ITALY: Pessimistic Persuader

"Alas," said Antonio Segni last week, "an unpleasant old age is in store for me." He meant that it was about to be crowned by the kind of success that entails work and grinding worry.

The 64-year-old Sardinian, a lean, fragile lawyer with a beaked nose and unruly white hair, had just been summoned by Italian President Gronchi to try to form a new government to replace the fallen Mario Scelba (TIME, July 4). Earnest Christian Democrat Segni, as Minister of Agriculture in several De Gasperi governments, drew up Italy's postwar land-reform program, but was less of a success at administering...

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