ITALY: Battle of the Babes

Many an Italian is oftener a father than Il Duce. It only seems as though placid, soft-eyed Donna Rachele Mussolini bore a bouncing bambino every twelvemonth. Last week it was a mere girl-child— scarcely a major victory in the “Battle of the Babes”* which Dictator Mussolini keeps urging all Italian males to fight along with the “Battle of the Grain” (TIME, Oct. 24, 1927, et seq.). When cables flashed news of this latest (fifth) Mussolini offspring, to be called “Anna Maria,” observers plotted a battle chart of ages, intervals:

No. Child Age Interval

1. Edda 19 yrs.

2. Vittorio 13 yrs. 6 yrs.

3. Bruno 11 yrs. 5 mos. 1 yr. 7 mos.

4. Romano 2 yrs. 9 yrs. 5 mos.

5. Anna Maria 2 yrs.

As usual, the latest Mussolini birth occurred at Forli, the rustic farm in Northern Italy where Il Duce always spends his birthday (July 29) and also turns up seasonably to plow, seed, harrow and harvest his grain. Last week he was busy in Rome superintending the national harvest when a punctilious secretary an-nounced: “The child is a daughter, Your Excellency.”

Dropping work at once Dictator Mussolini ordered out his racing Alpha Romeo, donned a linen duster, cap and heavy goggles, drove at breakneck speed 250 miles over especially cleared roads to Donna Rachele. Even then he did not forget the grain. A harvest conference with leading Italian producers had been scheduled for next day in Rome. Brusquely the conferees, including Minister of Economy Alessandro Martelli, were ordered to speed to Forli too. There in the government building hastily swept out for the occasion. Babe & Grain Generalissimo Mussolini continued his fructive campaign, ordered still wider distribution of his famed propaganda poem Bread. Already placarded in almost every Italian restaurant, this poem reads:

BREAD

Italians!

Love Bread,

Heart of the home

Perfume of the table,

Joy of the hearth.

Honor bread,

Glory of the fields,

Fragrance of the land,

Festival of Life.

Do not waste bread,

Wealth of your country,

The sweetest gift of God,

The most blessed reward of human toil.

—Benito Mussolini

Turning from bread to babes Benito Mussolini spent one whole day quietly with his family before roaring back to Rome. Most Mussolinesque of his children is eldest daughter Edda. She, reputedly born before the civil marriage of her father was solemnized by the Church, now maintains a superior patronizing air toward daughters of the Roman aristocracy who dare not snub her in return. Recently she toured India, was pampered by Maharajas; presented with two tigers. Like Papa Benito she swims, dives, pilots a racing motor, sometimes takes the joystick of an air-plane. When he is away she is said to give orders to Bruno and Vittorio, but adores Romano, first of Il Duce’s children born after the March to Rome.

“Romano is the first child of my second series!” exclaimed the Dictator when the babe was born. Last week he said: “Anna Maria is the second child of my second series, which I intend to make a long one.” Placed on scales, Babe Anna Maria was reported to weigh no less than eleven pounds. Pious Catholics rejoiced that her names are those of the Grandmother and the Mother of Jesus Christ.

*Slogan: “Whoever is not a FATHER is not a MAN.'”—MUSSOLINI (TIME, Oct. 8).