When the Italian mafia recruited people at the docks, joining the mafia might actually have seemed like a decent option to ordinary people. Though it was a little dangerous, mafia members received fairly good treatment. They could also use their status to bully common folk, satisfying a certain vanity. But how could the Italian mafia possibly absorb such a vast number of Italian immigrants?
At this point, the Italian mafia showed what true professionalism was. The United States was currently building railways on a massive scale and carrying out the Great Western Development. It lacked manpower but had no shortage of demand, so the Italian mafia took the opportunity to get involved in all kinds of projects.
It was easy enough for Italians to take over projects. If you refused to let us do the work, then don't expect to start construction normally either. We'll send people to cause trouble every other day and see who gives in first.
Unable to do anything about it, most bosses chose to let sleeping dogs lie. They could hand the work over, but it had to be done properly. If they were truly angered, they would still find someone to deal with them.
And the Italian mafia could not conjure workers out of thin air, so recruiting people from Italy became extremely important. That was also why the Italian mafia was willing to pay immigrants' passage.
Since the end of the Civil War, half of all steel produced in the United States had been used to make rails. Thus began the golden age of American railways, and New York seized this opportunity for rapid growth.
New York, America's new settlement, had been discovered relatively late, so its development had also begun relatively late. In 1524, the Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered New York