terminate them. It would have been civil war. The Fascisti, the Nationalists, the Liberals and some part of the Democrats in Parliament prevented the Government from accepting the collaboration of the Socialists until they recanted their past and swore to be faithful to the State and its institutions. This neither Turati nor Treves nor Modigliani nor others, about fifty in all, were willing to do. Moreover they were condemned not only by the other half of the Socialists in Parliament, but by the Maximalists and by the Communists who were opposed to collaboration, and favorable to violence and revolution. Finally Turati and others, in alliance with the part of the democracy that followed Nitti, and with the Popolari, sought to compel the collaboration which they had offered and which had not been accepted. This led to the fall of the Facta Cabinet and destroyed the hope of forming a new Cabinet in which this hybrid alliance might be accomplished.

This crisis provoked great discussion in the Popolari camp, in which there were found Conservatives and Bolshevists, like Signor Miglioli. Popolari Senators criticized the Government for its alliance with the Socialists, whose motto was always "Neither God nor master nor country". The better part of the Liberal press was against the Socialists, who, when they saw that a new Government would be formed without them, ordered a general strike in all Italy. The strike was partial only because many of them did not obey. The Fascisti proclaimed an ultimatum, commanding the workers in every public service to resume their labors in not later than forty-eight hours. Contemporaneously they mobilized their squadrons of action. There were 400,000 enrolled adherents, without counting the millions of sympathizers outside the party. The corps of action wore shirts similar to the red ones of the Garibaldini, but black. The Nationalistic corps which always coöperated with them wore blue shirts. In case of war Italy had thus another army outnumbering the standing army. On September 20, 1922, at Udine, Mussolini in a discourse to the mobilized Fascisti, said, "We are not only a party, we are an army"; and a conquering army they have shown themselves to be.

When the ultimatum expired the Fascisti entered into action,

to put a violent end to the strike. The rout of the Socialists was complete, and from that day the defection in the ranks of the Socialists increased, and soon there was a real débâcle. At the Socialist Congress of Rome, in early October, 1922, it appeared that the party which once numbered half a million adherents was reduced to seventy thousand.

The new Government reconstituted by Facta was without Socialists. From that day there was in Italy much discussion of the advisability of proclaiming a dictatorship for the purpose of putting the house in order. The Giornale d'Italia and the Messaggero, and a great number of other journals throughout Italy, were favorable to Fascismo. For many years before the birth of Fascismo, "Rastignac", an exceptionally well informed observer and critic, insisted in the Tribuna that parliamentarianism was the source of all corruption, an injury and obstacle to the progress of the nation, and the threatened ruin of Italy. The Fascisti, seeing that the new ministry of Facta would continue to make the usual beautiful discourses, and be weak and undecided when confronted with the great problems that tormented Italy, began to proclaim the necessity of an electoral reform and of a new election because "The present Parliament does not any longer represent the country, a country spiritually and profoundly changed from the time of the last election" (1920). Meanwhile the Fascisti proclaimed that the great majority of Italians were in sympathy with them and that they therefore had the right to come to power. As Facta and his Cabinet, backed by the Socialists, Popolari and Nittians, were hesitating about leaving their offices without a vote of Parliament, the Fascisti demanded a new election and marched on Rome. In asking for this they maintained that they were asking for their right to choose their own representatives. They no longer recognized the present members of the Lower House as their legitimate representatives, but claimed that they were holding their offices illegally-the Facta Cabinet being also illegal, as it had been chosen from a Chamber no longer holding office legitimately. The members tried to avert the dissolution of the House and new elections because they were conscious of having lost their prestige with their constituencies and of having incurred universal reprobation.

The Fascisti's procedure in forcing the Cabinet to resign may not have been orthodox, but they wanted and were determined to bring before Parliament the amendment of the electoral law before election time-a needed reform for which Italy has been clamoring. It is scarcely the Socialists who will dare to find fault with this lack of orthodoxy, when it was their own Karl Marx who, in a deep study concerning certain historical crises, extolled above all else "the courage of having recourse to illegal action in moments of necessity".

Mussolini is recognized as the real organizer and inspirer of the Fascisti. He is an interesting figure-young, intelligent, practical, sincere, with a genius for organization and a worship for discipline. He is loyal to his ideals and to his sovereign. He has reminded his countrymen that Dante asked them, "Know ye the heavenly seed from which ye came?" and he has assured them that they were compacted that their minds and hearts be set aflame. Although a veteran of Socialism, he abandoned its ranks because his conscience prevented him from following its anti-war policy while the enemy was encamped on Italian soil.

The creed of the Fascisti is this: "The interests of Italy are above every other interest, above all competitions and ambitions of a personal nature." It is not a question of monarchy or of republic. They wish to moralize the country and they want a strong Government that knows how to govern without weakness and uncertainty. Italy needs not only a political conscience, but a nation of consciences. They not only demand honesty of government and discipline, but order and justice within the country and respect and fair play without the country. Discipline for everyone and work for everyone, both of which must be accepted and liked, is Mussolini's idea of regenerating the morale and morality of Italy. All thoughtful, right thinking Italy is with them, and in Fascismo it sees the only broom capable of sweeping away the microbes and germs that are polluting and threatening the nation. The slogan in Italy is "New men and new methods for the new times".

This development of Fascismo is surprising when one considers that it promised no material advantages save those that would flow from honest Government, discipline and hard work.

It has cultivated no illusions and it has disseminated no delusions, as did the demagogues of Socialism. On the contrary, it destroyed them. To its adherents it offered danger and sacrifice, in the name of Italy. From the beginning its progress was obstructed by the immense difficulty of combating party resistance and the resistance of individuals and institutions that had the protection of the State. It also had to encounter the apathy, skepticism and ridicule of the greater part of the public. In other words, it had to conquer public opinion. That it succeeded no one need be told.

Had it not been for Fascismo, Italy might have gone to Bolshevism. Many who know little of Fascismo aside from the name have pretended to be scandalized at its methods. Illegality is always shocking-in normal times. But Italy has not been in normal condition for several years. All classes of people save professional politicians and pescicani have been dissatisfied. Disgust with the régime was widespread and the men in power, Parliament, the bureaucracy, the institutions, were distrusted and ridiculed. A state of pessimism and skepticism had become prevalent, as it had in France before the great revolution. The war brought them into the limelight. A Bolshevik outbreak would have caused the complete collapse of Italy. The emergency which thus developed required emergency measures and methods. Fascismo came as a salutary reaction; not a new phenomenon, but a common one in life and history. Fascismo arose as a movement antagonistic to the influences which were sapping the State-a movement of self-defense when defensive action on the part of the State was nil.

As for the success that Fascismo will have now that it has assumed the responsibility of the Government, it is well to recall the old saying: "The Tarpeian Rock is next to the Capitol." It is risky to prophesy, and this for several reasons. In the first place: We are confronted with a social compound which is rapidly changing. Fascismo of tomorrow may not be the same as that of today, just as the latter is not the Fascismo of yesterday. The ranks of the party have swollen tremendously with deserters from Socialism and Communism. It has been an abnormal growth, and Fascismo may not be able to assimilate these aliens

without undergoing a change. Men who for thirty years have contemplated and planned the Socialist and Communist Utopia may change their minds in twenty-four hours, but can reliance be placed on these sudden conversions? Some surely are due to fear, some to self-interest, and some are not sincere. And no one is likely to deny that there is danger that the unstable mass which has passed to Fascismo may force the hand of its new leaders as it did with its former Socialist leaders in 1919.

Then again: The Liberal Party, many of whose members had, in this last generation, flirted with the Socialists, has recently sensed the change in the political aura of Italy, and in consequence has reorganized itself "along lines more in harmony with its old glorious principles", that is, turned toward Conservatism. Also recently the Liberals have claimed that Fascismo is the offspring of Liberalism: flesh of their flesh. The political secretary of the Fascisti party recently said: "The Liberal Party was a revolutionary bourgeois party during the Risorgimento. When the task of making Italy was accomplished it became the boss, the owner of the State, the breeding farm of all statesmen. Fascismo, with the whole nation behind it, has now taken its place. The Liberals, who are applauding the defeat of subversionism, fail to see that Fascismo has inherited the Socialist mission and all the problems which Socialism had failed to solve. Forty years of Socialism stand between Liberalism and Fascismo. The latter denies its would-be progenitor.

What Mussolini's foreign policy will be remains to be seen. That it gives much concern even to his admirers cannot be denied. He does not believe in the possibility of coöperation with the Slavs. He looks upon Yugo Slavia as an artificial construction in opposition to Italy; he maintains that the Treaty of Rapallo should be revised; that Italy's aspirations in the Near East are just and legitimate, and that the romantic period of foreign policy must be closed forever and Italy be guided in her external relations by financial and economic considerations. "Nothing for nothing" is the motto of his foreign policy.

His internal policy may be formulated, but it is subject to diurnal modification. He is not going to be a defender of the interests of Capitalism. His ambition is to create the Fascist