SECRET SOCIETY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXIX, Issue 4731, 10 August 1935, Page 2

SECRET SOCIETY

HISTORY OF THE MAFIA. Secret societies aie a very useful standby for novelists and romantic writers, and the Mafia, r.erhaps the best known of the lot, is an almost essential ingredient in any lurid tale of Latin vengeance. Signor Mussolini has, so he says, stamped out this famous Sicilian society. However, before we waste sympathy on the authors of best-sellers, it will be wise to wait and see if Signor Mussolini has been any more successful than his predecessors; while waiting, it may be of interest to examine the origin and methods of the society, its selfappointed functions, and its general influence on the social and domestic life of Sicily. For the Mafia does exist, and, in spite of Signor Mussolini, will continue to exist, u'nless he can entirely change the Sicilian character. But it does not, of course, exist in the form in which the writers of thrillers' present it.

A glance at the map will show that Sicily lies roughly mid-way between Europe and Africa. By reason of this geographical position the island has always been coveted by a succession of paramount rulers of the more neighbouring parts of those two continents. Throughout the centuries Sicily has been continually urder the heel of seme foreign tyrant —the Carthagenians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Saracens, the Normans, and the Bourbons have all in turn held dominion over the inhabitants. As the power of each conqueror waned, so did his hold on Sicily weaken, and any attempt at fair government was, after the manner of the times, replaced by a regime of violence and intimidation, accompanied by gross extortion with a view to replenishing empty exchequers.

Weapon Against Tyranny.

This continual oppression and lack of responsible authority gradually bred into the Sicilian character the policy of regulating domestic affairs, so far as possible, without unnecessary and futile recourse to alien courts. Partially with this object, but mainly with the idea of vengeance and resistance against tyrannous authority, the Mafia came into being. The society was never properly constituted with a fixed code of conduct, or administered by responsible heads, nor was any one person the progenitor. Just as unnatural pressure on any part of the human frame will produce ah unhealthy growth, so did the Mafia grow up in secret, automatically, as the result of continual oppression.

. At the inception, therefore, the Mafia society—secret of necessity, because it was in effect opposed to what was the legitimate government of the country, —formed of all classes of the community in order to safeguard domestic life against the gross corruption and feebleness of a succession of tyrants, and to exact vengeance for wrongs done. This ceaseless underground struggle with authority and the ruthless methods adopted by authority whenit was temporarily victorious, was not likely to encourage adherents of the society to boast of their membership, and thus arose the Mafia tradition of "silence. To this day, in spite, of the vicissitudes through which the society has passed and the depths to which it has degenerated, no member will betray or give, evidence against his fellow, nor will any perso'n admit to being a member.

Demands of Tribute.

It must not be supposed, however, that the Mafia was ever entirely composed of high-souled patriots, imbued with a nice sense of right and wrong, and animated by a universal determination to avenge their country's wrong's. The very circumstances which called the society into being made blackmail and extortion an everyday occurrence, and this natur-

ally attracted the more desperate and violent characters in the island to the ranks.

In practice, therefore, even in the early days,' the Mafia resolved itself into an instrument of blackmail and intimidation, though, to be just,, it must be admitted that such measures were usually directed against the rich, and against landowners' and others notorious for the ill-treatment and under-payment of labourers. But even landowners who treated their men fairly were forced to pay tribute. Orchards were "ravished, walls and hedges broken down, and the unhappy proprietor reduced to despair, Until he had the wit to send for the local head of the Mafia, and adjust matters to their mutual satisfaction by the payment of hard cash.

And so the Mafia carried on until 1860, the year of Garibaldi's famous campaign which resulted in liberation for Sicily from the Bourbons and the formation of a United Italy. - With the formation of a just and stable government the necessity of the Mafia as a political instrument passed away.

"Mafioso" Means "Blackguardly."

Unfortunately, the power for good in the society had been waning for many years; it had degenerated into an association of bad characters loosely bound together by the common object of illicit gain by underhand means; and such is the Mafia of Sicily to-day. The Mafia of' 1935 differs from the lowest stratum of the population of any other country only in that its members are linked together by some indeterminate bond, and by reason of a numerical superiority which enables them to some extent to impose their will upon the community at large. Into such disrepute has the society fallen that the adjective derivative of Mafia, "Mafioso," has acquired the meaning of "blackguardly," and constitutes a deadly insult when applied to a Sicilian, although most of them are Mafioso in the true sense of the word, i.e., they are members of the Mafia. - ~,."

The only bar to any effective repressive action is the fact that solarge a proportion of the population either belongs to or tolerates the Mafia —not from ' preference or genuine inclination, but because to do so is the line of least resistance. Any inquiry, even from' educated persons, regarding the Mafia is met with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders, and frequently by a flat denial that any such society exists at all/ Least said, soonest mended, and the individual who betrays too much about it, is likely to find his life rendered most unpleasant by numberless pinpricks. His poultry will disappear, his mail will not be delivered, his baker will be u'nable to. supply bread, and so on. In remote districts he may, and probably will, suffer personal violence.-