Page:Gaetano Salvemini and Bruno Roselli - Italy under Fascism (1927).djvu/9



Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: A few months ago, when it became very popular to hurl mud at the glorious figure of George Washington, when the father of his country was accused of all kinds of wickedness and crimes, of drunkenness, of swearing, of misbehavior, of all sorts of vices thoroughly out of keeping with the general ideal which the American public had formed of such a lofty patriot and of such a distinguished leader in her Revolution, Calvin Coolidge, President of these United States, on being told of the moral hopelessness of his celebrated predecessor, looked down across the marvelous vista which spreads in front of the White House, pointed to one of the most glorious of monuments ever erected by a grateful people, and quietly, as is his custom, said, "The monument still, stands."

I am inclined to think that history will take a similarly broad and sympathetic view of Mussolini in years to come. For in discussing the political and economic and social conditions prevailing in Italy at present, I must, in justice to all, remind the people of this audience which spreads beyond the fourteen hundred assembled here today, that Italy has peculiarities of her own, historical, climatic, racial peculiarities, which must be well taken into account before passing hasty judgment upon any régime existing in that country.

These peculiarities must not be misconstrued so as to mean that I am excusing any of the obvious mistakes, of the grotesque exaggerations, of the brutal crimes also which have been committed by members of the same political party to which the Premier of Italy belongs, and which have often angered and always hurt him immeasurably. I can freely state that, because I have the rare fortune of standing here as a non-Fascist, as a sympathetic critic who has systematically declined to belong to the Fascista organization; of standing here as a man who has so thoroughly, so honestly—if I may use this adverb—refrained from acting as the unofficial mouthpiece of any members of the party itself, that a distinguished gentleman who shares with me the honor of the speakers' table and who is the head of all Fascists in this country, has not seen me or heard from me since the day, seven months ago, when curiosity and courtesy combined to send me to his office for my first and last call upon him.

Therefore, do not, please, take any statements which I may hive to make with regard to Fascism as official utterances of the Fascista Party. I am merely a person, bilingual in expression and bi-national in mental reactions, who knows his native Italy fairly well, and is able to look upon that country from a standpoint at the same time distant and near, distant in that my constant return to the United States, the hosts of my American friends, my occupations here enable me to see from an angle of unusually