NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1930. WHERE AUTOCRACY WINS

Northern Advocate, 1 February 1930, Page 8

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1930. WHERE AUTOCRACY WINS

Registered for Transmission Tkrough the Post es a Newspaper.

old adage that- ‘'great reforms move slowly ’ ’ finds contradiction in the revolutionary changes brought about in the Fascist coup which tranformed Italian history—social and political—with such sensational expedition. Certain factors which are easily ecognisable seem to synchronise in the methods both of Lenin and Mussolini. Fascism, it has been remarked, • . y ' is only Bolshevism turned ' upside down, Neither system makes any pretence of respecting modern conceptions of personal liberty. On that account the normal Western, mind shrinks from them both at sight, even though acutely aware that pretext not a little has been given them by the wild excesses of those who take liberty for license. There is no surer I breeder of reaction than your clamAnt democrat. Reaction may take many different forms. In half a- dozen of the countries of Europe today it has suspended, or oven abolished., what we are accustomed to call free institutions. The two most notable examples of this conducted along widely divergent lines, are Italy and Russia, Both offer features instinctively disliked by articulate opinion in the outside world. In such a position how is a verdict to bo found? Plainly we find ourselves thrown back on the old Scriptural method of judging a. thing by its fruits—or even by its lack of fruits in the fully literal sense. No better test can be devised: it is that which all men continually and naturally apply to their daily affairs. It is in political matters that they are least willing to do so, hoping to scpiare the facts with their preconceived ideas. The facts, however, have a habit of prevailing.

Italy today is a nation as she never was before. No man can deny that, be his Idas what it may. In the old Roman centuries, Italy wain scarcely a distinct country at all. She. had almost lost her identity in her own unwieldy Empire. Then canine the Middle

Ages. and the land was rent- into

petiy States and. squabbling cities. This condition continued- -up to -and in some degree past the. Garlbaldinn era; nor did political unity bring anything like the full measure of cohesion and security. Even after the war, a war which had proved victorious and successful, the situation of .Italy for a time was doubtful and dangerous. Anarchy’reigned-over all the great industrial cities of the north, and thGovernment seemed paralysed by fear. In most of the big cities it was actually unsafe for soldiers to wear their uniforms or decorations. The whims of the mob were all-powerful. The public, knows now, though it did not know then, how near Italy was to going over the abyss. Then came a rapid change. The greatest miracle of modern political history was performed. We know it to be all too easy to turn men’s minds to envy and sloth. Seditionisfa in every country are sure of a hearing almost daily in that way. But here we see not the easy task, but hard, the hardest imaginable—a passionate people, already more than half Avon over to the- plausible doctrines which repudiate all forms of duty, swung back again to a working faith in diseipline and effort. It has been done under the leadership of a man. who, though sneered at as Caesar, gathers round his person no shred of Caesarian "pomp, but sets an example both of labour and simple life. Mussolini’s methods make no appeal to the British temperament. But they show results hardly equalled elsewhere.-

Those travellers who have visited Italy since the u march on Rome ’ ’ scarcely need any other evidence- in substantiation. They have seen for themselves that a deeper patriotism, a larger love of order exists there today. They have- read the signs that enable them well to believe that prosperity and social betterment are increasing. And if it be ever contended that the restrictions which the Fascist regime has laid on the freedom of the people are in any respects comparable with those imposed by the Soviet rulers, let it always be remembered .that in two ways there, is a complete difference—ways- so important as to constitute a fundamental distinction. Mussolini has respected and fostered the natural inclination of his countrymen, towards religion. He has also from the first made- it perfectly clear that he recognised and meant to continue the prudent policy of allowing private enterprise to gather legitimate rewards. By these two'things alone,, were there nothing more, the present system -of government in Italy may bo held to make good its claim to be. ; classed, with the European group and not with that of Asia, to which Rtihsia now plainly belongs. Compared with these, any ,minor exercises of sumptuary law, however irksome in themselves, are differences not of kind blit only of degree. II Bnce has brought an Italian ‘ ‘ yerboten 1 ’ into many new departments of the national life—and in some of. them, if the truth be told, it was prcssingly needed. As we see it, he has gone too far — though again it may be argued that he knows his own race best, and has certainly satisfied many of its needs. But above everything else he has laid it down that the man who owns something shall not have it taken from him, and the man who wishes to worship shall have more than liberty to do so. Therein his statesmanship takes for its allies two primary instincts of the human family. No wonder his rule is prosperous.