MUSSOLINI THE MAN.

Mussolini as Revealed in his Political Speeches (November, 1914-August, 1923). By Barone Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino. (London : J. M. Dent and Sons. 7s. 6d. net.) Tim quality of " distinction " is as unmistakable as it is rare. It does not matter if it is manifested through a scientist, an artist, or a statesman. If one glances at some sentence written by a Pasteur, or at a house built by Wren, or hears of some trivial action of Cavour's, a distinct but not easily definable quality is recognized which tells us plainly that we are here concerned with a man who possesses the true quality of distinction. Naturally this is not to say that all the thoughts, deeds or words of great men are distinguishable at sight from those of other people, but rather to submit the hypothesis that there is a certain class or category of thoughts, deeds or words that bear unmis- takable marks of a certain innate authority and leave little doubt that they emanate from an uncommon man. And so it is with these speeches of Mussolini's. They are a series of extracts, selected from political speeches which he delivered from November, 1914, to August, 1923. Many of them deal with the exigencies of the situation of the moment.. There is an inevitable similarity between their perorations in praise of Fascismo ; but yet scattered through the book we find, now in the turn of a phrase, now in the grasp or the breadth of some curt estimate of a man or a movement, these sure marks of a dominant personality.

For anyone who is interested in Italy, in Fascismo, or in Mussolini, this book is a very useful one. It divides Mussolini's political speeches, and so one may say his life—for politics for him must be co-extensive with life itself—into six parts : the first, " Mussolini the Socialist " ; the second, " Mussolini the Man of the War " (that is, the interventionist) ; the third, Mussolini the Fascista Friend of the People " ; the fourth, " Mussolini the Fascists " ; the fifth, " Mussolini the Fascists Member of Parliament " ; and the sixth, " Mussolini the Fascists Prime Minister." In combina- tion with this arrangement the editor, Barone Quaranta di San Severino, has preserved on the whole a chrono- logical order, although occasionally he has put very recent weeches in some of the earlier parts of the book. Just as Papal Bulls take their names from the first words of the text, so the editor has given a name to each of these speeches from some striking phrase within it. For instance, .be calls the first speech in the book—one delivered by

Mussolini at the Socialist Conference at Milan in 1914, when he was expelled from that party—" Do you think that by taking away my membership card you will take away my faith in the cause ? " Again, he calls the speech delivered at Milan on December 6th, 1922, " My father was a black- smith, and I have worked with him. He bent iron ; but I have the harder task of bending souls." Sometimes, however, the editor has given his own name to a speech, as, for instance, to the already famous speech to Parliament of November 16th, 1022, when Mussolini laid down the principles of his attitude towards that body. This speech is called " A New Cromwell in the Parliament."

It is evidently this side of Mussolini's character—that of the great phrase-maker and the swift and powerful man of action—that principally appeals to the editor of this book, and it is the passages in the speeches which reveal these qualities that he has selected. Thus we must not expect to find here an account of Mussolini's economic ideas, which we get a glimpse of in the extracts from his writings and

speeches that Mr. Odon Por printed in his book Fascism. It is evidently what we might call the human side of Mussolini that chiefly interests Barone Quaranta di San Severino. This is not to say that the book is of no political importance. Passages outlining the Fascist pro- gramme in considerable detail and, in the last part of the book, repeated analyses of the foreign situation and even passages of economic thought are by no means excluded,

but they are evidently not what the editor has really been struck by.

Naturally the part of the book which we turn to most

readily is the sixth and longest—" Mussolini as the Fascista Prime Minister "—and it is well worth reading from beginning to end, since it serves as a very readable résumé of what the Fascist regime has done from its inception to August 27th of last year.

But on no account should the last four speeches in Part• 4 (" Mussolini the Fascists ") be missed. The editor says, probably rightly, that they are the most important part of the book. They consist of the four last speeches which Mussolini made before the outbreak of his revolution. The editor names them " The Italy We Want Within, and Her Foreign Relations," " The Piave and Vittorio Veneto mark the Beginning of New Italy," " The Fascists Dawning of New Italy," and " The Moment has arrived when the Arrow must leave the Bow or the Cord will Break." These speeches, indeed, might be called the quintessence of Fascism, and perhaps the following passage is the core and heart of them :—

" Democracy thought to make itself indispensable to the masses, and did not understand that the masses despise those who have not the courage to be what they ought to be. Democracy has taken `elegance' from the lives of the people, but Fascismo brings it back ; that is to say, it brings back colour, force, pictur- esqueness, the unexpected, mysticism, and in fact all that counts in the souls of the multitude. We play upon every cord of the lyre, from violence to religion, from art to politics. We are poli- ticians and we are warriors. We arc syndicalists and we also light battles in the streets and the squares. That is Fascismo as it was conceived at Milan, and as it was and is realized."

A few moments earlier in the same speech Mussolini had

said, " It is not possible to transport Fascism out of Italy as Bolshevism has been transported out of Russia." We do do not know whether this can be taken as a definite and official pronouncement, but if it is so, then we welcome it.

Its truth is evident if we take the description of the move- ment which has just been quoted to be an exact one ; and if it can be taken as the official and considered view of the Fascist leader, then it leaves the foreign observer free to investigate, to admire, and to learn from Fascismo, but does not require him foolishly to attempt imitation.

Much of interest on foreign politics will be found in this volume, but nothing of greater importance than the passage in Mussolini's first speech to the Chamber dealing with foreign politics :-

" The fundamental principle upon which our foreign policy is based is that treaties of peace, once signed and ratified, must be carried out, no matter whether they are good or bad. A self- respecting nation cannot follow encither course. Treaties are not eternal or irreparable ; they arc chapters and not epilogues an history ; to put them into practice means to try thorn. If in the course of execution they are proved to be absurd, that in itself constitutes the possibility of a further examination of the respective positions."

This is the fullest and greatest recognition of that principle of the sanctity of treaties which, as our readers know, has always been the guiding star of the Spectator's view of

foreign politics.

There is one more quality in these speeches which makes them such good reading, and that is the strong, if sometimes bitter and scornful, sense of humour which Mussolini often shows. There is a good example of it at the end of

his speech on internal policy to the Senate on June 8th last. He is speaking first of taxation and secondly of the accusations which were being and, we believe, still are

levelled against him as to his desire to make himself some- thing more than a Minister :—

"The sight which to-day the nation offers is satisfactory, because the Government exercises a stern and, if you like to say so, a cruel, policy. It is compelled to dismiss by thousands its officials, judges, officers, railwaymen, dock-workers ; and each dismissal represents a cause of trouble, of distress, of unrest to thousands of families. The Government has been compelled to levy taxes which un- avoidably hit large sections of the population. The Italian people are disciplined, silent and calm, they work and know that there is a Government which governs, and know, above all, that if this Government hits cruelly certain sections of the Italian people, it does not do so out of caprice, but from the supreme necessity of national order. . . . I should have finished ; in fact I have finished, but I must still add something that concerns me a little personally. I do not deny to citizens what one might call the ..Tus murmurandi '—the right of grumbling. But one must not exaggerate, nor raise bogies, nor have one's ears always open to dangers which do not exist. And, believe me, I do not get drunk with greatness. I would like, if it were possible, to get drunk with humility. I am content simply to be a Minister, nor have I ambitions which surpass the clearly defined sphere of my duties and of my responsibilities. And yet I, too, have an ambition. The more I know the Italian people, the more I bow before it. The more I come into deeper touch with the masses of the Italian people, the more I feel that they are really worthy of the respect of all the representatives of the nation. My ambition, Honourable Senators, is only one. For this it does not matter if I work fourteen or sixteen hours a day. And it would not matter if I lost my life, and I should not consider it a greater sacrifice than is due. My ambition is this : I wish to make the Italian people strong, prosperous, great and free "

Since the period at which this book closes the Fascist Government has, of course, succeeded in passing into law its Bill of Electoral Reform, on which Mussolini's speech during the preliminary debate is given at the end of the book ; but it is still not certain whether there will be elections during 1924, and the larger question as to whither

the Fascist regime is tending is also undecided. Unquestion-

ably many competent observers believe that it is slowly but surely turning into a strong, efficient, but essentially con- servative—perhaps reactionary—government, which has saved the nation and will hold it together, but from which no new contribution to the problems of the reorganization of our industrial system can be expected. On the other hand, there are many who still hope and believe that Fascism will, when it has secured an unchallenged basis in the State, make a unique and important contribution to the ever- pressing international Labour problem. They believe that much may be hoped and expected from the Fascist syndicalist movement, and even more from the proposed " Industrial Parliament." By this time next year we may hope to have some idea of the answer to this question. E. J. S.