The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-23

migrant tubercular patients that cannot l be sent back to their own country will have to be cared for by public or private
 institutions in the United States, and few reach the stage when they are unable to
 support themselves before they have been in this country three years. The expense to the country will, with the number of cases, increase at a tremendous rate.
 For emigrants from southern Italy the ideal solution is the establishment of farming villages, where they could be
 gathered in groups and employed as day laborers until they had gained enough experience in new methods of cultivation
 and had saved enough money to acquire
 small farms on their own account.
 Southern Italians who come to sthis country though they mainly come from agricultural districts, have only worked
 as day laborers on the estates, and the
 attempt to make them landholders with
 small capital and lacking experience can scarcely be successful. Nof are they &C.,
 customed to the isolation of the life on
 the farm, and this is no doubt one of the
 reasons why they cannot be induced to leave the city. The United States could furnish experts to instruct the people in certain lines of intensive farming and the Italian government would no doubt be
 willing to assist in many ways not only in tne nufnDer or 0tallan em1- grants ready to settle in such villages, but
 in assisting them during the period of ad- justment. just as it morally and finan- cially assists in the camp schools. carried on by the Society for Italian Emigrants. But number of southern Italians now settled in New York and suffering from incipent tuberculosis could be restored to
 health and strength in their native cli-
 mate, while they are not in condition either toi stand the conditions they find | in the city, or to face the rigor of the
 northern winter in the out of door work | in the country And these should as fast , as possible be enabled to return to- Italy and take up their old pursuits here
 On the other hand the agricultural ex- lperiments conducted in the United States have given results which would prove in valuable to the semi-ard regions of southern Italy and American methods In intensive farming, dry-farming, preserv- ! ing and canning of fruit might bring wealth to many of our depopulated south ern districts, if the returning emgrant were aided in capital and instruction. It would be highly beneficial to both coun- tries if there could be concerted, prompt
 and efficient action in dealing with the lencouragement of agricultural pursuits in | the United States and in Italy
 | The return of a considerable number | of Italians afflicted with tuberculosis might temporarily decrease the ilnmigra- I tion to this country, but this should scarcely be regretted. Statistics show that during the year 1910 the number of Italian immigrants in the United States has reached the.figure of 222, 900. And Sen ator Villari in one of his articles points out there are in Italy 2S,0o0 agents for the steamship companies artificiaily fos- tering emigration. This is to the loss of both countries, for Italy cannot afford to lose its citizens in such numbers, and New York, where the majority of them stop, is in no way ready to receive them. The state and the country as a whole will have to suffer from the excessive con-
 gestion, and anything that will, if only temporarily, check immigration will in every way benefit the United States