Way of the Strong

Last week Benito Mussolini decreed for all Italy a fresh dose of discipline. Every Italian salary and wage will be cut, announced the Dictator, and so will every Italian price. By submitting to this discipline Italians will obtain (without going off the gold standard) the same competitive advantage in foreign trade that U. S. citizens achieved by debasing their dollar. In II Duce's view inflation or debasement is a slick way of cutting wages and prices under the pretense of raising them. For an undisciplined nation such slickery may be the only way, but it is not the way of a Mussolini. Once before, when Il Duce stabilized the lira on gold, he cut Italian wages and prices (TIME, May 30, 1927). In 1930 he forced every salary in Italy, all rent, light, heat, food and transport charges down between 10% and 12%. Details of the new cuts were being worked out last week by the Ministry of Corporations-- the Minister of Corporations being Benito Mussolini. With the candor of the strong, Il Duce recently admitted that Italy's exports have fallen off badly, thus necessitating his new move to increase exports by cutting prices. According to Under Secretary of Corporations Alberto Asquini, Italy exported in the third quarter of 1933 barely 15% of what she sent abroad in the same quarter a year ago. Also, said he, competition with countries off the gold standard meant that Italy must either cut costs of production or inflate her currency.

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