There is no danger of the levelling of the national spirit as the result of contact with other nations. Solid foundations are needed for national unity, and for this reason the condition of the working classes must be raised. No nation can become greater in which there are enormous masses condemned to the conditions of life of prehistoric humanity. Another paradox of this war is that the nations fighting against the Germans have not yet formed a peace alliance. The peace manifesto to the peoples of the world ought to have come from Versailles. This could help, among other things, to make the German crisis more acute. It has not been done yet. The people intuitively felt the necessity. Sometimes truths are arrived at more quickly by intuition than by reasoning, and the people felt that that was the path to follow. And we are upon that path to-day. Not long ago Clémenceau said that the liberation of France must be the liberation of humanity. It is true that to put the idea of the League of Nations into practice would present difficulties, especially at first. According to me the problems which will have to be faced and solved are of a political, economic, military and colonial order. In a month’s time you will have reports upon these subjects, and I do not wish to tire you with hasty anticipations. We have arrived at a decisive point in history. While we are gathered here the battle is raging; there are millions and millions of men who are fighting their last fight. Let us swear that all this has not been in vain, but that these sacrifices must mark a new phase in the history of humanity. Let us say to ourselves that all that can be tried will be tried, in order to make the purple flower of liberty spring from the blood shed in the cause of freedom, and that justice shall reign sovereign over all the peoples of the renewed world! IN CELEBRATION OF VICTORY Speech delivered at Milan, 11th November 1918, before the Monument of the “Cinque Giornate.” Milan, notwithstanding its multi-coloured local Socialism, had ever remained the burning heart of the country’s resistance and spent herself lavishly for the war. On the morrow of the memorable day of Vittorio Veneto she gave herself up to unrestrained manifestations of patriotic joy. Benito Mussolini—the ardent advocate of intervention in the harassing times gone by, the indomitable fighter in the Carso trenches, and the fervent advocate of resistance in the hour in which the enemy’s friends were crying for “peace at any price”—Benito Mussolini may well be considered as one of the principal artificers of victory. The people of Milan felt this in the triumphant rejoicings and the Editor of _Il Popolo d’Italia_ was acclaimed by public gratitude for his part in the union of hearts.