Search

The article discusses several issues related to finance from different countries of the world. It is conceded by all financiers that the monetary condition in Europe is abnormal; the scramble for gold is acute and universal. Nations with good credit, alike with nations whose currency is on a paper basis, join in the efforts to get gold and to hoard it. London, England is the money clearing-house for the commercial world, and London, watching the battle now going on among Continental nations, has been carefully guarding her metal treasure. All knots come to the comb, and the Giolitti comb has got entangled in a number at the same time. Ever since the forced circulation of paper money, the banks of issue, especially the Tuscan and the Roman, have had their troubles, which have been from time to time staved off. There are two distinct parties in Italy on banking questions, the one advocating a single bank, the other that all banks are allowed to issue notes on their own account and responsibility.

The cause of the grave financial crisis in Italy is, bad political economy, for a nation which receives more gold than it spends, should grow richer and be lending instead of borrowing, and its paper should be as good as gold or as Bank of England notes. The history of the present crisis is that of the financial, and to a certain extent the political, economy of Italy since 1870. The first mistake of the Government was in not making the resumption of specie payments obligatory at a certain date, and holding the banks to it. The second mistake was in allowing the banks to issue the paper money, instead of making it an issue of the Government.

A law passed by the Italian Chambers on the Both of April, 1874, "to regulate the paper circulation during the suspension of specie payments," made it the duty of the Ministers of Finance and Commerce to present a report upon the forced currency and upon the best measures to be adopted for its extinction. Specie payments were suspended in Italy on the 1st of May 1806. The immediate occasion was the war by Prussia against Austria, in which Italy took part as the ally of Prussia, but the remoter causes are to be traced to the political revolution in Italy, by which its different sections were united under the Sardinian crown.

Freedom of the press was guaranteed in Italy by the constitution of 1848. However, on July 15, 1923, dictator Benito Mussolini of Italy passed a decree under which the prefect of a province may wane a newspaper to change its attitude. The paper says that by means of false or tendentious news may hamper the diplomatic action of the Italian government in its foreign relations, or damage the national credit at home or abroad, or arouse baseless alarm among the people, or incite to any breach of the peace. If the paper is warned twice in one year the prefect may forbid the editor to continue in office, even if there has never been a conviction against him and may refuse to authorize any new editor.

Presents several letters to the editor. Comment on the paper money in Italy; Professorships of law and medicine; Art exhibitions in Rome.

This article presents a discussion by Signor M. Ferraris, Italian Senator and former Minister of the Crown, of the Italian exchange situation that was printed by the "Anglo-Italian Review." The rates of exchange on foreign countries and the mercantile freights are the two most serious problems of the present moment. They are chiefly responsible for the high prices now obtaining, and for the economic and social unrest among the peoples. A high, unfavorable exchange is the surest index of the unsatisfactory general conditions of any country, such as external danger of complications leading to war, internal instability of order and social peace, and adverse balances in Government and local budgets.

The arrival of Communist newspapers from Italy stopped without notice or explanation. A recent copy of the newspaper Avanti, however, carried that from many directions Italian communists are being asked what has happened to the Communist daily, press. The bourgeois papers have written the usual foolishness on this subject, referring to the voluntary suppression of these papers in anticipation of a fusion of parties or for other fantastic reasons. On the issue the fascist Government of Italy has replied that the headquarters of the Turin paper "might be restored" but "might be held longer by the royal guards," and that "restitution will be considered," and "the opportunity will be sought to turn them back," etc. phrases which amount to definite refusal.

The article presents information about various social and political developments around the world. Carlo Tresca's, proprietor of "Li Martello," a daily newspaper in New York, conviction on November 27 for advertising an Italian book on birth control in his paper seems to be the final step in an indecent and dishonest persecution of a man who is said by the U.S. State Department to be "causing friction between two governments" and who is hungrily awaited in Italy for his successful efforts to prevent Fascista organizations in the country. Forecasters have been prophesying that the Conservatives would come through the British election for a second time with a minority of the votes cast but with a safe majority in Parliament. Lloyd George, British Prime Minister, predicted a million majority for free trade but, under the electoral system which prevails in England as there, the protectionists may nevertheless tip the scales in Parliament.

Italian Premier Alcide De Gasperi has denounced the attempt on Italian Communist party leader Palmiro Togliatti's life; but Senator Sandro Pertini, an independent Socialist, spoke the truth when he rose in the Senate and accused the government of responsibility for the deed. The young would be assassin, a university student and correspondent of rightist papers, is a secondary figure in the drama. The shooting itself may have been an individual act, but one cannot conduct a campaign of hate, month after month, without inviting some unbalanced fanatic to take action which to him is the logical expression of this attitude. One cannot allow fascism to become organized legally and believe that order and democracy are safe.

The article focuses on the decline of monarchial prestige in Italy. During that time, much important material concerning the struggle for independence was held back, but for some time, past the Italian presses have poured out an increasing stream of books on every episode and, one might almost say, on nearly every man and woman of the Risorgimento Documents have been edited; the correspondence and diaries of patriots and their adversaries have been published, recollections of eye-witnesses, or reports of stories their children heard them tell, ;have overflowed from the monthly and weekly magazines into Sunday supplements and the daily papers.

This article focuses on the manifesto printed in the journal "Corriere della Sera," January 9, 1925 and was issued by all the opposition groups in the Italian Chambers of Deputies. The manifesto is as follows: "The extreme -phase of the conflict between Fascist domination and the country has begun. The mask of constitutionality and normality has been thrown off. The Government is trampling on the fundamental laws of the state, suffocating the free voice of the press with a despotism hitherto unheard of, suppressing every right of assemblage, mobilizing the armed forces of its party, persecuting citizens and associations while it tolerates and leaves unpunished acts of devastation and devastation against its opponents which degrade Italy in the eyes of the civilized world.

In this article, the author focuses on issues related with the Anglo-Italian pact, held in April 1937, and its future consequences. This agreement was signed by British Premier, Neville Chamberlain and Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. This pact is still in suspense. At close quarters the Spanish scene looks very different from the distant perspective. In the United States even some of the republic's well-wishers are inclined to opine gloomily that an ultimate Loyalist defeat is inevitable, their defeatist attitude having been induced, no doubt, by the stories which a short ten months ago were being front-paged in American papers. The most serious aspect of the Loyalists' situation is supposed to be the shortage of food, about which something drastic must be done.

This article presents information about the book "Sawdust Caesar," by George Seldes. No other man in power has ever succeeded to the same extent as Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in controlling not only the press of his own country but numerous foreign papers as well. The correspondents of the foreign papers living in Rome, Italy are not channels of independent information but merely zealous mouthpieces of Fascist propaganda. This book will be an efficadous antidote for the poison of this propaganda. The book is the best comprehensive work on Fascist Italy which thus far has been published in the English language.

Genoa also is to have its Fascist daily. The greatest seaport in the country is too much under the sway of the existing order to have any independent papers. A glance at the Secolo XIX, the Caffaro the Cittadino, and the Corriere Metcantile is sufficient to show what opinions and what programs are oppressed in these sheets, which are controlled by the Perrone brothers, the Transatlantic, the sugar interests, and the Piaggio Company. The new Fascist daily is to be called the Giornale di Genova, and is the result of a disagreement among certain factions of Fascism in Genoa and of a skirmish between the Seamen's Federation, D'Annunzia, and the Shipowners' Federation.

The Italian labor paper, the "Martello," published in New York City, prints in its issue of February 17 a list of Italian papers suppressed or suspended by the Fascisti. The items were taken from various Italian bourgeois papers: "Umanita Nova," the offices of this newspaper were occupied by the Fascisti, who also prevented the publication of the daily in another printing shop. The Vespro, edited by Schicchi, had to suspend publication for many weeks. The Avvenire Anarchico of Pisa has been suspended. The editor is in flight.

A manifesto was issued by the Italian Socialist Party that indicates that in spite of the iron rule of the Fascist a certain degree of protest against Prime Minister Benito Mussolini's Government has made itself heard. To the workers of Italy the manifesto indicates that the coup d'etat by which the constitution, already violated in practice, was formally annulled, has hitherto silenced the worker while the process of seizure and destruction of the central departments has recently culminated in systematic devastation.

A Letter from the Pope to the Bishop of Bergamo, Italy, dated March 11, taking a sharp stand against violent industrial conflict, was printed in the April 3, 1926, issue of the "Documentation Catholique." The same paper states that Don Carminati and Don Garbelli, the directors of the Labor Office at Bergamo, together with some of their associates, have resigned their offices. In this article, that Pope's letter is represented. According to this letter, it is true that there is no cause to be astonished that the enemy, exasperated at the spectacle of the marvelous fertility of this field of the Lord, and always on the look-out for favorable opportunities to lay waste to it, should have exploited the present crisis to spread dissension in a harvest so rich and so abundant.

This article presents information on a bank scandal that happened in Italy in 1893. After the arrest of the director of the branch Bank of Naples, the judicial authorities possessed themselves of all the public and private papers belonging to the accused, and on the perusal of these it became evident that the frauds were not confined to mere bank officials, and that the receivers were worse than the thieves. The permanent chief of the Department of Agriculture and Commerce was arrested on the charge of violating three articles of the Penal Code for having abetted the crimes of peculation and corruption committed by director and cashier of the Roman Bank.

The article presents news trivia from Italy. The smartest of Rome's Communist daily papers, has had plenty to write about recently: the forthcoming Italian city elections, the bad weather, the situation in Algeria. And yet, every Friday it regularly devotes an entire page (Italian papers seldom run to more than ten pages) to an almost word-for-word account of the preceding evening's installment of "Lascia o raddoppia (Double or Nothing). This is the weekly television program modeled on The Sixty-four-thousand-Dollar Question, which for the past five months has been diverting a considerable amount of Italian interest arid conversation from customary channels.

The article presents information related to publication of books. In case a sufficient number of advance orders can be secured, the American School of Classical Studies in Rome intends to publish immediately a series of twenty-nine heliogravure plates, forming a complete presentation of the sculptured relief of the Arch of Trajan at Benevento, Italy. L.C. Page & Co., Boston, have undertaken a reprint of the book "Historical Memoirs of John Heneage Jesse," in thirty volumes divided between the years 1901 and 1902, with a hundred etched or photo-etched illustrations.

The article presents information on the inflation in Europe. The economic reconstruction of Europe after the military collapse of Nazi Germany will be at best extremely difficult; if Britain and America continue the policies they have followed thus far, the results may be disastrous. One of the worst dangers facing every European country after the war is inflation and Anglo-American policy in the liberated regions has encouraged its start and its growth. Concerning the situation in Italy, Marcelio Soleri, Minister of Finance, declared, "Everything is scarce in Italy but paper money." The condition of the currency is a nightmare; it worries responsible people in the Allied Commission and the Italian government even more, if possible, than the shortage of food. The Anglo-American administration, however, is largely to blame.

The New York Sanitation Department had to sweep up twenty-two tons of confetti, ticker tape and waste paper after the report of Italy's unconditional surrender in World War II. No such burden was imposed on the authorities here, where official celebration was restrained. At the State Department Wednesday noon the press room was jammed and everyone felt happy and excited over the news. A bet was made that such an occasion could not fail to get a rise even from the secretary. When the secretary was asked whether he cared to comment on the surrender, he said that he had no comment to make at that time.

M. Yriarte has devoted himself chiefly to the study of Italian life and art. He has published excellent monographs on Venice, Florence, Rimini; he was one of the Frenchmen who first searched the precious archives of the Venetian Republic. With these State papers, he had the idea of reconstituting, so to speak, the figure of one of the great patricians of Venice. His work, entitled "The Life of a Venetian Patrician in the Sixteenth Century, From the State Papers of the Frari," had much success, and received a prize from the French Academy.

The article focuses on an article published in "Il Popolo D' Italia," the daily paper of the Fascisti, edited by Benito Mussolini. The article presented an interesting explanation of the rapid growth of the Fascist movement and its relative success at the Italian polls. The article concluded with the recommendation that fascismo has become the representative of the "middle class," which includes consumers and tax-payers. This class, it is pointed out, is the most numerous in the land but at present is hardly at all represented in Parliament which, instead, looks after the interests of the plutocrats and the working class. Fascismo could have, "gathering to itself as much of sanity and worth as the bourgeoisie salvaged from the war," a great mission in contemporary Italy.

This article presents information from the newspapers published from countries other than the U.S. as of April 19, 1919. J.L. Garvin writes in a paper on "The Paris Conference: The Last Phase" in the London "Observer" that no political lunatic is so distempered as to suppose that Germany can pay the whole cost of the First World War or for that purpose, can be kept in a state of tribute and steerage for fifty or a hundred years. A 5000-word résumé of the Memorandum published in the Italian newspaper "Giornale d'Italia" of March 13, 1919, begins by explaining that the Italian claims are based on justice and moderation. Italy went to the war with two aims: the liberation of her oppressed prisoner of wars and the attainment of safe frontiers by land and sea.

A clear warning that Italy is heading toward inflation is seen in the fact that paper money circulation increased from 402 billion lire on June 30, 1946, to 584 billion lire on June 30, 1947, and has now reached 640 billionaire. Never before have Italian liberal's felt so strongly that direction of the government must be transferred to a party with a workable plait of economic and political reconstruction. The Socialist Party is thought best fitted for this !ask, being the most democratic of the three mass parties and the most independent of foreign pressure.

The paper focuses on the article "A Continental Statesman." The article lays great stress on the failure of the new kingdom to come to terms with the Pope. The Papacy, the author says, cannot restore the temporal power, but it cannot be reconciled with the monarchy. The Italian army might suffer a crushing defeat in the field, and a monarchy of revolutionary origin, like that of the Bonapartists or that of the House of Savoy in Italy, would be swept away on the morrow by a wave of popular rage and disappointment.

The article focuses on the disturbed situation in Italy. In Rome there is indeed a constantly present under-current of uneasiness. No one feels quite secure there. Any foreigner may be stopped at any moment in the street and his papers demanded by any one of the fifty or sixty thousand members of the Fascist army, a body entirely independent of the national army, and far more formidable as it has numerous dangerous privileges. Among them is the right of arrest at sight. One does not willingly offend anyone of the black-shirt gentry who are to be seen everywhere, revolver on hip, and very conscious of their power. Arrests are common and rather uncomfortable stories circulate freely.

This article presents information on the speech of Italia Prime Minister and fascist leader Benito Mussolini regarding the foundation of a new Roman empire as the next step on the conquering road of Fascism. This speech, containing the threatening remark that "two million Italians are ready to march," produced marked nervousness in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which suspected some mysterious political scheme lurking behind Mussolini's rhetorical phrases. Not more than two months passed before sensational events in Rumania, Hungary, and Bavaria began to indicate the outlines of Mussolini's gigantic scheme of a second Roman empire.

Pope Leo XIII was born in the little Italian town of Carpineto, a miniature fortress of about 5,000 inhabitants, and hidden high between the Apennines, Italy. The ruling passion of Leo XIII was for the assertion and the restoration of his rights as a temporal sovereign. His democratic sympathies, in which some have found the most characteristic feature of his pontificate, were far less distinguished. His pontificate was, nevertheless, in its general aspect, much more liberal than his predecessor's and had a different course and tendency from that which, beginning with a liberal policy, soon became timid, reactionary, and conservative, and on the dogmatic side carried matters so far with its decrees of the Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility that Leo XIII could carry them no further if he would.

This article focuses on the book "Impressions de Sicile," by Marie Wolkonsky. This quarto, brightened by a number of colored reproductions from the author's own paintings and printed on paper kindly as well to the eye of the reader as to its profusion of well-selected photographic illustrations, will certainly make Sicily live again in the imaginations of any one who has had the good fortune to travel there. Wolkonsky made her tour by automobile, starting southward from Messina and holding closely to the coast until she reached Sellnunte.

This article focuses on the international relations between various countries. The Axis-Japan pact has been called everything from a bluff to the blueprint of a new totalitarian world order. In fact it is a typical Nazi maneuver, and so it combines some elements of both. But Hitler has always used failure as a stepping-stone for new advances, and while it is legitimate to take satisfaction at the stubborn courage which has ended the hope of an autumn invasion of England, wise observers will not discount the importance of Hitler's grandiose substitute scheme. The pact with Japan has been treated, of course, as a resounding diplomatic triumph, and no doubt it will be accepted as such by the bemused masses of Germany and Italy.

The article presents an overview of the May 4, 1940 issue of "The Nation." The well-known distaste of multitudes of Italians for fighting German battles is being countered by emphasis on the point that the World War II is bound to result in a wide redistribution of territory and influence, and should Italy stay too long on the fence, it might fail to collect. There is no mention of entering the war on the Allied side except for scornful repudiation of supposed French hopes of another 1915. Moreover, Fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini is no doubt, anxious about the effect of a Nazi overthrow on the fortunes of his own regime.

In recent developments in the Mediterranean statesmen and publicists are convinced that the occupation of Albania will turn out to be even more costly to Benito Mussolini than the occupation of Czechoslovakia has been to his opposite number in Germany. During the Ethiopian crisis in 1935 the British fleet scuttled out of Malta without waiting to count ten. Had war broken out, it would likewise have had to abandon Alexandria, where it had taken shelter. All Egyptian bases including the Suez Canal were then undefended, Italian submarines and bombers would have met very little resistance. Indeed, British naval officers made no secret of their intention to clear out of the Mediterranean in case of hostilities and take up a position west of Gibraltar.

In England as well as in Italy the disparity between the conceptions of the better native statecraft and the will of world stock-exchange fewry it clear; indeed, sometimes it hits one in the eye. Only in France is there today more than even an inner unanimity between the plans of the Jew-controlled stock exchange and the desires of a chauvinistically oriented national statecraft. In this very identity lies an immense danger for Germany. Exactly for this reason France is, and remains, by far the most terrible enemy.

This article focuses on various books and publications. The able conductors of the journal "Anglo-American Times," have undertaken a penny publication called the "American Settler." "La América Illustrada," is the title of a new Spanish illustrated newspaper, published recently. We learn from this newspaper that a treatise on international law by an eminent Bolivian writer, Agustin Aspiazu, is in press. Three historical works lately published in Italy deserve attention. The book "Storia della Repubblica Milanese," is an attempt to supply needed information in regard to the period 1447-1450, referred to in the title from the death, namely of king Filippo Maria Visconti to the accession of his son-in-law, Francesco Sforza. The book "Mémoires de la Guerr des Alpes," derived from the papers of Count Iguazio Revel, who died in 1835, is another work filling a gap in modern history.

The author came back to Geneva, Switzerland three weeks ago after shivering for six weeks on the Italian Riviera. As he went there to work, the fact that there were not more than six fine days in the whole time was less serious than it would have been had he gone merely to bask in a sun that declined to show itself except on rare occasions. The return journey ham Genoa to Geneva, via Modane, did not give him a favorable idea of the efficiency of Fascist organization. The favorite claim of Mussolini's admirers is that the Fascist regime has made the trains punctual in Italy. For all he knows, the claim may be justified, and it should not have been very difficult to make the trains punctual, for most of them are so slow that there is plenty of margin to make up for lost time.

This article focuses on political and social developments. Political leader Benito Mussolini as a fire-eater plays no new role, but he has been playing it of late in a manner that occasions some concern, in speeches at Florence, Leghorn, Milan, and elsewhere in Italy, delivered before vast crowds who responded with frenzied applause, he has been descanting upon the great achievements of fascism, pointing to the splendid future which he sees awaiting Italy, and glorifying force and arms in a fashion to suggest that if he does not himself exactly intend to provoke a war, he would not be at all averse to see a war actually break out.

This article presents experience of the editor of this article in Pompeii. The article describes that Pompeii is so full of marvel and surprise, that it would be unreasonable to express disappointment with Pompeii in fiction. The real Pompeii is different. It is seldom that any wall is unbroken; most columns are fragmentary; and though the ground plans are always distinct, very few rooms in the city are perfect in form, and the whole is much more ruinous. But this ruin once granted, and the idle disappointment at its greatness overcome, there is endless material for study, instruction and delight.

A remarkable sign of the growth of pacifist sentiment in England appears from the great victory won by Wilfred Wellock in the Stourbridge division by-election. This Labor candidate won his seat by a majority of 3,099 over his Conservative opponent. Dictator Benito Mussolini continues to play the old diplomatic role with considerable skill. To solidify Italy's control of Southeastern Europe and checkmate the ambitions of Jugoslavia, he signed in December-with the apparent connivance of Great Britain-a treaty with Albania which guaranteed the "independence" of Albania and established in power his tool, Ahmed Zogu, under Italian protection. Since then Mussolini has won Rumanian support.

Presents several letters to the editor. Information about fascist press publishers in Italy; Details of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore's trip to Italy; Political situation of Venezuela.

When Pope Leo XIII was the virtual head of the anti-Jesuit party, which, without formally renouncing the temporal power of the papacy, yet saw the wisdom of finding some modus vivendi with the civil authorities of the new kingdom of Italy, recognized as such by all European powers, it was confidently believed that, if elected Pope, he would carry out the intentions of his party. That he intended to do so is certain, but the Jesuits prevailed against him and the moderate party, reinforcing the non-possumus of Pope Pius IX.

This article literally appraises the book "Letters and Papers of John Addington Symonds," edited by Horatio F. Brown. The reception that this book is to receive will depend upon the sympathies and antipathies of the reader. That is of course the case with any book; but it is particularly true of this, for the reader will be drawn to Symonds's personality only if he sympathizes with the characteristically late nineteenth century spiritual doubts and misgivings which found such abundant expression in the correspondence and the verse of the author of the "Renaissance in Italy."

The "Cambridge Magazine" for August 9 reprints "Il Resto del Carlino" of Bologna, Italy the quotations and summary of an editorial on a possible federation of Danubian states. The quotations are published in the article. In this article the author appreciates the decision of the Italian government to refuse help to armed intervention against Hungary. Some papers even admit that Hungarian Bolshevism, even more than Russian, is not antagonistic to a national, if not a nationalist revolution; they hold that it is precisely this evolution which must be prevented, because it would inevitably induce Hungary, like Russia, to gravitate into the orbit of Germany.

The article presents recent developments in world politics. There has been no further development during the past week in the situation in Romania or other Balkan states. It seems significant, however, that a loan of $25,000,000 has been arranged for Romania in England, and if dispatches from Rome and Athens published in recent papers are to be accepted. Whatever Italy's ultimate decision on the question of peace or war may be, it becomes increasingly evident that decision will be taken by Italy alone, uninfluenced by threats or persuasions of other Germany and Austria. Somewhat sensational dispatches from Chinese government were published on January 27 concerning demands that Japan had made upon China following the Japanese occupation of Kiao-chau.

The fourth International Congress of Mathematicians opened on April 6 in the University of Rome in Rome, Italy, as Senator P. Blaserna, president of the Accademia dei Lincei, the scientific society at whose invitation this congress met at Rome, presided. After the opening exercises, the congress met at the headquarters of the Accademia dei Lincei in the Corsini Palace and chose Blaserna as president. The programme was divided into four sections, namely, arithmetic algebra and analysis; geometry; mechanics; physical mathematics; and Geodesy, with a subsection of applied mathematics; philosophical, historical and didactic subjects.

In returning his mandate of power to the six parties of the Committee of National Liberation the retiring Italian Prime Minister, Ferruccio Pam, made two stinging accusations against political leaders who had brought about the fall of the government and, by inference, against the Italian people. The first drew a deadly parallel between years leading up to fascism, with their useless political flounderings and bickerings and the situation today. The second pointed out that the capricious actions of politicians, jockeying for power at the outset of probably the coldest, hungriest and most critical winter in Italy's history, must demonstrate to the rest of the world how feeble and disunited was Italy's vaunted union of anti-Fascist movements.

This article focuses on political threat of the United States on other countries. The author comments that the countries like Italy and Germany should surrender to the United States. He says that fair trail is a concept of the United States and the U.S. would not take chance in going for a war. According to the author, the United States has to protect these countries as the common property of all the United Nations, held for trial by the Americans as trustees. The author says that the International Commission of Inquiry could settle all the differences about procedure.

On May 19, 1943, the New York Times carried a report from Berne by Daniel T. Brigham, that a plan had been elaborated in a special message from Pope Pius to Archbishop Francis J. Spellman of New York. The plan aimed to make possible Italian voluntary collaboration in the ousting of the Fascist regime and an armistice at once. In the journal, The Nation, of August 7, 1943, the author pointed out that the prefects were the backbone of the Fascist regime, and that the Amgot plan and the Vatican plan were as alike as two rotten eggs.

Military leader Henry Thompson Rowell acts as Educational Officer for the Allied Military Government in Rome, Italy. He is "responsible for the purification of Rome's cultural life," as told by Homer Bigart, correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, on July 16, 1944. There are Italians in Rome today who do not intend to be "purified" by Rowell. He is determined to purify Rome's cultural life at any cost. He entrusted composer Bernardino Molinari with the task of conducting composer Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Molinari had also been a loyal Fascist and had selected an orchestra for the German high command.