BENITO MUSSOLINI

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

BENITO MUSSOLINI

THE DESPOT OF ITALY THE PEOPLE BELIEVE IN HIM AND HE IN FASCISM By HERBERT L. WILLETT, in the Christian Centuryone may think of II Ducc, there is no denial that he has accomplished notable things for Italy. He has abolished the party system, which, as in most other lands, wastes much of the public attention and income in official spoils. The present Government is an autocracy o£ the most absolute sort, whose machinery is dictated and controlled by a single mind. Rules With Despotic Power. With outward show of respect for the house of Savoy, and the gesture of loyalty to the Royal Family, whose popularity as in England is a tradition, Mussolini is in entire command of the affairs of the State. It is good policy for him to maintain the air of deference to the King, and public measures receive the Royal approval before becoming law. But no one is deceived by this posture of regard for the Crown. Il Duce is the State, as completely as was Louis XIV, and with none of the hereditary warrants ■which were accustomed to validate such authority in former days.

A man of humble origin, a school teacher and editor, he conceived the idea of an Italy freed from factions and rivalries, from which Communism and secret orders should be banished, and in which there should be but one political pattern—fascism. By sheer force of character and an audacity that has disconcerted all opposition, he has apparently achieved his purpose, and now, in the name of the common people, he rules with despotic power. People Believe in Him.

In Italy his is the name of authority. His picture is plastered in rough outline on every wall and most of the public buildings. His utterance are listened to as oracles. The press is subservient or silent. When he appears on public occasions, great crowds gather to see him. The ‘‘black shirts,” the military force he has assembled around him are loyal and enthusiastic. The people believe in him, and hail him as the deliverer of the land from faction and spoilsmen. The men who distrust and hate him as a tyrant have left the country or are dead. Though diplomaticaly mild to people who have made attempts upon his life, which he affects to believe inviolate, he has shown himself ruthless to opponents of his policies and of the fascist movement. He does not hesitate to display the same autocratic attitude toward the inhabitants of the Italian dependencies. He has just moved eighty thousand Arabs from the Jcbel Plateau of Lybia to new areas on the Mediterranean coast as an act of discipline. Reforms Introduced. Meantime remarkable reforms have ben put in operation throughout the country. The railroad system has been immensely improved. Trains are well equipped and run on schedule. The right of way is protected and kept attractive. Electricity is being introduced, which does away with smoke and cinders. Motor roads are equal to any in Europe. Water power is being utilised by turbines, and is carried long distances over seemingly impassable mountain regions. The reputation for dishonesty and petty thieving which disgraced Italy is disappearing. The police system is much more efficient than in some other lands; begging, which was formerly the curse of the cities, and especially of the churches, has been greatly reduced, and the vile traffic in the obscene, for which Naples and some other towns were notorious, is disappearing. The streets are cleaner, and the unpleasant odours so often encountered in former days are less in evidence. Not all of this improvement is to be credited to Mussolini, but to him more than to any other man the praise is due. The public health has been made more a matter of governmental concern. The water in most places is entirely safe for drinking. Unemployment seems to be less of a problem than in most other countries. Public works are contrived to provide work for men out of a job. And when that device is inadequate, they are put into the Army. Keeps Europe on the Anxious Seat. This seems to be less for the purpose of increasing to inordinate proportions the fighting strength of the nation than to take care of its man power and bolster up the national moral. Mussolini is often accused of preparing Italy for a war of aggression. This may indeed be the reason for his increase of the Army, and his refusal to accept a lower ratio of naval strength than France. It is a fact that nearly all his public utterances have a military ring. He delights apparently in the reviewing of troops. He has the faculty of keeping all Europe on the anxious seat as to his aggressive intentions. Yet he is no fool. He knows that Italy is the least resourceful of the major European Powers. Her man power is limited, her war record disastrous, as Caporetto and the Piave prove; her natural resources in mineral wealth arc small, in spite of Vergil’s boasts, and her position the most vulnerable in Europe. Moreover, she has suffered incredibly from earthquake and volcanic disasters, and is destined to a like fate times without number in the future. To provoke war with any of her neighbours would be to invite trouble. But Mussolini is shrewd enough to perceive the value of the Imperial gesture in stimulating the loyalty and enthusiasm of his people, and they react with delight to his arrogant and threatening words toward the rest of the world. Some day he may overdo the play, and start an undesired conflict. In that ease he will repeat the folly of Napoleon, and leave his land in ruins. And What of the Future. As to the future, no one can prophesy. 11 Duee insists that fascism is so firmly intrenched that it will survive his leadership, and in another generation become the accepted creed of half Europe. His followers affect to believe this statement. Careful observers in Italy and elsewhere, however, are of another mind. There is no man in sight to take Mussolini’s place when he passes, and it is not improbable that the. nation will fall back into the old party system and become again the victim of factions. But it can never go back to the old conditions from which it is so happily and rapidly emerging. It has learned some lessons, even at the hands of a severe egotistical teacher. Perhaps it is more nearly ready for democracy than when the Dictator took over the rule from an amiable but inefficient monarchy. Time alone can decide.