to dwell upon it. We know how large a part has been played in the
development of our national material enterprises by the Germans, the
English and Irish, the Scotch and Welsh, the Swedes and Norwegians.
Millions of them are among the loyal Americans of to-day. The Irish
originally came to perform the unskilled labor of America. Their women
made the domestics, and many of them still rule the American kitchen.
But the Irish men have moved up, into bosses and contractors, into the
stores and trades and professions, and especially into politics, until
they practically run the cities and have a lion's share of the
governmental positions. The Germans have always been among the best of
our immigrant population in intelligence, thrift, and other qualities
that make the German nation strong and stable. They have Germanized us
more than we have Americanized them. The Scandinavians have with
excellent judgment distributed themselves and gone largely into
agriculture. All these north of Europe peoples belong to a common
inheritance of principles and ideas, and all have found it natural to
assimilate into American life. America owes a large debt to them, as
they do to the land that has become their own by adoption.
[Sidenote: Necessity of Discrimination]
But what can be said about this new immigration? First let us see how
great the change in racial character has been, and then differentiate
these new races. It will not do to brand any race as a whole.
Discrimination is absolutely necessary if we are to deal with this
subject practically and justly. There are Italians and Italians, Slavs
and Slavs, just as there are all sorts of Irish, Germans, and Americans.
No race has a monopoly of either virtue or vice. This table will help us
to differentiate the millions of immigrants since 1820 as to race:
Netherlands 146,168
France 428,894
Switzerland 220,199
Denmark, Norway,
and Sweden 1,730,722
Italy 2,000,252
Japan 88,908
Germany 5,187,092
United Kingdom,
Great Britain
and Ireland 7,286,434
Russia 1,452,629
Countries not
specified 2,130,756
China 288,398
[Sidenote: A Remarkable Shifting]
To appreciate the significance of these figures, it must be remembered
that while the totals from the United Kingdom and Germany amount to
nearly twelve and a half millions, or considerably more than one half of
the entire immigration down to 1905, the proportions have been rapidly
changing. The immigration from the United Kingdom, for example, reached
its highest point in 1851, when the total was 272,740, predominantly
from Ireland. The German immigration reached high mark in 1887, the
total being 250,630. On the other hand, the immigration from Italy did
not reach 10,000 until 1880, and passed the 100,000 mark first in 1900.
In the past five years nearly a million Italians--or one half of the
entire Italian immigration--have entered the country, and the number in
1906 promises to exceed a quarter of a million more. The highest mark
was 233,546 in 1903; but even this did not equal the birth-rate in
Italy. In Hungary and Russia, also, the birth-rate is greater than the
immense drain of immigration, so that this stream will continue to flow
and increase, unless some check is put upon it, or some legislative dam
built. The immigration from Russia, consisting chiefly of Jews, did not
become appreciable until 1887, when it reached 30,766. It passed 100,000
in 1902; and from 1900 to 1905 the total arrivals were 748,522, or just
about one half the entire number of Jews in the United States. The same
is true of the Hungarian and Slav immigration. Its prominence has come
since 1890.
[Sidenote: The Inferior Checks the Superior]
The point of importance to be considered is that as the immigration from
southeastern Europe has increased, that from northwestern Europe has
decreased. In 1869 not one per cent. of the total immigration came from
Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Russia, while in 1902 the percentage
was over seventy. In 1869 nearly three quarters of the total immigration
came from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Scandinavia; in 1902
only one fifth was from those countries. The proportion has held nearly
the same since.
[Sidenote: Change in Source]
The change is indicated most plainly in this table, which compares the
total immigration of certain nationalities for the period 1821 to 1902
with that for the year 1903:
1821 to 1902 1903
Country Number Per cent Number Per cent
Austria-Hungary 1,316,914 6.5 206,011 24.00
England, Wales 2,730,037 13.4 26,219 3.1
Germany 5,098,005 25.0 40,086 4.7
Ireland 3,944,269 19.3 35,300 4.1
Italy 1,358,507 6.7 230,622 26.9
Norway, Sweden 1,334,931 6.5 70,489 8.2
Russia, Poland 1,106,362 5.4 136,093 15.9
This table shows not only the nations which have added chiefly to our
population in the past, and which are adding to-day, but how the
percentage of each has varied in the period before 1903 compared with
1903. Mr. Hall says: "If the same proportions had obtained in the
earlier period as during the later how different might our country and
its institutions now be!"
[Sidenote: The Problem of Diverse Race Stocks]
This brings up the question of type, of character, and of homogeneity.
The new immigration introduces new problems. The older immigration,
before 1870, was chiefly composed of races kindred in habits,
institutions, and traditions to the original colonist.[49] To-day we
face decidedly different conditions. At the same time study of these
comparatively unknown races will bring us many surprises, and knowledge
of the facts is the only remedy for prejudice and the only basis for
constructive Christian work. We must know something, moreover, of the
Old World environment before we can judge of the probable development of
these peoples in America, or learn the way of readiest access to them.
For they will not become Americanized unless they are in some way
reached by Americans; and they will never be reached until they are
understood.
_II. The Italians_
[Sidenote: Extremes of Opinion]
In our more detailed study of the new immigration we take first the
Italians, who are seen wherever one turns in our cities, and are perhaps
the most conspicuous of the immigrants. Here we come at once upon two
extremes of opinion. One extreme finds little or nothing that is
favorable to the Italians, who are classed all together and judged in
the light of the Mafia, or "black hand," ready for all deeds of
darkness. The other lauds these aliens so highly that an Italian
himself said to the writer, referring to a recent book about his people
in America:[50] "I suppose I ought to be glad to have us all made out to
be saints, but I am afraid there is another side to the story." We shall
hope to find the truth between these extremes. This has to be admitted,
on the start, that in most cases those who have most to do with the
Italians, of whatever class, become warmly interested in them, and
believe both in their ability and in their adaptability to American
life.
[Sidenote: A Gifted Race]
When so keen a writer as Emil Reich, in discussing "The Future of the
Latin Races," in the _Contemporary Review_, says, "there can be little
doubt that the Italians are the most gifted nation in Europe," we see
that it is a mistake to class all Italians as alike and put them under
the ban of contempt as "dagoes." They differ from one another almost as
much as men can differ who are still of the same color, says a recent
writer.[51]
[Sidenote: Marked Differences Between North and South]
Most northern Italians are of the Alpine race and have short, broad
skulls; southern Italians are of the Mediterranean race and have long,
narrow skulls. Between the two lies a broad strip of country, peopled by
those of mixed blood. In appearance the Italians may be anything from a
tow-headed Teuton to a swarthy Arab. Varying with the district from
which he comes, in manner he may be rough and boisterous; suave,
fluent, and gesticulative; or grave and silent. These differences extend
to the very essentials of life. The provinces of Italy are radically
unlike, not only in dress, cookery, and customs, but in character,
thought, and speech. A distinct change of dialect is often found in a
morning's walk. An ignorant Valtellinese from the mountains of the
north, and an ignorant Neapolitan have as yet no means of understanding
each other; and what is yet more remarkable, the speech of the
unschooled peasant of Genoa is unintelligible to his fellow of Piedmont,
who lives less than one hundred miles away.
[Sidenote: Different Environment]
The northern Italian is the result of a superior environment. His
section is more prosperous, intelligent, orderly, and modern. The
industrially progressive, democratic north presents a striking contrast
to the industrially stagnant, feudal south. The northern division is
full of the spirit of the new Italy, and its people are less prone to
leave home. Central Italy, too, is making steady advances in agriculture
and education, and the peasant farmer is a stay-at-home. In southern
Italy agriculture is practically the sole reliance of the people, the
lot of the day laborers is wretched, and the failure of a wheat crop is
as disastrous as the potato famine in Ireland was to the Irish in 1847.
United Italy is undoubtedly making progress in education and industry,
the standards of living are rising, and the money sent or carried back
to Italy from America has helped to some degree in this advancement.
Religiously, of course, the domination of the Roman Catholic Church
continues over all Italy, and in illiteracy as in other respects Italy
is an example of what this ecclesiastical rule means where it has power
over the people sufficient to enable it to work its will.
[Sidenote: Common Poverty of the Peasants]
In view of these facts regarding the home environment and difference in
peoples, it will not do, evidently, to use sweeping generalizations, or
to regard the organ-grinder and fruit-peddler as the representatives of
Italy in America. We receive all grades, from cultured professionals to
illiterate peasants, though mainly, of course, the peasant class. The
one common feature of the Italian provinces is the poverty produced by
the crushing taxes and agricultural depression. Absentee landlordism has
blighted southern Italy as it has Ireland. Yet with great tracts of
fertile soil thus held away from the people, and with no new territory
to cultivate, the population of Italy has increased within twenty years
from twenty-eight and a half to thirty-two and a half millions, an
average density of 301 per square mile, and the excess of births over
deaths amounts to nearly 350,000 a year. Hence the question with the
people in overcrowded districts is simply emigration or starvation. The
southern Italian is driven from home by necessity to work, and work is
to be found in America, so he comes. His labor is mostly unskilled, and
this is in demand here. The result is that almost eighty per cent. of
the Italian immigrants are males; over eighty per cent. are between
fourteen and forty-five, the working age; over eighty per cent. are from
the southern provinces, and nearly the same percentage are unskilled
laborers, and a large majority of these are illiterates. The eighty per
cent. of "human capital of fresh, strong young men" is Italy's
contribution to America, and is a force winning its way to recognition.
[Sidenote: Figures of Italian Immigration]
Let us note the growth of Italian immigration, its sources, and its
distribution. In the sixty years from 1820 to 1880 only 68,633 Italians
made their way to America, while during this period the total foreign
immigration was over ten millions. The census of 1890 gave the Italian
population of the United States as only 182,580, and at that date not
over a half million in all had come here. The rapid increase during
recent years is shown in the following table:
IMMIGRATION FROM ITALY TO THE UNITED STATES
1890 52,003 1898 58,613
1891 76,055 1899 77,419
1892 61,631 1900 100,135
1893 72,145 1901 135,996
1894 42,977 1902 178,375
1895 35,427 1903 230,622
1896 68,060 1904 193,296
1897 59,431 1905 221,479
[Sidenote: Remarkable Increase]
This shows how steady and remarkable the immigration has been since
1900. In five years 959,768 Italians have come to this country. Surely
it is worth our while to know more particularly the character of this
million and their promise as an element in our civilization. Thousands
of them are "birds of passage"--that is, they come and go, earning money
here and going back home to spend it and then returning to earn more;
but tens of thousands come to stay, and will play their part in shaping
our future.
[Sidenote: Distribution of Italians]
The distribution of the Italians is shown partially in the accompanying
diagram.[52] This, however, is based upon the Census of 1900, and does
not account for the million arrivals since 1900. The destination clause
in the immigrant's manifesto gives light upon the matter of
distribution, although the incomer does not always get to the point
named in his papers. From the official report for 1905 these results are
drawn:
North South
Locality Italian Italian Total
New York 9,733 81,572 91,305
New Jersey 1,272 11,494 12,766
Pennsylvania 7,554 43,078 50,632
Connecticut 1,626 5,835 7,461
Massachusetts 2,011 11,747 13,758
Rhode Island 196 2,422 2,618
Illinois 3,663 6,685 10,348
Ohio 861 6,230 7,091
Michigan 1,330 1,649 2,979
West Virginia 421 2,987 3,408
Louisiana 177 2,631 2,808
Missouri 769 1,477 2,246
Mississippi 674 213 887
Eight Southern States 467 1,036 1,503
California 4,513 1,081 5,594
Colorado 824 881 1,705
[Sidenote: Largely in Cities]
It is interesting to note that at least one Italian immigrant was
destined to every state and territory. Of the total Italian population
in this country in 1900, 62.4 per cent. was in the 160 principal cities,
and nearly one half in New York alone. The percentage of Italians
attracted to the cities is about the same as that of the Irish.
[Sidenote: Italians and Irish Compared]
An interesting parallel, indeed, may be drawn between these races. The
Italians to-day occupy largely the place occupied by the Irish of
yesterday. The Irish came in the earlier years by reason of distressing
conditions at home, forcing them to seek a living elsewhere; this is now
true of the Italians. The Irish were chiefly peasants, unskilled
laborers and illiterate; so are the Italians. The Irish came mainly from
agricultural sections and herded in the great cities; so do the
Italians. The handy weapon of the Irish was the shillalah, that of the
Italian is the stiletto. The Irish found ready employment by reason of
the demand for cheap unskilled labor created by the vast material
enterprises of a swiftly developing country, with cities and towns and
railroads to build; this work is done by the Italians now, and they are
commonly conceded to be in many respects better at the job. Here is a
sample of the kind of testimony frequently given concerning them as
workers:[53]
[Sidenote: Good Workers]
"I have learned to be cautious in comparing races. I find good, bad,
and indifferent people in all races. But I dissent from the current
notion that the southern Italian is so much inferior to the northern. As
a people there is more illiteracy among them; but when he goes to school
the southern Italian holds his own with the northern. Another fact of
promise is that Italians have not lost the spirit of service. They are
good workmen. Not long since, asking a contractor who was building a
sewer in the city why he had only Italians in his employ, he replied,
'Because they are the best workmen, and there are enough of them. If an
Italian down in that ditch has a shovelful of earth half way up when the
whistle blows for dinner, he will not drop it; he will throw it up; the
Irishman and the French-Canadian will drop it. And when the lunch hour
is over, when the clock strikes the Italian will be leaning on his
shovel ready to go to work, but the Irishman will be out under that tree
and he will be three minutes getting to his job, and three minutes each,
for 150 men, is not a small item. The Italian does not regard his
employer as his natural enemy. He has the spirit of kindly service."
[Sidenote: Cheerful and Responsive]
The writer can confirm this from personal observation. The Italians are
cheerful workers, and on hand ten to fifteen minutes before the hour to
begin work. They relish a kind word, and can give lessons in politeness
to many an American-born. Ask anyone brought in contact with them and
you will get the same testimony.
[Sidenote: Flower of the Peasantry]
According to Adolfo Rossi, Supervisor of the Italian Immigration
Department, who is deeply interested in the proper distribution and
welfare of his countrymen in America, these immigrants are the flower of
the laboring class of Italy. Economically they are doubtless of value at
so many dollars per head. But of far more importance is the question,
what are they in the social fabric? If, as some assert, the Italian race
stock is inferior and degraded, if it will not assimilate naturally with
the American, or will tend to lower our standards, then it is
undesirable, even though the immigrant had a bank account in addition to
his sturdy body. The further one investigates the subject, the less
likely is he to conclude that the Italian is to be adjudged undesirable,
as a race. He must be judged individually on his merits.
[Sidenote: Demand for Unskilled Labor]
Mr. Carr draws a decidedly favorable picture of the Italians, whether
from north or south. He says that immediate work and high wages, and not
a love for the tenement, create our "Little Italies." The great
enterprises in progress in and about the city, the subway, tunnels,
water-works, railroad construction, as well as the ordinary building
operations, call for a vast army of laborers. It is the educated Italian
immigrant without a manual trade who fails in America. The illiterate
laborer takes no chances. The migratory laborer--for more than 98,000
Italians went back to Italy in 1903, and 134,000 in 1904--confers an
industrial blessing by his very mobility. Then, in his opinion, there is
something to be said for the illiterates who remain here. They are never
anarchists; they are guiltless of the so-called "black hand" letters.
The individual laborer is, in fact, rarely anything but a gentle and
often a rather dull drudge. More than this, our school system deprives
us of unskilled laborers. The gangs that dig sewers and subways and
build railways are recruited from the illiterate or nearly so, and for
our supply of the lower grades of labor we must depend upon countries
with a poorer school system than ours.
[Sidenote: Favorable Comparison]
[Sidenote: Italians Not Beggars]
Concerning the charge that the Italian is a degenerate, lazy and a
pauper, half a criminal, a menace to our civilization, it is shown that
in New York the Italians number about 450,000, the Irish over 300,000.
In males the Italians outnumber the Irish two to one. Consider these
facts: In 1904 one thousand five hundred and sixty-four Irish, and only
sixteen Italians, were admitted to the almshouse on Blackwell's
Island.[54] Mr. James Forbes, chief of the Mendicancy Department of the
Charity Organization Society, says he has never seen or heard of an
Italian tramp. In reply to this, those who dislike the Italians say that
their cheap labor has made tramps of many who would otherwise be
employed. As for begging, between July 1, 1904, and September 30, 1905,
the Mendicancy Police in New York took into custody 519 Irish and only
92 Italians. This table will be found interesting:
NATIVITY OF PERSONS ADMITTED TO ALMSHOUSE (NEW YORK) IN
1900
Male Female Total
United States 355 199 554
Ireland 808 809 1,617
England and Wales 111 87 198
Scotland 25 14 39
France 19 2 21
Germany 290 84 374
Norway, Sweden and Denmark 22 6 28
Italy 15 4 19
Other Countries 50 36 86
----- ----- -----
1,695 1,241 2,936
This ought to correct some ideas as to where the pauperism comes from.
Certainly the Italians are not to be charged with it. Conditions in
Boston show equally well for the Italians. The proportions for the whole
country also give them a remarkably low degree as compared with other
races.
[Sidenote: Few Insane]
As to insanity, the figures tell their own story: In the charitable
institutions of the country, there were of the insane: Irish, 5,943;
Germans, 4,408; English, 1,822; Scandinavians, 1,985; and Italians, 718.
As shown by the analysis of the Bureau of Immigration, the proportion of
Irish in the charitable institutions is 30 per cent., of Germans 19, of
English 8.5, while the Italians and Hebrews are each 8 per cent.
[Sidenote: Criminal Record]
The important point of crime remains to be considered. Here the Italian
is commonly rated very high, by reason of the violent and conspicuous
nature of most of his crimes, which are against the person. We hear of
the brutal murders, the threats of the Mafia, the secret assassinations,
and frequent sanguinary stiletto affrays, and are apt to regard the
whole race as quarrelsome and murderous. The facts do not bear out this
opinion. Here again they appear rather to the disadvantage of the older
type of immigrant. The United States Industrial Commission on
Immigration shows, by its statistical report,[55] that "taking the
United States as a whole, the whites of foreign birth are a trifle less
criminal than the total number of whites of native birth." This report
further says: "Taking the inmates of all penal and charitable
institutions, we find that the highest ratio is shown by the Irish,
whose proportion is more than double the average for the foreign-born,
amounting to no less than 16,624 to the million."
[Sidenote: Italians Temperate]
By far the greatest proportion of crime is caused by intemperance, and
here the Italians are at a decided advantage, for they are among the
least intemperate of the foreign peoples, and far less so than the
average native-born. Arrests for drunkenness are exceedingly rare among
them, and a drunken Italian woman is as rare as one of immoral
character. While in Massachusetts three in a hundred of the northern
races, including the Scotch, Irish, English, and Germans, were arrested
for intemperance in a given year, only three in a thousand of the
Italians were arrested on this charge. In these respects the race is
deserving of great commendation, especially in face of the tenement
conditions into which most of the newcomers are thrust. If they become
worse in America than they were when they came, we ought to take heed to
the sins of greed, and not put all the blame on the aliens.
[Sidenote: Crimes of Assault]
In crimes against the person the Italians are at their worst, but the
affrays with knives and pistols are confined mostly to their own
nationality, and grow out of jealousy or rivalry or resentment at
fancied injuries. "There are, no doubt," says Dr. S. J. Barrows,[56]
"murders of sheer brutality, or those committed in the course of
robbery. There are known instances also of blackmail and dastardly
assassination by individuals or bands of ruffians. But such outrages are
utterly at variance with the known disposition of the great mass of the
Italians in this country. There are vile men in every nationality, and
it does not appear by any substantial evidence that the Italian is
peculiarly burdened, though it has been unwarrantably reproached through
ignorance or prejudice." This is the opinion of an expert in
criminology, who has traveled extensively in Italy and knows the people
on both sides of the sea.
[Sidenote: Italians not all Unskilled]