The Press Saturday, April 14, 1928. Who Will Be Remembered?

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19285, 14 April 1928, Page 14

The Press Saturday, April 14, 1928. Who Will Be Remembered?

j Lord Rothermere has been comparing Mussolini to Napoleon. What Lord Rothermere thinks is important only in relation to his vast newspaper ownership, but his description of Mussolini as the dominating figure of this age causes one to reflect upon the future's verdict on this time of ours. Who are the men who will stand out in relief to generations centuries hence f What names, if ally, will be household words among the more or less educated classes? Lord Rothermere's panegyric on Mussolini is absurd because it is premature. Mussolini will be judged by results. He may not last, and in his fall his work may be brought to ruin. Napoleon was not only one of the supremelj great captains of history, but a constructive statesman. He designed a fabric of government for France that has lasted to this day. But it is possible that Mussolini's work will endure, and that he will go down to history as an architect of a new form of autocracy. Democracy is challenged in most clear fashion by the Fascist movement, and if democracy should be ultimately defeated, Mussolini will get the main credit, and his name will be linked-with Lenin's.

In any competition for the attention of posterity Mussolini has the advantage of being highly picturesque. The theatricalism of the man, so alien to British ideas, will appeal to the poets, artists, and playwrights of future ages. One of his countrymen, however, may beat him in the race. Some time ago Mr J. C. Squire, in surveying the current politics of Europe from the point-of view of the future artist, said that no political figure seemed so certain of commemoration (not necessarily complimentary) by future poets and dramatists as Lenin and Gabriele d'Annunzio. He has not modified this judgment. Of Lenin the British public has heard much, .but. "the odd British indifference to " d'Annunzio is just what it was." Mr Squire paints* a brilliant picture of this man—poet, novelist, airman, and politician, who is so much more than the average British conception of him as a decadent poseur. "The romantic " still allow, themselves to be dazzled "by the characters and careers of "Csßsar Borgia and pellini. But "d'Annunzio beats ihe,intellectual ad- " venturers of the Renaissance on their " own ground." Some years ago critics spoke of him as a man whose powers Were spent; and everything about him was the subject of unfavourable comment, but " the artist had a new birth; "the ageing dandy put on a uniform; "the poseur showed a contempt for "death; and the voluble boaster a " capacity for firm and instant action." Mr Squire likes d'Annunzio" no better than the average Englishman; he recalls Henry James's remark that looking for the Italian's radical defect was like looking for a mysterious bad smell in a house. But Mr Squire is deeply impressed with the man's picturesque genius and versatility, and he thinks this amazing figure will: appeal to future ages.

Mr Squire is thinking of the artist of posterity. The average man of that time may keep in his mind other figures of our day. Mr Wickham Steed puts forward Foch, Woodrow Wilson, and President Masaryk, the maker of Czecho-Slovakia, as ; candidates for immortality. Mr John Buchan —or was it someone elsef—has chosen Lawrence of Arabia as a figure of to-day who will make fnture legend. Certainly the war produced no stranger and more romantic figure. When we pass from world-wide to national recognition the candidates are more numerous. Asquith, one thinks, is as sure of remembrance as - Pitt. ' Among our romantic figures Rupert Brooke will probably live, though posterity may place his poetry lower than it was ranked at his death. We may be fairly certain, however, that the number of men of our age whose names in that distant time . still have - a significance throughout the civilised world will be very small. ■