2

The Parliamentary Bill on Italian Emigration:

Observations and Proposals

In 1888, the new Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi as part of his program put an end to the debate on the increasing Italian emigration with the enactment of a rather restrictive legislative bill submitted by his Government. At the same time a group of Members of the lower Chamber of Parliament had entrusted their emigration bill to a Parliamentary Commission. Bishop Scalabrini addressed an open letter to the Honorable Paolo Carcano, Deputy of the National Parliament, as the debate was about to start: The Parliamentary Bill on Italian Emigration. Observations and Proposals by John Baptist Scalabrini, Bishop of Piacenza, whose second edition is used in the present translation. Carcano, who was also Deputy Finance Minister, was a college classmate of the Bishop and to him he writes expressing his appreciation for the parliamentary initiative that looks at the migration phenomenon not as an anomaly, but as the expression of a natural right. The Government instead, under pressure from the landed aristocracy, seemed worried only about the immediate economic damages the exodus of workers was causing Italy, and didn’t take into account the experience that repressive policies only obtain the opposite result than the one intended. The Bishop criticizes the possibility of recruiting emigrants contained also in the second bill by mustering abundant documentation to support his view, pointing out in particular the fact that such a clause would favor “merchants of human flesh” in their traffic of “white slaves.”

Scalabrini’s reasoning moves towards the defense of the freedom to emigrate, but not force people to emigrate, while he admits the need of regulations

on the part of the State. He expresses hope that Italy, like other European countries, will take opportune measures for the protection of its citizens abroad. Some steps for social and religious care have already been taken through the founding in Piacenza the previous year of his missionaries. He asks for his missionaries that a civil service among migrants, like teaching in Italian schools for five years, may replace the obligatory three year military service. In the climate of conflict between Government and Church on the issue of the temporal power of the Pope the proposal was not accepted. On December 30, 1888, the Government’s bill became law without taking into account Scalabrini’s remarks on the emigration agents. The Bishop, however, kept up his battle against the exploitation of migrants by establishing the St. Raphael’s Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants in 1889, with services at the ports of Genoa and New York, and by pursuing a revision of the emigration law that he finally won in 1901.

Honorable Friend:

In a short time the Parliament will debate the Government Bill on emigration, and I can’t help but share with you some observations I made while reading that Bill, opportunely amended by the Parliamentary Commission.

I turn to you not only because of that affectionate esteem which, begun in the classroom, continued uninterrupted for several years – and we can now count them by periods of five – but also because I know you are a true friend of the poor (which today is a great quality), patient and unassuming, as well as an intelligent investigator of social phenomena.

I turn to you publicly not to make a useless noise, that I avoid out of principle and by nature, but because the issue that I submit to you is one which needs discussion. I have not found, outside of this, another means of attracting the attention of the public, absent-minded and distracted, that does not read unless forced to do so by a title that excites its curiosity. I thought that an open letter by a Bishop, who takes an interest in social issues and parliamentary bills, addressed to a Representative, could be sufficient reason to shake the morbid indifference of the public and cause, for once, a discussion – tedious if you will, but helpful – of a bill instead of any effort whatsoever.

This seems to me the duty of a good citizen. From the day I published my work, Italian Emigration in America, I have been able to collect data and make observations that may prove helpful to many of our unhappy countrymen. To that end I have reported in this letter those facts and observations. Should I have made a mistake in evaluating them and made a vain effort, then to you and to all good people: Let the long labor and great love be of worth to me.

Of the two parliamentary bills, the ministerial and that of the Parliamentary Commission, the latter seems to me far better.

The ministerial bill is more inclined to consider the great cosmic and human phenomenon of migration as an abnormal event, rather than a natural right, and surrounds it with so many shackles as to almost obliterate it. Besides some haste in its editing, it reveals too much the concern of the Minister of the Interior, who sees with regret the furrows left behind by a number of farmers, which increases year after year, thus impoverishing farm production and property and deepening the crisis that confronts our agriculture, rather than the clear-sightedness of the statesman, who looks ahead and does not impede but directs the waves of migrations so that they may become a source of strength and welfare for the mother country.

The ministerial bill did not take into account a recent experience which clearly showed that police measures do not stop but rather deviate from ours to other ports the migratory masses, thus making the exodus of our countrymen more painful and more costly. Artificial obstacles do not hold back the streams, but rather they make them overflow, increasing them and making more ruinous the impetus.

On the other hand, the bill of the Parliamentary Commission is, in my judgment, better thought out, more organic and more liberal, because from the very first article it sanctions the complete freedom to emigrate, naturally protecting the obligations imposed by law on citizens.

It is a good picture, but it has a spot in the middle. This spot, I must tell you openly, is the power given by the Commission’s bill to the emigration agents to recruit.

I believe that this concession, justifiable perhaps in theory, causes grave harm in practice, so as to render futile many good provisions of the law itself.

If, as the Hon. De Zerbi seems to believe in his report, the emigration agents were no more than simple intermediaries, men of trust

between the various navigation societies and the emigrants, and if they limited their role to providing information on how and when to embark, and if the agencies were only branches of the central Navigation offices, there would be no reason to worry. Their action, however superfluous in most cases (since such information could be obtained by anyone who is interested on any street corner or public shop), still would not be harmful. It could even sometimes turn useful to the emigrants. And even if the agents were to act as tempters to help the doubtful and would show the poor people made thirsty by poverty the fresh and soft American streamlets, like those which in Dante’s “Inferno” made Adam go into raptures, well, it would not be the end of the world and we could even close an eye and say with Manzoni: go, go, poor little poisoner, you will not be the one who will destroy Milan.

But the power to recruit is something quite different from all this, and the agents, who were already doing it when it was forbidden by ministerial Circulars, imagine if they will not take even more advantage of it, when it will be a legal right! Consequently the calamities lamented in the past will increase to the extent of the freedom granted, since experience on the one hand does not count against thirst for unsatisfied gain, and ignorance on the other either does not know the fate of the one who has gone before, or hopes to be luckier.

The penalties threatened by the new bill on the emigration agents are severe, and this is good. They will never be tough enough against the one who, more despicable than the thief and more cruel than the murderer, pushes into ruin so many unfortunate people. How many of them, uprooted from their homes by false promises, crossed the ocean towards inhospitable lands, faced by a thousand insurmountable difficulties, lucky if they finally could find a plot of land where to die in peace! How many, abandoned on deserted shores without clothes and bread, were lucky enough to return to their native town with despair in their heart! How many perished fighting with wild animals, with the inhospitality of the natives and deadly fevers! Statistics in this regard give us a grim picture!    Let the penalties then be severe.

Even the moral and material assurances, which the new bill requires of the emigration agent, and his limited field of action, make surveillance easier and his action perhaps less damaging. Less damaging, I say, but never good, because recruiting in the area of emigration is something intrinsically evil, because it alters the functions of this social phenomenon and

makes it deviate from its scope and natural goal. Emigration, like all selections, must be spontaneous if it is to be advantageous; otherwise, instead of being a relief to the social organism and a beneficial centrifugal and centripetal action that gives motion to and holds tempers in balance, it becomes an effort that weakens, a fever that slowly consumes.

Since the work of the agent must be free in regard to the emigrant, it follows that it will be rewarded either by contractors of public works or by the American governments that favor and subsidize emigration, or by anyone who might have an interest in it.

Now all these factors can change the migratory currents of a country from their natural ways, which are usually the best, and direct them in places that are deadly due to climate or other conditions, or use them in works that do not conform to their abilities; they can, in a word, force the emigrants to choose a goal imposed, or suggested to their ignorance or good faith, not by their interest, but by that of the one who has recruited them.

I have personal experience of this. Last year, as soon as my pamphlet was published, in less than one month several colonization projects were presented to me, one better than the other, some by mail, others personally. One could see that all these gentlemen were emigration agents, who were running the race to arrive first at the goal. One could also see, from their proposals, that many, in their haste to arrive, had acted even before reading my pamphlet, that is, as soon as they had heard that the Bishop of Piacenza was interested in emigration and emigrants.

Listening to them, they were all philanthropists, interested in emigration for love of their fatherland, who had traveled and made financial sacrifices for our poor countrymen and, having found the panacea for so many evils, their hard work had been eventually rewarded by splendid successes. They unfolded their ideas and plans and, as you guessed, they ended by asking my support for their enterprises.

It was too easy, with all due and honorable exceptions (which shows that even in this dirty business one can sometimes find gentlemanly behavior). It was too easy, I say, to discover true scavengers behind those philanthropists. Therefore I dismissed them, telling them that their business could not be my business. And if then, with a desire to know, I asked one information about another, do you know what the answer was? Bishop, do you know him? I beg you, do not trust him! He is a scoundrel... he has already ruined so many!... he is a true merchant

of human flesh.... And they told almost criminal facts, some of which, also from my own knowledge, were not exaggerated.

And the press? And the publications on this or that American country?

They poured into my office and all dutifully described some American earthly paradise. But alas, now and then I happened to read in this or that paper, arguing among them, news like this: This newspaper is subsidized by that Government or by that enterprise, in order to favor emigration into that country.... This reporter, after having spoken well about that country, now detracts from it because his monthly salary has been suspended.... Thus, I thought, this is all lies and selfishness; it is a shameful trade of praises, abuses and consciences at the expense of the poor emigrants. Keep away!

But, apart from these considerations, I ask myself: What need is there to license emigration recruiters and to authorize with government approval an act which, in order to be profitable, cannot be exercised too scrupulously? What role does the emigration recruiter have, if not that of inciter, of provoker of the needs of the poorer classes? Aren’t our farmers and workers faced with enough real misfortunes which force them to emigrate, without having someone make them feel even more the burden, by showing, through often mostly deceptive arguments, that somewhere else there is an easily acquired wealth?

The Hon. De Zerbi in his scholarly and elegant report justly places among the causes of the spreading of this phenomenon in Italy the illusions fostered by the allurements of the manager of human labor. But why, I add, to the many lamented causes of emigration do we want to add another one and moreover, make it even more effective with the legal approval of such allurements of the managers of human labor?

A practical case, which for that matter has happened many times, and which in the field of recruiting migrants is more likely to happen, will show, even more than arguments, the damage of this concession.

An agent is charged by a Society of contractors or by a government to recruit two, three, four, or ten thousand workers or farmers. The agent does his work and sends them in the manner and with the assurances required by the bill. Now the Government knows that the country where those unfortunates are headed is, due to climate or other reasons, uninhabitable; it knows that those poor pioneers are not led to prosperity but to almost certain death. Yet the Government, given that the new plan

has the sanction of law, could neither punish nor impede such a catastrophe. And note that the agent can, in the best good faith, send into ruin many people, since he is not bound to have knowledge on this point, as, for example, Swiss agents are obliged to have.

When not long ago, the Hon. Crispi intervened to prevent a disastrous expedition of emigrants from the Mantua region, the press in a chorus decried the arbitrary action, as if the Minister had committed a monstrous attempt on public liberties. Yet, that ministerial act could be justified with the rules and Circulars that regulate emigration, while this could not be done with the new law. But what generous man in the position of the Hon. Crispi would not have done the same, even at the price of being ridiculed by the self-styled champions of liberty, given the deplorable destination to which those poor emigrants were directed? And why, I ask again, must we always put ourselves in the hard situation of either contradicting the law, or assisting the ruin of so many unfortunate people?

And since social factors are seldom absolutely good or absolutely evil, but can be one or the other, depending on circumstances, it can be that the recruitment of immigrants, evil and to be rejected in principle, can be good in certain cases. Thus agents, or colonization societies or public works contractors can offer truly good conditions, as was seen in the construction of the Massaua-Dogali railroad.

Then the Government, in exceptional cases, when every possibility of deception would be excluded, could permit recruiting.

But what can be good as an exception is bad if granted in ordinary circumstances. The history of our emigration offers us frequent examples of such expeditions gone badly, and the echo of those disasters sometimes crossed the seas and brought sadness to our hearts. They are things known to everyone, nor will I repeat them here so as not to annoy you.

The Hon. De Zerbi, defending in his report the permission to recruit emigrants, says among other things: “The question of spontaneous and instigated immigration, as they define it in La Plata, was dealt with in North America as long as this was needed, then in Central and South America. It was seen that the latter was not suitable. American governments thus limited themselves, therefore, to receive spontaneous immigration. They did not promote it any longer artificially, with the exception of some areas of Brazil. The middlemen, the recruiters are not those who convince the farmers to emigrate so as to obtain a reward from the Society

of Navigation to which they direct them. The farmer is an animal who resists persuasion. The emigration agents induce the farmer who has already decided to emigrate to choose this or that Navigation Society; this is all they do. But as far as the decision to emigrate is concerned, it has already either been made or almost made in the mind of the farmer and the mediators are only an occasional cause.”

I say that if artificial emigration has already been proven to be an evil and has been abandoned by almost all the American governments that must receive it, it will be at least worst for the one that must furnish it: if these, the American managers were concerned with the evil that accrued, by the frequent disasters, by the agglomeration of the uprooted, with greater reason the legislators of the countries that furnish this huge mass of population will have to prevent it and forbid that the sorrowful cases of the past should possibly be repeated. This, of course, if Government means wisdom enlightened by experience.

But both in the matter of artificial emigration and what concerns the work of the recruiters, it seems to me that the Hon. De Zerbi sees a bit too much through rose-colored glasses, since his beautiful prose sings one tune and the facts sing another, and I am more inclined to believe the facts rather than beautiful words.

I transcribe some of the many documents I have gathered here and there, all of recent date, which openly demonstrate that the American governments compete in voting funds on behalf of immigration and that the sore of the recruiters is more serious than commonly believed.

The Diritto of last May 1 stated: “Based on our information concerning the contract that should have been reached in Brazil to provide agricultural emigrants from Northern Italy, the newspaper, “La Republica Argentina,” which is published in Rome and defends the interests of Italians in South America, after positively confirming the news, expresses itself in this way:

Several authoritative Roman publications, among which the Diritto and the Fanfulla, have echoed our words concerning the unjust trade agreement stipulated between an Italian agency and the provincial Governments of Brazil for a large number of Lombard and Venetian emigrant farm workers, who would replace the slaves in those regions.

Our Government could not have overlooked a piece of information drawn from the best sources of undisputed reliability, and we hope that, with the usual energy, it will provide, so that those unfortunates may not fall victims of the inhuman speculators who care only for their own immediate financial gain.

True, we are against an absolute restriction on emigration. However, we believe that it is not only useful, but necessary and indispensable that it be regulated.

What do we know, what does our Government know, what do our public officials know about the countries across the Atlantic? Nothing.

We continually have indisputable proofs. Our Consuls and our Ministers know even less than we do, and when some deplorable incidents are brought to their attention, usually for one reason or another, they turn a deaf ear.

Our Government will surely see to it that Italians who intend to migrate know where they are going and will regulate emigration so that it may turn out to be, as it should be, of serious usefulness, without siding, as now happens, with the traders in human flesh.

In October 1886, the Brazilian newspapers published a Circular of that Government to its agents abroad, in which the decision to pay the entire journey of the emigrants, who would like to go there to work in the “fazendas” with or without contract, and also whoever would go there to work public lands on his own, was made public. Now, what does working on the fazendas mean, if not to replace the labor of the slaves and to be slaves, in fact if not by law?

On August 7 last, the Hon. Sen. Prado, Minister of Agriculture of Brazil, gave a speech in Parliament which provides precious data on this subject and that I report as written in the Italian review Il Brasile of Rio de Janiero: “Among the most important problems,” so said the distinguished Minister, “those that most occupy my attention are immigration and the ease of the means of transportation (Signs of approval). Through immigration two serious needs will be met: agriculture will be furnished with much-needed labor and our vast land will be populated and cultivated (Signs of approval).”

“The immigrants who now arrive in Brazil are almost all directed to farms as laborers, and others attempt to settle on State lands (terras devolutas), in the colonial centers already organized or in the process of organization. I consider it indispensable that both the former and the latter be helped by payment of their passage (Signs of approval), since we cannot rely on immigration that is entirely spontaneous, when regions better situated and with conditions more favorable to European labor give us great competition, granting immigration great favors and utilizing all means for attracting it.”

“We have the example of São Paulo. The experience gained there must guide public officials toward a better solution of this vast and complex problem. By offering free passage, that province was able to attract in one year more that 100,000 immigrants, of which 50,000 came through the Società Promotrice d’Immigrazione (Society for the Promotion of Immigration). To this end the Province spent a very large sum of money. Only at the average price of 50,000 contos (125 lire) for passage, the admission of more than 100,000 immigrants cost the Province more than 5,000,000 contos (12.5 million lire), without counting the expenses for room and board for eight days in the shelter of São Paulo established in a large and adequate building that cost more than 400,000 contos (one million lire), nor the considerable expenses for the purchase of lands on which to establish centers, nor the cost for the settlement of the immigrants in the centers themselves.”

“I don’t need to demonstrate the importance of this fact. Allow me to point out a characteristic circumstance.”

“During this year’s session, the provincial assembly of São Paulo, in three days and without debate, authorized the Presidency to introduce 100,000 immigrants. Such energy shows the determination with which the provincial authorities consider the problem of immigration (Signs of approval). As for agriculture, if it were necessary to show the faith with which the legislators of São Paulo view the future, about which some doubts were cast by one of the noble representatives of Minas Gerais, it should suffice to note the constant and great search for workers by the fazendeiros (large landowners).”

“I must also point out that almost all the immigrants who arrive in São Paulo manifest the desire to settle in the fazendas, even though there are in the province several colonies, some created by the general government and others by provincial authorities. This fact is well worth consideration.”

“To this end, however, the province of São Paulo spends an average of 300,000 contos (750,000 lire) per month for the introduction of immigrants. It can be anticipated, Mr. President, that the State may have to spend an even larger sum (Signs of approval), since it must care for the needs of all the provinces as well as for other needs. I have agreed with the illustrious commission to add 2,000,000 contos (5 million lire) to the present allocation for this use, but I will have to ask you for an even greater sum because lately I have received many requests for the

introduction of immigrants from Rio di Janiero, Minas and other provinces. In order to satisfy these requests, which is so necessary, the proposed funds would not suffice, even with the increase of those two thousand contos.”

“Should the Parliament grant me the necessary authority, as I hope from your wisdom and patriotism, I will endeavor to effect contracts that will guarantee us for five years the annual entry of 100,000 immigrants, or a total of 500,000. The admission of 100,000 immigrants a year, calculating at 50 contos the average price of the passage, will cost us 5,000,000 contos. However, this is not the whole cost for such a large supply, because it will also be necessary to provide room and board for a maximum of eight days to the new arrivals, bring them to their final destination, and survey and divide land for those who want to settle in colonies as small proprietors. I think that for these various services at least eight to ten thousand contos will be needed (from 20 to 25 million lire) whose investment could not be more fruitful.”

“In the contract or contracts that I will draw up, I will adopt the necessary measures for the distribution of the immigrants in the provinces according to the circumstances of each one, and I will take care of the solicitude for their placement. I will not hesitate to grant special favors to the immigrants who will go on their own to certain provinces, because only in this way we will be able to neutralize the almost irresistible effects of the attraction that São Paulo exerts on the immigrants.”

“And the Riforma, which is in a position to be well informed, wrote the following in its number of last July 5:

We live in a moment in which the States of South America are in a contest to populate their empty and boundless lands with European workers; a movement of colossal proportions and never before seen is taking shape and is organized in those regions. The field in which Governments, Societies and speculators work is chiefly and almost exclusively Italy.

The Republic of Argentina has allocated the necessary funds to anticipate the price of passage for 140,000 emigrants; Brazil is planning the importation of another 200,000 farmers with free passage; 40,000 would be called for by Uruguay, 60,000 by Peru, others by Mexico, more by the States of Central America.

As to the evil work of the agents, here are the proofs gathered from newspapers:

Philadelphia, July 26, 1888. The inquiry ordered by the Assembly of New

York on the immigration of poor people attracts much attention. It was proven by navigation agents that European immigration is unduly provoked; that a large number of foreign agents are placed in the United States, with the task of selling pre-paid tickets, thousands of which are sent from America to Europe; that some Navigation Companies do not take any precaution regarding the introduction of undesirable immigrants, and that a large part of the arrivals remain in New York. It was also proven that the fierce competition of the navigation Companies stimulates immigration in an unnatural way. One Company, which operates mainly in the Mediterranean, has 3,000 agencies here, besides a large number in Europe. The enormous immigration, principally of Italians, is due in very large part to the efforts of these agents.

Washington, July 28, 1888. The depositions on emigration made before the Commission of the House of Representatives tend to demonstrate that Italian immigration is stimulated by contractors who, after the immigrants have worked the equivalent of the money advanced to them for the voyage, discharge them and hire other immigrants, who in turn suffer the same fate.

New York, July 28, 1888. The Committee of inquiry on the conditions of immigration in the United States yesterday listened to Knight Monaco, vice Consul of Italy. From his testimony it was learned that his countrymen are the object of a shameful speculation on the part of emigration agents, both in their country and on American soil as soon as they arrive. The greater part are obliged to pay five or six Commission agents to obtain a job, especially as ground layers for the railroads, and even then they don’t always get it. New York alone has two thousand Italians in a state of complete poverty.

New York, August 1, 1888. The Immigration Commission continues its inquiry and heard several Italians. Their testimony reveals that they were induced to leave their country by promises of high wages. The agents recruited them, giving them (contemptibly deceived) only the price of their voyage. This is proven by the fact that the regular price of the trip from Naples to New York is 115 francs, while they had to pay them 250 francs for the ticket.

New York, August 27, 1888. The Commission of inquiry, charged with the study of the conditions of immigration in the United States, established that such conditions are very lamentable and that a large number of agents, spread throughout Europe, and particularly

in Germany, Hungary and Italy, recruit farmers, who are seduced by false promises, offering them travel tickets. Once they arrive in America they do not find work. A good third of these poor people are obliged to return to their hometown, having lost everything.

Rome, August 1, 1888. Telegrams from the Italian Consul in Costa Rica confirm the poor conditions in which 200 emigrants from the Mantua region live. They were recruited by emigration agents who are still canvassing the Mantua countryside, while others cover the southern provinces. Among them there are some Italians against whom the government is considering criminal charges.

The Corriere della Sera reported on last August 5 that a mixed Company of foreigners and countrymen, that hides behind anonymity, is organizing a huge expedition of Italian emigrants to the province of Baja (Northern Brazil). Agents and messengers were sent to all the provinces of Italy, and, especially in the Venetio, many people have accepted, so that many families are already about to leave. For the time being, the initial stage of such a movement is limited to 5,000 workers.

From our information, we have been able to establish that such an undertaking has been organized through legal means. However, we must point out to all concerned that in this expedition our emigrants run very serious risks, including fatigue, privations, an unhealthy and often deadly climate, which perhaps none of our people could endure for a long time.

The campaign started by the speculators is very active and they use the most seductive means to attract this mass of unfortunate people.

From Ferrara they wrote not much later to the same newspaper: “I have had the occasion to detect that in our rural areas during these months an extraordinary exodus of farmers to America is taking place, particularly to São Paulo and Costa Rica. Thirty individuals are about to leave just one landowner in Porto Maggiore. This is caused by the fact that in these provinces several recruiters go around, who, promising great things, start by pocketing 25 lire, the fruit of, who knows, how much sweat.”

“Close friends, from São Paulo in Brazil,” so states the Hon. Moneta in his telegram to the Hon. Crispi, “confirm the serious conditions of Italian migrant farm workers, while speculators in the Province of Mantua, without any assurances, using the overseas advertisement, continue to enlist hundreds of families in very deplorable conditions, including

weakened elderly, pregnant women and infants. Honest citizens ask questions and request my going to verify this.”

So as to summarize these painful facts, I would like to report here the following serious page which, not without emotion, I read in the Corriere della Sera in the current issue of October 29:

“A doctor from Milan, who teaches in Genoa, recently wrote us a letter, calling our attention on the fate of emigrants in Genoa. The doctor also pleads in the name of humanity that the Municipality of Genoa somehow provides temporary shelter from inclement weather to the emigrants who stay in that city before embarking. He insists especially on our emigration to Brazil, which he describes as an inhuman commerce, that goes beyond the limits of an honest and free trade. It is no longer possible in such a case to speak of emigration, but rather of a white slave trade.”

“It should be known that the Government of Brazil has recently organized a special network of agents with substantial means to attract emigrants from Europe to the provinces of the Empire.”

“To this end, it signed a contract with a large emigration agency whereby migrants are freely transported to Brazil. The agents who must recruit in Italy go to the countryside. Everybody knows by now with what illusions they seduce the farmers. And truly these in many provinces find themselves in such deplorable conditions, they are so miserable, that they quickly swallow the allurements of the recruiters, especially the offer of free passage from their village to Brazil; therefore without being too careful, the heads of family sign blank contracts, in which the Brazilian Government reserves the right to dispose at will of its victims once in that country.”

“Now then, it must be noted that the Brazilian Government was induced to make financial sacrifices – since it pays the Emigration Agency about 130 lire per trip and 10 as a commission for each migrant – not without serious reason. It is very concerned about the decrease in population going on for some years in its provinces due to the yellow fever, and by the lack of workers and servants after the abolition of slavery.”

“The slaves, freed by recent decrees, refuse to work for their former owners, form associations among themselves so as to also guarantee their economic independence and a great many even emigrate from the hated land, where they grew up as slaves. It was therefore necessary to replace them; and the Brazilian Government thought that the raw material was abundant in many regions of Italy.”

“As soon as our emigrants arrive in Brazil, they are sent to the interior, to the deserted provinces, infested with the yellow fever; their lot is to replace the local slaves recently emancipated. Some wisely refuse to be sent to the interior, but the Government, using the blank contract, forces them. In this manner those who did not pay their tribute to hardship, to diseases during the journey at sea, have to struggle with the yellow fever. Several Italian doctors who come from there state that the mortality rate is very great, frightful.”

“The poor devils who survive end up returning to Italy, worn out, emaciated, in a pitiful state. In Genoa almost every day there are terrible proofs.”

“With all of this, emigration to Brazil increases every day, due to free passage. In this month of October about to end, seven thousand farmers have been transported to Brazil on the steamships: S. Martino, Carlo Biaggio, Fortunato Raggio, Po, S. Giorgio, Bourgogne, Villa di S. Paolo, etc. Several thousand other farmers must leave in November and December: all places on the steamships that must leave in these two months are reserved and the Societies of Navigation are chartering steamships to meet the demand.”

What can we do? If charity, equality, brotherhood are not empty words, my dear friend, we must try to do something to rescue these unfortunate people from so many and such bitter misfortunes. You know that in order to succeed great causes need someone who completely sacrifices himself to them, and I’ve found the person ready to sacrifice himself for the cause I am talking about. He will leave shortly for a tour of inspection overseas. He will personally examine the various locations which are more suitable to the settlement of our colonies, and with no other aim than the welfare of the poor emigrants, he will carefully study the conditions under all aspects. He will spend, I am sure, all the powers of his mind and heart, and he will report to me as soon as possible the results of his studies.

Then I will be able to reply with all assurance to the many, including clergy, who, concerned about the future of their parishioners – whom they were unable to dissuade from emigrating – continually ask me where to send them without fear of error.

I well realize that I am taking upon myself a very heavy burden, but I trust more than ever that Divine Providence, that watches with motherly care the works begun by her, will also know how to resolve this difficult problem for me. Let us now consult the legislative wisdom of the people

who have greater experience than we have in the field of emigration. We will see that they either do not allow the work of the recruiting agent or they surround it with many restrictions, not found in the Italian parliamentary bill. And note, friend, that the English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish emigrant leaves his country in far better conditions than ours, knowing that he will find overseas, in the vast dominions of his country, alive and great the image of the motherland in religion, language and laws. Therefore those governments could, even without failing in their duties of protection and care, allow complete freedom to recruit, since those activities are not for them lost or contemptibly exploited, but are a positive circulation of resources that consolidates their power and increases their wealth.

How different are the conditions of our emigrants!

By the greedy speculation of recruiters, they are usually sent to places where the infected air kills, or where they are employed in degrading jobs. The agent in fact does better in proportion to the shortage of manpower and the difficulty in recruiting. The lack of workers, either to reclaim lands or to do public works, occurs in those places where death thins the number of workers and fear scatters the survivors, so that there is always a need for new victims unaware of the danger. In all the catastrophes of this nature, Italians are always heavily represented, too heavily, to avoid that once and for all this supreme duty of a strong and respec