ks and
gloomy pine forests, a region inhabited by a stolid, slow-thinking
Teutonic people. The Trentino and the Tyrol have about as much in
common as Cuba and Maine.

The possession of the Trentino by Austria is not alone a geographical
and ethnological anomaly: it is a pistol held at the head of Italy.
Glance once more at the map, if you please, and you will see what I
mean. The Trentino is, you will note, nothing but a prolongation of
the valleys of Lombardy and Venetia. Held by Austria, it is like a
great intrenched camp in the heart of northern Italy, menacing the
valley of the Po, which is one of the kingdom's most vital arteries,
and the link between her richest and most productive cities. From the
Trentino, with its ring of forts, Austria can always threaten and
invade her neighbor. She lies in the mountains, with the plains
beneath her. She can always sweep down into the plains, but the
Italians cannot seriously invade the mountains, since, even were they
able to force the strongly defended passes, they would only find a
maze of other mountains beyond. When, in the summer of 1916, the
Archduke Frederick launched his great offensive from the Trentino,
supported by a shattering artillery, he came perilously near--much
nearer, indeed, than the world was permitted to know--to cutting the
main east-and-west line of communications, which would have resulted
in isolating the Italian armies operating on the Isonzo.

The Trentino is dominated by the army. Its administration is as
essentially military in character as that of Gibraltar. It is, to all
intents and purposes, one vast camp, commanded by thirty-five forts,
gridironed with inaccessible military highways, and overrun with
soldiery. Economic expansion has been systematically discouraged. The
waterfalls of the Trentino could, it is estimated, develop 250,000
horse-power, but the province has not benefited by this energy, for
the regions to the north are already supplied, and the military
authorities have not permitted its transmission to the manufacturing
towns of Lombardy and Venetia, where it is needed. Neither roads nor
railways have been built save for strategic purposes, and, as a
result, the peasants have virtually no outlets for their produce. In
fact, it has been the consistent policy of the Austrian Government to
completely isolate the Trentino from Italy. In pursuance of this
policy, all telephone and telegraph communications and many sorely
needed rai