Notice was served by the bureau’s representative upon Zepnick at Sing Sing Prison, and what a change! For once he became meek and tractable. Realizing the futility of opposition, he defaulted and confessed judgment. On February 11, of this year final judgment was entered against him in the sum of $790 which less court costs left a balance of $755.43. The United States Circuit Court of St. Louis sent a check for the money, which was at once turned over by the Desertion Bureau to the United Hebrew Charities. Although the struggle lasted for five years, some little redress has been secured and now the Zepnick family will be able to enjoy a legitimate gratuity. Zepnick himself, however, is still obdurate and is believed to be in London and thus beyond the jurisdiction of our courts.
THE ITALIAN AND THE SETTLEMENT
Said an American afterward: “It was not a man who spoke but a bewildered people.” The speaker was Vittoria Racca, professor of political economy at the University of Rome, and his audience was a gathering of settlement workers in New York to whom he endeavored to interpret the protests of the Italian immigrant usually heard only as a grumbling in dialect. Professor Racca has a two years’ leave of absence in which to study the opportunities for his fellow country men and women in America and the efforts that are being made in their behalf. He purposes to write a book on the subject when he returns.
The speaker described the Italian parent in this country calling his children to his knee and crying in tragic amazement: “These are not like the children we had in Italy.” Whence, he asked, came this strange brood and how was it hatched out under the parents’ wings? With his explanation was bound up sane advice for many of his listeners.
More stress, said Professor Racca, should be laid on the building up of human personality by settlements. The buildings should not be so fine that the Italians do not feel at home. He went on:—
“The settlements should try to learn something about Italian customs, habits, employments, amusements, traditions—they should feel the spirit of the Italians and see things from the Italian’s point of view. For example, one headworker was discouraged because she had introduced basketry into a club of Italians and they did not like the work. It would be a good thing for a headworker in such a case to find out what parents do in Italy, and in that way she might easily find some handwork which Italians would like to do. The Italian mother should be enlightened as to what the settlement is doing, so that she may understand why her daughter is out after dark, which is quite against Italian custom. If these suggestions were followed, the settlement would be the center for the whole neighborhood, and not only for the boys and girls.”
Turning to what the Italian might gain from the land of his adoption, Professor Racca said:
“It would be a good thing if the young Italian could acquire something of the strong will of the American and could retain something of the geniality and taste of his Italian parents. As it is, fathers of boys who go to settlements make most extraordinary comments showing that they do not at all understand what is being done at the settlements. For instance, one says he is so sorry that the boys spend their evenings with those bad women there.
“The new life of the immigrant is sometimes a tragedy. They must adjust themselves to a totally different kind of economic life. Wages are seemingly high, but the cost of living is high also. It would be much easier for the immigrants if, on their arrival, they had to fight Indians than for them as now to combat the complexed social and economic conditions of a strange land. Amusements here are different. In Italy after work all meet in ‘the coffee house of misery,’ where there is little to eat or to drink, but where there is a flow of geniality and conversation. Here everybody stays by himself, and all wear beautiful hats and dresses, which hide the poverty of their lives. They are here ashamed to show their lack of success. They are exploited by employers, by employment agencies, by neighbors, by the Black Hand, by the police—by everybody with whom they have to do. They always get the worst of the law. If it is enforced, it is enforced against them. If it is for their protection, it is not enforced. The immigrant Italians feel that they are despised, which they often are, and so they congregate in villages, which makes matters worse, and they learn American conditions more slowly.
“Here the children learn much in the schools and in the settlements, but much more in the streets. In the schools they learn that the United Stales is the greatest nation in the world, and on the streets they learn that Italy is a despicable nation. So they think that everything Italian is to be thrown away. There is no family life, so the children acquire awful habits.”