EPILOGUE 335
£ fascism of the first hour ' with that which stood for the
defence of' private interests and of the darkest, most sordid
and most despicable classes now existing in Italy '. Having
announced in Florence : c Our programme is based on
facts', he now clamoured for a ' return to principles'. A
few months later still, when the situation had developed
further, he trampled on the vague tendencies of Grandi
and his friends towards ' democracy 3 and c syndicalism ',
and from their opposition movement he took nothing but
the bare principle of armed organization, stripped of any
political significance ; a simple weapon for the capture
of power. Besides, although he disguised his plans in 1921
under a pretended c return to principles5 Mussolini declared
one year later that c to go back to the beginning, as some
would have, that is to get back to the 1919 programme, is
to give proof of childishness and senility '. His versatility
and complete lack of scruple proved an invaluable asset to
fascism. It was he who prevented the attack on the Bonomi
cabinet in autumn 1921 ; he who persuaded the group to
support the Celli resolution in February 1922 (p. 174) and in
July succeeded in preventing the formation of an anti-fascist
group which might have become a government. If this had
taken place fascism would have lost the support, or at least
the connivance, of the state, and risked defeat. Finally, if
Mussolini had not acted as he did, the march on Rome
would have taken place in earnest and fascism would have
met its doom.
Mussolini is not a genius ; he merely has, as Mr. Bolton
King so justly remarks, c the minor arts of a statesman J.
But these he possesses to a very high degree. Much of his
strength has come from the weakness of his enemies. In
1919 he was simultaneously outbidding the demagogues and
working for the cause of reaction. This could never have
happened if socialism had not allowed it. Faced with a
constructive, which does not mean a watered-down Socialist
Party, based on the traditions, institutions and powerful
resources of the Italian working-class movement and free
from delusions about Soviets, Mussolini's tricks and man-
oeuvres would have fallen flat. From the second half of
1921 up to the march on Rome Mussolini managed to exploit