Speech in Cremona, September 24, 1922

By Benito Mussolini

Triarii! Avant-gardists! Balilla! Fascist women! Working people of the province of Cremona!

As so often happens, reality has surpassed the most brilliant expectations. Your meeting, O Fascists of Cremona, is the most solemn that I have yet attended. I have come among you not to pronounce a speech, as the irresistible eloquence gives me a sense of discomfort; I have come in person to express my solidarity with you, from your magnificent leader Roberto Farinacci to the last man in your ranks. Here in times long past great ideas were conceived. Here there arose a democracy, which had a period of splendor before it became crippled and enfeebled by the influence of Socialism. And in spite of the profound differences of opinion which divided us after the war, I must call to remembrance another noble figure of your fruitful land—I speak of Leonida Bissolati.

Those who—as a result of tendentious and deceptive information—talk about agrarian slavery, ought to come here and see with their own eyes this crowd of genuine workers, common people with shoulders broad enough and arms strong enough to bear the weight of the increasing fortunes of the Fatherland.

Only scoundrels and criminals could accuse us of being enemies of the working classes, for we are the sons of the people; we have known the harsh fatigue of manual labour; we have always lived among the working classes, who are infinitely superior to the false prophets who pretend to represent them! But just because we are the sons of the people, we do not wish to deceive them, we do not wish to mystify them or promise them the unattainable, although we solemnly and formally pledge ourselves to protect them and to vindicate their just rights and their legitimate interests.

As I watched your squads passing—disciplined, ardent and exulting—as I watched the little Balillas, who represent the still immature spring of life, followed by the squadrons in the full prime of youth, and finally the men in the vigour of manhood and even old men, I said to myself that the gamma of our race was perfect, inasmuch as it embraces all phases of life, from the first to the last.

Well, O Fascists and triarii! Great tasks await us. That which we have accomplished is nothing compared to that which awaits us. There is already a lively and dramatic contrast between the Italy of the cowardly politicians and the healthy, strong, vigorous Italy which is preparing to give the death-blow to all inefficients, parasites and money-grubbers, and to clear away the infected strata of Italian society.

Our adversaries must not delude themselves. They thought, in their enormous cowardice, in the unfortunate year of 1919, when we here in Cremona and all over Italy were no more than a handful of men, that Fascism would only be a passing phenomenon. Fascism has now been alive four years, and it has tasks enough to fill a century. Nor must our enemies deceive themselves by thinking that they can break up our organization, because we intend to make it more compact, disciplined, militarized, close-knit, fully equipped for all emergencies; since, my friends, if a decisive blow is necessary, every man, from the first to the last—and woe to the deserter or the traitor, who will be crushed!—every man, from the first to the last, will do his precise duty. In short, we want Italy to become Fascist! (Clamorous applause).

That is simple and clear. We want Italy to become Fascist, because we are tired of seeing her governed by men whose principles are continually wavering between negligence and cowardice. And, above all, we are tired of seeing her looked upon abroad as an insignificant quantity.

What is that feeling which stirs inside you when you hear the song of the Piave? It is that the Piave does not mark an end, it marks a beginning! It is from the Piave, it is from Vittorio Veneto, it is from our victory—a glorious victory, even if it was mutilated by a treacherous diplomacy—that our standards move on! It was from the banks of the Piave that we began the march which can not stop until it has reached its supreme goal: Rome! (Enthusiastic applause). And there are no obstacles, neither of men nor of things, which can stop us!

I wish to thank you, Fascists of Cremona and people of this city, for your reception. I know and like to think that it is not to me personally that you pay this honour, but to the ideal, our cause, which has been sanctified by so much blood shed by the flower of Italian youth. And by embracing my old friend Farinacci I mean to embrace all the Fascists of Cremona, to the cry of "Long live Fascism! Long live Italy!" (Enthusiastic applause).