xil THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
(which does not mean the exclusive) determiner of the kind
of peace in which the world was to live. Even now it is
in the highest degree doubtful whether our rulers ever
studied the inward audacity of the fascist advent to power,
and especially its accumulation of arms and organization
of political support at critical localities, to be used at
critical junctures where their available force could be
exercised out of entire proportion to their real material
and psychological strength. The identity of the tactics of
aggression at home and abroad is perfect, except that to
the former two necessary additions were made—to divide
allies and associates on the opposing side, and parties and
classes in hostile nations, and to seal hermetically the fascist
country from the truths which might filter in from outside.
If those who have our destinies in their hands have under-
stood these verities, and nevertheless have not taken the
appropriate measures to safeguard us, then the only other
conceivable explanations are too dreadful to contemplate.
In a final chapter, the Epilogue, Signor Rossi, reflecting
on his personal struggle and the moral issues, contemplates
the future. We need not epitomize the conclusions since
the chapter is quite short. We offer only two quotations as
evidence of the serenity and force of the author's mind and
the quality of the rest of this book.
* The fascist experiment proves that an idea is jeopardized
when its background is destroyed. <c Ideas cannot be
killed/5 is a sublime and dangerous commonplace, which
ignores the fact that an idea needs material support if it
is to last. An idea is a generation, or a succession of
generations. If the generation disappears and the succes-
sion is cut, the idea is submerged and the inheritance lost.
When the fascists kill, banish, or imprison their enemies,
burn their houses, and destroy their institutions, they
know what they are about and they clo not strike in
vain. . . .*
And again :
c In point of material and military strength we must
be superior to the fascists since that is the ground on