a) THE DUTY OF THE STATE AND OF THE RULING CLASS

"A bishop involved in social questions and parliamentary bills"

Most Honorable friend,

Since Parliament will shortly discuss the ministerial bill on emigration, I cannot refrain from sharing with you some thoughts that came

to me as I read that bill, appropriately amended by the parliamentary committee.

I turn to you not only because of my affection and esteem for you, which began in the classroom and has continued uninterruptedly for many, many years, but also because I know you as an unabashed friend of the poor (and these days this is a feather in one's hat) and a patient, unassuming, intelligent student of social problems.

I am addressing you publicly not because I want to garner vain attention, which I shun on principle and by nature, but because the question I am raising is one that needs to be discussed.  I have found no other means to attract the notice of an indifferent and heedless public which does not read unless led to do so by headlines that arouse its curiosity.  I thought an open letter addressed to a member of Parliament from a bishop concerned with social questions and proposals for legislation might present a headline capable of shaking up the unwholesome indifference of the public and be reason enough, at last, to spark discussion of a law, a discussion that might be tedious, if you will, but quite productive.

I also consider it my duty as a citizen.  Ever since I published my study on Italian Emigration in America, I have been collecting data and coming to some conclusions that might be useful to so many of our poor countrymen.  This is the purpose I had in mind when I compiled those facts and those conclusions for this letter.  If I have erred in evaluating them and wasted my time, may my extensive study and great love be an incentive for you and all people of good will.¹

"Internal, political, and agricultural-commercial emigration"

Emigration of civilized people may  be internal, political, or agricultural-commercial, that is to say, by infiltration.

By internal migration I do not mean that ebb and flow of people who move about periodically within a given area for different social or personal reasons.  I mean a true colonization ‑- within the boundaries of one's homeland ‑- of uncultivated land that may be abundant in one area and scarce in another.  

Everybody knows the meaning of political emigration and colonization and what they imply.  Their purpose is to give one's country more territory ‑- extending its borders ‑- where the laws of the homeland prevail, where religion, language and customs ‑- in a word, all the elements

composing the religious, civil, and national identity of a people ‑- will help keep alive in the distant descendants the memory of, and love for, the country of their forefathers and mothers (...).

Agricultural-commercial colonies or those resulting from infiltration aim to establish in other countries groups of people of a given nationality who will engage in commerce, industry, and agriculture and live among a foreign population without losing their own identity.  This was the kind of emigration and colonization preferred by our glorious maritime republics (...).

To many people, internal migration seems the ideal type of migration.  It is very useful and, for all of us, very easy to carry out.  They cannot understand why our Government has not yet decided to adopt this system, which would make us rich and powerful.  It would increase our population and give workers their daily bread in abundance (...).

Colonize the hinterland, if you will.  Free vast expanses of Italian soil from malaria and make agriculture more intensive and hence more productive.  It all sounds so beautiful!  Still, let us not deceive ourselves.  Yes, let us colonize as much as possible.  But to avoid disillusionment, we must be convinced that it is not as easy as it looks.  For sure, it could not keep pace with the fast growth of our population.²

"For Italy there only remains the third kind of emigration"

Political colonies are another way by which modern countries fulfill their migratory responsibilities, a way that perhaps takes in the largest number of interests and most awakens national pride.  The great activity and jealous care with which, in our day, the various countries are defending their ancient colonial possessions and acquiring new ones are the most eloquent proof of my statement.  Unfortunately, the hopes of our country for an extensive political colonization were dashed and put off until who knows when by our recent disasters in Africa, the mere thought of which saddens every Italian heart. 

This data and these observations should convince us that Italy, at least for the time being, is left with only the third form of emigration, namely that of pouring out its surplus population into the midst of other peoples and into lands belonging to others.  Though more modest than the other two, this form satisfies Italy's immediate needs. 

Hence, the new emigration process now going on among us meets the political, territorial, and economic needs of our country and does not exceed its reproductive capacity.  As such, it has the character of a permanent phenomenon and is a source of personal and social prosperity.  But what guarantees does the law accord to this type of emigration?  How is the State fulfilling its duty of moral and material support for the emigrant?  How are we, the leaders, fulfilling this duty?³

"A law, albeit good, is not enough"

For the complex reality of emigration to meet the noble social purposes for which God destined it, a law, albeit good, is not enough.  The law must be buttressed by all those wise public and private institutions, by that complex of religious and civil activities that have given excellent results to the countries that first employed them.  Those activities not only encourage the poor emigrants to continue on their way with confidence, knowing they are protected; but they also tell foreigners that those poor people are not forgotten or res nullius (nobody's property) but part of a great country that knows its duty and fulfills it by extending the shadow of its flag over its distant sons and daughters, helping them in their material needs and ennobling their moral character with religion and education.⁴

"Our emigrants are the least protected"

From separate accounts and facts reported from time to time in the press, I note that our countrymen abroad are the least protected, are often victims ‑- either through ignorance or good faith ‑- of contemptible exploiters, and are the least likely to have recourse to consular authorities when they need to assert their rights or are in trouble.  This may all be due to a spirit of independence or to the fact that Italians are not used to looking on the Government of their country as their natural and valuable protector.  But it may also be a grave indication of mistrust, the product of the habitual neglect or impotence of our authorities, so much so that our countrymen find it better to fend for themselves as best they can rather than wait for the tardy and ineffectual protection of their distant homeland.

By this, I do not mean to condemn anyone in particular or even a

whole class of very honorable public officials, who, I am sure, are zealous in their duty and conscious of the noble mission entrusted to them.  I simply wish to point out a situation and deplore it.

Now, in the light of this situation, what steps have been taken, or even attempted, to improve this state of affairs?  I must state frankly, albeit with deep sorrow: the Government has done very little and private people nothing.  Now and then, when some sad incident is brought to the attention of the public, there is a bit of agitation, some parliamentary inquiries, an occasional newspaper article.  To inquiries the Government responds that it will take care of the matter.  The outcries of the newspapers are followed by the indignation of some kind souls.  But soon oblivion descends upon everything, all things subside, all is still again in the treacherous stillness of the wave that hides its victim in its turbulent depths.

We have been going on this way year after year as if nothing could be done for our distant brothers and sisters except give them much talk, flavored with a little rhetoric so as to beguile those who are waiting for help and divert the attention of those who, out of a sense of humanity and Christian charity, would like to apply the surgical knife to modern society's cancerous wound, namely, egoism (...).

The fault lies at the top!  The Government has so little to brag about in this regard that all are deeply convinced that Italians are the least protected of all emigrants (...).

True, Government and Parliament have had lengthy discussions on this vital subject.  But interpellations by an occasional parliamentarian, relevant bills, the usual responses of the Ministers, the circular letters of the Prefects, and the articles by semi-official bulletins are inadequate remedies.  All these things are a waste of time if they do not produce decent laws (...).

If we page through parliamentary proceedings and through the archives of Prefectures and newspapers, we would easily discover some rather eloquent data, facts and figures, a number of effective temporary measures, and a lot of useful observations on the general subject of emigration.  But we would look in vain for a law in our code or an organization in our country that has taken those facts, figures, and observations into account. ⁵

"The greedy speculation of the recruiters"

Let us consult the legislative wisdom of the countries that have had a much longer experience with emigration than we.  We will discover that they either do not allow the activity of recruiting agents or circumscribe it with more precautionary measures than are found in the Italian legislative bill.  Remember, dear friend, that the English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish emigrants are leaving their lands with much better prospects than ours do, well knowing that they will find in their country's vast possessions across the Ocean a vibrant and noble image of the motherland, reflected in law, language, and religion.  So those Governments could grant full freedom of recruitment without failing in their duty of special care and protection because for them such activities are not a waste of time and energy or a vile exploitation but a beneficial expansion that enhances their power and increases their wealth.  How different is the situation of our emigrants!

Generally, our emigrants are sent by greedy, speculating recruiters to places where the disease-ridden air kills them or where they are employed in humiliating jobs because the profit of the agent increases in proportion to the scarcity of workers and the difficulty of recruitment.  There is a scarcity of workers for land reclamation or public works in places where death thins out the work force and fear so scares off the survivors that there is always need for new workers unaware of the dangers.  In all catastrophes of this kind, the Italians will be largely represented, too much so, until a strong and respected Government fulfills once and for all its supreme duty of effectively safeguarding the unfortunate emigrants from snares and high-handedness.⁶

"The new parliamentary bill on emigration"

Gentlemen, we must use all our influence so that the new emigration bill introduced by the Hon. Visconti Venosta and accepted by the Hon. Canevaro, the present Minister of Foreign Affairs, will soon receive the approval of Parliament.  In this way, many serious abuses against the emigrants will be eliminated, and a serious and insidious gap in our legislation will be filled.

Another providential bill, On the Protection of Remittances and Savings of Italian Emigrants in the Two Americas, which should soon receive parliamentary

approval, is the bill introduced by the Hon. Luzzati, the former Treasury Minister, along with his colleagues Rudinì, Visconti Venosta, Sineo, and Branca.

The lengthy report that preceded the bill lists the facts and ways by which the hard won, hoarded earnings of our countrymen abroad are always eroded by the exchange rate and the transmittal because of the machinations of greedy and often dishonest pseudobankers.  Unfortunately, those meager savings quite often are entirely lost through one of those acts of bank banditry that are not infrequent overseas ‑- where everyone may claim to be a banker, even without accumulated capital ‑- a banditry that consists in absconding with all the deposits and fleeing to another country.  In just one year and in just one city of North America, four such disappearances took place, and the savings lost by our emigrants amounted to L. 200,000!

Some of these facts alone ‑- and there are hundreds of them ‑- are enough to justify and give urgency to the legislative provision formulated by the distinguished statesman from Padua that aims at cutting out at the root all the parasites that thrive and get fat on the people's savings through the shameful exploitation of the workers' ignorance and good faith.⁷

"The work of the ruling classes"

However, laws are not enough to heal the wounds of our emigration.  Some of these wounds are in fact inherent in the nature of emigration while others come from remote causes that escape the control of laws.  Those evils would not be uprooted even with the best laws in the world and with numerous, first-rate government officials.  For that matter, we all know that the hands of governments and their officials are tied by international customs and practices.  They cannot enforce certain measures and, if they tried, would only aggravate the wounds they are trying to heal. 

The work of the ruling classes must begin here where the work of law and government ceases.  How?  First, by studying and debating the great problem of emigration and by making the religious, economic, and civic well-being of so many unfortunate brothers and sisters of ours a top priority on the agenda of the regional, diocesan, and parochial committees.  This is the plea I make to the leaders of the

Catholic movement.  The work of these committees would consist in collecting funds for the emigrants, vigorously counseling against emigration when this would have disastrous consequences, defending the emigrants from snares and fraudulent contracts, in a word, lavishing on emigration all possible religious and civil assistance so that it will be strong, united, and invincible before all enemies, for in this case the safety of each becomes the safety of all.⁸

"Make the exile of our brothers and sisters less bitter"

Gentlemen, the cause for which you have assembled here is indeed beautiful.  It deserves all your attention because it is worth the concern of all people of good will.

It is a question of protecting and guiding our emigration in the best possible way, making the exile of our expatriates less bitter and harnessing for the good of Italy a force that is being too easily wasted.

Anyone with a genuine love for religion and country cannot help but feel the need to be a part of this work and to devote at least some of his energies to it.

We will let others study the phenomenon of emigration in the rich variety of its forms.  That emigration is a natural and inalienable right, as the statesman says; that it is a source of prosperity for those who leave and those who stay, as the sociologist proclaims; that it is the natural evolution of things or the progressive development of the races, as the philosopher maintains; all this matters very little to us at the moment.  We have to come down to something practical and concrete.  This meeting of ours, gentlemen, aims to be something practical and concrete.  It is a friendly and familiar get-together, not an academic performance.  So let us do away with rhetoric.  Let us just remember that the evils that bedevil our emigration are countless and that something must be done.

Those evils escape the control of the authorities because, to a large extent, they escape the control of the law.  It is up to private initiative to make up for one and the other.

So, gentlemen, let us roll up our sleeves.  We are working for a cause that has the blessing of both God and man.  Let us make the most of this fact.  Let us tighten ever more those bonds of fraternal solidarity that will make the weak strong and the strong invincible.⁹

"Lay collaboration"

The proposal regarding the temporary migrants surely deserves a warm welcome, but I would not want the excessive zeal of your friends to make it assume political tones.  Yes, it may help in some way, but it can also do great harm.  A word to the wise is sufficient.  I would have preferred it if you had undertaken this matter yourself alone, with the understanding of Rome, without tying yourself to people who are well-meaning and altruistic but always likely to be the object of much bias.  I'm referring to the political aspect, of course.¹⁰

I don't look down on the collaboration of lay people either.  But in strictly religious matters I am not keen about lay activists because they rarely set aside secondary motives, especially political ones.  Wasn't there a lot of criticism against the so-called top hat bishops?  I love to be fair and consistent with everybody.  The older I get, the more convinced I become that a lot of good is done when each one keeps to his or her place.¹¹