The Mentor: Italy Under War Conditions, Vol. 6, Num. 23, Ser. No. 171, January 15, 1919 — A Reader’s Guide

Economic Controls and Co-operative Networks

Newman identifies two mechanisms that kept civilian life functional. The first is the calmiere, a system of government regulation that fixed maximum prices for certain products. The second is the widespread network of co-operative societies, which sold to members at cost. He notes that nearly every trade or profession had its own co-operative store, with entrance fees as low as five lire—about one dollar. Retailers had to compete with these societies, which curbed profiteering. This dual structure, part state mandate and part voluntary association, is presented as a distinctive Italian response to wartime scarcity.

Civilian Austerity and Resilience

Newman observes that society did not consider it good form to wear evening dress or jewels. Officers avoided dress uniforms at any function. Yet he insists that Italy was 'not gloomy nor depressed'; the Italians remained 'vivacious' and 'sunny.' Travel was permitted but uncomfortable: coal shortages reduced trains, and passengers stood for six or seven hours in first-class compartments, accepting the discomfort with 'far less grumbling than one would expect.' The tone here is observational, not celebratory—Newman records a pattern of voluntary restraint and good-natured endurance.

Venice: Damage and Preservation

The section on Venice is the most vivid. Three-fourths of the population fled, leaving about fifty thousand. Hotels closed; tourists vanished. Industries were ruined, commerce depleted. Churches and hospitals were repeatedly bombed. Yet Newman also details protective measures: sandbags piled around St. Mark's Square, the famous horses taken down, Byzantine mosaics removed, and the entire façade of St. Mark's hidden. He mentions that Titian's 'Assumption' was transported across country to a secure place, and da Vinci's 'Last Supper' was protected by padding. The text balances loss—'frescoes have been obliterated that can never be replaced'—with the assertion that much damage 'will soon be repaired.'

Newman's report is best read as a document of its moment—published just two months after the Armistice, it looks back on wartime conditions without yet knowing the postwar outcome. The poem at the start and the prose that follows sit in an unresolved tension: the verse invokes Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour as eternal witnesses, while the text describes a nation improvising with price controls and co-operative stores. Readers interested in the everyday texture of World War I home fronts will find this a useful primary source, especially for its attention to economic organization and cultural protection.