Nitti made some efforts to reorganise the police and generally to stem the tide of social disorganisation, but he found it impossible to go far on account of the impoverished State of the exchequer and of the bourgeoisie whom he represented.
The elections of November, 1919, weakened Nitti's position, but threw up no party or combination sufficiently powerful to replace him. There followed the Fiume adventure and an intensification of the social discord throughout Italy. Nitti's internal policy had grown, from the bourgeois point of view, weaker and weaker, and he was defeated on this issue in May, 1920. Again no alternative cabinet could be found, and Nitti took office for the third time. He finally fell owing to a concession made to the Socialists in regard to the statutory price of bread. The bourgeoisie were pressing for an increase, and when Nitti wavered he was defeated.
Once more Giolitti took charge of Italian affairs, and it was his lot to deal (or fail to deal) with the occupation of the factories in September, 1920. In the attitude of laisser-faire which he adopted he was actuated by two sets of considerations. It was not entirely the fact that he could not act, but to some extent at least that he would not. Giolitti at that time was still mainly agrarian in his outlook: his sympathy for the industrialists was not great, and if they got into trouble with their workers, he was not prepared to go out of his way to help them. When the capitalists had won, however, Giolitti was willing to give official sanction to the proceedings and to reap some of the glory of the "settlement."
But other difficulties arose—the problem of the price of bread and the ever-growing deficit on the budget. From mere inability to know what to do, Giolitti dissolved the Chamber in April, 1921. New elections were held, resulting in Liberal and Catholic gains and Socialist losses. In the new Chamber there were forty Fascists. Giolitti resigned in June, and Bonomi took his place. Bonomi was a patriotic Socialist who was as incapable as his predecessors of restoring social order and re-establishing the economic machinery. He remained in power only till February, 1922, when Facta took his place. The latter held office until July, when he was defeated by a Fascist manœuvre in the Chamber. He resumed his position, however, and retained it until driven out by the Fascist revolution in October.
In spite of the growth of the P.S.I., its effectiveness was constantly hindered by the faé& that though its Majority was Communist, a reformist right wing led by Turati Still adhered. This wing was powerful in Parliament and was able to secure wide publicity for its sectional views. The Second Congress of the Third International was held in August, 1920, and laid down the famous Twenty-one Conditions of Affiliation. Included in these was a demand for
