A Seattle Woman Defends the Italian Immigrant
Interviewed at the Rainier, a language teacher recently returned from Europe rejects the caricature of Italians as a degraded race and describes them as industrious, sober, and devoted to home and family.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
"It makes us feel indignant to see how the Italian people are treated and misrepresented by foreigners," said Mrs. E. C. Foster at the Rainier yesterday. "I have been among various peoples in different parts of Europe, and I think they are a most estimable people. They are an industrious, frugal and thrifty people, without being sordid, while their sympathetic, sentimental temperament saves them from becoming so. They are also a cheerful race, social and hospitable, and wonderfully appreciative of all the arts which go to make up the nobler side of human existence. And yet they are a sober people — but very few are addicted to strong drink. They are imaginative, but yet a steady people. Their homes are models of happiness and all the domestic and social virtues, notwithstanding the character with which they are invested by foreigners. They make good, loving parents, and their children are respectful and affectionate, and as citizens they are peaceful, docile and law-abiding. Coming to this country they find everything so entirely different that they are rather bewildered, and their character and genius are not given full play, and for this reason I think Americans misunderstand and underrate the Italian immigrant."
Mrs. Foster was formerly a teacher of languages in San Francisco, but has resided in Europe for many years. She has been giving a series of drawing-room lectures on European cities, but will locate in Seattle.
“As citizens they are peaceful, docile and law-abiding. Coming to this country they find everything so entirely different that they are rather bewildered, and their character and genius are not given full play, and for this reason I think Americans misunderstand and underrate the Italian immigrant.”
In an era when the press routinely racialized immigrants, this is a rare counter-voice — a Seattle resident insisting that the maligned newcomers are sober, thrifty, and law-abiding. The targets shift (then Italians and Chinese; now other arrivals), but the dynamic of a city arguing over who belongs is wholly recognizable. It's worth noting she praises them precisely for the qualities nativists claimed they lacked.
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