Word: mussolini
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...Italy, despite a certain nostalgia for the days of Benito Mussolini (TIME, May 4), few would exchange the dishevelment of parliamentary democracy for the discipline of the Fascist era. Instead of advocating repressive new laws during Italy's current period of unrest, Premier Mariano Rumor's government is preparing an amnesty bill that will permit the dropping of charges against hundreds of demonstrators arrested in recent months. "We accept controversy," said Rumor, "but we will not permit democracy itself to be attacked...
Unlike Hitler, Mussolini has mementos aplenty. The principal one is his tomb in Predappio, the Apennine village where he was born almost 87 years ago. His ornate crypt and a nearby restaurant owned by Widow Rachele, now 80, are magnets for tourists and a shrine for the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement, which polled 1,400,000 votes (4.5% of the total) in Italy's last general election. As many as 5,000 people flock to Predappio on pleasant Sundays...
Like the Caesars. There are other reminders. Near Rome's Duca d'Aosta bridge over the Tiber is an obelisk on which his name is inscribed. Communists once demanded that the stone, marking the former Foro Mussolini, be removed or rechiseled. The government ruled that Mussolini had become just one more dictator in the city's history, along with Caesar, Caracalla or the 14th century Cola di Rienzi. Like them, he was entitled to a place in the ruins...
...made the trains run on time is survived by far more practical memorials. In two decades, Mussolini not only built 1,534 miles of railroads but also carved out 620 miles of waterway, 1,075 miles of highway and 400 major bridges. He leveled Roman slums to create pretentious imperial avenues and vistas and in a 14-year project drained the Pontine marshes to reduce malaria and provide land and homes for 60,000 peasants. The achievements, however, were overshadowed by depravities of the spirit. Parliament was emasculated, and opponents were dosed with castor oil or beaten to death. Mussolini...
Mere Parenthesis. Some Italians dismiss Mussolini out of hand. Benedetto Croce called him "a mere parenthesis in Italian history." But that ignores the fact that Mussolini was in power for 20 years, a fifth of Italy's span as a modern nation and longer than any Premier before or since...