Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/218

 202 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

indefatigable propagators of corruption among the immigrants.

Thus are conditions formed which, while placing obstacles in the way of reciprocal advantage, ruin the Italian immigrant morally, materially, and physically.

It is not the large number of Italian immigrants which con- stitutes a peril for the United States. The immigrants are young, honest, strong, and overflowing with energy ; they possess poten- tially all the factors to represent an increase of development of the American people. The real danger is their concentration in the large cities, their defective distribution in the territory of the republic, which renders impossible their proper utilization, and forms an ever-increasing plethora of labor in the more populous states, while at other points there is a large and unsatisfied need of laboring-men.

The problem is not, as some are inclined to think, to find means for limiting or stopping the immigratory current, but to avoid the evils of concentration, and to find a way effectually to distribute the mass of immigration.

What causes provoke the concentration of Italians in the large cities? Why is it that these peasants prefer to live in crowded centers, rather than to scatter over the country, where they would be able to continue the art of agriculture and find the most appro- priate outlet for their energies? Looking for the causes of this phenomenon will aid powerfully to solve the problem, and a brief survey of present and former conditions reveals the two principal causes : ( a) the poverty of the Italian immigrants ; (b) their previous mode of existence.

As has been demonstrated, the average amount of capital of the newcomer is a sum which, at the most, enables him to live without work ten or twelve days. If work be not found in that limited period, he must turn for help to his countrymen or to public charity. He has no time aside from all other difficulties encountered, such as ignorance of the language, difference in all the conditions of life, etc., etc. to study the advantage or dis- advantage of points in the United States where he might be able to develop his activities. Even if he knew before landing that the South or West was adapted to his needs, his lack of funds would