THE FASCIST VICTORY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18272, 13 December 1922, Page 9

THE FASCIST VICTORY.

CAUSES OF THE RISING.

METHOD OF ELECTION.

PROPORTIONAL SYSTEM.

In a country which has approached nearest of all the Western Democracies to a realisation of doctrinaire Socialism it is natural that the vices inherent in that political creed should come to their plainest expression, writes the special correspondent of a London paper. Italy has for some time been governed by a Chamber of Deputies elected according to the Proportional Representation system. This, theoretically, ensures the perfect registration of the will of the people; in vast constituencies seats are dealt out to the nominees of the various groups in strict proportion to the number of votes recorded. The actual result is that all personal contact between member and voters, any opinion of appreciation based on personal observation, is abolished; the member need be nothing more than a numeral in tiie party vote. Eeing excused from running the gauntlet of a small constituency election, he may be, and very often is, a nonentity, a cypher, owing his place to jobnery. In a House thus elected no one group is strong enough to govern. In Italy the pusillanimity of the Government lias become a by- word ; no Cabinet takes strong measures, even in face of the most extreme threat or insult to the governmental authority. Peace at any price rather than disturb the external .siesta 'of Rome.

Confronted with this debility at the very heart of the nation, a party has arisen which alone in an ill-disciplined and disintegrating society has shown itself capable of organisation, discipline, and a vigorous and sustained plan of action. The Fascisti are hardly a political party as we understand it. The movement has all the impudence and the inexperience of childhood, and enjoys in addition the full vigour of youth. The party does not hope to carry its points by peaceful deliberation in the Chamber, where it has a mere handful of seats. Desperate Remedies. Convinced of the impotence and uselessness 'of a House elected as the present one has been, its first intention is to overawe the House into repealing the very laws under which it was elected, using extreme measures if necessary. Desperate diseases need desperate remedies is their cry, and they are more at home on parade, officered, uniformed, and equipped like an army, than in debate. The Fascisti armed themselves originally to assert the authority of the State. They know what the people want, what the country's economic life wants, and these things they are going to see carried out. They are as ready to force a shipbuilder to keep his yards' open to provide employment as they are to thrash thoroughly strikers of whom they disapprove. They have undeniably conferred on Italy a signal service in assisting the formation of trades unions non-subver-sive in aim and acknowledging the existing order of society; this in a country where workers Conservative by natura, have been forced to join Socialist organisations cannot but be i>oheficinl to workers and State alike. They are a power in the land; the military and police walk in awe of them, even when chastising, as they periodically do, local Communists or malcontents. The Harassed Citizen. The Italian observes the dismal failure 'of State enterprise on every hand. He comments wearily on the annual hugu deficits, which are notoriously the woist outside Balkan Europe, He watches the lira sag gently from day to day. He shut* his eyes to the corruption and open bribery in every State office. He has long since ceased .grumbling at his nauseat-'ng' State sulphur matches and his vile State cigarettes; and now lie stands by and watches the State's self-constituted ■tutors and guardians undertake the real work of Government. The Italian rnan-in-the-street has even been known to shout (recently at Trent) in pride at those h&ndsome lads who touch .the Imperialist chord which is somewhere deep in every min, "Long live the Army"—while very probably the real instrument and symbol of the authority 'of Rome had been ordered to stop round the corner. It is in this position that Italy finds itself at present. It is only if this energy and this'enthusiasm can be exploited in more legal and peaceful channels, and galvanise the deliberations of the world, forgetting old gentlemen of Rome, that a reil and lasting solution can be hoped for. The Government of Italy, elected according to methods which on paper and according to every academic wiseacre are the nearest to perfection yet devised, has shown itself a dead thing with n'o vital link and no response to the finest and highest elements of the race; and until this is altered there can be no improvement in the State of Italy.