THE INTERNAL CRISIS OF FASCISM 167
delegate who complained that Italy had only very weak
armed forces on the Jugo-Slav frontier by shouting : c We
are there. We will send a punitive expedition to Lioublana.3
4 Loud applause5 records the official account of the
congress.
Another episode, which had an important influence on
the internal development of fascism, speeded up the union
of the two schools of thought. The Tuscan and Emilian
squads had arrived in Rome equipped for a punitive
expedition, and they began attacking anybody in the
streets who wore a red tie or did not uncover as they passed,
as if they were in their c own 3 Florence or Bologna. At the
station they killed a railwayman, and there was a general
strike in protest. The government was alarmed. Fascist
activity in other towns was all very well, but in Rome there
were embassies, the Vatican, pilgrimages. . . . There were
further incidents, and the fascists began to feel themselves
surrounded by an atmosphere of hatred and contempt.
They revenged themselves by leaving behind them in the
Augusteo, the hall where the congress had been held, piles
of litter and dirt. In the Chamber Mussolini spoke of
* misunderstandings between the people of Rome and the
fascists3, Grandi of forgetfulness and c ingratitude \ But
both had learned their lesson. Mussolini had discovered
that the only fascism that counted was that of the squads,
whose confidence he had to win back if he wanted a real
force behind him. Grandi realized that the Po valley was
not the whole of Italy, and that, even where it seemed to
have triumphed, fascism could not last without support
from the state. Shortly after he wrote in this connection :
c A violent and dictatorial seizure of the powers of the
state seemed to us at times to be an immediate necessity ;
all the more obvious because it seemed possible and
easy . . . the days in Rome destroyed this illusion. There in
November we all felt clearly that any attempt at a rising
would fail, because understanding of the new state has
not yet matured in the heart of the people.1 * Punitive
expeditionsJ were not enough; political action was
wanted : ' Slow, steady, everyday work.3