Il Piccolo
- The lira’s welcome recovery
- The Prime Minister’s speech
- Devastating cloudburst in Tuscany
Il Piccolo’s September 29, 1926 issue reported on government monetary and administrative policy alongside destructive storms. An Economic Agency dispatch celebrated the lira’s recovery, describing restrictions on currency exports followed by deflation and tighter credit. The Paris report described broad approval of Poincaré’s speeches, particularly his remarks on Germany, alongside criticism of administrative measures over parliamentary scrutiny and price controls. Reports from Tuscany described rescues and flood damage threatening wool production, farms, bridges and food supplies.
This edition translates all three supplied excerpts; its coverage of the page is partial. The [?] markers are retained. The flood excerpt ends mid-sentence after “Some mills are”; no continuation has been supplied. The selected text is generally legible, but image boundaries truncate columns, and the supplied transcriptions exclude uncertain wording and unrelated columns merged by OCR.
Translation
The lira’s welcome recovery
[?] ROME, 28. The Economic Agency writes: “Today sterling was quoted at 126.50 and the dollar at 26.10. The government’s skilfully prepared measures to revalue the lira could not have met with greater success. Let us recall: initially, by preventing any export of Italian currency, whether speculative or actual, the government succeeded in making lire scarce abroad, so that foreign speculators betting on a fall in the lira, weary of paying astronomical ‘deports’, were forced to cover their positions almost completely. With the external enemy of the lira’s revaluation thus disposed of, attention turned to domestic measures: gradual deflation and the resulting reduction in access to credit. [?]”
The Prime Minister’s speech
[?] PARIS, 28. The two speeches with which Poincaré felt the need to rekindle confidence by renewing contact with the nation’s conscience have so far won almost unanimous approval, especially the passages intended to correct the arbitrary conclusions drawn across the Rhine from the new policy of conciliation toward Germany. The words with which the Prime Minister defended the administrative work accomplished thus far naturally fail to satisfy its opponents, who are to be found chiefly among the Radical Socialists. La Volonté protests against the speaker’s cryptic language at Bar-le-Duc and accuses him of seeking to remove the essential acts of his administration from parliamentary scrutiny. Le Quotidien makes much the same criticisms, arguing that the special powers granted to the National Union Cabinet should have been used solely to make a sound programme of price controls possible, rather than to turn the country’s domestic life upside down without any immediate benefit. [?]
Devastating cloudburst in Tuscany
[?] FLORENCE, 28. Bad weather is raging throughout Tuscany. In our city it has brought violent downpours and lightning. More serious news, however, comes from the Casentino, where a violent cloudburst struck in the early afternoon, causing the Arno to overflow. Within moments the water overtopped the bridge near Stia, flooding the road and almost reaching the town’s main squares. Firefighters rushed to the scene and brought those threatened to safety. The important woollen mill belonging to the Berti brothers was in real danger: muddy water poured into it within a short time. In the countryside, a furious hailstorm caused severe damage. By early evening the town had been plunged into the deepest darkness. In Tuscan Romagna, too, incessant rain caused a flood of such magnitude and violence that it inflicted enormous damage. Reports from Galeata say that the waters of the Bidente overflowed their banks, flooding the countryside and entering farmhouses, destroying bridges and carrying timber, carts, livestock, and sacks of wheat and flour in their raging current. Some mills are
Context
Credit contraction presented as a victory
The lira report celebrates reduced access to credit because its quoted agency account makes credit contraction the domestic stage of a successful revaluation campaign: restrictions first make lire scarce for overseas speculators, then deflation limits borrowing at home. Calling speculation an external enemy turns exchange-market activity into a struggle in which government policy deserves applause. The Bank of Italy’s historical account confirms that the Fascist government chose in 1926 to revalue the lira by deflating the economy. This policy direction helps explain why the dispatch presents tighter credit as an achievement. Its claim that speculators had almost completely covered their positions reinforces the image of a government overcoming opposition abroad before extending monetary restraint at home. Borrowers appear in this account only through their reduced access to credit.
German reconciliation and the limits of domestic consent
Poincaré’s speeches could win broad approval while provoking criticism because foreign conciliation and domestic administration raised different questions. The National Assembly’s biography of Briand records his September 1926 meeting with Stresemann at Thoiry to discuss disputes between France and Germany. This supplies the diplomatic setting for Il Piccolo’s report that Poincaré’s correction of German interpretations of conciliation was especially well received. At home, the issue was what the cabinet should do with its special powers. The Interior Ministry records the abolition of 106 subprefectures under Poincaré in 1926, illustrating the scale of administrative reorganisation. In the newspaper’s account, La Volonté objects to evading parliamentary scrutiny, while Le Quotidien argues that those powers should have been directed toward price controls. The reported agreement over Germany therefore coexists with disagreement over the purpose and accountability of executive action at home.
Waterways, wool production and rural losses
The storms were an economic disaster as well as a rescue emergency because they struck workplaces, farmland and transport links. At Stia, the report describes water overtopping a bridge, flooding a road and entering the Berti brothers’ woollen mill; separately, the Galeata report describes the Bidente flooding farmhouses and destroying bridges. Its inventory of livestock, carts, wheat and flour carried away shows losses affecting production, movement and food supplies together. Museo Galileo’s historical account places Stia’s industrial wool production beside the Staggia stream and records the installation of water-powered machinery in 1844. That nineteenth-century history helps explain the close relationship between waterways and the town’s industrial landscape. Against this background, the newspaper’s account of muddy water entering a woollen mill shows the exposure of textile production, while the reports of inundated farms and destroyed bridges reveal the storms’ wider economic reach.
Original
La felice ripresa della lira
[?] ROMA, 28 L'Agenzia Economica scrive: «Oggi la sterlina si è quotata a 126. 50 e il dollaro a 26. 10. La sapiente manovra predisposta dal Governo per la rivalutazione della lira, non poteva avere migliore successo. Ricordiamo: In un primo momento, il Governo con l'impedire qualsiasi esportazione di valuta italiana, sia speculativamente, sia realmente, riuscì a rarefare le disponibilità di lire all'estero, in modo che la speculazione estera al ribasso della lira, stanca di dover pagare favolosi «deports», fu costretta a ricoprirsi quasi completamente. Liquidato così il nemico esterno della rivalutazione della lira, si è passati ai provvedimenti interni: la deflazione graduale e la conseguente riduzione della possibilità di trovar credito. [?]
Il discorso del Prèmier
[?] PARIGI, 28 I due discorsi con cui Poincaré ha sentito il bisogno di galvanizzare la fiducia, riprendendo contatto con la coscienza del paese, hanno raccolto finora suffragi quasi unanimi, specie per la parte destinata a rettificare le arbitrarie deduzioni tratte oltre il Reno dalla nuova politica di conciliazione nei riguardi della Germania. Le parole con cui il Presidente del Consiglio ha giustificato l'opera fin qui svolta nel campo amministrativo, non soddisfano naturalmente gli avversari di tale opera, che sono da ricercarsi per lo più nelle file dei radico-socialisti. La Volonté protesta contro il linguaggio sibillino dell'oratore a Bar Le Duc, e lo accusa di voler sottrarre al controllo delle Camere gli atti essenziali della sua gestione. Presso a poco eguali rimproveri gli muove il Quotidien, secondo il quale, i poteri speciali accordati al Gabinetto di unione nazionale, avrebbero dovuto essere usati soltanto per rendere possibile un savio programma di calmiere, e non per sconvolgere senza un beneficio immediato la vita interna del paese. [?]
Disastroso nubifragio in Toscana
[?] FIRENZE, 28 In tutta la Toscana imperversa il maltempo. Nella nostra città esso si sfoga con violenti acquazzoni e scariche elettriche. Più gravi, invece, sono le notizie che vengono dal Casentino ove nelle prime ore del pomeriggio si è abbattuto un violento nubifragio, che ha provocato straripamenti dell'Arno. In pochi momenti l'acqua ha superato il ponte presso Stia, allagando la strada fino a giungere quasi nelle piazze principali del paese. Sono accorsi i pompieri, che hanno messo al sicuro le persone minacciate. Veramente in pericolo era l'importante lanificio dei fratelli Berti, che in breve tempo è stato invaso dalle acque limacciose. Nelle campagne la grandinata furiosa ha prodotto gravi danni. Il paese è stato immerso nelle prime ore della sera nella più tenebrosa oscurità. Anche nella Romagna toscana la pioggia incessante ha provocato una piena così grossa e furiosa, da produrre danni ingenti. Si ha da Galeata che l'acqua del Bidente ha superato le rive, allagando le campagne e invadendo le case coloniche, distruggendo ponti e trasportando nel suo corso impetuoso legname, barrocci, bestiame, sacchi di grano e farina. Alcuni molini sono
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