s one, perhaps the central one of modern life. What
Fascism does not countenance is the collectivistic solution proposed
by the Socialists. The chief defect of the socialistic method has been
clearly demonstrated by the experience of the last few years. It does
not take into account human nature, it is therefore outside of
reality, in that it will not recognize that the most powerful spring
of human activities lies in individual self-interest and that
therefore the elimination from the economic field of this interest
results in complete paralysis. The suppression of private ownership of
capital carries with it the suppression of capital itself, for capital
is formed by savings and no one will want to save, but will rather
consume all he makes if he knows he cannot keep and hand down to his
heirs the results of his labors. The dispersion of capital means the
end of production since capital, no matter who owns it, is always an
indispensable tool of production. Collective organization of
production is followed therefore by the paralysis of production since,
by eliminating from the productive mechanism the incentive of
individual interest, the product becomes rarer and more costly.
Socialism then, as experience has shown, leads to increase in
consumption, to the dispersion of capital and therefore to poverty. Of
what avail is it, then, to build a social machine which will more
justly distribute wealth if this very wealth is destroyed by the
construction of this machine? Socialism committed an irreparable error
when it made of private property a matter of justice while in truth it
is a problem of social utility. The recognition of individual property
rights, then, is a part of the Fascist doctrine not because of its
individual bearing but because of its social utility.

We must reject, therefore, the socialistic solution but we cannot
allow the problem raised by the Socialists to remain unsolved, not
only because justice demands a solution but also because the
persistence of this problem in liberal and democratic regimes has been
a menace to public order and to the authority of the state. Unlimited
and unrestrained class self-defense, evinced by strikes and lockouts,
by boycotts and sabotage, leads inevitably to anarchy. The Fascist
doctrine, enacting justice among the classes in compliance with a
fundamental necessity of modern life, does away with class
self-defense, which, like individual self-defense in the days of
barb