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CHAPTER XLV.

THE PROTECTION OF ITALIAN EMIGRANTS IN AMERICA.

By LUIGI BODIO.

One of the most important questions treated at the Geographic Congress in Rome, in September last, was that of the care and protection of emigrants. The resolutions adopted at the Geneva Congress of 1892 were (in substance) that colonization laws should include a small plot of land for the emigrant so that he might, as cultivator, be assigned to proprietorship. The Italian Government should have an office of information so as to keep in touch with the colonization going on in foreign countries, as well as with the actual conditions of the colonists; that, in addition to private associations interested in emigration, a public association should act in concurrence with emigration agents, so as to give aid to the emigrant and help him to acquire land; that the emigration laws of 1888 should be modified as regards agents, subagents, guaranties, etc.

The Congress (of Rome?) recommended that the military laws be made less stringent for Italians living in foreign countries, without, however, interfering with the principle of obligatory military service.

Now, it may be stated that, in the last few years, emigration has been diminishing in intensity, not alone from Italy but from all Europe. The Italian emigrants to the United States numbered about 70,000 in 1893 and only 39,000 in 1894. Emigration to Brazil oscillates, too, from year to year, namely, 40,000 Italians in 1887, 104,000 in 1888; 36,000 in the succeeding years; in 1891, 183,000; with a drop to 43,000 in 1894. In the Argentine Republic the Italian immigration was 75,000 in 1888, and 88,000 in 1889; then in successive years 39,000 and 15,511 in 1891, with a later increase to 37,000.

As the social and economic conditions of the countries furnishing the emigrants can not suffer such mutations from year to year, it is evident that these variations depend upon the prosperity and crises in the countries where colonies are established, hence efforts should be made to protect the emigrants from the obstacles which they encounter. Emigration is a necessity for our country [Italy], and we ought to wish that in the present agricultural and industrial conditions, with so little capital to dispose of, thousands more may go forth where they may find work.

The density of population is 107 to the square kilometer in Italy, the average in Germany is 97, in Austria 80, in France 72. France has abundance of capital, land cultivated to the highest degree, conditions of ease and competency in rural districts, and a third less population than in Italy, where the conditions are so different, the poor peasantry and workingmen having become a peril to the social equilibrium. So that emigration becomes an aid to those who are left, as, with the capital in hand, they can more advantageously carry on manufactures and develop agriculture. Discussions of the colonization of Eritrea (Italian possession in Africa) are very earnest, and the Hon. Franchetti, who has studied the subject on the spot, states that at least 4,000 lire ($772) capital, to be provided by the Government, is requisite

for a family of seven persons, in order to construct cabins, to obtain proper implements, to develop their lands, to survey the land, to prepare waterworks, etc.

There is also discussion in regard to colonizing Sardinia and of populating the Campagna (di popolare l'Agro romano), but this, too, requires capital, and there are various obstacles, which, especially on the island of Sardinia, complicate matters. [Here follow laws governing taxation, etc., in Sardinia; objections to home colonization, want of capital for waterworks, and proper sanitation.] But in America our emigrants do not require subsidies from the mother country; they are, to be sure, at a disadvantage the first year, owing in part, to want of organization; but they carry with them a little money, a few tools of trade, and do not leave debts behind. Our duty is to protect and patronize voluntary emigration-the only form of it which bears with it latent energy, the force of initiative, and the resistence to whatever bars the emigrant's road to success in a new country, or in his native country. Our duty is to aid the masses in procuring employment suited to their condition, to prevent interested agents taking advantage of their good faith, to overcome the obstacles, to seek openings for them, to bring the emigrants into the neighborhood of agricultural and mining sections, dockyards, etc., as may be suited to their previous training or condition in life.

The agents for emigration number 31 in Italy; warranty, 2,690,000 lire ($519,170); subagents, 5,172 in 1892, increased to 7,169 to date. They have more than doubled in some provinces within a few years.

In Switzerland the laws restrict the number of subagents; once there were about 400, paid according to the number of emigrants received, so that there developed a kind of propaganda. A law of 1888, modifying that of 1880, imposed a bond of 3,000 lire ($660) and a tax of 30 lire ($5.79). As a result, the subagents decreased to 170. Swiss laws now prevent propaganda, or enforced emigration, as the consent of the federal council is required before closing a contract with any person having to do with the emigrant, to which person money may be paid for the journey by societies, foreign governments, or private corporations of other countries. Onr [Italian] laws do not forbid the emigrants going away if the money has been paid down by government or a colonization society, but if the amount has been exacted from the emigrant the agent is to see that the emigrant receives double that amount. In any case, the regulations are nil which requiro the emigrant to work his passage either on ship or other means of transport. Some of our emigrants are given free passage by the authorities of Brazil, who desire peasants with families in good, healthy condition and capable of taking hold of some class of work. The governmental arrangements are made with banking firms, who take the responsibility of forwarding the emigrant from a European port to a Brazilian port.

[Signor Bodio then goes on to state the methods employed in Switzerland and in Italy to prevent the taking advantage of emigrants, and the punishment awarded to agents, subagents, etc.]

New laws are being made restricting subagents, getting a better class of educated persons in such positions; forbidding innkeepers, liquor dealers, railroad agents, etc., to be subagents. Experience has taught that interested persons are not proper subagents, if the emigrant is to be dealt justly with. In place of closing the contract just as the emigrant embarks, this is to be done (when the laws go into force) at the point of starting out, so that there may be time to see that all regulations are adhered to. No minors are to be allowed to go as emigrants unless an older person is responsible for them at the beginning and close of the journey. If the committee stationed at a place of embarkation refuse to take the emigrant, the agent is to see that he be returned to his home and his goods with him, and that he receive whatever sum he [the emigrant] may have paid out. To date, the public charities have taken such matter in hand. If the emigrant has reached the foreign land, the agent is responsible for his return, if refused admittance by the authorities, because the laws governing emigration are known to him. If the emigrant finds that he is

not being properly treated, he may reclaim his rights from the consul, or from the director of the Italian Aid Society, who is to present such claim to the nearest consular agent. Verbal statements are permissible to consuls, immigrant agents, etc., in the foreign countries, and as a last resort, in case of punishment, the minister of the interior may be appealed to. [These and other regulations are described to prevent the agent tyrannizing over the emigrant.]

As for military regulations: The recruit living in a foreign country submits to the physical examination by a physician before the Italian consul. If received he is sent to Italy, free of expense, on a ship of the Italian Navigation Company. If, for family reasons, health, or study, he desires to go to his country for a three months' period, he can do it with the permission of the consul and of his commandant. The old controversy relative to double nationality should be eliminated in future. The best solution seems to be that which holds between Spain and Argentina. When the person claims to be of one or the other nationality, the matter is to bo decided in accordance with the laws where resident. If this seems hardly to agree with the principle jure sanguinis, established by the Italian and other European codes based on Roman law, it is the principle of the nationality jure loci, which—we can not fail to recognize it—is an outcome of the political conditions in the young American States. Thus, if he be born in Argentina of an Italian father, he would be considered an Argentinian as long as he remains in America; should he come to live in Italy he would be considered an Italian.

Now let us see what protection is given to our emigrants arriving in American ports. The minister of foreign affairs, Baron Blanc, has succeeded in obtaining an important concession from the Government of the United States, and has created an office of inspection and protection of Italians at Ellis Island, where emigrants disembark for New York. It is a noticeable fact that even prior to the industrial and commercial crises, a feeling prejudicial to immigration was found among the people, on account of cheap labor, for European workingmen were willing to receive salaries inferior to those of American laborers. Hence American legislation endeavored to limit immigration. The limitation included sick people, paupers, those engaged for contract labor. The majority of those sent back by the Federal immigration agents at Ellis Island are Italians who, poorer than other nationalities, have made contracts to go to work, and state that at once, as they suppose they will be quickly received in America if they are not liable to become objects of charity. Yet they are inexorably repulsed because of the very laws of limitation (contract laws). The American officials frequently turn back our emigrants who have left wife and family in Italy, under the clause of "undesirable immigration," because they [the Italians] make declaration that they have been in America before without naturalizing themselves, and that they do not intend to become citizens; or else it resolves itself into the fact that they have made their money in America and returned to their home, then they come back to the United States again to repeat their former success. The United States welcomes emigrants who may become a permanency and assimilate themselves with the American people, who desire to take part in its political life, learn the language of the country, settle down and have families, the children of which (by aspiration and character) become Americans. But "birds of passage" they do not welcome. It is not so much the quantity as the quality of the immigrant which the United States authorities desire to control, for the nonassimilating elements among emigrants are not in harmony with the social and political conditions of the Republic. In 1894-95 there were 731 Italian emigrants sent back out of 33,902 who reached Ellis Island. The economic condition of our emigrants to the United States is demonstrated by the inquiries made by the American authorities, for the newly arrived individual is asked to show how much money he has. The 33,902 who disembarked at Ellis Island had $362,000, or $10.23 each; included among them were those sent back as paupers and undesirable immigrants. In 1893-94 similar statements hold good. Our minister of foreign affairs interested himself to

protect the emigrants in America and to disarm that prejudice toward our compatriots. And this is in fact the basis of the most loyal cooperation, the effort to suppress enforced emigration, either from within or without. In June, 1894, an American office was opened at Ellis Island in connection with the Federal office of immigration, in which office such information could be obtained as is furnished by State boards of immigration, by railroad lines, by corporations and individuals, inducements for work, etc. The Secretary of the Treasury permitted our ambassador to suggest one or more Italian agents for that office who could give the necessary information and make the needed suggestions to our emigrants. Prof. Alex. Oldrini, a young cultured Italian familiar with the United States from a residence there of ten years, was made the first agent, and Chevalier Egisto Rossi, who wrote a work on the United States of America, was made the second agent.

It is to be hoped that the Italian Government will now do its part by furnishing these agents with whatever is requisite, so that they may be able to aid the emigrants in finding occupations, obtaining lands, etc. The Italian Government has, to date, the expenditure of $500 a month for the two commissioners and their office, but the work of these agents ought not to limit itself to assisting the Italian emigrants in connection with the American office, if that office believes it necessary to send them back on account of one or another law, but the Italian agents should be situated to aid the emigrant in obtaining another hearing so that he may disembark and continue his trip to some other State.

It is not enough that our agents aid the emigrants against unfair treatment, on shipboard or shore, but they should be able to give them information concerning the States where they are best able to obtain work, to settle as agriculturists or in mining districts rather than to remain in New York, where their condition is deplorable. Means are lacking so far to bring the Italian agency in New York to this point of efficiency. For it is necessary that the agents be so situated that they can travel to other parts of the States, so as to determine for themselves as regards climatic conditions, the agrarian conditions, violability of contracts, etc. Of the 34,000 Italian emigrants who arrived in the United States in 1894-95 about 20,000 passed the office of our commissioner (Oldrini) direct for New York and its environs, and about 14,000 were forwarded to other States, where they had families, or to mining districts, etc. It is deemed advisable to aid them to go to the Central States, to the mines of Colorado, to Michigan, Minnesota, to Texas ranches, or to the fruit-growing regions of California. A sum of $10,000 is required to place the Italian emigration office in New York upon a suitable footing, to institute a labor bureau, such as is found at the barge office for Germans and Irish, so that the emigrants will not have to deal with the bosses (or padroni), as is now the case, but will find that they can obtain all information at this bureau, or colonization office. With such a sum at disposal, there might be a savings bank, or bank of deposit, arranged with such securities that the emigrants would not again see the bankers disappear with about $150,000 of their savings, as was done one year. Where are we to find the $10,000 requisite for such purpose? In the green book (libro verde) published by the minister of foreign affairs, in which are found the regulations which led to the establishment of the Italian emigration office at Ellis Island, there is a suggestion which seems opportune. It is suggested that 20 lire ($3.86) be required by the Government, from the agency, for each emigrant. As there were in these last years between 33,000 and 65,000 such persons, this amount would be soon acquired. The minister who foresaw the need of protection for the Italian emigrants in the United States also saw the need of such protection in other countries. In Argentina the Italian is as in his own home. In Brazil there is need of such an office of control, for of the Italians going to Brazil it is necessary to distinguish between the State colonies and those of private enterprise. Many Italians are well placed in Brazil, others have to undergo many hardships ere they obtain tolerable positions. The organization of these colonization enterprises needs modifying, for oftentimes the promises held out are not lived up to.

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