Evening star., 1937-10-25
Fascismo, l022.l037.

Along the Appian Way and all the
other roads that lead to Rome the Black
Shirt legions are tramping this week, to
converge in the Eternal City on Thurs
day for celebration of the march on the
Ilber that brought Benito Mussolini to
power fifteen years ago. Led by the three
surviving quadrumvirs who headed that
procession of triumph in October, 1922
Marshal Italo Balbo, governor of Libya;
Marshal Emilio de Bono, victor of
Adowa, and Count de Vecchi di Val
Cismon-n Duce will greet his legions
amid spectacular pomp, as they parade
past him in symbolical commemoration
OF FasciSm's ascent to rule.
That decade and a half of dictator
ship has raised Mussolini to dizzy
heights in Europes affairs and, because
OF their interlocking relationship in
world affairs as well, is indisputable In
definitely real and disquieting sense,
Old World peace at this very hour may
be said to be in the keeping of the auto
crat OF Palazzo Venezia. Italy's so-called
concessions in the matter of Withdraw
Ing foreign troops from Spain leave
that question far from settled. The
Mediterranean is still a sea turbulent
with possibilities of war.
The next few hours will evoke gran
eloquent proclamations of the material
growth that has come to Italy since
Mussolini seized the reins. Rome has
increased in population almost forty per
cent. Its face has been remade with
broad boulevards, imposing public build
ings and monumental adornments rem
iniscent of the ancient capital of the
imperial Caesars. The Fascist party has
risen from mere 100000 in 1922 to
2,o21000 in 1887, and become the only
political organization in the country.
Its Grand Council is the highest delib-
erative body in the kingdom. Italy has
reconquered Libya from the fierce SEN
ussite tribesmen, added Eritrea and
Somaliland to Libya by treaties with
France and Great Britain, and become
an empire by the annexation of Ethiopia.
That is one side of the Fascist medal.
1t is bright one.
But like all medals, it has another side
which is far from as glittering. In this
workaday world of ours, glory and power
come high, like nearly everything else
The Ethiopian adventure is a long way
from consolidation" Italy is compelled
to maintain huge army in Halle
Selassies late realm, at enormous ex-
pense and without any immediate
prospect of dividends from the new
territory. The military conquest is as
incomplete as the economic penetration.
While Rome quests in vain for foreign
exploitation capital, guerrilla warfare
keeps the occupying army constantly on
a bloody defensive. AS if this were not
enough, II Duce's volunteers" in Spain,
estimated conservatively at $4,000, need
to be provisioned and maintained from
Italy at cost said to be not less than
Sl000,000 day. French military experts
contend that during the approaching
Winter General Franco will require at
least 10000 Italian troops to launch a
crushing drive against Madrid in the
Spring.
Announcement that ten per cent
levy is to be imposed on the capital stock
of all corporations is the latest tell-tale
evidence of imperialisms pinch in Italy.
Taxes have long weighed almost I'M
bearably on Mussolini's people. How
long they can be made to shoulder un-
complainingly the burdens of Fascist
glory is the problem that gives even
proud II Duce food for anxious thought
in this memory-crowded hour.