Did Mussolini Really Make the Trains Run on Time?

In today's world, the negatively connotated term "fascism" is synonymous with "dictatorial." The Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, is often credited with shaping the idealism of fascism into what is today. Mussolini is also recognized by and held in contempt for the numerous atrocities he and his supporters inflicted, on Italians, Africans, and many innocent human beings. These atrocities include the creation of a punitive police state in which citizens were tortured, villages were sieged and women and children held hostage, all in the name of order and control. As a fascist, Mussolini may not have initiated a genocide such as the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, but he was ruthless nonetheless. The leader, who demanded others address him as "Il Duce," was not afraid to demonstrate this callousness, by way of sentencing those who questioned his ideology and actions to death and even ordering a mass extermination in Ethiopia and Libya. The thought of such cruelty is disturbing or saddening to many. Still, while they are quick to acknowledge these atrocities, several people point out that as a leader, Mussolini "got things done," by transforming Italy from a country filled with desperation and chaos into a strict, but efficiently-run nation. Those who take this viewpoint are most likely to mention the cliche: "Say what you want, at least Mussolini made the trains run on time." This statement suggests that in the case of Mussolini's leadership in Italy, the "ends justified the means." In other words, Mussolini may have been a brutal tyrant, but his system of government did at least provide Italians protection from the chaos and instability of former administrations. The "security" Mussolini provided then justified the loss of civil liberties and the numerous human rights violations that took place during his years of leadership. As such, the myth "Mussolini made the trains run on time" promotes fascist Italy as stable and efficient while downplaying ethical failures, and effectively serves as Fascist propaganda.

Whether the myth about Mussolini's impact on the railway system was an exaggeration of the truth or a complete fabrication is still unknown. Mussolini himself never claimed to have "fixed" the trains system in any of his books, including the very detailed autobiography My Rise and Fall. In fact, his only mention of the words "train" or "railroad" involve various trips to and from Rome and Bologna. He does mention witnessing a violent railroad worker's strike, which he felt was an "enormous crime against the nation." (Mussolini, 99).
Perhaps the reason Mussolini fails to mention any improvements to the railway system is that the trains had already undergone improvements before he took over in Italy. Snopes, the popular online encyclopedia of urban legends, claims that railway system nearly fell apart during World War I, but saw major improvements directly following the war, before Mussolini came to power (Mikkelson, Barbara and David P.). According to this theory, Mussolini managed to take credit for railroad work already completed. However, there is no direct evidence to back up this claim. The only sources cited for the Snopes entry include an older urban myth encyclopedia, entitled The Prevalence of Nonsense and a 1982 biography written by Denis Smith and creatively named, Mussolini. Smith is an English historian and apparent winner of "a dozen literary prizes in Italy," and a "Commendatore of the Italian Order of Merit."

source: www.snopes.com