similar movements occurred, attended by more violent episodes, including the murder of a few landlords and farmers, whose colleagues retaliated with equal violence. As a rule, however, the agrarian troubles never assumed the widespread or revolu- tionary character of the industrial agitations, except in Romagna. Meanwhile, the public, including the great bulk of all classes, was getting heartily sick of these constant disorders and of the tyranny of a factious minority composed in part of Kasc.iV/. doctrinaires, but largely of criminals of a degenerate type. The middle-class suddenly realized that it was by no means dead, and that if it only organized itself it could again assume the lead. It now set to work to perfect the various associations for social and political defence already mentioned. The movement of the Fascisti, destined to play an important part in the immediate future, was an outcome of the combatants' associations; the Fasci were composed of young men, mostly ex-officers and soldiers, university students, and not a few of the more intelligent workmen, peasant proprietors and small farmers. Their " extreme left " was constituted out of the ex- arditi (assault troops), comprising all the more adventurous spirits, while at the other end were older and steadier persons, professional and business men, professors and intellectuals. The Fasci comprised people of all parties, including not a few Socialist s who were disgusted with the tendencies of the party. Fasci were formed in one town after another over the whole country. On Nov. 4 the great Victory Parade, which had been delayed for two years because Sig. Nitti had been anxious to make people forget the war, was held in Rome, amid scenes Local o f great enthusiasm. The administrative elections 1920. were held in Oct. and Nov. and resulted in a decline of
Socialist influence as compared with the political elec- tion of 1919. Notable successes were gained in Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, Genoa and even Turin, while at Milan the Socialists got in by a small majority; at Bologna alone among the large towns the Socialist success was overwhelming. The Catho- lic party came out badly, although it achieved some successes in the Veneto and Lombardy. These successes raised the spirits of the country considerably, but the reign of disorder was not yet over. The formal assumption of authority in the Socialist municipal councils was to offer a pretext for fresh outbursts of violence. What happenedatBolognawasparticularlyremarkable. On Sept. 20 the Bologna Bolshevists had determined to or- ganize a demonstration as a counterblast to the official celebra- tions on that day; a patriotic procession of modest Red Terror proportions went to lay wreaths on the monuments g na ' of Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi, and when it was about to break up it was fired at from a restaurant which was the haunt of the extremists, but some members of the patriotic group fired back. It was the first popular reaction against red tyranny in Bologna, but it was the beginning of the end. On Oct. 14 a strike and demonstration were organized in Bologna and other towns to protest against the "white terror" in Hungary. The anarchist Malatesta came to Bologna and the demonstration ended with the murder of a Royal Guardsman and a police inspector. These crimes provoked a violent reaction. Small groups of Nationalists and Fascisti paraded the streets; tricolor flags appeared everywhere, and the council of, the labour unions ordered a cessation of the strike. The authorities showed greater energy and arrested a number of anarchists. The municipal elections were lost, because the anti-Socialist movement was still too recent; but a week later occurred the col- lapse of the deputy Bucco, who had made himself dictator of Bologna, with a sort of praetorian guard of bravos. Now, however, he began to fear for his own safety, and asked for the protection of the Royal Guards against the Fascisti. Being arrested for having arms in his possession, he tried to buy his liberty by accusing his comrades. This was the end of his power; and after- wards a deficit in the accounts of the labour exchange of which he was secretary, for nearly a quarter of a million, was discovered. On Nov. 21 the first meeting of the new town council was intended to be the occasion of a general revolutionary move-- ment, organized by a certain Martelli, an elementary school-
master, and other communist leaders. Two of the constitution members of the council, one of them Sig. Giordani, a disable officer, were shot in the council hall by hired assassins, upheaval of public opinion was now irresistible; the leadin organizers had to fly for their lives to San Marino, many arres were made, and the whole fabric of Bolshevist organization Bologna crashed. The council never met again, as most of it members were in prison or fugitives from justice, and eventually dissolved. The Fascisti now proceeded to attack ; wreck a number of Socialist and Bolshevist institutions; th best-known Socialist leaders hardly dared show themselves the streets except under large escorts of Royal Guards carabinieri. At Modena, a Fascista having been murdered band of Socialists, a number of Fascisti from Bologna and els where went to attend the funeral; during the ceremony th Socialists fired and killed two Fascisti. Their companions burnt down the labour exchange and wrecked the office of Donati> the local deputy. The Bologna labour exchange was also burnt down. A parliamentary commission was sent to Bologna inquire into the affair of Nov. 21, and its report was a terrible indictment of maladministration. The town council finally resigned, and the administration was taken over by a Govern- ment commissary.
In the province of Ferrara the situation was equally intolerabl< Most of the communes were in the hands of the Socialists, the secretaries of the labour exchanges and the leaders of ti labour and agricultural unions had become small despots, no unlike the petty tyrants of the Romagna in the Middle Ages; they amassed fortunes by extortion, blackmail and even open robbery. Landowners, farmers or labourers who refused to submit to their rule were boycotted, fined and occasionally murdered Farming had become almost impossible; no one could emplo labour except through the Socialist, or rather Bolshevist, leghe strikes were endemic, and the landlords barely earned enough to pay the taxes, while the labour leaders made highly profitabli speculations in land. Now that the reaction had set in, the Fa gradually broke down the tyranny of the reds in one district after another, not always without fighting. In Ferrara town the murder of several Fascisti by Socialists on Dec. 20 produced ; reaction similar to that of Bologna after Nov. 21. In many place the peasantry found red rule so intolerable that they went ove en masse to the Fasci, who organized labour employment office for the equal advantage of all classes. In Feb. the Government withdrew all permits to carry arms and ordered the whole population to give up its arms; a certain number of weapon were given up, but enough remained for fighting between Socialists and Fascisti to continue.
During the last months the Socialist party had shown sig of splitting up. The Reformist group had long ago broken loo and was hardly considered Socialist at all. Now even in the " Official " party two or three tendencies became more and more clearly marked. The extremist group led by Bombacci, Bordiga, Gennari, and, until his fall, by Bucco, proclaimed the necessity for an immediate revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Others, such as Turati and Treves, were frankly opposed to revolution, although favourable to Socialist doctrines. The more moderate section had held a congress at Reggio Emilia in the autumn, at which men like Nofri and Ponzani had the courage to condemn the methods of Soviet Government in Russia. The Russian leaders, however, demanded the absolute and unquestioning submission of the Italian party to the Moscow creed, and decreed the expulsion from the party of all Socialists who were barely suspected of the Reformist heresy, including such veterans of Social- ism as Turati and Treves. A general congress of the party was therefore held at Leghorn from Jan. 13 to 22 1921. The Bombacci group were prepared to swallow the full Moscow pro- gramme, but the group led by Serrati, editor of the Milan Avanti, accepted Russian communism only in a bowdlerized form suited to Italian conditions, while the Turati group frankly opposed revolution. The Congress soon degenerated into wild disorder. The extremists shrieked insults and foamed at
Split.
