Evening star., 1927-05-31
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

site policies as to state rights" and
local government. However, there are
some people in America who are en-
thusia site over Mussolini's carpet
bag" government.
Furthermore. Mussolini exalts the
police above all other classes. So did
the Car of Russia and the Kaiser.
Said Mussolini: Gentlemen, it Is
time to say that the police must be not
only respected but honored. L
calculate that the Fascist government
has some 100000 men doing police
duty, / have not wished to in
crease the number of uniforms. did
not wish, in other words, to put 10000
plain clothes policemen into unitofh.s
No, they are functionaries; it is use
less to hang bell around the neck oi
a cat, but when police are i'll plain
clothes and have not the check of uni
form. they must be composed of
picked men-zealous and silent cit
izens."
Mussolini personally controls this
force, both uniformed and plain
clothes spies. He threatens to etXermi.
nate the BLACK Hand feudists and
"clean up the Pontine marshes of
their criminals"
(3) He explains as follows the work
ing of Fascist political policies: All
liberty of the press. all free speech and
the right of peaceable assembly are
absolutely and buastingly suppressed,
as Mussolini shows:
''All opposition papers have been
suppressed, all the anti.Fascist or
ganizations have been dissolved. the
special police. which render most adj
mirable service. have been constituted;
the special investigation bureaus have
been created and the special tribunal
has been inaugurated. This special
tribunal works excellently. but it will
work even better i'm the future. If 1t
adopts the measure of excluding won-
Ell from the public during sittings.
why have / said that repressive
measures have been applied with in
telligence? Because one must not ex-
aggerate the Importance of the opposi-
ton in Italy. as perhaps has been
done. 1t has been more blun than
anything else"
He gave instances of harmony
Immediately following the appearance
of armored cars. 1t is just as simple
as that AS for amnesty for political
prisoners and exiles. there will be none
before 1932-if then. So he declaims:
lis this terror. gentlemen? No. 1t
is hardly even severity. Is it terror
ism? No. These are measures OF so
cial hygiene. of national prophylactlcS.
| remove certain individuals from con-
tact with their fellow men. as doctor
would segregate one infected with dis
ease. 1t has happened that some law
yer's office has been invaded. or some
professors library. | deplore 1t. But
between 1889 and 1898 regular perse-
cution Of all people of intelligence oc.
Cured. Condorcet. in his Project ot
the Constitution, had said that free
people know no other merits except
intelligence and virtue. Delbois. one
of Robespierre's collaborators. an
swered him. saying that only plotters
still spoke of intelligence and virtue.
Carrier and Mantle promised to Kill
all men of intelligence. In his Paris
ian clubs, any one found in possession
of book was open to grave suspicion.
Certain it is that all the opposition
parties in Italy have suffered land.
slide. They are scattered, finished.
reduced to dust. An important group
like the Catholic Action has made an
act of submission
So it appears that the Reign of Ter
ror in France is taken as an ideal for
Italy of today! And Napoleon. fol-
lowing this Terror's cowing of the
IL tL0 pOloOAidl ANOi VI &hOS
solini.
The Father of United Italy" was
Count di Cavour, prime minister in
1852, after having served in other inn
portant stations. Upon his death
bed, Cavour may be said to have
warned against the subsequent poll.
cies of his distant successor. Mus.
solini, when he exclaimed. ANY one
can govern by state of sieger'
Prior to that. he had declared,
Italy must be made by liberty, or /
despair of making her at all"'
The father of Napoleon Bonaparte
was a Corsican lawyer and patriot,
who. in speech before a popular as
sembly when it had been proposed
that Corsica submit to France, ex-
claimed:
Few nations have obtained the
blessings of liberty. because few have
had energy, courage and virtue to de-
serve them"
When King Charles Albert. de.
feated in battle, resigned the crown to
his son, Victor Emmanuel the first
words spoken by the new King were.
Through God, Italy shall be-" but
when Azeglio, the Prime Minister of
Sardinia before Cavour, addressed the
Italian Parliament in 1860, he ex-
claimed, Italy Is made, but who will
now make the Italians"
(copyrixht. 1897. By Paul v. collins.l