Common Man

After nearly two months of hemming & hawing, Italy had a new Premier (Ferruccio Parri, a man of the North), and a new Government (representing six parties instead of four). Last week Premier Parri led his 20 Ministers into Rome's Quirinal Palace, where each swore before Crown Prince Umberto, Lieutenant General of the Realm, the oath of fealty to the Crown, as decreed by the Allied authorities: ". . . on my honor . . . not to do anything before the convocation of the Constituent Assembly that in any way would prejudice the solution of the institution [i.e., monarchical] question."

While the Ministers were taking their oath, crowds before A.M.G. headquarters in Milan shouted for bread and work. In Turin, Pavia, Brescia and Novara there were similar demonstrations. In Ferrara and Modena mobs broke into the jails, Tommy-gunned to death some 30 Fascist prisoners.

Cried the Christian Democrat Popolo: "There is fear of a Red revolution." Growled the Communist Unita: "The situation is grave and will certainly grow worse unless the masses are given to feel that liberation is not a vain word."

Middle-of-the-Road Man. The grave situation fell hardest on Premier Parri. But at 55, the tall, stooped man with the lined face, baggy clothes, big hat and high, intellectual forehead was used to hard knocks. He had fought through World War I (four wounds, four decorations). He had fought against Fascism, as a journalist and organizer of the Actionist underground. In World War II he had fought the Germans as vice commandant of the northern partisans. A middle-of-the-road man, he had been chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet.

Last week he characterized himself: "I am a common man--uomo della strada. I am just another guy--uomo qualunque ... I hope a typical one. My job is not only to prevent the right and left wings from exercising undue influence on the Government, but I have to think too of the enormous masses of peasants sweating in the fields under the sun, blacksmiths beating their anvils in villages, workers, men and women everywhere who have no taste for politics and are outside parties. ... I am just a uomo della strada. . . ."

Men of the Left. In Premier Parri's Cabinet were three Actionists, three Socialists, three Communists, three Liberals, three Labor Democrats, four Christian Democrats, one Independent. The Premier was also Minister of the Interior (in charge of the police). Vice Premier Pietro Nenni, Socialist leader, was Minister for the Constituent Assembly; a vociferous antimonarchist, he would organize the election that would decide the monarchy's fate. Communist Boss Palmiro Togliatti was Minister of Justice, a strategic perch for supervising the purge. But it was a restive coalition.

Most restive was Vice Premier Nenni, who had hoped to be Premier himself. But liberal Philosopher Benedetto Croce had voiced a general opinion: "Nenni, you cannot be Premier. First, because you are Nenni; second, because you have no idea of administration." Justice Minister Togliatti seemed content to let Nenni do most of the political talking and balking. But Togliatti's Communist followers were busy, especially in the dynamic, revolutionary north. There, the leftist-dominated Committee of National Liberation, in advance of the Allied occupation, had tightly organized local government and most of the region's great industrial plants.

Ab AMGOT Libera Nos. But the A.M.G. was worried by the threat of leftist revolution. While it approved C.N.L. local administrations, it frowned on the taking over of factories. It threatened to cut off supplies of coal and other desperately needed raw materials if its wishes were not obeyed.

Under these restraints the leftists--and most of hungry, harassed Italy--chafed. U.S. and British policy had never seemed more out of touch with popular feeling. U.S. and British prestige had never seemed so low. Reported London's New Statesman & Nation: "Already a year ago the people were singing in the churches of southern Italy: "Et ab AMGOT libera nos, Domine--And from AMGOT deliver us, O Lord!"

Whether Italy's new Common Man Premier could cope with conditions for which uncommon talents were needed remained to be seen.

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