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seat and becomes so slen-[[underlined]] der. [[/underlined]] Half of the fun too is in hearing his voice, his pronunciation, and his Spanish inflection. You would die to hear either Allende or Ferella say, "For goodness sake!") ...... You should have heard Ferella's talk this morning at church on Italy. It gave one a completely new conception of Mussolini and Italy and he came right out with criticism of our ways about some things. He told of Italy's great part in the Renaissance and her political history up to the war. Italy cast her lot with the Allies because she felt it her moral duty to do so, although a war with France would have been far more popular with the masses, who coveted Nice, Corsica and Morocco. After four years of war, Italy was destitute, and the soldiers, instead of coming home to peace, and a longed-for rest, found Communism springing up. Officers were shot. Men with commissions and medals of honor were afraid to appear on the street in their uniforms. The taxes were so terrific that many people owning property had to give it up because the taxes exceeded the values themselves. There was awful unrest. Strikes everywhere. Communism springing up to strength. Workmen seized factories, threw the owners into prison, and hoisted the red flag above the building. The cry was "Viva la Russia!" Ferella described it wonderfully. And then upon this scene of havoc, to use Farella's words, "came a strong man, Benito Mussolini." And it seemed to me that there was almost reverence in his voice when he said his name. Mussolini organized the Facist movement, starting with all the young men, the students. They all wore the black shirt as the symbol of Facisti. They seized the street cars and ran them again, for example, drove them down the streets, singing while they were shot at all along the way by the Communists. It was positively thrilling to hear Ferella tell it. And so he described the rise of Racism up to now when practically all Italy is behind Mussolini. He says Mussolini saved Europe from Bolshevism. There is no doubt he saved Italy from it. Then he went on to say that we have no right to judge when we don't know the facts. "No one has the right to talk when they do not know. I do not like that. People say Mussolini is the "boss" of Italy. He is not the boss. The Italian people are the boss of Italy." Then he went on to other things, saying, "It is easy for you over here to talk and discuss things when you come back at night to a good home and know there will be good food and plenty waiting for you. It is easy to say that this is wrong and that is wrong and tell what should and should not be --criticize and discuss. It is easy. In Italy we are poor, we are almost destitute, some of our people. Italy left 600,000 dead on the battlefield from a population of 40 million. When I got back to Italy, I shall tell my friends there, "What do you think the [[underline]] great [[/underline]] political question in America is today? Some war? Treaty? How to get money to pay their debts? No! It is whether or not they shall drink wine?" The way he put that last statement was so clever, he made us look like children arguing about some trifle.

Transcription Notes:
changed work to wore.