The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-19
WHAT CONGESTION
 MEANS TO THE ITALIAN.
One Third of the Inhabitants Of Anerica's s'LittIe Italics" Are Des- tined to Die of Tuberculosis
 How New York City is Meet-
ing This Situation.
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How New York City is Meet-
 ing This Situation.
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 (Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)
 New York is the home of more Italians than any other city in the and Rome. Little Italics they call those colonies of strangers in Amer ica, and no logbook can tell the dis tances these wanderers have come; i; for they have not alone left behind them 5000 miles of the earth's cir conference, but ; they have moved from under Italys southern skies to New York's congestion; from work on land, with plenty of fresh air, they are now, by the thousands, laboring beneath the land, in tunnels or Sub- ways or mines, in the pressure of two or three atmospheres.
 These facts make clear one of the too often overlooked phases of Ita ian immigration-the effect upon the ltal- ians themselves. Whatever be the facts about the Blac.. Hand, there is no doubt at all about the existence or the power of the White Plague among Italians. Physicians and social workers understand that at least one third of the Italians who come to our
 
 tions, are destined to death from tuberculosis; for death and disease are always more prevalent among rural people settled in the cities than among city-born people themselves. The immigration reports show that the largest per cent. of the Italians coming to our shores are between the ages of fourteen and forty-five years. Thus the period of the greatest pre- valence of tuberculosis, among aiI races from fourteen to forty-fve years, exactly coincides with the age of the majority ti Italian emigrants.
 The Italian laborer brings health, strength, often sturdy youth, and is capable of undertaking the hardest work, but too often six months life in the tenements, or in the construc- tion camps, suffice to turn the sturdy youth of Calabria, the braWny fisher man of Sicily, the robust woman Of Abriizzi, into the pale, fiabby, under sized creatures of whom we see so many in Little Italy," For among the Italians, as among other peoples, the death rate from tuberculosis is in inverse ratio to their individual in comes But awakened America is be- ginning to appreciate these children of Italy, who have come to her in such throngs, and is beginning to un- derstand how much this melting-pot of America needs this Southern stock, with it's love of beauty and grace, in addition to it's German, Irish, French and Swedish elements.
 A new committee has been formed in New York City to undertake the work of saving these vastly capable Italians from the scourge of tuber- culosis. This committee is composed of some of the most influential mem bers of the Italian-American colony, physicians and scholars trained in Roman universities, business men whc have attained eminence and wealth in their adopted country, together with prominent social workers of the Charity Organization Society. Lloyd c. Griscom, formerly Ambassador al the Cluirinal is chairman.
 The committee plans to divide the Italian colony into districts, dissent nate information concerning tuber- culosis through circ. ars and pamph- lets. and. through the distribution of very attractive Venetian Poster notify. the Italians in each district ot the location of the nearest free tuber- CulosiS clinic. A campaign is also planned for the better ventilation oi the home and workshops of the pee rle; to furnish weekly press service to the Italian newspapers showing the progress of the work; to estab- fish lectures, illustrated with stere- opticon slides, before the Italian churches, clubs and labor organiza- tions; to hold tuberculosis exhibitions in the heart of the Italian colony and to investigate the peculiar need of the Italian tubercular poor-the establishment of special clinics, the appointment of Italian doctors, nurses etc.
 An intelligent Italian workman summeG up his fellow emigrant': needs the other day as "a chance tc work and kindness" New York which has furnished these rural Ital- i ian laborers crowded tenements ir which to live, bidden them work ir 1 tunnel or aqueduct or mine now req I lizes that thousands of these new. l corners have fallen prey to% tuber l culosis. And it is very likely tha 1 this Committee on the Prevention O. Tuberculosis Among Italians, will no only show the Italians need Of otl strength and sympathy. but also o,ll own need of those element whicT these Italians, fresh from the sunnJ