ITALIANS
204
ITALIANS
of Italian immigrants were occupied in agriculture at
home and do not engage in agricultural pursuits in
the United States. Only a small part of the Itahans
coming to the United States devote themseh'es to
agriculture. It is worth noting that 60 per cent of
the Italians engaged in agriculture in the United
States come from Northern Italy, although Northern
Italians form less than 20 per cent of the total immi-
gration. In the vicinity of the large cities of the
East, where truck-farming and chicken-raising can be
made very remunerative, Italians have established
themselves on the small farms abandoned by the chil-
dren of Americans who go to the city. Thus the
neighbourhood of Boston, nil the Connecticut Valley,
and the western part of the State of New York have
several hundred farms occupied by Italians. In the
southern part of New Jersey, also, the Italians have
devoted themselves to agriculture and especially to
grape-growing. It is in California, however, that
Italians ha\'e achieved most success as cultivators.
Throughout the South, and especially in Louisiana and
Texas, the Italians work as farmers with remarkably
good results. In West Virginia their success is not so
marked, and some promising colonies have failed mis-
erably. The states which have the largest proportion
of Italian immigrants are: the New England States
with 200,000, of whom 50,000 live at Boston; New
Jersey 2.50,000, of whom 60,000 live at Newark; New
York", 700,000, of whom 500,000 live in the Citv of
New York; Pennsylvania, 300,000, of whom 100,000
live at Philadelphia; Illinois, 100,000, of whom 50,000
live at Chicago; Louisiana, 60,000, of whom 30,000
live at New Orleans; California, 50,000, of whom
25,000 live at San Francisco. Of the Northern Italians,
four-fifths are found in the States of Illinois, Ohio,
New Jersey, Colorado, California. Of the Southern
Italians and Sicilians, four-fifths are found in the
States of New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Connecticut. As to occupation, the
Italians of the New England States, of New York, and
New Jersey are chiefly occupied in mills or on rail-
roads ; in Pennsylvania a large numlier are working in
the mines, where, however, the Slavic element is grow-
ing stronger every day. The steel and the coke indus-
tries in Pennsylvania also employ a considerable num-
ber of Italians.
From what precedes it appears at once that 87 per cent of the Italians of the United States are settled in the New England and North Atlantic divisions, and that of these nearly SO per cent crowd into the large cities. This congestion presents a most serious prob- lem. The phenomenon, however, is not peculiar to the Italians; ift is also to be observed in the case of other nationalities which are in the same economic , condition as the Italians. The city offers a large num- ber of various resources; it furnishes work to tlie new- comer from the start, and it needs the newcomer for a variety of occupations which he alone can fill. The Italian immigrant is perhaps the most adaptable of all in this respect; he is intelligent, in most cases sober, faithful in his work, always looking for an opportunity to increase his salary. He goes from one shop to an- other, from the railroad tracks to the mill. The coun- try offers the Italian immigrant a kind of occupation which he looks upon with disgust, an occupation which reminds him of centuries of oppression and slavery. There was a time in Italy when agriculture was pro- ductive, when tlie owners of the land gave their ener- gies to it, when they considered the working people their wanls; but landowners began to live in the city and neglect the country, and the country which had produced enough for lord and peasant, now produced enough for neither. Yet th(>se poor serfs of the soil, in whom the love of the fields is inl)orn, bring that love with them, and go to the city because there they can easily accumulate enough to buy the piece of land they long for in their native village. Those who have stud-
ied the problem of the distribution of Italian immi-
grants in the United States have forgotten two most
important facts: (1) the disgust of the immigrants for
agricultural work, which they associate with sufferings
and poverty; (2) the desire — almost general — among
the immigrants to return to their native land. The
first of these two facts is only temporary and disap-
pears with changed economic conditions.
Italians do not come to the United States with the idea of settling there, as did the immigrants from North- Western Europe a generation or two ago. It is true, however, that almost all Italian immigrants ultimately adopt the LTnited States as their permanent home, but all arguments based on this fact are futile. So many have asked: If it be true that the vast major- ity of the Italian immigrants settle permanently, with their families, in the United States, why not try to dis- tribute them better in the West and South, instead of letting them crowd into the cities of the East? Such reasoning as this has led to efforts on the part of the Federal Government to distribute the Italian immi- grants more advantageously — such, for example, as the establishment of the information bureau at Ellis Island. This is like applying a social and economic cure to what is essentially a psychologic phenomenon. The Italian is the most idealistic of all immigrants. The money which he wants to accumulate, which he has reason to believe he will sooner accumulate in the city than in the country, he does not want for its own sake. The feelings of the Italian who leaves his coun- try have been beautifully described by Manzoni in his masterly novel: " To the mind of him who voluntarily departs in the hope of making a fortune in a strange countrj', the dreams of wealth vanish. . . . He is aston- ished at his own courage in having gone so far, and would return home at once if he did not think that at some future day he will be able to return rich. Sad and bewildered, he enters the crowded cities; the long rows of houses, and the streets upon streets, take away his breath; in presence of the magnificent monuments which tourists admire, he can only think with painful yearning of the little farm, of the village, of the little house which he has long desired to possess, and which he will buy when he returns rich to his native moun- tains." It is this mental attitude that defeats every attempt to properly distribute the Italian immigra- tion: anxious, above all, to return to Italy with a cer- tain sum of money, the immigrant knows that he can earn that sum more quickly in the city than in the country, and for that reason he prefers the city. Here is the key to the whole problem; for this point of view is common to all immigrants except those — obviously undesirable as settlers in the United States — whose criminal past debars them from all hope of a return to Italy.
How can the newly arrived immigrant be persuaded that, whatever he may think now, he will eventually be glad to make his and his family's home in the United States? Even if it were possible to persuade him of this, there would still remain the financial diffi- culty. To go West, he needs money — to buy land, to live during the first year, to take care of the family in Italy — and the average Italian immigrant comes here with just enough money to pass through the immigra- tion station. In most cases the money spent for the journey represents a loan, which must be repaid out of the immigrant's first earnings. This explains in part the large sums of money sent back to Italy by immi- grants. All projects, therefore, for the distribution of Italian immigrants in the United States should be made subject to these two facts: the set purpose of the newly arrived immigrant to return to Italy, and his lack of money. Of all the Italians wlio [lass the United States immigration officials at Ellis Island, 90 percent already have friends in their new country to whom they can go, and who, in most cases, have already found employment for them. In many cases the newcomer
