There was a time when the padrone had a dozen men at his heels begging to procure them work; but now the tables are turned, and smartly dressed men court these rough toilers of the Abruzzi, and are happy, when, over a bottle of wine and a hand-grasp, the bargain is sealed.
In less than twenty years wages have increased from sixteen to sixty cents a day, and the difference in the attitude of the two classes towards each other is correspondingly great. The withdrawal from the intense congestion in Italy of nearly 2,000,000 toilers in the last ten years, accounts for the change in the economic condition of the common field labourer of that country. No phase of human relations has been left unaffected by this remarkable movement away from the home soil.
“Just as you wish, Signor,” I heard a man say to one of the upper class. “Three lire and not a centesimo less.”
The landowner watched the labourer closely, and when he saw him approached by another landowner, ran to him and sealed the bargain.
“Ah, Signor! Emigration has done this!” the labouring man said when I entered into conversation with him. “There are not men enough left to do the work, and if it weren’t for the hard times in America, I would have charged him two carini (about sixteen cents) more; but there are some men back from America who have not done so well, although they too will not hire out for less than three lire. They say that in America they have received three times as much.”
The gentleman to whom I introduced myself, and who was suspicious that I might be in his parts encouraging emigration, took a different view of the situation.
“It is a curse, sir! Why, sir, you rob us of our men; of our strongest men, and leave only the aged, the women and the children!
“I have fields still unploughed, although it is June, and the bringing in of my crops will cost me three times as much as it did ten years ago.”
“Didn’t he get a much better price for his produce?” I asked.
“Yes, indeed! Perhaps I am no worse off financially than before; but worse than the higher wage is the changed attitude of the common people towards the landowner. Signor, those who come back are worse than the Socialists! The Socialists simply talk and argue; most of our common people cannot understand what they mean. They have always known that God made some rich and some poor, they were content with their cheese and their olives; but these men who come back from America walk through the streets as if they were our equals. They wear just such clothing as we do; shoes without hobnails and starched shirts and collars.