The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-11-11
THE IMPORTED VENDETTA.

There will be few to deny thai the
tide Of immigration, which keeps rolling
on our shores in ever increasing volume,
is, not altogether an unmixed blessing.
While this exodus from foreign coun-
tries has in times gone by done much to
build up the material wealth and pros
perity of the United States, we have
now reached point where it threatens,
il unchecked, to prove serious evil.
For. the thrifty and well-doing immi-
grant this vast country Of ours can af-
ford to have welcome for many years
to come. Such men form desirable ac-
QUESTION to our earnest population.
They come here with the full intention
of throwing off their foreign vestments
of habit and speech. They mean to
throw in their fortunes with those Of
this country, and to become, in every
sense of the word, American citizens.
But this country can no longer afford to
constitute itself dumping ground for
the scum and illiteracy of Europe. We
have citizens of our own, who have GER
tain rights that they have won by hard
and long continued labor, and these
must not be interfered with.
These reflections are suggested by the
trying experience that New Orleans is
passing through at present. Among the
foreigners, who go to make up the het-
erogenous population of the creole city,
Italians are the most numerous We
might say southern Italians, because for
them the sunny shores of the gulf have
pleasing suggestions of their old home,
and they have flocked there in great
numbers. 1t is unfortunate for the city
they have chosen to make their home that
these men have not laid aside all of their
vicious, Traditional habits. They have
imported the vendetta, and, what is
worse, they cling to the vendetta. For
hundreds of years it has been the popu-
lar method liz Corsica and Sicily of wip-
ing out personal injuries. Such a
method of obtaining justice is entirely
contrary to the law abiding instincts of
the people of this country, and when it
is remembered that the obligation is
hereditary it is easily seen what vor-
tex of bloodshed is the unfailing result
of such barbarous practice. Blood
must be wiped out in blood, until not a
single victim is left.
For more than twenty years this mis-
cradle system has baffled the police OF
New Orleans, and supplanted amongst
these Italians the powers of the crimi-
nal law Hitherto it's action has not ex-
tended beyond the people who intro
duced it, and New Orleans has left them
to the fate Of the Kilkenny cats. But
there has been startling change. The
vendetta has overstepped the italian
boundary, and New Orleans is IN arms.
The chief of police has been foully
and treacherously murdered, and the
mayor is threatened with like fate.
There is no manner Of doubt that one
or other of the secret Italian societies
is at the bottom Of the deed.
It is sincerely to be hoped that New
Orleans will rise to the necessities OF
the occasion. Such doings in an Ameri-
can city to-day are an anachronism. II
the ordinary measures of the law are
powerless against this dark conspiracy,
drastic methods must be employed to
stamp it out. Stamped out it must be.
Wholesale murder OF this description
cannot and will not be tolerated in any
city Of the United States.