Il Piccolo
- On the Paths of the New History
- The Reform of the Provincial Councils
- A Speech by Stresemann at the Volkspartei Congress
Il Piccolo's page of 3 October 1926 opened with an editorial on Italy's place in post-Locarno diplomacy. It denied that the 'latest event' it discussed was a reply to the Franco-German meeting at Thoiry and linked it to the Mediterranean question. It insisted on Italy's treaty rights, including over colonial mandates, and welcomed the identity of views between London and Rome. A news report set out the Interior Minister's bill to reform provincial government on the model of the 1926 municipal laws. Under it, each province would be run by a government-appointed commission with a Consulta dominated by legally recognized syndical associations. A dispatch from Berlin described Stresemann opening the German People's Party congress in Cologne in a hall hung with imperial black-white-red flags. In his speech he mocked 'foolish nationalists' and defended the road from Locarno and Geneva to Thoiry.
Translation
On the Paths of the New History
This latest event, although it is not, as some have thought, a response, either direct or indirect, to the Franco-German meeting at Thoiry, is in fact connected not only with general European policy after Locarno and Geneva but also with the problem of the Mediterranean, in which Italy and England have a direct and extensive interest. In any case, it is one of the fixed points of Italian policy. For every further development of the understanding between Berlin and Paris, that policy reaffirms and reconfirms the correspondence of Italy's most vital interests and of the rights it derives from the treaties, rights that are pre-eminent in certain questions, such as that of the colonial mandates. And it is not without satisfaction that Italy has found in England an identity of views, and that the policy of the British Empire stands on the same plane as the policy of Rome. With the patient [?] now past and concluded, [?]
The Reform of the Provincial Councils
The Minister of the Interior has outlined the contents of the bill that he prepared together with the Minister of the National Economy to reform the provincial and municipal system. It is known that under the laws of 4 February 1926, No. 237, and 25 June 1926, No. 1262, every Commune of the Kingdom has been placed under bodies that derive their origin from the podestà of the State. Beside them stands a Consulta made up of representatives of the corporative organizations. In this way the real interests of the working classes and of all the social activities gathered in those organizations have replaced the fictitious interests of the parties and, worse, of the factions. The principles behind the laws that established the podestà magistracy for the Communes logically had to be applied to the Province as well. The Province must remain a self-governing body, and its functions, which answer to a reality of concrete interests extending beyond the sphere of municipal life, are capable of further development in themselves. Even so, it could not have kept its existing system without breaking the logical unity of the principles translated into legislative precepts for municipal administrations, and without creating an anachronistic disparity between the Commune and the Province. The aims of these two bodies differ in their limits and powers with regard to certain economic and social activities, but they have substantially the same objective. It therefore became necessary to harmonize the system of the Provinces with the one already put into effect for the Communes. It was established that in each Province the full powers for managing the Province would be entrusted to a Commission appointed by the Government and assisted by a Consulta, in which the representatives of the legally recognized syndical associations were to have the predominant part.
A single economic and administrative Consulta
But through corporative representation in the provincial Consulta, [?]
A Speech by Stresemann at the Volkspartei Congress
BERLIN, 2 — The congress of the "Volksparti" was opened today in Cologne with a speech by its leader, Stresemann. The speech dealt mainly with foreign policy. The hall, packed with delegates, was decorated with black, white and red flags, that is, the old flag of imperial Germany. Not a single emblem of the Republic was to be seen. Stresemann himself and other party figures did not consider it appropriate to wear the colours of the Republic in their buttonholes. Not wishing to wear those of the monarchy either, however, they left their jackets unadorned. Stresemann attacked the nationalists with cutting irony: "Those foolish nationalists who make Germany's salvation depend on the highly hypothetical success of acts of force." Stresemann reviewed the whole course of German policy that finally led to Locarno, to Geneva and to Thoiry. The results of these stages were the evacuation of the Ruhr and of the first Rhineland zone, and the Reich's entry into the League of Nations on an equal footing with the other great powers. Stresemann has confidence in the League of Nations, not so much because of its capacity to put its
Context
The podestà system that the provincial reform set out to copy
The provincial bill makes sense only against the municipal overhaul that came before it, which the article cites as the laws of February and June 1926. In February 1926 the regime abolished elected town councils and mayors. It placed all comuni except Rome under a podestà, an authoritarian mayor with full executive and legislative powers who was appointed from above for a renewable five-year term that could be revoked at any time. Larger communes also got an advisory consulta municipale, but it was nominated by the prefect or, in the big cities, by the Ministry of the Interior, not elected. This is the background to the article's claim that a Consulta of corporative representatives replaced the 'fictitious interests' of parties with the 'real' interests of the working classes. The report was relaying the government's own justification. Structurally, though, the new provincial body it describes had the same features: a commission appointed by the government and advisers drawn from state-recognized syndical associations. It carried the same appointed-executive model up one level of government. The podestà system survived until 1945, when it was dropped with the return to democracy.
What Locarno and Geneva had actually given Germany by 1926
In the Cologne speech as reported, Stresemann presented Locarno, Geneva and Thoiry as stages that paid off in the evacuation of the Ruhr and of the first Rhineland zone and in Germany's equal entry into the League of Nations. The Ruhr and League claims match the course of events. Stresemann had been foreign minister since 1923, and his first notable achievement in that post was the 1924 Dawes Plan, which reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment and ended the occupation of the Ruhr. In September 1926, as planned during the Locarno negotiations, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations as a permanent member of its Council. That is what the report's 'equal footing with the other great powers' refers to. The Franco-German side of this diplomacy was also recognized internationally: Stresemann and Aristide Briand would share the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on Locarno. The Italian editorial on the same page, with its reference to Thoiry, was responding to precisely this understanding between Berlin and Paris.
Imperial flags in the hall and a bare lapel on the leader
The correspondent's attention to the black-white-red flags and Stresemann's unadorned jacket reflects a real tension inside his party. The German People's Party was the heir of the National Liberals. It sympathized with constitutional monarchy and used the imperial colours of black, white and red. Stresemann himself had at first rejected the Republic. By the mid-1920s he was seen as a 'republican by reason': he accepted the Republic as the least bad option while remaining loyal to the monarchy at heart. His bare buttonhole, showing neither the republican nor the monarchist colours, fits that description closely. The party's more conservative members never really trusted him, especially as he became more supportive of the Republic. His jab at 'foolish nationalists' echoed an idea of patriotism he had already set out as chancellor in October 1923, when he said he would call 'national' the man who lends a hand to pull the cart out of the mud. The congress city also had a link to the party: Cologne's Kölnische Zeitung was one of the few newspapers that supported the DVP.
Britain, Italy and the Locarno powers
The editorial's welcome for an Anglo-Italian 'identity of views' reflects Italy's place in the Locarno system. Austen Chamberlain was Britain's Foreign Secretary from 1924 to 1929 and was largely given a free hand by Stanley Baldwin. At Locarno in October 1925 he, Briand and Stresemann signed a mutual agreement, together with representatives of Belgium and Italy, to settle differences by arbitration rather than war. Italy was therefore one of the Locarno powers, even though the Franco-German understanding at the heart of that settlement, whose latest expression was the meeting at Thoiry, was proceeding without Rome. Chamberlain is also recorded as saying that Mussolini was 'a man with whom business could be done'. That attitude gives some substance to the editorial's claim that British and Italian policy stood 'on the same plane'. The editorial paired this Anglo-Italian agreement with an insistence on Italy's treaty rights, for example over colonial mandates. In doing so, it presented the agreement as a counterweight to any further Franco-German understanding.
Original
Su le vie della nuova storia
Quest'ultimo avvenimento, pur non essendo, come a taluni è parso, una risposta, nè diretta nè indiretta, al convegno franco-germanico di Thoiry, è infatti in rapporto, oltre che con la politica generale europea dopo Locarno e Ginevra, col problema del Mediterraneo, in cui Italia e Inghilterra sono direttamente e ampiamente interessate. In ogni caso, esso è uno dei punti fermi nella politica italiana, che riafferma e riconferma, per ogni ulteriore sviluppo dell'intesa tra Berlino e Parigi, la corrispondenza dei suoi più vitali interessi e dei diritti che le derivano dai trattati e che sono, nei riguardi di talune questioni - come, ad esempio, quella dei mandati coloniali - di natura preminente. E non è senza compiacimento che l'Italia abbia riscontrato nell'Inghilterra identità di vedute e che la politica dell'Impero Britannico si trovi sul medesimo piano della politica di Roma. Trascorsa oramai e conclusa la paziente, [?]
La riforma dei Consigli provinciali
La riforma dei Consigli provinciali Il ministro dell'interno ha illustrato il contenuto del disegno di legge da lui predisposto di concerto con il ministro dell'Economia Nazionale per la riforma dell'ordinamento provinciale-comunale. E ' noto che con le leggi 4 febbraio 1926, N. 237 e 25 giugno 1926 N. 1262, tutti i Comuni del Regno sono stati affidati a organi che ripetono la loro origine dai podestà dello Stato, con a fianco una Consulta, composta di rappresentanti delle organizzazioni corporative, sostituendosi così agli interessi fittizi dei partiti, e peggio, delle fazioni, quelli reali delle classi lavoratrici e di tutte le attività sociali in dette organizzazioni raccolte. I criteri cui si informano le leggi institutive della magistratura podestarile per i Comuni, dovevano logicamente essere seguiti anche nei riguardi della Provincia, la quale, pur dovendo permanere come ente autarchico, le cui attribuzioni funzionali, rispondenti a una realtà di interessi concreti esorbitanti la sfera della vita comunale, sono capaci in se stessi di ulteriori sviluppi, non avrebbe potuto conservare l'ordinamento vigente, senza che fosse ferita l'unità logica dei principii tradotti in precetti legislativi per le amministrazioni comunali, e senza creare un'anacronistica disparità fra l'Ente Comune e l'Ente Provincia, le cui finalità, pur differenti nei limiti e nelle attribuzioni circa determinate attività economiche e sociali, hanno sostanzialmente lo stesso obiettivo. In conseguenza si è reso necessario armonizzare l'ordinamento delle Province con quello già attuato dei Comuni, stabilendosi che per ogni Provincia la somma dei poteri per la gestione della Provincia sia affidata a una Commissione nominata dal Governo e assistita da una Consulta, nella quale dovessero aver parte prevalente le rappresentanze delle Associazioni sindacali, legalmente riconosciute. Consulta economica-amministrativa unica Ma attraverso la rappresentanza corporativa nella Consulta provinciale, [?]
Un discorso di Stresemann al congresso del Volkspartei
Un discorso di Stresemann al congresso del Volkspartei BERLINO, 2 Il Congresso del «Volksparti» è stato oggi aperto a Colonia, da un discorso del suo leader Stresemann. Esso si è principalmente occupato della politica estera. La sala, gremita di congressisti, era adorna di bandiere nero, bianco, rosse, cioè della vecchia bandiera della Germania imperiale. Non si vedeva nemmeno un emblema della Repubblica. Lo stesso Stresemann, e con lui altre personalità del partito, non hanno ritenuto opportuno mettersi all'occhiello i colori della Repubblica, ma, non volendo neppure quelli della monarchia, hanno lasciata disadorna la propria giacca. Stresemann ha attaccato i nazionalisti con tagliente ironia: «Quelli stolti nazionalisti che fanno risiedere la salute della Germania nella molto ipotetica riuscita di atti di forza». Stresemann ha riepilogato tutta la politica della Germania, che condusse, infine, a Locarno, a Ginevra e a Thoiry. I risultati di queste tappe furono lo sgombero della Ruhr e della prima zona renana, e l'entrata del Reich nella Lega delle Nazioni a piede pari con le altre grandi potenze. Stresemann nutre fiducia nella Lega delle Nazioni, non tanto per la sua possibilità di pratica attuazione dei suoi
Source: Source: Internet Archive