Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-01-13
People $
Rostrum
Fair Play for italians.

To the Editor Of the EVENING Ssei
sir-Will you have the kindness to
allow me some space in your justly
famed Rostrum column to voice my
indignation concerning an outrage
which l have just witnessed? An aged
italian laborer, staggering along under
a heavy lead of masonry materials on
Clifton avenue, near Bloomfield ave.
nue., was pelted with mud by some
schoolboys. one of the missiles TOOK
effect on the poor mans cheek. ana as
he turned In rage to menace ms Tor
mentors three well-dressed men who
had seen the entire occurrence
laughed and jeered at HIM
That three men, apparently sober
and seemingly in easy prosperous
circumstances, should find 1t SO funny
to take part in tormenting an aged
fellow being solely because he nap
pened to belong to a different ma
tionality then they, is but one phase
of a. spirit of intolerance when one
would imagine the more ilperal-
minded Americans would be at
greater pains TO stamp out, or, at
least, curb The Indifference of the
people at large toward all matters
pertaining to the well-being of the
Italians here is. however, an old
scandal. and l fear 1t will require a
long course of education on the part
OF those who boast that they are to
the manner born before any radi-
cal change can be expected.
Meanwhile allow me to point TO the
fact that italians form one-sixth OF
the population of Newark, although
to judge from the representation all
lowed them in the city's government
one might suspect that their number
was less than half as great. Aside
from this one should not lose sight of
the circumstances either that New
ark owes much of its greatness and
extent to the toll of these barely toll
Grated Italian immigrants, who con-
verted So vast portion of its one
time shack-covered marshIand into
beautiful residential sections.
| know not. how. but daily there
seems to be an increasing spirit Of. I
shall not say merely antagonism, but
of contempt towards the italian pop
ulace here. In national affairs this
spirit of contempt extends to persons
OF other nationalities, too. so much
SO that we now witness the spectacle
of United States senators gravely
taking steps to bar the further en-
trance of countless numbers of them
by the establishment of literacy
test as condition to admission to
this country. Are these gentlemen in
Washington so shortsighted as to be-
lieve that the mines of the United
States will be worked any better by
men of education than by men with
the requisite Drawn? Will the great
trenches. the foundations of great
buildings, the other excavations and
muscle-requiring works be wider,
deeper, stronger or better if dug or
built by those who can read and
write? AS matter of fact is it not
rather to be doubted that those who
are able to pass a literary test
will care to engage in that kind of
work at all?
With all its marvellous resources
and all its stupendous grandeur,
America is after all but on the
threshold of a real civilization. In
almost everything that relates to the
fine arts, which are the great human
izers OF. mankind, America has much
to learn from Italy and the rest of
Europe. What American sculptor or
painter or singer of any note but
points proudly TO the fact that he
or she has received the finishing
touches of the professional sduca-
ton in Italy? And yet we see the
fashion growing of looking. If not
with scorn, at least with sort of
supercilious tolerance more CALLING
than hatred. upon the sons of sunny
Italy who have come to found new
home here.
True, many of them would be un-
able to stand a literacy test. They
belong to a generation when COM
pnlsory education had not yet been
introduced into Italy. But, on the
other hand, many of them have en-
joyed the blessings of that most
modern of institutions-edu by
compulsion. Yet. shall II be said that
the former are not as desirable as
the latter? Both classes, as a rule,
are honest, upright. industrious, fru-
gal and thrifty. and what better ma
'terial for citizenship can any coun-
try desire? Those humble Italians,
for instance, to whom the former
Board of Works paid such small
wages 10 clean the streets of New
ark, Jared better in their own land.
Indeed, all those Italians whom you
find here subsisting on bread, beans
and onions were accustomed to a
better diet in their native home. Here
they eat next to nothing, SO that out
of their meagre earnings they may
be enabled to save in order to pro-
vide honestly for old age and their
posterity. And, instead of being
scoffed at for doing this, they should
really merit the greatest respect.
For is it anything short of an almost
miraculous will-power that can carry
person through a. long course of
self abnegation, enabling him to re-