Such a false vision of life is certainly not natural to the Italian people, and it had taken a great deal of trouble to introduce it in a country the mentality of which is above all realistic. It is natural to think that the Socialist and Popolari leaders were guilty of the most criminal falsehoods. On the 15th of June, 1920, when Giolitti was called upon to form a new ministry, the government of Nitti had wrought such havoc in the few months he had been in power that the old statesman was hailed _Salvatore della Patria_ on his coming to power by the very people who had called him a traitor five years before. Yet the new government found that the best thing to do was to let things go on as they were, with the result that factories were taken possession of by workmen, and a strong reaction took shape under the wings of the new-born Fascism, which came out with the simple programme of restoring order _even against the state_ if it was necessary. Public opinion at the end of the year gave a clear proof of the depressing influence the government had had on the national conscience allowing Giolitti, who had truly never been a Nationalist, to compel d’Annunzio and his men to evacuate Fiume without any protest against the bombardment inflicted upon them. When, in the next spring, the elections took place, all the old parties were there again with the addition of Fascism. The men of the new party were mostly new to politics altogether, whilst some came from all the old parties (including the Socialist) and they had all of them taken an active part in the war. In the districts they had made national blocks with Nationalists and Liberals and the few seats they obtained were not lost by the _Popolari_ or Socialists, who were returned in the same proportion as they had been in the last House. The first characteristic of the Fascists was that they seemed to have the same programme as the Nationalists, whilst they were displaying the power of mass organisation that had been till then the privilege of Socialists and _Popolari_. (This characteristic holds good up to now.) They wanted to realise the political programme of the best men of Italy by lifting the working class up to it. As to their aim it was then exclusively the political and moral realisation of the practical and spiritual value they ascribed to the war victory. They had nothing like an abstract programme. When realisation is not one with conception—and such has been the case for the last two centuries—the political systems stated on paper appear all harmony, and their consequences all for the best; but the trouble begins as soon as their application is sought.