Red Equals Black?

More than 1,000 Mongolian farms were seized last week by the Soviet Government.

Reason: the owners, some former nobles and princes of Mongolia, had not cultivated their land in the high-pressure fashion ordered by Red Dictator Josef Stalin (TIME, Oct. 28).

Meanwhile two large estates in Italy were confiscated last week by the Fascist Government.

Reason: identical. The capitalist owners, Signore Luigi Capi and Signore Grazio Capograsso, have not been fighting the "Battle of the Grain" as ordered by Black Shirt Dictator Benito Mussolini (TIME, Oct. 24, 1927).

Though private property is supposed to be anathema at Moscow and sacred at Rome, the Fascist decree under which the seizures were made in Italy last week reads in part: "Property is not an end in itself. Those who own it have special duties with regard to the collectivity of the people, represented by the State. Wealth is something which belongs to all, and to possess it you must know how to administer it."

In Russia, peasants in good Soviet standing work seized lands as "collective farms." In Italy "Fascist Syndicates" will sow and reap confiscated estates.

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