Birthday Greetings from Benito

Italian Fascism was 19 years old. From the usual balcony of the Palazzo Venezia, Benito Mussolini spoke his usual bombast to the usual picked, cheering crowd: Bolshevism . . . is dying.

Even while he spoke, worried people in the crowd glanced at the sky. There was a rumor that, several nights before, R.A.F. planes had swooped over Naples, dropped pamphlets promising to visit the celebration in Rome. But no planes came.

Bolshevism's shady European and American allies will perish with it.

Next day Fascist officials hastened to explain that the Leader had not been referring to the U.S. as a whole, merely to U.S. interventionists.

The Italian people will be equal to the greatness of their past.

To Mussolini, by convention, the great Italian past meant the great days of the Roman legions. To many an Italian it meant defeat at Guadalajara, in Greece, in Africa. Last week the Stefani news agency reported from the Russian Front that Italian troops attached to the victorious German Army were doing their part.

They had not, said the communique, retreated an inch.

We go forward with indomitable courage, firm faith.

Under Mussolini, the people of Italy are also going forward into the 20th year of Fascism without several things--without warm clothes, without an adequate supply of food. Saved from Bolshevism, Italy has handed her whole economic life over to hard-headed Nazi experts. Speaking in Trieste, Roberto Farinacci, Mussolini mouthpiece, hopefully told a crowd of 40,000 that Germany "will not betray" Italy after the war.

There are those who are trying to pre vent Fascism from passing, but we will pass.

Il Duce jutted his jaw and was silent. Three times the crowd gave the usual ovation, then left Benito Mussolini free to ponder whether Fascism was likely to pass on, pass out, or pass away.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.