The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-10-19
ITALIAN EMIGRATION
TO THE UNITED STATES
Samuel Gompers Saws There Have Been Radical Changes
in Italy in the Methods of Conducting This Great
Migration of the Human to the New World.

f~ectiye. until at present it's operations
arc at the highest in efficiency at
tanned in defending the emigrant IN
his rights and obtaining for him the
comforts during his Storage trans
portation.
The chief ports Of departure tor
emigrants are Naples and Palermo. A
much smaller number sail from &c
nOa. Five-siXths of our newcomers
from Italy are from southern prov
inces-Sicily, Naples, Calabria, the
Abruzzi. The others are mainly from
the extreme northern provinces o.
Piedmont, LOmbardy, and Venice.
From the centre Of Italy-tha prov
inces Of Tuscany and Rome, for eS-
ample-We get very few. Not one
man in a score : from a city; nearly
all are from farm villages. The hu-
man stream that pours through the
city of Naples, amounting to tens OF
with it a remarkably small number Of
its people.
Why are these adventurous seek
ers for work in the New World coun-
try people? Why do not the city
workmen come? Is it the lat
ter. more keen to resent imposition
on him, is less liable to be subject
to the hardships in the emigrants
experiences? Or. is it because he is
less inclined to work? Or, he
resists the artificial processes an
ployed in promoting emigration?
On the latter point, I have it from
several sources of information that
the day of drumming emigrants by
false promises is almost past. Meth
er the steamship companies nor any
other agency is permitted, as at one
time was common. to distribute pos
tiers or other printed matter contain
ing more than timetable announce
mentS and other necessary Informal
ton to intending emigrants. That
''publicity" which consisted Of extrav-
agant accounts of suddenly acquired
fortunes. or of the liberal land policy
of railroad companies or our govern
ment itself. or of enormous wages
paid in certain localities in America
has been suppressed. There are thir-
teen shipping companies. it is true,
which have their competing agencies
throughout Italy, but these. being
subject to the Emigration Commits
sion's supervision, are greatly restrict
ed in their endeaVOrs to obtain bust
ness"
What induces emigration today is
chiefly the information sem from
America, Or given by emigrants re-
turned home for q time. to friends
and relatives. Usually the married
men make the venture of crossing
the ocean first alone; when they have
saved enough. they return for their
families. BESIDES. many of the younger
men return to their native villages,
as has been the custom for genera
tons with migrating italian Workmen.
not only in times Of crises. but after
an illness, or for the purpose Of mar
riage or Of rejoining their parents
or relatives for a time. The wander
erS thus at home spread the story of
high American wages. of the advan
tages Of American citizenship, of the
future awaiting Italian children in
other ocratic institutiOns-and
the Italian peasant who hears the
~wondrous tale from the brother or
neighbor has a fever for change in
his fibre that burns until he too
boards ship and sails westward.
I asked several emigrants about to
sail at Naples why they were going
to America. All replied in about the
same words: ITO make money! But
an American professional man, for
years in this port, who has talke
with hundreds that have returned
only to take a last farewell to Italy,
accompanied by their families, told
me: 'This is but their crude way
of expressing their ideal beyond the
desire to make money. The poor,
honest, hardworking Italian-and
this the emigrant usually is-has his
aspirations; a home. a happy wife,
education for his children, the life Of
a fully developed man for himself.
All this is evidenced in his speedy
Transformation after enjoying for a
few years in America his increased
wages and opportunities for improve
ment-" The stock story of the re-
jected bath tub by the unwashed com
ing up, as it invariably does in any
conversation relating to the immi-
grant, the gentleman had some testi-
mony pertinent to the subject. Again
and again, he said. he had witnessed
the indignation Of Southern Italian
emigrant women on board ship, when
urged to take a good, wholesome
wash in one Of the steerage bathrooms
now provided on all the steamers.
me, take a bath? Never, Why, I
am not a bad woman!" But he had