The Cranky Professor

If you don't know, it is unknowable.

.....Thanks for the vote of confidence! --MCT

It's probably an allegorical depiction of the improvements brought about by fascism in the state of Italian public transport.
The man, woman and child represent the ideal of the Italian people
- a sturdy man, dressed like Hercules,
- his fertile wife, evidently capable of bearing more healthy children
and
- the infant, representing both the hope-filled future of the family and the Italian race.

Because it would be anachronistic to show such characters of mythological scope in a train, the raft serves instead to represent the idea of transport in general. The manner in which it is borne along the river is meant to indicate how fate and history combine to ensure the progress of the philosophy of fascism. The success of the movement is as inevitable as the progress of the raft flowing with the current.

The river, of course, also brings to mind the idea of time. (One classic example in the English language is Isaac Watt's hymn Our God, Our Help in Ages Past:Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;

The moose is also easily explained. Man's victory over the brute force of nature is implied. However, given the context of this mosaic, and our interpretation of the symbolism of the raft and river, a more specific meaning should be understood: Moose-olini made the trains run on time.

Barbarians?

.....I'm sorry, ADM, but much as you know I love the barbarians, I fear that Zadok's reading made me actually LMCBOTLL.* Moose-olini! Though I'm not at all certain that your interpretations are mutually exclusive. By the way, the Professor-Gets-Cranky-at-the-Big-Barbarian-Show post is coming tomorrow. --MCT

*Lean My Chair Back On Two Legs Laughing

It's not a moose! It's a big fish!