Baron Fava to Mr. Hay.
Washington, December 2, 1899.
My Dear Mr. Hay: In the conversations which we have had with regard to the abolition of the Italian emigration bureau we agreed that I should lay before you a plan that might offer a solution satisfactory [Page 432] to both parties and protect the reciprocal interests of our two countries.
Although I am ready to formulate such a plan without delay you will be pleased to admit that it would be premature on my part to submit a concrete plan to you before reaching an understanding as to its general lines and before I have the assurance that, reserving such modifications as it may be thought proper to introduce therein, the Federal Government is prepared to accept my proposition with favor.
The difficulties which the Italian bureau has hitherto met with have arisen, allow me amicably to tell you, from two misunderstandings. On the one hand the Treasury Department has always insisted on giving to Mr. Carlisle’s letter, whereby the bureau was established, a scope which it did not have. Although in my efforts to secure the establishment of that bureau I laid stress upon the necessity of thus combating the padrone system and other objectionable features of our emigration, the sphere assigned to the bureau by the letter of June 13, 1894, was so limited that there was really no reason to expect that it could, of itself, wholly abolish a widely extended evil, whose causes are multifarious and are to be attributed to the condition of your country itself.
It is consequently not surprising that the numerous investigations of which that unfortunate bureau has formed the subject have all declared that it had not succeeded in abolishing the padrone system. Still, far from being a failure, the bureau has exceeded all the expectations of my Government in the work done by it to protect our immigration. Mr. Stump recognized this in his report, and I fully showed it in my note of October 31, which has not received the slightest attention. If it were not so I should not insist, as I do, upon the retention of the bureau. Its action daily prevents immigrants from falling by hundreds into the hands of the speculators who are on the watch for their arrival, and that action can not be exerted or explained unless it is impossible for the immigrants to be approached by these speculators previously to their having been before the bureau. It is the impossibility of this dangerous contact that is desired by the Italian Government above all things, and a modus vivendi, if, as I trust, one can be reached, must meet this eventual condition.
The second misunderstanding, which, in my opinion, has always had the greatest weight in the opposition which the Italian bureau has met with from the Treasury Department, has its origin in the impression that that bureau represented a foreign, and, consequently, intolerable interference with the exercise of the functions of the commissioners of immigration. This feeling has been at the bottom of all the charges made against the bureau and against the embassy itself, which charges have sometimes been really serious, but which it would be useless to contradict, owing to the absurdity of supposing that His Majesty’s Government, the embassy, and the bureau could conspire, the one with the other, to evade the laws of the United States.
Now, the Italian Government has too much regard for international comity to hesitate, even for an instant, to accept any modifications that will remove even the appearance of any interference which does not exist but which the officers of the Treasury Department seem to attribute to the bureau as it now exists.
Finally, before laying a concrete proposition before you, I should wish, my dear Mr. Hay, to have the assurance that the Federal Government [Page 433] is disposed to accept, in principle, a plan combining these two conditions:
- 1.
- The elimination of any appearance of interference on the part of the bureau with the functions of the Federal authorities.
- 2.
- The impossibility for the immigrants to come into contact with other persons previously to having been before the Italian bureau.
As you are aware, my Government does not desire to encroach upon the prerogatives of your officers, but simply to protect the emigrants, which should be encouraged instead of being opposed by the Federal Government.
The final reason stated by Mr. Gage for the measure taken is readily understood. He claims that a privilege which has been refused to other powers can not be granted to Italy. But none of the other nations has an immigration comparable to ours, either as regards quantity or quality. The bureau, moreover, had existed for five years before causing any difficulty to the Federal Government. Finally, as the case is one connected with our international relations, your excellency alone was competent to raise this question, and I am pleased to state that I have always met with the most favorable disposition on this subject at the Department of State.
I hope that you will continue to entertain this disposition and, by making a favorably reply to this letter, you will once more act in accordance with the well-known sentiments of good friendship by which both the Federal Government and your excellency are actuated.
I need not tell you that I should see with the greatest pleasure any other plan that might emanate from your excellency.
Believe me, my dear Mr. Hay, with the highest respect, your excellency’s most obedient servant,