The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-09
italian Labor in the South.

Italian Labor in the South.
The labor famine in the cotton belt
is becoming serious, the shortage De-
ing officially estimated at 2,OOo,ooo
hands. Business agents from the
south are scurrying over the north IN
an effort to make up as much OF TINS
shortage as possible, but even with
the best they can do, the situation Will
unsatisfactory. The dispatches
say that the new steamship line be-
tween New Orleans and Italy, which IS
to bring over vast numbers of Italians
for work on the southern plantations,
will not commence operations W ii
September, too late for this years
crop, but by another crop year these
foreigners will have begun to arrive
in such numbers as to affect the solu-
ton Of the southern labor problem.
In this connection a word may be
properly spoken regarding the char-
acter of this Italian immigration.
Much light is thrown on the subject
in an article in the Popular Science
Monthly, written by DR.. Allan NC
Laughlin, of the federal public health
and marine hospital service, who has
given it careful study. He finds the
Italian immigrant much more de-
sirable acquisition than many nave
supposed him to be. The northern
Italian is usually int Higent, as ompSares
favorably with the Scandinavian or
q J,;1 Nv 0f h iS
coming is rarely questioned. The
southern Italian, however, as rule
cannot read or write, and is nearly al
ways an unskilled laborer. It is men
from southern Italy who are to be
brought to the cotton fields.
According to official reports, IS per
| cent of our Italian immigration in 1908
At per cent Of it landed at New York
and % per cent at Philadelphia. A
large proportion remained in the
cities, owing to the immobility of pow
erty. These people, DR.. Mclaughlin
points out, should be farmers, but
| their ignorance of English stands in
the way on one hand and their pow
|
great cities and are compelled to re-
main there, because no means have
been provided for taking them to the
country districts. It is this means
/ which the cotton planters will now
provide.
! Wherever the immigrant from
southern Italy has been able to ge
to the farm he has succeeded, as wit
mes what has been done at Vineland
New Jersey, and. in Texas, Alabama
Mississippi, Louisiana, California and
i other states. His ignorance is con
ceded, but he responds quickly to edu
cation, has a deft hand that adapt
him to the trades, and an artisti
sense which, under proper cultivation
would give him a respectable place II
any community. He is less frequently
a public charge than the immigrant
} from many other countries, and whe1
free from padrone and banker, be
comes useful citizen in surprising
ly short time. His moral standard
are high. The men are loving hus
bands and fathers, the women devote
wives and mothers, land the childre
models of flial love and respect. Hi
, crimes are usually those Of violence
. and as DR.. Mclaughlin says, "out
growths of the custom of taking tn
, law into their own hands in a countr
! where the poor had little or no re
, dress from the law"
. This expert-opinion is doubtless we
t founded, tho it runs counter to tn
t popular impression. One beneficent Ell
feet of the southern imnnigratio
E movement will be reduction of tn
number Of Italians in the large cite
: of the north, where they are out {
place, but from which, as has bee
. said, there has been no possibility {
> escape.