File No. 14654.
The Italian Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Manchester, Mass., July 14, 1908.
Mr. Secretary of State: An ordinance of the city council of Richmond, dated December 12, 1907, and which went into effect on February 1 following, prohibits, in articles 2 and 5, Italian subjects residing there, and not naturalized Americans, and therefore not [Page 387] legal voters of the State of Virginia, from selling or dispensing alcoholic liquors in said city, under penalty of a fine from $100 to $500 for every violation, as well as forfeiture of their license. Practically the ordinance in question forbids Italians engaging in the occupation of bartender and, perhaps, bar waiter.
As this prohibition appears to be contrary to the provisions of Articles II and III of the treaty of February 26, 1871, I take the liberty of calling the attention of the Federal Government to the matter. And since this ordinance is the subject of a protest on the part of the industrious and prosperous Italian colony of Richmond, I beg of Your Excellency to enable me to assure my countrymen there that the rights accruing to them from the treaty in question, as well as from the American Constitution, which makes this matter a supreme law of the country, are and will be duly respected.
I avail, etc.,