“The settlements should try to learn something about Italian customs, habits, employments, amusements, traditions—they should feel the spirit of the Italians and see things from the Italian’s point of view. For example, one headworker was discouraged because she had introduced basketry into a club of Italians and they did not like the work. It would be a good thing for a headworker in such a case to find out what parents do in Italy, and in that way she might easily find some handwork which Italians would like to do. The Italian mother should be enlightened as to what the settlement is doing, so that she may understand why her daughter is out after dark, which is quite against Italian custom. If these suggestions were followed, the settlement would be the center for the whole neighborhood, and not only for the boys and girls.” Turning to what the Italian might gain from the land of his adoption, Professor Racca said: “It would be a good thing if the young Italian could acquire something of the strong will of the American and could retain something of the geniality and taste of his Italian parents. As it is, fathers of boys who go to settlements make most extraordinary comments showing that they do not at all understand what is being done at the settlements. For instance, one says he is so sorry that the boys spend their evenings with those bad women there. “The new life of the immigrant is sometimes a tragedy. They must adjust themselves to a totally different kind of economic life. Wages are seemingly high, but the cost of living is high also. It would be much easier for the immigrants if, on their arrival, they had to fight Indians than for them as now to combat the complexed social and economic conditions of a strange land. Amusements here are different. In Italy after work all meet in ‘the coffee house of misery,’ where there is little to eat or to drink, but where there is a flow of geniality and conversation. Here everybody stays by himself, and all wear beautiful hats and dresses, which hide the poverty of their lives. They are here ashamed to show their lack of success. They are exploited by employers, by employment agencies, by neighbors, by the Black Hand, by the police—by everybody with whom they have to do. They always get the worst of the law. If it is enforced, it is enforced against them. If it is for their protection, it is not enforced. The immigrant Italians feel that they are despised, which they often are, and so they congregate in villages, which makes matters worse, and they learn American conditions more slowly.