Birth Boost

Determined to go down in history as the Cupid of the Age, Benito Mussolini last week started firing wifeless mayors. Beginning alphabetically with Alessandria Province he appointed married men to replace the bachelor mayors of several towns ending in "o." Next day the last bachelor in Il Duce's Cabinet, elegant Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs Fulvio Suvich, hastily married at Trieste a widow with two children.

In Rome the Dictator's bureau of vital statistics claimed that his "Battle of the Babies" has at last entered the winning phase, arresting Italy's declining population, producing a slight upturn. The population as of June was 42.424,873 against 42,007,916 in June 1933, with marriages up from 132,484 to 134,736 and births up from 505,685 to 514,735.

Most distasteful to Italy's Cupid was a grave irregularity last week at Avellino. Rosino Consolazio, 19, agreed with her fiance Montalberti Filcorate, 23, to end their engagement in a duel. On the field of honor she shot him through the head, received a flesh wound in the cheek.

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