What About Italy?--a Symposium on the Fall of Fascism
Storza, Count Carlo
What About Italy?--a Symposium on the Fall of Fascism By Count Carlo Storza Former Italian Foreign Minister Acclaimed as leader of the Free Italian Movement by the Pan-AWtricaii Italian...
...Why is it that only the Italians have to deliver new the names of their future leaders if they dou't wartt'to be saddled with Fascist leaders chosen by Mr...
...4. To speed American victory, Italian-Americans can do no differently than do other citizens of the United States...
...but we also have to be on our guard against selfish policies of individual groups of labor, in agriculture (and most often those "farm blocs" are not farmers, but big-businessmen dealing in farm products), or in isolated but organized segments of the population...
...A. A. Berle, Ja...
...The idea of sending to Germany or Italy American or British teachers is the craziest idea I have ever come across...
...It may appear—and it probably very likely to appear—in the form of organized political drives representing various section of the community...
...and that, to accomplish this, steady emphasis must be placed on assuring continuous opportunity for work at adequate compensation, both for industry and agriculture...
...have seen it do what was thought to be financially impossible, though the economics was undeniably sound...
...means that these plants must be directed towards rr1^8" Products which are needed by the American public . y 'hose foreign countries with whom we trade...
...The future leader of Italy has already...
...2. And since Mr...
...He is Signor Dine Grandi...
...We must be trained, aa Brandeis trained his followers in the techniques of social progress...
...In the address which Mr...
...By this questionnaire—the first of a series of symposiums on the Issues of the War—The New Leader has hoped to focus authoritative attention on some of the key problems in this drastic crisis of the West...
...but they will use those words honestly, and not as camouflage to conceal transfer of the economic power of the country to the hands of irresponsible interests...
...But we can see to it that no economically sound proposals need ever be blocked by lack of finance...
...Some have realized the supreme moral necessities for n Italian renovation...
...We shall not be able, nor will we wish, to decline to meet the problem...
...the crashing 1920's...
...Let them grant freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association and freedom of trade-unionism...
...Italy Must Decide Its Own Destiny 1. pVERYTHING we witness in current policy *-* toward Italy leads to the conviction that Mr...
...the same time, we shall have employed in industry b*'^''?*'1 &n<^ women than ever before, whose income will Higher than ever before, both absolutely in terms of and proportionately in terms of goods...
...What has been done in the United States towards re-educating the four and a half million Italians who live in this country...
...There is at the root of this idea of re-educating other peoples pot only good will end kindliness but also self-satisfaction, self-righteousness, smugness and presumption...
...JfiPv'* di8trihuted among a number of hands...
...and where necessary, fedesal enterprises...
...The first problem is—What About Italian Fascism...
...any different policy may mean seeds of future disorders...
...for ¦ we responsibility Is enormous, the opportunity is very Peat *?',*na11 come out of this war with tools of production ¦P»We of supplying this nation, and other nations who willing to exchange with us, on a scale unknown in affairs...
...Negroes...
...To "help the common people of Italy in the peace settlement" they should do the same: warn America that a lasting peace must be based on the punishment and suppression of all the Fascists and their accomplices without wounding the honor and dignity of the Italian nation...
...Even the best and most re-ipected Italian would be dial iked if suggested from abroad...
...Berle delivered at The New Leader dinner, his philosophy of government and his hopes for a wartime and peacetime America were expressed in long-range terms...
...We shall find selfishness is not limited to private or commercial interests...
...This would only discredit them as "American Quislings...
...3. Under such conditions as those outlined above, our government should not take any steps to help the underground groups in Italy...
...VERY likely we shall see selfish interests endeavoring to w assure their own position at the expense of the public welfare...
...Let us win the war...
...j. shall our government take step* to render ^mediate help to the -underground groups in lUit ¦ Yes, but on condition a clear generous Italian policy has been previously decided, •a/fchoot this, any group receiving "help" from abroad risks falling to the despisable rank of hired adventurers...
...They will support measures which enable small bus.nesses .to re-enter the commercial field...
...He reviewed the story of American liberalism, and pointed out new paths that would avoid ' tragic European pitfalls...
...Churchill and President Roosevelt...
...only with the example of a great democracy faithful, even in its diplomacy, to the immortal principles of the Declaration of Independence...
...The Italians must work out their own salvation in their own way...
...I propose that America should start by re-educating all these educators...
...PLSEWHERE in this issue our Washington corre-*-* spondent has written an interview with Mr...
...Let our forces occupy Italy...
...Give the Italians a cooling period to reorganise themselves...
...They have come to realise that -it is possible to be made reasonably secure ia the...
...Who can foresee who will Be the Pmsatent of 'Reunited States or Prime Minister in England in 1945...
...If Mr...
...We have learned that finance and money are servants and not masters...
...But when the liberal-capitalist democracies took up the international civil war against Italian fascism and Hitler's Nazism, something new, more complex and more difficult in the struggle of social orders had begun...
...but only with "one man and one man alone," Mussolini...
...We are likely to have to use private enterprises to assist that enterprise by the government where enterprise performs a government function...
...But if we insult them Toy telling them that they must be re-educated by-us, even those among them who have already re-educated themselves will become uneducated for all eternity...
...wflfc not face a government like that which ^JSL™ th'8 country at the close of the last World s(.: Then, employment and the state,of business were matters of private concern, and the federal J2?|,lnent accepted no responsibility...
...For that reason, they will' seek measures by which individuals, during the process of readjustment, may be trained for new occupations...
...but if not, then it will be necessary to undertake the development by government of productive work and services, using the effective units of organization which ate available...
...The great corporations have not been distinguished for altruism...
...6. What steps can we take for the "reeducation" of Italian youth after the defeat of Fascism ? For God's sake, no canned re-education from abroad, as if it were vitamins or milk...
...wisdom and patient work it can be attained...
...and we have seen that kind of finance prove sounder than the purely dollar-chasing finance of...
...The first step towards the re-education of other peoples is the re-education of ourselves...
...Italian Youth Will Lead Revolt j A RE the Allies at tear with "one man," /» Mussolini, or against the entire hier-nfdiy of Fascism, its roots and development...
...t|P't8* retowning soldiers, and the workers In war Wits...
...The second and concluding section of the Berle address is printed this week...
...Subsequent issues will feature additional contributions...
...This has been made on the basis af dishonest misinformation by university presidents, callage professors, financiers, archbishops, hishssi, correspondents from Italy, politicians, lec-tarers, witters of books and so on...
...It is not exact to say "the Allies...
...4. What effective steps can Italo-American institutions and organizations take to speed American victory and , help the common people of Italy in the peace settlement...
...the danger of^unti'mited^ oTajf m' tl,ey are not likely to wish the concentration 'W-Cs*7l,10mic power in the government—any more than * tie k! accePt the concentration of all economic power win"jiig*nds of a few industrialists and .financiers...
...a civilization which affirms an American faith and speaks with an American voice...
...been chosen in agreement with the Vatican...
...Even though •tandard of living may be somewhat reduced by ra-totaJ0^' w'" have moved up proportionately in the Kale...
...When we have exported them to Germany or Italy, who will remain here to teach in our schools...
...Who can foresee who will be the French leaders in 1945...
...They will test the claims of big business by the performance of that business: its ability to render adequate and expanding service, at low prices...
...These are the elements of the "kindly revolution": the' revolution from which America was born, by which it haV progressed, and which will never end...
...to prevent the use of large-scale production as machinery of exploitation...
...Our Government should act as an honest umpire, not aa a Tammany fixer...
...Who will re-educate the re-educators...
...I am afraid that they should go to their classrooms in armoured cars' and should be protected by machine guns while they are teaching...
...and out of Aryans, Jews, Arabs...
...for one effect of rationing is to reduce the 'ndadlir between the well-to-do and the wage earner...
...Churchill and President Roosevelt were willing to allow the Italians to choose their owtj leaders when the war is over, then those who are on the spot there would choose them...
...great Italian thinkers have most recently confirmed to me that such is the situation...
...Presumably, they should be the best American and British teachers, those who have imbibed the purest principles of democracy...
...In attaining it we will not barter an atom of the fundamental principle upon which American liberalism is based: reliance on free men with free minds...
...The Italians will take care of themselves...
...From what I know of the Germans and Italians, I think I can maintain that the Italians will re-educate themselves sooner than the Germans.' They have already been re-educated by the disaster of the present war...
...We have seen the rise of a new conception and technique of finance in the past decade...
...Then, after let us say six months, summon municipal elections, after three more months provincial elections, and after six mere months -national elections for a Constituent Assembly...
...After Mussolini DEACTION and dictatorship are as old as history...
...The German sad Italian people mast he re-educated by themselves...
...Each people must re-educate itself...
...What About Italy?--a Symposium on the Fall of Fascism By Count Carlo Storza Former Italian Foreign Minister Acclaimed as leader of the Free Italian Movement by the Pan-AWtricaii Italian Conference held at Montevideo, Summer 1942...
...The most hopeful symptom of Italy's recovery is that the whole Italian south has rejected Fascism, its crimes (Musso-• lini and Farinacci brand) and its frauds (firandi, Federzoni, royal princes brand...
...democracy to any irresponsible power: We must he strong, as Eugene Debs was strong -when he' said: "If there ia a lower class, I am in it...
...They ^^Wavor to seek solutions as decentralised as cirenm-i"<liTidufiermit'' and to support measures which give to each the aaaajohhaa ability to solve his own problems...
...The first, step towards such re-education is to persuade them that war will not pay...
...If this can be accomplished automatically, well and good...
...3. Shall the U. S. Government take steps to render immediate help to the underground groups in Italy...
...How shall the leaders of post-war Italy it chosen ? % By the Italians...
...others, misled by friends of pretended "moderate'* fascists (despised by farty-five million Italians even more than the die-hard fascists are hated) seem not to realise ^things: v a) that if they promote such regimes for fear „f a "revolution," they'll make revolutions and Uoocf inevitable, while only an honest strong democratic government may secure social prog-rf5...
...May we p?BX forget that out of the" tangled strands of all the continents and all the races—out of England, Germany, France...
...some of 2 gre*t Plants will be owned by the Government, some by rv,te kamis...
...Tools and techniques beyond dreams have suddenly been placed in the hands of this country...
...Poland, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Russia and the Balkans...
...and that where there are men and materials and technical skill, money can be provided to see that they are put together to reach an economically sound result...
...n~*Jleu m this group will be at least six million persons I* *w^'>Pl0yed in Industry before...
...But when " Benito Mussolini consolidated his support from army chieftains, big-business moguls, and corrupt politicos into a Fascist national power, a new, more complex, more difficult social regime had been instituted...
...He insisted that free political institutions could be wedded to a continuously expanding, constructive and prosperous economic order...
...with order and peace...
...Financial measures of themselves will never solve arrythrhg...
...May we never- be' led astray by the passions and cruelties, the double-dealing, the lies, the hatreds which have destroyed, in our owh lifetime, men, movements, and nations...
...Vice versa in relation to Italy must oppose it m any endeavor to substitute a monarchical-mili-fary'rflertcaj pro-AJHed^Fascism, without Mussolini, for a monarchical-military-clerical pro-Ger-map way if we are to help the common people bf all countries of Europe in the peace settlement...
...How many American end British teachers should go to Germany or Italy ? Who would choose them ? The Bishop of Brooklyn...
...By Gaetano Salvemeni Prominent anti-Fascist exile and scholar...
...h) that discredited post-fascist regimes may J, on in Italy under a military American occupation...
...Churchill and President Roosevelt are at war with "one man and one man alone," it is evident that they reserve for themselves the right to choose the leaders of postwar Italy: a monarchical-military-clerical pro-Allied Fascist Italy without Mussolini, instead of the present monarchical-military-clerical pro-German Fascist Italy, with Mussolini...
...to encourage local enterprises carried on by local government units...
...to see that profits are kept within range, and that the plants are so handled that they maintain employment...
...Freedom from want is physically within reach...
...Liberals will appraise the) claims of all these groups by asking whether what they ask will increase or decrease the measure of economic freedom to individuals everywhere throughout the country...
...Germany and Italy mast be utterly and permanently dis- , armed and made incapable of starting new ware...
...The only education they have had for these last twenty y'ears has consisted m the praise of Mussolini and Fascism...
...Churchill and President Roosevelt arc not at war with the entire hierarchy of Fascism...
...We are...
...Five Questions 1. Are the Allies at war with "one man," Mussolini—or against the entire hierarchy of Fascism—its roots and developments...
...2. How shall the leaders of post-war Italy be chosen...
...Will they be willing to go to Germany or,Italy among boys who will hate them as foreigners...
...And is it aite to create in a great European nation a wave of resentment against America, as it happened against the French after Napoleon III kept an army in Rome in order to protect the temporal power of the Popes of which the greatest Catholic poet Manzoni had said that it was "the curse of the Church...
...We know that the losses from - unemployment and social disorganization will be far greater than the expenditures for productive expansion...
...With resoluteness...
...If, a few years after the war is over, a new British Prime Minister sends to Berlin a new British Foreign Minister, a second Sir John Simon, to tell any German chancellor that he can build up a new German navy on the condition that he attacks Russia or the United States and not Britain, or if a President of the United States or a new Stalin does the .same to fool the British Prime Minister, no re-education of the German or Italian people will be possible...
...Liberals will realize that the huge capacity which this country has developed can be used effectively only if the standards of the lower income groups are raised...
...They, too, will talk in terms of individual initiative...
...Relief from J™"*™* ,va8 t0 ^ i,,,,^ by localities...
...and these ranks will 'hat th retuming soldiers who will rightly insist , wiey are entitled to jobs, and a part in the work of "* country...
...Let them prevent Communist coups de main...
...as long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free...
...Filipinos from ,he Islands, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus from the Asiatic mainland—we have forged a civilization conceived in freedom, great in progress, dedicated to kindliness...
...L What effective steps can Halo-American \Mtitutioxn and organizations take in order to tfted American victory and help the common f$eple of Italy in the peace settlement^ ¦To "speed American victory" they should preach constantly the above evident truths and state—as frequently Luigi Antonini and other Italo-American labor leaders have done—that they do so for the sake of America even more than for the sake of Italy...
...Fascism has, already "re-educated" Italy, just as in certain cases a disease is cured with the germs of the disease itself...
...merely because it is big...
...But, as s *ar>^^L,he snockin»T waste of the depression of 1929, federal .government under President Roosevelt ejL-T resPonsibiIity for the economic welfare of the ^•"wy—again as a result of American liberal think-fr*' ?nd that responsibility no administration, what-• .-_ its po|iticai complexion, can ever refuse to accept ^X*LI,bera,R know V(?ry wel...
...We shall have to look, with steady eyes, at a world which has torn itself to pieces because it lost sight of the changeless principles of truth, fair play and kindness...
...And will we be able to find in America and Britain hundreds of thousands of good teachers who speak German or Italian so perfectly that they Will not become the targets of Jokes of their pupils...
...Certainly, America may contribute to the "re-education" of Europe...
...There is fair reason to believe that this iTS1*1 an(1 Productive mechanism will be intact...
...9- SPHERE «s no doubt good will and kindliness * at the root of this hankering after "reeducating" other peoples...
...Those of nhem who can be re-educated will begin with the fact that they will be convinced that the present war has net . paid and no ether war, will ever pay...
...Than the first step towards the re-education of the German and Italian peoples is to make them sure that the United States, Britain and Russia will not quarrel among themselves as soon aa the present war fa) over, bat will cooperate to keep peace and order ia Europe for at least fifty years...
...But is it possible to believe that fait great free nation will allow American soldiers to remain in Italy for the defense of a few coward and corrupt plutocrats...
...We can be no party to a devil's bargain in which our thinking is pawned • to any master...
...Not only Italian-Americans but all decent and honest people in this country must support the American Government in war mid ia any wise peace settlement...
...But the re-education of a people cannot be the work of foreign educators...
...Let them disband the Fascist Party, dissolve the Fascist organizations and repeal Fascist legislation...
...but not with teachers...
...our political liberty to any dictatorship, or oar...
...enjoyment of that life by the use of methods which are beginning to be well understood...
...5. What steps can we take for the "re-education" %of Italian youth after the defeat of Fascism...
...America's 'Kindly Revolution' Shows Way to End Poverty in U. S. By A. A. Berle Assistant Secretary of State shall face ih the next few years a task of national reconstruction and national adjustment unequalled in iTf]l'St0ry' We 8haI1 meet jt **ladIy and without fear...
...I think, on the threshold of one of the greatest periods of American development...
...Great numbers of men and women have been brought at last fully into the economic system, and have begun to learn the elements of a full economic life...
...These-will have to be converted very rapidly ¦Mae work of war and destruction to the work of peace...
...Assistant Secretary of State, on some of .the pressing issues of the day...
...who was so popular -with the Cliveden set when he was Fascist Ambassador to Saint James...
...World wars" and European peace treaties have been plaguing civilization for centuries...
Vol. 26 • April 1943 • No. 17
