The Washington herald., 1922-11-07
An Uninviting Prospect.

M USSoLINI. the reactionary new Premier. of
Iva Italy, promises liberty to the national press
providing it is not abused. He means. of course.
that newspapers will be allowed to print so long
they praise the government and publish nothing,
whether it be true not. detrimental to the estab
lished order. The BLACK shirt leader means to
curb the liberties of the people. Like all tyrants,
he is afraid of uncensored newspapers
He thinks that the people will not get angry
If they not allowed to read about his tyrrahes.
He may be right, for the time being In the long
run, however, he is wrong. Even the most radical
of newspapers are better than subsidized newspa-
pers. The imagination of the most violent editor
never conceived of scandals so bad as are the
common product of popular rumor. Sooner
later Mr. Mussolni will have a serious revolution
on his hands-just because he refuses to let the
press tell the truth about him.
The Italian newspaper publisher who sur
rounded his office with machine guns and got his
journal on the streets despite the premers soldiers
probably would be executed-but he would be
martyr in worthwhile cause. The liberties of a
nation depend upon the liberties of IFS press.
Mussolini has started his dictatorship in dis
quietng fashion. He represents the worst senti-
ments in Europe today. From all we read of
him he is narrow. jealous and violent He stands
for extreme nationalism, for jealousies and for
hatreds. The enlightened public sentiment of Italy
is against him.
He has demanded that all classes submit to
severe discipline. He will tell them when to 90
to work and when to quit work. what to study in
school and what not to study what to read and
what not to read He will jail everybody who
thinks differently from himself.
The Italian people are too advanced to endure
this sort of thing very long. They have known the
sweetness of liberty and not likely to exchange
it for the bitter cup of oppression. II they can't
get Mr.. Mussoini and his gang out by ballots they
are more than likely to get them out by bullets.
OF course, he may change his tactics when he
sees what dangerous paths he is following. Just
now he is flushed with victory and thinks he can
make himself a little black tzar. Rulers of this
order have unpleasant fates these days-and Mus
solni would do well to read up the subject.
He appealed to the worst passions of the peo-
pie to get himself in power. These passions are
still unloosed. They will hound him out of power
unless he reforms.
For the greater part Of the time since the
armistice of 1918 Italy has been good friend to
Europe. Her first postwar demands were too
large. Bu: then, were everybody else's. When
the full satisfaction of her wishes was found unob-
tainable she settled down. in spite of acute internal
difficulties. to play a substantially wise and mod
crate part in most of the open questions (which
nave VeNed the allies. This honorable record
now threatened along with many other interests
OF ltalys and of the worlds, by the rebeious
Fascist For some time past Mussolini has
preached hatred with remarkable frankness The,
Fascists have as their politics a system of antipa-
thies rather than of enthusiasms. They are ex-
reme Italian nationalists but their nationalism
emlnently an affair OF aversons, suspicious and
Jeaousles directed at points outside Italy, rather
than OF intense affection for things Italian One
OF their recent acts Of lawlessness was directed
against the German population of the Tyrol on the
pretext that the Italian government had treated
these new subjects of Italy too kindly. The Fas-
cisti imperalist rebels against the sanity of
their countrys government In sense it is the
class war begun by privileged class, the game
OF law and order renounced by those who have
most to lose by anarchy.
II is not easy to imagine such a movement
animated by much cordiality or fairness toward
any foreign nation. Dislike and contempt for out
siders the feelings that come easiest to people
who think that their own countrymen are
only fit to live in subjection.