ATTITUDE TOWARD WOMEN

Many of the foreign races hold women in low esteem, and regard wife beating as all in the day's work. The women themselves, having been born and bred to it, usually offer no resistance, but not so the strong arm of American law, and the Poles, for instance, are in legal trouble much of the time on this account. Most of the New Immigrant groups are quarrelsome, and they all look upon women as inferior, an attitude not confined to these people, however, since the Germans and Swedes regard their women as personal servants. The second generation has modified its ideas considerably.

SEXUAL MORALITY AND THE FOREIGN-BORN

Going hand in hand with a low estimate of woman, are lax moral standards. Ideas of sexual morality are different in continental Europe from those which have grown up on American soil, and conflicts arise. The seriousness of the white slave traffic here is due to the presence of so many immigrants who consider prostitution a recognized business as it was at home. Immigrant women are the chief recruits for this traffic, and immigrants of both sexes the chief purveyors of venereal diseases, and, at the same time, victims of medical quackery. European regulation of brothels and inspection of inmates, which afford a doubtful protection, are not endorsed in this country because the national ideal is the stamping out of the business. Only by a slow process of education can aliens be made to understand the American attitude in this respect. While they themselves, and their children are the greatest sufferers from diseases due to sexual immorality, the menace hangs over the entire population.

THE HOUSING PROBLEM

A large immigrant population has brought about a serious housing problem in our great cities. This existed before the housing shortage caused by lack of building operations during war time, but was intensified by the latter situation. High

rents have always led to crowding, which in turn leads to a breaking down of family life. The newly arrived immigrant has to live near his work because he can afford neither the time nor the money required to go far away. And besides this, he crowds in where his own people dwell. For financial reasons, he occupies the smallest possible space and usually takes lodgers. It is not unheard of for night workers to occupy, during the day, the beds or floor just vacated by day workers. Such crowding is obviously detrimental to both health and morals. Naturally the filthiest and most dilapidated buildings fall to the lot of the poorest people, and conditions go from bad to worse. Rat and vermin-infested dwellings are a sorry introduction to life in America, yet they provide the first home to the majority of immigrants, and the rent for such places is always exorbitant. Privacy is impossible in homes consisting of one or two rooms, and children grow up with blunted sensibilities if not with perverted morals. The fact that these people have never lived amid better surroundings does not make the situation less serious. A few illustrations will serve to show the kind of homes some immigrants occupy. Dr. Jerome Davis 2 thus describes a type in New York City: "The plaster is cracked and here and there are spots where it has broken off, thus adding to the dust on the floor. The apartment consists of one room about ten by fourteen feet, and an alcove seven by six feet shut off by heavy curtains and containing a double bed. The room has two windows opening on a fire escape, but the alcove bedroom has none." A family occupies this at a rental of eleven dollars a month, heat extra.

And here, in an immigrant's words, is a picture of a place called home: "Look at de hole in de plaster, an' dat hole in de floor. De rats jes' swarms in tru dat. An' de mice is tick. Don't mind 'em, dey won't hurt you like rats. An' look at de roaches like a carpet. You don't see de bedbugs now, but dey's here, millions of 'em. I pay t'irty dollar for The Russian Immigrant (1922) page 62.

t'ree room. Nobody didn't ought to live here. Dere's six of us.' 993

Doctor Warne describes a case in the Pennsylvania coal fields known to himself where "fourteen Slavs, all unmarried, rent one large room in an abandoned, tumble-down store building. It is taken care of by a housekeeper, who also prepares the meals. Each man has his tin plate, knife, fork and cup; he has his ham and bread, and a separate place to keep them. Some things are bought in quantities, the distribution being made by the housekeeper. The men sleep in bunks resembling shelves in a grocery store." Since the total cost to these men for this accommodation was not over four dollars a month, and since they spent practically nothing for clothes and got fuel free from the culm banks, they were able to save almost all their wages, which were then about thirty dollars a month. It is clearly seen that this situation would tend to keep wages down and lower the American standard of living. Standards in one industry affect others. Groups of workers rightly regard with concern the ability of another group to live more cheaply than they themselves can live.

EFFECTS OF SEX DISPARITY

Another point worthy of consideration in this discussion is that fully two-thirds of our in-coming immigrants have always been men. This sex disparity brings problems of its own. Many of the men are unmarried; others have left their families at home hoping to be able some day to send for them. The young men who come are of marriageable age, but, owing to language and other barriers, find scant opportunity to meet young women whom they can marry. If they come in touch with girls who were born here, or have grown up in this country, they are afraid of what seem to them extravagant American customs; and the girls on their side, flout what they call the niggardly habits of the greenhorns. It is all very disturbing to the newcomers. Adaptation to strange condi

'Annie Marion MacLean, Our Neighbors (1922) pages 138-39. 'Frank Julian Warne, The Immigrant Invasion (1913) pp.

153-4.

tions is never easy, and many a homesick alien thinks longingly of the land he left so joyously. The American has his troubles with the immigrant, but the immigrant has his bad hours too. The handicap of a foreign tongue makes a sojourn in a strange country difficult enough for an educated person with money in his pocket, but for a penniless and illiterate peasant who must at once find employment, which may be entirely unsuitable, it is fraught with bewildering hardships. Recognition of this fact would make for a better understanding all around.

ATTITUDE OF NATIVE-BORN CHILDREN TO THEIR FOREIGN-BORN PARENTS

Another unfortunate situation often arises between American-born children and their illiterate foreign-born parents causing much suffering to the latter. The children learn to speak English at school, and with childish love of conformity to the ways of other children, refuse to speak an alien language at home, and eventually despise the parents who can use only a foreign tongue. Education thus becomes a barrier between the two generations. In many immigrant homes today, children address parents in English, while the parents reply in another language. Numbers of women who have been in this country for years do not speak English although they can understand it. Unless they worked outside of their homes at first, there was not the same compulsion that the men felt to learn the new language. Their contacts have always been with their own people. They are embarrassed in the presence of strangers, and take refuge among those who understand them. The gulf between one generation and the next is always wide; it is unfortunate that it should be widened by language differences.

NEED FOR ADULT EDUCATION

Opportunities for the study of the English language should be extended to meet the needs of adults everywhere and particularly of mothers at home who are so often passed by. The zeal of the new arrival to become a part of his new

home has rarely been met by a like zeal on the part of those into whose national arms he has thrown himself. Undoubtedly the eagerness of newcomers should be captured before it oozes out in discouragement. Fitting the immigrant into our social fabric is not easy, but it is rendered more difficult by a neglect of simple educational overtures. Several years ago, the country was shocked by the discovery that five million people in continental United States could not speak English, and that two million of these were illiterates. It was still further shocked to learn that there were in the American Army five hundred thousand men who could neither speak nor write English. Such things have a sinister meaning in war time, but they have also a serious aspect in times of peace.

THE PADRONE'

On the industrial side certain unfortunate institutions and customs have developed through immigration, which, though they do not directly affect native workers, cannot fail to have some reflex influence. The most conspicious of these have to do with methods of obtaining work. Labor is secured for most great enterprises through agencies of one kind or another, usually those handling large national groups such as the Bulgarian, Italian or Roumanian. As a help in securing men, the Padrone system brought over by the Italians, although gradually falling into disuse by them, has come into general use with other nationalities. The Padrone is the go-between" who trades on ignorance of the English language on the part of new arrivals of his own race. He is the labor boss who exploits his people. He contracts to supply men to the agencies, and frequently mulcts both. He inspires confidence in new arrivals because of his greater sophistication, and in this way exercises autocratic control in placing them in one industry or withdrawing them from another, perhaps for his own advantage. Neither agencies nor employers can thwart him because he is able to supply raw industrial recruits. His function is legitimate enough where he acts merely as a labor agent, but he often exacts nefarious promises and payments from either side for his own enrichment.