The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-10-15
FRANK 3. HOWE, Editor and Publisher
Italians and Italians.

Undoubtedly having IN mlnd the
denunciation of the race by several
state papers during and following the
trials Of a number of Italians in the
Rutland county court for the crime Of
murder, the Mortified News picks up
the cudgel in behalf of the Latins who
have taken up a residence in Vermont
and charges that an injustice is be-
ing perpetrated upon industrious,
honest and progressive citizens.
In taking this position the editor
of the News is not far out of the way
If he is basing his conclusions upon
personal experience and acquaintance
with the Italian citizens who, attract
ed by the granite industry Of Wash
ington county, have identified them
selves with several communities in
the immediate vicinity of Barre and OF
which Mortified is one. But in his
deductions the editor of the News
loses sight of the fact that there are
Italians and Italians, or in other
words that there are Italians and
Dagos.
The natives of the sunny peninsula
who have located in Washington coun
ty and whose children as the News
editor correctly says, are attending
the public schools and demonstrating
by their scholarship that the rising
generation of Italian-Amercans will
take a prominent place in the bust
ness world of tomorrow are in many
respects more Swiss than they are
Italian. They come from the northern
provinces close to the Alps and have
inherited many of the sturdy charac
teristics of the ancient Helyetians
who gave julius Caesar so much
trouble when the great Roman was at
tempting to put the then known world
under the yoke of the empire.
An Italian from the province Of
Piedmont is no more Ike a native o
Calabria or Sicily than the thrifty
habitat of Canada resembles the
chronic reyolutlonist of Honduras, al
though the best blood of France anC
Spain may flow in the veins Of each
One has absorbed the yigor and thu
steady brain that snow and ice inyari
ably impart to mankind, the othe
from generation TO generation hal
been acquiring the characteristics o
laziness and passionate vindictiynes
that dominate the inhabitants Of tropi
cal and even semitropical lands.
The Italians who have earned tn
bad name that follows their race ar
not the skilled workmen who hay
come to Vermont to carve statues on
of Barre granite, establish home an
become citizens The troublesom
Italians are the ditch-digger
peasants who have been brought her
to labor on large construction wor
and who afterward locate in colonie
by themselves to breed stilettos, tn
Malta and the Black Hand
Two years ago an electric railroal
was built into Bennington from Nortl
Adams, Mass, and a large portion O
the work was done by Italians Short.
after the first payday the dealers II
firearms in this locality began buyinl
doubleaction bulldog revolyers by tn,
case and soon practically all Of thes,
irresponsibles were going about thei
work with these murderous weapons
In the pockets Of their overalls On
~ one murder was committed whQ,
the road was being built but it wa
one of the most cowardly and william
GUS crimes in the history of tn,
state.
Much OF the progress in the United
States is due to the efforts Of thu
foreign born citizens, men who have
come from other countries to TAX,
their part In the development OF tn,
greater opportunities In a newe.
land. It Is fully realized, in the ma
iority Of cases, that they have becom,
useful, honorable members of societ.
and that for the success they hay,
achieved much credit is due, but a
the same time the thinking peopl,
have begun to comprehend that W,
have been absorbing more of thu
southern Europe element than is goo,
for us during the past few years. Thu
immigrant whose clothing conceal
the little round knife manufacture,
for the sole purpose of letting out hu
man life expedltiously and whosl
brain is burdcned with ideas Of tn,
vendetta is not a good ingredient fol
the mortar that grinds out American
ism. We have legislated for the ex
cluslon Of the celestial; Il Is higl
time that similar steps were taken II
the case Of the Sicllian and other i'm
migrants with similar characteristics