Old World Traits Transplanted
Chapter 8: Types of Community Influence
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IN the preceding chapters we have implicitly or explicitly characterized the influence of certain immigrant communities on their members. In the present chapter we compare the preparation that the largest three groups of the so-called new immigration—the Poles, the Jews, and the Italians-give their members for engaging in American activities. These groups are numerically about equal, the Poles numbering about 3,000,000, the Jews, 3,800,000, the Italians about 3,200,000.
THE POLISH COMMUNITY
Polish leaders in Europe have done a unique work for the improvement of the condition of the people. After many bloody and futile revolutions, the nobility realized that its strength was spent and turned to the people—particularly the peasants. After 1863 a "movement for enlightenment" was
( 226) begun whose object was to make the peas-ant self-conscious, nationally conscious, and materially prosperous. Men and women of the nobility, students, young girls, priests, all the Polish intelligentsia, participated seriously and ceaselessly. Newspapers were developed appealing to the peasant, agricultural societies were formed, banks were established for the peasant, some enthusiasts married peasant women. At first the peasants viewed all this with suspicion, but in the end they realized that the motives of the other classes were unselfish, and began to respond and participate. They wrote to the newspapers, asked information about soils and bee keeping, reported successes, organized co-operative societies.
The results of this movement were very real and practical. One of them was the complete economic defeat of the Prussians in German Poland. In their attempts to Germanize this region the Prussians spent $140,000,000 in colonizing it with Germans from the Rhine provinces. To resist them, the Poles, under the leadership of Maximilian Jackowski (a noble), organized 330 peasant societies; a powerful prelate, Wawrzyniak, organized a system of peasant banks; any Pole who outbid the Germans on land and saved it for Poland was lauded in more than
( 227) 300 newspapers and periodicals; all German goods were boycotted. In the end the Poles had more land than when Bismarck inaugurated the German colonization movement, after the war with France. In Prussian Poland the movement was mainly economic and political. Bernhard's important book, Die Polenfrage (1909), was a semiofficial re-port on the situation, informing the Prussian government that it was defeated and advising it to expropriate Polish land. The movement in Russian Poland was rather along educational and co-operative lines and is recorded in Volume IV of The Polish Peasant.
As a result of this social experiment, the Poles learned to regard the individual member of the community as a supreme value and thus benefited Poland immensely, in spite of the fact that Poland was not a state and was surrounded by states ready to destroy her values as fast as she created them. Having this in mind, it is remarkable that the Polish communities in America have conspicuously neglected those of their members who are not successful.
147. The social attitude manifested with reference to questions of public charity and social work in general are interesting. It has been noticed that as compared, for instance, with the Jewish charitable
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institutions, the Poles in America have little to show in this line. Care for orphans and care for the old and incurable are practically the only problems which are more or less seriously dealt with; in other fields initiative is rare and realization insufficient. The few charitable institutions are due to the personal efforts of a few leading members of Polish-American society acting through the Church and influenced by Christian principles, rather than to the recognition of altruistic obligations by the society at large. In a word, no social need to take care of the weak seems to be felt by Polish-American communities... .
The moral reason by which the Polish-American community justifies its apparent egotism is found in the very basis of its organization. The latter is socially and economically an organization for self-help; its first purpose is to prevent the individual from becoming a burden to the community, and the individual who does not choose to avail himself of the opportunities which this organization offers, voluntarily resigns all claims to the help of the group. If the latter still feels obliged to assist in some measure the orphans, the old, and the incurables, it is only in so far as it feels that the system of mutual insurance is not yet efficient enough to cover these cases adequately.
Of course since the Polish-American community tends to ignore even the merely inefficient, we cannot expect it to take any care of the demoralized. The contrast is striking between the intense reformatory work in this country. Individual demoralization is either ignored or the demoralized individual is simply dropped at once. No one bothers about the innumerable cases of family decay, juvenile delinquency, alcoholism, vagabondage, crime. Few know
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the full extent of the demoralization going on among American Poles.[1]
This means that while the Poles have been carrying on a struggle here to preserve their members from Americanization and save them for Poland, or for a Polonia Americana, they have at the same time abandoned their unfit and misadapted members to the ministrations of our charity organizations, legal. aid societies, and juvenile courts. The cases with Polish names cited in the documents in Chapter IV are examples.[2]
American social workers who handle. Polish cases feel that the Polish organizations are often inclined to avoid their responsibilities toward those who are legally entitled. to benefits, as shown in document 148 below:
148. Plaintiff, Sigmund Stecki, belonged to the. Polish National Alliance, group 565, paid his dues regularly and was in good standing. According to the by-laws a sick member unable to support his
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family is entitled to a sick benefit of $5 a week for three months, and $3 a week for six months there-after, if he is sick more than a week and reports his sickness.
Plaintiff was sick from May 23 to July 3, 1912 eight weeks. He reported his sickness. The secretary of the lodge (his cousin) came to see him, and said he would rather pay from his own money than from the lodge, because he had recommended plain-tiff to the lodge and would be disgraced by plaintiff's sickness. Plaintiff had a swelling in his right leg from eczema. Doctor Golembianski from the lodge did not call on plaintiff until the end of his sickness. Plaintiff called at his office once the following week. That was all the care he got. No help came from the lodge. When plaintiff was well, he attended a meeting of the lodge, and when he noticed no movement to pay his claim he rose and asked why they had forgotten him. The lodge said he had failed to notify them. He assured them his wife had notified the secretary, the secretary had called, and also the doctor who had reported to the lodge. Then they gave him $10 only; the balance of $25 they never paid.
[Plaintiff acutely sick three times later without aid.] The fourth time Horn Brothers (his employers) wrote to [the proper group of] the Polish National Alliance, suggesting they were getting money under false pretenses. He got no answer and turned case over to the Legal Aid Society.
At first they paid no attention to us. Then [their attorney] wrote that his society had decided to pay plaintiff nothing for five reasons: (1) he did not belong to the group; (2) he did not pay according to the constitution; (3) he did not go to their doctor
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to be treated; (4) he indulged in intoxicating liquors during his illness, preventing recovery; (5) this society had paid him twice and according to the constitution once is required [in cases of chronic sickness].
[Their attorney] told our attorney when they met in court that plaintiff was "no good," beats his wife, gets "dead drunk," fights, was brought into court and fined for fighting, had been expelled from numerous lodges for "crookedness," that plaintiff's cousin, first secretary, did not notify the lodge of plaintiff's first illness as the rules required, etc.
As to the reasons for not paying: (1) he did belong to the lodge at the time, but dropped out later when they continually refused to pay him; (2) he did pay dues, and paid $12 in all for dues; (S) he did go to their doctor whenever notified; (4) he never drank to excess; (5) the disease was always acute, not chronic. Investigation by his employers showed that all the stories against his character were false. He was honest, steady, reliable, kind to wife, and Horn Brothers thought highly of him.
The judge gave judgment for plaintiff for $75. But the lodge then moved to set aside judgment, showing they were not a corporation as sued.
The Legal Aid Society could not find whom to sue and has done nothing. The case dragged so long in court that everybody, even Horn Brothers, lost interest. The last letter from Horn Brothers, dated October 30, 1914, says:
"[The attorney] in this case, met Mr. Stecki about two weeks ago, and claimed they would fight the case and spend $200 or $400 in defeating his claim. It seems from all we can gather that there has been a fight among themselves and that it is a band of
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saloon keepers who are running this for their mutual advantage. If this is a fact, it should be wiped out, and we trust you will do what you can to accomplish this end." [3]
Another defect of the Polish community is the failure to provide various types of organizations which would assist their members in adjusting themselves to the complex American life. Practically all of their organizations have the same function"—mutual aid, social recognition, and cultivation of the Polish spirit. The Polish National Alliance, for example, is merely a federation of about 1,700 such societies.
149. By multiplying indefinitely associations and circles, and by a very active propaganda exercised through all possible mediums, nearly all the members of the parish—men, women, and young people—even those who for some reason or other have not yet joined the parish, or have dropped out, can become in some way connected with the system and thus acquire a minimum of public character. This public character grows whenever an individual is, even if only momentarily, connected as public functionary with some scheme for common action—religious ceremony, entertainment, meeting, bazaar, collection for a social purpose, etc.—and this increased public importance is every year attained by large proportion of the community. The highest degree of public dignity is, of course, the share of those who are elected officers in associations or become mem-
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-bers of permanent committees, or directors of institutions; and if we realize that every association has from 6 to 20 officials, that every committee numbers on the average 10 members, and that some large parishes have more than 70 associations and committees, while even a small parish has at least a dozen of them, we see that every active and fairly intelligent individual, whatever his sex and age, is sure of becoming some time a public dignitary; and even if the existing organization does not give him enough opportunities, he can always initiate a new institution and gain recognition as organizer and charter member.[4]
By thus multiplying "dignities" and providing opportunities for public appearance —in theatrical representations, concerts, balls, and recitals—the Polish community has succeeded in institutionalizing a large part of the activities of its members, and subjecting them to control. But with the exception of the Alliance of Polish Socialists (a numerically small body appealing to the specialized city workman) every Polish institution here attempts to meet all the needs of the individual member. The result is that the Polish immigrant is arrested within his community. He shows little tendency to participate in American life and institutions, is hardly ever seen in our colleges and universities, shows notably little public
( 234) spirit, remains on a relatively low level of efficiency, and contributes heavily through crime and poverty to the burden of the American state.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
Although the Jew has Always been obliged to organize his community life in a separate and self-sufficient way in the different European states, and consequently brings to this country the habits of organization, the conditions of industry in Europe .were so different, the American melting-pot, has so powerful an effect on the old ritualistic and communistic attitudes, the mass of Jews is so great in New York City, the Jews so strange to one another, that the problem of organization has been as great for the Jews as for the other groups. The Jews, however, have the settler psychology. They bring their intellectuals, professionals, business men, as well as their revolutionists and workers, and have, more than other groups, the elements for a complete society.
Other immigrant groups are usually defective in leadership and creative individuals; few intellectuals come, and those who do come are usually only intelligent enough to exploit the simpler members of their own
( 235) groups, not to compete with intellectual Americans. Consequently it is in general true that the immigrant leader is able and willing to organize his people just sufficiently for his own good, but not sufficiently for their good.
The Jews, on the contrary, are conspicuous as creators and organizers in different fields—economic, scientific, artistic, etc.—and their superior members not only live without exploiting their own people, but sincerely devote their abilities and resources to the improvement of the mass of their race. Furthermore, for the first time since the dispersion the Jews have found in America a toleration which has made it possible for them to show an open interest in their own welfare and to discuss openly the improvement of their status and the realization of their ideals.[5]
For these reasons, the Jews, far more than any other immigrant group, are resorting to reflective social activity and supplementing the old social forms, spontaneously
( 236) reproduced, with new, conscious organizations. The organization of the Kehillah in New York City was, in fact, the beginning of a scientific study of the Jews by them-selves. Their primary aim was:
150. (1) To secure exact, systematic, comprehensive knowledge concerning the Jewish community of New York City, and the Jewish problem in all its phases; (t) to engage upon as many experiments as possible through first-hand experience of the various phases of the problem; and (3) to point out paths along which the community might develop in order to become in fact a conscious, organized, united community.[6]
Beside taking action to meet a large number of specific needs, emergencies and abuses, the Kehillah has established a number of co-ordinating, standardizing; and research institutions. Among them are: a Bureau of Jewish Education ("for the purpose of standardizing the methods of Jewish education; . . . to find ways and means of providing Jewish training for all the Jewish children of school age in this city ") ; a Bureau of Industry (" . . . to direct vocational training, to provide employment for the handicapped, as well as for the highly skilled, and to work out methods for the maintenance of peace in industries where
(237) Jews preponderate"); a School for Communal Work, a Bureau of Philanthropic Research, etc.[7]
From the standpoint of organization the Jews are the most interesting of the immigrant groups. There is among them, indeed, a great variety of disorder and personal demoralization—gambling, extortion, vagabondage, family desertion, white slavery, ordinary and extraordinary crime—as a consequence of the rapid decay in America of the Jewish traditions and attitudes; [8] there are divisions and animosities among them, and quarrels about opinions—the mere statement that the Jews are a national rather than a religious community was sufficient to convulse the recent Jewish congress at Philadelphia for more than an hour —and Jewish leaders realize that the sys-
( 238) -tematic activities we have mentioned have had as yet little effect on the great mass of Jewish life. But in our examination of the Jewish type of organization we gain an impression that the experiments of this community upon its own problems contain an interest not limited to the Jewish community, but extending to American society as a whole. Our interest in the organization of other immigrant communities is limited to the possible discovery of devices which may assist these groups until they are able to enjoy the benefits of American institutions. In the case of the Jewish group, we find spontaneous, intelligent, and highly organized experiments in democratic control which may assume the character of permanent contributions to the organization of the American state. In this respect the Jewish organization differs completely from the Japanese (see Chapter VIII), which is the most efficient organization among the immigrant groups, but one based on the military principle of ordering and forbidding.
THE ITALIAN COMMUNITY
Italian leaders frequently point out that the power of the Italian community both to organize for itself and to use American organizations is limited.
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151. The Italians in America may be compared to a man who is starving in the midst of an abundant supply of excellent food to which he has no access, either because it is locked away from him or because he is too ill to assimilate it, or because he feels a strong repugnance toward the receptacle that contains it.[9]
152.. If the Italians would do as the Jews do we should be better off. The Italian institutions here are very few and very poor, and most of the big organizations do nothing to help them. . I should like to open the eyes of the public to the fact that very little is done here for Italians by Italian organizations. Such organizations as the Sons of Italy do not use their money as they should. They may spend it in Italy for private needs and things. They should spend it here for American institutions for Italians. We should all unite as the Jewish people do .[10]
153. Do we not see all the giant strides which the Hebrew element is making in the conquest of this country? It is true. They are owners of business, banks, and affairs. Israelites are the lawyers, judges, doctors, professors, teachers, managers of theaters, the monopolists of arts. The most perfect institutions of mutual aid and providence are Israelite. The biggest settlement in New York is Israelite. Their clubs, social, political, artistic, and professional, are the best of their kind. Their schools are the most frequented and most active. What wonder
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if they audaciously proclaim themselves the owners, the conquerers of this country! Those who can emulate them in this method of intellectual and social invasion are the Italian element, which has much affinity of intellect and artistic sensibility with the old and refined Jewish race. But we must do as they do; we must thus invade the schools, teach our-selves, have our children taught, open to them the social paths by means of the hatchet of knowledge and genius. We must organize our forces as the Jews do, persist in exhausting that which constitutes gain for our race over the Anglo-Saxon race....
But instead of this, what a contrast! The schools where the Italian language is taught are deserted. The Italian families falsify even the ages of their children in order to send them to the factories, instead. of to the schools, showing thus an avarice more sordid than that of the traditional Shylock. There is not a young Italian girl who knows how to typewrite in both languages and our men of affairs must employJewish girls or Americans for lack of Italians.
Without being niggardly and egoistic as the Jew sometimes is, let us try to imitate him in his ardor for conquest and in the discipline and knowledge with which he knows how to organize his admirable institutions, which put him in a position to raise a high voice and command respect for the name of the race.
This is the reason we have put at the head of this article the exhortation, "Let us do as the Jews."[11]
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On the other hand the Italians retain longer than many other nationalities the virtues of the primary-group organization. Their family and community life has a very affectionate and intimate character, and its ties usually remain strong enough to prevent that demoralization of the second generation which characterizes the Poles and, to some extent, the Jews. The Italian family tends to remain solidary long enough to secure the result which Mrs. Leavitt indicates at the end of document 108, p. 151. Map 10 on the following page indicates the location of Italian colonies in New York.
It is certainly true that the spirit of mafia, camorra, and vendetta, the most notorious of the Italian heritages, which developed here into the Black Hand activities, has had a paralyzing effect on the development of Italian life. Before 1905, in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, Ohio, wherever Italians were congregated, systematic blackmail and murder produced a feeling of insecurity and terror unfavorable to all constructive activity:
154. Here in the land of liberty, of labor, of the boldest steps in human progress, there has originated and extended through the Italian colonies such an air of mystery and terror that it disturbs the peace of families, hampers the profitable development of
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all the industries, dishonors the Italian name, and tends to prolong that state of moral degradation from which the lowest social strain of certain unhappy regions of Italy are just now beginning to emerge. . .
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Whole Italian families, in which a blackmailing letter or a threat in another form has been received from the Black Hand, live is continued anxiety and fear of the vague, unknown, but always terrible danger which hangs over them, and nobody knows whom it will fall upon, the father, one of the children, a relative, or all together, in the destruction of the house or little store, demolished and set on fire by the explosion of a dynamite bomb. . . . Even business men of conspicuously strong character, and professional men of unusual ability, frankly admit that, after a threatening letter, a certain time has to pass before they are able to attend to their business with all the composure and energy required. . . [12]
155. In these last few years the number of threatening letters has been increasing at an appalling rate, and the field of victims has been enlarged to include all: the poor laborer who by means of great sacrifices has succeeded in putting aside a few dollars, or, perhaps, bought a wretched little property not yet entirely paid for; the small merchant who, with others of his family, is his own clerk in his little store, and barely manages to make a living from it; the proprietor who has retired from business and would enjoy in peace the fruit of his toil; the whole-sale merchant; the professional man; and even the representative of the Italian government in Chicago, t The letter in its classic form is short, written in in unassuming and sometimes friendly tone. It contains the request for money, with an indication of the place where it is to be delivered, and a threat, sometimes veiled by mysterious allusions, and some-times expressed with a brutal lack of reserve.
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At the place designated the victim does not find anybody; but at the house he finds, a few days later, a second letter, in which the request is repeated, also the threat, in an aggravated form. And thus at brief intervals comes a third and a fourth letter, each containing more violent threats than the pre-ceding, expressed either in words or symbols, such as drawings of pierced hearts, of pistols, daggers, crosses, skulls and crossbones, bombs, etc. All these letters are prepared with a system of progression which shows in the author a mind by no means crude and untrained, but shows, rather, a consummate skill acquired by practice in this class of crime.
In this manner the victim is intimidated to such a) point that there is not left in his veins another drop of blood beyond that needed to nourish his fear, and to enable him, in such a depressed condition of mind, to lay hold on the anchor of salvation which is pointed out to him in one of the letters, that is, to apply to "friends." Some phrase in the letter hints vaguely at so-called friends; suggests that whoever seeks will find; gives to understand, in short, that some-body might intervene between the victim and the mysterious and terrible god that has made the demand, and is threatening with all the thunder-bolts in his possession, so that the matter might be adjusted in some way. In one letter in the possession of the "White Hand," this "friend" who is to be the' intermediary, and who in reality is the accomplice if not the author of the blackmail, is indicated with sufficient precision. He must be a Terminese from Termini, says the letter, meaning from the town of Termini, not from the country, and must live in the same street as the victim, which is a very short street....
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So the unfortunate victim finally looks for the "friend" who can save him from the threatening peril, and has no difficulty whatever in finding him. For some time there has been continually at his side somebody who has shown himself more solicitous than ever before, if known for a considerable time; obliging and exceedingly friendly, if of recent acquaintance. This man sometimes guesses, sometimes induces the other to tell him the trouble which has destroyed his peace of mind, and curses the assassins who blackmail poor people and who ought to be hung or put in the penitentiary. He knows some mysterious people, banded together, who live and have a good time with money extorted from honest, industrious people... .
The trial of Schiro before Judge H. N. Chetlain of the Chicago court, furnishes very eloquent proof of the means by which the conscience of poor people is depraved, and the terror of mysterious societies of villains is strengthened and spread by tyrannical power.
Antonio Schiro, offering his services to Giovanni Gastello as a "friend" for a transaction with the authors of a blackmailing letter, suggested that he accompany the offer of a smaller sum with a letter which would cause it to be accepted. He would write the letter himself for Castello, and in fact did write it and deposited it, together with the money, at the place designated by the mysterious black-mailers. Found when he was caught, it was offered in evidence at the trial. It ran as follows:
"My dear children, I answer your dear letter which stated that you wanted this flower. So, my dear children, I cannot. I can only give you this flower of two hundred because I am not a person like
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you, gentlemen, believe. You must excuse me if I cannot make you content because I am a laborer and have nothing else to say, but salute you friendly and sign. Your friend Giovanni. You come and get this letter in the place you know, because I cannot go there. Good-by, good-by and make a good life."
The White Hand, which had studied all phases of those cases which had come to its knowledge, finding it extremely difficult to reach the principal actor, directed all its attention toward this so-called friend whose conduct and explanations gave some clue which might furnish a more or less substantial proof of his participation in the crime. Then the tactics of these criminals were changed, and to the common "friend" of the blackmailed and the black-mailer was assigned the role of enemy of the latter, under the necessity of submitting to a humiliation, the humiliation of being obliged himself to carry to the feet of the powerful and mysterious god the tribute of the money extorted and the homage of his own obedience.
In this way every weapon of the prosecution is broken. The go-between did not offer himself, he was appealed to; he always advised against yielding to the imposition; he refused to intervene; they. begged him to, entreated, implored; he yielded out of consideration for his friend, being himself a victim of the oppression of the same mysterious enemy. And in the face of this evidence, in fact, no jury can find him guilty....[13]
156. This type of crime has been carried on to such an extent that, though the majority of those in the colony are honest and industrious laborers,
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nearly every one seems to feel that he is in constant danger of either becoming the victim of a plot or of being forced to involve himself with the gang.
Continental Italians and those of other nationalities who live in the district may own well-stocked stores or acquire a reputation for wealth, but are never molested or threatened, but a Sicilian who shows any sign of prosperity almost invariably begins to receive threatening letters and, though a love of display is a national characteristic, few have the courage to raise their standard of living as long as they continue to live in the district. The streets lying in the heart of the colony are thought to be centers of danger, so there has been a tendency to move toward the boundaries, or a few blocks beyond, and families that have done so have a sense of security, though they still live within easy walking distance and return daily to visit friends, attend church, patronize the shops, etc.
In the district itself it is considered very bad form to--discuss these affairs. No one alludes to them voluntarily, or in plain terms speaks of a murder. A murdered man is spoken of as the "poor disgraced one," and the murders or persecutions as "trouble." Certain men are called "mafiosi," but this generally means only that they are domineering, swaggering, and fearless, and no one would think of making a direct accusation. There are men who are said to be "unwilling to work for their bread," and certain names are never mentioned without a significant raising of eyebrows. The term Black Hand is never used except jokingly, nor does one hear the words vendetta, omertà or feudo, though every one is imbued with the sentiments for which they stand. In the whole colony there is no one so despised as an informer,
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nor is it thought desirable to show an interest in another's private affairs. There is a general belief that men who are murdered usually deserve their fate. Murdered men are not buried from the church unless a large sum is paid for a special mass.
The American press and police attribute all these "Italian killings" to the Black Hand and consider them inevitable. Every so often the newspapers print an interview with a police official in which a certain number of murders are prophesied to occur in this district, and the public are given to under-stand that the situation is hopeless. When a murder is committed it is either reported as a minor occurrence in a single paragraph, or absurdly elaborated in highly romantic style. A few years ago the chief of police, on being urged to have a careful study made of the situation, dismissed the matter by saying, " Oh, we've always had trouble up there; they never bother anyone but each other." [14]
The Italian community had no power of organization to combat a practice which was traditional and operated like one of the laws of nature. The Italian press got as much news value as possible out of the situation, and threw the blame on the Americans, claiming that they admitted too many Italian criminals, and that the American police and court systems were defective in comparison with the Italian.[15] But grad-
( 249) ually as the practice became epidemic, affecting all classes of Italians, and involving Americans also, the Italian community and the American police were forced by public opinion into an alliance which succeeded in abating the evil.
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We are unable to trace the whole history of this reform movement, but the following data, from one of the Italian newspapers published in New York, indicate the gradual modification of the attitude of the Italians:
157. In April, 1903, a murdered man was found in a barrel at Avenue A and Eleventh Street, New York. The Italian detectives arrested twelve Sicilians. The American newspapers had full accounts and articles abusive of the Italians and the Black Hand.[16] The Italian papers protested violently against the blackening of the Italian name. The Bollettino claimed that "the fear of the mafia is in great part a product of the reporter's fancy." [17]
During 1903 and 1904 the publicity given these crimes seemed merely to augment them. The Bollettino resented the fact that "that odious word `mafia' is continually thrown in our faces," quoted American newspaper accounts of American lawlessness—the feuds of the Kentucky mountains, etc.—and criticized the inefficiency of the American police .[18]
"Do the European newspapers say that the good Londoners are hyenas who suck the blood from the torn flesh of women, and that of all their sports the Americans prefer that of holding up trains, robbing the passengers, perhaps killing them, and dynamiting safes?" [19]
On October 18, 1905, the Bollettino published a statement of Lieutenant Petrosino that he needed more men, that there were 30,000 members of the Black Hand in America, and that the only way to
( 251) deal with them was to deport their leaders. The municipal council of Scranton, Pennsylvania, offered $1,000 for information as to headquarters of the Black Hand in that city.[20]
July 10, 1905, the Bollettino, referring to the Black Hand, "which is said to have infiltrated itself among the workmen of the Croton aqueduct," advised Italians not to communicate details to the American reporters but to the Italian consul general. September 27, 1905, a Black Hand case appeared for the first time on the second page of the Bollettino Heretofore these cases had appeared on the first page.
September 10, 1906, the Bollettino reprinted from the Tribuna Italiana, Chicago, an account of the outbreak of a vendetta during a religious procession in Chicago and "the dragging of the Italian name in the dirt." Both papers asked: "When will this end?" "Another Sunday like the past will see the proposal not of one plan, but of ten, to exclude Italian emigrants from America."
In 1907 the "activities" increased. "There is not a day that we are not compelled to record in increasing numbers deeds so horrible as to redden the faces of this puritanical people. To-day threatening letters, to-morrow murder, then kidnapping, following the explosion of bombs, and thus . . . we proceed upon the path of crime."[21] Judge Roberto Cortese, of Paterson, New Jersey, received an infernal machine through the mail and was blown to pieces. He had aided the police in connection with Black Hand cases. A protest meeting of 500 was led by Italians; $10,000 was raised to aid in the search for the criminals, and in addition the Municipal Council
( 252) of Paterson contributed $2,000, the Passaic Board of Freeholders, $1,000, the State Camp Woodmen, $2,500, etc.[22]
The year 1908 shows the highest number of Black Hand activities. The Bollettino records 811 cases. Two columns in the Bollettino (January 1908) call on Italians to rise up and put a stop to the crimes which are besmirching the Italian name, and call a mass meeting to effect an organization. An editorial headed "The Cry of Alarm," January 28th, warned that the doors of this country would be closed to Italians. At the meeting a society of over 300 was formed—"Association de Vigilanza e Protezione Italiana"—and Mr. Frugone, editor of the Bollettino, was made president.[23]
"In many places employers are beginning to refuse to take Italians." [24] The phrase, "Itis about time to quit it," became current in Italian newspapers .[25] The Bollettino, commenting on a case where a man went to jail rather than disclose the name of a black-mailer, gave advice which proved very important later—to carry information to the police.[26] Commenting on a law proposed in West Virginia to excludeItalians from the state, the Bollettino said the Italians bade fair to be classed with the Chinese.[27] The Bollettino printed a letter from the King of Italy to an Italian policeman commending him for bravery in fighting the bad Italian element in Pittsburgh.[28] The Bollettino pointed out that Italians were afraid to inform the police of threatening letters, because the police were unable to protect them, cited the
( 253) case of Mr. Spinella, and translated a communication sent by him to the Times in July, showing that he informed the police of threats, and his house was nevertheless dynamited six times.[29] The Bollettino printed a notice, "Against the Black Hand," advising all honest Italians to aid Commissioner Bingham by sending him, marked "personal," all threatening letters, and information about Black Handers and idle Italians, with a description of individuals.[30] Lieut. Giuseppe Petrosino was killed in Palermo. The Bollettino placed the blame on the chief of police for revealing the fact that Petrosino was in Italy.[31] A law was passed in Albany making punishment for kidnapping fifty years in prison.[32]
Rizzo, who killed three children in an attempt to extort money from their father, went to the electric chair.[33] Lupo, leader of a gang, was sentenced to thirty years, and members of that gang were given heavy sentences.[34] The Italian dailies attacked the Italian Civic League because it was collaborating too much with Americans—under the guise of defending the Italian name it called in Americans to discuss how to deal with Italian criminals.[35] Professor Pecorni of the Italian Civic League, admitted that the league could do nothing unless aided by the police. He blamed the police for not deporting the 700 criminals listed by Petrosino and Vaccarezza.[36] The Bollettino and many Italian societies protested against the use of the word "Italian" by the Amer-
( 254) -rican press in describing a criminal. A coupon was run daily in the Bollettino: "We protest in the use of the word `Italian' in the American press on any news item detrimental to our countrymen," to be signed and returned to the editor;[37] and in June, 1911, Mr. Frugone carried the protest to over 1,000 Italian lodges and 50 newspapers to the convention of newspaper managers in Chicago .[38]
The post office inspectors were instructed to watch the mails for Black Hand letters.[39] Italians protested against the action of the police commissioner in abolishing the Italian detective squad. The Bollettino printed an article in English, by Mr. Palmieri, in which he said in substance:
"Commissioner Waldo has injured the Italian colony by abolishing the detective squad, which sent back such dangerous criminals as Enrico Alfono, chief of the camorra in Italy. The Italian criminals find a haven here, with weak policing and immigration officials easily evaded. Lieutenant Petrosino died to perform the great duty of listing dangerous Italian criminals. Lieutenant Vaccarezza now has worthily succeeded him. There are in New York 600,000 Italians, and there were only 60 men to police them. Now Commissioner Waldo abolishes these. The Italian colony is sad. The Italian merchants once responded to the call for funds and will do so again; but a proper squad of Italian detectives is necessary, men who are familiar with the dialects, customs, habits, and methods of the criminals who prey on the Italian people by blackmailing, extortion, kidnapping, and other outrages. Let
( 255) us not throw away valuable information. Let us not waste time, but restore the detective squad."[40]
"The Italian government is right in saying that the blame for the increase of the Black Hand is on the United States. Nowhere in the world does this organization flourish as here in America. Lieutenant Vaccarezza is right. The dissolution of his secret police department has increased the outrages. As long as the Black Hand is stronger than the police the mass of ignorant Italians will put their faith in settlements with the malefactors rather than rely on New York police. . . . The police cannot obtain the confidence of the people until they (1) re-establish the Italian detective bureau; (2) scrutinize passports; (3) agree with the Italian government as to precautions to keep criminals from the United States." [41]
“ ... We cannot command respect unless we abolish this criminality among us. We often have to say we are French, or Spanish, or Turks, to hold a job. Think what a disgrace these Black Handers have brought upon us! The Americans are too good to us, too tolerant, but their limit is reached. They are passing laws to hit us directly. Why not quit it? We should appreciate this country. In Italy we could hardly dare to do what we do here. This tumor is of course produced by the corrupt New York police, but let us do our part to cut it out."[42]
In 1909 the Black Hand activities had begun to decline, owing to the efforts of the Italian press and organizations, severer laws,
( 256) extraordinary earnestness in the police department following the murder of Petrosino, and, above all, the disposition of the Italians to follow the advice of their newspapers and communicate information to Commissioner Bingham, "if not openly, then secretly or anonymously." In 1909 there were 205 activities as against 311 in 1908; in 1910, 128 activities. When the Italian squad was dispersed in 1911 (owing, as the Italians claimed, to corruption and vanity in the police department), the activities were renewed; but they were met with more resistance, because the Italian people had learned to have some confidence in the police and obey their leaders. Consequently the Black Handers were compelled to use more bombs than ever before in order to intimidate their victims. In 1908 only 20 bombs were exploded, because their victims settled readily. In 1909 and 1910 less than 20 bombs were used, but in 1911, while there were only 95 activities, 79 bombs were used. Between August 5 and September 25, 1911 (shortly after the abolition of the Italian detective bureau), 25 bombs were used. In 1912 there were 85 activities and 81 bombs; in 1913, 100 activities and 173 bombs. In the first twenty days of January, 1913, there were 17 bombs recorded. Fol-
( 257) -lowing the persistent protests of Italians, the Italian detective squad was restored, in July, 1913. In 1914 there were only 32 combined activities and bombs, and in 1915 Italian crime became "normal" in New York.
There is one particularly instructive feature in this record of Italian crime: while there was bad feeling between the Italian public and the American public, neither side could accomplish a reform without the participation of the other. A reading of the whole record impresses us with the fact that the Italian public responded as readily as was reasonable to their leaders' efforts to induce them to resist their tormentors. In the first place, one of the characteristic heritages of the southern Italian is a strong repugnance to any sort of co-operation with the state. Further, the Black-Handers always made good their threats. There are cases recorded where a man is killed at the hour and minute appointed;[43] where a man who betrayed his gang in Palermo is followed through the Transvaal, Australia, South America, and killed after ten years in a Brooklyn dance hall;[44] where a man who has testified in court asks for twenty years of the peniten-
(
258) -tiary because that means twenty years of life.[45]
There is no such certitude in the operations of the law or of the police. The
Italians held with the police as soon as they felt any degree of safety in doing
so, and after they had taken this attitude they persisted in it even when the
police disbanded for a time the organization in which the Italians had most
confidence—the Italian detective squad.
