1008 Ch. 25 • Economic Depression and DictatorshipOctober 27, 1922. Mussolini took a comfortable night train to the capital.
When one politician refused the king's request to form a government, Vic
tor Emmanuel turned to Mussolini. On October 29, the Duce became
prime minister. Fascists celebrated in the streets by beating up political
enemies and shutting down left-wing newspapers.
Despite the fact that his party held a small proportion of the seats in the
chamber and could not claim the party allegiance of a single senator, Mus
solini convinced both bodies to grant him full powers to rule by decree for
a year. Many mainstream politicians endorsed him because the fascists
promised to restore social order. They also assumed that Mussolini could
not long survive once brought into respectable political life.
Mussolini's shrewd management of fascist newspapers and his ability
to plant favorable articles in other papers through cajoling and bribery
helped win further support. Aided by the intimidating tactics of the fascist
militia, the National Fascist Party won enough votes in the 1923 elections
to emerge as the majority party, at least with the support of the Catholic
Popular Party.
Despite a major political crisis in 1924 that followed his implication in the
murder of a Socialist deputy, Mussolini developed an almost cult-like follow
ing. The Duce encouraged the phrase ‘‘Mussolini is always right” and man
aged to convince millions of people that this was indeed the case. He was
the first politician of the twentieth century to make use of modern commu
nication techniques. Mussolini subsidized several films about his accom
plishments; his rambling speeches, voluminous tomes, an autobiography,
and several authorized biographies were sold in glossy editions. By the early
1930s, Italian journalists were required to capitalize He, Him, and His when
referring to the Duce, as they did when mentioning God or Jesus Christ. All
Italians at age eighteen had to take an oath to obey Mussolini. Italian press
agents worked to enhance his image abroad. In Vienna, Sigmund Freud at
first praised him; the American poet Ezra Pound remained an admirer. The
U.S. ambassador saluted “a fine young revolution,” and Time magazine put
him on its cover eight times. To some foreign visitors, Mussolini's fascism
seemed to offer a third way—namely, corporatism—that lay between
unchecked capitalism and the contentious challenge of socialism and com
munism. The Duce became known abroad as the genius who managed to
make Italian trains run on time, although, in fact, such a description applied
only to those carrying tourists to the ski resorts in the Italian Alps.
Not long after Mussolini took power, however, French newspapers began
to describe him as a Carnival Caesar. The tag stuck. The Duce strutted
about, boasting egregiously, his eyes rolling and his chin jutting out as he
piled falsehood upon exaggeration. He insisted that officials and assistants
sprint to his desk, and ordered photographers to take pictures of him fenc
ing, playing tennis, or jogging by troops he was reviewing. Mussolini obnox
iously boasted of his sexual energy and prowess. But despite his insistence
that he be portrayed as dynamic, he was rather lazy. To some extent, the