Evening star., 1904-04-16
ITALIAN EM|GRAkTS
Consul General De Castro's
Opinion Of Them.
EVASION OF LAW EASY
CERTIFICATES OF NATURALIZA-
TIoN WITHOUT IDENTIFICATION.
Passports to Enter the United States
Issued With No Means Of Know
ing the Owners.
EVASION OF LAW EASY

general Tor the united states at Rome IL
always a pile Of original or certified copies
Of American certificates OF naturalization.
These are sent to Rome from the various
consular offices in Italy, accompanied by
requests for passports for the owners
thereof. or for wives Of the owners intent
upon Joining their husbands in the United
States. The holder of an American pass
port Is necessarily an American citizen, and
immigration laws. quarantine inspection or
other restrictions. such as are applied to
incoming foreigners, have no terrors for
him.
These certificates, as received in Rome,
are wonderful and marvellous In their typo
graphical variations. Some are of impos-
ing size. with large gilt borders. engraved
in script and carrying a seal tremendous in
its proportions and lurid in its coloring.
Each one certifies to the fact that the per-
son thereupon mentioned has become a
citizen Of the United States by virtue OF
naturalization. There is no photograph, no
DESCRIPTION; In fact, no means Of identify
ing the proper owner Of this certificate, and
the mere statement of any one skillfui
enough to answer few simple questions is
accepted as evidence of proprietorship In
this pile of certificates in the consular Of
nee nearly every state in the Union is rep
resented, ss though New York. and particu-
largest number. Last year LOO of these
were received by the American officials in
rome, each accompanied by the usual re-
quest for a passport from the embassy
Most Of them come from Naples. where the
largest number of Italians depart for the
United States.
Naturalization Certificates.
When an Italian returns to Jt.,, ,e.,.
having become naturalized citizen of tho
Cnlted states he generally brings with
MN certlhcate Of naturalization. When
ne desires to go back to the United States
Wltnout again passing inspection and full
ming the requirements of the immigration
law ne presents this certificate to the near
est american consul, who sends it to the
embassy at Rome with the request that a
passport be issued for the holder as an
american citizen. The passport and GER
eincate are returned to the owner of the
latter, and thus equipped he can proceed to
his adopted country at will
Owing to the lack of Identification data
on the certificate of naturalization the
mere statement of the holder that he Is the
owner thereof has to be accepted as com
plete evidence Of the alleged fact This
statement is made under oath before the
consul. Ordinarily such an oath would be
taken seriously, but the Italian procedure
IN tne mater OF oaths is peculiar. An oath
is administered in Italy only by a Judge,
sitting in all the formal dignity of a court.
The party swearing is admonished of the
penalties OF perjury, and the solemnty of
the occasion is fully impressed upon all
concerned. Swearing before United States
consul means nothing more than making a
mere statement, for the Italian can take
such an oath with mental reservation
which fully appeaSeS his conscience so far
as truth or fa1sehood may be involved
The result of this system is that ii an
Italian intending to emigrate to the United
States Is in doubt as to his being allowed
to land he can have one of his friends in
that country send him a certificate of nat
ural1zation, and this he can use without
any trouble In securing a passport The
same method can be used by women who
would not otherwise be allowed to land in
the United States, for by making the state
ment that they are the wives of the men
whose names are mentioned in the certif-
passports as such, for they are American
citizens by reason of the adopted national
fly Of their husbands.
Every effort has been made by American
consuls in Italy to reduce this abuse to the
minimum, but they cannot exercise wide
discretion, for the law is plain and to re-
fuse passport upon certificate might in
volve them in serious controversy if such
notwithstanding suspicious circumstances
leading to rejection in the first instance
The attention Of the United States gov
ernment officials in Washington has been
called to this matter many times but as
any change in the system involves congress
sional legislation in the matter of natural
ization laws these recommendations have
borne no fruit. A simple remedy would be
to require a certificate containing some
data for Identification of the original hold
er. or a supplementary certificate from
some responsible officer Identifying the
holder as the party to whom the certificate
was originally issued.
Character Of Emigrants.
Representatives of the American govern
ment who are stationed in Italy and brought
o1o xxifI, ha Tfati
grating to the United States take very
with the popular view he'd in the United
States They acknowledge that they are
dirty. but claim that they can be washed
They admit seventy-five per cent of Hitter
acy but point to the returning emigrants
as evidence of quickness and desire to learn.
for those who return can nearly all read and
write. They have rather a good opinion
of the character of the Italian peasant.
They say he is Industrious, saving. tract
able and inspired with a love of political
freedom, only asking an opportunity to de-
velop into a good average citizen.
Hector De Castro, the American consul
general at Rome, Is OF italian parentage,
though citizen Of New York Naturally.
he judges his own race with leniency, but
not unfairly, for he has an intimate knowl-
edge of conditions in the United States. He
has been seven years in his present posi-
ton in Rome with every opportunity for
ODS6rVlnR the tremendous EXODUS Wnlcn
has taken place during that period. His
ideals of American citizenship are high,
and he would take every precaution to see
that none acquired that privilege without
duly qualifying to the best possible degree.
He is firm believer, however in the very
great value to Industrial America of the
tide of human labor which flows from Italy
to the new world and sees no reason why,
with proper restrictions, it should not be
welcomed.
strong point is made by General De
Castro of the possibilities contained in the
Italian peasant for the western and south
western sections of the United States. I'm
fortunately, under the present American
law there can be no organization for col
onizing in the manner which would be nee
essary in this case. The Italian peasants
are Woodworking farmers. accustomed to
all forms of agriculture. and many of them
familiar with irrigation Were ii possible
for owners of large irrigated tracts of land
in the southwest to come to Italy, and call
for certain number of men to work in
irrigated fields or orchards, giving good
security for proper treatment. fair wages
and an opportunity to in time buy land
on installments, there would be no trouble
In getting thousands of such settlers for
New Mexico Arizona, Nevada and Calfor-
MIA, where they are SO much needed to de-
yelop the country. AS these people would
have no money to begin with, however, they
would be classed as contract laborers and
could not be admitted under such agree