Fascism's Understanding

Since the outbreak of war, Benito Mussolini has been like a busy housewife washing dishes while a flooding river threatens to wash away the foundations of her home. He has bustled from one strictly Italian, strictly constructive pastime to another. One morning last week, for instance, he made a speech boasting that Italy is not like the countries which "think of arming"; rushed out to review his newly constituted Police Agents as they rolled past in armored cars and anti-tank cars, on motorcycles, bicycles and foot, carrying skis, leading dogs; scurried to the headquarters of the cultural Dante Alighieri Society and addressed them on Lexicographer Niccolo Tommaseo's pronouncement that a nation is the same thing as a language.

But before he embarked on all this, he gave an early morning order: the task of recodifying Italian law, which he began 17 years ago, has bobbled along long enough. It must be completed without fail by the end of 1940. Count Dino Grandi, who was recalled from the London Embassy last July to help wash this stack of dishes, told the Premier he could do it. At this the pleased Premier said that the Mussolinian Code would define "justice as Fascism understands it: severe but at the same time human."

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