THE FASCISTS About this time agrarian troubles, provoked by Socialists and left-wing Popolari, had also broken out in various parts of Italy, notably in the Veneto, the provinces of Bergamo and Cremona, the Lazio, Tuscany and Sicily. The peasants demanded contracts which, if accepted, would have left the landlords without enough income to pay the taxes. The middle classes set themselves to organize resistance. The Agrarian Association of Bologna was par ticularly active, but it was the Fasci, now arising all over Italy, under Mussolini's leadership, which conducted the national re action. The first attempt at resistance at Bologna was on Sept. 20, when, as the result of a Communist attack on a patriotic pro cession, a kiosk where seditious papers were sold was destroyed. At a strike demonstration in the same city on Oct. 14, I92o, against the "white terror" in Hungary, the anarchist, Malatesta, incited the mob to violence, and a police inspector and a Guardia Regia were murdered. Small groups of Nationalists and Fascists there upon paraded the streets; the tricolour flag appeared everywhere and the strike ceased.
The assumption of office by the Red municipal administrations offered occasion for fresh outbreaks of violence. In Bologna the Communist deputy, Bucco, secretary of the local chamber of labour, beginning to fear for his own safety, applied for police protection against the Fascists ; he was spirited out of the city and after his departure a deficit of a quarter of a million was found in the accounts of the chamber of labour. On Nov. 21, 192o, the first meeting of the new Bologna town council was intended to be the occasion f or an armed rising organized by the Communists. There were anti-Socialist demonstrations in the streets organized by the Nationalists and Fascists, supported by other citizens, but in the town hall, Giordani, a disabled ex-officer, was murdered and another member of the council, Colliva, seriously wounded by Communists. The Red leaders had to fly for their lives and the whole fabric of Bolshevist organization in Bologna collapsed. The town council was dissolved, while the Fascists wrecked or burned down various Socialist institutions. Throughout the Po valley the Fascists proceeded to break the tyranny of the "Red baronies"; the revolutionary leghe which had dominated labour in that area, were dispersed, and one Red town council after another resigned or was dissolved by the prefects, while ever-increasing masses of workers, industrial and agricultural, went over to Fascism and thus formed the basis of the Fascist labour movement.
During the last months the Maximalist Socialist party had be gun to show signs of dissension. The Russian leaders demanded the absolute submission of the Italian party to the orders of Mos cow and the expulsion of all Socialists tainted with the Reformist heresy. At the general congress of the party in Leghorn (Jan. 13-22) a resolution in favour of a middle tendency supported by Turati, Treves, Buozzi, Baldesi, D'Aragona and the G.C.L., who called themselves Unitari and were prepared to collaborate with bourgeois governments, was adopted. The Communists (rep resented by 18 deputies) thereupon broke away, formed a party of their own, and tried to affirm themselves by a series of terrorist out rages. Bombs were thrown in Florence on Feb. 27, killing and wounding several persons, whereupon the Fascists retaliated by murdering Lavagnini, a notorious Communist railway organizer; the railwaymen and electricians went on strike and various affrays between Communists and Fascists occurred, until the troops inter vened and restored order. At Empoli a number of unarmed sailors were murdered by Communists, and the Fascists, summoned from various parts of the country, inflicted severe reprisals. Similar occurrences took place at Foiano della Chiana and other places.
On March I, in spite of Socialist obstruction, the bill for the abolition of the bread subsidy was voted by a large majority.
The bill in favour of syndicalist control over industry, presented by the premier in accordance with the agreement of the preceding September, encountered much opposition in parliament and was finally dropped.
On April 7, 1921, Giolitti, owing to the insecurity of the par liamentary situation, dissolved the Chamber, and on May 15 the elections were held. Out of 535 seats (27 had been added for the new provinces) the Liberals and Democrats of various shades se cured 275, the Popolari rose from 'or to 107, the Socialists fell from r56 to 122 Unitari and 16 Communists; there were in addi tion four Germans for the Alto Adige and five Slays for the Venezia Giulia. The Fascists were 35 and the Nationalists ro. The Socialists and Communists were now faced by a vigorous Fascist-Nationalist group supported by sympathizers belonging to other parties. On June r 1 Parliament opened, and in the de
bate on the speech from the throne, the Nationalist, Federzoni (q.v.) delivered a strong attack on Count Sforza's foreign policy, On June 26 the cabinet secured only a small majority on a vote of confidence on foreign policy and Giolitti resigned.
Bonomi formed an administration comprising members of many parties, but the Popolari were predominant and Don Sturzo ruled the cabinet with a rod of iron. A bill, demanded by the Popolari and Socialists, for the expropriation of land alleged to be inade quately cultivated, was introduced, but aroused violent opposition and never became law. Bonomi had the merit of deciding that the celebration of the ceremony for the Unknown Soldier should at last be held; it took place on Nov. 4, 1921. Two days later the Fascist congress was opened in Rome, and Fascism was definitely constituted into a political party. On the loth the Communists and Socialists proclaimed a general strike as a protest against the presence of the Fascists in Rome ; disorders ensued, in which five persons were killed and several wounded. The debate in the Chamber on the eligibility of the deserter Misiano, who had been returned for Turin and Naples, led to violent scenes, until on Dec. 20 his election was annulled. During this same month the Banco di Sconto failed, and the Government was severely blamed for not having prevented the collapse of so important an insti tution, whose actual condition was by no means hopeless; as was proved at the subsequent legal proceedings before the Senate, the failure caused serious prejudice to the general financial and economic situation of the country.
The Bonomi cabinet was now attacked on all sides, and when on Feb. 2, r922, the Democrats, 16 of whom were in the Government, went over to the Opposition, Bonomi resigned. It was not until the 25th that a new Cabinet was formed by Luigi Facta. He was a thoroughly honest man, and his acceptance of office in these cir cumstances was proof of his patriotism, but he was not a first class statesman. He selected Schanzer for the Foreign Office, while the other ministers were of respectable mediocrity.
In 1922 the reconquest of Tripolitania was commenced with the reoccupation of the port of Misurata at the end of January. After a series of operations lasting through 1922 and 1923 the whole colony was reoccupied. The governor in this period was Count Giuseppe Volpi, afterwards finance minister.
The Genoa economic conference was inaugurated on April ro. Facta presided with dignity, but the hardest work was accom plished by Schanzer, who often succeeded in composing differences between the British and the French and between the French and the Germans and Russians.
Further industrial troubles followed. At Naples a conflict had opened between the Red dockers' union, which wished to retain its labour monopoly, and the new Fascist dockers' union. The Red union proclaimed a strike in all the Italian ports on March 18. In spite of the Government's tendency to support the Reds, the Fascists eventually succeeded in breaking the Red monopoly and restoring order and freedom of labour in the ports. On May 24 the funeral procession escorting the body of the war hero Enrico Toti to the cemetery in Rome was fired on by Communists in the San Lorenzo quarter. Two persons were killed and several wounded. The next day the Committee of Proleta rian Defence and the Alleanza del Lavoro, a newly formed coali tion of the Communist, Socialist and Republican parties and the G.C.L., ordered a general strike in Rome.
Rumours of a new cabinet crisis followed and the Socialists were divided on the question of collaborating with a bourgeois government. On July 12, 1922, Peano, the Treasury minister, issued his financial statement for 1921-22, which showed a def icit of 4,500 million lire, while experts estimated it at 6,500 mil lion. Public opinion was seriously alarmed, but the deputies were too busy over lobby intrigue in view of the expected crisis to worry about finance. There were disorders at Cremona, pro voked by the left wing Popolari led by Miglioli and the Socialists; the Fascists mobilized and wrecked several Socialist institutions and Miglioli's own law offices. The Democrats in the Chamber seized the occasion to contract an alliance with the Popolari, and on July 19 Facta was outvoted and resigned. But it proved im possible to form a new cabinet, and after various unsuccessful attempts, the old cabinet was reconstructed, with Senator Taddei, prefect of Turin, as minister of the