Bridgeton Pioneer

BLACK HAND METHODS
Rigid Inquiry Suggested to the Immigration Authorities.
TO KEEP OUT LAWLESS SICILIANS
Broughton Brandenburg Advises That Sergeant Petrosino of New York Be Commissioned to Search Entire Country East of Chicago For Suspects of Criminal Antecedents, With a View to Their Deportation.

A rigid inquiry into the operations of the Black Hand band with a view to deportation has been suggested to the commissioner of immigration, Frank P. Sargent, by Broughton Brandenburg of New York city, says the Washington correspondent of the New York Post. He has written to the commissioner suggesting a canvass of the entire territory east of Chicago with a view to deporting all suspects of that stripe who are found to have criminal antecedents.

Mr. Brandenburg's own investigation of the immigration problem gives his views unusual weight in the minds of the federal officials, and his suggestion is receiving attention. He urges that Detective Sergeant Petrosino of New York be commissioned by the department of commerce and labor to undertake this search, as he credits the Italian detective with qualifications better than are possessed by any other man in the United States for apprehending the lawless Sicilians. "He is the only man who knows them by sight as well as being acquainted with their criminal records," declares Mr. Brandenburg. "He could trail them wherever they might hide and detect them even though they attempted to conceal their identity. If he had once known them they could not escape him."

Commissioner Sargent has not yet had time to consider the suggestion finally, but he regards it with favor. The main trouble in making such deportations, he realizes, will be in tracing those who have gained admittance to the United States under assumed names. Until the department assures itself on this point in each case it cannot place the responsibility as to which steamship company must bear the expense of deportation. In this exigency the personal knowledge which Detective Petrosino possesses might bridge the difficulty.

The commissioner is considering the subject in the light of a similar case which engaged his attention only a few days ago. It was that of a woman suspect living in Cleveland. The investigation disclosed her criminal record and established beyond a doubt, from anarchistic literature and inflammatory correspondence in her possession, that her activities were of a lawless sort and that she should be deported. This action has already been taken.

Representations to the department allege that there are 5,000 Black Hand members in the United States and that an extension of their depredations is imminent. The basis for this prediction is that the increase in the number of foreign lawbreakers has decreased so greatly the opportunities for preying upon their own countrymen among the immigrants that they are making their threats indiscriminately.

It is pointed out that the Mafia, of which the Black Hand is a sort of Sicilian offshoot, was originally devoted to the vendetta, but spread out into lawlessness without tinge of so called honor to be avenged. The newer band has gone even further in its disregard of methods.

Commissioner Sargent believes that these developments emphasize the necessity, upon which he commented in his last annual report, for a stricter surveillance over immigration. He sees increasing need for more thorough protection against foreign anarchists seeking asylum in the United States, and favors reaching an understanding with foreign governments to require a vised passport from every immigrant. Desirable newcomers would have no difficulty in procuring such official recommendation in their home country.

Were a passport to be issued willfully abroad to get a criminal out of the country he would have to run such great risk of identification and deportation here that he would probably turn in another direction. At present New York is the easy refuge appealing most strongly to the least desirable immigrants.