ends, Mussolini pointed out, the authority of the State must be restored and the "old gang" of politicians (i.e., largely the agrarians) must be cleared out of the way.
These demands were put forward with considerable propagandist skill throughout 1919 and 1920. The device by which Mussolini, while not alienating the proletariat as such, attacked the Socialist Party, was to argue that the latter were working for the destruction of "National unity"—a stunt which Mussolini has worked to the last degree. The advanced nature of this programme was, of course, due to the need for a bait to catch unwary workers. If these could be got into the ranks of Fascism, so much the better; and the best means to this end was to steal the programmatic thunder of the Socialists.
The early fasci were to a large extent armed, but no great use was made of violent methods until after the evacuation of the factories by the workers in the autumn of 1920. The factory owners had indeed felt the sword at their throats; they had really been expropriated, and the end of their rule seemed to have come. When the workers had been tamely withdrawn from the field of their victory by their leaders, the owners recovered their power and proceeded to use it. The Fascist bands were turned loose on the workers, and terror prevailed.
While this crude but simple punishment of the proletariat was proceeding, the Fascists were following a subtle and difficult policy in regard to the Government. Giolitti had taken office in the summer of 1920 on the cry of re-establishing the authority of the State. Now this was precisely the slogan of Mussolini—from whom Giolitti had cunningly Stolen it; but no real identity of interest lay behind this similarity of political objective. Mussolini meant Big Business; Giolitti, Landlordism. And so Mussolini had to fight on two fronts—against the workers and against Giolitti. The latter he attacked as an opponent of the war and as an enemy of Italian gains following the peace. This anti-government (and anti-monarchical) policy gave a revolutionary tone to the Fascist propaganda of that time which misled many observers into overlooking its fundamentally reactionary character.
Giolitti's reaction to this policy was characteristically subtle. He could have crushed the Fascist movement by means of his control of the State armed forces, but he realised too well the value of the movement as an anti-proletarian influence. The steps he took were two. First, he declared the State to be "neutral" in the faction fight proceeding between the workers and the Fascists; this, of course, was a hypocritical sop to the Fascists, since it deprived the unarmed workers of their sole defence—the forces of the State. Secondly, Giolitti dissolved the Chamber in May, 1921, and in
