Evening star., 1926-05-09
OF FASCISMO
INDICATION OF ENDURANCE
Move More Than Passing Phase, as
Shown by Uproar Over
MussOlini Attack.

away that of others.
Now Fascismo began with the very
brave declaration in favor OF private
property. Next it declared against
class war. 1t took it's position on the
principle of cooperation, not conflict.
All orders in the nation, the banker.
the capitalist, the mechanic, the
worker, were 10 labor together for the
benefit of the collective whole, which
is the nation. And if they did not, if
they sought to paralyze the nation TO
advance their own selfish and paro-
chial interest, then 1t would be the
nation which suffered, and this in the
end would mean that all would suffer.
Organizing of Activities.
"Fascismo sought to organize all
the different forms OF human activity
through what you call unions and we
can syndicalism. The capitalists were
to have their syndicate, the masons
theirs. Each was to choose the best
men to represent 1t and to speak
for 1t, and above all was the state.
to act between. TO harmonic and to
compromise, but always to impose
that cooperation which meant ma
tional prosperity and not national
suffering.
And this form of representation is.
in our conception, to take the place
Of parliamentary government. Al the
moment we are simply working on
the method of replacing the parlia-
mentary system by that of the syn
dicalism which I have outlined. When
we have done this, we shall have
representative system which is truly
representative, not the outworn and
useless parliamentary thing which
exists still with US, but has no more
real importance.
''Mussolini's great contribution to
the movement was that OF socislism.
Fascismo in its origin was purely
natiOnalistic and it was born of the
efforts of a relatively few men about
1910, men who saw that the old order.
with its corruption. its inefFicienCy, its
weakness, was doomed and had To go.
1t was these men who forced Italy
into the World War, believing that
the inevitable shock was necessary
to arrive at the result we sought.
But it was Mussolini who saw that
to natfonalism there must be Joined
what was best and what was real In
socialism.
I'VE have made war upon various
things. The chief evil of the existing
order was the corrupt and futile
parliamentarism. We have crushed
that. A second evil was the press.
which had grown out of all proper
tions and in directions which were
vicious and dangerous for the nation.
We have not hesitated 10 smash that.
Today there is no opposition press in
Italy. In reality we have crushed all
opposition. Do not make any mistake
about FasCismo-it IS revolution, but
it is revolution coming from the top.
not the bottom
Nature Of Explanation.
Such. briefly, is what one might call
a philosophical explanation OF
F'asciSmo. Now what does It appear
| to be, Judged from the outside? One
might say briefly that in reality rela-
lively small group of determined men
have deliberately set out to recorder
the whole machinery and spirit of na
tlonal life. They acted at the moment
when Italy had fallen to state which
can hardly be described. a state .uf
anarchy, chaos. diSinteGration: when
factories had ceased TO function. when
communism had successfully paralyzed
the real life of the nation.
And at that moment the existing
system OF government failed to func-
ton. 1t could do nothing. It folded
It's hands and permitted mobs to oc-
cupy factories: it was so fearful Of
losing its position that II permitted
the very life of the nation to be ar
rested.
| 1t was then that Fascismo sudderly
seized the reins of power and Arusso
| lini and his Black Shirts made the
march on Rome, which was. the real
! start of the revolution. In rea1itvs.
very few determined men headed nv -
great leader suddenly swept aside tie
incompetent and helpless mon ami
methods which were producing ~
tional ruin, and ruthlessly, and with
violence which was at once calCu-
lated and in cases almost incredible.
proceeded to impose their will upon a
helpless and passive nation.
In the accomplishment of their end
which was control. these men. Of
whom Mussolini promptly became a
leader Of Napoleonic stature. stopped
at nothing. They drove many Italians
from the country. they beat and
abused others, they destroyed prop
erty. wrecked newspapers, smashed
the big and the little without hesita
ton. The Matteoti murder showed
the lengths to which the men of this
movement would go.
The difficulty of assaying the true
meaning of Fascismo lies precisely irr
the difficulty in placing emphasis. The
revolution, in its opening phrases, was
bitter, brutal, violent; it opened a
reign of terror, the last signs of which
still survive and might be detected I'm
many incidents of the day of the at
tempted assassination. The whole
episode does utmost violence to all
American and Western nations Of
order and due process Of law. One
can, IL one chooses, therefore, follow
the liberals the world over, who see
in 1t nothing but reversion to vio-
lence and stand aghast and Mortified
at the methods and the manners.
Question Of Achievements.
Yet in all fairness one cannot stop here.
One has, after all, to ask the ques-
ton: What have these men who thus
seized power by murder. by violence,
by sheer terrorism, actually accom-
plished? What have they done with
the power which they have thus ac-
quired by means which must shock
every Anglo-S Saxon? And here the
answer is unmistakable. No one who
has known Italy in the past, pre-war
Italy, wartime Italy, postwar Italy,
can mistake the change. In some
fashion, almost as il by magic, the
nation has been galvanized. There is
a new Italy, new In spirit, new In all
the material circumstances which so
| to make up a modern community.
Today Italy is practically without
unemployment, strikes In public util-
tiles have been banned by law. strikes
in private businesses have been watch
ed closely by the state. The railways
march on time and the cars are clean
and the service efficient. Moreover
they are for the first time operated
profitably The streets of the cities
are clean as never before. There Is u
sense of energy, of activity, of deter
/ mination, which were entirely lacking
in past years. The state finances have
been ordered, the budget balanced by
truly heroic. and courageous efforts.
do not know any better way TO