REVOLUTION OR RECONSTRUCTION

Benito Mussolini's action in Italy recalls in many ways the initiative of Garibaldi in 1860; and in Mossolini's organization, the Fascisti, seems destined to have effects comparable to the Young Italy founded in 1831 by Mazzini.

Soon after the war, when the Nitti government had lost practically all control in a Bolshevik uprising, the Fascisti appeared on the scene. The students of the University of Bologna, young men of the better classes, and many former soldiers arose under the leadership of Mussolini and restored the national govenment to power.

The name Fascisti, from the Latin fasces,--a bundle of sticks,--suggests the law and order of the Roman lictors. In the Bolshevik crisis and in the Italian Railroad Strike last year, the organization showed itself well disciplined and better able to keep order than the government.

Threats of mobilization on the part of the Fascisti have now forced the Facta cabinet to resign. A stronger power than the government has taken over the government, and what will happed next is a mystery. Mussolini is less radical for his time than was Garibaldi, and the great changes of 1860 are not to be expected. A new cabinet may be formed under Giolitti, or if the rumors of the extremists of the Right are confirmed a republic will be set up in place of the kingdom.

Mussolini was a republican a year ago, but the personal popularity of the king and the interests of Italian Unity have led him to speak for the preservation of the kingdom. Victor Emmanuel himself made it a principle, as he once remarked, so to bring up him son that if the need came, he could be the first President of Italy.

The union of the republican and monarchist ideals is not as incompatible as it appears on the surface. The change in the form of government would probably have less effect on the people than a sudden change from a weak to a strong cabinet. If the Fascisti set up a new central power based on democratic traditions it will be a move not so much to overthrow the present government, as an attempt from a new angle to build up a strong, stable, unified Italy.