ch American history in the schools of Vermont is prohibited; to
display the American flag is a felony; to sing the "Star-Spangled
Banner" is punishable by imprisonment or a fine. For the Vermonters to
communicate, no matter how innocently, with their kinsmen in the
United States, is to bring down upon them suspicion and possible
punishment. By substituting Austria-Hungary for Canada, Italy for the
United States, and the Trentino for Vermont, you will, perhaps, have a
little clearer understanding of why the liberation of the Trentino
from Austrian oppression is demanded by all Italians.

A similar homely parallel will serve to explain the Adriatic
situation. You will imagine Seattle and the shores of Puget Sound,
with its maze of islands, in Canadian possession. Seattle, Vancouver,
and Victoria are strongly fortified bases for Canadian battle-fleets
and flotillas of destroyers which constantly menace the commercial
cities along our Pacific seaboard. The Americans dwelling in Seattle
and the towns of the Olympic Peninsula are under an even harsher rule
than their brethren in Vermont. No American may hold a Government
position. The Canadian authorities encourage and assist the
immigration of thousands of Orientals in order to get the trade of the
region out of American hands. A Canadian naval base at Honolulu
threatens our trade routes in the Pacific and our commercial interests
in Mexico and the Orient. In this analogy Seattle stands, of course,
for Trieste; the Olympic Peninsula corresponds to the Istrian
Peninsula; for Vancouver and Victoria you will read Pola and Fiume;
while Honolulu might, by a slight exercise of the imagination, be
translated into the great Austrian stronghold of Cattaro. Such is a
reasonably accurate parallel to Italy's Adriatic problem.

For purposes of administration the Trentino, which the Austrians call
Sued-Tirol, forms one province with Tyrol. For such a union there is no
geographic, ethnologic, historic, or economic excuse. Of the 347,000
inhabitants of the Trentino, 338,000 are Italian. The half million
inhabitants of Tyrol are, on the other hand, all Germans. The two
regions are separated by a tremendous mountain wall, whose only
gateway is the Brenner. On one side of that wall is Italy, with her
vines, her mulberry-trees, her whitewashed, red-tiled cottages, her
light-hearted, easy-going, Latin-blooded peasantry; across the
mountains is the solemn, austere German scenery, with savage pea