In fact, political corruption has been and still is of a character in Italy luckily unknown in America--not in the amounts of money paid over (which are large enough), but in the calm and matter-of-fact attitude adopted toward the subject in Parliament and elsewhere.
The overwhelming majority of Italian criminals in this country come from Sicily, Calabria, Naples, and its environs.

They have lived, most of their lives, upon the ignorance, fear, and superstitions of their fellow-countrymen.

They know that so long as they confine their criminal operations to Italians of the lower class they need have little terror of the law, since, if need be, their victims will harbor them from the police and perjure themselves in their defence.

For the ignorant Italian brings to this country with him the same attitude toward government and the same distrust of the law that characterized him and his fellow-townsmen at home, the same Omerta that makes it so difficult to convict any Italian of a serious offence.

The Italian crook is quick-witted and soon grasps the legal situation.