A law graduate and lawyer, he associated in 1903 with the irredentist group "Trento e Trieste" ("Trento and Trieste" – regions which it aimed to have secede from Austria-Hungary), and soon became its president. In early 1915, he channelled aid from Italians in Austria for the earthquake-hit town of Avezzano, and volunteered as a soldier in World War I. Wounded in the First Battle of the Isonzo, and again in the Third, he was twice decorated.