line Italy's Anarchic Descent. Moreover there is a widespread belief that Fascismo is a toxic ferment, a guerrilla movement, an experiment in the craftsmanship of government without plan or precedent. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Fascismo is the expression of a spiritual condition brought about by the war, a reaction of the middle classes chiefly, against the demoralization of the Italian people by Radical Socialism and threatened Bolshevism that flourished in the aftermath of war. Although new in name, it is not new in nature, purpose or inception. Other countries have suffered from the same malady as that which so recently afflicted Italy-revolution—and have sought cure in remedies without the Government, as did Italy in Fascismo. It is unique only in that it has departed so speedily and so successfully from its original mission, or at least has developed a larger one; has outgrown its self-appointed task of coercive peacemaker or spanker-in-chief to the great rampant and unspanked pet child of the Government; has exchanged its modest garments of private life for the regalia of officialdom; and has broadened its scope until it has persuaded or forced the Government into official recognition of it as the favorite son who has now assumed control in his father's house. Today, with its leader as Premier, an active membership of more than a million drawn from all classes, with a legion of sympathizers and its ranks constantly growing, it is in danger of being considered in its present and most obvious aspect only, i.e., merely as the newest Italian political party, while the inspiration and plan that brought it into being and supplied the dynamic power for the accomplishments of the modern knight errant upstart are liable to be forgotten or ignored.

To do justice to the Fascisti one must briefly recall the conditions which brought about a reign of lawlessness in Italy in 1920 and 1921, and especially the activities of the Radical Socialists against whom the Fascisti were chiefly measuring their strength. Until 1914 the Socialists of Italy had been troublesome, aggressive, but not dangerous. During the war they displayed an anti-patriotic activity which not only embittered the conduct of the war but sowed the seeds of false hopes and class antagonism which bore so riotous a harvest after its close.

Who are the Fascisti, what does the word mean, and what are the aims and purposes of Fascismo? are questions one frequently hears. The Fascisti, now a political party, was at first a disciplinary order or body. It was procreated before the war, gestated during the war, and born on Armistice day. It was called at first "Fasci di Combattimento". Its nucleus was composed mainly of young men, former combatants who had banded together for the purpose of protecting the material and moral interests of discharged soldiers and officers, of championing the war and of chanting the victory. It was formed "to keep alive among the people the spirit of unity which they had acquired through common sacrifice". It considers itself the guardian of the nation, superior to class; and it aims to conciliate and to coördinate the classes. From its inception the ranks of the Fascisti included "Arditi", Legionaries of Fiume, university students, Government officials, a sprinkling of the lower middle class and laboring men, and a few of the upper classes.

The movement developed most rapidly in Northern Italy, particularly in Bologna, Modena, Milan, Genoa, Turin, Florence and Ferrara. In a general way it has been considered to be an outgrowth of the Nationalist Party, but in the beginning it was frankly pacifist, calling for disarmament and "declaring war on Italian militarism". Its sympathies have been frankly with the working classes and with Syndicalism in some phases, with Republicanism in others. Its membership increased rapidly, and in 1918-1919, when Italy became threatened with Bolshevism the Fascisti took it upon themselves to tear down the red flag wherever it was unfurled and to raise again the tricolor.

Fascismo takes its name from the Latin fasces, the name given to the bundle of elm or birch rods wrapped around an axe and bound by a red strap, which the lictors of ancient Rome carried when they appeared before kings, emperors or consuls. It was the emblem of the ruler's authority over life and limb.

The phenomenon of Fascismo appears upon first contemplation to be a consequence of the war. In reality it is a phase of the spiritual crisis with which the Italian people have been grappling since the war. No historian who reviews European events during 1914-1919 will be able to deny that Italy was aroused,

pushed to the trenches, and kept there by a minority-the middle classes, the borghesi, the classes of culture and of ideals, capable of enthusiasm for noble causes and abstract ideas. In this portion of the Italian people patriotism was truly alive and the spirit of intervention broke out, which carried the country to new alliance and finally brought honor and glory to Italy's annals.

The majority of the laboring classes, rural and industrial, were antagonistic to war, because they were incapable of comprehending its higher values and because they were embittered by the hardships and restrictions to which war subjected them. Unrelieved as it was by an inner light, war appeared to them horrible darkness. During the struggle this darkness was illuminated by an artificial light which every now and then went out and disaster followed. Personal interest was the light that was constantly focussed before combatants at the front and at the rear. Month after month peasants were told, "Thou shalt own the land which thou shalt have saved and which thou shalt work".

The same alluring promise opportunely adapted to include factory ownership was used to dazzle industrial workers. These were the only ideals which could be understood by people who had grown up cherishing the Socialist dream of "away with all masters". The propagandists' mistake was to believe the laboring class would suffer, after the war, the delusion in silence, and that the high priests of Italian Socialism would not endeavor to regain their diminished prestige by taking up such propaganda themselves. Another winning card in the hands of the Socialist leaders was the delusion of which the laboring classes were the victims: that they and not the borghesi and the upper classes had won the war. The fact is that the laboring classes emerged from the war with an exalted idea of their own worth and importance, convinced that they had been the saviors of the borghesi, more imbued than ever with Socialistic class hatred, resolved that the promises which had been made to them should be redeemed, and determined to take matters into their own hands.

The disappointments which followed Italy's diplomatic efforts after the war filled the lower classes with even greater contempt for the intellectual classes, who in the field of diplomacy had sustained humiliating defeats. The demoralizing spectacle of those

who had derived power and wealth from the war made the contadini, laborers and artisans, skeptical of the "ideal motives" of those who had promoted war, and it increased class hatred. The ranks of Socialism swelled. The belief became widely held that it was necessary to upset the social applecart and to fill it with fruit cultivated and picked by the proletariat. Soon even the doctrines of Socialism began to be regarded as too mild and obsolete. The most extreme ideas gathered a tremendous impetus, and Communism created from a rib of the Socialist Party waxed lustily and talked loudly.

By the end of 1919 revolution had actually broken out in Italy. Strikes in all the most vital public services, the nervous system of a nation, were nearly permanent. In Turin and other large cities army officers were frequently assaulted, often killed, in the streets. Barracks and forts were attacked and army magazines blown up. Trains were stopped in transit and general railway strikes were declared without notice merely because a few carabinieri were on them. Life in the harbors was paralyzed. In many provinces a state within a state was formed. Portraits of the King were removed from the municipal schools and the national colors were replaced by red flags on town halls. Land owners were compelled to employ Red union men according to a certain ratio of the land owned, even in the dead season. If they took their own produce to market in their own cars or carts, they were condemned by Red tribunals to pay fines, often running as high as thirty thousand lire. The Red law gave the monopoly of such transportations to local Red coöperative organizations. Refusal to pay fines resulted in abandonment of rural work at critical times of the year, destruction of crops and provisions, arson of hay deposits and houses, abandonment of cattle leading to death, and even murder. Fear reigned supreme. The victims, surrounded by a barrier of hostility and hatred, soon found that no one would sell them food or other necessities. Even physicians were prevented from ministering to their sick or injured. Submission was the only way out. The demand of all classes of workers for higher wages was insistent and mandatory. Indiscipline and disorder were rife. Land owners could not discharge their help without the approval of the Red organizations

nor employ extra help. The peasants' forcible seizure of lands from their legitimate owners, the anxieties connected with all sorts of activities, the uncertainty of the morrow, drove many proprietors and factory owners to sell their property or business as the only escape from their dilemmas. And conditions in the industrial field were no better.

The authorities seemed either powerless or unwilling to restore order. Nitti, then Prime Minister, was openly accused of favoring the advent of revolution and of planning a change of régime. The Nationalist party was loud in denunciations of his policy. Rarely had such a cloud of hatred collected around the head of any man. The mildest name he was called was "enemy of the country". His sympathy and leniency with those who had opposed the war won for him the charge of being a tool in the hands of Italy's enemies. Frequent hostile demonstrations were organized against him and the Roman police had to be mobilized to protect his house. For half a century Italy had not been swept by such a wave of wild passions. The whole social order was on the verge of collapse, and the Government was supine, apathetic, impotent. The fundamental law of the State guaranteeing private property was no longer enforced.

There were many other vistas of discontent. For instance, many held it a mistake of the Government to conduct so early an inquiry into the conduct of the war, which threw discredit on many generals who, when all was said and done, had done their duty to their country to the best of their ability. The time was not propitious for such proceeding. A general pardon which had been granted at about the same time had set free thousands who had deserted from the front, many of whom had been condemned to death, as was the case with Misiano, whom the Communists later sent as representative to Parliament.

Another mistake had been that of changing the electoral law at such a critical time: a jump into darkness, the change was styled by the farsighted. The new law based on the proportional principle favored by the Socialist proved a useful instrument in the hands of the Extremist and enabled them to capture an unprecedented number of seats-nearly 156—in Parliament, and to gain great advantage in the political game.