The most magnificent political panorama which history records unfolds itself before the eyes of the astonished world. Empires, kingdoms and autocracies crumble like castles built with cards. Austria no longer exists; to-morrow there will no longer be Imperialist Germany. We, with the sacrifice of our blood, have given the German people liberty, while the German people have made a holocaust of their blood in order to deliver us over to the chain of imperialism and military slavery. Upon the ruins of the old world is outlined the dream of a League of Nations.
Victory must also see the realisation of the aims of war within the country—that is to say, the redemption of labour. From now onwards the Italian people must be the arbiters of their destinies, and labour must be redeemed from speculation and misery.
Citizens! At Trento there is the statue of Dante with his hand outstretched towards the Alps. It seemed before that the reproach of the great poet:
Ahi! serva Italia, di dolore ostello,
Nave senza nocchiero in gran tempesta,[[3]]
rang out admonishing the country. But Italy to-day is no longer a slave, she is the mistress of herself and her future. She is no longer a rudderless ship in a storm, because a glorious horizon has been opened up by her victory.
[3]. .sp 1
Alas! Slave Italy, the home of all griefs,
A ship without rudder in a great storm.
And the people are the rudder of this ship, which, between three seas and three continents, sails serenely and securely towards the port of supreme justice in the light of the redeemed humanity of to-morrow. (Prolonged applause.)