Page:Gaetano Salvemini and Bruno Roselli - Italy under Fascism (1927).djvu/26

 The workers are divided into two groups—a part of the workers, if they show signs of national loyalty, that is if they join the Fascist Party, are admitted to the trade union; the others remain outside the union, paying their contribution. And if a worker in the Fascist trade union shows signs that he is no longer loyal from the national point of view, that is to say, that he is not in agreement with the Secretary, he is turned out and he continues to pay. This is the law.

Would Professor Salvemini tell us who are the peoplebehind Mussolini pulling the strings?

First of all there is a "black hand" of high Generals headed by the Duke of Aosta, the cousin of the King. The second group is formed by large industrialists. For instance, Signor Agnelli, manager of the Fiat motor car factory. There is also a certain group of big land owners, one of whom is the Chairman of the Senate, Senator Tittoni. Then there are several big bankers. These are the men who are behind Mussolini. I don't know if you want to know the names one by one. It would be rather a long list.

May I ask Professor Salvemini what has happened to the cooperative movement under the Fascist régime?

In 1920, we had in Italy 15,000 cooperatives belonging to all the different parties. During the Civil War and during the first years of the Fascist rule, all of the cooperatives which were under Socialist or Christian Democratic colors were wrecked or dissolved. Now, the Fascisti, after having wrecked or dissolved a great many cooperatives, are trying to build up a new system of cooperatives.

While you are getting the rest of your questions ready, I am going to ask Count di Revel, a very prominent Fascist in this country, if he won't speak for two or three minutes.

I am a Fascist. I have only three minutes, and so I will be to the point. Professor Salvemini accused the Fascists of using statistical lies. I am glad to see that the enemies of Fascism are using all four qualities of lies. Mussolini is a figurehead, they say. That reminds me of what I heard downtown just a few days before the United States Steel Corporation was going to vote its stock dividends. I was inquiring if a certain person thought that the United States Steel Corporation would or would not vote the stock dividend and what he thought were the ideas of Judge Gary, and he answered me, "Well, Judge Gary is just the chief clerk of Mr. George Baker and Mr. J. P. Morgan." Mussolini is in the same position probably as Judge Gary.

I want to say a few words on Italy in 1922. I will not speak of statistics. We Fascists don't like a lot of statistics. We like facts. I went to the library and took the statements of the Corriere Della Sera, so there was no doubt as to the authenticity of these facts. It will show that the