Tuba Sounded

Black-shirted Fascists stood row upon row in the vast Coliseum. To hear the words of II Duce del Fascismo there had come to Rome not mere newsgatherers but news, potentates such as Publisher Walter A. Strong of the Chicago Daily News who personally wrote, signed and put a story on the wire.

The day was the fourth anniversary of Signor Mussolini's march upon Rome at the head of his black-shirted army. As though sniffing again the heady air of that supreme triumph, II Duce cried, last week:

"In this present day the life of peoples and of individuals moves too fast. We must arrest it briefly on occasions such as today, just long enough to review the work accomplished in one year. So the soldier pauses for a momentary halt upon his march. . . ."

After sketching the numerous internal reforms wrought within the twelvemonth, Signor Mussolini turned with what seemed especial relish to foreign affairs. Said he:

"The Fascist Government, after having settled our debts with the United States and Great Britain, concluded a treaty of commerce, amity and navigation with Jugoslavia, and a pact with Great Britain concerning common interests in Abyssinia, a treaty of commerce with Siam, an arbitration pact with Spain and one with Rumania, a treaty of commerce with Guatemala, a treaty of friendship with the Yemen (Arabia).

"I ask if there ever was in Italian history such an amount of work achieved in one year. . . .

"Moreover I do not exaggerate if I say that today the whole armed forces of the nation are at their highest point of efficiency with regard to morale, discipline and preparedness.

"Blackshirts! Today you are in arms in hundreds of thousands. Your bayonets not only represent the Government, but the whole Italian people.

"We announce to the world this truth: The Fascist revolution comes from the moral patrimony of the Italian people and will make Italy great."

Sop. Conscious that he was about to sound thus the tuba of Empire, Signor Mussolini sought to demonstrate, earlier in the week, that at least he has no designs upon crag-defended Switzerland. Said he to a Swiss newsgatherer: "The Swiss will never have occasion to fear Italy, nor any blow from here, nor any wicked enterprise. I love Switzerland. I have for Switzerland a preference which I have for no other country outside of my own. It is one of my sentimental frailties."