You seem to be drawing your own conclusions from Dickies information.

Excerpt from COSA NOSTRA: A History of the Sicilian Mafia (you pedantic douch you)
by John Dickie: Pgs xvi & xvii of the Prologue

"In 1890, the mafia was already a murderous and sophisticated criminal association with
powerful political connections and an international reach."

"We owe it to Falcone and his colleagues if the myth of rustic chivalry has now, at
last, been dispelled."

And then, Pg 25, Chapter 1:The Genesis of the Mafia 1860 - 1876, Sicily's Two Colours:

"It was during the troubled years of the 1860's that the Italian kingdom's ruling
class first heard talk of the mafia in Sicily. Without having a clear idea of what
it was, the first people to study the problem assumed that it must be archaic, a
left-over from the Middle Ages, some symptom of the centuries of foreign misrule...
...The great estates worked by droves of hungry peasants who were exploited by brutal
bosses. Many Italians hoped and believed that the mafia was a symptom of this kind of
backwardness and poverty, that it was destined to disappear as soon as Sicily emerged
from its isolation..."

Pg 33, Dr Galati and the Lemon Garden:

"Protection rackets, murder, territorial dominance, competition and collaboration
between gangs, and even a hint of a code of 'honour';...many of the central
components of the mafia method were being employed in...the early 1870's"

Pg 100,Chapter 3, Corruption in High Places 1890-1904 The Sangiorgi Report

"Among the innumerable documents now held in Italy's Central State Archive
in Rome is a restricted file containing a report, submitted to the ministry of the
Interior in installmants between November 1898 and January 1900. The report was written
by Ermanno Sangiorgi, Cheif of Police of Palermo....The report tells of 218 "Men of
Honour"...THe report tells of the mafia's initiation ritual and code of behaviour.
It sets out its business methods, how it infiltrates and controls the market gardens,
how it forges money, commits robberies, terrifies and murders witnesses"

The sad stoy of Bernardino Verro. He thought he could help the people with mafia
power but was killed basically when he lost faith and tried to leave a gang that put
profits over people.

You've picked a bad book to make your case. No-one could read that book and concur that
the mafia was at any time ever really beneficial to the people of Italy.

I wouldnt argue that there were friendly neighbourhood God-Fathers, guys that
everyone came to for advice, who donated money & gave food to the poor
(Shit, Joey Merlino tried it) and were known as the wise, genial village dons.

Those same "Dons" oversaw the protection rackets and extortionate practices that fleeced
the fathers and husbands of the same women and children they "provided" for.

Im sure your going to scour the book and find scraps of sentances that seem to prove
your point, but im positive they'll invariably go on to say that any such notions are
false. You've obviously made up your mind on the matter, so its cool. I mean, shit,
who am i to say that your great, great, grand-father wasnt one of the "friendly"
God-Fathers. And read more on the Ndrangheta.

Sorry for the long post.