Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-17

now proport4onately few are criminals?
This is unfair not only to the Italian
race, but 1T is even dangerous to America
and Americans" Mr.. Castiglione said.
1t IS quite evident that so long as Gre
dence is given by the papers and the
american public at large to the stories
relating to the so-called BLACK Hand or
ganization individual Italian criminals
Will be encouraged to continue keeping
up their delusion, for by doing so they
hide their own crimes behind the phrase
the Black Hand
CS7T MERICA is still in need of set
II tiers" Mr.. Castiglione continued.
Large tracts of it's territory must
yet be cultivated. In arousing
IeeIlng of disgust and fear against Ital-
lahs many sections of the country are pre-
vented from using them in the develop
ment OF their natural resources. few
inonths ago the Legislature Of the State
OIL virginia passed a resolution the aim
OF which was to prevent the settlement
OF Italians in Virginia. In 1907 in North
Carollna- there was also some legislation
enacted to this effect and vet in st. Hell
ena Ghe same State) there ia a flourish
ing settlement of Italians. They have
Iher own church, cooperative store. bake
oVeh' blacksmith shop, and they have de-
signed anc built all these buildings them
serves. The Southern newspapers time
ana time again have featured and written
up the virtues and progress Of the Italian
colonlsts at st. Helena, N. c."
me usual impression is that America
gets the scum of Italy" 1t is significant
that only one and one-half per cent ~
itaIlan immigrants are debarred bv the
immigration officers. The Italian imni-
grants are usually strong, healthy and
dOle oodled, their ages varying from TWEEN
W 10 tn1rty-hve years. These immigrants
never become paupers. Mr.. James Forbes
crlle1 or the mendicancy department of the
ICnarity Organization Society. saws he b.s
never seen or heard Of an Italian +ra,'-,
Detective Sergeant Petrosino saws hi NJ.
never seen or heard Of an italian von,or
on the street." and Miss Meade in be.
government report praises the chastity Of
the Slcillan women in Hammonton, N. J.
Although the Italians drink considerable
or their own light wines, they yet are a
temperate race. John Foster Carr says
With the exception of the Russian Jews.
the Italians are by far the most sober Of
all nationalities." James ]. Starrow, Of
Boston, says in recent article:-"The
italian drunkard hardly exists"
80 far from being the scum Of Italy's
paupers and criminals, our Italian irnmi-
grants are the very flower of her peas
antry," John Foster Carr said in a recent
article in the Outlook They bring
healthy bodies and a prodigious win to
work. They have an intense love for their
fatherland and a fondness for old Gus
toms, and both are deepened by the hos
tility they meet and the gloom of the tene-
ments they are forced to inhabit. The
sunshine, the simplicity, the happiness of
the old ways are gone, and often you will
hear the words, mon c'e placere nella
Vita (There is no pleasure in life here.
But yet they come, driven from a land
of starvation to a land of plenty. Each
year about one-third of the great host of
the industrial recruits from Italy, breaking
up as it lands into little groups of twOs
and threes and invading the tenements all
most unnoticed, settle in the different colo
MES of New York. New York tenement
houses are not adapted to life as it Is
organized in the hill villages of Italy, and
a change has come over every relation of
life. The crowded living is strange and
depressing. Instead of work accompanied
by song in orangeries and vineyards there
is silent toll in the canyons Of a city
street; instead of the splendid and expos
tulating carabiniere there is the rough
force of the New York policeman to repre-
sent authority