l8 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
from 1896 to 1916—were demobilized. Discontent was
general and strikes were on the increase.
' Several factors helped to create and prolong this
discontent : the difficulty of starting regular work again
after so many years spent in danger and suffering, but
also partly in idleness ; the inertia caused by the
exhaustion of will-power which had been over-worked and
over-exploited;1 the reaction against over-strict dis-
cipline too long maintained ; the irritation caused by the
non-fulfilment of the lavish promises of radical economic
reforms made to encourage the troops to the supreme
sacrifice ; the revulsion against the squandering of ill-
gotten wealth. But the chief cause of unrest was unques-
tionably the constant rise in the cost of living. The rise
in prices was hastened by the effects of monetary inflation,
hitherto artificially mitigated, and by the dearth of goods
imposed on a population eager to throw off wartime
restrictions. The rise in the cost of living, by increasing
the discontent of the working classes, forced them to
make continual demands for higher wages and kept them
in a state of constant irritation and uncertainty about the
future which often broke out into violent demonstrations.'
(See G, Mortara, Prospettive Economiche.}
Strikes, which were on the increase towards the middle
of 1919 (200,000 metallurgical workers in the north, 200,000
agricultural labourers in the provinces of Novara and
Pavia, printers in Rome and Parma, textile workers at
1 This fit of laziness was epidemic in all countries that had taken part in
the war. In France it was referred to by M. Gabriel Seailies in a pamphlet
issued by the Ligue des Droits de VHomme : * From all parts of the country we
hear the same complaint: there is unrest at home ; the workers are passing
through a fit of laziness; they want to earn more and produce less. Some
want to blame this entirely on the working class. Laziness takes many forms
... it is to be found in the negligence of an administration which lets itself
be governed by^events it has not the skill to foresee, in its lack of any economic
or financial policy and its postponement of fiscal measures which should have
been passed long ago ; in bureaucratic inertia, unable to abolish out-of-date
methods which smother the country's energies with red tape ; in the craving
for pleasure of war-profiteers who have decided that earnings give a right to
repose ; in lack of enterprise amongst heads of industry ; in the increase of
middlemen who augment the high cost of living ; in willingness to speculate
on industrial profits rather than increase production by proper organization/
This picture of France in 1919 exactly reflects the grievances felt at the same
time during the crisis in Italy.