wage bill was ever introduced but, instead, wages were drastically reduced through all branches of industry. The existing scheme of national insurance against sickness and old age was abolished. Instead of developing the system of workers' control in industry, the Fascists destroyed the few remaining Works' Councils. A further obstacle to the development of industrial democracy was furnished by the Fascist policy of denationalisation. The capitalist sharks gathered round the State with hungry jaws agape and one by one the dainty morsels were flung out to be devoured by the profiteers.
Telephones, wireless, parcel post, matches—each State monopoly was handed over to private control. Even the railways were in the market and would have been sold but for an amusing incident. Mussolini had himself seen to the details of this transaction and the sale was on the point of final ratification. The lucky capitalists who had nearly secured the prize were delighted, but their rivals were not! One group of rivals who had themselves been in the bidding succeeded in raising trouble, suggesting that there had been a corrupt deal and practices contrary to the national interest. So in this case the falling out of thieves enabled the community to retain its own. In the more recent case of the concession of the oil-bearing lands of Italy to an American syndicate, the results were even more embarrassing to the Government, as will appear later.
The Fascist defence of their policy in this matter is that the services in question have been ill-organised under State management. Such statements are always highly suspect, coming as they do from those who have a direct interest in vilifying public ownership and bolstering up private enterprise. If Mussolini found the bureaucracy inefficient, he had ample power and opportunity to reform it. If he really held the Guild Socialist views of D'Annunzio and Odon Por, with which some friends credit him, here was his chance to apply them. Instead of this, he played into the hands of his capitalist masters, and the idealists who believe in his essentially revolutionary objective are Still waiting for him to be free to realise his heart's desire!
Mussolini seems actually to have achieved some improvement in the technical efficiency of the civil service, but the Staff reductions were merely window-dressing episodes. The dismissals were promptly followed by the appointment of Fascists to the vacant posts.
The policy of the Fascist Government as regards public finance shows unmistakably its anti-proletarian character. The programme favoured expropriatory taxation of the rich; the Fascists in power remitted the luxury tax, the motor-car tax and inheritance duties, In place of these there have been imposed taxes on wages (i.e., a reduction in the exemption level for income tax) and increased in-
