When Signor Mussolini received the submission of the Italian trade
unions, he promised Labour a charter. Last week the charter was published. It is embedded in a strangely interesting document consisting of thirty articles which describe the principles of the Corporative State. The articles are such as the Anglo-Saxon mind could not have produced in a document of similar purport. They are idealistic and philosophic, sometimes touching the note of the metaphysician. As Signor Mussolini does not make any acknowledgment to the inspiration of Hegel, we may venture to make it on his behalf. " The Italian nation," we learn, " is an organism having ends of life and means of action superior in power to those of the single individuals occupying and forming it." Accordingly all individuals must subordinate their personal liberty " to the national strength." The philosophic historians of the German Empire said the same thing, and the omen must not be ignored. The document lays down the line along which the trade unions will develop into corporations with the Minister of Corporations, Signor Mussolini himself, at the head. The supreme object of all workers and all employers, as loyal subordinates to the State, is to be production.
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