sentiment humain est supérieur au sentiment national.
(Q En ce moment il faut nous occuper sérieusement de la manière de nous servir de 1 argent recueilli par la
charité privée et publique en Italie et à l’étranger. C’est un grave problème que de décider dès à présent,
dans leur juste mesure, quelles sont les obligations du gouvernement et de la nation envers les régions dévastées,
quel est l’usage particulier qu’on doit faire de 1 argent recueilli par la charité pour secourir les malheureux
sinistrés, et quelles sont les obligations des populations envers elles-mêmes. Et il me semble que dans
cet examen il faut aussi se souvenir qu’une partie de cet argent vient des étrangers. Quelques journaux
Anglais, par un sentiment de délicatesse écrivirent: « On peut dire que Messine est une ville internationale,
dans laquelle il y a de très anciennes maisons de commerce anglaises, allemandes, françaises, danoises, etc. En
l’aidant, nous autres étrangers, nous pouvons dire que nous nous aidons nous-mêmes. » En reconstruisant la
ville de Messine, ne pourrait-on fonder quelque grande institution de bienfaisance (même plus d’une) un hôpital,
un orphelinat, un refuge de marins ayant | | n caractère international qui accueillerait sans distinction
aucune, des hommes de toutes les nations? Ce serait un monument élevé à cette fraternité des peuples dont
les nations étrangères nous donnent un aussi sublime exemple.
I çM&Mr, Notre suprême devoir en ce moment est de tout faire pour que le malheur serve ||ï |l p p |j
M w j l à élever, non à abaisser l’âme de la nation, et pour cela, l’accord des âmes est sur- liXSl tout nécessaire. H PASQUA 1 .F. VII .1 .ARI. | l f e a M
f W P l FACING TH E DISASTER . <1 I read in the papers that Messina cannot rise again,
] that it will have to be transported elsewhere, that it will be only a great railroad station. [
They say little else of Reggio. I do not say that Messina must rise again, I say that it
will rise again on its ruins, just as San Francisco did in California. The geographical-, commercial, strategic
reasons that made Messina rise at first will make it rise again. Even it were built up again elsewhere, little
by little it would go back to its old seat. I may err, but this the fate of many other cities. Were not
the Vesuvian villages, though continually threatened by lava, always: built up again. Herculaneum could not
be built up again because it was entirely buried in lava which grew as hard as stone. But, above it, Resina
was built. Pompei was an exception, because it had become a sojourn of rest and delight.
t | Besides we must not have illusions on the subject. Some entirely zones of Italy are earthquake regions,
that cannot be helped. Nature has lavished so many gifts upon us, we must submit also to the disasters.
Every year there is an inevitable number of shipwrecks; yet we do not on this account propose to suppress
navigation. We strive instead to render it less dangerous, by bettering the construction of the vessels and
giving the sailors better instruction. This is what we must do now. Our greatest danger is lest we get excited,
follow an admirable, even heroic, impulse of charity, and then to leave every thing to chance, committing the
same errors again, .and suffering the same consequences. We deal with a measureless disaster, which can
create further perils, no less harmful, if nothing is done to meet them, a disaster which gives rise to technical,
economical, juridical, moral problems of enormous difficulty, which must inexorably be solved.
C| Confronted as we are by ruins, with hundreds of thousands of dead bodies, with hundreds of thousands
of refugees scattered through Italy, with orphans, with families economically ruined, charity should be organized,
and follow with sure methods a decided aim.
<| This charity should be prompt, instantaneous. As we organize the army so that it can be instantly mobilized,
so we ought to organize public charity, especially in a country exposed to as many dangers as ours.