THE GARDEN OF FASCISM
In certain contingencies violence has a deep moral significance.
In our land a leading class was neither present nor living. The Liberal
party had abdicated everything to the Socialists. There was no solid,
modern, national unity.
Ignorance was still astride the workmen and peasant masses. It was
useless to attempt to blaze a trail by fine words, by sermons from
chairs. It was necessary to give timely, genial recognition to
chivalrous violence. The only straight road was to beat the violent
forces of evil on the very ground they had chosen.
With us were elements who knew what war meant. From them was born the
organization of Italian Bundles of Fight. Many also volunteered from
our universities. They were students, touched by the inspiration of
idealism, who left their studies to run to our call.
We knew that we must win this war too—throw into yesterday the period
of cowardice and treachery. It was necessary to make our way by
violence, by sacrifice, by blood; it was necessary to establish the
order and discipline wanted by the masses, but impossible to obtain
them through milk-and-water propaganda and through words, words
and more words—parliamentary and journalistic sham battles.
We began our period of rescue and resurrection. Dead there were, but on
the horizon all eyes saw the dawn of Italian rebirth.
The unhappy year of 1921 was closed with the tragic dissolution of the
Fiume drama. After the Treaty of Rapallo, by which Fiume was doomed to
be a separate body, the Italian resistance in Fiume made itself more
decided than ever. D’Annunzio declared that, whatever the cost, he
would not abandon the city which had suffered so long and painfully to
keep alive and keep pure its Italian soul.
I, too, had been living this drama, day by day. D’Annunzio and I had
been close together since the first days of the campaign. Now for more
than a year I had been accustomed to receive his brotherly letters.
They brought to me the breath of the passion of Fiume. Since the first
moment of the occupation of the holocaust city the poet had disclosed
to me his firm will to fight. Significant evidence is found in a letter
which D’Annunzio had sent me on September 14, 1919, transmitting to me,
for my newspaper, one of his most virile messages. He wrote:
_My dear Mussolini:_ Here are two lines in a hurry. I have been
working for hours. My hand and my eyes are aching. I send my son,
Gabriellino, brave companion, to bring you this manuscript. Look out
for any needed correction, and thank you. This is only the first act
of a struggle that I will see to the end after my own style. In the
event that the censorship should be bold enough to interfere, please
publish the letter with the white intervals showing where words
are omitted. Then we will see what we shall see.
I will write you again. I will come. I admire your constancy and the
strength of your well-directed blows. Let me clasp your hand.
Yours,
Gabriele d’Annunzio.
From July to December the situation in Fiume grew more and more
difficult. In the face of the determined attitude of D’Annunzio,
Giolitti—to be faithful to the engagements assumed at Rapallo by Count
Sforza—resolved to blockade the city. The results of the blockade were
dubious; therefore the government made up its mind to occupy the city
by a military expedition. They chose Christmas, because there were two
holidays during which newspapers did not appear. Italian soldiers were
being hurled against an Italian city, against a handful of audacious
legionaries, ardent-souled Italians, the combatants of D’Annunzio’s
brothers. Blood was on the streets. There were even dead. All Italy was
saturated with deep indignation.
Thereafter a sense of remorse and conciliation took the upper hand. A
formula was found. D’Annunzio gave up his authority to a committee of
citizens and left Fiume. It had been held by him during sixteen months
with invincible faithfulness. Now it was requisite to intrust its
destinies to its best citizens and to the events which were maturing,
inexorably. I wrote at that time a message which found an echo in all
Italian hearts:
Beneath all the verbosity and the shuttle of mere words, the drama is
perfect; horrible, if you choose, but perfect. On one side is the
cold Reason of State determined to the very bottom, on the other the
warm Reason of the Ideal ready to make desperate, supreme sacrifices.
Invited to make our choice, we, the uneasy and precocious minority,
choose calmly the Reason of the Ideal.
A few days later, on January 4, 1921, I commemorated the dead of the
Legion of Ronchi by one of the most fervid articles I ever wrote. It
ended with the following words:
They are the latest to fall in the Great War, and it is not in vain!
The Italian tricolored banner hails them, Italian earth covers them.
Their graves are a shrine. There all factions and divisions are
obliterated. The dead of Carnaro bear witness that Fiume and Italy are
one, the same flesh, the same soul. The opaque ink of the diplomats
will never undo what has been sealed by blood forever.
Hail then to the Ronchi Legion, to the Duce—the leader, D’Annunzio—to
his living who return and to his dead who never will.
They have remained to garrison the snowy mountains—Nevosso!
The iron necessity of violence already had been confirmed. Every one of
us felt it. Now came the moment to move to action with a clear sense of
the definite issue. The formation of squads and battling units which
I had drawn up by intuition had been accomplished. I had given them,
in precise directions, well-specified tasks within clean limits. They
began their work of discipline and retaliation.
Our violence had to possess impetuosity. It had been trained to be
loyal, as were the legions of Garibaldi, and above all chivalrous.
The Central Committee of the Italian Bundles of Fight co-ordinated,
under my direction, the whole work of the local executives and of the
action squads, not only in the provinces but even in the towns. Valiant
and vigorous elements joined us from the universities. Italian schools
are enriched by the glorious names of students who quitted their
halls for political life and Fascism. These eager boys left, without
regret and without wavering, a merry existence to face mortal dangers
during punitive actions against betrayers of our country. Later on,
to these heroes of bold youth I ordered the awarding of degrees _ad
honorem_; they had given their blood freely so that their nation might
be saved. Among them was the best type of Italian young manhood, who
by disciplined methodical action, full of impetus, as were the actors,
met and destroyed the social-communist spiders which in the web of
foolishness and ignorance were exterminating every life germ of the
Italian people. Wherever there popped up a vexation, a ransom, a case
of blackmail, an extortion, a disorder, a reprisal—there would gather
the Fascist squads of action. The black shirt—symbol of hardihood—was
our uniform of war.
The Liberal-Democratic government quite naturally put difficulties in
the way of the Fascist movement. It relied principally on the royal
guards—Guardia Regia—blind instrument of anti-national hatred. But we,
who had sane courage, resource and ability, accepted the fact of facing
ambush, traps and death. When instead we were taken to prison, we
remained there long periods waiting for trial. I had an effect on
my soldiers which seemed to me almost mystical. The boys saw in me the
avenger of our wronged Italy. The dying said, “Give us our black shirts
for winding sheets.” I could not remain unmoved when I knew that their
last thoughts were of “Our native land and the Duce.” Love and songs
bloomed. A revival of youth, filled with Italian boldness, swamped by
its virile male beauty the unrestrained rages of the irresponsibles,
painted out the fear of the Socialists, obliterated the ambiguity of
the Liberals. The poesy of battle, the voices of an awakening race were
multiplying, in those years of revival, the energies of our nation.
Our dead were innumerable. Italy’s imps, the red dabblers, our
organization of so-called Freemasons who were steeped in political
intrigue, already were seeing the danger, menacing to them, of the
coming of Fascism. Therefore they used every means to put us down;
they created their snares and ambushes more and more carefully and
built their pitfalls more and more cunningly. Every day both the public
streets and the open rural fields of Italy were smeared with the
blood of frightful conflicts. Sundays, holidays and any occasions for
gatherings seemed particularly marked out for attack.
I restrained our own violence to the strict limit of necessity. I
enforced that view-point with lieutenants and with the rank and file.
At times they obeyed me with regret and pain. They were thinking of
companions treacherously murdered. But they always submitted to my
orders against reprisals. They accepted my authority voluntarily
and completely. If I had had a mind to do so, I could have ordered a
pitched battle. The boys would have leaped at the chance; they were
looking to me as to a chief whose word was law.
There were evidences of such a deep attachment to me that I felt lifted
up and refined by it. It created in me a deep sense of responsibility.
Among the episodes I remember the death of a young man, twenty years
old, the Count Nicolo’ Foscari, treacherously stabbed to death by a
communist dagger. This fine boy died after two days of agony. In the
agony of the wound and at the point of death, he wanted to have always
near him my photograph. He declared himself glad and proud to die and
through me he knew how to die.
I was calloused to political battles. My inclination, however, has
always been against all but chivalrous battles. I understood the
sadness of civil strife; but in desperate political crises, when the
bow happens to be too much bent, the arrow either flies off or the cord
breaks. In a few months of action and violence we had to win no less
than fifty years lost in empty parliamentary skirmishes, lost in the
marshes of little political intrigues, lost in the wretchedness of an
atmosphere defiled by selfish interest and petty personal ambition,
lost in the maze of attempts to treat government as if it were a jam
pot to attract the flies.
In 1921 I tried a political agreement and truce with our adversaries
under the protection of the government. The utter incomprehension of
the Socialists and Liberals was enormous. My gesture, prodigal and
generous, created solely by me, served only to raise new fogs,
miasmas and equivocations. The truce had been signed by the Socialists
but not by the communists. The latter continued the open struggle,
helped in every way by the Socialists themselves. A generous experiment
in pacificism had been quite useless. Socialism had corrupted Italian
life. There would be always some irreconcilable antagonists, and so
the struggle, after a short parenthesis, was taken up again. It lasted
until the final outcome, but its renewal was the beginning of the great
political battle of 1921.
I will not set forth all the deadly frays of this year. They have gone
into the past. But in the houses of my men are burning perennially
the votive lamps of the survivors and on their hearths is the living
memory of the fallen. The Fascist legions are of every age and of every
condition. Many died when the victory was as yet uncertain, but the God
of just men will guide all the fallen to eternal light and will reward
the soul who lived nobly and who wrote in blood the goodness and ardor
of his faith.
The first months of 1921 were characterized by an extreme violence
in the Po Valley. The Socialists came to the point where they were
even willing to shoot at the funeral processions of the Fascists. It
happened even in Rome. It was at that time that in Leghorn there was
held the congress of the Socialist party. A schism broke out. On that
occasion the autonomous Communist party was created, which afterward
in all the manifestations of Italian political life played such a
loathsome part. I knew—and it was evident to every one in spite
of concealment—that the new Communist party was inspired and supported
and even directed from Moscow. We were invaded just as other lands have
since been invaded.
At Triest, a city dear to every Italian, which had always kept alive
the flame of faith and enthusiasm, a great Fascist meeting was held.
At the head of the Triest Fascists was Giunta, a member of the Italian
Chamber and an ardent and valiant Fascist from the first call to
action. He knew, in various circumstances, how to raise formidable
barriers against this Slavic inroad and against the stupidity of
the men who had taken authority in Triest. The gathering was held
at the Rossetti Theatre. There I spoke. I set forth our fundamental
principles, not only for the Fascists but for all those who were
interested in a new and complete Italian policy. After a panoramic
examination of the knotty problems which at that time were vexing
Italian foreign policy, I demanded a complete, definite withdrawal of
the Rapallo Treaty by which Sforza and Giolitti had signed away Fiume.
I acknowledged, none the less, the impossibility of setting oneself, at
that moment, against the tragic consequences of the treaty—the fruit of
a long disintegration fostered by those who had led us into a morass.
“The fault of the renunciation,” I affirmed, “is not to be attributed
entirely to the negotiators at the last hour; the renunciation had
been perpetrated already in parliament, in our journalism, even in a
university where a professor has published books—translated, of
course, at Zagabria—in order to demonstrate according to his style of
thinking that Dalmatia is not Italian!
“The Dalmatian tragedy lies in this ignorance, this bad faith and utter
incomprehension. We hope to put a stop to these grotesque errors by our
future work. We will know, love and defend Italian Dalmatia.
“The treaty signed, it was possible to make it void by one of the
following means: Either a foreign war or by insurrection at home. Both
are absurd! It is impossible to excite the man in the street against a
treaty of peace after five years of bloody calvary. Nobody is able to
perform a miracle!
“It was possible to awake in Italy a revolution in favor of the
intervention, but in November, 1921, it was not possible to think of
a revolution in order to annul a peace treaty which, good or bad, has
been accepted by ninety out of every hundred of Italians.”
Having delineated clearly the uncertain and transitory position in
which Italy found herself at that time in respect to the Fiume tragedy
and herself, having shown the impossibility of creating a revolution
which would have been premature and condemned to failure, I laid down
and fixed by firm, precise tacks and nails what was to be the political
programme of the Fascists in 1921.
“From these general premises,” I said, “it follows that the Italian
Bundles of Fight should ask:
“First, that the treaties of peace be re-examined and modified in parts
which are revealed as inapplicable or the application of which can
be a source of hatred and incentive to new wars;
“Second, the economic annexation of Fiume to Italy and the guardianship
of Italians living in Dalmatian countries;
“Third, the gradual disengagement of Italy from the group of the
Occidental plutocratic nations by the development of our productive
forces at home;
“Fourth, an approach once again toward the nations of Austria,
Germany, Bulgaria, Turkey, Hungary, but with dignified attitude, and
safeguarding the supreme necessities of our north and south boundaries;
“Fifth, the creation and intensification of friendly relations with all
peoples of the Near and Far East, not excluding those which are ruled
by the soviets.
“Sixth, the recognition in colonial policy of the rights and
necessities of our nation;
“Seventh, the reform and renewal of all our diplomatic representatives
abroad by elements with special university training;
“Eighth, the building up of Italian colonies in the Mediterranean
sea as well as those beyond the Atlantic by economic and cultural
institutions and rapid communications.”
I concluded my speech by an ardent affirmation of faith.
“It is destiny,” I said, “that Rome again takes her place as the city
that will be the director of the civilization of all Western Europe.
Let us commit the flame of this passion to the coming generations; let
us make of Italy one of the nations without which it is impossible
to conceive the future history of humanity.”
The year 1921 was the centenary of Dante. I was dreaming, in the
name of Alighieri: “The Italy of to-morrow, both free and rich,
all-resounding, with seas and skies peopled with her fleets, with the
earth everywhere made fruitful by her plows.”
Later on, in a meeting of Lombardian Fascists, I indicated some
landmarks of the Fascist battle. In a speech that I made to my friends
in Milan I affirmed that by its fatiguing work Fascism was preparing
men of a spirit suited to the task of an imminent to-morrow—that of
ruling the nation.
Already in germination through all these affirmations, there was
growing the definite intention of preparing by legal action, as well as
by violence, for the conquest of power.
The Socialists and Communists, though debating between themselves on
doctrinarian questions, vied with one another to show themselves more
anti-Fascist than the others. The Communists had no scruples. Every day
they gave proof of their contempt for law, and they evidenced a foolish
disregard for the strength of their adversaries.
At Florence, during a parade of patriotic character, there had been
an attempt at a communist insurrection. Bombs were thrown, isolated
Fascists were pursued. It happened on this occasion that a very young
Fascist named Berta was horribly murdered. The unhappy boy, surprised
upon a bridge of the Arno River, was beaten to a bloody pulp and thrown
from the parapet into the water. As the poor victim, by a dull
instinct of self-preservation, clung to the railing bars with his
fingers, the Communists rushed upon him and beat his hands until our
martyr, whose jellied hands were slackening their grip, finally let
go and was plunged into the Arno. His body was whirled about in the
current.
This single episode of incredible ferocity gave evidence of how deeply
Communist outrage had penetrated into Italy. As if that were not
enough, soon afterward there occurred the butchery of Empoli, where
two camions were loaded with marines and carabineers. The proof of the
degenerative ferocity of the Communists was provided by the corpses of
the poor victims, for their inert bodies were treated as jungle savages
treat the corpses of their victims.
This was not confined to any one province. At that time there happened
also the trap and massacre of Casale Monferrato, where among the dead
were two old Sardinian drummers and where Cesare Maria de Vecchi, a
brave companion, was wounded. At Milan isolated Fascists were singled
out and attacked by stealth. One of our most beloved friends, the very
young Aldo Sette, was murdered with all the accompaniment of savagery.
But on the twenty-third of March occurred the culminating episode of
premeditated horror, with dreadful consequences. The Communists caused
a bomb to explode in the Diana Theatre in that city. It was crowded
with peaceful citizens attending an operatic performance. The bomb sent
twenty persons to sudden death. Fifty others were mutilated. All Milan
gave itself up to anguish and anger and to chills of vengeance.
There was no possibility of checking public sentiment. Squads of
Fascists assaulted for the second time the newspaper _Avanti_ and it
was burned by them. Others tried also to assault the Workers’ Chamber,
but a strong military garrison barred the Fascists from an attack.
The action squads turned their activity into the suburbs, firmly held
both by Communists and Socialists. The swift, decisive action of
the Fascists served to drive from their nests and put to flight the
subverters of civil order. The political authority was powerless; it
could not control the disorders and disturbances. On the twenty-sixth
of March I concentrated all the Fascists of Lombardy. They filed off,
marching compactly in columns, through the principal streets of Milan.
It was a demonstration of strength not to be forgotten. At last over
the horizon I had brought defenders of civil life, protectors of order
and citizenship. There had come a spirit of revival for all good
works. The martyrs of the Diana and the Fascist victims were the best
inspiration. A whole people might now be united in the name of the
Roman Littorio, under the direction of Italian youth—a youth which had
won the war and now would again attain the serene peace of the spirit
and the rewards of fruitful virtue, of discipline, work and fraternity.
Unforgettable were the demonstrations for the victims of the dastardly
bomb at the Diana. It was from that day on that there began the
progressive crashing down and crumbling of the whole structure of
Italian subversive elements. Now they were driven like rats to their
holes and were barricaded in the few forts of the Workers’
Chambers and of the district clubs.
I led a life of intense activity. I managed the _Popolo d’Italia_
and every morning I was able to give the political text for the day,
not only to Milan but to the principal cities of Italy in which the
political life of the nation found its sources. I led the Fascist party
with a firm hand. I must say that I gave some very strict orders. I
had an ear open to all who came to Milan with communications about our
organization in the various provinces. I watched the activity of our
enemies. I guarded for the Fascists the clear, clean stream of purpose.
I maintained the freedom necessary for our elasticity of movements.
I wished not to mix or adulterate such a pure and strong faith as
the Fascist faith. I wished not to blend that ardent youth which was
the essential soul of Fascism with old elements of trade and barter,
combinations, coalitions, parliamentary compromises and the hypocrisies
of Italian liberalism.
Among the many vicissitudes which have accompanied my existence I
have always kept an invincible passion for flying. At that period,
so tumultuous, so colored by dramatic hues, every morning found me
on a bicycle going and coming some eighteen miles to take lessons in
aviation. My teacher was Giuseppe Radaelli, a modest and brave aviator,
full of passion for flight and happy to have a chance to teach me the
difficult craft of being a good pilot.
One morning I took a seat in a plane with Radaelli. The first flight
came off without incident. During the second flight, on the
contrary, the motor for some reason stalled, just at the moment when we
were executing the maneuver of coming down. The machine veered sidewise
and after gliding on one wing, precipitated us onto the field from a
height of about forty metres. The pilot came off with some light wounds
on the forehead. I had several about the head which would require two
weeks to heal. After an emergency treatment at the field I was treated
more thoroughly by Dr. Leonardo Pallieri at the Guardia Medica of Porta
Venezia. That incident, which might have had marked consequences to
my life, was, thanks to the kind treatment by my personal friend, Dr.
Ambrogio Binda, passed off as nothing.
This incident, however, gave me the opportunity to measure how many
Italians were following my affairs. I got almost a plebiscite of warm
sympathy from all over the land. I rested, suffering, for some days,
and then I took up my usual activity at the _Popolo d’Italia_, knowing
that Italy no longer disregarded the part I was to play.
On the day of the carnage at the Diana and of the consequent reprisals,
while spirits were kindled and irritated, a certain Masi, sent by the
anarchists of Piombino, came to Milan to attempt my life. He presented
himself at my house, rang the bell and boldly climbed the stairs. He
was a strange creature of extraordinary mien. My daughter Edda went to
open the door.
The unknown man asked for me. He was sent to the _Popolo d’Italia_, but
went below and waited for me on the large public square of Foro
Bonaparte. When he saw me he came toward me at first rapidly, and then
slowly he wavered. He asked me in a halting voice if I was Professor
Mussolini, and when I said I was he added that he wanted to speak to me
at some length.
The strange behavior of the individual with the grim eye made me
understand that I found myself in the presence of a madman. I said that
I did not give audience in the street; I told him that I received at
the _Popolo d’Italia_, where in fact he came half an hour later, asking
to be introduced to me. I consented at once and willingly. Masi—who,
I repeat, was a young man with burning eyes—as soon as he came into
my presence appeared embarrassed. He said he wanted to speak to me.
His behavior was so curious that I asked him to tell me promptly and
sympathetically what he wanted to say.
After a moment of hesitation he told me that he had been chosen by lot,
in a drawing by the anarchists of Piombino, to murder me treacherously
with a Berretta pistol. Later, having been caught in some doubts, he
had resolved to come and confess everything to me, to hand me the
weapon with which he had intended to kill me and to put himself at my
mercy. I listened to him, but I said not a word.
Taking the revolver from his hands, I called the chief clerk and
telephone operator of the newspaper, Sant’ Elia, and intrusted to
him that unhappy man, so ensnared by anarchy and frightened by the
consequences of his dreams. I wanted Sant’ Elia to accompany him to
Triest, with a letter of introduction to the Fascist Giunta. Soon
afterward, however, the police—informed by what means I know not of the
episode—arrested the anarchist of Piombino as he went away. This was
the one clever piece of detective work performed at that time by the
Milan police. They had utterly failed to trace out the dynamiters of
the Diana even two months after the crime.
Oh, many had meditated upon my funeral! And yet love is stronger than
hatred. I always felt a power over events and over men.
Giolitti in those days was in a most difficult parliamentary situation.
On the political horizon there had appeared a political constellation
of first magnitude—it was Fascism. Facing this fact, the president of
the council of that epoch deemed it opportune to measure the parties on
the basis of parliamentary suffrage, and he announced the elections for
the month of May.
After a preliminary discussion the various parties which were pledged
to order, in opposition to Socialist communism, found it expedient to
go into the elections as a body, which could be defined as a national
bloc.
In the centre of the bloc—the only motivating and encouraging force—was
Fascism. All other parties kept their complexions as subverters in
political and economic matters. The Socialist party presented itself
separated from the Communist party, while the Popular party, which
always claimed an inspiration of ecclesiastical, religious character,
moved on the field alone, leaning heavily upon the political influence
of the country vicars.
In order to make myself acquainted with the real efficiency of our
party, I started reconnoitering in several provinces. I received an
enthusiastic welcome at the beginning of April in Bologna, a fortress
of socialism and a barometer indicating the level of the whole Po
Valley. Bologna greeted me in a jubilation of colors, with parades,
fanfares of welcome and speeches favoring Italian resurrection. The
butchery of the Palace of Accursio was still too fresh and red in
memory. Fascism was in a hot fervor; therefore my presence could not
fail to whip up in all the young men a singular strength of will, hope
and faith.
From Bologna I went to Ferrara, another stronghold of socialism. And
there again there was waiting for me an unforgettable demonstration
of strength. Bologna and Ferrara are two magnificent towns, centres
of regions exclusively agricultural. In those days I could measure
by my youth and intimate knowledge the strength, the mentality, the
ways of thinking and the longing for order of the workers of the
land. I understood that their thinking had lost its way, but it was
not dominated by red propaganda. At bottom their mentality is that of
people wise and praiseworthy, who have always been, at the crucial
moments, the bulwark of the fortunes of the Italian race.
The electoral struggle lasted exactly a month. During that period I
made but three speeches—one in Bologna, once in Ferrara and one in
Milan, on the Place Borromeo. Contrary to what happened during the
political elections of 1919, I succeeded this time in getting a
plurality not only in Milan but also in the districts of Bologna and
Ferrara. Great demonstrations of joy followed the news. Furthermore,
all Fascism in the electoral field was gaining in undoubted strides.
In November, 1919, I had not succeeded in getting more than 4,000
votes. In 1921 I was at the head of the list with 178,000 votes. My
election to the Italian Chamber caused a great rejoicing among my
friends, my colleagues, my assistants. To all my faithful sub-editors,
Giuliani, Gaini, Rocca, Morgagni and others, I recalled the episode
of 1919, when I said to my discouraged and perplexed assistants that
within the space of two years I would have my revenge. The prophecy had
proved true within two years. A new moral atmosphere was being breathed
by every stratum of our population. Though not many Fascists entered
the parliament, the few represented in themselves a tremendous force
for the new destinies of Italy.
At Montecitorio, the House of Parliament, in order to follow the rules
of the chamber, the Fascists formed their own group. There were only
thirty-five representatives. It was numerically a small group, indeed,
but it was composed of men with good livers and excellent courage.
During the session I made few speeches. I think I spoke five times
and that was all. Certainly I tried in all cases to give my oratory a
spirit and to make it stick to realities. Certainly I confined it to a
devotion to the interests of Italian life. I put aside parliamentary
triflings and the tin sword play of parliamentary politicians.
In a speech made on the twenty-first of June, 1921, I criticised
without reserve the foreign policy of the Giolitti ministry. I put on a
firm, realistic basis the question of Northern Italy, the Upper Adige.
I pointed out the feebleness of the government and of the men placed
in authority over the new provinces. One of these, Credaro, was “bound
also by means of the symbol of the political compass and triangle to
the immortal precepts” of false liberalism—to wit, he was swayed by
that Masonry which in Italy was representing a “web of foreign and
internationalistic ideas.” Therefore, I affirmed solemnly: “As the
government of Giolitti is responsible for the miserable Salata and
Credaro policy in the Upper Adige, I vote against him. Let us declare
to the German deputies here in our present Italian parliament that we
find ourselves at the Brenner Pass now, and that at the Brenner we will
remain at any price.” I took up again the hot, impassioned subject of
Fiume and Dalmatia. I assaulted violently the shameful foreign policy
of Sforza, leading our land to humiliation and ruin.
I spoke of our domestic policy. I stripped the covering from the
Socialists and Communists and made them face Fascism. I pointed out
with irony the fact that, among others, with the Communists stood
Graziadei, who, at other times, had been my opponent when he was a
Socialist reformer. I exposed to the light the utter lack of principles
to be found in representatives who dipped their paws into this or that
party group or programme solely for the purpose of gaining petty power
or personal gain.
The speech, which had only the purpose of clarification, gave some
needed hints as to our political action as Fascists in destruction
of the methods and principles of our adversaries. To my surprise it
created a deep impression. It had a vast echo outside the chamber and
was undoubtedly among the factors which finally doomed the Giolitti
ministry, like all the rest, to topple over like a drunken buzzard.
I was not alone in the parliamentary struggle. The group was helping me
valiantly and with ability. Already the Deputy Federzoni, since then
a distinguished official of the Fascist state, had started a review
and revision of the whole work of Count Sforza, Giolitti’s Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and particularly of the Adriatic policy. There had
been dramatic sessions in which the work of the aforesaid minister not
only was put under a strict and inexorable examination, according to
both the logic and conscience of Fascism, but was examined in the light
of the negotiations and treaties, open or secret, which the parliament
had to know and approve.
After various parliamentary ups and downs, the Giolitti ministry fell
and was followed by that of Bonomi—a Socialist who arrived at being
a Democrat through varied captious reasonings. He tried to set up
a policy of internal pacification. He was interested in the truce
between Fascists and Socialists, of which I have already told the
meagre results. Just at the moment when Bonomi was developing this
political fabric came the tragic episode of the massacre of Sarzana.
There not less than eighteen Fascists fell. Then came the butchery
of Modena, where the Royal Guards shot into a parade of Fascists,
leaving some ten dead and many wounded. The home policy had not found
as yet, one could mildly say, any perch of stability. I constantly was
unfolding my active task as leader of the party, as journalist and
politician.
I had a duel of some consequence with Ciccotti Scozzese, a mean
figure of a journalist. He was the long hand of our Italian political
Masonry. Among other various imperfections, one might say he had that
of physical cowardice. Our duel was proof of it. After several assaults
the physicians were obliged to stop the encounter because of the claim
that my opponent had a heart attack. In other words, fear had set
him all aflutter. Shortly before that duel I had another with Major
Baseggio over some parliamentary squabble.
I think I have some good qualities as a swordsman—at least I possess
some qualities of courage, and thanks to both, I always have come out
of combat rather well. In those combats having a chivalrous character,
I endeavor to acquit myself in a worthy manner.
Finally in November, 1921, I convoked in Rome a large congress of the
Fascists of the whole of Italy. The moment had arrived to emerge from
the first phase, in which Fascism had had the character of a movement
outside the usual political divisions, into a new phase, in which
the organic structure of a party, which had been made strong both by
firm political intrenchment and by the growth of central and local
organization, should be crystallized.
The Italian Bundles of Fight had been inspired by an impetuous
spirit. They possessed therefore an organization of battle rather than
a true and proper organization of party. It was now necessary to come
to this second phase in order to be prepared to be a successor of
the old parties in the command and direction of public affairs. The
congress at the Augusteo—the tomb of Augustus and now a concert hall in
Rome—had to agree on the terms for the creation of the new party. It
had to fix both the organization and the programme.
That was a memorable meeting. Thanks to the number of the followers and
the quickness and solidity of the discussions, it showed the virility
of Fascism. My point of view won an overwhelming victory in that
meeting. The Italian Bundles of Fight were now transforming themselves.
They were to receive the new denomination of Fascist National party,
with a central directory and supreme council over the provincial
organizations and the lesser Fascist sections which were to be created
in every locality. On that occasion I wanted with all my desire to
strip from our party the personal character which the Fascist movement
had assumed because of the stamp of my will. But the more I wished to
give the party an autonomous organization and the more I tried, the
more I received the conviction from the evidence of the facts that the
party could not have existed and lived and could not be triumphant
except under my command, my guidance, my support and my spurs.
The meeting in Rome gave a deep insight into the fundamental strength
of Fascism, but especially for me it was a revelation of my
personal strength. But there were several unpleasant incidents. There
had been some men killed in Rome. The workers’ quarter of Rome was
hostile to us. The work of the congress had, however, its full and
normal development, and the parade of Fascists at last filed off in
battle array through the streets of Rome. It served notice to everybody
that Fascism was ripe as a party, and as an instrumentality with the
heart and the means to battle and to defend itself.
The Bonomi ministry developed its pacification policy in the midst
of difficulties of all kinds. The time and the moment were rather
murky. The year 1921 presented difficulties which would have made any
politician shiver. On the horizon a line of clarification was to be
discerned, but the sky was nevertheless still heavy with old clouds.
About the end of this formless, gray year, awaiting a great dawn,
occurred an event in the financial world which threw a shadow of
sorrow over the whole land. This was the crash of the Banca Italiana
di Sconto. The collapse was felt particularly in the southern part of
Italy by the humble classes who had deposited their savings in that
bank. This great banking institution had been born during the war and
had done notable service for the organization of our efficiency, but
in the postwar period it could not bear the burden of its engagements.
The big banking organization, in which the laboring populations of the
South and of Upper Italy were interested so deeply, crumbled on itself,
giving all the postwar Italian financial policy a sensation of dismay
and failure. Ignorance, foolishness, fault, levity? Who knows?
Certainly our credit as a power and as a rebuilding force in comparison
with foreign countries diminished enormously. To the faults of our
domestic policy was added now, in the eyes of the world, a plutocratic
and financial insufficiency.
From the broils of financial chaos and in the maze of debates which
ensued, Fascism kept itself aloof. It delayed not to consider the past,
but chose to determine carefully a sound, wise and foreseeing monetary
policy for the nation.
For the first time I found myself squarely challenged by the gigantic
problem of public finance.
For me it was a new airplane—and there was no competent instructor
anywhere on our field.