The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1934. Ten Years of Fascism

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21119, 21 March 1934, Page 10

The Press WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1934. Ten Years of Fascism

The second quinquennial assembly of the Fascist party, the opening of which was described in the cable news yesterday, coincided with a turning point in the history of the Fascist state. The last few months in Italy have seen the removal of the last vestiges of the old structure of representative government and at the same time the supersession of Italian capitalism. The Chamber of Deputies has been abolished and its few remaining powers handed over to the Fascist Grand Council, while the effective control of industry has passed from the private entrepreneur to the National Council of Corporations. Liberalism, political and economic, i; dead. The disappearance of the Chamber of Deputies is no surpriseit has been an anachronism ever since the opposition parties were suppressed. The political programme of Fascism was definite from the beginning, even though, it was applied gradually and cautiously. But Signor Mussolini himself is fond of pointing out that Fascism into power without any definite economic aims. When the corporative system was first established there was no intention that it should become an instrument for the control of production and distribution by j the state. Its primary purpose was to maintain an equilibrium between j employers and employees and to prevent a recurrence of the mdus- | trial warfare which, m the few I years immediately after the war. j had threatened to disrupt the nation. There was at first no attempt to restrict the freedom of ' the entrepreneur in the manage- i rnent of industry: and it was commonly said of the Fascist revolution, as it is now being said of the , Nazi revolution, that it was nothing . more than a capitalist coup d'etat, j But the whole history of the cor- , porations has been the history of a i steady increase in their regulative ; powers over all aspects of production. The law reorganising the National Council of Corporations passed in November, 1933. defines the corporation as " the instrument "which, under the aegis of the Gov■•emment. carries out the integral. - organic, and unitarian regulation • of production with a view to the ••expansion of the wealth, political •• power, and well-being of the ••Italian people": and it is significant that Sigr.or Mussolini's speech introducing the law is mainly a history of the decline of the capitalist system, ending with the declaration that Italy is no longer a capitalist state. On the other hand, the corporative state is not a socialist state, since it "retains and •■ protects private property but ele--vates its use to social functions, -and directs private initiative to- ■ wards the needs of national life •' and economy." It is not easy to discover the reality which lies behind all this dialectic. The revised corporations have power to prescribe wages and hours of work, to fix prices, and. in certain circumstances, to assume complete control of industries on behalf of the state. Whether the use of this power will lead ultimately to the nationalisation of all the key industries it is still too early to prophesy. Electric Power Charges Yesterday the Hawke's Bay Power Board passed a resolution calling for '•a readjustment of the North and " South Island electric power sup- - ply accounts so as to run the ■• Mangahao, Waikaremoana, and "Lake Coleridge schemes through -one account." During the discussion the secretary of the board made the astonishing statement that he had been informed by a high official in the Public Works Department that it was the intention of the Government to bring down legislation " for a general amalgamation of the " schemes." If this is true it is disquieting, for it seems to mean that the power boards supplied by the Lake Coleridge generating station are to be charged more in order to pay for the heavy indebtedness on some of the North Island generating stations. And already most of the North Island boards, because they serve comparatively thickly populated districts, arc given a substantial advantage over the Canterbury boards by the system of charging for bulk supply on a maximum demand basis. The following figures, prepared last year by the chairman of the Ashburton Power Board, are illuminating:

It is easy to understand the Government's anxiety to reduce the indebtednt on recently constructed generating plants: but its efforts to do so should not Lc carried to the length o- depriving a district of the benefits of its natural suitability for jiydroneJectrie ftesiekipment.

Per K.W Cost . Maximum of product! p D on. emand. Revenue <£ Coleridge Mangahao Waikato .. 4.06 . . 6.90 .. 10.82 7.1(1 6.52 8.64