132                    THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION

CHAPTER XVI

RECAPITULATION

In v^w of all the foregoing can there be said to exist
-an Italian psychology for tliese Americans of Italian line-
,ag"e in America, and can it be said to be objectionable?
We hear much about Italian psychology and have been
impressed with its difference from our own. Have we
been over-impressed? We have seen that the mental
traits described above are not a thing "sui generis" with
these Americans of Italian blood, but are universal. Wliat
were represented were race lines it is true, but lines cut
across by individual differences. No true psychology
holds that racial qualities do not exist, but neither does
it make a fetish of such differences. The important thing
for us here is that psychological traits are primarily
individual; only when taken collectively do they become
racial. Today psychologists agree that "intra-group"
differences are greater than "inter-group" differences.

The traits described run through the entire gamut of
possible mental reactions from the very high and most
commendable to the very low and most deprecatory of
all the strains that enter into American life showing
"high variability" to be one of the outstanding features
of the mental life of the Italian. The contention made
here though, and maintained throughout is that from
the standpoint of race no significant differences exist
between these and other individuals of other racial des¬
cents. Races do differ. Mental and even moral dif¬
ferences do exist, but whether we may conclude from
this that these differences denote superiority or inferior¬
ity is not the same question. It has been said that the
races making up our "new" immigration (and this in¬
cludes the Italian) lack the innate capacity of self-
government. If this is so, then the words of Sir Horace
Plunkett are apropos namely "if any race is lacking in
the powers of self-government than what that race needs
most is self-government."

The Irish, Italians, English and French differ in art,
language, literature and science.   As Giddings says, "the