bulk is due to migration from the country. Naples is still Italy’s most populous city. Milan is next, and Rome comes third. Twenty thousand Italian families have more than ten children apiece. Treviso leads the way with 1,032 of those families. Rome has but 517. Naples lias 677, and boasts one paterfamilias who has nineteen sons and daughters all alive and well.