“Those countries have the field and the experience and better access than Italy to sources of raw material.”
“That we know, also.”
“Then how can you hope successfully to compete with them? What have you that they have not? What advantage against theirs?”
“One you haven’t thought of.”
“What is it?”
“A man can live on less in Italy than anywhere else. We don’t know why that is. It may be the way the sun shines on him. But it is a fact. That is our advantage. With that we shall succeed.”
“Do you realize what that means? You are saying that Italy proposes to found an industrial career on the lowest terms of human existence. Your people will not accept it.”
“But they will.”
“How do you know they will?”
“Because they will do anything sooner than starve.”