Journal de Genève
- The Monopoly and Wheat Growing
- The Defence and Cleansing of the Fascist Regime
- The Armistice Anniversary in France
This Geneva front page of 13 November 1926 opened with an editorial on the federal wheat monopoly. It argued that Swiss wheat growing had shrunk again after the war because heavy, stony, sloping soil and small farms kept production costs far above those of the big producing countries. A dispatch signed Th. V. reported that Italy's new laws for the defence of the State took effect at once after the latest attempt on Mussolini, and it presented each attack as a spur to tighter Fascist legislation, recalling that the death penalty had been decided after Lucetti's attempt in September. In a piece on the armistice anniversary in France, P. B. recalled the splendour of the 14 July 1919 parade and Clemenceau's piles of captured guns along the Champs-Élysées.
Translation
The Monopoly and Wheat Growing
Why has wheat growing declined again since the war, despite the guarantees that the monopoly offered our farmers? It is because economic conditions are not everything, and natural conditions must also be reckoned with. It is well known that those of our country are not particularly favourable to this kind of crop. Our soil is heavy, often stony and even steeply sloping. Moreover, we have mostly small farms whose limited resources do not allow the rational use of agricultural machinery for ploughing, sowing and harvesting. All this has the effect of raising our production costs, which are far higher than in the large producing countries, where wheat can be grown on a large scale and with all the means of modern agricultural technology.
The Defence and Cleansing of the Fascist Regime
The laws for the defence of the State, which the Council of Ministers approved following the latest assassination attempt, come into force immediately, the Chamber having been convened expressly to sanction them. Each time Fascism has found itself facing an attempted assault by its opponents, it has taken a step forward by perfecting the regime's legislation. The institution of capital punishment for offences against members of the royal family and the head of the government had been decided after Lucetti's attempt last September.
The Armistice Anniversary in France
Yet on certain exceptional occasions, people have known how to do things grandly and beautifully. This was notably the case on 14 July 1919. Nothing was more admirable than the parade held that day. The Champs-Élysées had truly been given the character of a triumphal way. M. Clemenceau had had a stroke of genius in ordering that guns captured from the enemy be heaped up in gigantic piles on both sides of the Rond-Point des Champs-Élysées.
Context
The wheat question three weeks before the vote of 5 December 1926
The editorial asks why Swiss wheat growing fell back after the war even though, in the paper's words, the monopoly gave farmers guarantees, and it answers that heavy, stony and sloping land and small farms made Swiss wheat expensive to produce. The argument appeared about three weeks before a national decision on grain policy: on 5 December 1926 Swiss voters were asked whether to add Article 23bis, concerning grain supply, to the Federal Constitution. Because it was a mandatory referendum, the proposal needed a double majority, of the popular vote and of the cantons. It was rejected by a majority of voters and of cantons. The explanation of high costs is the paper's own argument; the referendum record shows the question put to voters and its outcome.
The Bologna attempt behind the new Italian laws
The dispatch refers only to 'the latest assassination attempt'. A later account ties the new repressive laws to the attempt of Halloween 1926, when Mussolini was in Bologna, where he inaugurated the Stadio Littoriale, and a shot was fired at him by Anteo Zamboni, a 15-year-old anarchist. Zamboni's was one of three attempts on Mussolini in 1926 alone, which fits the dispatch's picture of repeated assaults and its reference to Lucetti's attack the previous September. The same account calls the Zamboni attempt the pretext for a raft of repressive legislation, including a secret police and the dissolution of political opposition, whereas the dispatch itself describes Fascism as taking 'a step forward' by perfecting its laws.
What the 'laws for the defence of the State' belonged to
The laws the dispatch reports were part of the leggi fascistissime, issued between 1925 and 1926, through which Mussolini consolidated the totalitarian regime. That body of legislation imposed police confinement (confino di polizia) on anti-Fascists, created the OVRA secret police and set up a special tribunal for state security. Under it the Fascist party became the only party permitted and all others were dissolved. The Special Tribunal for the Defence of the State operated as a special department of the Fascist government to judge crimes against the regime. The dispatch, by contrast, records only the procedure: approval by the Council of Ministers, a Chamber convened expressly to sanction the laws, and immediate entry into force.
When the death penalty was decided
The dispatch states that capital punishment for offences against members of the royal family and the head of the government had already been decided after Lucetti's attempt in September, one of the three attempts on Mussolini in 1926. An account of the Zamboni affair instead lists the reintroduction of the death penalty among the measures that followed the Bologna attempt at the end of October. The two statements are compatible if a decision of principle in September preceded the legal enactment in November, but they do not by themselves settle the exact sequence: the Th. V. dispatch is the contemporary evidence for the September decision, and the later account is the evidence for its link with the November legislation.
Original
Le monopole et la culture du blé
Pourquoi la culture du blé a-t-elle reculé de nouveau depuis la guerre, malgré les garanties que le monopole offrait à nos agriculteurs? C'est parce que les conditions économiques ne sont pas tout et qu'il faut compter aussi avec les conditions naturelles. On sait que celles de notre pays ne sont pas particulièrement favorables à ce genre de culture. Notre sol est lourd, souvent pierreux et même fortement incliné. Nous avons en outre surtout de petits domaines dont les ressources limitées ne permettent pas l'emploi rationnel des machines agricoles pour le labourage, l'ensemencement et le moissonnage. Tout cela a pour effet de renchérir chez nous les frais de production qui sont bien plus élevés que dans les grands pays producteurs où la culture du blé peut se faire sur une grande échelle et avec tous les moyens de la technique agricole moderne.
La défense et l'assainissement du régime fasciste
Les lois pour la défense de l'Etat, que le conseil des ministres a approuvées à la suite du dernier attentat, entrent immédiatement en vigueur, la Chambre ayant été convoquée exprès pour les sanctionner. Chaque fois que le fascisme s'est trouvé en présence d'une tentative d'assaut de la part de ses adversaires, il a fait un pas en avant, en perfectionnant la législation du régime. L'institution de la peine capitale pour les délits contre les membres de la famille royale et le chef du gouvernement avait été décidée après l'attentat de Lucetti, en septembre dernier.
L'anniversaire de l'armistice en France
Cependant, dans certaines circonstances exceptionnelles, on a su faire grand et faire beau. Ce fut le cas notamment pour le 14 juillet 1919. Rien ne fut plus admirable que le défilé qui eut lieu ce jour-là. On avait vraiment donné aux Champs-Elysées le caractère d'une voie triomphale. M. Clemenceau avait eu une idée géniale en ordonnant d'amonceler des canons pris à l'ennemi en tas gigantesques des deux côtés du rond-point des Champs-Elysées.