THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1930. ITALY AND MUSSOLINI.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17971, 17 March 1930, Page 6

THE WAIKATO TIMES With which Is Incorporated The Waikato Argus. MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1930. ITALY AND MUSSOLINI.

That Italy under Mussolini has advanced from a secondary to a primary position in European affairs is generally recognised Tho risorgimento or revival in that country culminating in a united Italy in 1870 finds a parallel in a newer and ever more vital risorgimento under the strenuous personality who has gathered, as it were, the whole stream of his countrymen’s energies into his own person. lie has transformed politics, the railway and public services generally, and above all he speaks with a powerful, if somewhat truculent, voice on behalf of a people now alert and ready to seize all the advantages that unity and organisation can offer them. Benjamin Kidd in his “Science of Power,” written just towards the end of the Great War, depicts Europe as presenting the embodiment of the gospel of force, not merely in war-time, but-in the normal times of peace—the war then is an economic one and the fundamental tenet is force. During this century another arm is being made use of in the silent war, an arm that is apparently of the most pacific nature. This weapon is called national efficiency—that is a training and exploitation of all the human resources -of a country with a view to giving that country a place of eminence in world affairs. Mussolini leaves no doubt in the mind as to what lie intends. Speaking recently on this subject he asked his hearers to descend from the academic zone and consider the realities of life, and lie continued: “To say that education belongs to the Family is to say something outside the realities of today. The modern Family, harassed by needs of an economic nature, worried daily by the struggle for-life, cannot educate anybody.” lie says that the Fascist State will undertake the task of turning all the potentialities of Italian children into realities, including even the necessary religious education, to be completed with the framework of -other forms of discipline. The educational training is not to be merely of the aesthetic and intellectual type so dear to the cultured Italian, but is to be a virile and warlike education heading the people off from the world-wide trend to universalism -or pan-pacificism until such time as they shall have reached national adulthood. Mussolini’s immediate aim is the creation of an efficient education -over the whole field including the ideal of a healthy school population, with a great effort for universal secondary education. This means that Italy will be an increasingly severe competitor in all professional and industrial activities—Mussolini wastes no energies or money on unproductive enterprises. There is little doubt that he is imitating England in this respect. For nearly 20 years the London Times advocated secondary education for all and frequently outlined a scheme which has recently been adopted. Mr Baldwin's Government accepted the scheme, made preparations for it, and had so far advanced with it that when the Labour Ministry entered into power it had merely to continue the policy of the Conservative Party. A recent cable conveys the information that the school age has been raised to 15, this to come into force early in 1931. This will mean that the talent of the nation will be exploited as never before. England has ceased to think of education as a nuisance or a charity offered to the poor—she has awakened to the realisation at last that what makes a people great is great opportunity and a great spirit. Within a very few years English technical education should be unequalled in the world; for America is shackled by the non-exist-ence of a central co-ordinating authority—every American State has its own system. Class barriers in education are still very strong in Germany, despite the outward change in the framework of government from Kaiserism to Republic. In France, too, despite the long existence and democratic .ideals of La Bepublique, wealth, social prestige and a strictly selective system of secondary education make avenues of advancement very restricted in -comparison with those now opening up in Britain. It is notable that a great deal -of attention is being paid to British methods by Italian and German thinkers and educators. A recent book published in Italy, “La Scuola in InghiltcrraV—i.e., “The School in England," and a number of articles in their journals show how that country is prepared to adopt anything that will lead to the proud national position Mussolini seeks for his beloved fatherland. There will be repercussions of this movement far beyond the educational and industrial sphere. Forty million people led by a volcanic personality, drilled and taught in all that modern education has to offer, will constitute a State that must have an important voice in alt European counsels henceforth. What Mussolini declares to-day Italy docs tomorrow. The rise of Italy to power js no bad thing—had she been in 1914 what she is to-day Germany would have hesitated before incurring her hostility. Her newest move in the risorgimento is only another exemplification of General Smufs’s epigrammatic summary of this generation—- “ Humanity has struck its tents and ;s on the march once more.”