The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1910-01-26

lure superintendent !. '. NoillhS oi
the prisons of the state of New York
makes the assertion that the remark
able increase in prison population is
due largely to the influx of foreign
immigration during the past few
years. According to statistics fur
nished by the superintendent fully
one-fourth of the inmates of the
states penal institutions are aliens
and of these 4S per cent were from
single country, Italy,
An even more striking feature Of
the report was the statement that OF
, the l9 men at present under death
sentence in the prisons of New York
not one was a naturalized citizen, nor
do the records show that natural
lied citizen has been executed in the
state since the present electrical ex.
ecution law went into effect in 1889
and there have since that year been
III electrocutions.
Statistics are not always conclu
sWe but from these figures and The
additional statement that out of the
1920 convicts in the prisons of New
York but 52l are citizens of the Uni
ted States born in other lands, it is
apparent that the menace to this
country from the people of other
lands who come here with the pur
pose of becoming citizens is compar
atively small.
Naturally the foreigner who takes
steps to become a naturalized citizen
soon after landing in this country is
of higher order of intelligence than
the great body of immigrants, He
has left his native land with the in
tention of lettering his condition not
only financially but socially and edu
cationally and the statements of the
New York prison superintendent
would seem to indicate that these
men do not largely figure in the Grim.
inal records of the most populous
state in the union.
Vermont's foreign population is
comparatively small and, too, we
must admit that the larger portion OF
our criminals come from the run-out
stock of the sparsely settled rural
communities During the past two
years, however there have been three
instances which demonstrate the
same problem that is confronting the
people of states into which immi
grants from across the sea flock in
much larger numbers Three for.
eigners, two from the Rutland county
court and one from Bennington, have
been sentenced to the state prison al
Windsor for murder. All three were
Italians. One shot a fellow country
man because OF jealousy over a younl
woman, one cut down with an axe ;
deputy sheriff who was attempting t,
serve papers and the third and mos
recent case was the shooting, in
quarrel over a few dollars, of an tia
ian youth in this village.
The perpetrators of these tire
crimes We're none of them naturali.
ed citizens 1t is far from probabl
that any one of them would ever hav
acquired the right to vote for the
possessed neither the desire nor tn
mental requirements necessary to tn
granting of such a privilege. The
had no interest in this country fu
Their than the fact that it presentC
an opportunity to secure bett
wages for manual labor and yet Il
law-abiding taxpayers of the sta
must continue to feed, clothe al
guard them for the remainder
their natural lives. In permitti
these three criminally disposed ind
iduals whom courts and juries app;
emily did not believe possessed sufi
lent intelligence to be hanged, to ia
up a residence in this country m
take was made that cost and mt
continue to cost the state of Verne
a considerable sum of money II
could much more advantageou!
have been expended in almost a
other direction.