VIM VI REPELLENS
THIS is a most interesting and authoritative book on modern Italy. We supposed by its modest title that Commendatore Villari knew his public in England, and we were confirmed in this opinion when we read the preface. Now that we have fpund how fair and frank he is throughout, we trust that The Fascist Experiment will receive the attention it deserves. Not unnaturally we were a little suspicious at first, for there is much pro and contra Fascist propaganda in London to-day. There are Anglo-Italians who profess consummate love for Italy, but who in truth love only the Early-Victorian Italy Of picturesque pedlars and veiled women, when the itinerant Englishman was " milord " and treated with awe ; and there are journalists of polyglot attainments who find the new Italy does not take them seriously ; on the other hand there are also those who would bring an un-English system to a people that will have none of foreign dictators, whether they be a Norman Duke, Popish priests, or even Russians. Between extremes of opinion lies the mean of truth, that Fascism° is the most successful Government of modern Italy,
but it would not do for us. (Nobody in Italy, by the way, claims that it would ; for instance, no responsible editor in Rome or Milan is lecturing us on how to deal with our own present discontents.) . -
Commendatore Villari makes a good point in his last chapter in shinving us that Fascism° is highly mystical in its inspiration. ft is not a doctrine of force as is sometimes supposed, but a
creed of self-sacrifice for the State, the State being an entity slightly different to the commonly accepted definition.
Perhaps Fascism° is the biggest political concept of the century. Doubtless that is a statement open to. argument, still, the. idea of the State being a Thing that is alive, the •syn• thesis of the glories of the past and the hope of generation, unborn, is neither undemocratic nor unsound in genesis, and is a theory whose practice under Mussolini may eon. ceivably affect the life of the whole world.
Here in England we should detest to be led by _11 Duce as we would to be governed by Mr. Cook, but that is beside the point. Mussolini has been a success in his own country not only by reason of the material prosperity and internal • peace. that he has brought to Italy, but also for the new spirit, child of his genius, which haS risen (as the Renaissance rose) from tihr minds of men who have ever been in the forefront of discovery.
Those Englishmen who viewed post-War Italy with sorrow and apprehension. with its thieving mayors, filthy streets, • impossible railways, soldiers beaten in the streets for wearing their War-medals, the docks mere dens of criminals where no work was done, and disorder and dismay on every hand, realize now what a miracle has been wrought by Mussolini and the prisoned soul of youth he loosed. Only last week it was announced that the revenue for the financial year just closed in Italy was 2.26,06,000 more than was foreseen in the estimates, while during the same period the cash reserves increased • from £18,000,000 to • 128,000,000. In the book under review we learn that of the 3,000,000 Fascisti in Italy more than 2,000,000 are workmen. Factories are working full time, railways are on a paying basis. and the goods traffic is seven times greater than before the War. Great irrigation works have been undertaken, crime reduced, the Army re- organized, an impetus given to civil aviation, the educational system has been overhauled, and Workmen's clubs are estab:. lished throughout the land, giving the Worker recreational facilities such as there should be (and are not), in every civilized community. Strikes are practically non-existent, and the new labour laws, while still on their trial, seem to be justifying themselves by making possible a real and friendly co-operation between employer and employed. The facts are all given in The FasciSt Experiment, and they are visible not only in print but in flesh and blood at the price of a ticket across the Alps. Another impression to be derived from this book is that although Mussolini was undoubtedly the " only begetter " of the Fascist State, the movement is now too big for him, as no doubt he would have it be:" That is to say, that although his death might cause factions and diSserisions (and we suppose reprisals in the event of his murder), the principles of Fascismo have been found to work so well that the majority of Italians would continue the system : it has already in fact attained a momentum that is independent of personalities.
How. this came to pass, how a blacksmith's son' is now forging the fine steel of the Italian mind into a weapon with unknown possibilities, is one of the most dramatic .stories of our time. Signor Villari, hoWever, hag not indulged in romantics or lane writing. The facts speak for themselves and our author has given them to us coldly, convincingly, cumulatively, but charmingly, with the grace of an tikom- plished writer. Those who study human progress should read his book. They will not agree with it unless they think that real progress is possible without liberty, but they will be interested in it.
Cavaliere Muriello's pamphlet of sixty-four pages has only just come to us : it covers more briefly the same ground as Coniniendatore Villari's book and would apkai to be trust- worthy and up to date. The author claims that the neyi industrial Councils enable "every workman to know the Conditions of the industry in which he is employed and . • refrain from asking for anything which- might ruin it." Indeed a wonderful consummation, if true. Anyway, it is a fact that tonnage cleared at Italian ports has increased by, twelve million tons over last year, more corn and hemp were produced than ever before, while the export of textiles increased by 12,500 tons and of artificial silk by 8,000 tons over last year. This prosperity is ascribed to the spirit Of 'co-operation and faith which exists amongst all
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