One Party, One Ticket

The Fascist Grand Council, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini in the chair, met last week to listen patiently to the great words of their frowning leader.

Signor Mussolini rapped the table for silence and, rising, unfolded to the assembled Fascists a plan for abolishing universal suffrage. In brief this is what he commanded: 1) Only members of the 13 Fascist corporations, which include all Fascist producers and workers, shall be eligible to vote, because they are active contributors to the advancement of the nation.

2) Only one ticket will be presented to the voters and the whole country shall be considered as one electoral unit.

3) The Fascist corporation shall select a certain number (to be fixed later) of candidates for election, most of them to be technical men well able to represent their art, craft or profession. Their names must then be submitted to the Fascist Grand Council, which will eliminate those whose Fascist faith is not considered strong enough and whose technical knowledge is considered inadequate.

4) The Grand Council will nominate a number of its own candidates, who will represent the political interests of the party.

5) The whole list will then be submitted to the (Fascist) electorate, which will have no other party from which to choose.

6) The number of deputies will be reduced from 560 to 400.

7) Senators will continue to be appointed by the King on the nomination of the government.