Estados Financieros

In Masino and Ortese the presence of youngsters begging and conning passers-by arousing their sympathy is also a reflection of the situation of their times when the employment of children as beggars, street musicians and pedlars in itinerant jobs was still common.111 Other writers had previously denounced this social evil; in fact, the

110

See Ortese, Insonno e in veglia, pp. 157-158: ‗Capire, capire alla fine se, dopo mezzo secolo di

orrori, e un secolo o due di abbagli culturali, capire se gli uomini più giovani e preparati – come si può

presumere debba esserlo un intellettuale della sinistra (o anche la destra) francese , abbiano inteso

finalmente qual è il cuore del problema, il cuore del tempo, il cuore della verità (di questo inferno che attanaglia la storia dal privato al pubblico, dalle coste dove sorge il sole a quelle dove tramonta). E

quale rivoluzione ci aspettiamo. Dico noi, mi metto in prima fila, desidero essere vista e firmare, e dare tutto ciò che ho, anche d‘invisibile (soprattutto dispongo di cose invisibili), a favore di questa

causa, o rivoluzione. Essa riguarda la liberazione degli altri popoli – i popoli muti di questa terra, i

popoli detti Senza Anima – dal Dittatore fornito di anima  e per di più immortale! – che è il loro

carnefice da sempre‘.

111 _{Immediately after unification, legislators were particularly concerned with the issue of child}

42 denunciation of child exploitation and child poverty was common in nineteenth- century Italian literature, Serao‘s ‗Una fioraia‘,112

for instance, the story of a young beggar who ends up being run over by a coach. However, Masino‘s and Ortese‘s depiction of child beggars is far from the pathetic tones of Serao, where children were presented merely as innocent victims. In their works, instead, aware of the powers they possess to arouse generosity, they use them wilfully for profit. In Monte Ignoso, at Barbara‘s party, the village children play games where real life is represented at its worst and one of them even pretends to be a beggar.113 In Ortese‘s

middlemen who started them off as beggars, jugglers, organ or accordion musicians. However, it was not the scale of child trafficking nor the effects on children that worried the Italian government, but rather the negative image of Italy that these beggars could reflect abroad: legislators were worried that the Italian State might be seen as a nation of vagabonds, of beggars and thus acquire a bad international reputation. In 1873 itinerant musicians were banned from the streets of Paris and thus flooded into those of London and the US, where children became shoe polishers, organ players and sellers of ice-creams, chestnuts and newspapers. In the same year the law (‗legge Guerzoni‘) against organised begging and itinerant jobs came into force. With industrialisation, the focus shifted from child trafficking and working in the streets to work in factories. In Italy, child labour laws were passed very late and had very little impact on real life. At the end of the nineteenth century, as the interests at stake were obviously very high, several public inquiries were carried out but to no effect: industrialists profited greatly from child labour as children were paid less than half what an adult was paid. Families were also forced to send their children into work as the low cost of child labour inevitably pushed male adults out of jobs and often to migrate. The first child protection law came into force in 1886 and only placed a limit on the working age of children, rather than enforcing the ‗half-time system‘, which was in place in other European countries. The law passed in 1902 raised the age limit from nine to 12 for underground work (to 14 three years after the law came into force), to 15 years for unhealthy and dangerous jobs. Night work was not allowed before the age of 16 and daily working hours were reduced to eight for children under 12 who had been already employed, 11 hours for children aged between 12 and 15 and a limit was set at 12 hours for all other child workers. This law stated that the children employed had to certify they had completed primary education and that they were in a good state of health. However, extensions, exceptions (especially regarding finishing primary school), evasions abounded and subsequent legislation tended to soften, rather than strengthen, the law. As the First World War loomed, child labour was vital and child protection laws were set aside as every hand was precious. The fascist regime joined the International Labour Organisation adopting, in theory, all the recommendations in terms of child protection and education. School was made compulsory to the

age of 14, but actually outside the cities there was no provision made for schooling after the 4th or 5th

and final year of primary school. Moreover, inspections were rare and children could be exempted from education with the simple production of ‗certificates of unsuitability‘ issued by a head teacher.

See Bruna Bianchi and Adriana Lotto, eds., Lavoro ed emigrazione minorile dall'Unità alla Grande

guerra (Venice: Ateneo Veneto, 2000) and Bertoni Jovine, L‟alienazione dell‟infanzia.

112 _{Matilde Serao, Piccole Anime (Milan: Baldini Castoldi, 1914).}

113

See Masino, Monte Ignoso,p. 81: ‗Uno strano personaggio, con la testa tanto grossa che doveva

sorreggerla con le mani, e vestito in modo che non si riusciva a capire se fosse maschio o femmina, s‘era seduto in un canto e rapidamente trasformato in mendicante, chiedendo con voce piagnucolosa la carità per questo giovane infelice‘.

43 short story ‗Oro a Forcella‘,114

two, three or four-year-old children are used by their own mother to gain public sympathy and jump the queue at a pawnbroker's.115 Clearly understanding their mother‘s plan, they smile with cynicism.