The crisis of Mussolini's life came with the outbreak of the World War. From the first he strongly opposed Italy's intervention on behalf of the Central Powers. After Italy's declaration of neutrality he still hesitated, for the conflict was raging within him between the Socialist and the Italian ; as a Socialist he favoured war in the belief that it would end war and re-establish the principles of right and justice, while as an Italian he doubted if his people were ready to enter the fray. In the autumn the tendency in favour of intervention had gained ground, and he wrote that Italian unity must be completed ; later he ap proved the Government's military measures, as he realised the danger of keeping Italy alone unarmed amid the general con flagration. But he was ever less in harmony with the official creed of his party, and he expressed the hope that if Italy did intervene her international status would be raised and an economic and social revolution promoted. He resigned the editorship of the Avanti, and on Oct. 25 appeared before the Socialist assembly at Milan to justify his conduct. The audience howled at him, with imprecations of "traitor, hireling, assassin !"; but instead of de fending himself he violently attacked the other Socialists for their petit-bourgeois spirit and insincerity. He ended by saying, "You hate me because you still love me." He now founded a new paper of his own, Il Popolo d'Italia, and his enemies spread the rumour that Mussolini had received money from the French Embassy to support the Allied cause, whereas the sole capital of his new venture was 4,000 lire advanced by advertisers. The Popolo d'Italia first appeared on Nov. 15,
and in the leading article Mussolini asked : "Do we wish to drag out a miserable existence under present conditions, content with the status quo of the monarchy and the bourgeoisie, or do we wish instead to break up this wretched combination of intrigue and cowardice?" He concluded with a stirring appeal in favour of war. The paper led a precarious existence in wretched premises, and was hardly able to pay the staff. But it gathered around it a number of brilliant young writers fired with enthusiasm for the national cause, although many were Republicans and Socialists.
Audacity was its keynote, and while the Idea Nazionale and D'Annunzio appealed to the older and more intellectual middle classes, Mussolini influenced the younger generation and the workers, and he reached the less educated masses through his friend the Syndicalist, Filippo Corridoni (afterwards killed in action), editor of the weekly Battaglie sindacali. But he still believed in revolution, and in April 1915 he was arrested for advo cating his views at a public meeting; ten days later he was slightly wounded in a duel with the orthodox Socialist Claudio Treves. When on May 24 war was declared he wrote in the Popolo d'Italia: "From to-day onwards the nation is called to arms. From to-day onwards we are all of us Italians and only Italians. Now that steel has to meet steel, one single cry issues from our breasts, Viva l'Italia!" In the Trenches.—In Sept. 1915, Mussolini, who had volun teered for active service (as editor of a paper he had a right to exemption), was called up, and served as a private in the Bersa glieri in the trenches along the Isonzo and on the Carso. He did his duty gallantly until he was seriously wounded by the explosion of a trench mortar on Feb. 23, 1917. He spent many months in hospital, and on recovery returned to his work on the Popolo d'Italia. He wrote a graphic account of his war experiences in his Diario di Guerra. As early as the beginning of 1917 he realised the gravity of the propaganda which the Socialists and neutralists were able to conduct owing to the feebleness of the Government, especially of the Minister of the Interior, Signor Orlando, and after resuming his editorial chair he uttered warnings which were disregarded, as were those of Gen. Cadorna. After Caporetto he
was one of the few who never lost heart and in the columns of his paper he issued daily messages of encouragement.
After the armistice, Mussolini opened a campaign in favour of a dignified foreign policy at the Peace Conference, and of adequate recognition for the services of the ex-service men. In reply to the first manifestation of Bolshevism Mussolini founded the first Fascio di Combattimento on March 23, 1919, at Milan (see F AscIsm); and although the first programme of the new group contained many demagogic demands, the patriotic note was pre dominant, and Mussolini continued to combat Bolshevik doctrines. With regard to Fiume, he insisted that its Italian character must be secured. When D'Annunzio occupied Fiume the Popolo d'Italia lent him its full support.
Mussolini was now bitterly hated by the Socialists, and when at the elections of 1919 he stood as a candidate for Milan, he secured only a few votes and was described by the Avanti as "a corpse to be buried in a ditch." A few days later Nitti had him arrested on a charge of "armed plotting against the security of the State" (in connection with his support of D'Annunzio), but did not dare to maintain the arrest, and he was soon liberated. Mus solini now worked harder than ever at his paper, whose circulation increased rapidly; his relaxations were writing plays and playing the violin, and he also took to motoring and aviation, in which sports he showed his usual disregard of danger.
The seizure of the factories by the work men in the autumn of 192o did not meet with Mussolini's disap proval, as one would have expected ; he regarded their action as a form of practical syndicalism breaking away from the pusillani mous policy of the official Socialist party. But when the Com munists proceeded to organize political murders at Bologna, Modena and Ferrara, Mussolini and his Fascists became the nuclei of the national anti-Bolshevik reaction; it is due to him that the whole Communist-Socialist domination eventually collapsed, first in the Po valley and then throughout Italy. But Mussolini was now coming to the conclusion that it was not enough to defeat and disperse the Reds. The Italian people, he argued, must be made free to recover, to work and produce undisturbed, to fulfil their higher destinies ; the incompetent governing caste, ready to com promise on everything, must be swept away and its place taken by the virile youth of the country who had won the War. Fascism was spreading rapidly, and in Nov. 1921 it was organized into a polit ical party, but its discipline still left much to be desired. Mus solini now proceeded to reorganize it and establish it on a strictly hierarchical basis, until its discipline surpassed that of any other organisation in Italy. All ranks of society he regarded as neces sary, for he did not wish to repudiate the past. He was, moreover, becoming ever more keenly interested in foreign politics. "I hold that, having broken the pride of Bolshevism, Fascism should be come the watchful guardian of our foreign policy." But the movement was extending to every sphere of national life—internal affairs, finance, labour, industry, agriculture. At the elections of May 1921 Mussolini and 35 other Fascist candidates were re turned, and together with their allies the I o Nationalists played an active part in the debates.