hings into their
own hands. The storm of anger and indignation which swept the country
rocked the Government to its foundations. The Salandra cabinet, which
had resigned as a protest against the machinations of Giolitti, was
returned to power. Through every city, town, and hamlet from Savoy to
Sicily, thronged workmen, students, business and professional men,
even priests and monks, waving the red-white-and-green banner and
shouting the national watch-words "Italia Irredenta," and "Avanti
Savoia!"

But there was a deeper cause underlying these great patriotic
demonstrations than mere hatred of Austria. They were expressions of
national resentment at the impotent and dependent role which Italy had
played so long. D'Annunzio, in one of his famous addresses in May,
1915, put this feeling into words: "We will no longer be a museum of
antiquities, a kind of hostelry, a pleasure resort, under a sky
painted over with Prussian blue, for the benefit of international
honeymooners."

The sentiment of the people was expressed by the _Idea Nazionale_,
which on May 10 declared:

Italy desires war: (1) In order to obtain Trent, Trieste, and
Dalmatia. The country desires it. A nation which has the
opportunity to free its land should do so as a matter of
imperative necessity.... (2) ... in order to conquer for ourselves
a good strategic frontier in the North and East.... (3) ...
because to-day, in the Adriatic, in the Balkan Peninsula, the
Mediterranean, and Asia, Italy should have all the advantages it
is possible for her to have, and without which her political,
economic, and moral power would diminish in proportion as that of
others increased.... If we would be a great Power we must accept
certain obligations: one of them is war....

The voice of the people was unmistakable: they wanted war. To have
refused that demand would have meant the fall of the Government if not
of the dynasty. The King did not want war. The responsible
politicians, with a very few exceptions, did not want it. The nobility
did not want it. The Church did not want it. The bankers and business
men of the nation did not want it. It was the great mass of the
Italian people, shamed and indignant at the position in which the
nation had been placed by the sordid dickering with Austria, who swept
the country into war. I was in Italy during those exciting days; I
witnessed the impressive popular demonstrations in the larger cities;
and in m