By Benito Mussolini
I am particularly glad to have seen these works, already known to me by what has been accomplished in them in the last five strenuous years. I am not going to make a speech, but, as has always been—and always will be—my way, I shall tell you things clearly as they are, things that will interest you.
The Government over which I have the honour of presiding is not, cannot and does not wish to be anti-proletariat. The workmen are a vital part of the nation; they are Italians and, like all Italians, when they work, when they produce and when they live orderly lives, must be protected, respected and defended. My Government is very strong and does not need to seek a great deal of outside support; it neither asks for it nor refuses it. If the workmen's organizations choose to give me support, I shall not reject it. But we shall have to come to a clear understanding and to make definite agreements in order to avoid dissension later.
I was deeply moved just now while I was visiting the factory, and seemed for an instant to be living again the bygone days of my youth. Because I do not come from an aristocratic and illustrious family. My ancestors were peasants who tilled the earth, and my father was a blacksmith who bent red-hot iron on the anvil. Sometimes, when I was a boy, I helped my father in his hard and humble work, and now I have the infinitely harder task of bending souls. At twenty I worked with my hands—I repeat, with my hands—first as a mason's lad and afterwards as a mason. And I do not tell you this in order to arouse your sympathy, but to show you how impossible it is for me to be against the working class. I am, however, the enemy of those who, in the name of false and ridiculous ideologies, try to dupe the workmen and drive them towards ruin.
You will have the opportunity of realizing that more valuable than my words will be the acts of my Government, which, in all that it does, will be inspired by and keep before it these three fundamental principles:
First: The Nation, which is an undeniable reality.
Secondly: The necessity of production, because greater and better production is not only in the interest of the capitalist but also of the workman; since the workman, together with the capitalist, loses his livelihood and falls into poverty if the productions of the nation do not find a market in the trade-centers of the world.
Thirdly: The protection of the legitimate rights of the working classes.
Keeping these three essential principles in sight, I intend to give peace to Italy and to make her more respected at home and abroad.
Nobody wants to go in search of adventures which will imperil the lives and wealth of the citizens; but, on the other hand, neither do we wish to follow a policy of renunciation nor allow Italy to be the last considered among the nations. In order that we may be listened to in international conferences—conferences which are of the greatest importance to you workmen—it is necessary that the most rigid discipline be maintained at home, as no one will listen to us if we have a disturbed and unsettled country behind us.
You, workmen, must not think that it is only the head of the Government who is speaking to you now, but a man who knows you well and who is known by you; a man who understands your value and what you can and what you cannot do. But, as the head of the Government, I tell you that this one over which I preside is serious, strong and sure of itself, and no slow-moving bureaucracy; it is a Government that wishes to act in the interests of the working classes, interests which will always be recognized when they are just.
The workmen thought that they could, and ought to, disassociate themselves from the life of the nation; and this has been a great mistake. They ought, instead, to be a most intimate part of the nation, so that all our long and labourious toiling may not be miserably lost.
This is the message which comes from our dead, who, hovering above us, repeat this command.
The Italian people must somehow find that medium of harmony necessary for the reconstruction and development of civilization; and if there be rebellious and seditious minorities they must be inexorably stamped out.
Treasure up these words in your hearts and remember the motto of the Fascist Syndicates:
"The country must not be denied but conquered."I raise my glass with you and drink to the future and the fortunes of Italian industry, that it may take a glorious place in the eyes of the whole world.
