Begetters Grumbling

"The Fascist campaign for 1,000,000 more babies than could be expected from maintenance of the present birthrate is being carried on with the hysteria sometimes associated with religious revivals."

Thus reported last week a special correspondent of the London Daily News (Liberal) specifically detailed to investigate Signer Benito Mussolini's drive for "Better Begetting" (TIME, Jan. 7). Writing from Como, Italy, just before crossing over into France to file his despatch, the correspondent continued:

"Because the women of Northern Italy are more robust and the men more intelligent than those of the South, II Duce, for racial reasons, expects them to give a big proportion of the additional babies he asks for his campaign.

"In a neighboring town married people are divided into ten classes. The first is the 'category of honor,' consisting of couples with seven children or more. The lowest classification is the 'socially worthless' or childless couples. Rumors are heard that childless couples have been badgered in villages by 'black shirts' of the bullying type.

"The peasants show a manifest hesitation to trust the Fascist declarations that augmented population is needed as part of Mussolini's intended policy of home colonization. I hear that the peasant population is pressing for a pledge that their children, actual and prospective, will not be used to bolster any policy of military adventure."