Arizona silver belt., 1891-04-18
THE LESSON TAUGHT BY THE MAsrA IN
 CtNEyr.


 The necessity for the restriction of European immigration is not new question in national legislation. It was a subject of fruitful investigation by the last two Congresses, and in ad- dition to the mass of valuable evidence gathered by their committees, special agents detailed to those countries in Eutope from which come the most ob- jectionable of our foreign population, nave thrown flood of light upon the matter, so that when the present Con gress assemblies it will he Tn possession of ample information to inteligently enact such legislation as shall arrest the influx of the criminal and pauper classes into the United States.
 The inquiries here and in Europe agree in naming Italy as tho source from which comes the major portion of our objectionable immigrants. Italy is hotbed of crime and the overflow from her shores is corrupting the civ ilized world. Louis M. Montgomery, a special agent of the Treasury Depart ment, who resided in Italy five years, stated that at that tune there were 150, 900 prisoners in the Kingdom, and $500, 900 Italian subjects had no visi- ble occupation or means of support, This deplorable condition continues and grows worse year by year. At the close of 1885, of these types, 64,974 persons had emigrated to the United States and Canada. During 1885 there were 273, 463 persons brought up be- fore officers corresponding to our jus tices of the peace, on various charges, and 53, loo appeared before what is called the correction tribunal
 This criminal and pauper element is so great burden upon the Italian gov ernment that every indueement is ef- fered them to emigrate, and there has grown up an organized system for de- yeloping this class of emigration which Is in the hands of spectators in Italy and the principal seaports of the United States on the Atlantic coast. Imported under the padrone system immigrants were charged as high as 500 to be brought to the United States, when tickets from Italy were selling at SIS and S2O, and upon landing at New York they were handed over to some contractor to work ont the exorbitant charge for transportation.
 It is perhaps not generally known that the land of the Maiias is the most densely inhabited country of Europe She is 30 per cent more populous than France or Austria, and despite the heavy emigration from the shore of the Mediterranean, it has been, in recent years, less than 43 per cent of her nat. ursl increase of population. The den- sity of Italy's population can be better realized when it is known that her total area Is only l10, 3S0 square miles, while Arizona's area is 113, ,916 square miles, and yet Italy sustains population of more than 30, 900, 000-about one half of the population of the whole United States.
 In order to subsist it is evident that every resource of the country must be utilized, every foot of soil cultivated and made to produce something, and 1t is not an unusual sight to see the peas nntry in northern Italy harvesting hay with siekles upon the precipitous sides of the mountains, at dizzy heights, and the women as well as men packing the hay for miles, in huge baskets strapped to their backs. Instances are rot un- common where soil has been packed to considerable elevations and deposited in crevices in the rocks and vines plant ed, and thus productive vineyards created, These conditions are not con fined to Italy, but are observable to less degree, in Germany, France, Aus tria, Switzerland and other countries. The poorer classes are disciplined in frugality from the cradle to the grave, and toil is their common inheritance
 Therefore, the restriction of immi- grafton from those quarters is necessa- ", if for no other reason than that its undiminished flow is menace to the laboring class in the United States, a danger and an injustice which they as class have been slow to appreciate. Thus far it's prejudicial effects are ob- servable chiefly in the field of unskillsd labor in the Eastern States, but it's baleful influence is continually widen ing and must eventually invade the workshop and the factory. Reasons can be multiplied why the restriction of immigration is necessary, and it will be an inexcusable deriliction on the part of Congress if at the coming session they fail to afford relief.
 
 Arizona, for her population, has given the largest contributions to the