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Show B OUR ITALIANS. V ' Complaint is made that the Italian Avar mission has H ( not attracted the attention given to the English and Hj French delegations. Yet the Italian element in our coun- 1 try has rapidly increased of recent years, and is probably 1 our most numerous foreign born strain. Hf There is a failure to appreciate the power of Italiar K blood, owing to the fact that its representatives among J us are so largely employed at hiunble tasks. Familiar at iiiiiiiaB ' .sUmmiiiiiis we are with the Italians' swarthy face and earth stained garments, it is hard to think of him as coming fromsa race of great achieyement. Yet he is the offspring f of the people that were the great lawgivers of the "world, the dominating pdwer for a thousand years. A disproportionately' large share of the poets, painters, paint-ers, sculptors and musicians of the world have been Italian. In our great cities it is the Italians who flock to .ihe'rtf galleries 'aVfd5 concert halls. Some of the most remarkable achievements of this war have been Italian, performed under the most impossible difficulties of the great Alpine bights. All this creative blood, can not be oozed out. Travelers often speak of the Italian as a happy go lucky creature of Hhe sun, indolent and care free. Perhaps Per-haps his love for the fruit business might be held to indicate indi-cate some aversion to manual labor. Yet contractors for street, sewer, and railroad construction, find him their principal dependence. Without his endurance and muscle our country could not have reached its present development. develop-ment. As with most migrations, it is the submerged element that seeks a new home. These people come over from an overcrowded and overtaxed country with nothing but their willing hands. When our schools get hold of the next generation, there will be a . different story. The crowd of compatriots out to welcome the Italian mission of future years will look different. |