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tervened, opened fire and killed several of the demonstrators. This national demonstration was evidently a crime, and as such must be severely repressed.
It was in this atmosphere of general degeneracy that the new Government had to act. While it immediately devoted its attention to the definite problems of finance, economy, education, justice and foreign affairs, it also had to reorganize the central and local administrations, nay more, it had to reconduct public opinion on to the right path and re-establish the proper sense of realities and of social necessities which had been so grievously weakened. I might almost say lost, to such a degree that even the ruling classes, through inaction or renunciation, seemed doomed to suicide.
Fortunately for Italy, things are now profoundly changed, and this is one of the greatest merits of the Fascist Government; I have dwelt on this point because without this widespread reconstructive action in the spiritual field it would have been impossible to secure the other advantages of a more material nature which have been secured, or to consolidate these benefits for the future.
