Racialism and Fascism The attraction of anti-semitic and " racialist
" theories for dictatorships is well illustrated by the official anti-semitic campaign which has opened in Italy. Even less than Germany has Italy any excuse for anti-semitism. The Jewish com- munity consists of 50,000 in a population of 40,000,000 ; it has existed in Italy for some 2,000 years, and through the centuries the Italian Jews have intermarried with the Italians, have been received into the Christian Church, and have been wholly assimilated by Italian culture. It is too late a date for Signor Mussolini to demand Nordic purity for the Italians. But it is interesting to examine the motives and possible results of Fascism's recent anti-semitic pronouncements. They reveal Italy's growing subservience to Germany, mentally as well as politically ; and if these declarations of doctrine lead to persecution, they must cause revived conflict with the Vatican, which has denounced racialism as emphati- cally as Signor Mussolini has asserted it. It is easy to see how little such developments have to do with the real problems of Italy, which are rapidly being reduced simply to the problem of bread. " Black bread " riots have been recently reported, and it is certain that Signor Mussolini would be greatly relieved if his people turned from such prosaic pre- occupations to the loftier sphere of racial theory.
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