Semi-weekly herald., 1913-01-13

FNIo"v,vov annually 10 kec, them. One
fourth OF their crimes were commit
ted within three years after their ar
rival in the United States 1t is in
teresting to note the tee sIency of GER
tain nationalites to commit certain
/ forms of crime. HALF u the crimes
committed by Italians were of per.
sonal violence, while crimes of this
class were committed by only one
sixteenth of the Jewis / prisoners. On
| the other hand, the jews committed
nearly twice as many rainful offenses
as did the Italians. fwo-thirds of
the offenses of which Irish prison
ers were convicted were against pub
lie policy, while the Germans com
mitted much less than half as many
such crimes. On the other hand the
Germans committed mere than twice
as many gainful offeDses as the Irish.
And so go the proportions all down
the line. One nationality makes but
few murderers, yet it has many forg-
ers, burglars and thieves. Another ma
tionality has many M who commit
or attempt to commit murder, and vet
is possessed of only few forgers.
thieves and burglars.
The distorted idea taat the average
| American citizen has concerning the
criminal tendencies of immigrants is
probably explained b. the fact that
such u large number OF them are con-
victed of petty offensas. The New
York state commission If immigration
says they violate the corporation ordi-
nances ard the sanitary code to a
much larger extent than the native
American. For instance, a majority
of the criminality of the Greeks in
New York is found to be violation
of the law against peddling without
license. Much of the crime among i'm
migrants is the direct result of drunk
enness, and this particularly explains
why the number of crimes of personal
violence among the immigrants from
southern and eastern Europe is so
large. With such large percentage
of them unmarried and living in
boarding houses where often from ten
to four sleep in a single room it is
little wonder that they often drink to
excess, and of course they drink cheap
liquor calculated to arouse all the
worst that is in them. The foreigner
often attempts to hide the crime of
his own people although it may have
been committed against himself. 1t
| L., l, 4
3 per cent of all those who commit
murder are brought to justice.
The immigration commission 1nves-
tigated the tendency of foreign crimi-
nails to come to the United States in
order to escape punishment and the
results show the inadequacy of the
present law to debar them. Italy was
selected as the country upon whose
subjects the investigation was to be
made, largely because of the general
belief that more Italian criminals
come to the United States than fFSsSr<
any other country The investigation
was made in New York for the rea-
son that it could be carried on to bet
the Italians in the city and because
of suspicious would not he as likely
to be aroused. To conduy.u 'thns in
vestlgation it was necessary to secure
a corps of special agents who were fa-
miliar with the Italian quarter 1t
was then further necessary to check
up the accuracy of their work by Sc
curing the official records of the Grim
inals they had run down and reported
upon. The closeness with which the
reports of the investigators tailed
with the facts disclosed by the off,
cial records sent over from Italy,
proved conclusively the carefulness of
the investigators in ascertaining and
reporting their facts.
1t was found that there are many
Italian criminals in the United States
who served out their sentence before
coming; many others who were tried
and convicted in their absence and are
fugitives from justice; many who
were acquitted, but against whom
there was strong evidence; and still
others who never have been tried for
any crime but whose regulations at
home were notorious. The law shuts
out only the one class-those who
have been tried and convicted before
their arrival in the United States.
There have been instances where the
Italian courts have convicted crimi
nal after his landing in the United
States, but the courts have held that
the law does not require the depor-
tation of such persons. Furthermore,
no matter how clear the evidence that
a criminal got into the United States
in defiance of the immigration laws,
the courts have held that if he has
been here three years he is not sub
ject to deportation.
1t has been urged in many quar-
ters that every person who has com
mitted criminal offense abroad
should be liable to deportation at any