From Greek rule to Bourbon tyranny, Sicily has been an oppressed state. Its richly producing land giving untold wealth in grain, olives and sulphur, has for centuries attracted the ruling monarchs of Europe, and the most powerful came to dictate. Even the Arab had his say and today one finds slight traces of the Arabic language in the dialect spoken on the western coast of Sicily.

While nations amassed power and wealth, the state of Sicily was continually ravaged and sapped of its resources and produce by foreign lords. The people were kept in a state of ignorance and servitude, the higher class forcing them to remain submissive to the dictating governors.

The peasants knew nothing but work and more work, slaving from sunrise to sunset, often working long into the night, so that at the end of the harvest there would be a few bushels of wheat left over for them. The Bourbons could not resist the tempting resources of Sicily, so after 2conquering the rulers they began their tyrannical reign. At this time the kingdom of the two Sicilys was proclaimed. From Naples to the Strait of Messina was one Sicily, the other was the state itself. What other nations had failed to get from these states the Bourbon did not. The new lords not satisfied with the taxes from the suffering peasants resorted to killing, stealing, and torturing. Their harsh methods becoming violent, the people were reduced to a level lower than that of the English serf. This state of affairs continued until one man, tired of the barbarism of the controlling foreigners, arose in arms with a thousand Garibaldini and began his famous march through Sicily and southern Italy, until the country became free. This man, called Garibaldi, defied everyone, even the most powerful of all rulers, the Pope, seizing the Roman state with the newly baptized platoon of La Marmora, called the Bersaglieri.

Sicily, whose rich soil is bathed by the waters of the historic Mediterranean, whose youth has died gallantly upon many a battlefield at the righteous command of its ruler, is today again oppressed by 3the so-called writers, who fail to understand the deep thoughts and character of men. Yesterday it was oppression for the amassing of wealth; today, moral oppression by a few.

Within the city there are men who either do not know history or wish to create a history of their own. Throughout their writings they rank Sicily and its inhabitants as a nation, as a people in itself, having no connection whatever with the peninsula. This is not so. Still the assertion has been made many times, and for the sake of a few amateur editors it can be said openly that no part of Italy is more loyal than Sicily.

In the Nov. 22, 1928, issue of the Chicago Tribune there was an editorial entitled "For an American Policy." Within the paragraphs of the editorial, between the hurriedly typed lines, one sees prejudices arising from hatred, inspired generations back, as far as the Roman Empire, when the Britons were slaves to the whips of the Caesars.

The cunningness of the writer is great. First he classes the history and 4social conditions of Sicily with those of the Orient and southeastern countries of Europe, apologizing to the intelligent Sicilian. He goes on with his weird ideas and states that immigration should be shut down for two generations, but that if there should be any immigration it should be determined strictly by the principles of preparedness for American life; this preparedness being judged by similarity of history, race character, ethical standards, and modes of thought and feeling. In these few lines rests the ignorance of the writer.

The Sicilian is judged as a bad character only by the press of the city. Why is it? Only one answer remains, the paper must fill its columns. In no other city in the country does one find so bitter a hatred against the Sicilian. Well, the papers say they are pagans, they came from the southeastern portion of Europe, and they are cattle, so let it go at that. Probably this great writer does not know that America is cosmopolitan and that it was not the English alone who built this mighty nation.

Should the inhabitants of Europe be permitted to enter this country, Italy should have its quota for the Italians are builders, not 5destroyers, and that includes Sicilians. Let it also be known to this writer that we would like to know which country is best prepared for American life by his definition of preparedness.

We know America, this great beautiful country in which the Almighty placed his greatest energies, is cosmopolitan. Its ethics, modes of feeling and thought, if torn apart and analyzed would be none other than those of the Roman, seasoned with a dash of the barbaric Teuton, and a taste of the uncouth Anglo-Saxon. Still, the children of the old Empire, the people in whose veins flows the blood of that ancient and noble civilization are classed with the pagan Orientals by this great newspaper man.

It is not a crime to say these things, no, it's just plain ignorance. They know better. However, say what they wish, Italy (which includes Sicily) has never produced a "yellow" person, one who wishes to destroy the high morals of another people regardless of its effect upon the man.