FASCIST STATE

Evening Star, Issue 21640, 8 February 1934, Page 13

FASCIST STATE

THE FINAL STAGES ROLE OF CORPORATIONS BASIS OF STRUCTURE When tho new and ultra-modern .Ministry ot Corporations was lormady inaugurated in November, 1932, ''a Uoiiian wit declared that the handsome building was giving.“to airy notning a local habitation and a name,’ 1 writes Paul Cremona, 111 the ‘ Christian Science ALonitor.’ The witticism was not .altogether out of place. ft nas hitherto oeen a curious anomaly in the f ascist Corporative Stale tnat it could point to no corporation m actual being, except the 'theatre Corporation, the lonuation of widen has proved a relatively simple task, as the theatre is a distinctive and independent profession. The absence of corporations scarcely justniod the adjective intended to indicate the peculiar structure oi the Italian State. Lut the time has now arrived when the corporations will be called into existence. The delay of seven years in justifying Italy's nomenclature as the Corporative State is easily explainable, file essence of the corporation system is that it groups together by categories in an organ of the State both employers and employees. The syndicates, on •the other hand, as also the federations and confederations into which the syndicates are grounded, are associations either of employers or of employees; never of both together Now, according to the sixtli declaration of the Labour Charter, which embodies the Fascist creed, “ the corporations constitute the unitary organisation of the forces of production and integrally represent its interests. in virtue of this integral representation, the interests of production being national interests, the corporations arc recognised by law as organs ot the State.” Thus' tho very raison d’etre of the corporation is that it should rise superior to a primarily vocational association such as a syndicate, the fundamental object of which is to represent and protect the interests of its own particular category of members. THE WHOLE AMBIT. The corporation is not to be purely or narrowly professional, and is intended to envisage agricultural, industrial, commercial, and other problems of the national economy from the superior standpoint of the interests of ■the entix'e Italian people. The corporation is expected to survey the whole horizon, and thus to discern things which those on tho plains beneath cannot see. It has the right and duty to point out the proper path to be followed, and to dictate rules in the interests of the affiliated associations and of the national collectivity. Clearly, therefore, the formation of the corporations has had to wait until the syndicates, federations, and confederations bad been sufficiently organised and developed. Until this had been done, the corporations could not even be constituted, much less function, because there wore wanting both tho material from which to make them and also the basis upon which they must build up their activities. The need for corporations had long been felt. In January, 1931, a Governmental decree invested tho sections of the National Council of Corporations with the powers .of corporations. It was, however, obvious that this measure would only be temporary, since the said sections, owing to their cumbrous nature, were unable to act as liaison bodies between the several economic activities, and still less to deal with the particular problems of each productive group. The sections of the National Council of Corporations may be most useful for the study of general problems connected with a particular branch of production, such as agriculture, industry, commerce, but experience has shown the need of proper organs entrusted with the task of corporations as laid down by the Labour Charter. CONNECTING UP. Here, again, the Government will move cautiously hi setting up corporations. One of the most delicate aspects of the problem concerns the selection of the branches of the nation’s economic activity that must be represented by groups or category corporations. It is evident that if corporations were at once formed for every single branch of productive activity, hundreds of corporations would have to bo established, and this would generate confusion. The corporations will have the following two tasks assigned to them (1) To connect, by means of a common hierarchy, the syndicates of both employers and employees of each branch of production for which they are formed—the aim being to secure perfect collaboration between the various groups in the supreme interests of the nation, by overcoming all difficulties between the supposedly rival factors of production; and (2) to represent as unitary organs the economic interests of the groups, for which they have been constituted, both in relation to the other categories, or groups, mid the State. •