cultural population of the Northwest has little love for corporations, lawyers, or the cities. Minnesota having just voted to unseat Senator Kellogg in favor of a dentist representing the Farmer-Labor party, the feeling in certain quarters regarding Mr. Butler's appointment is only a little less violent than it would have been if President Harding had appointed Senator Kellogg himself to the vacancy.

The opposition has taken specific form in many editorials in the labor press, in protests to Senators, and, above all, in a long letter to Senators Ladd and La Follette from an anonymous professor in the University of Minnesota. This letter charges Mr. Butler with unfitness for a high judicial position on the grounds of violent prejudices, high-handed and domineering methods, and what the critic regards as an excess of devotion to the cause of his clients, sometimes leading him to disregard the ethical if not the legal principles of justice.

Sifted down, these charges amount to this: that Mr. Butler has always been a man of vigorous action, absolutely fearless, and at times relentless in doing what he believed to be right, and that he is an extraordinarily able lawyer. For fifteen years he has been one of the regents of the University of Minnesota, and because he has steadfastly resisted shilly-shallying sentimentality on the one hand and political wire-pulling on the other he has won many enemies through his distinguished service to the State.

Once Mr. Butler has clearly made up his mind as to what ought to be done, he has repeatedly shown an indomitable will in bringing it to pass, and this has naturally created among his enemies a tradition as to his violent prejudices. But his whole career as a regent of the University bears testimony to his in

PIERCE BUTLER, NOMINATED FOR SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

variable willingness to hear all sides of every controversy and his zeal in studying it from every possible angle before making up his mind.

As a lawyer Mr. Butler has done his work well-too well, his opponents argue. He has been a shrewd and zealous advocate; does that fact unfit him for being an impartial and wise judge? Those who make such a claim challenge the whole theory of appointing lawyers to the bench. Mr. Butler's integrity has never been seriously questioned; the objection made by his enemies is simply that he has served his clients too well.

In answer to this, it may be pointed out that some of his most important clients have been the people themselves. Shortly after his admission to the bar he became assistant county attorney for

Ramsey County, in which St. Paul is situated, and two years later, in 1893, he was elected county attorney. In 1909 he was appointed Special Attorney-General for the Government by Attorney-General Wickersham in the prosecution of the bleached flour cases, and again in 1911 in connection with the criminal prosecution of the Chicago meat packers for violation of the Sherman Act. Two years ago he was retained by the Canadian Government as counsel in its proceedings to determine the price to be paid to the Grand Trunk Railroad when its properties were taken over.

On the other side, he was for some years general attorney for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railroad, and from 1913 to 1918 he was counsel for the conference committee of the railways in connection with their physical valuation. Most of his work for the past twenty-four years has been in the general practice of law.

In his own State Republicans and Democrats have united, almost without exception, in commending the appointment. They feel that he has amply proved his ability as a lawyer, and, far more than that, his sound wisdom, his courage, and his high ideals of public service. Nearly every one who knows him personally believes that he can serve the country, as for fifteen years he has served the State University, impartially, fearlessly, and wisely. A great many people throughout the Northwest, however, regard his appointment as a direct blow to those who have just succeeded in electing Frazier and Shipstead to the Senate. They object to him, not for the reasons alleged in most of the published protests, but because, as a St. Paul corporation lawyer, they link his name with that of his fellow-citizen and friend, Frank B. Kellogg.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 1, 1922.

T is a decidedly new departure for
Germany to have Mr. Cuno form his
Germany to have Mr. Cuno form his

Perhaps it is also a departure from the classical forms of parliamentarism. The Cabinet of Wirth was still composed on the old lines; the parties of the majority selected their representatives to make up the Government, and, as so often happens with parliamentary coalitions, they were able to keep the power in their hands for only a short period. The position of Wirth was made a trifle stronger than he really deserved only on account of Germany's international plight. The break-up, however deferred, had finally to come. Neither Wirth nor his colleagues could hold the parties together any more.

The reason is easy to find. Germany is living through a severe internal

crisis. Her social structure, put out of joint by the war, is being readjusted and reshaped, and mostly at the expense of the middle classes. The war, the painful peace that followed, recent profiteering, the fabulous drop of the mark, all that tended to produce new social elements, and this in turn increased the social struggle, intensifying the claims of the two extremes; the monarchists assiduously work for restoration and possibly vengeance, the Socialists had to revise their own programme accórding to the new conditions and digest the disappointment of the Russian experiment. In this last respect one can notice great progress made by the Socialist leaders of Germany, which brought about the remarkable reunion of the Socialist factions; the extreme radical elements have realized their

SERGE A. KORFF

mistaken position, built exclusively on the hopes of being able some day to follow the example of Lenine; they have come back into the fold of their former companions-in-arms, the majority Socialists. This in turn increased enormously the power of the latter, and a clash with the bourgeois parties became inevitable, upsetting the weak Cabinet of Wirth.

Under these circumstances, nothing was left for President Ebert but to call in an outsider, some person who would be free from party allegiance and who would be able to form and run a government on non-partisan lines, a so-called "business" Cabinet. This promised a little more stability and it promised a better chance for tiding Germany over the crisis.

Cuno's position will be nevertheless an

extremely difficult one; he won't have many friends anywhere; he will be harassed by enemies and opponents from all sides, and probably deluged by all sorts of foolish criticism. Yet he has a good chance. He is himself a moderate business man, sufficiently experienced and cool-headed to attend to the business side of the Government work; the administration of the country will probably run smoothly, conducted on strictly non-partisan lines. This in itself is a great advantage, leaving more time for the Government to concentrate its attention on the main political problems that are now distracting Ger

elements that endeavor to create artificial causes for the further decline of the mark? Thirdly, Germany needs badly to revise her international relations; in this respect Cuno has an easier task; he will have to concentrate his attention on the relations to England and Russia, and a certain co-operation in both cases seems inevitable. And, fourthly, the greatest problem of the day constitutes the internal social struggle and the necessity of finding means to avoid a monarchical restoration, to restrain obstreperous Bavaria, and save the German federal union. Will Cuno succeed in this, his most difficult task? Only the future can tell; the difficulties, no doubt, are in some ways overwhelming and the present outlook rather discouraging, but certainly not hopeless. A satisfactory solution, on which, by the way, the peace of Europe depends very much, will be found only on condition that Cuno proves strong enough and sufficiently tactful. His first steps are quite promising in both respects. Washington, D. C.

OME months ago, during the Cannes

earned for him a decree of expulsion.

In the war itself he was wounded at

He is now Prime Minister of Italy.

The hotel proprietor, M. Keller, has been telling me about him, as follows: "He has ambition and pride. He will go far. Those who think they see in him only a passing phase will find themselves mistaken. He knows his Italy too well for that. . . . I see that he has come out for loyal support for the King. That is good. But he did not impress me as very strong on that side. Perhaps you could hardly expect it from an exExtreme Socialist."

Benito Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith and Socialist of the Italian Romagna, was born at Doria, in the province of Forli, about forty years ago, and so from his earliest years he knew that Fiume lay across the Adriatic. He began his work-days as apprentice to a stonemason. In addition to being a stonemason himself, he has been a gardener, a weaver, a railway porter, a violinist, a fencer, a Socialist agitator, an editor, a soldier in the Alpini ranks, and, finally, the founder of the Fascisti.

This party takes its name from the fasces, or bundle of rods bound together, borne by or in front of officials of the old Roman Republic and Empire, as symbols of their power in imposing law and order. Mussolini's early course had been rather in agitation for resistance to law and order. His professions of extreme Socialism, not to say Communism, his publication at Lugano, Switzerland, of an incendiary sheet, "L'Avvenire del Lavoratore" (the Future of the Working nan), and his alleged extra-legal course

tolerant of any in affording a refuge to extremists of all sorts. From Switzer land Mussolini went to Germany and Austria, and, returning to Italy (1910). founded a weekly paper, "La Lotta di Classe" (Class Conflict).

From these vagabond years it is a relief to turn to Mussolini's more inspiring war record.

That record really began long before Italy entered the war. It dates from Mussolini's meeting in Austria with Cesare Battisti, the Italian patriot and martyr of the Trentino, then under Austrian sovereignty. Mussolini's fiery revolutionary soul now began to be awakened by a new cause-that of Nationalism, pure and simple. He even published a book (1908) about it and the Trentino.

His curiously mingled ideas of Socialism and Nationalism were seen four years later when, in Italy, he fulminated against the Tripolitan war and was imprisoned for it, while in 1914 we find him at the head of the Red Week Revolution in the Romagna, which apparently endangered the throne itself.

Later in the year the World War began. Italy was out of it, but Mussolini did not propose that she should remain out of it. He now founded his third journal, the "Popolo d'Italia," so that he might have a militant organ for combating the propaganda of the powerful Socialist "Avanti," which favored continued Italian neutrality, thus playing into Germany's hands. Mussolini, on the contrary, advocated Italian intervention on the Entente side.

ist as he had been Socialist before. He had not to wait long for an opportunity to show the fervor of the change which animated him.

The occasion arose in this wise. After the war the extreme Socialists rose to unprecedented power. It finally became so great that in Turin and other industrial centers they actually seized factories and workshops from their lawful proprietors and managers and themselves tried to run those factories and workshops. There could be but one end to this. It almost seemed as if Russia's tragic experiences were going to be reproduced in Italy. A long period of unrest now occurred, and it took the clever Giolitti ultimately to bring the extremists to economic reason.

But, though at the time the world did not realize it, more than economic reason was involved. Despite the brilliant Italian army triumphs at the end of the war, the social revolutionaries, not content with their ghastly disintegrating influence at the time of the Caporetto disaster, now began openly to show, not only indifference to the army, but often contempt and even hostility. If such an attitude could once have been accepted by the Communist Mussolini, it could no longer be accepted by the Nationalist Mussolini. What! was this the attitude that for one moment could be shown towards an army that by its victory at Vittorio Veneto, by the armistice it compelled Austria to sign (four years ago this very day!), had utterly vanquished its foe of centuries, had redeemed what

had too long been Italia Irredenta, and had bound together all Italian patriots as never before?

Such an amazing attitude was of course intolerable to these patriots. Mussolini instantly found that it was intolerable to him too. From the moment (1919) when he first observed it, his burning passion for unpatriotic, Communistic. revolutionary ideas definitely capitulated before his vision of a patriotic counterorganization.

The project gradually

took form in his mind. It was to be a great irregular citizen army, to back up the regular army in every way, to be its friend and propagandist, and as well to back up the officers of the civil law by ruthless deeds of violence, if necessary, whenever the administration of those officers seemed weak.

At first Mussolini called his new organization the "Fascio della Vittoria," because he wanted to emphasize the army's victory and to influence respect for that victory. But as circumstances and time went on, and the new organization was itself a long way from victory, he changed its name to "Fascio di Combattimento."

The first meeting was held in a school house and was attended by hardly a hundred persons. Socialist and Communist as he had been, Mussolini had the sense nevertheless now to appeal especially to the middle classes. His instinct proved to be sound, for they received the appeal with fewer misgivings than did the lower classes. Little by little, however, Mussolini captured the imagination of increasing numbers and assured himself of their support. He also found support in a high quarter, for Premier Giolitti himself was delighted to discover some patriotic offset. to unpatriotic Bolshevism.

Mussolini organized his followers like an army, and in this availed himself of the services of regular retired officers. He even organized the special services of arms, ambulance, aviation, and supply.

He had of course to contend with the "lunatic fringe" found on the skirts of every reform movement. These lunatic followers often got out of hand. They frequently made punishments worse than the original crimes. Burnings and murders by Communists were avenged by worse burnings and murders by Fascisti. Now and then there came along such a burlesque as yesterday's, when a crowd of Fascisti seized the secretary of a Communist society in Rome, shaved his head bare, painted thereon the green, white, and red of the Italian flag, and paraded him up and down the Corso.

Yet, despite all their self-assumed power and its often criminal exercise. the Fascisti grew until they numbered many hundreds of thousands and enjoyed more than proportionate power. For instance, two years have sufficed to reduce the Italian Bolsheviki, and last summer when the Socialists declared a nation-wide strike in all industries the Fascisti put it down in twenty-four

hours. They thus saved Italy at a critical time.

Dazzled by success, they began to go further. By brute force they deposed lawfully constituted civil authorities from their seats. Whole municipal administrations were then seized, as in Bolzano, Trent Pavia, three weeks ago. They entered the barracks and magezines and helped themselves to arms and ammunition with surprisingly little difficulty-the army had long regarded them with a generally benevolent eye.

Then we heard that they were going to march on Rome. Most persons doubted that they really would. But they did thousands and thousands of them in black shirts (the emblem of rebellion), flags and banners flying, bands playing.

And when they arrived, lo! all the political parties but theirs had apparently melted away before their display of force, and even the police were noticeable by their absence, while there was the King himself asking the Fascisti chief to form a Cabinet!

Whatever his previous experiences have been, Benito Mussolini has had no experience in governmental administration. This fact, combined with his youth and his career as a revolutionary agitator, filled all law-abiding citizens with grave fears as they witnessed the astounding spectacle of a constitutional monarch handing the reins of government to such a one.

Two things have saved the situation. Victor Emmanuel is wise and courageous to a very remarkable degree, and the new Premier, still in his rebel's black shirt, showed a sudden realization of what the crisis really meant, and instantly acted in accordance with that realization. He had the acumen to see that in order to awaken complete popular confidence his Cabinet must not con sist of Fascisti exclusively. Accordingly, he invited, not only some men of other parties, but some very authoritative personages. He actually dared ask Armando Diaz, the head of the army, to become Minister of War, and a great admiral, Thaon di Revel, to become Minister of the Navy. Doubtless acting under royal pressure, these men accepted. To be Minister of Public Instruction he secured Giovanni Gentile, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Rome. and those well informed concerning edu cational problems in Italy say that a better choice could not have been made. Perhaps the same might be said of Teofilo Rossi, whom I saw and admired at the Genoa Conference, and who now becomes Minister of the Treasury. The Mussolini Cabinet, therefore, though overwhelmingly and in some cases ridiculously Fascist, contains not only representatives from the Democratic, Liberal, Popular (Catholic), and other parties no Socialists, however!-but, what is much more, contains some men whose names are accepted by many as sufficient pledges for the country's security and welfare.

For the present this is all very well in its way. But what of the future?

What are we to expect from Mussolini's domestic policy when he impru dently and impudently begins by seizing newspaper offices-especially that of the Milan "Corriere della Sera," the paper having deservedly the widest circulation of any in Italy, a paper whose loyalty, broad vision, and moderation have never been doubted?

And what are we to expect from Mussolini's foreign policy if, following that outlined in his own editorials in the "Popolo d'Italia," he acts aggressively against England and France in the Mediterranean? Or against Jugoslavia, as one may gather from his utterances a few days ago that Fiume and Dalmatia should not despair but confidently await their redemption? Yet Mussolini knows as well as any one that Italy by treaty has pledged herself to respect the sovereignty of the Free State of Fiume.

Let us hope that the responsibilities of high office will give Mussolini something more of an "international mind" and, above all, lessen his indifference to constitutional forms of government, so that Bolshevism, which at one time might very well have looked towards him as its potential leader in Italy, will now find in him more than ever a stern foe.

Fascism is unlike the forms of most other revolutionary movements. Cer tainly in our latter-day history it stands unique. As the new Premier remarked the other day at the Naples Conference of his party: "Fascism is the most interesting, the most orginal, and the most powerful phenomenon that has appeared in the world since the war." Interesting? Yes. Original? Yes.

Powerful? Yes; but will the Mussolini Cabinet last? To this question from me to-day a local banker with interests in Italy replied, "It may last six weeks." Another man declared, "It will last six months."

We shall see. Whether weeks or months, may no bloodshed stain its course or mark its administrative transformation into something else!

After all, the Mussolini Cabinet is but the temporary outward sign of an inward strengthening. That strengthening of determination to will and to do must remain, in the opinion of all of us who heartily join with the Italians in the cry of "Viva l'Italia!"

But to obtain this permanent result many Fascisti will have to revise a fundamental misconception; the deeds of a dictatorship imposed by force are not the deeds of a government of all the people established by law. And all Italians may remember that a revolution under the guise of ruthless enforcement of law may lead to as much ultimate tyranny and disintegration as would a revolution merely inspired by the desire for greater freedom.

Cannes, France.