Three Years of Mussolini, I
Wood, L. J. S.
(The followinff is the first of two articles which The Commonweal will publish analyzing the achievement and present character of the Fascist regime.—The Editors.) IN THE second and third numbers...
...To anyone who looks back now on the events which led up to the situation of the present, two things emerge...
...His state of mind during the four years preceding had been that he was disgusted with the results of the war and also hopeful that the new regime would restore law and order and enable him to go about his business and live his life in peace...
...they are being kept in order...
...Averse to authority, they dislike the Church...
...They are not out for sheer violence now as in the first days...
...The second is "the Italian...
...Let it never be forgotten, for it is an important element in the situation, that these extremists still exist...
...traces of it are seen occasionally in Italy, but most of it is organized abroad...
...How far they were sincere, how far moved by personal feelings and ambitions...
...There is a vague idea prevalent that if Mussolini disappeared...
...and they would be used and then thrown aside and left stranded, powerless...
...the cost of living...
...And that was the end of all hope of the "normalization" envisaged in those days...
...Opposition activity has not ceased...
...In its way, the political way, their conduct was certainly "excess," just as in its way, the way of violence, was the conduct of the Fascist extremists...
...To return to politics...
...The first was after the March on Rome when Mussolini was first undertaking what he himself saw to be, praying God's aid to help him carry it out, a "tremendous task...
...We had the Matteotti crime, the dead break and Fascism's doubtful moment...
...Liberals and Democrats of all shades...
...Let us take the second first...
...The period of violence may now be said to be over...
...A further attempt is here made to bring the story up to date...
...Possibly one word, to note the fallacy of imagining that, if the parties...
...That outline was drawn as by an impartial observer, noting bad as well as good, criticiting, suggesting possible reasons for deficiencies and their bad results, and possibilities of hope for their removal...
...But anyone who has watched the recurring celebrations of the last years will have noted that it has now slowly come about in the Fascist ranks that the long-hairflying, fierce extremists have been in large measure replaced by serious, quietly determined, solid, simple citizens, peasants, good bourgeoisie, retired army officers and the like, reinforcing the enthusiastic youth—in fact by "the Italian...
...Any hope of such things, in the sense in which they were then meant, has vanished...
...It was inevitable, in any case, that these attempts should increase the severity of police regulations...
...the last three generations had been robbed of them...
...Republicans and what is left of Populars, who united in opposition on "the Aventine," had been able, or ever should be able, to overthrow Fascism and gain political control, the democracy which would result would be in any way Christian...
...Can we desire anything through which he would risk losing the foundation of such "making," whether merely by the loosening of control or by an actual return to the old non-religious theory of government...
...It was they who did the bad things in the early days...
...His words were an encouragement, a strengthening of the hands of the central government, and Mussolini's remarkable circular to the prefects was a prompt corollary...
...Mussolini felt that he had the country sufficiently with him to enable him to declare that Fascism was going on with its work "by consent if possible, by force if necessary...
...The second moment was after Matteotti...
...On the other, there are those who envisage the complete disappearance of the new regime, and a return to old conditions...
...and that idea may, presumably, account for the attempts on the life of the prime minister...
...At the close, a hope was expressed that some event or indication of policy might give the general good sense of all moderate people the chance to bring things back to conditions which might be best expressed then in the terms constitutionalism or normalization...
...of the strictness of regulations which, while intended to keep check on subversives, inconvenience him, too...
...They could have brought pressure to bear for due punishment and prevention, definite cessation of all illegalities, establishment of normalization...
...Religion has everything to lose and nothing to gain from the disappearance of Mussolini...
...The first is the inability, or refusal, of the old "political class"—the failure of which Don Sturzo has described in his recent book—to realize that there was to be, or could be, such a thing as a new regime, and the insistence of Fascism, on the other hand, that it must be...
...As the moment marks the beginning of a remarkable experiment, seriously thought out and worthy of impartial study, it is much to be regretted...
...There was no consent from the opposition, and Fascism entered alone on its task of building the constitutional edifice of the new regime...
...IN THE second and third numbers of The Commonweal, November 19 and November 26, 1924, an endeavor was made to give an outline picture of the arrival and proceedings of Fascism up to and including the Matteotti crime...
...But, if Mussolini went, the control exercised by the central government over the extremists of the movement would be weakened...
...The Italian" of the years to come is, for the first time, being "made" properly...
...It is a most hopeful sign...
...How far it has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for any one of the four attempts on the life of the prime minister, this is no place to judge...
...They refused to accept his word, declared war to the knife, organized the chain-press campaign and, on the "moral issue" but in most unconstitutional manner, left the Chamber, to assemble, constitutionals and subversives together, on "the Aventine...
...The cleavage between the old politician and the new regime has become complete...
...They saw that Fascism was shaken and they thought that they were strong enough to turn Mussolini out, put an end to the movement, and return to power themselves...
...The Popular party secession set the example of flat resistance...
...When we remember the record of those years with regard to religion, and the degeneration of "Liberalism" to the point reached between 1919 and 1922, when no government could be formed that could govern and conditions were, in plain fact, not far removed from sheer anarchy, is there need to say anything at all on such a contingency...
...Every student of Italy thinks often of Massimo d'Azeglio's "We have made Italy, now we must make the Italian...
...That is the predominant note of the moment through which we are passing now: rigidity...
...the other constitutional parties followed, and Socialists and Communists were by their nature in opposition...
...They are not by nature orderly...
...it is rather personal, unfettered predominance of themselves and their followers in their districts that they seek...
...But the Italian is the most important element in Italy, and we now see how through these years, while no politician has been thinking of "making him," he has been slowly "making" himself...
...Its realization of it was seen in the Pope's own reference to them in the denunciation, in fact as well as principle, of the attempts on Mussolini's life...
...And, both in administration and in the general tone of the legislation of the new regime, the new state...
...The improvement has continued, and Mussolini's remarkable circular to the prefects of January of this year has been effective...
...To consider only the most recent times—30 or 40 percent, at a rough estimate, of the "marchers" on Rome in October, 1922, consisted of "the Italian...
...Though all impartial judges recognized that Mussolini himself could not be accused of complicity, that the intention was abduction and, one imagines, seclusion, and that the murder resulted from the victim's resistance and the fight in the car—yet it was crime, murder, carried out by Fascists, and their chief and the responsible authorities could fairly be charged with extreme, it might be said culpable, negligence in failure to prevent such outrages or to punish promptly the perpetrators of those which had previously occurred...
...They were not...
...On the one hand, then, the outcome of a disappearance of Mussolini might be continuance of the regime, with, however, a weakening of central control and with a corresponding encouragement of the elements restive under authority and hostile to the Church...
...Stress was then laid on Mussolini's desire, when called upon by the king to govern, for the cooperation of all good Italians, and on the refusal, in the end, of the politicians, both individuals and parties, to have anything to do with that revolutionary thing which they considered Fascism to be...
...There were two moments when a mutual understanding might have been achieved...
...Another important fact for Catholics is that these elements are opposed to Mussolini's policy toward religion...
...The future holds two possibilities: that Fascism shall continue building the state it proposes to establish, or that something shall happen to prevent it...
...but, because he is not seen unless looked for, he is sometimes forgotten, sometimes confused with the pohtician, whose great fault throughout all the years of "Liberal" administration was that he, too, forgot him as soon as he had made what use of him he could for his own political ends...
...Fascism has become more and more rigid...
...The opposition, then, with a very strong case, had two courses before them...
...Socialists of all shades...
...how far Mussolini would have been willing or able to meet them if they had taken the other course, need not be debated now...
...and excess creates, does not kill, excess...
...The present writer thinks that, while there would be a period, say a week, of chaos, and, it may be, a further period of confusion, there are, among ministers and leaders of Fascism, men of sound sense, experience and determination, who would get control and carry on...
...On January 3, 1925, a new period began...
...Fascism and the new regime would disappear also...
...of "prepotenza" of Fascist leaders in outlying districts...
...Sporadic violence had not entirely ceased, but after the Florence excesses, repression of the extremists was more thorough...
...This generation is being brought up with religious instruction, on Catholic principles...
...Such things are not done now...
...They would have had to accept Mussolini's given word that such was his sincere intention, and they would have had to give such assistance, if only passive, as lay in their power...
...They took the other course...
...the steadfast determination of the prime minister and those round him has got control in great measure, and is increasing it methodically over the recalcitrant elements "in places removed from the centre," of which the Pope spoke in the Consistorial Allocution of December last...
...He has found that, speaking generally, his hopes have been to a large extent realized— though he has had to complain, and is complain ing now, of heavy taxation...
...The Holy See is quite aware of this...
...Take one simple consideration...
...There is no desire for, or indeed conception of, religion in any one of these collections of politicians, except among the few Populars, who, having lost their mass following among the Catholic organizations in the country, now form their political outlook upon Catholic Action under the supreme guidance of the Pope...
Vol. 6 • May 1927 • No. 2
