.

[Sidenote: Italians not all Unskilled]

It is a fact of importance that the great majority of the Italian
immigrants, while classed as unskilled, have had some experience in
farming or gardening or home industries of some kind. There is a larger
percentage of skilled labor than is commonly supposed, and the list is
interesting. The Annual Report on Immigration for 1905, for example,
gives the distribution by occupation, from which we take some of the
leading classes:

PROFESSIONS, TRADES AND INDUSTRIES OF THE ITALIANS
ADMITTED IN 1905

North South North South
Occupation Italy Italy Italy Italy

Architects 10 10 Carpenters and cabinet
Clergy 52 69 makers 367 1,857
Editors 9 6 Dressmakers 161 615
Electricians 24 20 Gardeners 30 165
Engineers, professional 20 24 Masons 1,374 3,161
Lawyers 12 25 Miners 1,843 492
Literary and scientific Shoemakers 287 4,004
persons 19 15 Stonecutters 409 567
Musicians 38 240 Tailors 239 2,591
Physicians 34 72 Farm laborers 6,181 60,529
Sculptors and artists 116 52 Farmers 1,397 4,814
Teachers 31 45 Manufacturers 14 32
Bakers 201 571 Merchants and dealers 557 1,415
Barbers 82 1,718 Servants 2,752 8,669
Blacksmiths 168 909 Laborers 14,291 56,040
Butchers 65 278 No occupation, including
children under 14 7,632 32,115

[Sidenote: Tendency to Advance]

[Sidenote: Desire for Education]

It will be seen that not all the Italians who come are mere hewers of
wood and drawers of water; while there is a distinct tendency on the
part of those who begin at the bottom of drudgery, in the subways of
American civilization, to advance. The desire for education and
betterment is as manifest as it is hopeful. No parents are more
ambitious for their children, or more devotedly attached to them, than
are the Italian immigrants who have brought over their families, and no
children in our schools are b