RUMOR, GIACOMO. — Catholic and social organizer, b. in Vicenza on 26 January 1858, d. there on 24 February 1931.
A member of a family that, following his example, subsequently became widely distinguished in the field of the Catholic laity, he founded the printing house of S. Giuseppe and, living with the workers in Christian fellowship of labor, caused it to prosper, turning it into the publisher (later episcopal and pontifical) of many books and newspapers. For thirty years the Catholic daily Il Berico was printed there, joined by the weekly L'operaio cattolico, created by R. himself. Conceiver and principal among the founders of the Banca cattolica vicentina, he also founded the first Catholic workers’ society and a popular school of Catholic culture. He devoted the greater part of his labor, from 1883 onward, to mutual aid, promoting Catholic workers’ and agricultural societies that in 1887 united in a federation of which he was elected president: within a decade about one hundred came into being. Mutual aid was subsequently joined by professional unions of the type recommended by Toniolo, the Federation of rural credit funds, cooperative dairies and cheese factories, and insurance schemes for agricultural livestock. R. summarized the history of these institutions in a pamphlet entitled: Ricordi gloriosi di Azione cattolica sociale (Vicenza 1921). He was president of the Diocesan Council for Catholic Action, president of the Association of Catholic Electors of Vicenza and of the Diocesan Electoral Section for forty years (known as “the great elector”). A municipal councillor (1892), provincial councillor (1895), and president of the Chamber of Commerce, in the field of charitable assistance he promoted popular low-cost kitchens, inexpensive dormitories, and, during the World War of 1915–18, canteens for impoverished families.