II. Duce
By J. L. HAMMOND
Tins* is a study of Fascism by a well-known University teacher and the author of some notable books who spent most of the year 1933 in Italy and returned for two months in the following year. Mr. Finer explains in his preface that he is chiefly interested in Fascism as a system of government and less as a piece of machinery for supplying economic and social services. His readers have no reason to complain on this account, for it is too early to unravel the economic experiments of any con- temporary society, whereas it is not too early to describe experiments in politics and culture. Mr. Finer's important account of the organization of the fascist party and of its methods for controlling the public life and mind of the Italian people, is full and illuminating. - •
Bagehot held that only stupid peoples can work parliamen- tary government and that for this reason it was ill-suited to the quick-witted , French. Accordingly lie welcomed Louis Napoleon's coup d'etat. , Mr. Finer's description of the rise of Mussolini—the most interesting part of his interesting book— recalls that career, in several of its aspects. Both men studied history ; Napoleon wrote a.book on Caesar; Mr. Finer says that no statesman has read so much as Mussolini since Glad- stone. Both had been nursed in revolution ; 'Napoleon among the Carbonari ; Mussolini among the international socialists at Geneva. Both had absorbed exciting ideas. Mr. Fisher's brilliant . book on Bonapartism showed that Napoleon had inherited a body of philosophy from St. Helena ; Mussolini was full of the ideas of his age, the age of the Futurists, of 13ergson, of Sorel, of will-power and ssp-expression. With these qualities in common, they have also in common the crisis that gave them their opportunity. In both countries parliamentary government was bewildered by problems too imperious and sudden for its methods and habits. The most famous and characteristic figure in Italian politics, Giolitti, might be described in the words that Mr. Simpson applied to Guizot " In fine Guizot was a past master of that art which in all ages has enabled political rulers to secure a calm while they prepare a storm." In France Parliament could neither satisfy the discontent that produced '48, nor reassure the classes that it had thrown into .panic. Mr. Finer's description of the part played by Mussolini in the confusion and strife of 1919 shows that he owed his power partly to his prestige as a revolutionary leader and partly to the capacity for leadership which compelled the panic-stricken middle classes to turn to the man who wrote as late as July, 1919 : . " Let the Land belong to. the peasants," and who still uses the term bourgeois as a term of abuse.
Louis Napoleon came to catastrophe over his foreign policy. When he fell, his countrymen, remembering his generous European impulses, believed that France had been sacrificed to his " deceiving Utopias." But it was not the Crimean War nor the Italian War that ruined him. The war that ruined him was a war of a different kind. In the 'sixties he had what he called ' the grand idea of his reign ; this was his Mexican adventure, his plan for re-establishing a French empire in America ; a plan of personal and national ambition and nothing more. That plan kept him occupied with America while Bismarck's cold and steady hand was busy undermining the map of Europe. Napoleon pursuing this ambition made a blunder which he was never able to retrieve.
Mr. Finer shows in detail what everybody knows as a general truth that the resources of tyranny today are infinitely greater than they were in the days of Napoleon the Third. He gives us an account of the organization of the Fascist * Mussolini's Italy. By Herman Finer. (Golianez. 188.)
party with its. 1,800,000 adult members, of whom 400,000 are enrolled in a Fascist militia, and of the several bodies that train the childhood and youth of Italy in Fascist principles and discipline from the age of six. The best known are the Balilla for children between 8 and 14, and the Avanguardisti for those between 14 and 18. Mr. Finer calculates that half the population between the ages of 6 and 21 is. in some Fascist organization, receiving rewards and privileges, sub- mitting to stern discipline, undergoing a training to harden mind and body, continually excited and stimulated by every method known to art and politics for keeping the imagination combatant and loyal. Through this training supplemented by the Institute's of Culture the Fascist party of the future is created. Thus everything is done not merely to attract support but to train up a Fascist Italy. Compared with Mussolini his predecessor Napoleon the Third lived in the age of the spinning wheel or the bow and arrow.
Yet nobody can study this volume without seeing on what a narrow margin of safety the whole system reposes. Mr.. Finer gives a description of Mussolini's remarkable gifts, his knowledge of human nature, his immense industry, his rare power of decision, a personal magnetism that impresses even the most critical of his visitors, his disinterested devotion to his public aims. If he were not a man of genius he would not be where he is. But Mr. Finer gives also an account of his Herculean occupations. He is Italy's Prime Minister, Commander-in-Chief, prima donna. His mind and his hand are on every detail of her public life. This sort of life was possible for the ruler of a city state, but is it possible for the ruler of a modern nation ? Can we think of any British statesman who could lead this life for ten years and keep his judgeinent balanced and alert ? And can a man live in this atmosphere year after year and still remain as patient of criticism, as tolerant of unpalatable advice, as a man must be who is to use the minds of others ? Is it not inevitable that sooner or later such a man must make a blunder like Napoleon's blunder in Mexico ? And what is the penalty of failure ? Take from Mussolini the magic of success, and what becomes of this mystical faith, this body of organized enthusiasm, this romantic devotion ? Take from him the magic of success and there must inevitably descend on Italy a terrible retribution for the methods by which the system has defended itself.
To the outside observer Abyssinia today looks dreadfully like Mussolini's Mexico. But even if he escapes disaster, what of the future ? He seeks to found a State based on new prin- ciples, not merely to enjoy a tyranny and then depart. But his system has a fatal flaw.. For the cult of Mussolini is an essential part of -it. He is the idol, the demigod of this mass emotion. And this cult, to judge by his latest• speeches, is More and more • associated with the cult of violence—a cult that all nations will pursue from time to time but few nations pursue for long 'without a strong reaction. Mussolini talks of the British feeling in 1899, but he should remember that it was followed by 1905. He seeks to create a trained and disciplined State, but its training and discipline centre round a person, a person who stands to this State as a Medici prince stood to the people shouting in the •streets of Florence. It is difficult to see how this Italy will be stronger than the old Italy in the spirit and habits of deliberate government. Mussolini thinks of himself in public as a Caesar. In private lie must often doubt, as Mominsen thinks that Sulla must have doubted, whether lie will even leave behind him an effective garrison for the fortress he has raised with such skill and daring on the ruins of liberty.
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