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almost as powerful as the state. Italy had the problem of everymodern state—how to function as a state with these two gianthostile forces struggling for mastery within its body.The end of all this was inevitable. Giolitti had exhausted the possibilitiesof spending and debt, social welfare, and of political maneuvering.Across the Mediterranean was Tripoli. And to Tripoli thebewildered Premier who did not want war led his people to war asthe refuge of a nation which, unable to solve its problems, fled fromthem.Nationalism was in the air. Britain, France, Spain had been busygathering the remnants of Africa. Italy had been encouraging Italiansettlements in Tripoli for some years. The nationalists and the romanticistsraised the cry for the occupation of Tripoli. Certainsocialists and liberals—from the side ordinarily opposed to war—were for it. Labrioli, socialist leader, had clamored for it for years.Signora Sarfatti, Mussolini's authorized biographer, tells how Turatiand Treves, also socialist leaders, were disposed to go along withGiolitti on the theory that by playing his imperialist game theywould cash in on their domestic policies, but that Anna Kulisciofïshamed them out of their weakness. 4 The pacifists Moneta and. Voce,opposed to colonial expansion, saw good in it and Colaganni calledit a baptism of Italian unity. In the state of mind of Italy, withthe uneasy spirit infecting all classes, it was an easy matter for thewar-minded imperialists to create the necessary support for theTripolitan adventure. And so Giolitti, who looked for every streamof opinion and moved with that stream, took Italy to war withTurkey for Libya.Croce says Italy went to war because the Italians wanted to goto war, could not sit idle while other powers took the whole Africancoast, and because Italy could not endure the odium of the Ethiopiandisaster. "Giolitti," he added with a soft, sentimental touch,"who understood what Italy wanted, like a father who sees thathis daughter is in love, and thereupon, after due inquiry and precaution,takes steps to secure for her the husband of her choice,took her to war."That war was undisguised aggression, which is bearing its poison-*Ufe of Benito Mussolini, by Margher¡ta G. Sarfatti, Frederick Stokes, New York, 1925.38