Evening star., 1921-01-27

Government Measure Is an
Innovation in Worldwide
Labor Struggle.
sTIRS INDUSTRY OWNERS
Socialist Delegates Are Divided in
Chamber, Giving Added Power
to Opposition.
BY EDGAR ANsE1. MowRER.

BY EDGAR ANSEI4 MOWRER.
By Cable to The Star and Chicago Daily News.
Copyright, 1921.
ROME, January 27-The split of the
communists from the socialist party
in Italy may provoke an important
new political alignment. Develop
ments are looked for when the cham
ber of deputies, which has just reas-
senlbled, begins consideration of a
bill prepared by the government in
creasing the price of bread and an
other defining syndical trade union
control.
The second of these measures is the
result of the seizure and operation by
Workmen last fall of numerous fac
tories in Italian industrial regions. III
passed even in the attenuated form
proposed by the government, it will
constitute an absolutely new step in
the world wide labor struggle.
Fought by Plant Owners.
The owners of industry declare that
the passage of the bill. which includes
recognition of the rights of workers
to know costs of production. methods
of production, net returns, the over
seeing of hiring and firing" and so
on. would mean abolute ruin in indus
trial business. For that reason they
The socialists meanwhile are not at
tempting to hide their belief that
trade union control is for them only
step in educating the workers and
preparing them eventually to eXpro
pirate all industrial concerns and run
them for their own benefit. Yet the
socialists have undoubtedly weakened
in this case. Hence it is thought that
Premier Giolitti, who has promised
them some kind of industrial control,
is taking advantage of their weak
ness to present bill now in the mild
est possible form.
The reasons for the socialists weak
ness is found first of all in the divi-
sion among the socialist delegates IN
the chamber. The delegation includes
nineteen irreconcilable communists
who preach immediate revolutions; 12c
united socialists, who believe in COL
laboratiOn with the government, and
A independents without party af-
filiations. total of 1873 out of $50
deputies in the chamber Most of the
deputies will use destructive tactics
to prevent the passage of the new la
Dor bill.
Patriotic Bands Busy.
Even a greater difficulty for the So
cia1ists than their present political
weakness, however, is the difficulty of
facing the pdlTlOIlC DdnQS OF IdS-
cisti," which now extend pretty well
over the country. to combat with vio-
lence what they consider socialist
bullying.
Strange is the absolute incapacity
of the workers to defend themselves
against these bands. Even though
much inferior in numbers, the "fas-
cistf usually have little difficulty
in winning their battles with socialist
workers. Their most recent exploit
was the burning of houses of laborers
in Bologna and Modena in revenge for
the killing of two comrades in a riot.
The fascist" now dominate large
sections in the north of Italy. where
they act with extreme boldness. Their
methods are not unlike those of the
Ku-Klux Klan. Wherever possible
they carry terror into the socialist
camps. The failure Of the socialists
to retaliate is explained partly by. the
fact that few of the workers were in
active service during the war and