THERE IS A WAY
Between the Sicilians and the Calabrians, we learn from the chronicles of the day, unfriendly relations exist. We are further told that it is their habit "to settle their quarrels without calling in the legally constituted authorities." Young Pascietti was a Calabrian, while Rossati is a Sicilian. It is related that Pascietti gave information to the police that Rossati and his friends were trying by a dishonest gambling game to cheat certain Italian miners of their money. Invoking the aid of the police for any purpose whatever being contrary to the Sicilian and Calabrian canon, Rossati visited the restaurant where young Pascietti was employed as cook and shot him dead in the presence of his father, the proprietor of the restaurant.
Now, the Calabrians dwell in that part of Italy which is known as the "toe of the boot," while the Sicilians inhabit their fine and picturesque island just across the narrow Messina Strait. There are noble opportunities for fighting throughout the length and breadth of Calabria, and Sicily is one of the finest places in the world for stabbing and shooting. Suppose the people of the United States take measures to constrain the Sicilians and Calabrians to kill each other, so far as they have occassion to kill each other, in the beautiful land of their birth.
The police get no trace of the kidnappers of the Italian boy who was so mysteriously returned to his parents last week. It is strongly suspected that the father of the boy compounded with the felons by complying with their demands for money. That is another illustration of the Italian habit of getting along without the law or the police. Rossati, the murderer of young Pascietti, is in custody, but it is not yet certain that evidence will not fail when he is put on trial. Witnesses who conscientiously follow the Calabrian custom of settling quarrels without recourse to the law may refuse to testify, or they may be afraid to testify. The murderer's friends are said to be great stabbers and shooters. But whatever may happen in this case, it is notorious that Italian crimes are the most difficult which American detectives have to deal with. It is further notorious that the men who come here from the south of Italy and from Sicily have less control over themselves and their weapons than any other class of immigrants. Among them the homicidal impulse flames up like a flash of gunpowder, and their stilletos are as ready as a wasp's sting.
Altogether, we do not want them. We have too many bad Italians already, and since the good Italians so generally refuse to give any information to the police which might assist them in their efforts to run down criminals of their race, we may be unable in any protective measures we adopt to distinguis in every case the good Italian immigrant from the bad Italian immigrant. That will make no difference--protect ourselves we must. The imported Italian variety of crime, notably kidnapping and murder, has begun to flourish here quite beyond the limit of toleration. We have the means to apply an efficient check.
Every sovereign nation may receive the citizens or subjects of other nations, either by naturalization or as domiciled aliens, under conditions of its own imposing. It may exclude altogether for good and sufficient reasons. If Italians domiciled or naturalized in the United States think it good policy to continue to shield from police pursuit criminals of their race, we may find it necessary to stop immigration altogether from Southern Italy and Sicily. Our immigration policy stands in urgent need of revising. We have kept the gates wide open too long. It is high time to apply a selective policy. Of course, the good Italians in New York would instantly raise a terrible outcry against the exclusion of their compatriots. If they don't like the remedy, let them come to their senses, learn to be Americans, get possessed of the American detestation of crime and criminals, and give freely the information which so mahy of them could give against the "Mafia," "Black Hand," and the murderous gangs of their countrymen all and sundry.
