The emigration of Italians, chiefly from the old Kingdom of
Naples, is attaining proportions which disquiet both America and Italy. According to the reports from American Consuls, it will probably this year exceed 100,000 persons, entire districts, in Sicily more particularly, being left without labour. The Government of Washington considers these immigrants undesirable, has ordered a Commission to proceed to Italy and report upon the subject, and threatens to send back 50 per cent. of all who may arrive. The Italian Govern- ment, moreover, is considering the propriety of restrictive laws on emigration, and has already decreed, under the existing regulations for conscription, that no lad shall emigrate with- out the permission of the Minister of War. The American distaste for these immigrants extends to Russians, Hun- garians," and Roumanians, and will probably end in some general law forbidding immigration without special passports from United States Consuls, who will give them only to appli- cants from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Scandinavia. This will turn the Italian emigration towards Spanish America and South Africa, the latter a region which suits their con- stitutions and their agricultural ways.
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