Evening star., 1927-05-31

Last Thursday. Dictator Mussolln
Of Italy made the most distinctly
epochal speech in all his career.
lie outlined his policies from Fas-
cist standpoint. and declared that ne
expected to continue to govern Italy
along those lines for the next 10 years,
and that his ultimate objective IS
greater Italy, with an increase in pop
ulation of so per cent. and with an
army of 5000, 900 men, fully armed
and trained, and a great navy ana
huge air force. AbSolutisnl, one-man
dictatorship and rigid discipline. with
a foreign policy exceeding the menace
of Napoleon and. Wilhelm ii, are the
ideals he manifested.
This will not be recognized by
Americans who have had no oppor-
tunity nor theroughness to read the
verbatim report of that speech' as
published in one daily in the United
States. occupying eight columns OF
solid type. Hence it is illuminating
to. quote Mussolinis own words In
typical pronouncements that their
tenor may be compared with the words
of the worlds great statesmen, includ-
ing those of Italian patriots who
founded and preserved United Italy.
The speech was delivered after the
style of an American President in MS
annual message to Congress. 1t was
addressed to the Chamber of Deputies,
who Wildly applauded his jingoism.
1t was divided into three main
parts: n). Health of Italians. including
the necessity not only of decreasing
the death rate, but also of increasing
the birth rate through penalizing
bachelors and penalizing, by speclai
tax. barren marriages.
(2) Reorganization of the provinces.
and substituting appointed "podestas'
in place of elected mayors of munich
palities, thereby centralizing the gov
ernment. The pedestas- are simply
carpet -baggers," sent out from Rome.
the creatures of the dictator. reporting
to him and taking detailed orders
from him. Local liberty $ wholly
suppressed. He announces further
that i'm 1882 this centralizing will be-
come more rigid. Said the dictator:
"Why did l say 1882? Because in
1882 we shall have finished the CEN
sus which we are preparing this very
minute. There are still four years to
pass. But / have decided that within
six months we are to know the results
of the 1921 census. Then very proba-
bly, there will be a reshuffiing of the
Italian provinces, and there are towns
which will become capitals of prov
inces, provided their populations have
beea hard-working. industrious and
prolific"
While doctrinnaires have long dis
cussed the danger of race suicide"
when before has political gerry
mander been based on newborn
babies? Can it be that explains why
our American Congress has deliber-
ately violated our United States Con-
stitution. making mandatory a read
justment of congressional districts
based upon our decennial census?
census of 1920. Are our statesmen
finding a loophole in the lack of pro-
Efficacy of their constituents? Yet we
have no American Mussolini.
X 4 y
That it is no eXaggeration to say
that Mussolini has sent "carpetbag-
gers" called "podestas," to take the
place of local mayors in all munich
palities, in order that all power shall
center in Rome, here are his own
words:
Everything must be done according
to the governments policy; otherwise
we shall have an unbalanced state of
affairs, and the municipalities will run
into debt. They will increase local
taxation and 'holler' for help from
the government, which, in turn, will
be obliged to increase taxation, for
the Fascist state refuses to print any
more paper money. Go easy with nC-
naturalization. This is q residue of the
old administrative systems, which. by
force of circumstances. does not give
the results expected Of it. Go easy
also with ceremonies, banquets and
manifestations; also, if possible, with
speeches, daughter and cheers.)
meanwhile we are. methodlcally
proceeding with the reorganization OF
the municipalities. There is
one service which has given excellent
results. / refer to the service OF the
inspector into municipal affairs. AS
you know. there are at each prefecture
some functionaries whose duty it is to
go and inspect the way municipal al
fairs are run"
1t will be remembered that that Is
the very question in America which
bothers many people, from the Repub-
lican President down to the local ward
politician, for both are urging decen-
traliZation of government and local
liberty to run the local affairs accord
ing to local sentiment. The chief diff
ference, then, between PTesident Cool
idge and Dictator Mussolini appears to
be that they lake diametrically oppo.