Bells

Bells

For many years the inflammatory deputies of Latin electorates have indulged at pleasure in conduct as tempestuously indecorous as the antics of a bad boy of six just deprived of a new toy. Only a fortnight ago (TIME, Nov. 30) Fascist deputies, shrieking like wild Indians, dragged a Communist, Signor Maffi, from the Chamber by the hair of his beard. To that arch-stickler for authority, Premier Benito Mussolini, such doings have long seemed intolerable. Last week the cables carried news of a "reform" so ingenious that its high-handedness was passed over in a gale of appreciative laughter.

According to despatches, "a powerful electric bell" has been installed under the seat of every deputy in the Italian Chamber. All are wired to sound in unison at the pressure of a button on the President's bench. "It is not within the power of mortals to withstand the racket. . . . During today's session the device was inaugurated when the deputies waxed tumultuous over a minor point. . . Their shouts were instantly overwhelmed and quieted by the artificial din."

The serious-minded queried: "What were the deputies shouting about this time?" The bone of contention, it seems, was the new proposal virtually suppressing local self-government in 7500 of Italy's 9,000 municipalities and replacing the locally elected mayors and town councils by appointees of the Central Government to be known as "podestas" (TIME, Oct. 19).

Well might the deputies howl. The majority of them, however, as loyal Fascists, howled for the bill, not against it. Signor Luigi Federzoni, Minister of Internal Affairs, bellowed: "I exult in the bill as a death blow to the liberal democratic system of government!" Another prominent Fascist cried: "It transfers sovereignty from the People, a mere mass of ignorant beings, to the Nation, juridically organized in the State"

Since the Chamber as now constituted is almost entirely pro-Fascist, "the bill was adopted by almost unanimous vote."

The bills introduced a fortnight ago (TIME, Nov. 30) enlarging the powers of the Premier and providing for the punishment of disloyal Italians abroad also passed the Chamber. The penalty of disloyalty is loss of Italian citizenship and the confiscation of property left behind in Italy.