MUSSOLINI AS REVEALED IN HIS POLITICAL SPEECHES [Illustration] MUSSOLINI AS REVEALED IN HIS POLITICAL SPEECHES (NOVEMBER 1914–AUGUST 1923) SELECTED, TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY BARONE BERNARDO QUARANTA di SAN SEVERINO [Illustration] 1923 LONDON & TORONTO J. M. DENT & SONS LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. ONLY AUTHORISED EDITION _All rights reserved_ PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN To THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN SENATE TOMMASO TITTONI ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration: The most limpid waters in the world appear turbid when compared to the purity of the waters of the Lethe.] INTRODUCTION A NOTE ON ITALIAN FASCISMO In an interesting article published last year in our Press, Ettore Ciccotti shows that Italian Fascismo does not represent an absolutely new political event, but is part of the general historic development of nations. In the first years of its appearance it was compared to the “krypteia” of Sparta, to the “eterie” of Athens, and to similar phenomena, which are repeated as a manifestation of self-defence of strong and active groups or classes, uniting and forming centres of resistance; exercising thus, by their extended action, general functions of State in a period in which its protection is weak or inefficient, and shows signs of disintegration or degeneration. Other examples of this phenomenon can be found in the history of the Church and in the Italian Communes, in England, Germany, in the Clubs of the French Revolution, and in the rest of Europe. When in a nation which shows such signs this form of vitality does not exist, we witness the general collapse of that nation, as in Russia at this moment, where only the radical uprooting of Bolshevism might lead to the general resurrection of the country.