Hope in the Mezzogiorno

For decades the barren, overcrowded Mezzogiorno--the southern two-fifths of Italy that has 37% of the nation's population--has been a vast poorhouse. And World War II, which destroyed 28% of the south's already lagging industrial capacity (v. 18% in the north), seemed the final blow. Only 308 out of every 1,000 Mezzogiornisti held jobs (many for only 80 days yearly), and in scores of squalid piazze lounged hundreds of men young and old who had never had a day's work. Richer Mezzogiornisti lived four and five in a room; the poor inhabited caves, for in many villages there had been no new building for a century.

Last week hope was soaring high in the Mezzogiorno. The reason: a $70 million World Bank loan, the largest European development credit granted by the bank to date. It went to Italy's Cassa per Il Mezzogiorno (Southern Development Fund), the special government agency set up in 1950 to push a twelve-year, $2 billion southern revival program. Hampered by petty politics, minor graft and insufficient funds ($180 million yearly), the Cassa has moved slowly for the size of the job, but results are already apparent. It has stimulated $320-million worth of private investment in the region. It has built 18,000 new farm houses, 1,800 miles of road, and increased electrical consumption by 43% It has created new employment equivalent to about 200,000 full-time jobs, added 2% to Italy's national income and given land to the landless. As of last October, the Cassa had redistributed 1,168,782 acres of land, making proud landholders (of 10-to 15-acre farms) out of 90,000 peasants. Already detailed projects still to come: safe drinking water for 1,200 towns, construction of 1,300 miles of new roads and rehabilitation of 6,400 miles of old ones, new hotels to attract tourists, irrigation projects.

Last week's 2O-year, 4 3/4% World Bank loan (in which the Bank of America has a $5,000,000 share) will finance a $20 million irrigation project to triple the annual value of the Catania Plain's agricultural production by 1967 and create 10,000 new farm jobs in the immediate area. Another $30 million will build eight power projects to increase southern Italy's electric generating capacity by one-sixth; the remaining $20 million will help private investors finance seven new factories (fertilizer, fruit processing, cement, chemicals and medicines, pulp and paper, woolens). Said Italian Finance Minister Ezio Vanoni: "We hope to merit other loans in the future."

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