Reuters reported on October 14 that Benito Mussolini had been in the pay of British intelligence services during the First World War. The implication of the story is that Mussolini was paid to beat up Marxist peace protesters and that his “right wing” Fascist movement was a willing tool of British wealth. The position that Mussolini took, in fact, was the same position that Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were taking at the same time.

In 1909, in the great state of Illinois, school teachers one February day were directed to spend at least half the school day in public exercises, patriotic music, and recitations of sayings, verses, and speeches to mark the centennial birthday of a great hero. At the end of it all, they were to have their students face in the direction of Springfield and chant in unison the following: