Sanguinary Omens

"I am like the animals. I can feel the future as it approaches. Some instinct guides and warns me. My blood speaks! I must listen to my blood." Thus Signor Mussolini is wont to explain the promptings of his extraordinary political intuition-- promptings which he has ever translated into action with disconcerting speed. Last week these sanguinary omens may be presumed to have fired his brain afresh. While most Italians slept he harangued a meeting of all but one of his ministers. By morning a sheaf of Cabinet decrees were issued which bade fair to alter the whole course of daily life in Italy. Decrees. I. Italian employers are empowered at once and until further notice to lengthen the working day of their employees by one hour, while paying them the same daily wage as heretofore. II. Italian newspapers are forbidden to print editions larger than six pages, from which must bs stricken all news of crime, sport, the arts, literature. News of other nations than Italy must be cut to a skeletonized resume. III. After Nov. 1, all gasoline imported into Italy must be mixed with a fixed proportion of Italian alcohol. IV. Builders are forbidden to erect luxurious private houses of any sort, must confine themselves to public buildings and to dwellings for workmen, the lesser bourgeoisie. V. Restaurateurs and vintners are prohibited from selling anything after 10 p.m., from opening until further notice any new premises whatever for the sale of food or beverages. All bread must hereafter contain at least 15% of non-white flour.

Legislated Frugality. Though Premier Mussolini adhered last week to his recent custom of maintaining a discreet reserve about his policies, the inspired fascist press hailed these new decrees as "the work of a great genius."

From their comment it was plain that Italy's continued excess of imports over exports has at length roused II Duce to legislate frugality upon his people. He is himself, un uomo magro (a lean man), a man who is "fit." Less wine and more coarse flour will toughen jovial Italian paunches into the likeness of his own muscular diaphragm. Less gasoline will be imported, less white flour, less newspaper pulp, less superfluous building material. . . .

These savings, wrote the Fascist editors, will enable Italy's unfavorable trade balance to be overcome, will result in the stabilization of the lira. Millions of hours of extra labor at no extra cost will provide a surplus for the carrying out of II Duce's triumphant program of building up the army and navy, of restoring the public buildings and monuments of Rome and other Italian cities to the splendor of Augustan days. Missing Minister. Though Mussolini sped the issuance of his Cabinet's decrees behind locked portals, the reported absence from this vital session of Minister of Interior Luigi Federzoni loomed of major import. Signor Federzoni is suave, aristocratic, bland. His voice has a low vibrant timbre, which engenders fear. It is well known that he attends Mass every morning before seeking his Ministry. Perhaps less known is the fact that in the councils of Fascismo he speaks-- not always softly--for the Vatican. At his insistance Roberto Farinacci, "the Scourge of Fascismo," long, right-hand terrorist to Mussolini, was replaced as Secretary-General of the Fascist Party (TiME, Apr. 12), by the comparatively mild and steady-going Augusto Turati. The latter, sharply prodded by Fed-erzoni, instituted an investigation of Farinacci's chief fiscal backers, who were jailed (TIME, July 5) on charges of abstracting funds illegally from the Agricultural Bank of Parma. Thus the Vatican's authority has seemed to wax triumphant over Fascismo's more intemperate ex-ponents--a fact which set rumors flying last week that Federzoni's abstention from the Cabinet's "decree session" was intended as a protest. The Holy See, whose advisors are long headed and far sighted, reputedly doubts the ultimate wisdom of curbing and driving Italians along the hard road mapped by II Duce. Mussolini. The Premier's lips were observed to curl silently last week when news gatherers asked him for a statement concerning the new decree virtually suppressing all individuality in the Italian press. Well might Signor Mussolini sneer. When attempts were made by the pre-Fascist regime to curb his reckless individualism as editor of II Popolo d'ltalia, he responded to restraint by purchasing a supply of bombs and hurling them when assaults were made upon his editorial sanctum. If Italian editors of today are less resourceful, they are like to smart for their lack of vigor. . . . At present the bombs of Mussolini's youth find their counterpart in dangers which he deliberately courts, as though to keep his nerves steeled against Fate. When a group of admirers presented him with a lioness cub they supposed he would scarcely venture to play with her after a few months. To the despair of his guards Signor Mussolini has become so attached to the now full-grown lioness that he insists on entering her cage for an occasional frolic. When he calls: "Italia! Italia Bella!" the lithe tawny beast bounds up to him, is said to purr with alarming loudness. To date 11 Duce has suffered barely a scratch or two from the claws of Italia Bella. Like her namesake, "Fair Italy," she appears to adore him. The invisible talons of Federzoni may yet prove more deadly to II Duce's supremacy than the claws of Italia Bella. Mussolinism. Today the ceaseless unremittent work-fervor of Mussolini is triumphantly infused into Italians. From monarch to hodcarrier the nation-- is at work. Vittorio Emanuele III, it is told, begins at 8:30 each morning to transact the royal business of the day, labors often far into the night. The Premier, never at work less than 17 hours a day, spurs his ministers to similar exertions. Even Queen Elena intersperses between the routine "welfare work" expected of her much vigorous gradening, many stitches sewed upon garments for the poor. Italian factories and shipyards hum and whirr everywhere with uninterrupted production. Mussolini has become MUSSOLINISM.