The approved method among the continental countries of Europe of getting rid of their criminals is to induce them to "move on." A lot of them keep "moving on" until they land in America.
Of course, the police should be able to cope with the Black Hand problem, and, with a free use of Italian detectives who speak the dialects and know their quarry, we may gradually, in the course of fifteen years or so, see the entire disappearance of this particular criminal phenomenon.

But an ounce of prevention is worth--several tons of cure.

Petrosino claimed--not boastfully--that he could, with proper deportation laws behind him, exterminate the Black Hand throughout the United States in three months.
But, as far as the future is concerned, a solution of the problem exists--a solution so simple that only a statesman could explain why it has not been adopted long years ago.

The statutes in force at Ellis Island permit the exclusion of immigrants who have been guilty of crimes involving moral turpitude in their native land, but do not provide for the compulsory production of the applicants' "penal certificate" under penalty of deportation.

Every Italian emigrant is obliged to secure a certified document from the police authorities of his native place, giving his entire criminal record or showing that he has had none, and without it he can not obtain a passport.