The United States Industrial Commission on
Immigration shows, by its statistical report,[55] that "taking the
United States as a whole, the whites of foreign birth are a trifle less
criminal than the total number of whites of native birth." This report
further says: "Taking the inmates of all penal and charitable
institutions, we find that the highest ratio is shown by the Irish,
whose proportion is more than double the average for the foreign-born,
amounting to no less than 16,624 to the million."
[Sidenote: Italians Temperate]
By far the greatest proportion of crime is caused by intemperance, and
here the Italians are at a decided advantage, for they are among the
least intemperate of the foreign peoples, and far less so than the
average native-born. Arrests for drunkenness are exceedingly rare among
them, and a drunken Italian woman is as rare as one of immoral
character. While in Massachusetts three in a hundred of the northern
races, including the Scotch, Irish, English, and Germans, were arrested
for intemperance in a given year, only three in a thousand of the
Italians were arrested on this charge. In these respects the race is
deserving of great commendation, especially in face of the tenement
conditions into which most of the newcomers are thrust.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146