Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-17

~ CARCELY a day passes without
some mention coming up in the
news of the misdoings of The
Black Hand Organization. Either
, it is BLACK Hand Robbery" -
- Black Hand Kidnapping or "A
Black Hand Dynamiter," and
sometimes even "A Black Hand Murder. .
Reports of The Black Hand Society
nave been so constant and so recurrent
That the whole country is kept III a state
OF continuous alarm. Now the question
mas come up. somewhat paradoXiCally at
hrst 1T seems, rs there actually such a
criminal organization Of italians operat-
ing together and known as The Black
Hend'?' Prominent Italians in New York
city and elsewhere and those also in a
position to most know. scoif at the idea,
and deny without exception that such a
society exists.
In the United States The Black Hand
is myth, in so far as the phrase conveys
the impression that an organization OF
Italians exists in America, or that the
Camorra or the Malta has been natural
led" Gaetano D'Amato, former president
of the United Italian Societies, wrote in
a recent issue of the North American Re
view.
Police Sergeant Petrosino. in charge Of
the Italian Bureau at Headquarters, re-
Gently said:-
ing letters are generally a hoax; some of
them are attempts at blackmail by mex
per1enced criminals, who have the idea
suggested to them by reading about the
Black Hand in the sensational papers,
but the number of threatening letters sent
with the deliberate intention of using vio-
lence as a last resort to extort money is
ridiculously SMALL
Baron E. Edmond Mayor DIES Planches,
Ambassador to the United States, from
Italy, who more than any one else knows
the conditions of Italians in America and
who is dean of the Diplomatic Corps in
Washington, has repeatedly announced
that he does not believe that in the United
States there exists an organization of
criminal Italians operating from any
central agency, like 1.-The Black Hand, Z"
and DR.. G. E. Di Palma Castiglione of
the Labor Information Office for Italians
who is in touch every day in the week with
Italian immigrants of all classes, says
AS an organization the Black Hand is
non-eXlstent. It's sole existence, in fact,
is confined to literary phrase, which has
grant, so compelling and terrible a sym
bolism that one must almost believe it
really exists when one only hears the
phrase Black Hand"
The report of the Commissioner General
or immigration, Frank p. Sargent, in 1904
contained study of aliens who at that
n
stltutions in the United States. The total
number OF alien inmates was 1885, and Of
TINS number only 1926 were Italians. In
the penal institutions there was confined
!'5lS Italians, as against 9,S25 other aliens.
IN the insane asylums there were 719 ItaI
lahs' as against 1874 other aliens and in
the various charitable institutions there
We're l'2oO Italians, as againset Is 395 other
aliens. OF the 1,31S Italians in the penal
institutions, 795 were incarcerated charged
with grave crimes and 563 were nearer
ated charged within minor crimes.
THESE figures have been given 70 in
qlcate the unfairness of making the
Iahans as race suffer for the
crimes of their proportionateIy few
C III Those who have oeen arrested
LOT oelhg members of the Black Hand.
u SANITATION really are independent male
actors VINO might happen to be socially
IItitilate' they might frequent the same
care or they might occasionally meet to-
etner over game Of cards, but these
meetings are matter of chance and ac-