PART TWO

ITALY’S REPRESENTATIVES IN AMERICA

LETTER TO FELLOW ITALIANS BY

ITALY’S AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES

Between 1922 and 1925, the Italian ambassador to Washington was Prince Gelasio Caetani di Sermoneta.[1] He is the author of the letter—published below—to a group of Italian engineers sent to America by the Italian government on a work-study program. Caetani was the descendant of one Rome’s most prominent aristocratic families whose origins go back to the tenth century; and whose deeds were reported in history books of famous scholars such as Ferdinand Gregorovius.[2] Among his ancestors are generals, diplomats, admirals, cardinals and popes. He was named in honor of one of them, Pope Gelasius II.[3] Onorato Caetani, [4] his father, was a politician, initially elected to the Camera dei deputati (the lower house of parliament). He was later appointed senator by the king and went on to become minister of foreign affairs under Prime Minister Antonio Starabba di Rudinì[5] in 1896. In the course of his distinguished public career he also served as mayor of Rome from 1890 to 1892. A talented amateur archeologist, he was president of the Italian Geographic Society, one of Italy’s most prestigious scientific institution. Gelasio’s aunt, who became Countess Ersilia Locatelli[6] [sic] by marriage, was the hostess of one of Rome’s most prestigious literary salons open to the international set; and the first and only woman to be appointed to the Accademia dei Lincei.[7] Since he was a boy, Gelasio had an inclination for mathematics and physics. He attended the Lyceum Gymnasium E. Q. Visconti, graduating in 1896. At the university of Rome he completed the course of studies in the faculty of engineering in 1901 when he received a laurea summa cum laude. After college, he first went to Liège, Belgium, where he attended the École des mines for one year. In 1902 he moved to New York to study in the School of Mines[8] of Columbia University. In the summer of the same year he attended Columbia University’s practicum in mining in the silver mines of Daly West and Ontario, approximately sixty miles from Utah’s Great Salt Lake. He was one of twenty two students. At first his classmates only knew him as Mr. Gelasio Caetani. When they found out about his lineage, a bit intimidated, they started calling him the Count of Bunker Hill, from one of the locations where they were working. It was a typical American educational experience. The students lived in shacks made of wooden boards and slept in bunk beds like in steerage class, equipped with straw mattresses, a blanket and a pillow. A cook would prepare lunch which every one would carry to the workplace in a tin canteen (that was before the invention of the thermos, today’s standard equipment for all American laborers.) The job required climbing steep hills to survey and measure the land, the basic responsibility of any entry-level mining engineer position in America. Caetani was one of the best in his class. I want to skip the rhetoric about the democratic spirit of this aristocrat. I never met him in person; however, I believe I sense in him that simple and very human thing that goes under the rubric of vocation. Caetani must have felt good in that environment and must have liked that trade. He understood that the experience would be beneficial to him and, in fact, later in life he became involved with a mining company. (Eventually he left it when he had to return to Italy to tend to more pressing business. The company resigned itself to the loss only with great regret.) In June 1903, when he started working for the business concern Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Co., headquartered in Kellogg, Idaho, his salary was three dollars for a nine-hour workday. He tried to absorb as much as he could from this experience and he came to the attention of the management for his interest in extraction methods. His first job consisted in driving a train of cargo wagons into the mine. Later, he was put in charge of perforation and subsequently was promoted inspector. After that experience, he moved to a laboratory for metallurgy research. In the new environment the theoretical foundations he had received in Italian schools and his personal ingenuity served him well. The reports on the experiments he conducted captured the attention of management. In June 1904 he was sent to Alaska; then, in 1905, to the gold mines of California. At the end of the year he was promoted superintendent of Bunker Hill and, with the new title, was dispatched to Mexico to conduct more studies and research. At that time his work was cutting edge and his studies were published in prestigious scientific journals. In the five years he spent in the profession he made lots of friends everywhere. In 1912 in San Francisco, with two other partners, he founded the mining company Bursch, Caetani and Hershey. Caetani was in charge of metallurgy research and invented a fusion method with arsenic that later became an industry standard. Between 1912 and 1914, he was working on a book on this subject when his efforts were interrupted by the beginning of World War I. He intuited that Italy would eventually end up entering the war.[9] He put aside the plan to open a new office in New York and decided to return home. The company kept his name until 1918 when it became clear that he would not return to the old profession. Back in Italy he distinguished himself in all of his endeavors. In the war, the mining experience served him well. Decorated three times for military valor, his most impressive deed was the explosion that destroyed the mountain top of the Col di Lana,[10] allowing the Italian army to take it after an endless futile siege that had cost, up to that point, more than 10,000 lives. In a round-about way, we can say that this really was an American contribution to Italian history.

When the Fascist movement appeared on the political scene, Caetani was a member of the Nationalist Party and, with his comrades, embraced the new political entity with the contained enthusiasm the well-bred harbors for the less-smart but more able. (I personally believe that, without the alliance with the Fascist Party, the Nationalist movement would have never attained power.) When he was appointed ambassador to the United States everything and everybody was in his favor: the Italians, with whom he had fought valiantly; the historical moment that saw Italy and the United States allied; the Americans, who were proud to salute the Italian product of American schools; his bilingual fluency and his ability to relate to people also in dialect and slang. He seemed the ideal person for the post. The only ones who objected were the Fascists of New York who started attacking him in the publication Il Carroccio[11] in the period between January and June 1924. They didn't think he was Fascist enough, or maybe he wasn’t coarse enough or not condescending enough. Were they able to have his head handed over to them? Officially nothing is known. However, in 1925 he was called back to Italy. He died on October 20, 1934. I did some research on his life and I noticed that only the Corriere della Sera[12] published his obituary (paid for by the family). Even the Nuova Antologia[13] is silent about him. Apparently the Piccolo Giornale d’Italia[14] [sic] published an account that I wasn’t able to find. The Enciclopedia Italiana[15] gives no details as well. For this reason I am devoting so much space to talking about him here.

The letter I am publishing below was addressed to a group of Italian engineers sent by the Italian government to the United States on a scholarship. It is remarkable in that it lacks the usual international rhetoric (so prevalent these days as soon as a student pokes his head out of his home country) on the inevitable and immediate effect that just a little trip abroad will have on the friendly relations among the peoples of the earth; and on the future prospect of the entire humanity embracing peace and prosperity. It is also noteworthy for its realism: not the realism of an ambassador addressing citizens abroad but the realism of a man who was tested by other men who were also being tested. And finally, it is memorable for the deep sense of national identity, not at all rhetorical, that allows one who lives abroad to accept without idolatry, but with respect, the mores of a different people. I have always been deeply impressed by this letter. Obviously, I can’t claim to have seen all the letters that ambassadors (not only Italian) must have written in similar occasions but I doubt that, if more existed, they would be of this caliber. In any case, this is a great document of style that, in my opinion, would make for a great reading in school anthologies. (Even mining engineers know how to write when they have something to say.) Another remarkable detail: the dignified building that houses the Italian embassy in Washington is the result of his work. I also want to add something that is not known about Caetani: while the edifice was being built he was extremely irritated with the Italian bureaucracy.

Royal Italian Embassy

Washington

Dear Engineer:

Enclosed with this letter please find your paperwork. I am taking this opportunity to extend my cordial and paternal welcome to this hospitable land, together with my best wishes for the difficult task you have endeavored to undertake of starting your career in humility, from the lowest rung of the ladder. You will be following the same path I walked on when I was your age. You will respond with the same curiosity, illusions, hopes, disappointments that I experienced in the first years of my career and that are now the pleasant memories of an adventurous past. You too will find out that reality is almost always different (and most of the times less attractive) than what is at first envisioned. But, behind this facade you will discover horizons and opportunities that you now ignore and that could lead to a reality even more attractive than what you had imagined. It will be difficult for you, with an academic degree in engineering, to start working as a simple laborer. Moreover, you will be a foreigner, a person whose trustworthiness people will instinctively question; and you will be the representative of a race whose history, traits and achievements are ignored by ninety percent of Americans.

More than once I felt the impulse to give up, but what kept me here was the wish to demonstrate personally the qualities of our people, and I think I succeeded. This was one of my greatest gratifications. My first advice is to work tirelessly to perfect your knowledge of English. Most of your success will depend on this. You should also try to penetrate the mentality and adapt to the American lifestyle without prejudging, without being critical and without inhibitions. Your success is inseparable from this kind of attitude. You will never be able to advance if the Americans you will meet do not feel you are attuned to the spirit and the social dynamics of the United States. You should not be afraid to become Americanized on the outside. Your Italian soul won’t change. Do not express generalized and gratuitous criticism and forget about persuading Americans with the usual clichés of all Italians being geniuses. If you do not criticize them, you will see that Americans will criticize themselves. Let them speak and do not comment. If you want to prove our [Italian] superiority, do it with your deeds. Do not lose heart if you have to work for months with pick and shovel; or if you are asked to monitor the monotonous work of a machine; or spend the whole day working on boring drawings. I personally endured, physically and emotionally, more than anyone can imagine. I don’t believe we only learn what our mind believes it is learning. I don’t believe that three months spent on a monotonous, repetitive and boring task is time wasted. We always learn something even when we don’t realize it: we learn by breathing the atmosphere and absorbing impressions almost unconsciously. Once assimilated, the sum of these small bits of knowledge will turn out to be extremely useful in the future. You won’t be able to reach a high position unless you immerse completely in the psychology and the mores of the American people, and unless you learn to distinguish, in all its details, the state of the art of the particular sector where you work. A career depends obviously on an individual’s intelligence, willpower and character. But it also depends on time, and time—Einstein’s theories notwithstanding—remains immutable and unperturbed by our impatience. Be aware that in America nepotistic connections and impressive academic titles count for naught. The only things that matter are personal performance and the ability to deal with human beings. The best connection you can count on is what you can prove about yourself. Do not rely, as they do in Italy, on the friendly push of an ambassador or some other big wig. Americans will discard it mercilessly. What really matters is character:[16] fairness, loyalty, frankness, moral courage and honesty. Your bosses will observe with attention how you treat your associates and subordinates. Those who don’t know how to treat people cannot lead them. Your chances of a successful career are all there. You will have to soften your personality and eliminate impulsive reactions, angry moments and big blow outs. One must be calm, dignified yet ready, when necessary, to engage in a good fist fight to demand respect. Keep your eyes open to catch new opportunities. Nobody will blame you if you leave a company and move to another job. But you should do so openly and earnestly.

Your future is in your own hands. Do not count on the ambassador if you tire of a job and want something else. The ambassador is very interested in helping you getting started but he is not a job referral service. In the United States there are many opportunities for those who have the right stuff. If a person does not succeed, he should not blame the circumstances or other people. One should look into himself to understand what is lacking. I am certain that ninety percent of our newly graduated engineers will go very far, but it will happen only after working hard… for years. Those who will decide to return to Italy will bring back something more important than money: the treasure of the American experience. Thus far, the only people who have come from Italy have been peasants and laborers but, unfortunately, not Italy’s best minds. This has had a negative effect on our reputation. You, my young colleagues, have the very arduous and noble task of demonstrating that Italy is not inferior to any other nation. Please, keep me informed about your progress. I have no interest in helping the inept but I will give all my support to those who will demonstrate their worthiness. I wish you the greatest success. The future of my younger colleagues and the prestige of Italy are very dear to my heart. Be well.

                                                                                                                        caetani

January 7, 1955