Speech delivered at Milan at the “Sciesa” on 6th October 1922.
At the seat of the local Fascista group “Antonio Sciesa,” Mussolini pays his tribute to the memory of her two dead who fell, as Garibaldi fell, during the days of August, and then devotes himself to the analysis of a well-matured plan, strategic and tactical, for the coming battle.
I agreed to come and speak to the “Sciesa” group this evening for three reasons—first sentimental, second personal, and third political. For the sentimental reason, because I wished to pay the tribute of my admiration and profound devotion to our unforgettable and magnificent fallen—Melloni, Tonoli and Crespi; the first two of your squad and the last of the “Sauro.” I remember them perfectly. Then I agreed also because of the way in which this group has interpreted this meeting. Lastly, in view of the general attitude of suspense all over Italy at this moment, I did not wish to let the opportunity slip for defining certain points, a definition which is necessary in these difficult times through which we are passing.
You feel, to judge from your silent and austere bearing, that if the flesh is corruptible, the spirit is immortal. You feel that here in this little hall this evening the spirits of our fallen are still with us. We feel their presence, because the soul cannot die, and they fell in the most heroic action yet accomplished by Fascismo in the four years of its history. Many times when the Fascisti have gone forth to destroy with fire and sword the haunts of the cowardly Social-Communist delinquents, they have only seen the backs of the flying enemy, but the members of the “Sciesa” squad and the two fallen, whom we remember, and all the squadrons of the Milanese Fascio, went to the assault of the offices of the Avanti as they would have attacked an Austrian trench. They had to scale the walls, break through barbed wire, burst open doors and face the leaden hail which the enemy poured forth from their weapons. This is heroism. This is violence. This is the violence of which I approve and which I uphold, and which Fascismo—and I speak to the Fascisti of all Italy—ought to make hers. Not little, individual, sporadic acts of violence, but the great, wonderful, relentless violence of the decisive hour. It is necessary, when the moment comes, to strike with the utmost decision and without pity. You must not think that I wish to hide the very strong sympathy I have for the Milanese Fascio, because my love, above all, is for the cause. When a cause has been sanctified by so much pure young blood, it must not, at any cost, become defiled in any way. Our friends have been heroes, their action has been that of warriors, their violence saintly and moral. We exalt them, we remember them, and we will avenge them. We cannot accept the humanitarian, Tolstoyan moral standard, the moral standard of slavery. In times of war we adopt the formula of Socrates: “Overcome friends with kindness, overcome enemies with evil.”
Nation and State. Our line of conduct is perfectly correct. Those who do good to us will have good; those who do ill, ill. Our enemies cannot complain, if being such, they are treated hardly, as enemies must be treated. We are in an historical period of crisis which every day becomes more acute. The general strike, which was averted by the sacrifice of blood of the Fascisti, was an episode in this crisis. Dissension lies between the State and the nation. Italy is not a State, she is a nation, because from the Alps to Sicily there is the fundamental unity of our race, our customs, our language and our religion. The war fought from 1915 to 1918 consecrates this unity, and if this is enough to characterise the nation, the Italian nation exists, full of power and resource and impelled towards a glorious destiny.
But the nation must create for itself the State. And there is no State. To-day the paper which represents Liberalism in Italy, the paper with the largest circulation—and which, for this reason, by upholding absurd arguments has done a great deal of harm at times—stated that there are two Governments in Italy, and if there are two, there is one too many. There is the Liberal Government and the Fascista Government; the State of to-day and the State of to-morrow. “Wanted, a Government,” said the Corriere della Sera. We agree, a Government is wanted.
The Lesson of Two Episodes. Two occurrences during these last days—one characteristic of our activity in the cause of humanity, the other of our activity in the cause of national rights—have proved the superiority of the Fascista over the Liberal State, and have shown that Fascismo is capable and worthy to succeed that State.
At San Terenzo of Spezia, if all the dead were buried and the wounded taken to the hospital, if the country was cleared of débris, and the furniture and belongings safeguarded from the base attempts of human jackals, if the soldiers had their supplies in good time, it was by the activity of the Fascista State. And the mayor of Lerici—who is not a Fascista—telegraphed his great gratitude, not to the Prime Minister, but to us, as you learnt in the Popolo d’Italia.
This is a question of mercy, humanity and national solidarity. Let us transfer our attention to Bolzano. Here it is a question of our rights and the Italian law. Who stood up for those rights and imposed the Italian nationality in a city which ought to be Italian? Fascismo. Who banished Perathoner who for five years held in check five Italian Ministers? Fascismo. It has been Fascismo that has given a school and a church to the Italians in the Upper Adige and inspired them with the sense of their own dignity. Who placed the bust of the king in the Council Hall? The Fascisti. The Germans are astonished at seeing before them all these young Fascisti, splendid physically and morally. Inhabiting as they do without right our Italian soil, they seem to wonder: “What Italy is this?” And we answer: “By the action of the defeatist ministers and as a result of the unfortunate peace, you Germans are accustomed to the Italy of Abba Garima; now you must accustom yourselves to the Italy of Vittorio Veneto, which has force and energy, and which says: ‘We are at the Brenner, and there we mean to stay! We do not wish to go to Innsbruck, but do not imagine that Germany and Austria can ever return to Bolzano!’”
This is the Fascista State which reveals itself to Italian eyes in two typical moments of everyday history, the disaster of San Terenzo and the occupation of Bolzano.