The article is about the attitudes of corner boys and college boys’ to social mobility, showing that the 1930s was a watershed era. The first generation of Italians were often farmers and fishermen who became industrial workers in the United States. The second generation of Italians had adapted to American cultural conditions to varying degrees, with commitments in both the local community and the majority society. Corner boys planned for a future in the local community. College boys strove to pursue a career outside the social and geographical boundaries of the community. Corner boys learned the rules of society on the street. College boys were handpicked at school and in the settlement house to become middle-class Americans. Corner boys regarded college boys as hypocrites who put their short-term interests before those of the local community. The schisms between corner boys and college boys were an indication that the family values of the local Italian community were changing. But it was not until some time after the Second World War that the third and fourth generations of Italians had acquired moral values similar to those of the average American about abortion, mixed marriages, homosexuality, sexual abstinence before marriage, and divorce.