TOPICS OF THE TIMES

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4810, 18 February 1936, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Says Mussolini. "The Italian people, which draws its nourishment from the soil with hard, daily labour, is capable of resisting a very long siege, especially when it is certain in the clearness and tranquility of its conscience that right is on its side. That war which we have begun on African soil is a war of civilisation and liberation. It is the war of the people. The Italian people feels it as its own. It is the war of the poor, of the disinherited, of the proletariat. Against us is ranged the front of conservatism, of selfishness and of hypocrisy. A people of 44,000,000, not merely of inhabitants but also of souls, does not allow itself to be throttled and Still less to be tricked with impunity. The regime will go straight ahead."—Signor Mussolini.

"Economic Freedom and Private Property." Although the Co-operative Movement is closely allied with the Labour Party, Mr. Francis W. Hirst, in his book, "Economic Freedom and Private Property," recognises that co-opera-tive societies differ in many respects to nationalised industry. Mr. Hirst says: "Co-operative concerns, industrial co-partnership and profit-sharing arrangements stand on an entirely different footing from movements for socialising industry by placing it under the control of a bureacracy or of a trade union. It is true that the competition of the co-operative shops, like that of the big stores, is often hard on the smalj shopkeeper; but the co-operative movement as a whole had an educational value. It brings business ability to the front. It encourages thrift. It imparts a spirit of mutual aid, which humanises without destroying the invigorating forces of competition. Socialism and collectivism make for servile dependence; co-operation for interdependence."