Part V (pp. 2584-2619) in The Woman Citizen's Library: A Systematic Course of Reading in Preparation for the Larger Citizenship (Vol. 10 of 12), edited by Shailer Mathews1913Published by the Civics Society (Chicago, IL)
Accessed via HathiTrust: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/ien.35556002316040
Safeguarding the Immigrant
Few subjects within the last decade have so attracted the attention of women, or have offered them so fertile a field for discussion and endeavor as the need of being interested in the welfare of the immigrant on arrival. The helplessness of the newly arrived family in the face of new economic conditions, founding a home in a strange country, the handicaps of language and strange social customs and unfamiliar institutions, the peculiar helplessness of the child, so often brought here to work and lost in the maze of congested cities and intricate workshops, until he emerges to start his or her own small family—these are conditions that make a strong appeal to women whose minds and hearts are alive to the social and industrial needs of our times in this free America.
The picturesqueness of the immigrant, his traditions and old world philosophy, and his child-like faith in the new country, his responses to the opportunities, his physical strength and eagerness to learn, his willingness to be friends, make the task of safeguarding him a hopeful one, and one in which women can have an unlimited share, with a reward to them far exceeding in proportion the interest and thought and energy they put in it.
In taking up the various phases of immigration for study or practical work, it should be clearly borne in mind that there are two distinct phases of immigration requiring different treatment.
I. The Restriction of Immigration
This subject includes primarily the question of how many aliens shall come in—at what ports—under what conditions; and what nationalities; who shall be permitted to stay and the length of time, and terms of their deportation if a residence here is denied them. This field, being one of governmental regulation and activity, there is little place for women's activity, except in the discussion of the subject, and in the endorsement of or opposition to bills further restricting such immigration. The organizations most actively engaged in opposing immigration, and which offer information and opportunities for service, are the Immigration Restriction League, Boston, and the Junior Order of Mechanics, Youngstown, Ohio. The most active organizations in favor of immigration are the American Distribution League, 30 Church Street, New York City, and the Liberal Immigration League, 150 Nassau Street, New York City. These organizations will suggest subjects for discussion, furnish speakers, send copies of bills pending before Congress, and furnish information for debates, discussions and papers upon the subject of the admission or exclusion of immigrants.
There are a number of humane problems in connection with the admission and deportation of aliens which are fertile fields for discussion, and in which women can help formulate public opinion. These include:
Examination of Aliens Abroad, to prevent heartbreaking, and expensive deportations of persons who have broken up their homes, separated their families and, sold their property, and taken the long, hard journey to America, only to be turned back.
Protection on Board Vessels, to include improvement of steerage conditions, safeguarding women. and property, by placing inspectors and matrons on board.
White Slavery, to include the extension of the present law, secure larger appropriations for its enforcement, extend international agreements, and arrange conferences to make the preventive work now being done more effective. The United States cannot stamp out this evil alone. The American Vigilance Association, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York, is the organization which is especially interested in this matter.
Immigration of Men. The increase in the immigration of men who leave their families in the old country and start new families here, deserting the former, or sometimes supporting both families, or herding together in labor camps, tenements and lodging places, is a distinct menace to family life and morality and the wise rearing of children, and is increasing poverty and distress in the European countries as well as here. The fact that industries require the labor of unskilled men is not compensated for in a business way by the loss of family integrity and the increase in moral degeneration now going on. Family and social life are bearing a heavy burden for industrial development. This requires some international action.
Birds of Passage. An increasingly interesting topic of discussion is the discouragement of immigrants who come here to work for a season or two, invest their savings in the home country, spend a few dollars a week for living here under wretched conditions, and return home. The effect on the home country and the effect of a large number of producers who are not consumers, and their relations to the development of American civic life, are important questions as yet unanswered.
Characteristics of Immigrants. This offers an interesting topic for comparison with the older immigration, in such matters as countries of origin, city and country dwellers, physical characteristics, sex and family life, age, occupation, literacy, temporary residence, language qualifications in relation to assimilation, and social custom.
Probable Effects of Restriction. This offers the widest field for speculation, with considerable data as a basis, on such matters as the immigrant in relation to farming, industrial development, child labor, standards of living, free government, and the franchise and similar matters, Taken in this connection the causes of immigration are also of such interest.
II. The Foreigner's Needs in America
At the end of several years in which we have been discussing the "immigrant problem," the problem has itself suffered an irrevocable change. It has passed out of the simple stage in which it might have been solved by the forming of a government policy in answer to questions "shall we let them in?" "shall we keep them out?" While we have debated the matter of the Open Gate, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children of alien speech and customs have been crowding into the country by way of the steerage of the great Atlantic liners. They have now become an ineradicable part of the American population. Not a city, and scarcely a town, in the country today is without its quarters where considerable numbers of "foreigners" are herded. They make up the greater part of the dwellers of the tenement or poorer districts of all the larger cities. Throughout the country most of the rough outdoor manual labor is done by them—the sturdy foreign man can still wield a pick or a shovel. With the exception of occasional gangs of negro workmen they are the people who have laid the foundations and done the heavy work on our great national engineering projects, aqueducts, railroads, subways, tunnels, and bridges.
The work of the fields at fruit and harvest time draws upon the immigrant women and children for its cheap and prompt performance— and the investigations of the New York State Factory Commission show that the "child labor" in factories is almost always the labor of foreign born children or children of immigrant parents.
The old unanswered question "Shall we 'let them in'?" is superseded by a vital, daily, hourly challenge: "What are we doing with, or for, or to the millions of men, women and children who make up so large a part of the American community today?" These "immigrants" are your near neighbors if you live in a city; your own workmen, if you are an employer; your servant, if you are a householder; your children's classmates, if they go to a public school.
No matter who you are or how remote from your concern the immigrant may seem to be, it is safe to say that the work of his hands has ministered to your need or pleasure through years; that it is doing so today and will continue to do so tomorrow. It may be that the gang of Italian workmen passing your door from work on the new railroad bed is your only thought of the "immigrant." That does not touch you very personally. Have you ever wondered where the hundreds of articles sold every day in the big department stores come from? Most of them, especially the "white goods," underwear, and embroidered things are made or "finished" in city tenements by the quick and clever fingers of immigrant women and children. The great bulk of ready made clothing for men and boys is finished in these same tenements. The food you eat, the multiplied list of "canned goods" is prepared or packed largely by immigrant men, women and children in factories throughout the country.
The object of the immigrant woman in coming to America is "to work"; to earn a good living in the country which has been spread before her imagination as the land of liberty and individual opportunity.
With a few dollars in her pocket on arrival, she takes the first job she can find, and is glad to find anything. In the strange new surroundings she turns naturally to her own countrymen, here before her, for advice and help. She probably has the address of an immigrant lodging house, or she is piloted to one on landing by some of the many persons who hang around the wharves for just this purpose.
Women Workers. The two strategic periods at which women immigrants need protection are when they first arrive looking for a home and for work. Do you women residents of your community know what kind of lodging places exist for immigrant women, and where they get work? The combination between lodging place keepers and employment agents in the great centers of population determines the happiness, success and economy of the home more than is generally known, not only in cities but in the small towns to which they send workers. The rate of wages depends upon the supply, and also upon the coaching and instructions given the newly arrived girl on her arrival by this combination. The size of the fee paid the agent depends upon the rate of wages. The length of employment has come to depend in some measure upon this combination. It induces the girl to leave her place after it has placed her there by offering her a place at more wages, regardless of her efficiency, and makes her discontented and a domestic tramp in a short time. This is due to the fact that the country leaves the finding of homes and of employment for immigrant working women in the hands of private agencies interested in making a profit off of their hardships in life. The housewife alone does not determine the standard of her home. The cleanliness, care, and safety depend in a large measure upon her employees. These are today often set by the combination, which is the immigrant girls' rendezvous when off duty, by her associates who are shut off from American contacts with life, and who are kept in ignorance and slavery by this combination. It houses the girls, shops for them, helps them to marry, and performs a hundred little services which the housewife neglects. What have women done to change this? In two states they have had laws passed regulating immigrant lodging places and setting a standard (New York and California). In other states they have free employment agencies which furnish positions and labor free, but in no state is the appropriation large enough to make them very effective. In sixteen states they have passed laws regulating private agencies, some effectively, others very inadequately. In at least three states they have cooperative employment societies, where housewives have banded together to secure employment for immigrants. In a few of the large seaport cities and interior cities there are immigrant homes for newly arrived immigrant girls, but not nearly enough of them. The Young Women's Christian Association and Council of Jewish Women, and North American Civic League for Immigrants, and Immigrant Protective League of Chicago, supply friendly visitors who call on the girls in their homes and help them to make the right friends, direct them to schools and otherwise act as friends to them. The immediate step for each woman who wants to extend a helping hand to the immigrant workers is to volunteer as a friendly visitor, inspect the employment agencies in her town and find out what the law is, and if it is not adequate to secure amendments, establish state or municipal employment agencies, and find out how and where the immigrant girl lives who is not living with her parents or in a private family. The North American Civic League for Immigrants, 95 Madison Avenue, New York, can give you the information about the laws.
Labor Camps. It has been said that the great industrial progress in America could not go on at such a pace if we had to raise men to do the general labor. Nearly every American who travels by train or motor is familiar with the labor camps of this country. Wherever railroads are being repaired, highways being built, good roads laid, water systems installed, there will be seen the camps nestled among the hills or along the line of the industrial march. Some contain only men living desolate, unsanitary lives, without the blessings of recreation or comforts of family life; others have women and children; the former living lives of beasts of burden, the latter cut off from any American influence other perhaps than the boss of the gang or the far away school which they rarely attend.
Such wages as the padrone sees fit to pay out of the lump sum received by him for the work in hand is the immigrant's portion. He eats such food as is supplied him by the same padrone, or often by a foreman in the employ of the company, and he pays for it at a price to yield a profit to the padrone. The camps are usually in an incredibly filthy and unsanitary condition and the only place of respite after work hours is the saloon. The neighbors of the nearest town or city regard these foreigners with suspicion or enmity. The aliens remain strangers in the new country. In some of the camps where women and children live, the children grow up within the boundary of the camp conditions, with illiteracy as the least of the evils of the semibarbarous surroundings.
When the day comes which sees the completion of the work for which these temporary camps are erected, the colony is disbanded and the men, alone or with their families, find their way back to the cities, or wander from place to place out of work and with no homes.
It is at this point that in their ignorance of our language and of the customs and laws of the country that they become the easy prey of the greed and inhumanity of all who are willing to take advantage of their helplessness. The most deplorable disclosure that has been made in the course of the effort to help unravel the tangled net in which they are so often caught is the fact that it is their own countrymen who prey upon them most, as a countryman, over here some years, and speaking the immigrants' language, is the one to whom he naturally turns for direction or counsel.
The language handicap makes them practically civic deaf mutes in their first months or even years if they have no association with Americans. It is this disability that has made them the easy victim of the "interpreter," the "shyster" lawyer, the illicit steamship ticket seller, the bogus employment agent, and the dishonest immigrant "banker."
To those whose concern it has been to follow the fortunes of the immigrants in America in the past eight or ten years the marvel is that they have so largely survived the often incredible hazards of their first years here in camps.
These camps are the deepest concern of the American. One state has passed a law, setting a minimum standard of sanitation, housing and comfort of these men. Two philanthropic societies—the Italian Immigration Society, and the North American Civic League for Immigrants—have established camp schools which serve as social centers for the camp; circulating libraries have been sent to them and the Young Men's Christian Association is rapidly extending the work to them. I would recommend that these camps be visited, that the families be seen and that the questions of living conditions, education, recreation, and opportunities for Americanization be discussed.
The question of prime importance in any labor camp is that of the living conditions. A camp located on the edge of a swamp, as is often the case, is conducive to malaria. Failure to provide a satisfactory water supply, improper drainage facilities, and lack of sanitary conditions, make for typhoid fever. Both location and sanitation then concern the camp and the health of the workmen, but they are also a concern of the surrounding communities.
In certain camps employers have had their interests aroused sufficiently to guarantee the privacy of the family in households where boarders are kept. In small houses this has been done by placing the common living room in the center, with the sleeping rooms for the family on one end, and those of the boarders on the other. Where large numbers of boarders are to be housed, the same advantage is secured by dividing the quarters of the boarders from those of the family by means of an intervening hallway. Inasmuch as it is no more expensive to build houses of the kind
described, many employers can no doubt be persuaded to provide these improved types of dwellings for their boarder families. Information concerning such buildings can be secured from the North American Civic League for Immigrants.
Many of the states have libraries of foreign books which will be loaned to companies, or to responsible individuals who are able to give a suitable reference. Where these libraries are available, they should be secured and placed at the disposal of those men who are able and who desire to read. If a room for reading purposes can be secured from the contractor, and foreign papers supplied, this will add to the recreational opportunities of the camp, and so make for moral improvement by offsetting the influence of the saloon.
Frequently these camps are in charge of, or include Americans, who are educated, and who are also interested in the welfare of their immigrant employees. They can be persuaded to give aid to the immigrant who is anxious to learn English, and perhaps to meet regular English classes. In many camps the Y.M.C.A. men have themselves secured employment in order that they might carry on the necessary educational work in the evenings. Where such resources do not exist in the camp itself, but where quarters are available, outsiders are frequently found who feel the great need of the immigrant for an English education, and who are willing to give their services on certain evenings of each week. Advice as to the organization, and pamphlets to use in connection with these classes may be secured from a number of organizations, notable among whom are, The Immigrant Education Society, Young Men's Christian Association, and the North American Civic League for Immigrants.
Colonies. The camp has another name in industrial communities. It is called the colony. It is not isolated and inferior because of distance but constitutes a contrast to the American quarters in close proximity. All industries employing immigrants who live about the works have such colonies. They are best recognized in the steel industry, in mines, quarries, brick yards, canneries, mills, and factories. These are made up of people speaking a widely different language and with strong race antipathies. They have their own life,— saloons, stores, newspapers, banks, churches, fraternal societies, all run by their own countrymen after their European ideas, influenced only by American industrial, but not social conditions. They do not adopt the American standard of living, for they have no way of learning it. They do not learn American customs, nor adapt themselves to American conditions, because they have no American friends nor contacts with American life except as they use an American machine or pay rent for an American house. The only assimilating point is the public school, which educates the child far beyond the grasp of the parent and often destroys family discipline because so little is done for the parents.
The public night school with its English classes for foreigners is attempting to reach these men and women. It is fairly successful with the men, but with the women it is seriously handicapped. In the evening the household cares make many demands upon the mother's time, and the percentage of adult women reached by these schools is very small indeed. And for the immigrant women the question of home-making under strange and difficult conditions is just as vital, and even more immediate, than that of acquiring English.
In the fall of 1911 an experiment was made in Buffalo of sending home or domestic educators into the households of immigrant women to advise them with respect to sanitation, ventilation, domestic and personal hygiene, household economics, care of babies and children, and incidentally to help them with English, or to get them into a school where they might acquire a knowledge of the English language and so break down the walls that are separating them so completely from the American community. The work has been difficult and requires tact and good judgment, and preferably one who is a trained nurse. But it is a plan of work which has extreme value in assimilating immigrant mothers and in maintaining the integrity of the home, and it is now being used in a number of industrial communities by large corporations. A work of this sort is a vital part of any assimilative program and it enables the parents to more nearly keep pace with their children, and so prevents the disruption of home ties and home influences.
The district nurse, of whom there are representatives in nearly all big cities today and whose operations are very widespread, is also a most potent feature in the assimilative process. Where the pressure of her cases will permit, she too is able to teach the mother to do better the homely tasks she has to perform, and to prevent the development of disease, as well as to cure it. The social service worker of the hospitals following the dismissed patient into the home frequently reaches immigrant families, and by her advice and assistance helps the woman to more quickly take her place in the community at large. The nurses at the milk stations where mothers are instructed as to the proper modification of milk for their babies, the school nurses and visiting teachers, of whom several were provided this year in New York City under the Board of Education to visit the homes of backward children and remove domestic difficulties which hinder the school progress, are all influential in bringing the perplexed and handicapped mother into harmony with American life around her.
Women Travelers. Many thousands of women come alone to our country each year to their relatives and friends, or to work, and have to travel alone from the port of arrival to their destination.
Once the government has passed upon the admission of steerage passengers at Ellis Island and has seen them to the landing at Battery Park, or to the railroad terminals, it leaves them to find their way alone. Not even this protection is given second class passengers. They are allowed to shift for themselves after being discharged at the docks. At other ports Government responsibility for both steerage and second class traffic terminates at the immigrant station. It is not concerned whether immigrants are provided with sufficient food for their journey, whether they arrive safely at their destination or get off at the wrong station, whether they are provided with decent or even adequate sanitary facilities in transit. As immigrant trains do not carry dining facilities, and since the immigrants are not always informed as to the length of their journey, or the amount of food necessary, it not infrequently happens that they arrive at their destination suffering from hunger. Even though they might have obtained food from the lunch counters at the stations there has been no one speaking their language to give them this information. Because of the lack of supervision and protection en route, instances are frequently coming to light where immigrant girls leaving New York City for interior points never reach their destination. In many instances these girls are found to have gone to others than their original friends, and have secured employment, but in other instances they are never located, or they have been traced to houses of ill-fame to which they were lured in their ignorance and where they were held against their will.
Immigrants from Ellis Island bound for New York City who do not speak English, or who are not met by friends and relatives, may avail themselves of guides speaking their own languages. These guides are employed by the Immigrant Guide and Transfer, a branch of the North American Civic League for Immigrants. A nominal charge is made sufficient to pay the cost of delivery, the amount varying according to the part of the city in which the address is located. In the past year over 51,000 immigrants have been delivered by these guides, and thousands of dollars were undoubtedly saved to them from the runners and guides at the Barge Office, who would prey upon them, charging exorbitant rates for services rendered, or even robbing them outright.
The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society also maintains guides, in addition to its other activities, who deliver Jewish men and women destined to New York City. In both Boston and Philadelphia the North American Civic League for Immigrants, with headquarters in Boston, has representatives on the docks to provide immigrants with all the protection possible. The Travelers' Aid Society in New York City has representatives at all the trans-Atlantic docks, and its work among foreign women who are directed to friends or proper addresses, or placed on trains for their destination, reaches many thousands each year, saving them from exploitation or more serious difficulties.
But excellent as is this work of private agencies their activity leaves too much of the field uncovered. The private philanthropies operate at stations and on docks. En route there are a thousand possibilities for the traveler to fall a victim to unscrupulous individuals. The hundreds who drop from sight each year between New York and inland points will reach their destination safely when the Government looks upon them as wards until they are in the hands of those to whom they are manifested. "Enlightened self interest" is the motive which a large western railroad has ascribed to the provision of special and adequate sanitary facilities for its immigrant traffic. This same enlightened self interest must sooner or later see to the establishment under the federal Department of Labor of adequate machinery for the protection and delivery of these helpless alien wards to friends and relatives at inland points. A bill has recently been passed providing for an immigration distribution center in Chicago. The extension of this idea to give protection not only to immigrants en route to Chicago but to all other large inland distribution centers, is the logical and necessary extension of this scheme.
The Immigrant Investor. Every year the immigrant banks and the post office department transmit abroad from immigrant workers in America between $100,000,000 and$ 200,000,000. This does not include the amount carried back to Europe by immigrant birds of passage, an amount which in itself totals many additional millions. Part of this money is sent back to wives and families of immigrant laborers, but a great portion is transmitted abroad for safe-keeping, or for investment. The immigrant is naturally a home-seeker and thousands are from farming communities in Europe, and they would invest in farms here in America but for the practices of unscrupulous real estate agencies and exploiters on one hand, and the failure on the part of state and Governmental agencies on the other to provide accurate and reliable sources of information concerning land to which the one who has saved his earnings can turn for advice in matters of investment. The exploitation of the immigrant destroying as it does the confidence in his fellowmen and in American investment, is the most unfortunate element connected with the immigration situation, and one of the most serious obstacles in the way of successful assimilation. It is also unfortunate that the worst exploiters of the alien are his countrymen. It is to these countrymen that the laborer turns with his earnings when he wishes to place them in safe-keeping. His inability to make use of American banking facilities where only English is spoken has caused him to entrust his savings to those with whom he can deal. In every section where numbers of immigrant laborers are found, immigrant banks have sprung up. In New York State, up to three years ago when a law governing their operations was passed, these bankers were not licensed, and of the majority of them the State Banking Department did not even have a record. During the year 1908 twenty-five of these immigrant banks went out of business in New York State, with a loss of $1,200,000 to their creditors. This sum represented the savings of hundreds of laborers, and the result of years of hard toil. The deposits in these banks were guaranteed in no way and there was absolutely no redress for the immigrant depositors. New York State is progressing rapidly in its efforts to bring these banks under control. The work is receiving attention in other states with large immigrant populations, and it is essential that the operation of these concerns receiving the laborers' money shall be carefully guarded, for there is no surer way to defeat the best efforts for assimilation and decent citizenship than to leave these immigrant depositors without protection, since nothing brings the immigrant to more desperate and lawless frame of mind than to see his savings of years appropriated by men in whose integrity he had placed confidence.
And the immigrant is not safe from spoliation when he has escaped an unfortunate experience with his banker. Foreign language newspapers commonly carry advertisements of so-called public service companies, working men's homes companies, or mining corporations, couched in glowing terms and promising sure and splendid returns upon investment. The promoters of these concerns almost invariably disappear when they have secured a considerable sum, or their motives are questioned.
No other line of fraud is more detrimental to immigrant agricultural interests, or to genuine schemes for the distribution of immigrants, than those practiced upon them in connection with land sales, for once an immigrant has been victimized it is very hard to make him realize that America does offer safe channels for investment, or that it is practical to save for a home in this country.
The schemes for defrauding the prospective settler are varied. One of these is to interest the buyer by pamphlets in the immigrants' tongue, or by elaborate descriptions in foreign language newspapers, which tell of splendid opportunities in a growing village where factories are soon to be erected, where the soil is rich, and the location desirable. The prospective buyer is shown lots which are really good in themselves. He is told that all the others are the same. He is shown the excavations already under way for a factory site, and when he has made his purchase and is given the deed, the description is likely to cover some worthless sand lot or marshy tract, or is so vague in its terms that he is unable to locate his property, and even when he can do so, he finds frequently that he has been deceived with regard to his title, that the tract is covered by a mortgage, and the foreclosure leaves him nothing but a worthless bit of paper and bitter feelings toward America and American investments.
So far this country has not looked upon investment agencies as legitimate fields for public endeavor. The only possible exception is found in states which have created their immigration bureaus, the function of which is to facilitate the settlement of unoccupied tracts. But, in the meantime, the golden stream flows unchecked out of America into European cities and villages. To turn this back to American soil is worthy of serious thought by Americans. To this end there should be established in the Department of Labor at Washington a bureau with power to register lands for settlers, and to furnish information concerning them, after it has investigated the terms and conditions upon which they are offered. Furthermore, it is essential that the various states shall interest themselves in the guidance of settlers within their borders, and they shall adopt measures which will prevent false representation with respect to land, and prosecution of dealers who are guilty of fraud or willful misrepresentation concerning tracts listed by them. They may to good advantage gather information themselves as to tracts suitable for agricultural settlement, giving location, quality of soil and prices.
The Immigrant and Justice. In matters of justice the immigrant again finds that ignorance of language and customs places him under special disabilities. The policeman is inclined to feel that because he is an immigrant he is guilty of the offense charged, especially when the complainant is an American. In rural communities where prejudice is most strong judges incline to the same attitude of mind. Even in cities lack of adequate interpreters makes it difficult or well nigh impossible for the foreigner to gain an impartial hearing. He is frequently denied the benefit of a translation of the testimony given against him. This precludes the possibility of stating his case before the courts. Again it is taken for granted that the offender is aware of his offense, even when he is sentenced by the court. A Polish laborer was arrested by a railroad policeman for trespassing on the right-of-way. No interpreter could be found in the court room, and as there seemed no doubt as to his trespass, he was given sentence and the man was taken to jail ignorant of the offense committed. In many courts the policeman making the arrest serves as an interpreter, in others interpreters are found in the court room, while in other instances the city's attorney has done the necessary interpreting. The common failure on the part of the accused to secure a fair and sympathetic hearing fosters discontent among immigrants and makes them enemies rather than supporters of law and order. Unscrupulous lawyers add to this feeling of distrust, since to the immigrant the attorney is a part of the machinery of justice. He finds to his sorrow that the lawyer recommended by the banker or saloon keeper has an agreement with that person to pay over a percentage of the fees received. Again, he pays money with the understanding that he will be immediately released, and when he demands from the attorney the reason why no action has been taken he finds that he is powerless, inasmuch as he has only a retainer's fee to show for his payment. Again, he pays money for legal service only to have the lawyer fail to appear in court or to threaten to withhold action on his behalf until additional payments are made. As he is so often without powerful friends to interest themselves in his case, and as he is ignorant of his rights and the proper method of procedure, the exploiter feels that he can take advantage of the immigrant with impunity to himself.
Immigrant Children. The question of child labor, in which the women of this country have so largely interested themselves, presents special aspects in relation to immigration. Wherever fruit growing regions are found contiguous to great cities, immigrant parents go out each summer to work in the canneries and the fields. The employers are often glad to avail themselves of the help of the children during those rush periods when additional hands are needed to save the fruit from spoiling. But even where the employment of children is a matter of indifference to the canner or picker, the foreign parents who do not appreciate the harm done to the child by long hours of application, and who desire to earn a few more cents a day; take these children with them to the field or shed, and in the latter place children six years and over are found who have been compelled to work throughout the day and into the night, during the rush season. An injury equally serious comes to the child from his interrupted schooling. The family leaves the city in May to work in the fields, while the school has still a few more weeks to run, and returns in the fall after all the vegetables are canned, from a few weeks to months after the school has opened. The loss to the child so taken away is serious, but the one who has remained in the city is also harmed through the necessary readjustment of school activities to the backward child who has returned. One state at least has so amended its child labor laws as to include work in cannery sheds as well as factories, but this law does not remedy the educational situation. It seems necessary to form special immigrant classes for these children, both in the industrial regions and in the city after they have returned to prevent injustice to those who have remained in their classes.
In every city of any size there are to be found Greek and Italian boys working as shoe shiners and flower peddlers under bosses from among their own countrymen. These bosses are known as padroni. The condition is the same for practically all of these boys. A contract has been made between the padrone and the boy's parents whereby the boy is bound to work for a definite period after arriving in America in payment for the passage money advanced to him. The parents have ignorantly, in many instances, bound the boy to work for a year or more in exchange for $50 or $60. This boy is able to evade the immigration officials, despite the law against contract labor, because he comes consigned to a so-called "cousin" or "uncle," who is generally the padrone who has paid his passage.
The industrial and living conditions of these boys after landing in America are generally most undesirable. Their hours of labor extend over seven days a week, are long, beginning as they do between 6 and 7 in the morning, and continuing until 9 or 10 at night, with no break in between. Fourteen or fifteen hours is a common day's work, and on Saturday the hours are even longer. Because of this long period of labor they are without opportunity for education or recreation, and it is to the advantage of the padrone to keep them in ignorance of what is going on around them since ignorance increases his hold over them. The tips which the boys receive average from fifty cents upward a day and are almost invariably taken by the boss. For those who have finished the period for which they were bound over, wages are exceedingly low, ranging from $80 to $250 a year, the average sum given being about $150 a year.
A similar condition prevails among the flower peddlers who begin about nine o'clock in the morning and continue until the crowds are off the street at night. In cities where a limited number of licenses are issued, as in New York, and where only citizens are eligible to hold such licenses, the boys are instructed to disregard the law and evade the police. They are further instructed how to answer the judge when arrested and are given money to pay their fines. They soon come to regard arrest and their experiences in the court as a farce. Such training is not calculated to develop in them a respect for American laws and institutions, nor to lay the foundation for good citizenship. A remedy for the latter condition is a revision of the license laws or a more rigorous enforcement of these laws to prevent the growing contempt in which they are held.
Legislation has been introduced in one state to compel a Sunday holiday for these boys. The padroni are mutually suspicious of each other and because of competition no one of them will move to lighten the burden of his employees until compelled to do so by statute.
Massachusetts has a law which provides that all illiterates under 21 years of age shall attend evening schools where such facilities have been provided in the communities where they reside. This law, if adequate machinery can be provided for its enforcement, will go far toward lightening the hours and improving the condition of these boys, but primarily a statute is needed which will make it impossible for the padroni to work them through such long periods as at present, for not alone is it hard to ask one who has worked for such long hours to apply himself to books, but there will be little gain from such application.
The Immigrant and Education. The Congressional Immigration Commission which rendered its report in 1909, found that as soon as English is'acquired not only do the immigrants' standards of living change, but distribution and proper adjustment in industrial ranks occur, and at the same time immigrant bankers and exploiters of aliens lose their hold on their victims in proportion to their English speaking ability.
Instruction in English is one of the best means of protection against exploiters and should be given as soon as possible after the immigrant has arrived in this country. A great awakening of interest in the educational problems centering about the immigrant is taking place. Night classes are being rapidly extended. Yet in the state which received the greatest volume of immigration but one adult out of thirteen is being reached by the schools. The other twelve are scattered in the congested tenement districts or throughout the industrial communities and labor camps. While their assimilation may not be prevented it will be greatly retarded by this failure to acquire English at once. Many cities not yet awake to their responsibility toward the immigrant or prejudiced, have not yet provided adequate educational facilities. The average length of classes established is extremely short. They are open during the winter months when industrial activity and night work is greatest, and they usually close in the spring at the beginning of heavy migration, leaving no public means for acquiring English until the immigrant has been several months in the country, by which time he is a part of an immigrant gang, and he does not feel a strong need to study.
Massachusetts requires that all cities having over 10,000 inhabitants shall provide night schools. A more adequate law would make the establishment of schools obligatory in cities of 2,500 or more inhabitants, whenever a minimum of fifty persons petition for night classes. New Jersey has a provision in its educational law for subsidizing classes for foreigners. New York has a law permitting district superintendents to establish schools for children and adults in public labor camps, the cost of maintenance to be levied against the state or municipality, according to whichever is responsible for the particular piece of construction work.