Prospect of Death

Edwin L. James is a more than potent correspondent. From his sunny, second floor office on the Rue de la Paix he directs the Paris bureau of the New York Times. He is pungent, direct, slangy--and yet he loves nice things. For example he has a penchant for sheer shirts of purest silk embroidered: "E. L. J." Recently stocky dynamic Correspondent James threw his shirts together in Paris and set out for Rome.

Even a great Correspondent must begin by taking his bearings. Therefore the first column and a half cabled by Mr. James was a bright, bedtimish story about Italia Bella, no longer famed lioness with which Il Duce was once wont to pose and gambol publicly (TIME, Dec. 27, 1926). Moral of the tale: Signer Mussolini is now so unshakably in power that he no longer needs to bolster up the legend of his invincibility by posing in a lion's cage.

With his bearings firmly taken, Correspondent James proceeded to shed light on the recent acrimonious exchange of speeches between Pope Pius XI and Il Duce, as to whether the Church or State shall predominate in educating Italian Youth. Mr. James significantly revealed that in the course of smoothing down this quarrel, Signor Mussolini has agreed that the Fascist Youth organizations shall hereafter receive spiritual training under the auspices of the Church, while all other instruction shall continue lay and Fascist.

Naturally the climax of Correspondent James' dash to Rome came when he was ushered into the enormous, high ceilinged office of Signor Mussolini in the Palazzo Chigi. Soon Il Duce consented to discuss a subject at which most men shy, the prospect of his own death. Said he: "I am here today and gone tomorrow; but let no one think Fascism goes with me. . . . I do not know how long Mussolini will last, but Fascism shall last longer. ... I will leave to Italy the institution of Fascism established on solid grounds--an historic institution. . . . The youth of Italy shall be trained so that in this country there shall be a place for each person and each person shall be in that place. Let no one waste his time speculating on what will become of Fascism when Mussolini is gone."