42

As it does to many men, a 42nd birthday came to Benito Mussolini, Premier of Italy. The War Department, of which the Premier is chief, marked the event by presenting Signor Mussolini with a large-calibre shell case, handsomely engraved. One engraving depicted the Premier as a corporal of the bersaglieri (sharpshooters) in the trenches. Another pictured him as a wounded soldier. A third, as Minister of War.

But the life of Benito Mussolini can be thrown into greater antitheses. Born in the town of Forli (some accounts say Varano di Costa), he heard his father at an early age declaiming against the constituted state of society. His father was a convinced revolutionary, and like father little Benito grew to be. Had it not been for his devout mother, he might never have received an education --such as it was--at the normal school of Forlimpopoli, a nearby village to which the Mussolinis had moved.

The days of his education over, he repaired, still at a tender age, to Switzerland where, to earn his living and pay his way through Lausanne University, he became a manual laborer. Subsequently, his revolutionary activities resulted in his being evicted from one Swiss canton after another; and, when he tried his fortune at journalism in Austria, he rapidly met a like fate at the hands of Emperor Franz Josef's soldiers.

Back to Italy he went. At Milan he joined forces with the prominent Socialist Signor Bissolati, whom several years later he helped to expel from the Socialist Party. At this time, he was an uncompromising extremist, believing in force as the only means to win republicanism for Italy. At the beginning of the War, he was still a revolutionist, a republican. He wrote in the Socialist paper Avanti, of which he had previously become the editor: "We do not want war, because we are striving . . . to destroy the prestige of the dynasty, the Army and the State."

It is usual to assume that Signor Mussolini's volte face from Socialism was a sudden thing; but this is erroneous. In the autumn of 1914, he founded Il Popolo d'ltalia, in which he advocated participation in the War on the side of the Allies, whereas he had been against intervention. The Socialists expelled him from the Party, but Mussolini remained a Socialist at heart, his revolutionary spirit unchecked.

After Italy had declared war against Austria, he joined the corpo dei bersaglieri, went to the front and was in 1917 wounded. Returning to Milan, he worked faithfully and loyally in the Allied interests in his newspaper and, by the end of the War, he was a confirmed Nationalist. Soon after, finding that

Nationalism and Socialism would not mix, he turned his back on the latter. It was only after several years that he had changed his political convictions.

He was astute enough to see that Bolshevism was the most dangerous enemy which Italy had, and to see that Italy's politicians were wasting the fruits of the victory. The men to whom he could appeal were the ex-service men and, with the rare sagacity born of a natural politician, he began to organize these into the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (later the Fascist Party) "for the vindication of the victory, the rights of ex-service men and the liberty of the world."

If Mussolini was not now a Socialist he was--just as he is today--every bit a revolutionist. It is an atavistic trait. The exploits of d'Annunzio in seizing Fiume called forth his sympathy and from then until the Treaty of Rapallo (1920) was signed, Il Popolo d'ltalia supported the poet. After Fiume had been delivered safely, Signor d'An- nunzio went into self-imposed seclusion and Benito Mussolini, champion of d'Annunzio, found himself championed in turn by the admirers of the poet. And so it came about that he, first and foremost a revolutionary politician, led the Fascist legions to Rome in 1922 and began the revolution for which every fibre in his body ached.

Premier Mussolini has been compared by some to Atlas, Hercules, Julius Caesar, Septimius Severus, Cromwell, Napoleon, etc. It would, perhaps, be premature to place him among great Italians, let alone the great of the earth. In a sense the Premier still has to achieve permanent success. What he has done for Italy is indeed immense; but who can say that it is permanent ? Many feel that his dictatorship has been harmful ; few deny that his rule is not strictly personal. But who can say that with the man Fascism and all it stands for will disappear?

The future will decide more accurately the greatness of Premier Mussolini. For the present it can be said that he is the strongest man that Italy has had since Cavour. That he is also a man of high moral integrity with a magnetic personality, no one who has looked into his eyes and grasped his hand can for a second deny. And yet with all his serious earnestness there is a touch of pathos. He scorns democracy. That is understandable enough. But every speech of his is filled with that same flight of hyperbole that he despises in others. One day he adjures his Fascisti to keep the peace; the next, carried away by his own force, he incites them to violence. Yet, it may be doubted if Italy is more turbulent than it was; certainly, economically, she is far more stable.