A BOOK OF THE- MOMENT

BENITO. MUSSOLINI

SIGNOR MUSSOLINI says of Signora Sarfatti's Life of himself, " This book pleases me." We may take the book, therefore, to be substantially true. As a record of events it is confused and does not hold the reader's attention. As a reeord of sayings, on the other hand, and as a sketch of character colmired by these sayings, it is interesting in the extreme. We must not forget, the writer tells us, that the great Italian Premier is a journalist. Hi himself, we suppose, - is willing that we should remember it, for he speaks of the " community of work and ideas " which has enabled his journalist-biographer to depict him. That she admires him with her whole heart is very obvious, yet the portrait cannot be dismissed as mere flattery. Mussolini tells us at the end of his short and hardly serious preface that he enjoya his present position, is even " enthusiastic about it." The realization, he writes, " that I no longer belong merely to myself, that I belong to all—loved by all, hated by all—that I am an essential element in the lives of others, this feeling has on me a kind of intoxicating effect." As they read, both lovers and haters will find much to ccinfiria theirprecon- ceived opinion. " It is difficult- to withstand an order from the Chief, to resist one .of his smiles is impossible," writes Signora Sarfatti. Yet she makes it possible for her readers— in imagination—to do both.

- The son of a blacksmith of internationalist notions,' who had never been to school, Mussolini was himself educated by the Salesian fathers at Faienza, his mother, who Was a devout woman and a village schoOlmistress, having per-- suaded the revolutionary smith to give his son a clerida.1 education rather than none at all. To quote Mussolini's own words, he was, as a child; " a rough, violent little boy ; many of my -conteniporaries still bear the 'marks of my assaulta." The routine of school life was irksome to him, he felt himself in prison. MI :the same; six years of this discipline left him convinced of the necessity of religious education, a conviction which has since borne fruit in _every school in Italy. It is not possible to gather from this book how far Mussolini believes the Roman Catholic Faith. His determination that the Faith, and the symbols of the Faith, should be respected is obvious. , The boy grew up to hold- his father's opinions and to be always at wordy war with the local authorities. His early life was hard. We find him teaching, working as "a mason; wandering far afield into Switzerland and reduced even 'to begging. Then again we hear of him at Torii, the mainstay of his family, making his living as secretary to the local Socialist Association, editing a small provincial paper, and falling foul of the Mayor. Milk was dear in the town. MusSolini marched to the Town Hall at the head of a con- tingent of Socialists and informed the town councillors that milk must be cheaper or they would all be thrown out of the window. Such a spirit is often successful, but is still dangerous. Before long the budding journalist is noticed by the Aranti and makes a lightning success in the journalistic world and finds himself in prison for the political imprudence of his pen. Five months' imprisonment must have seemed very long, but during the whole time, we are told, Mussolini bore himself with dignity and serenity. Violent Socialist as

during his early youth he appeared to be, it is not difficult in looking back to see_ the autocratic bent of his mind. We hear that while he was living with his father and editing

Class War, he was reading Machiavelli with delight. " Men never effect good actions but from necessity," he read.

"Where freedom abounds and where licence can come about everything is filled immediately with licence and disorder." Mussolini's comment, made many years after, is significant. " If I were allowed to judge my felloWs and my compatriots

I would not attenuate1 in the least Machiavelli's verdict."

The outbreak of war found Mussolini opposed to Italian participation. As editor of the Avanti he adopted the -cry of " Down with War I" Later he changed his point of view. He made a speech which prepared his friends for his sub-

sequent action. " Do you want to be—as men and Socialists —inert spectators of this tremendous drama ? " he asked.

" Shall you be against a war which should safeguard your revolution, our revolution ?"

As everyone knows, the experiences of the trenches and the spectacle of Russia turned the revolutionary into the

Apostle of Law and Order. Lenin and Trotsky saw his change of face and groaned. "A great pity he is lost to us," sighed the one. " You have lost, your trump card ; the

only man who could have carried through a revolution,"

• declared the other. His own followers called him a traitor. But he soon had, new followers, and, with a new newspaper as 'an instrument of propaganda and a seat in the Chamber of Deputies he could reach out over the whole of Italy and touch the conservative and steadfast element in the popu-

lation with the fire they had thought belonged only to revolt. But if his conservatism showed through his Socialism, his revolutionary past shows _through his present gospel.

".We shall be [he writes] a ith the State and for the State whenever it shows itself the jealous guardian and defender of the national tradition, the national Sentiment, the national will capable of imposing on all parties its authority. . . . We shall oppose the State whenever it shows itself incapable of standing out against . . . all those disintegrating elements which threaten national solidarity. WS shall work against the State whenever it falls into the hands of those who threaten and endanger the future of our country."

But for all the enthusiasm of his followers Mussolini, if we are to judge him by the book which, " pleases him," has no friends. He will haVe nothing to say to equality "A Hierarchy must culminate in a pin point: An unconvivial, unsociable individualist by nature; Mussolini cultivates this inborn aloofness as a weapon of defenbe ; thiS ekplaing the frOWn." -

He carries the expression of his distrustful aloofness to eynkisM and even to profinity. " He calls no one friend. ' If the Eternal Father were to say to me, "I amyour friend,"

I would put up my fists to film,' he is capable of declaring in angry mood. And When some case of perfidy or treachery has come before hiM he will exclaim, If my own father were to come' back to the World I would not place my trust in him." All such bravado is sinister and does not:sound, like the speech of a great isfeveitheleii; one of his boasts is undoubtedly true: "We have given discipline to

Italy." Signora Sarfatti Without doubt supplies material which no future biographer_ of her hero will be able to ignore whatever the verdict of history may be as to his greatness or his medioerity,the beneficence or the mischief of his amazing power over man :—

" After all, Signora,' he, said upon, one occasion, what have I achieved ? I am a bit of a journalist and for the time being a Minister like so many (Alibis. I must •get this People into some kind of order: Then I shall have fulfilled my -task.– I shall feel that I am someone.' Another silence. Then he went on. And yst- and yet ! Yes, I ant obsessed by this wild 'desire—it consumes my whole being. I want to make a mark on my era with my will, like a lion with its claw ! A mark like this.' And as with a claw he scratched the chairback from end to end."