Pro yesso del Fascismo

ITALY

Progresso del Fascismo

P: On the brink of a 2,000 foot precipice teetered, last week, the largest monolith of flawless Carrara marble ever quarried.

Two hundred medium-sized motor cars are less ponderous than its weight of 260 tons. Taller than a five story house (55 feet), the single shaft of stone is too large to be carried by any railway car in Italy. Yet last week Signer Benito Mussolini commanded that the monolith be moved to Rome, there to become "The Mussolini Monument." How to obey?

Fortunately the Carrara precipice overhangs blue Mediterranean wavelets. A ship can carry what a railway car cannot. And from the Mediterranean a ship, not too big, may ascend the River Tiber, even to Eternal Rome.

Last week the monolith was being let down the mountain, inch by inch, with nervous precaution, lest a jolt or jar should crack the flawless stone. Pessimists predicted that any ship bearing it would be weighted down so much as to stick in the shallow Tiber. But optimists assumed that "Benito will find a way."

P: Dictator Mussolini approved last week the final draft of his famed "Parliamentary Reform Bill."

When passed within the next three months (there being no opposition) this measure will entirely alter the democratic character of the Italian Constitution and Parliament, and will transform the Fascist Party's Grand Council into the superior directing chamber of the State.

The bill will empower the Grand Council and subordinate Fascist organizations to draw up the one and only list of candidates for Parliament which will be submitted to the electorate. Italian voters may then approve or reject the entire list by a simple majority vote of "yes" or "no," but with no chance to vote for or against individual candidates. Rejection of the entire list is considered outside the realm of practical politics, and the new system amounts to a scheme for maintaining Fascismo permanently in Power.

Furthermore the Grand Council will be empowered to "advise" (direct) the King and the Prime Minister as to their acts Thus the President of the Grand Council, Signer Benito Mussolini, will direct the entire electoral, legislative, executive, and regal mechanism of the State.

P:Resignations were accepted bu Il Capo Del Governo.* last week, from the chief executives of Turin, Milan, Florence and Rome. It was as though President Calvin Coolidge should suddenly oust the mayors of San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and New York. All Italy wondered why--and presently Il Capo designed to tell.

Crisply the Dictator recalled how he recently "rotated" (dismissed) two members of his Cabinet (TIME, July 23), because "each had completed his full cycle of activity." Well, said Il Capo in effect last week, the executives have now completed their cycles--and so, the sack!

The Governor (mayor) of Rome who resigned, last week, is Prince Ludovico Spada Potenziani, famed because he was visited by and returned the visit of New York's Mayor James ("Jimmy") Walker. Tall, bronzed, cadaverous and silent, Prince Potenziani left his office for the last time without a word to subordinates, merely saluting them in Fascist fashion, with his right arm inclined upward and forward.

Shortly the next gubernatorial "cycle" was begun in Rome by Don Francesco Boncompagni-Ludovisi, Prince of Piornbino, scion of a family from which have also sprung two Popes.

Paradoxically the Prince of Piombino was among the first of Italian nobles to resign from the Catholic Party and enroll in the Fascist, immediately after the "March on Rome" (Oct. 27, 1922). Since then he has enjoyed a career as Deputy and Undersecretary of the Treasury. Particularly has he pleased Il Duce by introducing ultra modern farm machinery and methods on his ancient estates.

P: The sons of Signer Benito Mussolini-Bruno and Vittori--returned, last week, from their Balilla or "Fascist Boy Scout" excursion to Turkey. From President Mustafa Kemal Pasha of Turkey they brought a personal greeting, which Prime Minister Mussolini reciprocated at once by official radio.

P: Acting in his capacity of War Minister, the Dictator restored to "active service," last week, that much criticized pilgrim, General Umberto Nobile.

Since Pilgrim Nobile's return to Italy, he has heretofore been partially under suspension, with the technical status of "an officer relieved from active duty while under investigation."

Presumably Fascist investigators have concluded that no stigma attaches to "The First Airship Captain who was First to Leave His Ship and Men."

P: Finance Minister Antonio Mosconi (successor to the great Count Volpi who has been "rotated") countenanced release of the following comparative statistics: "Whereas U. S. citizens are taxed 13.3 per cent of their earnings. Englishmen 27.3 per cent and Frenchmen 29.2 per cent, the Italian people are taxed 38.1 of their earnings--or almost three times as much as U. S. citizens.

A new, typically Fascist tax levies upon each English word displayed upon an advertising sign to attract tourists. Thus an innkeeper is taxed for two English words if he displays over his Alberso the sign "Grand Hotel."

Correspondents reported last week only one Roman shopkeeper who continues to pay a three word tax on the name of his hairdressing shop: "The Ladies' Toilette."

"When I put up that sign," explained Proprietor Giuseppe Maduro, "my business doubled, and so I will never change it."

*"The Head of the State," Benito Mussolini, whom Italians call II Capo "The Head" far more often than II Duce, "The Leader."