The New York herald., 1922-10-31
Italy's Peaceful Revolution.

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political paradox. That, however. Is
the spectacle in Italy, where the Fas-
cisti, overthrowing the Government,
have been careful not to disturb the
form Of government. So we see
VIcToR EMMANUEL receiving spokes-
man from the revolutionists and en-
bracing him as il he had saved the
crown and the country.
After all, perhaps that is what the
Fascist have done. Their brief his
tory has been one Of constant warfare
against the forces that bring revolu
tions about. Their revolution, hap
PLY blOodless thus far, has not been
against Government because 1t was
strong and tyrannical but because it
was weak and docile in the presence
of national danger.
The middle class worm when he
turns is powerful creature. MUS
soLINI, heading an organization re-
cruited from neither princes nor
peasants, found the overturn of the
Facta Government an easy matter.
The King, knowing that armed re-
sistance to the determined Fascist
would mean civil war, wisely refused
to send troops against the revolution
lists. The army. lining the streets
through which MUssoLINfs men pass,
salute them cordially. Everybody in
italy, from King to peasant, seems
to be happy over. the coup---except
the politicians and the Bolshevists.
AS the politicians and the Bolshe-
visits were the cause of the revo-
luton no one will be sorry for
them. The politicians misbehaved
as their kind does in most countries.
They played the game for their own
jobs. They were towards when Italy
needed brave men. They stood idle
when the Bolshevists fomented riots
and strikes, seized factories, COM
mitted sabotage, robbed the peasant
and the bourgeois and did not stop
at arson and murder. The politicians
stood idle while the profiteers put
bread so high that Italy went hungry.
1t was then that the middle class
organization known as the Fascist
was formed in self-protection.
Italy before the Fascist arose was,
because of Government weakness, at
the mercy of mobs Of cranks and
criminals and organized labor In
stead of taking hold of anarchy with
an iron hand Premier NITTI and his
successors lodged the simple issue of
law and order. They did. not have
the iron hand. When the Govern
ment would not act the Fascist, to
save themselves and Italy's soul, did
act.
These Fascist are practical men.
They did not distribute tracts among
the criminal Bolshevists. They went
to their nests and cleaned them out
They wrecked and burned the Boil
shevist headquarters and the alleged
labor exchanges where deluded work
ingmen were melted to strikes and
sabotage. They recovered the facto-
ries which had been seized from
their owners after the war by these
combinations. Deliberately and sys-
tematically the Fascist mopped up
the regions of Italy which had been
impoverished and disgraced by the
emulators of the Russian mob
The Fascista movement at it's be-
ginning was not intended to become
political movement. Circumstances
forced 1t in that direction. The elec-
tion last year of forty Fascista men,
bers of Parliament showed that the
people liked the sanitary work which
the Fascist had done. IL Premier
FAcrA had consented to a general
election, as the Fascist demanded,
they might have held the balance of
power afterward. Failing to get the
election by peaceful means the new
political power would not wait. The
Fascist took by force what they
could not get by asking.
What will MUssoLINI and his men
do with their conquest? They will
find the problems confronting them
now much more complex than the
ones they solved with physical force.
Italy is in a bad way financially and
commercially. It's people are suffer-
ing from poverty and lack Of work.
Their relations with their neighbors
are not all pleasant. When it isn't
Fiume 1t is something else. No Won
der the excitable D'ANNUNzro has
counseled MussotISr to BE calm"
The Fascist. meanwhile. aspire to
greater national possessions. broad
ened national power
A great opportunity is at MUsso.
IrNI's hand. The King has done the
obvious and has asked the Fascista
leader to become Premier. The boss
of the Black Shirts shouts to the
crowd that he is going to give them
not merely Ministry but Govern
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