“THE INTERNAL POLICY”
Speech delivered at the Senate on 8th June 1923, after the one on Foreign Policy (see p. [293]).
Honourable Senators,—The problems of public order are problems of the authority of the State. There is no real authority in the State if public order is not perfectly normal. Public order and authority of the State are, therefore, two aspects of the same problem. I ask you if conditions have improved or become worse since last October. (“Improved!”) Some of you give an affirmative answer. I, too, say they have improved. Although, naturally, I am far from being pessimistic and, therefore, from being discontented, I feel that nothing ever goes well enough. But, Gentlemen, when one speaks of public order, one must make comparisons. Even if they are disagreeable, they are necessary. Unrest, uneasiness and sedition are phenomena to be found not only in Italy. If we glance beyond our frontiers we have reason to repeat that, if Messene weeps, Sparta does not laugh! Look at the vanquished peoples and note what happens in Austria and in Germany. Look at the victorious peoples and you will see that only yesterday there was a strike of public officials in Belgium, which has cost the Treasury hundreds of millions of francs. If, then, you glance at the neutral countries, at Spain, you will find there, too, that life is not excessively bright and easy. All this I say for those who, at every small revolver shot fired in one of the twenty thousand villages of Italy, think they have been wounded by a 17–inch shell!
A Significant Comparison. But, above all, it is worth while to look at Italy and consider, on one side, her conditions in the years 1918–20 and in the period following 1920–21. The dominating events of the former two years are the occupation of the factories, the permanent strike of the officials belonging to public organisations, carried out in rotation, and by a displacement of all the powers of State authority (Assent.); and, although the incident is extremely painful, one must recall to mind that in the rank and file of that same glorious army of ours occurred an episode at Ancona which proves how deeply sedition had worked its way into the body of the Italian State.
The dominating event of the following two years is the punitive Fascista expedition. Fascisti, from sheer necessity, went out to the assault of the towns in large armed bodies. To-day all this is over. To-day the officials of public organisations do not and will not strike. (Assent.) When the Fascista employees of the Post and Telegraph Offices came to me to protest because my colleague, the Hon. Colonna di Cesaro, had punished them, I told them that if I had been Minister of Post and Telegraphs I should have punished them twice, and I added that, just because they were Fascisti, they would have to recognise the necessity for a strict discipline. (Assent.)
The State renewed. The conditions of public order reached their zenith of disintegration during the latter part of the year. In August there was the anti-Fascista strike, which completely paralysed the State. This had no effect; the Fascista forces, in its stead, obtained success. And, from that time, I said that the two must be made one, and that since that State was destitute of all the attributes of virility, while there was a State in power which was rising with great strength and capable of imposing discipline on the nation, it was indispensable for the rising State to substitute itself, by a revolutionary movement, for the other State which was declining. The August anti-Fascista strike was followed by the Fascista occupation of the towns of Bologna and Bolzano. The authority of the State was a complete ruin. There are no more reports of labour conflicts in the papers now.
The Chamber and the Conflicts. I am sufficiently impartial to say that in these last days there has been a slight recrudescence of trouble. What is its cause? I tell you quite frankly: the reopening of the Chamber. (Laughter.) The Chamber is the place of questions. By the spectacle it offers to the nation it sows seeds of conflict and discord amongst the impulsive and excitable masses.
Further, the attitude of a section of Italian Liberalism is a very welcome piece of good fortune for the subversive elements, because they constitute for them unhoped-for, unexpected allies, who blow enormous bubbles, which I promise myself to prick with the pin of logic and sincerity before closing my speech. (Assent.) Then perhaps there is this, that certain gentlemen, when they found out that they had not to fear the law of Fascismo or that of the Government, which is slower because it is bound to move in accordance with legal procedure, resumed their bold attitude.
Elimination of the Subversive Elements. The measures adopted to restore public order are: First of all the elimination of the so-called subversive elements. There was much clamour after the hauling in of the nets, but in reality it was only a very small affair. Of two thousand who were arrested, those who are still in gaol do not reach the figure of one hundred and fifty. They are in the hands of the judges. They were elements of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict I gave the categorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which continues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results. (Assent.) I had to repress every illegal act.
The High Grades of the National Militia. There was another problem with regard to the National Militia: namely the necessity of filling the superior posts, to which had to be appointed men coming from the army with a large personal military experience; this necessity had to be harmonised with the gratitude due to the small heads of Fascista “squadrismo,” the body which, by leaving thousands of glorious dead, had crushed the subversive demagogic elements.
We have solved this problem. All the ranks of superior officers above those of “Seniore” have been assigned to the officers coming from the regular army; all the inferior grades and those of sub-officers have been given to military men, to “squadristi” who had previously seen military life.
Moreover, statistics are always worth more than speeches. Ninety-seven per cent. of the officers of the Militia having a rank superior to that of “Seniore” come from the officers of the regular army. Out of about two hundred and thirty officers superior to the rank of “Seniore,” six are decorated with the Military Order of Savoy, two with Gold Medals, one hundred and thirty with Silver Medals, eighty with Bronze Medals.
As this is a day of explanations, even at the risk of abusing your patience, I must read the list of rewards bestowed on the Chiefs of the National Militia. General Cesare De Bono, Field Marshal of the regular army: three Silver Medals, special promotion for war services, “Croce di Guerra.” General Gandolfo, Field Marshal of the regular army: two Silver Medals, special promotion for war services. Hon. Cesare Maria De Vecchi: four Silver Medals, two Bronze Medals, two “Croci di Guerra.” Italo Balbo: one Silver Medal, one “Croce di Guerra.” Gustavo Fara, the general well known through all Italy: one Gold Medal, two Silver Medals, special promotions for war services. Stringa, Major-General of the regular army: three Silver Medals, one Bronze Medal, disabled in the war. Ozol Clemente, Major-General in the regular army: two Silver Medals, “Croce di Guerra.” Ceccherini, Major-General in the regular army: three Silver Medals, two Bronze Medals. Zambon, Major-General of the regular army: Silver Medal and Bronze Medal. Guglielmotti, Major-General of the regular army: two Silver Medals.
After these follow:
Giuriati, with two Silver Medals; Acerbo, with three Silver Medals (voices: “Bravo!”); Caradonna, with three Silver Medals; Finzi, with a Silver Medal and two “Croci di Guerra.”
Not to embarrass the modesty of my friends, I shall not continue to read the list of these officers of the National Militia,—(Laughter.)—but this is enough to prove to you that this is a serious institution. And I add that every day it becomes more so, because I mean that it shall be so, because all its chiefs mean it.
It might be asked of us: “Why does the Militia remain?” I shall tell it to you at once: for a very simple reason, to defend Fascismo at home and also abroad. The word “abroad” might alarm you. Well, I tell you that abroad there is a difficult atmosphere for Italian Fascismo. Difficult for the parties of the Right, which, being formed of national elements, cannot feel enthusiasm for a movement that exalts our national qualities; difficult for the parties of the Left, because those elements are our adversaries from the social point of view, knowing that the Fascista movement is clearly anti-Socialist. It is well, therefore, that it should be known that there is in Italy a mighty army of volunteers to defend that special form of political organisation called Fascismo.
The Militia, moreover, has the object of enabling the army to do its own work. The army must fight, must get ready for war. It must not do police work, especially of a political nature, except under absolutely exceptional circumstances, of which now I do not wish to think, even hypothetically. As an example I can tell you that last night, upon my personal instructions, a whole section of Leghorn was blockaded. Well, one hundred carabineers and three hundred black shirts sufficed, whilst the army, the official troops, were sleeping peacefully in their barracks, as was their duty and their right. Moreover, believe me, so long as in Italy they know that, besides some tens of thousands of faithful carabineers, there is this enormous force, attempts at revolt or at sedition will never be dared.
Modifications to the Statute Law. Finally, and this is a manœuvre of the last few days, have burst forth in Italy the bold defenders of the Statute, of Liberty and of Parliament. (Laughter.) It seems, listening to these gentlemen, who had for a long time forgotten the existence of the Statute, even as a simple historical document,—(Laughter.)—that the Statute runs a serious risk and that one cannot even discuss nor examine it.
Well, I think that none of you can consider Camillo Cavour as a Bolshevist and a Fascista of 1848. Everybody knows that the Constitutional movement of Piedmont was the work of Cavour. Everybody knows how the political Constitution was granted. At Genoa a tumult arose against the Jesuits, believed supporters of Absolutism. A Commission of Genoese went to Turin and asked for the expulsion of the Jesuits and the calling out of the Civic Guard. But Cavour answered: “This is too little, the times are ripe for something more!” Cavour wrote in his paper, Il Risorgimento: “The Constitution must be demanded.” And this was promulgated on the 4th of March. In its preamble it says: “The Statute is the fundamental, perpetual law of the Monarchy.” Four days afterwards the first Constitutional Ministry of Coalition was formed with the Moderate Balbo and the Democratic Pareto.
The phrase “The Statute is the fundamental, perpetual and irrevocable law of the Monarchy” had wounded the ears of the Democrats. Cavour hastened to interpret it in a relative sense. It is worth while to listen attentively to this paragraph of Cavour. “How is it possible,” he said, “how can it be expected that the legislator would have wished to pledge himself and the nation not to make the slightest direct change, to bring the smallest improvement to a political law? But this would mean the removal from the community of the power of revising the Constitution; it would mean the deprival of the indispensable power of modifying its political form according to new social exigencies; this would be such an absurd idea that no one of those who co-operated in the making of this fundamental law could conceive it. A nation cannot renounce the power of changing by legal means its common law.”
After a short time history had to register a first violation of the Statute, which assumed or presumed that, in order to become a member of Parliament, it was necessary to be an Italian citizen. On the 16th of October there was a division between the Right, amongst which there were the Moderates and the Municipals, and the Left, to which belonged the Democrats, called the “burnt heads,” and the Republicans. On the following day these two parties were agreed in unanimously proclaiming above the Statute that all Italians could belong to the Subalpine Parliament. The first to benefit by this violation of the Statute was Alessandro Manzoni; but he declined the mandate by a letter which represents a fine example of correctness and political probity. (Approval.)
Nobody, Gentlemen, wishes to overthrow or destroy the Statute, which rests solidly on firm foundations; but the inhabitants of this building from 1848 up to to-day have changed. There are other exigencies, other needs. There is no longer the Piedmontese Italy of 1848! And it is very strange to notice among the defenders of the Statute those who have violated it in its fundamental laws, those who have curtailed the prerogatives of the Crown, those who wanted the Crown to be entirely outside the politics of the nation, and to become a dead institution. (Loud applause.)
The Abolition of Parliament? They say that this Government does not like the Chamber of Deputies. (Comments.) They say that we want to abolish Parliament and deprive it of all its essential attributes. It is timely to say that the collapse of Parliament is not desired by me, nor by those who follow my ideas. Parliamentarism has been severely affected by two phenomena typical of our days: on one side Syndicalism, on the other Journalism. Syndicalism gathers by its various organisations all those who have special interests to protect, who wish to withdraw them from the manifest incompetence of the political Assembly. Journalism represents the daily Parliament, the daily platform where men coming from the Universities, from Science, Industry, from the experience of life itself, dissect problems with a competence that is very seldom found on the Parliamentary benches.
These two phenomena typical of the last period of capitalist civilisation are those which have reduced the enormous importance which was attributed to Parliament. To sum up, Parliament can no longer contain all the life of the nations, because modern life is exceptionally complicated and difficult.
But this does not mean that we wish to abolish Parliament. We wish rather to improve it, to make it more perfect, make it a serious, if possible a solemn institution. In fact, if I had wished to abolish Parliament, I would not have introduced an Electoral Reform Bill. This Bill logically presupposes the elections, and through these elections there will be deputies—(Laughter.)—who will form Parliament. In 1924, therefore, there will be a Parliament.
But must the Government be towed along by Parliament? Must it be at the mercy of Parliament? Must it be without a will, or a head before Parliament? I cannot admit that.
The Great Fascista Council. They say that Fascismo has created duplicate institutions. These duplicates do not exist. The Great Fascista Council is not a duplicate of the Council of Ministers or above it. It met four times and never dealt with problems which concerned the Council of Ministers. With what, then, did the Great Fascista Council deal? In the February meeting it devoted itself to the National Militia and Freemasonry; it paid a tribute to the Dalmatians and to the people of Fiume, and dealt with Fascismo abroad. In the March meeting it arranged the ceremony for the anniversary of the foundation of Rome and dealt with Syndicalism. In its fourth meeting it devoted itself to the Congress of Turin and again to Syndicalism.
All the great problems dealing with State administration, with the reorganisation of armed forces, with the reform of our judiciary circuits, with the reform of the schools, all the measures of a financial nature have been adopted directly by the responsible body, the Council of Ministers.
And then what is the Great Fascista Council? It is the organ of co-ordination between the responsible forces of the Government and those of Fascismo. Among all the organisations created after the October revolution, the Great Fascista Council is the most characteristic, the most useful, the most efficient. I have abolished the High Commissioners, because they duplicated the Prefects and also embarrassed the authority of the latter, who alone have the right to wield authority. But I could never think of abolishing the Great Fascista Council, not even if to-morrow by chance the Council of Ministers were composed entirely of Fascisti.
Our Magnanimity must not be taken advantage of! This Government, which is depicted as hostile to liberty, has been perhaps too generous. The October revolution has not been bloodless for us; we have left dozens and dozens of dead. And who would have prevented us from doing in those days that which all revolutions have done, from freeing ourselves once for all from those who, taking advantage of our magnanimity, now render our task difficult? Only the Socialists of the newspaper La Giustizia, of Milan, have had the courage to recognise that if they still exist they owe it to us, who did not wish that, in the first moments of “The March on Rome,” the “black shirts” should be stained with Italian blood. But our generosity must not be taken advantage of!
Nobody must hope for a Crisis in Fascismo. The Membership of Fascismo. But nobody must hope for a crisis in Fascismo, which is and will remain simply a formidable party. If you happen to notice that in one of its innumerable sections in Italy there is dissension, do not thus draw the conclusion that Fascismo is in a state of crisis. When a party holds the Government in its hands it holds it, if it wishes to hold it, because it possesses formidable forces to use to consolidate its power with increasing strength. Fascismo is a Syndicalist movement which includes one million and a half of workmen and contadini, who, I must say in their praise, are those who give me no trouble. There is, moreover, a political body which has 550,000 members, and I have asked to be relieved of at least 150,000 of these gentlemen. (Laughter.) There is, still, a military section of 300,000 “black shirts,” who are only waiting to be called. These bodies are all united by a kind of moral cement, which might be called mystic and holy, and through which, by touching certain keys, we would hear to-morrow the sounds of certain trumpets!
The Associations which are included in Fascismo. They ask us: “Will you then camp out in Italy as an army of enemies which oppress the remainder of the population?” Here we have the philosophy of force by consent. In the meanwhile I have the pleasure to announce that imposing masses of men who deserve all the respect of the nation have joined Fascismo, such as the Association of the Maimed and the Disabled, the National Association of Ex-soldiers. In the wake of Fascismo, moreover, are also included the families of the fallen in war. There are a great many members coming from the people in these three Associations, whilst there is a great solidarity amongst these disabled ex-soldiers and families of the fallen in war. They represent millions of people, and, in the face of this collaboration, must I go and simply seek all the fragments, all the relics of the old traditional parties? Must I sell my spiritual birthright for a mess of pottage which might be offered to me by those who have followed no one in the country? (Loud assent.) No! I shall never do this.
The Collaboration I welcome. If there is anybody who wishes to collaborate with me, I welcome him to my house. But if this collaborator has the air of a controlling inquisitor, or of the expectant heir, or of the man who lies in ambush, with the object of being able at a given moment to record my mistakes, then I declare that I do not want to have anything to do with this collaboration. (Bravo!)
Besides, there is a moral force in all this. What was the cause after all which affected Italian life in past years? Italy was passing through a transformation. There were never definite limits. Nobody had the courage to be what he should have been.
There was the bourgeois who had Socialistic airs, there was the Socialist who had become a bourgeois up to his finger tips. The whole atmosphere was made up of half tones of uncertainty. Well, Fascismo seizes individuals by their necks and tells them: “You must be what you are. If you are a bourgeois you must remain such. You must be proud of your class, because it has given a type to the activity of the world in the nineteenth century. (Approval.) If you are a Socialist you must remain such, although facing the inevitable risk you run in that profession.” (Laughter.)
Taxation and the Discipline of the Italian Population. The sight which to-day the nation offers is satisfactory, because the Government exercises a stern and, if you like to say so, a cruel policy. It is compelled to dismiss by thousands its officials, judges, officers, railway men, dock-workers; and each dismissal represents a cause of trouble, of distress, of unrest to thousands of families. The Government has been compelled to levy taxes which unavoidably hit large sections of the population. The Italian people are disciplined, silent and calm, they work and know that there is a Government which governs, and know, above all, that if this Government hits cruelly certain sections of the Italian people, it does not do so out of caprice, but from the supreme necessity of national order.
The Government is One. Above this mass of people there are the restless groups of practising politicians. We must speak plainly. In Italy there were several Governments which, before the present one, always trembled before the journalist, the banker, the grand master of Freemasonry, before the head of the Popular Party, who remains more or less in the background,—(Applause.)—and it was enough for one of these ministers in partibus to knock at the door of the Government, for the Government to be struck by sudden paralysis. Well, all this is over! Many men gave themselves airs with the old Governments; those I have not received, but have reduced them to tears. (Assent.) For the Government is one. It knows no other Government outside its own and watches attentively, because one must not sleep when one governs, one must not neglect facts, one must keep before one’s eyes all the panorama, notice all the composition and decomposition, the changes of parties and of men. Sometimes it is necessary, as a tactical measure, to be circumspect; but political strategy, at least mine, is intransigent and absolute.
My only Ambition is to make the Italian People Strong, Prosperous, Great and Free. I should have finished; in fact I have finished, but I must still add something that concerns me a little personally. I do not deny to citizens what one might call the “Jus murmurandi”—the right of grumbling. (Laughter.) But one must not exaggerate, nor raise bogies, nor have one’s ears always open to dangers which do not exist. And, believe me, I do not get drunk with greatness. I would like, if it were possible, to get drunk with humility. (Approval.) I am content simply to be a Minister, nor have I ambitions which surpass the clearly defined sphere of my duties and of my responsibilities. And yet I, too, have an ambition. The more I know the Italian people, the more I bow before it. (Assent.) The more I come into deeper touch with the masses of the Italian people, the more I feel that they are really worthy of the respect of all the representatives of the nation. (Assent.) My ambition, Honourable Senators, is only one. For this it does not matter if I work fourteen or sixteen hours a day. And it would not matter if I lost my life, and I should not consider it a greater sacrifice than is due. My ambition is this: I wish to make the Italian people strong, prosperous, great and free! (The end of the speech is hailed by a frantic and delirious ovation. All the Senators rise, and the Tribune applauds loudly, whilst the great majority of the Senators go to congratulate the Hon. Mussolini.)
(The sitting is adjourned.)