Economics

Mussolini's Ambassadors spend much of their time outside the land of sunshine and black shirts in praising the modest leader of the Fascisti.

Prince Gelasio Caetani, Italian Ambassador to the U. S., addressed the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Manhattan last week. He defended the regime of Mussolini and said that it had reduced indebtedness, stabilized railroads, reduced the number of strikes, increased industrial enterprises.

"The outline of Mussolini's work", said the Ambassador, "can be summed in two words--economic reconstruction. Economics are at the root of every question in this world. They are the prime cause of political strife, of civil and international wars. They are the basis of all social problems, the foundation of private or national happiness or distress, the prime movers in the development of Science and Art and the principal factor in the upbuilding of any great nation. Mussolini is fully convinced that it matters little if a government is red or white, republican or monarchic, revolutionary of hyper-constitutional, as long as it operates in full harmony with the unchangeable laws of economics."

Prince Caetani said there were 680 strikes in 1922 as against 152 the next year, when Mussolini seized power ; 7,500,000 work days lost in 1922, as against 250,000 the next year. Unemployment was reduced one third in the same period. And 1,115,619,415 lire have been added to the capital invested in industry.