ROME LETTER
309
had the Government at their beck and call, who kept the lira at the
mercy of their operations with the dollar or the Swiss franc, and who,
in addition to this, were blithely ignorant of the existence of the tax col–
lector. Nothing had been done about them, and the newspapers had
been slowly giving up the struggle, when, all of a sudden, Brusadelli's
action drew the attention of the whole country to the issue in the most
clamorous farcical way imaginable., The move was so barefaced that
people couldn't even laugh at it. They just gaped.
With unbounded faith in his own power and glory, Brusadelli
seemed to have forgotten that, after all, Italy is under Christian Demo–
cratic
rule.
Demochristian ministers could close an eye on tax evasion,
but hardly on obscenity. The Government had to intervene. A special
Commissioner was dispatched to Milan, with orders to seize Brusadelli's
property and to investigate his income tax returns.
It
turned out that
the billionaire was paying taxes on an income of about two million lire.
This, by the way, implied considerable absentmindedness on the part of
the Bureau of Internal Revenue, since taxes in Italy are not based on
individual declarations but on the tax collector's appraisal of the citi–
zens' income.
Public opinion demanded a thorough cleanup of the Milanese bil–
lionaires. It was pointed out that this could bring the State a sum
amounting to more than a year of Marshall Plan allocations. The gov–
ernment, however, didn't see why it should get into unnecessary trouble
with the Stock Exchange, and preferred to stick to Brusadelli. The reck–
less "bear" had no choice but to lie low for a while, letting his account–
ants and lawyers take care of the defense of his patrimony. Yet, with
the national outcry about him calming down day by day, Brusadelli
could stand less and less the role of the scapegoat.
If
he had to pay, the
others, especially the "bulls," had to pay too. At present, rumor has it
that he has been handing out data to the Stalinists on his rivals' tax
returns. It is the operation which the French call "drowning the fish ."
If
the government really intends to hurt Brusadelli, it will have to hurt
about
fifty
other powerful financiers. And before hurting them, it will
have to think twice. Parallel to this operation, the litigious old man
has been conducting another one, that of making up with his wife by
insisting that he was actually out of his mind when he accused her of
willful lechery. The scandal seems to be on its way out. In a few months,
Brusadelli may well
be
known again as a
brava persona.
He has alreadv
declared that the only thing he really cmes for in life is the devotion
his workers showed him in his hour of trial. And he has just made
another pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Rita.
