The Truth About Immigration

F. G. Poli, a represeutative ItaloAmerican of Detroit, has addressed a letter to Congressnian John B. Corliss, u whicli he eiideavors to correct an impressiou whicli , he tliinks, the congressraau has regarding the position of the intelligent Italiaus in this country on the matter of indiscriminate immigration. He asserts that he, in commoii witli the intelligent class of Italiana, believes that -the class of immigrants the Corliss bilí seeks to exelude ought to be kept out. He saya : "The fault is due less to the desire of the Italian immigrant .(I refer to the laboring and non-criminal classes) to intrude himself opon the United States than to the unprincipled steamship agents and sub-agents, who, for the few lira to be gained from the transaction, delude the Italian peasant into exchanging the certainty of a permanent, thougli frequently poor, living at home for the illusionary luxury of a foreigu country whose customs, language anti modes of existence are totall y strange to him. "It has been my unfortunate experience to know of villages having been depopulatèd at the suggestion of uuscrupulous steamship agents who, for the sake of the small commission accruing to themselves, have induced their innocent and trusting victima to sell for a mere song the accumulations of a lifetime, under the assurance that the people of the United States were paying a premium on Italian labor. '■The distressing results have been that thousands of my fellow-countrymen, many of them most deserving and desirous of earning a living by honest toil, have, through their unfituesa to compete with the ad vaneed conditions of American c-ivilization, been tlirowa on public charity or driven to crime, thus rendering them public burdens. Such immigrants are as unprofltable to themselves and as undesirable to the more enlightened class of Italians in this country as they are objectionable to the native citizens. They should be prohibited." As a remedy Mr. Poli suggests that the American consuls in ltaly be instructed to propeiiy wam the deluded dupes of steamship schemers.