The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-01-24
QUAKE VICTIMS
NOT WELCOMED
IN GOTHAM TOWN
New York Will Receive Fugi-
tive italians Kindly, But
Will Encourage Them to
Move to Westward.
''LITTLE ITALY" NOW
TOO POPULATED.
Italian Not Regarded as De-
sirabIe Immigrant by New
Workers, But Thousands
Are Locating There.
BY Ford L. Thorpe.

| BY Ford L. Thorpe.
New York, Jan. 23.-What to do with
the hordes of the incoming survivors
of the recent earthquake is a serious
problem which the municipal author
tiles of Gotham town will soon be
called upon to settle. New York wants
to give those sons and daughters of
| Italy just as warm welcome as she
does to newcomers from other climes
in fact, because of their bereavement,
they will receive a little more consid-
GRAFTON; but the Manhattan authorities
are hoping the open air Of coun,
try life will prove greater lure
big city by the Hudson. How to en-
courage them to be satisfied with mere
" taking in the sights of the metro
polls for few weeks, getting acquain-
ted with the residents of Little Italy
and then begin a general movement
elsewhere, 1t matters not where SO
long as they don't tarry permanently,
is the problem in nutshell.
Little itaIy's Population.
The fact is Little Italy is already
or 10000 to its population, which is
now estimated at more than 100000
souls, or more than many so-called
American big cities. Ten years ago
according to the United States census
there were living in New York city
21S,91S Italian born persons. almost
as many as there were residents in
the national capital at that time. This
influx of Italians into New York has
continued steadily during ten years,
until today witnesses the sight of these
swarthy modern" Romans, as they
are sometimes facetiously called,
crowded into district in lower Man
haitian that was never intended to give
homes to one-tenth the present num-
Der. Do you wonder, then that those
intrusted with the municipal upkeep
OF this big burg sat up and rubbed
their eyes when the mayor" and his
councillors of Little Italy, sent that
cable message to the survivors at Mes
sina, Catania and Reggie to leave
that stricken land and come make
/ your homes with US here" Sentiment
tally that cable was nothing more than
a sweet, soothing message from a we'll
brother to an i'll brother, but munich
pally, and that's all New York cares
about just now, hts significance was
pality different. Now, If those same
$4,000 or 10000 sons and daughters
of Italy, not counting those arrived
since the earthquake, accept that in
vitation to come and make your
homes with us here,'' it will plainly
mean that this municipality will have
to shoulder the burden of so many
more public charges. Remember,
good folks in less crowded communities
these same subjects of King Victor
Emanuel were bereft in the recent cat
aclysm, of their worldly goods and
chattels as we'll as their relatives and
friends.
i Italian Not Desirable.
i Without intending to give your
Italian immigrant bad name. it
might truthfully be said that he is
not desirable from the standpoint of
American ideals. AS we see him in
FthisSbusy metropolis, he is not sani-
tary person, not being used to the
luxury of the bath in his native health
and cares not whether his home circle
musters by nightfall two or twenty
two in room. The latter figure, in
fact, comes nearer representing the
true condition in Little Italy" than
the former. Again, he is never over
fastidious as concerns his person. and
his diet on the whole is not what the
average American, however humble
would consider as within the category
of things wholesome. His sole aim is
to gather little horde of American
: gold, that he may some day return
. to his sunny Italy. These facts, deli
cately set down, would seem to make
that hyphenated and commonly used
term "1talian-American" misnomer
1t is obvious, therefore, why the
metropolitan municipal managers par
ticularly the health and police depart
ments. would rather that these new.
corners not linger here for any long
period. The times are too full oil
stress for the weak to survive. the
current of East Side life. especially as
1t moves through the sordid compo
sition of Hester. Baxter, East Houston
streets, is too swift for many of these
Italian homeseekers not TO be swep,
down into the dregs. No. it would
not do for them TO settle and swell
the boundaries Of Little Italy" They
would add to the menace and hard
ships imposed under the Gotham
municipal system: and. what is more
would increase by many thousand:
; the sum of the ever-increasing power
} ty of Americas chief city.
: A Limit to Patience.
Now, your New Yorker is patien
given to tolerance toward confidence
workers, games OF chance, Tom Law
!, son and other things that try the soul
but the time has arrived to shuttle thu
cards for new deal when Kerr Har
, die NJ. P. and general handy-ma1
: around parliament for the socialists
} looks in on this old town and begins
: to roast the landscape and the bus.
workers hereabouts right off the bat