Evening star., 1924-05-20
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
| BLACK MAGIC. Kenneth l. Rob-
erts. The Bobbs-Merrill Company


The magic is that Of Mus solini and his
black-shirted Fascist rescuing Italy
from tho political ambush of social
ism, communism, bolshevism. Ken
meth Roberts here tells the story of
Mussolini and the Fascist movement
Tells 1t. chiefly, for the sake of ar
irving at another story, nearer home.
Dried out from the sloppy wordiness
In which 1T is so much concealed,
| F'ascism is, 1t appears, merely the
business of government And Musso-
l1ni Is, or thinks he is, the strong
| armed man who is able to turn this
plain business trick. Yes, dictator.
Nothlng less A name and office of
reproach in these days whose preach
ments are all Of freedom and frater-
| nifty, especially freedom. But, SO far,
MussoIlnl has been a good dictator
Inose who know, in contrast to those
| VINO merely have bubbles of feeling
the man and the movement were
needed, that these are saving the ma
tion from political and financial ruin
MussoiIni did not invent Fascism.
Nooody did. 1t was, at first, one of
| those loose, diffused, Intellectual states
or mind, great number of people
possessed OF it, but an inoperafiye
thing, nevertheless, since there was
no one to inject into it the element Of
conference and direction. Mussolini
| supplied that element. This state Of
nind was 'the opposite of wild ideas,
or iawleSsn ess, of injustice, of cow
dluice, OF treason, of crime, of class
, wartare, or special privilege. 1t rep
resented patriotism and common
sense. This self-delegated dictator
possessed just the brand of common
sense, Just the quality of patriotism
Lnat italy had to have, and had to
ma nave right away, if her life were to
tr..tn n saved The prompt and heroic
Iealinent so lmperatively required
was given, is still being given, by the
seiI spectacular. oyerrid
ing, swift charging Mussolini. Clear
~ patriot, clearly a man of hard
~sese-a ~ not usual combination. A
romantic and absorbing story-cJir,h
ing action, tense suspension. sudden
Turns, uncertain outcome-tbe 90
that Benfto Mussolini is writing
tnese Gays. Butt is another storV
tnat we are after here.
ana now did Italy get that way7
30 ridden by radicalisms as tn he
swept to the brink OF irretrievabIe
ruin? Italy got that way through
the invasion of politics by red radi-
calism on the one hand. and tbrouqb
the political inactivity of the con-
Sn Spaeive majority on the other hand.
sSory now. 1t began in italy when
ene RADICALS became politically strong
enough TO put over projects of gov
ernment ownership, Take the rail
nsSt mSyS ior instance. Under govern
SIDE OF four years to dig out of their
POCKETS the wages for $4,000 new
IalWay employees, without any ex-
tension or betterment of the railway
system to account for this. 1t is
changes in the government. Every
tlme this came to pass a great many
more political supporters had to be
supplied with jobs in return for their
services at the polls. The politicians
ut o.+e sVe.y nation" according to Ken
netn ROBERTS, are invariably brought
INTO the world with highly develop
ed determination to use all govern
ment owned propositions as a means
OF buying or paying for votes" One
might reasonably have expected Italy
to be the travellers paradise with a
railway worker in attendance upon
nearly every traveller who paid for a
ticket. Not at all. as a matter of
fact The worst in the world" The
author steps aside here to mention
OF railways, as examples of loss and
inefficient management ''The Cana
olan government-owned railways show
heavy annual deficit; the govern
ment-owned railways of Switzerland
lose money with great vfgor and
enthusiasm; the single state-owned
railway of France chaIks up a yearly
loss and those of Germany, the best
OF the government-owned railways
before the war, were inferior to the
privately-owned British railways and
operated at much greater cost"
We are given a graphic picture, too,
Of the innumerable projects by way
of which radicalism in Italy sought
to ruin the country, and came near
doing it too. through the delirium
of government-Su projects. If
there had been no Mussolini to round
up the conservative majority to ac-
tive resistance, the thing would have
been done.
We, too, have a radical minority
an active one. The radical is always
active. We, too, have a great con-
servative majority, relatively mac
tive, as this majority is likely to be-
The quality Of governing bodies. from
Congress down to the town council,
should be determined by this con-
servative majority, and would be if
they did their political duty at the
polls. TT is no longer fashionable
to vote in the United States" so Ken
meth Roberts says-"no longer fash
ionable, that is to pay attention to
the business of government Out of
all the eligible voters in the United
States only about 49 per cent of them
are sufficiently interested in their
government to step up to the polls
and cast their votes on election day.
Less than half CT Americas qualified
voters on the face of the returns,
have sufficient patriotism to partici-
pate in the running of their country.
The place of honor among the states
is held by Delaware, where rs per
cent of the voters go to the polls
At the bottom of the list is a state
where only 8 Y per cent of the voters
are sufficiently interested in good
government to get out on election
day and subject themselves to the
arduouS task of marking an X on a
ballot with the stub of a lead pencil"
And so the ever-active radicals send
men to CongresS-one, on only 20 per
cent OF the eligible vote; another,
famous man, on only 2s per cent, or
less than a third, Of the voters "One
of the interesting features about a
vote Of any sort is the fact that ex-
tremists the radicals, the fanatics
the people who are supporting pas
sionate causes are always numbered
vious to even a slightly warped COM
munistfc or sovietish intelligence that
the great mass OF the people in the
United States is strongly and deter
minedly conserva tive" Now, If this
great mass" could take on some of
the zeal and activity of the minority,
II this great mass were only just
decently patriotic. there would be
quite another story to tell. But $50
long as 81 per cent of the nations
voters are content to remain inarticn-
late the country is getting exactly
| IN he irn nf
lators and laws. but it most emphati-
cally isn't getting what it deserves"
X X 4
Ont in Grand RanidS feU wears