Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Italian Political Fog ROME—Climatically Italy is still the country of blue skies and hot sun which is described in Goethe's haltsfaische Reise...
...The permutations and combinations of the political parties alone are balling to the newly arrived visitor...
...fle'spokc of the strong oiganization of Id' Communists and of the disposition among the worker* In believe that Russia was a proletarian paradise...
...The high schools are little better off...
...Loyalty to the Roman Cathoiic.Chiirch is r sjsjMnling link in this pail v. The Socialists in Ituly, aa in France, are dislincily divided internally and keep up a front of party unity by itit- .adoption of catefully worded-coniproinise resolutions...
...Organized workers can learnjpr) illuminating lesson by observing what has happened to them...
...The political and economic situation here bears some strong points of resemblance to the one which I observed in France two months sgo—with the difference that Italy's problems seem more acute and aggravated...
...One ol the chief causes of difference is the attitude toward the Communists...
...A fierce, uncompromising nationalism is one W the few things th* two groups abate...
...In the North the\ advocate a radicnl social snd economic program, with expropriation ol hig industries...
...The public schools were instituted with the definite purpose of training citizens up to the level of ilirir responsiliiliinIn I in.- .MIII IIH* ' • u i i i v p i , «r habitually laud the teacher as our first line of defense in the struggle sgainst ignorance, corruption and failure...
...crafic and civil liberties he optimistically replied: ''Of course...
...The Christian Democrats, who won far Smote voles than any other single party in the last election, are also divided to some extent along regional lines...
...A multiplicity of parlies, in Italy and elsewhere, leads to unstable coalitions, to a blotting out of the sense of individual party responsjbility, to reluctance to take unpopular but mrcessary measures to strengthen the financial situation...
...Siii i;.'MI l e u i a i k e i l that the Communists were subject to the dictation nf a tor.'ign power and held a different conception of-worker*' democracy from that of Ihe Sociiilisls...
...Neniii's attitude was quite different...
...In the South the) are old-fashioned reactionaries...
...he was pessimistic shout the grnwth'of Communist influence among Ihe workers...
...Confusion becomes still more confounded if one considers that most of the parties (except tho Communists, with their standard iron discipline) aie more 0 1 lees divided among themselves...
...Outside of the Government there are more conservative or moderate groups: the Liberals, the Democrats, the Lotuo Qualunque (Common Man) Party, which cries a plague on all politicians...
...This mates for a chronic atmosphere of uaeettlemriit...
...The Guild, which is the New York oral ( of the union, haa presented to the Board of Education a demand for an all-around advance of $1,000 ss4 a single sslary schedule for all teachers...
...For the teichcn are on the move, with the A l l . Tcschers Fedcratioa in the lead...
...During the coming months we shall have oppor...
...During the Spanish civil war arid during the World War, be said, he had favored a fusion of Socialists and Communists into one working-class party...
...Their rrmnej wages have remained stationary and their real wages have gone down...
...Mussolini's deadening one-party dictatorship has certainly been outlived...
...All Editorial— Starving the School System THERE is a curious lack of logic and realism in the contrast between our talk about education and our treatment of teachers...
...The Teachers Guild has released a statement fronj William Green: 'The American Federstioa of Labor will not pause nor cease its efforts until justice is done to teachers of the nation...
...An example of the'sort of thing we should bt doing was exemplified 1>y General Maik Claik's recrat apcech at Salerno, emphasizing tha courage of the Italian partisans, neatly limed to follow V'shirtskri snarse-abuse of Italians as cowards al Paris...
...We are constantly being told that trade unionists would be assured of fine treatment and satisfactory adjustments if they would lie good boys...
...there is almost a Tower of Babel of political voices, ranging from Monarchists to Communists...
...A smaller parly, the Republicans, is also represented in the Italian coalition...
...In Mississippi the average is $790, in Arkansas $815, in Georgia $')M.t...
...Hie next months will be hard...
...In niat.v stales the wage rates are shameful...
...While there has been *om% progress toward reconstructing with transportation considerably restored, goods i* ahops (.not only in ahop windows) and a surpruiae number of good l*atouiants*Yunctioning in Ron*/aft majority of the people fare a hard struggle for n m . ence...
...unity to observe instructive events...
...needs the help and cooperatioa of the working x l s ss of the United States and Britain...
...There is also an underground neo-fascist movement which is believed to gel some leadership from two former Fascist Parly secrelsrira who have never been caught, Srorzs and Turali...
...The political log in Italy is to some extent a re...
...A general level of this sort would give teachers a chance to live, would bring better qualified employees into the schools, would imp r o v e the whole character of our education...
...The local unions and state and **ity central bodies have bees asked \to put forth every effort to back up the deniands of teachers everywhere, In New York Slate the Federation has l,5(Xi,0Od members who will move into1 the- teachers' campaign in the immediate future...
...The City and State of New York can, of course, afford to pay these sSlaries...
...and everyone is free to apeak his mind...
...It will be smart politics and smart economics fot, the United Stales to (real what is Mill a struggling and embryonic Italian deniocrscy a* i full-fledged member of the western, non-Sovfel l.loc of nations which we should try to build up and sup...
...This should take two forma: pressure for a tolerable peace treaty and strengthening of contacta between the labor movements of these countries...
...1 hsd an opportunity to walk with two of the principal Social is' leaders, Giuseppe...
...flection of the cobntry's economic difficulties...
...The public authorities would do well to take note of what is happening...
...during I 11 vein period to $5,500...
...Italy <s loo westernised s country t0 stand fot s dictatorship...
...But when it dimes to paying the teachers, we forget all of our fine pretensions...
...He denied that there was any fundamental antagonism between dictatorial Communism arid democratic Socialism, and interpreted the Soviet dictatorship as just an accident of historical conditions...
...But some of the weaknesses of the pre-Fascist era In Italian politics have reappeared...
...But politically and economically this exposed peninsula, which experienced so much ol the wsr on its soil, seems to be stumbling in a fog toward an unknown destination...
...Moreover, Italian parlies have a way of splitting and forming new combinations with bewildering rapidity...
...Actually, oar educators have been starved into a mood of discouragement and defeatism...
...They cannot afford not to pay them...
...The Government, as in Frsnce, is a coalition of I liif.ii.in Democrats (a < alholic party with a mass following...
...Here is something for businessmen and government officials to think about...
...port...
...I 'M J ihe average salary, including principals and supervisor*, tins $l,7.r>.ri...
...Where the News Ends By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN Italian Political Fog ROME—Climatically Italy is still the country of blue skies and hot sun which is described in Goethe's haltsfaische Reise and which finds musical reflection in Tchaikovsky's delightful Italian Caprice...
...Speculation is rampant, prices are continually rising, food distribution is very uneven...
...Socialists and Communists...
...Coss sense, the advantages of the increase as a matter of public policy, seem not to exert sufficient influence...
...Unless they act quickly, this will become the issue of a laade union fight— and the result* may not be to their liking...
...He added, with a smile: / "Nothing separates us from them—except an abyss.'* At t h e same time, like inany Ftiropean democratic ,So-i .Ii...
...the teacher who haa reached maximum pay after fourteen years an service has a real wage of $25 i week...
...Here the American Federation of Labor steps into the picture...
...The teachers—except those at Norwalk, Cona.— have been good to me point of docility...
...But the question remains: How can tha teachers convince the Board of Education, the Mayor, the Governor, the members of the Legislature...
...But in the states with the best records —in New York, New Jersey arid California—the money rewards of the instructors of our youth are far below those of truck-drivers, carpenters or plumbers...
...He pointed out that, while the Socialists had barely held their own, in coiiijiai isun with pic F a s c i s t dsvs, the Cnmmunist* are much sliiuiger...
...He advocated^ CommunistSocialist cooperation, including some iVmaller wing" parties, in the next election...
...In I'M...
...Ssragsl, President of the Constituent Assembly, and Piefro Nenni, the Vice-Premier, in quick succcsssion snd the ' mil i .-I in their viewpoints was very nuirkeil...
...I In v are more progressive in the industrial North, i i i u i r conservative in the agricultural Vouth...
...We are often told that the success of democratic government depends upon the intelligence of citizens...
...If tin schedule were accepted, all teachers would eventual^ start at a salary of $2,750 and be advance...
...When 1 asked hist whether he believed that a government in which Cor* munists played a leading part would observe dem...
...The plain fact is that in the nation as a wnole we pay teachers so little that it is impossible for them to succeed well in the tasks assigned to them.,In onr public school system we have 27,000,000 children>md nearly 900,000 teachers...
...In a statement made to the New York Board of I.iluc.iiioii on October 2 by the Teachers Guild, the desperate situation was graphically described: "Compared with six years ago, the beginning^elementary st• nNiel teacher has a real wage today of $i7 a*rweek...
...He admitted this was impossible under present conditions, but seemed to regard it as an ideal for the future...
...Hie underground Fascists, for- instance, arc quite different in the North and in the South...
...Italian Socialism, he repeatedly emphasized...
...One can list seven 0 1 eight politics* parties with a subs t . u i i i a l following, tr say nothing of many little splintrr gtoups...
Vol. 29 • October 1946 • No. 40
