Gentlemen, I am the one who brings forth in this hall the accusations against me.
It has been said that I would have founded a “Cheka.”
Where? When? In what way? Nobody is able to say. Russia has executed without trial from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and sixty thousand people, as shown by statistics almost official. There has been a Cheka in Russia which has exercised terror systematically over all the middle classes and over the individual members of those classes, a Cheka which said it was the red sword of revolution. But an Italian Cheka never has had a shadow of existence.
Nobody has ever denied that I am possessed of these three qualities; a discreet intelligence, a lot of courage and an utter contempt for the lure of money.
If I had founded a Cheka I would have done it following the lines of reasoning that I have always used in defending one kind of violence that can never be eliminated from history.
I have always said—and those who have always followed me in these five years of hard struggle can now remember it—that violence, to be useful in settling anything, must be surgical, intelligent and chivalrous. Now, all the exploits of any so-called Cheka have always been unintelligent, passionate and stupid.
Can you really think that I could order—on the day following the anniversary of Christ’s birth when all saintly spirits are hovering near—can you think that I could order an assault at ten o’clock in the morning in the Via Francesco Crispi, in Rome, after the most conciliatory speech that I ever made during my Government?
Please do not think me such an idiot. Would I have planned with the same lack of intelligence the minor assaults against Misuri and Forni? You certainly remember my speech of June 7th. It should be easy for you to go back to that week of ardent political passion when, in this hall, minority and majority clashed every day, so much so that some persons despaired of ever being able to re-establish those terms of political and civil cooperation most necessary between the opposite parties in the Chamber. The shuttles of violent speeches were flying from one side to the other. Finally on June 6th Delcroix with his lyric speech, full of life and passion, broke that storm-charged tension.
The next day I spoke to clear the atmosphere. I said to the opposition, “I recognize your ideal rights, your contingent rights. You may surpass Fascism with your experience; you may put under immediate criticism all the measures of the Fascist Government.”
I remember, and I have still before my eyes the vision of this part of the Chamber, where all were attentive, where all felt that I had spoken deep, living words, and that I had established the basis for that necessary living-together without which it is not possible to continue even the existence of any political assembly.