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THE FRUITS OF FASCISM by Herbert L. Matthews

THE FRUITS OF FASCISM

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Publisher: Harcourt, Brace

The Packards' Balcony Empire and Morgan's Spurs on the Boot covered a good deal of the material included in this book, but The Fruits of Fascism seems a more tempered and objective and scholarly survey and one that may, perhaps, prove more important as a long range picture, though it is not so colorful nor such easy reading. It was finished in January, 1943 and there is virtually no attempt at prophecy; what there is has already been disproved, but that does not alter the basic value of the book as an analysis of high ideals giving way to political opportunism, the abysmal failure of Facism. He analyzes the successive steps, the early years of deliberate lack of stated program, the causes inherent in Italy which produced Fascism, and the equally strong forces which disrupted what sympathy there was. The processes by which Mussolini established dictatorship and acquired a program, -- anti-masses, anti-socialism, anti-communism, anti-proletarian. He does not hesitate to charge both Vatican and Crown with complicity. He traces the progress towards implication in World War II, the dream of an Italian Mediterranean, Abyssinia, Albania, Greece -- and behind the scenes the unholy alliance of plutocrats and hierarchs, with the profit motive the major factor, and colossal bureaucracies, while the masses were close to starvation, while youth was betrayed, justice perverted. Matthews started with a sympathetic approach to the ideals of Fascism. This is his story --after close observation as New York Times correspondent over many years.