society and of history is a very rare gift and the privilege of the chosen few.  Natural intelligence and cultural preparation are of great service in such tasks.  Still more valuable perhaps is the intuitiveness of rare great minds, their traditionalism and their inherited qualities.  This must not however be construed to mean that the masses are not to be allowed to exercise any influence on the life of the state.  On the contrary, among peoples with a great history and with noble traditions, even the lowest elements of society possess an instinctive discernment of what is necessary for the welfare of the race, which in moments of great historical crises reveals itself to be almost infallible.  It is therefore as wise to afford to this instinct the means of declaring itself as it is judicious to entrust the normal control of the commonwealth to a selected elite.

As for Socialism, the Fascist doctrine frankly recognizes that the problem raised by it as to the relations between capital and labor is a very serious 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.