Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 13, 1934. THE CORPORATIVE STATE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 297, 13 November 1934, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, NOV. 13, 1934. THE CORPORATIVE STATE

In the presence of a notable Fascist gathering in the Julius Caesar Hall in Rome, Signor Mussolini inaugurated the new Corporative State system which Fascism has decreed for Italy. Twenty-two corporations now control all the departments of industry and several professions throughout the country, and, the Duce says, deal with all the political and social reforms necessary to the development of the Italian people. In Italy, it must be remembered, all political parties have been banished except Fascism which instituted the dictatorship that has governed the country since 1922. Its new system treats the whole State as one huge business, dividing it into departments—the corporations—covering all activities. Three main groups lie within the twenty-two corporations inaugurated by the Duce on Saturday. The first, consisting of eight corporations, controls cereals, horticulture and fruit, viticulture and wine, oils, beetroots and sugar, zoo technology and fisheries, timber, and textile products ; the second, again of eight, deals with metallurgy and machinery, chemical industries, clothing, paper and printing, building construction, water and gas and electricity, mining industries, and glass and china ware; the third consisting of six corporations embraces insurance and credit, the professions and the arts, the sea and air services, internal communications, the theatre, and hospitality. The system further provides for confederations of these corporations to be combined for election purposes, so that Parliament—-the National Council of Corporations which replaces the Chamber of Deputies—would consist of representatives of the grouped activities. Regional constituencies have been abolished, and as the Grand Fascist Council has the arbitrary power to put before the electors a complete “national list” for their approval or rejection, there is really no free choice for the people but instead a selection by the Council 'which is final.

There has been some difficulty in the working of the new State. It did not proceed so smoothly as Signor Mussolini wished, and in spite of his optimistic words at the inauguration on Saturday he knows tiiat a great deal of progress has to be made before his experiment can be termed a success. Early in September it was reported that an invitation had been sent to the suppressed Socialists to form a Socialist wing of the Fascists, and to receive important appointments in the new State. This party came under the Fascist ban in 1922, and the invitation has been construed as an admission on Signor Mussolini’s part that he cannot do without its members in perfecting his scheme, and that in the meantime they have maintained their organisation. Another interesting- speculation concerns the Duce’s former connection with the party, in that he is offering its members the hand of friendship. In any event, it was an intriguing situation that arose from the invitation. The Corporative State has been authoritatively defined as a middle course between Liberalism on the one hand and Marxian Socialism on the other, establishing a balance between private initiative and the interests of society as a whole. The corporations are endowed with authority to make laws on all economic matters affectum their own activities, but they are still subservient to the Fascist Grand Council and to the Luce bv whom their regulations must be approved. The experiment will be watched with the keenest interest by students of political problems. Ike Duce

claims that it will give Italy higher social justice, increase her powers and worldly expansion; but he adds a note of caution—nobody should expect miracles. He believes that all nations will adopt the system; but Italy's was established by his dictatorship, so it does not necessarily follow that other countries, even should it be a success, will become enthusiastic. Fundamentally, it provides that everything must be disciplined by the State for the sake of the State, with the individual serving it blindly —the negative of freedom which British people hold dear, and possible in Italy where free institutions are not popular.