Evening star., 1941-04-11
BY JOHN T. WHITAKER,


Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
BEYOND THE ITALIAN FROM
TIER.-"The dictators," President
Thomas G.. ,Masaryk of Czecho-
Slovakia once said, always look
good until the last five minutes" !"
This is the tragedy of Benito
Mussolini in the twenty-second
year of Fascism and the nineteenth
year of his own dictatorship. He
has lived too long.
Had Mussolini died one year ago
history would have recalled his
many accomplishments, the pa
triotism and discipline he evoked
among his own people, the Bis
MARKHAM GOODNESS with which he
played power politics, the boldness
with which he conquered Ethiopia
and won in Spain, the skill with
which he kept italy out of Hitler's
war. His own inconsistencies and
the inherent unsoundness of his
pragmatic opportunism might have
been CLOSED over.
Picture Of Man Corrupted by Power.
Now whether Germany conquers
the Anglo-Saxon world or not,
Mussolini will go down in history
as man who sacrificed his nation
to his own lust for glory-a man,
in short, whom power corrupted.
1t is a tragic end for man who
by his own genius, sly peasant cum
ming and mastery of national
psychology rose to equal rank with
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister
Churchill, Adolf Hitler and Joseph
Stain in century when un-
paralleled power has been intrusted
to few dominant personalities.
Until two years ago the picture
abroad Of a clustering megalo-
maniac was certainly false. The
first time I talked with Mussolini,
in 1885, I told him that I was anti
Fascist, but meant to write OBJ
jectlvely about him and his regime
unless he preferred to throw me
out of his country then and there.
Out went the jaw and the eyes
bulged. Then his face was wreathed
with a smile. He threw back his
head, roared with laughter and
said Lets see if you can do it."
When told Mussolini two years
later that he was going to suffer a
military defeat in Spain which
would destroy all the prestige gained
in Ethiopia and urged him to get
out and give the Spanish people a
chance, he said, Perhaps you are
right"
Victim Of Paranoia.
When news reached him one
month later of the disaster at
Guadalajara he summoned me, gave
me the news before 1t was published
and said, You were right and I was
wrong"
I said promptly, "Why don't you
get out Of Spain now?" He replied,
'Ah, now I cannot Now I must 60
through to the end" This was said
soberly, not blusteringly or In the
spirit of megalomania.
I have seen Mussolini but once in
the last two years and then I was
not allowed to talk with him. I am
not certain, therefore. but it Is my
sincere and reluctant belief that for
exactly two years-since sudden
and unpublicized illness-the die
tator has suffered the most violent
form of paranoia.
After acting the role with cynical
derision for nearly 20 years, in order
to shut up his opposition or frighten
weaklings like Neville Chamberlain,
the actor has become the man.
Mussolini today is as horrible a
megalomaniac as Nero or Caligula.
Suffered Stroke in 1899.
I have established from trust
worthy sources, though many of the
details are sketchy, that in the
spring of 1899 Mussolini suffered a
stroke which for several days caused
a partial paralysis of the face.
know that he was confined to bed
with the greatest secrecy near
Milan for five weeks. Later he re-
tired to a private house near his
at Forli. I understand
that near Forn he was visited by
q Swiss specialist because the left
eye was affected.
This stroke came at the worst |
possible moment both in the per-
sonal life of Mussolini and in the
of Fascism. 1t Is re-
sponsible, in my opinion, for the
alliance with Germany and for the
ultimate entry into the war. 1t !
came at a moment when for the
first time Mussolini had become |
aware both of the ravages of age |
and the loneliness of great power.
In my four conversations with |
the dictator and in, scores I have
heard Of secondhand there was