Then, in contravention of a precise undertakipg, it put nearly fifty million lire, taken from the consumers, into the pockets ·of the sugar speculators; And finally, it now finds itself burdened with over 40,000 quintals of German sugar, paid for at a price ·which is making its resale difficult. Cost of Li·ving. Fascism has destroyed the co-operatives and the communal authorities and voluntary associations which aimed at keeping down the cost of living. But in June, 1923,. the Minister of Commerce set up a Committee which reported that "the State must encourage, intensify and co-ordinate the action of the administration and the local authorities in connection with the organisation and discipline of the markets, on the one hand, and the efforts, on the other hand, of provincial and communal authorities, co-operatives, chambers of. commerce and private individuals to secure the most economical means of supply'' ; and the Minister proposed ''to · set up authorities to control the supplies of the more important centres.'' (June 22, i923.) Thus, in substance it was proposed to return to the system which had been destroyed., Actually, ho,vever, nothing was done. The markets were not supervised. Order was not introduced into the system of supplies. Authorities were not cdnstituted; and speculation triumphed. Here, indeed, is a specimen of local Fascist methods, from Carrara: The Fascist High Commissioner assembles all the marble quarrying firms, deplores the unrestrained competition, establishes a price, "prohibiting any sort of reduction, direct or indirect," and threatens any who sell at cheaper rates with ''branding as guilty of improper trading, with all the logical and practical consequences . . . assuring his hearers that he has the support of the Government. . . . Agreements already concluded at lower rates are to be Biblioteca Gino Bianco
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