Oaths

The Vatican consenting, last week 1,138 of Italy's 1,225 school teachers and college professors took the oath of allegiance to the Fascist regime now required by Italian law. A few older men stood by their principles. One little group of twelve professors gave up their posts rather than swear. At their head was a once famed statesman whose name is never mentioned in the Fascist Press: 71-year-old Vittorio Emanule Orlando, professor of law at Rome University, in 1917 Premier of Italy, and one of the "Big Four" (with Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George) at the Versailles Peace Conference. Others who joined him: Senator Francesco Ruffini, onetime Minister of Education, now a professor of sacred law; Professor Vito Volterra (physics); Professor Giorgio Levi Delia Vida (Semitic languages); Professor Ernesto Buonaiuti (religious history), who once gave up the priesthood rather than compromise his method of teaching religious history.

Thousands of schoolboys not only swore new allegiance to Fascism last week, but subscribed to a newly issued "Fascist decalogue." Typical commandments:

P: "6) Arrange your time in such manner that your work is a pleasure and your play is work."

P: "10) Every day devoutly thank God for having made you an Italian and a Fascist."

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