The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-26
The Italian IMMIGRANT.

A friendly correspondent Of THE Sun
seems 10 DO troubled IN mind about the
merging Of Latin immigrants, who are
now coming 10 our shores In great NUM-
bers, with the native stock, whatever
that may be after seventy-hve years or
moro OF additions 10 the colonists and
their descendants. II IL q broad and
deep subject, and as he seems TO single
out the Italians al not altogether desir-
able, any remarks TO be made upon IL
may be confined to the influx Of those
people.
At the outset It may be said on the
authority Of specialists that about 81
per cent. OF the italian immigrants re-
turn to their own country to live on their
savings, Are the other es per cent. q
menace to our institutional Arc they
likely to pull down the average and work
deterioration in the conglomerate people
Of American We are no longer English,
Scotch and Irish, but a composite Of
many nations.
In his book, aThe Problem OF the I'M
migrant Mr.. j. D. WHELPLEY says:
Throughout Europe tho word America u
synonymous In all languages with freedom. pros.
pertty and happiness. The desire to reach America
Is Che nrst sign OF awakened ambition. the nrst
signA OF revolt against harsh environment. the
dream Of age and youth alike
II the dream can be realized, the as
sumption is that the new citizens feel q
pride in their adopted country, and have
no desire to return to the land of their
oppression and misery. In the case Of the
Italians the disposition is not 80 general
as it Is among the Germans and the
Irish; but it is only fair to suppose that
the Italians who take roo here are just
as loyal to the United States as any
other transplanted aliens. In a letter
to THE Sun, Superintendent of Educa-
ton CHANCELLOR of Paterson writes Of
the large colony Of Italians in that city:
They send their children to school and conduct
themselves as good Americans
Two countries in the Western Henri
sphere particularly attract the Italian
emigrants: Argentina and the United
States. Argentina has been justly called
the United States of South America, and
it owes much of its progress and wealth
to the Italians who have built it's rail-
per cent. Of the Argentine immigration
is Italian. 1t is within bounds to say
that the extension of our own railroads
and the construction of our public i'm
provements during the last twenty years
have been largely the work of Italians,
who have supplanted or taken the place
of the Irish as unskilled laborers. To
do the rough work OF the country we
must have willing hands, and no people
are better able to stand the strain and
are more faithful than the Italians. Their
numbers, however, are not as great as
the immigration returns indicate. From
a personal examination of the manifests
of several thousand Italians at Ellis ISL
and, New York remarks Mr.. PRESCOTT
F. HALL in Immigration, "the writer
can state that large numbers have been
here two, three, four and in some cases
six or more times
The worst thing that can be urged
against the Italian immigrants is that
many of them are illiterate. 1t has been
estimated that IL per cent of the north
ern Italians and 1856 per cent. of the
southern Italians could not read and
write; but in the second generation
this reproach is removed; and besides,
education is no guarantee of the moral
or economic value Of an immigrant.
The Italians are extraordinarily thrifty.
They are among the most industrious and
temperate of the aliens who come to the
United States, and although they have
their own hot blooded quarrels, they
seldom interfere with other people, and
~scrupulously mind their own business.
In a word, their virtues are apparent
and their vices their own.
In 1904 the immigration Bureau made
a census of aliens in public institutions,
from which it appeared that 5s.S per cent.
were Irish, Germans and English, and
2s.s per cent. were Slavic and Italian.
So, in spite of the facts that the pro-
portion Of illiteracy among the Italians
is large and that they are the product
of wretched economic conditions, and
therefore under suspicion, they make
their W way in the New World, asking
no odds of their competitors and keeping
fairly free of the jails and asylums. What
the fusion of them with the much fused
American stock will result in we shall
net undertake to say; but the develop
rosnt and progress Of the United States
prove that environment is more con-
trolling and moulding than heredity.
A Veterans Opinion Of the senate.
Tho traoSon opaoialists aav tho San