difference between the industrial conditions in the northern and
southern parts of the peninsula. In the south agriculture is the only
industry, and it frequently suffers from climatic conditions, the
resulting losses bearing heavily upon the population. Conditions are
aggravated by an unequal division of taxes between the north and the
south. Often the only alternative to starvation is emigration. During
the past decade 2,000,000 Italians have come to us and, according to
estimates, about two-thirds of them have settled in the cities of the
Northern States, a condition detrimental to the foreign and our social
organization alike. These Italians, peasants and experts in fruit