Aliens or Americans? Part 12

Concerning the charge that the Italian is a degenerate, lazy and a pauper, half a criminal, a menace to our civilization, it is shown that in New York the Italians number about 450,000, the Irish over 300,000.

In males the Italians outnumber the Irish two to one. Consider these facts: In 1904 one thousand five hundred and sixty-four Irish, and only sixteen Italians, were admitted to the almshouse on Blackwell's Island.[54] Mr. James Forbes, chief of the Mendicancy Department of the Charity Organization Society, says he has never seen or heard of an Italian tramp. In reply to this, those who dislike the Italians say that their cheap labor has made tramps of many who would otherwise be employed. As for begging, between July 1, 1904, and September 30, 1905, the Mendicancy Police in New York took into custody 519 Irish and only 92 Italians. This table will be found interesting:

NATIVITY OF PERSONS ADMITTED TO ALMSHOUSE (NEW YORK) IN 1900

Male Female Total

United States 355 199 554 Ireland 808 809 1,617 England and Wales 111 87 198 Scotland 25 14 39 France 19 2 21 Germany 290 84 374 Norway, Sweden and Denmark 22 6 28 Italy 15 4 19 Other Countries 50 36 86 ----- ----- ----- 1,695 1,241 2,936

This ought to correct some ideas as to where the pauperism comes from.

Certainly the Italians are not to be charged with it. Conditions in Boston show equally well for the Italians. The proportions for the whole country also give them a remarkably low degree as compared with other races.

[Sidenote: Few Insane]

As to insanity, the figures tell their own story: In the charitable inst.i.tutions of the country, there were of the insane: Irish, 5,943; Germans, 4,408; English, 1,822; Scandinavians, 1,985; and Italians, 718.

As shown by the a.n.a.lysis of the Bureau of Immigration, the proportion of Irish in the charitable inst.i.tutions is 30 per cent., of Germans 19, of English 8.5, while the Italians and Hebrews are each 8 per cent.

[Sidenote: Criminal Record]

The important point of crime remains to be considered. Here the Italian is commonly rated very high, by reason of the violent and conspicuous nature of most of his crimes, which are against the person. We hear of the brutal murders, the threats of the Mafia, the secret a.s.sa.s.sinations, and frequent sanguinary stiletto affrays, and are apt to regard the whole race as quarrelsome and murderous. The facts do not bear out this opinion. Here again they appear rather to the disadvantage of the older type of immigrant. The United States Industrial Commission on Immigration shows, by its statistical report,[55] that "taking the United States as a whole, the whites of foreign birth are a trifle less criminal than the total number of whites of native birth." This report further says: "Taking the inmates of all penal and charitable inst.i.tutions, we find that the highest ratio is shown by the Irish, whose proportion is more than double the average for the foreign-born, amounting to no less than 16,624 to the million."

[Sidenote: Italians Temperate]

By far the greatest proportion of crime is caused by intemperance, and here the Italians are at a decided advantage, for they are among the least intemperate of the foreign peoples, and far less so than the average native-born. Arrests for drunkenness are exceedingly rare among them, and a drunken Italian woman is as rare as one of immoral character. While in Ma.s.sachusetts three in a hundred of the northern races, including the Scotch, Irish, English, and Germans, were arrested for intemperance in a given year, only three in a thousand of the Italians were arrested on this charge. In these respects the race is deserving of great commendation, especially in face of the tenement conditions into which most of the newcomers are thrust. If they become worse in America than they were when they came, we ought to take heed to the sins of greed, and not put all the blame on the aliens.

[Sidenote: Crimes of a.s.sault]

In crimes against the person the Italians are at their worst, but the affrays with knives and pistols are confined mostly to their own nationality, and grow out of jealousy or rivalry or resentment at fancied injuries. "There are, no doubt," says Dr. S. J. Barrows,[56]

"murders of sheer brutality, or those committed in the course of robbery. There are known instances also of blackmail and dastardly a.s.sa.s.sination by individuals or bands of ruffians. But such outrages are utterly at variance with the known disposition of the great ma.s.s of the Italians in this country. There are vile men in every nationality, and it does not appear by any substantial evidence that the Italian is peculiarly burdened, though it has been unwarrantably reproached through ignorance or prejudice." This is the opinion of an expert in criminology, who has traveled extensively in Italy and knows the people on both sides of the sea.

[Sidenote: Italians not all Unskilled]

It is a fact of importance that the great majority of the Italian immigrants, while cla.s.sed as unskilled, have had some experience in farming or gardening or home industries of some kind. There is a larger percentage of skilled labor than is commonly supposed, and the list is interesting. The Annual Report on Immigration for 1905, for example, gives the distribution by occupation, from which we take some of the leading cla.s.ses:

PROFESSIONS, TRADES AND INDUSTRIES OF THE ITALIANS ADMITTED IN 1905

North South North South Occupation Italy Italy Italy Italy

Architects 10 10 Carpenters and cabinet Clergy 52 69 makers 367 1,857 Editors 9 6 Dressmakers 161 615 Electricians 24 20 Gardeners 30 165 Engineers, professional 20 24 Masons 1,374 3,161 Lawyers 12 25 Miners 1,843 492 Literary and scientific Shoemakers 287 4,004 persons 19 15 Stonecutters 409 567 Musicians 38 240 Tailors 239 2,591 Physicians 34 72 Farm laborers 6,181 60,529 Sculptors and artists 116 52 Farmers 1,397 4,814 Teachers 31 45 Manufacturers 14 32 Bakers 201 571 Merchants and dealers 557 1,415 Barbers 82 1,718 Servants 2,752 8,669 Blacksmiths 168 909 Laborers 14,291 56,040 Butchers 65 278 No occupation, including children under 14 7,632 32,115

[Sidenote: Tendency to Advance]

[Sidenote: Desire for Education]

It will be seen that not all the Italians who come are mere hewers of wood and drawers of water; while there is a distinct tendency on the part of those who begin at the bottom of drudgery, in the subways of American civilization, to advance. The desire for education and betterment is as manifest as it is hopeful. No parents are more ambitious for their children, or more devotedly attached to them, than are the Italian immigrants who have brought over their families, and no children in our schools are brighter or more attentive. There is good blood in the Italian strain. They are an art and music-loving people, and in this respect the southern Italians take the lead. They come from a land of beauty and fame, song and sunshine, and bring a sunny temperament not easily soured by hardship or disappointment. Otherwise the tenement and labor-camp experiences in America would soon spoil them. With the exception of the money they earn, the change has been for the worse.

[Sidenote: Amazing Thrift]

The thrift of the Italians is proverbial. To earn and save money they will live in conditions unsanitary, unhealthy, and degrading. It is not because they love dirt and degradation, but that they want money so much that they will put up with anything to get it. They can live and save a bit where an American family would starve. They have fairly monopolized for a time certain lines into which they entered--as the small fruit trade, the bootblacking business, and other pursuits. It is said that they have made the Americans a fruit-eating people. Supplanted in the street-vending of fruit by the Greek, the Italian has gone into business in earnest, and you find the small fruit stands everywhere, with always a good stock, and by no means a low price. As barbers and tailors, too, the Italians are becoming known. They have a pa.s.sion for land, and acquire property rapidly. Take the increase of their real estate holdings in New York as an example. Mr. G. Tuoti, a representative Italian operator in real estate, says that twenty years ago there was not a single Italian owner of real estate in the districts where such owners now predominate. He has a list of more than 800 landowners of Italian descent, whose aggregate holdings in New York are approximately $15,000,000.[57]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Born in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece--Resident in the United States 1900

Reproduced by special permission from "The Worker's World." Copyright 1903.]

[Sidenote: Property Holdings]

As to Italian savings and investments in the same city, Mr. Gino C.

Speranza, vice-president of the Society for Italian Immigrants, finds on computation the Italian investments in the city savings-banks to total more than $15,000,000. He puts the real estate holdings at 4,000, of the clear value of $20,000,000. He estimates that 10,000 stores in the city are owned by Italians, and sets their value at $7,000,000, with a further investment of as much more in wholesale business. He makes the total material value of the property of the Italian colony in New York to be over $60,000,000, and says this value is relatively below that of the Italian possessions in Saint Louis, Boston, and Chicago. The Italian Chamber of Commerce has over two hundred members, and has done much to promote the interests of the immigrants. There is one distinctively Italian Savings Bank, with an aggregate of deposits approximating $1,100,000, and about 7,000 open accounts. Sixteen daily and weekly Italian newspapers in New York alone indicate that the people are reading, and that not all are illiterates by any means. The Italian Hospital, the Italian Benevolent Inst.i.tute, and over 150 Italian societies for mutual aid and social improvement--all this in New York--indicate a degree of enterprise and progress. In the smaller cities the condition of the Italians is in many respects much better than in the great centers, since the tenement evils are escaped. The reports from such cities as Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Schenectady, New York, are most favorable as to the general character of the Italians as faithful workers and peaceful residents.

[Sidenote: Increasing Land Values]

In the cities and on the small farms of the South and West the prosperity of the Italians is marked. They take unproductive land and make it fertile soil for truck-gardening, and have increased the value of surrounding lands in Louisiana and other states by showing what can be done. If they can be distributed properly, and gotten out of the congested city wards, there is unquestionably a future of prosperity for them. A Texas colony described by Signor Rossi, who recently investigated conditions with view to securing a better distribution by informing intending emigrants as to the openings for them in agricultural sections, ill.u.s.trates the success of the Italians as gardeners and farmers.

[Sidenote: Successful Truck Farmers]

In the neighborhood of San Francisco Italians have cultivated about 250 truck farms. They "obtain the manure from the city stables gratis, and transform into fertile farms the original sand dunes." Nearly all our cities where Italians have settled are receiving vegetables and fruit as the product of Italian labor, and the Italian is first in the market.

They are found on Long Island and Staten Island, in New Jersey and Delaware, in Virginia, and in all the New England states. Near Memphis, Tennessee, there is a large and noted colony of truck farmers, and they have done much to remove the prejudice formerly existing against Italian labor in the South.[58] In this connection we give hearty second to the statesmanlike proposition made by a Christian worker who has been brought into close touch with the Italians and other foreign peoples in Brooklyn:[59]

[Sidenote: A Good Proposition]

"Pure philanthropy could not find a better field for the investment of a few hundred thousand dollars than in the organization of farm and garden colonies a few miles out from our great city. On Long Island there are many thousands of acres of light, arable land perfectly adapted to the raising of small fruits and garden products. Irrigation plants could be provided at moderate cost, insuring generous crops. The Italian is prepared by nature, and by training in his own home land, for the cultivation of the soil. In a small way he has demonstrated his ability in the land of his adoption to do the very things here suggested. What he needs is a fair chance.

[Sidenote: Strong Guiding Hand Needed]

[Sidenote: The Crucial Point]

"What is needed is the guiding hand of 'philanthropy and five per cent.'

to lead out of the congested and squalid tenement districts thousands of these poor yet industrious people who could make our deserts of Long Island sand and scrub oak blossom as the rose. Let the modern method find ill.u.s.tration here. Let our philanthropist choose for himself a board of trustees to whom should be delegated the management of a generous fund toward the end proposed. Keen-minded and great-hearted business men there are who would delight to give time and care to so worthy an object; and within five years a colony of 25,000 Italians could be transported and translated from the ghettos and filthy, crowded tenement districts of our great city into G.o.d's open country, there to be speedily transformed into industrious, self-supporting American citizens. Having studied this problem for years, I believe it is entirely feasible. Brain and heart, time and talent, land and water, enlarging markets demanding produce, men, women, and children begging for an opportunity to earn a decent living--all these are ready and waiting for use and service. All that is lacking is an adequate supply of good money to set the enterprise in motion. We have millions invested at Coney Island, at Gravesend racing track, and at the new Belmont Park, to beguile and hypnotize the ma.s.ses. G.o.d must have in his keeping somewhere millions to uplift and redeem the ma.s.ses. There is unspeakable need that they be ministered unto in the spirit of the Master."

[Sidenote: Opportunity of Wealth]

These are weighty and practical words, and some day Christian men of wealth will see the wisdom of them. How could American prosperity better insure itself and all it represents for the future?

[Sidenote: Favorable Conclusion]

What, then, is the conclusion of our study? On the whole, decidedly favorable to the Italian, while recognizing the vicious and undesirable element that forms a comparatively small part of the whole. The Italian in general is approachable, receptive to American ideas, not criminal by nature more than other races, not difficult to adapt himself to new environment, and eager to earn and learn. He furnishes excellent raw material for American citizenship, if he does not come too rapidly to be Americanized. But what he will mean to America, for good or ill, depends almost wholly upon what America does for and with and through him. Thus far, there has been too much of prejudice and neglect. Better acquaintance is the first step toward the transformation of the Italian alien into the Italian-American.

[Sidenote: Roman Catholic Testimony]

As for the religious side, here is testimony from a Roman Catholic source. Mrs. Betts says:[60]

"The relation between the Roman Catholic Church and the ma.s.s of the Italians in this country is a source of grief. Reluctantly the writer has to blame the ignorance and bigotry of the immigrant priests who set themselves against American influence; men who too often lend themselves to the purposes of the ward heeler, the district leader in controlling the people, who too often keep silence when the poor are the victims of the shrewd Italians who have grown rich on the ignorance of their countrymen. One man made $8,000 by supplying 1,000 laborers to a railroad. He collected $5 from each man as a railroad fare, though transportation was given by the road, and $3 from each man for the material to build a house. The men supposed it was to be a home for their families. They found as a home the wretched shelters provided by contractors, with which we are all familiar. This transaction, when known, did not disturb the Church or social relations of the offender, but it increased his political power, for it showed what he could do. He is recognized to-day as the Mayor of---- street; his influence is met everywhere."

[Sidenote: Accessible to Evangelism]

There is no doubt that the Italians are accessible to evangelical Christianity. Thousands of them appreciate the true character of the Church that tried to prevent Italian unity and liberty, and they are peculiarly open to the truths of democracy and the gospel. The home missionary finds among them a fruitful field. Dr. Lee expresses the conclusions of many observers, and indicates also a gate of personal opportunity to serve, when he says, as a result of personal observation and effort:

[Sidenote: Exceptionally Open-minded]