INTRODUCTION
A million immigrants!
A million opportunities!
A million obligations!
This in brief is the message of Aliens or Americans?
A young man who came to this country young enough to get the benefit of our public schools, and who then took a course in Columbia University, writes: "Now, at twenty-one, I am a free American, with only one strong desire; and that is to do something for my fellow-men, so that when my time comes to leave the world, I may leave it a bit the better." These are the words of a Russian Jew; and that Russian is a better American, that Jew is a better Christian, than many a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers.
In this country every man is an American who has American ideals, the American spirit, American conceptions of life, American habits. A man is foreign not because he was born in a foreign land, but because he clings to foreign customs and ideas.
I do not fear foreigners half so much as I fear Americans who impose on them and brutally abuse them. Such Americans are the most dangerous enemies to our institutions, utterly foreign to their true spirit. Such Americans are the real foreigners.
Most of those who come to us are predisposed in favor of our institutions. They are generally unacquainted with the true character of those institutions, but they all know that America is the land of freedom and of plenty, and they are favorably inclined toward the ideas and the obligations which are bound up with these blessings. They are open to American influence, and quickly respond to a new and a better environment.
They naturally look up to us, and if with fair and friendly treatment we win their confidence, they are easily transformed into enthusiastic Americans. But if by terms of opprobrium, such as "sheeny" and "dago," we convince them that they are held in contempt, and if by oppression and fraud we render them suspicious of us, we can easily compact them into masses, hostile to us and dangerous to our institutions and organized for the express purpose of resisting all Americanizing influences.
Whether immigrants remain Aliens or become Americans depends less on them than on ourselves.
Josiah Strong.
We may well ask whether this insweeping immigration is to foreignize us, or we are to Americanize it. Our safety demands the assimilation of these strange populations, and the process of assimilation becomes slower and more difficult as the proportion of foreigners increases.
—Josiah Strong.
I
THE ALIEN ADVANCE
"And Elisha prayed, and said, Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man: and he saw" (2 Kings vi. 17). Elisha's prayer is peculiarly fitting now. The first need of American Protestantism is for clear vision, to discern the supreme issues involved in immigration, recognize the spiritual significance and divine providence in and behind this marvelous migration of peoples, and so see Christian obligation as to rise to the mission of evangelizing these representatives of all nations gathered on American soil.—The Author.
Out of the remote and little-known regions of northern, eastern, and southern Europe forever marches a vast and endless army. Nondescript and ever-changing in personnel, without leaders or organization, this great force, moving at the rate of nearly 1,500,000 each year, is invading the civilized world.—J. D. Whelpley.
Political optimism is one of the vices of the American people. There is a popular faith that "God takes care of children, fools, and the United States." Until within a few years probably not one in a hundred of our population has ever questioned the security of our future. Such optimism is as senseless as pessimism is faithless. The one is as foolish as the other is wicked.—Josiah Strong.
I. A Year's Immigration Analyzed
A Million a Year
What does a million of immigrants a year mean? Possibly something of more significance to us if we put it this way, that at present one in every eighty persons in the entire United States has arrived from foreign shores within twelve months. Of this inpouring human tide one of the latest writers on immigration says, in a striking passage:
The Peaceful Invasion
"Like a mighty stream, it finds its source in a hundred rivulets. The huts of the mountains and the hovels of the plains are the springs which feed; the fecundity of the races of the old world the inexhaustible source. It is a march the like of which the world has never seen, and the moving columns are animated by but one idea—that of escaping from evils which have made existence intolerable, and of reaching the free air of countries where conditions are better shaped to the welfare of the masses of the people.
Variety of Peoples
"It is a vast procession of varied humanity. In tongue it is polyglot; in dress all climes from pole to equator are indicated, and all religions and beliefs enlist their followers. There is no age limit, for young and old travel side by side. There is no sex limitation, for the women are as keen as, if not more so than, the men; and babes in arms are here in no mean numbers. The army carries its equipment on its back, but in no prescribed form. The allowance is meager, it is true, but the household gods of a family sprung from the same soil as a hundred previous generations may possibly be contained in shapeless bags or bundles. Forever moving, always in the same direction, this marching army comes out of the shadow, converges to natural points of distribution, masses along the international highways, and its vanguard disappears, absorbed where it finds a resting-place."[1]
The Inflowing Tide
The Ellis Island Inflow
See the living stream pour into America through the raceway of Ellis Island.[2] There is no such sight to be seen elsewhere on the planet. Suppose for the moment that all the immigrants of 1905 came in by that wide open way, as eight tenths of them actually did. If your station had been by that gateway, where you could watch the human tide flowing through, and if the stream had been steady, on every day of the 365 you would have seen more than 2,800 living beings—men, women, and children, of almost every conceivable condition except that of wealth or eminence—pass from the examination "pens" into the liberty of American opportunity. Since the stream was spasmodic, its numbers did reach as high in a single day as 11,343.
A Motley Procession
Imagine an army of nearly 20,000 a week marching in upon an unprotected country. At the head come the motley and strange-looking migrants—largely refugee Jews—from the far Russian Empire and the regions of Hungary and Roumania. At the daily rate of 2,800 it would take this indescribable assortment more than 166 days to pass in single file. Then the Italians would consume about eighty days more. For over eight months you would have watched so large a proportion of illiteracy, incompetency, and insensibility to American ideals, that you would be tempted to despair of the Republic. Nor would you lose the sense of nightmare when the English and Irish were consuming forty-two days in passing, for the "green" of the Emerald Isle is vivid at Ellis Island, and the best class of the English stay at home. The flaxen-haired and open-faced Scandinavians would lighten the picture, but with the equally sturdy Germans they would get by in only a month and four days.
A Process of Enlightenment
This much is certain, whatever may be thought of the fanciful procession. No American who spends a single day at Ellis Island, when the loaded steamships have come in, will afterward require awakening on the subject of immigration and the necessity of doing something effective in the way of Americanization. A good view of the steerage is the best possible enlightener.
A Graphic Grouping
A million a year and more is the rate at which immigrants are now coming into the United States.[3] It is not easy to grasp the significance of such numbers: yet we must try to do so if we are to realize the problem to be solved. To get this mass of varied humanity within the mind's eye, let us divide and group it. First, recall some small city or town with which you are familiar, of about 10,000 inhabitants; say Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the treaty of peace between Japan and Russia was agreed upon; or Saratoga Springs, New York; or Vincennes, Indiana; or Ottawa, Illinois; or Sioux Falls, South Dakota; or Lawrence, Kansas. Settle one hundred towns of this size with immigrants, mostly of the peasant class, with their un-American languages, customs, religion, dress, and ideas, and you would locate merely those who came from Europe and Asia in the year ending June 30, 1905. Those who came from other parts of the world would make two and a half towns more, or a city the size of Poughkeepsie in New York, seat of Vassar College, or Burlington in Iowa, of about 25,000 each.
Grouped by Nationality
Gather these immigrants by nationality, and you would have in round numbers twenty-two Italian cities of 10,000 people, or massed together, a purely Italian city as large as Minneapolis with its 220,000. The various peoples of Austria-Hungary—Bohemians, Magyars, Jews, and Slavs—would fill twenty-seven and one half towns; or a single city nearly as large as Detroit. The Jews, Poles, and other races fleeing from persecution in Russia, would people eighteen and one half towns, or a city the size of Providence. For the remainder we should have four German cities of 10,000 people, six of Scandinavians, one of French, one of Greeks, one of Japanese, six and a half of English, five of Irish, and nearly two of Scotch and Welsh. Then we should have six towns of between 4,000 and 5,000 each, peopled respectively by Belgians, Dutch, Portuguese, Roumanians, Swiss, and European Turks; while Asian Turks would fill another town of 6,000.Queer Towns these would be We should have a Servian, Bulgarian, and Montenegrin village of 2,000; a Spanish village of 2,600; a Chinese village of 2,100; and the other Asiatics would fill up a town of 5,000 with as motley an assortment as could be found under the sky. Nor are we done with the settling as yet, for the West Indian immigrants would make a city of 16,600, the South Americans and Mexicans a place of 5,000, the Canadians a 2,000 village, and the Australians another; leaving a colony of stragglers and strays, the ends of creation, to the number of 2,000 more. Place yourself in any one of these hundred odd cities or villages thus peopled, without a single American inhabitant, with everything foreign, including religion; then realize that just such a foreign population as is represented by all these places has actually been put somewhere in this country within a twelvemonth, and the immigration problem may assume a new aspect and take on a new concern.
Grouped by Illiteracy
But let us carry our imagination a little further. Suppose we bring together into one place the illiterates of 1905—the immigrants of all nationalities, over fourteen years of age, who could neither read nor write. They would make a city as large as Jersey City or Kansas City, and 15,000 larger than Indianapolis. Think of a population of 230,000 with no use for book, paper, ink, pen, or printing press. This mass of dense ignorance was distributed some way within a year, and more illiterates are coming in by every steamer. Divide this city of ignorance by nationalities into wards, and there would be an Italian ward of 100,000, far outnumbering all others; in other words, the Italian illiterates landed in America in a year equal the population of Albany, capital of the Empire State. The other leading wards would be: Polish, 33,000; Hebrew, 22,000, indicating the low conditions whence they came; Slav, 36,000; Magyar and Lithuanian, 12,000; Syrian and Turkish, 3,000. These regiments of non-readers and writers come almost exclusively from the south and east of Europe. Of the large total of illiterates, 230,882 to be exact—it is noteworthy that only seventy-five were Scotch; and only 157 were Scandinavian, out of the more than 60,000 from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. That almost one quarter of a total million of newcomers should be unable to read or write is certainly a fact to be taken into account, and one that throws a calcium light on the general quality of present-day immigration and the educational status of the countries from which they come. Illiteracy is a worse reflection upon the foreign government than upon the foreign immigrant.
The Army of the Unskilled
To complete this grouping, we should go one step further, and make up a number of divisions according to occupation and no-occupation, skilled and unskilled labor. To begin with, the unskilled laborers would fill a city of 430,000, or about the size of Cincinnati. Those classified as servants, with a fair question mark as to the amount of skill possessed, numbered 125,000 more, equal to the population of New Haven. Those classified as without occupation, including the children under fourteen, numbered 232,000, equal to the population of Louisville. Gathering into one great body, then, what may fairly be called unskilled labor, the total is not far from 780,000 out of the 1,026,499 who came. This mass would fill a city the size of Boston, Cambridge, and Lynn combined, or of Cleveland and Washington. Imagine, if you can, what kind of a city it would be, and contrast that with these centers of civilization as they now are.
Whole States Equaled in Numbers
To put all the emphasis possible upon these facts, consider that the immigration of a single year exceeded by 26,000 the population of Connecticut, which has been settled and growing ever since early colonial days. It exceeded by 37,000 the combined population of Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. These immigrants would have repopulated whole commonwealths, but they would hardly be called commonwealths in that case. If such immigrant distribution could be made, how quickly would the imperative necessity of Americanization be realized. The Italians who came during the year would exceed the combined population of Alaska and Wyoming. The Hungarians and Slavs would replace the present population of New Hampshire, or of North Dakota, and equal that of Vermont and Wyoming together. The Russian Jews and Finlanders would replace the people of Arizona. The army of illiterates would repeople Delaware and Nevada. And the much larger army of the unskilled would exceed by 50,000 the population of Maine, that of Colorado by about 80,000, and twice that of the District of Columbia.
The Race Proportions
The diagram at the end of the book, taken from the Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1905, will help us to fix in mind the race proportions of the present immigration. The increase of 1905 over 1904 was 213,629. Almost one half of this was from Austria-Hungary, and all of it was from four countries, the other three being Russia, Italy, and the United Kingdom. There was a decrease from Germany, Sweden, and Norway.
II. The Inflow Since 1820
Immigration Totals since 1820
We have been considering thus far the immigration of a single year. To make the effect of this survey cumulative, let us include the totals of immigration from the first.[4] The official records begin with 1820. It is estimated that prior to that date the total number of alien arrivals was 250,000. In 1820 there were 8,385 newcomers, less than sometimes land at Ellis Island in a single day now, and they came chiefly from three nations—Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden. The stream gradually increased, but with many fluctuations, governed largely by the economic conditions. The highest immigration prior to the potato famine in Ireland in 1847 was in the year 1842, when the total for the first time passed the 100,000 mark, being 104,565. In 1849 the number leaped to 297,024, with a large proportion of the whole from Ireland; in 1850 it was 310,000; while 1854 was the high year of that period, with 427,833. Then came the panic and financial depression in America, and after that the civil war, which sent the immigration figures down. It was not until 1866, after the war was over, that the total again rose to 300,000. In 1872 it was 404,806; in 1873, 459,803; falling back then until 1880, when a high period set in. The totals of 1881 (669,431) and of 1882 (788,992) were not again equaled until 1903, when for the first time the 800,000 mark was passed.
The Totals by Decades
Taking the figures by decades, we have this enlightening table:
| 1821 to 1830 | 143,439 |
| 1831 to 1840 | 599,125 |
| 1841 to 1850 | 1,713,251 |
| 1851 to 1860 | 2,598,214 |
| 1861 to 1870 | 2,314,824 |
| 1871 to 1880 | 2,812,191 |
| 1881 to 1890 | 5,246,613 |
| 1891 to 1900 | 3,687,564 |
| 1901 to 1905 | 3,833,076 |
| ————— | |
| Total, 1821 to 1905, | 22,948,297 |
From this it appears that more aliens landed in the single decade from 1880 to 1890 than in the period of forty-five years from 1820 to 1865. Indeed, the immigration of the past six years more than outnumbers that of the forty years from 1820 to 1860.
A Startling Total of 23,000,000
Thus, from colonial days above twenty-three millions of aliens have been received upon these hospitable shores. And more than thirteen millions of them have come since 1880, or in the last quarter century. No wonder it is said that the invasion of Attila and his Huns was but a side incident compared to this modern migration of the millions.
Impressive Comparisons
Canada, our northern neighbor, is a prosperous colony of 5,371,315, according to her latest census. We could almost have peopled Canada entire with as large a population out of the immigration of the decade 1880-1890. More than that, the whole population of Scotland, or that of Ireland, above four and a quarter millions, could have moved over to America, and it would only have equaled the actual immigration since 1900. If the whole of Wales were to come over, the 1,700,000 odd of them would not have equaled by 100,000 the total immigration of the two years 1904-05. If all Sweden and Norway packed up and left the question of one or two kingdoms to settle itself, the 7,300,000 sturdy Scandinavians would fall short of the immigrant host that has come in from everywhither since 1891. More people than the entire population of Switzerland (3,315,000) have landed in America within four years. If only the majority of these aliens had possessed the love of liberty and the characteristic virtues of the Protestant Swiss, our problem would be very different. These comparisons strongly impress the responsibility and burden imposed upon America by practically free and wide-open gates.
The Problem of Assimilation
Here are the totals which we have now reached. Of the 23,000,000 aliens who have come into America since the Revolution, the last census (1900) gave the number then living at 10,256,664. A census taken to-day would doubtless show about 14,000,000. Add the children of foreign parentage and it would bring the total up to between 35,000,000 and 40,000,000. Mr. Sargent estimates this total at forty-six per cent. of our entire population. The immigration problem presents nothing less than the assimilation of this vast mass of humanity. No wonder thoughtful Americans stand aghast before it. At the same time, the only thing to fear is failure to understand the situation and meet it. As Professor Boyesen says: "The amazing thing in Americans is their utter indifference or supine optimism. 'Don't you worry, old fellow,' said a very intelligent professional man to me recently, when I told him of my observations during a visit to Castle Garden.[5] 'What does it matter whether a hundred thousand more or less arrive? Even if a million arrived annually, or two millions, I guess we could take care of them. Why, this country is capable of supporting a population of two hundred millions without being half so densely populated as Belgium. Only let them come—the more the merrier!' I believe this state of mind is fairly typical. It is the sublime but dangerous optimism of a race which has never been confronted with serious problems." But we believe it is the optimism of a race which, when fairly brought face to face with crises, will not fail to meet them in the same spirit that has won the victories of civil and religious liberty and established a free government of, by, and for the people in America.
III. Why They Come
The Causes of Immigration
The causes of immigration are variously stated, but compressed into three words they are: Attraction, Expulsion, Solicitation. The attraction comes from the United States, the expulsion from the Old World, and the solicitation from the great transportation lines and their emissaries. Sometimes one cause is more potent, sometimes another. Of late, racial and religious persecution has been active in Europe, and America gets the results. "In Russia there is an outbreak, hideous and savage, against the Jew, and an impulse is started whose end is not Expulsionreached until you strike Rivington Street in the ghetto of New York. The work begun in Russia ends in the seventeenth ward of New York." Cause and effect are manifest. Military service is enforced in Italy; taxes rise, overpopulation crowds, poverty pinches. As a result, the stream flows toward America, where there is no military service and no tax, and where steady work and high wages seem assured.Attraction The mighty magnet is the attractiveness of America, real or pictured. America is the magic word throughout all Europe. No hamlet so remote that the name has not penetrated its peasant obscurity. America means two things—money and liberty—the two things which the European peasant (and often prince as well) lacks and wants. Necessity at home pushes; opportunity in America pulls. Commissioner Robert Watchorn, of the port of New York, packs the explanation into an epigram: "American wages are the honey-pot that brings the alien flies." He says further: "If a steel mill were to start in a Mississippi swamp paying wages of $2 a day, the news would hum through foreign lands in a month, and that swamp would become a beehive of humanity and industry in an incredibly short space of time." Dr. A. F. Schauffler says, with equal pith, that "the great cause of immigration is, after all, that the immigrants propose to better themselves in this country. They come here not because they love us, or because we love them. They come here because they can do themselves good, not because they can do us good."[6] That is natural and true; and it furnishes excellent reason why we must do them good in order that they may not do us evil. To make their good ours and our good theirs is both Christian and safe.
Three ClassesThe three causes produce three classes of immigrants: 1. Natural; 2. Assisted; and 3. Solicited.
Normal Motives and Conditions
The prosperity of this country has undoubtedly chiefly influenced immigration in the past. This is shown by the marked relationship between industrial and commercial activity in the United States and the volume of immigration.[7] Our prosperity not only induces desire to come but makes coming possible. The testimony before the Industrial Commission showed that from forty to forty-five per cent. of the immigrants have their passage prepaid by friends or relatives in this country, and from ten to twenty-five per cent. more buy their tickets abroad with money sent from the United States. In 1902 between $65,000,000 and $70,000,000 was sent home to Italy alone from the United States, and the stream of earnings flowing out to Ireland and Germany and Sweden and Hungary has been not less steady. American prosperity has been feeding and paying taxes for millions of people who owe far more to our government than to their own, and foreign governments have been reaping the benefit. The United States has a small standing army of its own, but through the gold sent abroad by the alien wage earners here we have been helping maintain the vast armaments of Europe. The letters and the money sent by immigrants to the home folks awaken the desires and dreams that mean more immigrants. The United States Post-office is a marvelous immigration agent in Europe. Immigrants are not the only persons induced to migrate through the feeling that where one is not will prove a much better place than where one is. That seems to inhere in human nature.
American Leaven
"Not only the American money and letters, but the American ideas are at work abroad," says the Rev. F. M. Goodchild, D.D.,[8] in a recent address: "The praises of America are told abroad by every person who comes here and gets along. Some things to be sure, these people miss—the blue skies of Italy and the vineyards on the hillside. But they have for them the compensation of such a liberty as they never knew before. The real reason why all southern Europe is in a turmoil to-day, is that American ideas of liberty are working there like leaven. We get our notions of liberty from the Bible and from the men who forced the Magna Charta from King John at Runnymede, but all other peoples in the world seem to be getting their ideas of liberty from us. That is what is the matter with the Old World to-day.The American Idea The American idea is working like leaven. That is the force at work in France, where absolute divorce has just been proclaimed between Church and State. That is at the bottom of the movements in Russia, where the Stundists have just won religious liberty, and where, let us hope, all classes of people ere long will have won complete civil liberty. These people have felt the uplift of our American free institutions and they want them for themselves. They have heard 'Yankee Doodle,' and the 'Star Spangled Banner,' and 'My Country, 'tis of Thee,' and they cannot get the music of liberty out of their ears and their hearts. Broughton Brandenburg tells us that he heard some Italians who had been in America singing our classic song 'Mr. Dooley' in the vineyards near Naples."
IV. What the Immigrants Say
Personal Testimony
Let the immigrants themselves tell why they come. These testimonies are typical, condensed from a most interesting volume of immigrant autobiography,[9] fresh and illuminating.
A German
A German nurse girl says: "I heard about how easy it was to make money in America and became very anxious to go there. I was restless in my home; mother seemed so stern and could not understand that I wanted amusement. I sailed from Antwerp, the fare costing $35. My second eldest sister met me with her husband at Ellis Island and they were glad to see me and I went to live with them in their flat in West Thirty-fourth Street, New York. A week later I was an apprentice in a Sixth Avenue millinery store earning four dollars a week. I only paid three for board, and was soon earning extra money by making dresses and hats at home." Friends in Germany would be sure to hear of this new condition.
Ellis Island Immigration Station
A Pole
Why do the Poles come? A Polish sweat-shop girl, telling her life story, answers. The father died, then troubles began in the home in Poland. Little was needed by the widow and her child, but even soup, black bread, and onions they could not always get. At thirteen the girl was handy at housekeeping, but the rent fell behind, and the mother decided to leave Poland for America, where, "we heard, it was much easier to make money. Mother wrote to Aunt Fanny, who lived in New York, and told her how hard it was to live in Poland, and Aunt Fanny advised her to come and bring me." Thousands could tell a similar story to that. "Easier to make money" has allured multitudes to leave the old home and land.
A Russian
A Lithuanian (Russian) tells how it was the traveling shoemaker that made him want to come to America. This shoemaker learned all the news, and smuggled newspapers across the German line, and he told the boy's parents how wrong it was to shut him out of education and liberty by keeping him at home. "That boy must go to America," he said one night. "My son is in the stockyards in Chicago." These were some of his reasons for going: "You can read free papers and prayer books; you can have free meetings, and talk out what you think." And more precious far, you can have "life, liberty, and the getting of happiness." When time for military service drew near, these arguments for America prevailed and the boy was smuggled out of his native land. "It is against the law to sell tickets to America, but my father saw the secret agent in the village and he got a ticket from Germany and found us a guide. I had bread and cheese and vodka (liquor) and clothes in my bag. My father gave me $50 besides my ticket." Bribery did the rest, and thus this immigrant obtained his liberty and chance in America. The American idea is leavening Russia surely enough.
An Italian
An Italian bootblack who already owns several bootblacking establishments in this country, was trained to a beggar's life in Italy, and ran away. "Now and then I had heard things about America—that it was a far-off country where everybody was rich and that Italians went there and made plenty of money, so that they could return to Italy and live in pleasure ever after." He worked his passage as a coaler, and was passed at Ellis Island through the perjury of one of the bosses who wring money out of the immigrants in the way of commissions, getting control of them by the criminal act at the very entrance into American life.
A Greek peddler, a graduate of the high school at Sparta—think of a modern high school in ancient Sparta!—after two years in the army, was ready for life. "All these later years I had been hearing from America. An elder brother was there who had found it a fine country and was urging me to join him. Fortunes could easily be made, he said. I got a great desire to see it, and in one way and another I raised the money for fare—250 francs—($50) and set sail from the old port of Athens. I got ashore without any trouble in New York, and got work immediately as a push-cart man. Six of us lived together in two rooms down on Washington Street. At the end of our day's work we all divided up our money even; we were all free."
A Swede
A Swedish farmer says: "A man who had been living in America once came to visit the little village near our cottage. He wore gold rings set with jewels and had a fine watch. He said that food was cheap in America and that a man could earn nearly ten times as much there as in Sweden. There seemed to be no end to his money." Sickness came, with only black bread and a sort of potato soup or gruel for food, and at last it was decided that the older brother was to go to America. The first letter from him contained this: "I have work with a farmer who pays me sixty-four kroner[10] a month and my board. I send you twenty kroner, and will try to send that every month. This is a good country. All about me are Swedes, who have taken farms and are getting rich. They eat white bread and plenty of meat. One farmer, a Swede, made more than 25,000 kroner on his crop last year. The people here do not work such long hours as in Sweden, but they work much harder, and they have a great deal of machinery, so that the crop one farmer gathers will fill two big barns."
An Irish Woman
An Irish cook, one of "sivin childher," had a sister Tilly, who emigrated to Philadelphia, started as a greenhorn at $2 a week, learned to cook and bake and wash, all American fashion, and before a year was gone had money enough laid up to send for the teller of the story. The two gradually brought over the whole family, and Joseph owns a big flour store and Phil is a broker, while his son is in politics and the city council, and his daughter Ann (she calls herself Antoinette now) is engaged to a lawyer in New York. That is America's attractiveness and opportunity and transformation in a nutshell.
Foreign Mission School, Cause of Immigration
A Syrian, born on the Lebanon range, went to an American mission school at fifteen, learned much that his former teacher the friar had warned him against, had his horizon broadened, gave up his idea of becoming a Maronite monk when he learned that there were other great countries beside Syria, and had all his old ideas overthrown by an encyclopedia which said the United States was a larger and richer country than Syria or even Turkey. The friar was angry and said the book told lies, and so did the patriarch, who was scandalized to think such a book should come to Mount Lebanon; but the American teacher said the encyclopedia was written by men who knew, and the Syrian boy finally decided to go to the United States, where "we had heard that poor people were not oppressed." His mother and uncle came, too, and as the boy was a good penman he secured work without difficulty in an Oriental goods store. As for his former religious teaching he says: "The American teacher never talked to me about religion; but I can see that those monks and priests are the curse of our country, keeping the people in ignorance and grinding the faces of the poor, while pretending to be their friends." In his case it was the foreign mission school that was the magnet to America.
A Japanese
A Japanese says: "The desire to see America was burning in my boyish heart. The land of freedom and civilization of which I had heard so much from missionaries and the wonderful story of America I had heard from those of my race who returned from there made my longing ungovernable." A popular novel among Japanese boys, "The Adventurous Life of Tsurukichi Tanaka, Japanese Robinson Crusoe," made a strong impression upon him, and finally he decided to come to this country to receive an American education.
A Chinese
A representative Chinese business man of New York was taught in childhood that the English and Americans were foreign devils, the latter false, because having made a treaty by which they could freely come to China and Chinese as freely go to America, they had broken the treaty and shut the Chinese out. When he was sixteen, working on a farm, a man of his tribe came back from America "and took ground as large as four city blocks and made a paradise of it." He had gone away a poor boy, now he returned with unlimited wealth, "which he had obtained in the country of the American wizards. He had become a merchant in a city called Mott Street, so it was said. The wealth of this man filled my mind with the idea that I, too, would go to the country of the wizards and gain some of their wealth." Landing in San Francisco, before the exclusion act, he started in American life as a house servant, but finally became a Mott Street merchant, as he had intended from the first.
Fortune and Freedom
Thus we have gone the rounds of immigrants of various races. The two ideas—fortune and freedom—lie at the basis of immigration, although the money comes first in nearly all cases. These testimonies could be multiplied indefinitely. Ask the first immigrant you can talk with what brought him, and find out for yourself. Mr. Brandenburg says a Greek who was being deported told him that all Greece was stirred up over the matter of emigration, and that in five years the number of Greeks coming to the United States would have increased a thousand per cent.[11] The reasons are the too onerous military duties in Greece and prosperity of Greeks in America. The remittances fired the zeal of the home people to follow, and the candymakers' shops were full of apprentices, because the idea had gone abroad that candymakers could easily gain a fortune in America.
Showing only the Bright Side
From these illustrations, it can readily be seen how widespread is the knowledge of America as a desirable place. The other side is rarely told and that is the pitiful side of it. The stories that go back are always of the fortunes, not of the misfortunes, of the money and not of the misery.
V. Solicitation an Evil
Evils of Solicitation
If immigration were left to the natural causes, there would be little reason for apprehension. It is in the solicited and assisted immigration that the worst element is found. Commercial greed lies at the root of this, as of most of the evils which afflict us as a nation. The great steamship lines have made it cheaper to emigrate than to stay at home, in many cases; and every kind of illegal inducement and deceit and allurement has been employed to secure a full steerage. The ramifications of this transportation system are wonderful. It has a direct bearing, too, upon the character of the immigrants. Easy and cheap transportation involves deterioration in quality. In the days when a journey across the Atlantic was a matter of weeks or months and of considerable outlay, only the most enterprising, thrifty, and venturesome were ready to try an uncertain future in an unknown land. The immigrant of those days was likely, therefore, to be of the sturdiest and best type, and his coming increased the general prosperity without lowering the moral tone. Now that the ocean has become little more than a ferry, and the rates of railway and steamship have been so reduced, it is the least thrifty and prosperous members of their communities that fall readiest prey to the emigration agent.
Assisted Immigration
Assisted immigration is the term used to cover cases where a foreign government has eased itself of part of the burden of its paupers, insane, dependents, and delinquents by shipping them to the United States. This was not uncommon in the nineteenth century, especially in the case of local and municipal governments. Our laws were lax, and for a time nearly everybody, sane or insane, sound or diseased, was passed. The financial gain to the exporting government can be seen in the fact that it costs about $150 per head a year to support dependents and delinquents in this country, while it would not cost the foreign authorities more than $50 to transport them hither. This policy seems scarcely credible, but Switzerland, Great Britain, and Ireland followed it thriftily until our laws put a stop to it, in large part, by returning these undesirable persons whence they came, at the expense of the steamship companies bringing them. It was not until 1882, however, that our government passed laws for self-protection, and in 1891 another law made "assisted" immigrants a special class not to be admitted.
Other Causes
Other and incidental causes there are, such as the influence of new machinery, opening the way for more unskilled labor, such as the ordinary immigrant has to sell; the protective tariff, which shuts out foreign goods and brings in the foreign producers of the excluded goods; the thorough advertising abroad of American advantages by boards of agriculture and railway companies interested in building up communities; and a fear of restrictive legislation. But undoubtedly, ever back of all other reasons is the conviction that America is the land of plenty and of liberty—a word which each interprets according to his light or his liking.
The Christian Attitude
Having thus considered the remarkable proportions of immigration, and the causes of it, it will be well at this point to say a cautionary word as to the attitude of mind and heart in which this subject should be approached. Impartiality is necessary but difficult. There is a natural prejudice against the immigrant. A Christian woman, of ordinarily gentle and sweet temper, was heard to say recently, while this very subject of Christian duty to the immigrant was under discussion at a missionary conference: "I hate these disgusting foreigners; they are spoiling our country." Doubtless many would sympathize with her. This is not uncommon prejudice or feeling, and argument against it is of little avail. Nevertheless, as Christians we must endeavor to divest ourselves of it. We must recognize the brotherhood of man and the value of the individual soul as taught by Jesus. It may aid us, perhaps, if we remember that we are all—with the exception of the Indians, who may lay claim to aboriginal heritage—in a sense descendants of immigrants. At the same time, it is essential to draw a clear distinction between colonists and immigrants.Colonists
and
Immigrants Distinguished Colonization, with its attendant hardships and heroisms, steadily advanced from its beginnings in New England, New Amsterdam, and Virginia, until there resulted the founding of a free and independent nation, with popular government and fixed religious principles, including the vital ones of religious liberty and the right of the individual conscience. In other words, colonization created a nation; and there had to be a nation before there could be immigration to it. "In discussing the immigration question," says Mr. Hall, "this distinction is important," for it does not follow that, because, as against the native Indians, all comers might be considered as intruders and equally without claim of right, those who have built up a complicated framework of nationality have no rights as against others who seek to enjoy the benefits of national life without having contributed to its creation."[12]
Colonist and National Rights
It ought clearly to be recognized that the colonists and their descendants have sacred rights, civil and religious, with which aliens should not be permitted to interfere; and that these rights include all proper and necessary legislation for the preservation of the liberties, laws, institutions, and principles established by the founders of the Republic and those rights of citizenship guaranteed under the constitution. If restriction of immigration becomes necessary in order to safeguard America, the American people have a clear right to pass restrictive or even prohibitory laws. In other words, America does not belong equally to everybody. The American has rights which the alien must become American to acquire.
Sympathetic and Open Mind
At the same time, our attitude toward the alien should be sympathetic, and our minds should be open and inquiring as we study the incoming multitudes. We do not wish to raise the Russian cry, "Russia for the Russians," or the Chinese shibboleth, "China for the Chinese." The Christian spirit has been compressed into the epigram, "Not America for Americans, but Americans for America." We must see to it that the immigrants do not remain aliens, but are transformed into Christian Americans. That is the true missionary end for which we are to work; and it is in order that we may work intelligently and effectively that we seek to familiarize ourselves with the facts.
The Personal Responsibility
The facts already brought out are surely sufficient to arrest attention. Suppose this million-a-year rate should continue for a decade—and there is every reason to believe it will, unless unusual and unlikely restrictive measures are taken by our government. That would mean ten millions more added, and probably seventy per cent. of them from southeastern Europe. Add the natural increase, and estimate what the result of these millions would be upon the national digestion. Politically, the foreign element would naturally and inevitably assume the place which a majority can claim in a democracy, and not only claim but maintain, by the use of votes—a use which the immigrant learns full soon from the manipulators of parties. Religiously, unless a great change should come over the spirit of American Protestantism, and the work of evangelization among foreigners be conducted along quite different lines from the present, is it not plain that our country would cease to be Christian America, as we understand the term? There is enough in these questions to set and keep the patriotic American thinking.
The personal inquiry for each one to make is, "As an American and a Christian, have these facts and queries any special message for me, and have I any direct responsibility in relation to them?"
SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS
These questions have been prepared to suggest to the leader and student the most important points in the chapter, and to stimulate further meditation and thought. Those marked * should encourage discussion. The leader is not expected to use all of these questions, and should use his judgment in eliminating or adding others that are in harmony with the aim of the lesson. For helps for conducting each class session, the leader should not fail to write to the Secretary of his Home Missionary Board.
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER I
Aim: To Realize Our Responsibility in Receiving One Million Aliens a Year
I. To Learn by Comparison the Magnitude of a Million Aliens.
1. At what rate per annum is our population now being increased by immigration?
2. What are the sources of this invasion? Its principal gateway?
3. What comparison helps you most to realize the number of immigrants?
4. What are some of the largest groups in the mass, as classified by nationality? By race? By knowledge or ignorance? By fitness for labor?
5. What states may be compared with last year's arrivals?
II. To Realise the Proportion of Our Population that has Immigrated since 1820.
6. How does the total number of our immigrants compare with the population of Germany? England? Canada?
7. Has the number of immigrants been increasing steadily? Will it tend to increase?
8. Has the present rate been long continued? What proportion of the population of the United States is derived from immigration subsequent to the American Revolution?
9. * Do you think there is any serious menace in such large numbers of immigrants? Why?
III. Why do Aliens Come?
10. Name the principal causes of immigration. The principal classes.
11. What American ideals have the greatest attractive power? What opportunities?
12. Give some typical instances of immigrants' stories. * Would you have wished to come under the same circumstances?
13. What other forces stimulate immigration to the United States? What agencies?
IV. What Should be our Attitude toward Aliens, and What is our Individual Responsibility for Them?
14. * What is the Christian attitude toward these newcomers? How can we remove prejudice?
15. * What is our personal responsibility as Christians in improving the condition of aliens?
References for Advanced Study.—Chapter I
I. Compare modern immigration with the migration of peoples in earlier times; for example, those of the Hebrews, Aryans, Goths, Huns, Saracens, and other races.
Any good Encyclopedia or General History.
II. What resemblances and what differences between the Colonial settlement of America, and the later immigration, say, during the Nineteenth Century?
III. The Causes of Immigration.
Hall: Immigration, II.
Lord, et al: The Italian in America, III, VIII.
Warne: The Slav Invasion, III, IV; 78, 83.
Holt: Undistinguished Americans, 35, 244-250.
IV. What agencies can you name and describe that are trying to receive the immigrants in a humane and Christian spirit? For example, the United States Government, American Tract Society, New York Bible Society, Society for Italian Immigrants, and other organizations and agencies. Study especially any that work in your own neighborhood.
As for immigrants, we cannot have too many of the right kind, and we should have none of the wrong kind. I will go as far as any in regard to restricting undesirable immigration. I do not think that any immigrant who will lower the standard of life among our people should be admitted.—President Roosevelt.
II
ALIEN ADMISSION AND RESTRICTION
Unrestricted immigration is doing much to cause deterioration in the quality of American citizenship. Let us resolve that America shall be neither a hermit nation nor a Botany Bay. Let us make our land a home for the oppressed of all nations, but not a dumping-ground for the criminals, the paupers, the cripples, and the illiterate of the world. Let our Republic, in its crowded and hazardous future, adopt these watchwords, to be made good all along our oceanic and continental borders: "Welcome for the worthy, protection to the patriotic, but no shelter in America for those who would destroy the American shelter itself."—Joseph Cook.
It is not the migration of a few thousand or even million human beings from one part of the world to another nor their good or bad fortune that is of interest to us. We are concerned with the effect of such a movement on the community at large and its growth in civilization. Immigration, for instance, means the constant infusion of new blood into the American commonwealth, and the question is: What effect will this new blood have upon the character of the community?—Professor Mayo-Smith.
It is advisable to study the influence of the newcomers on the ethical consciousness of the community—whether there is a gain or a loss to us. In short, we must set up our standard of what we desire this nation to be, and then consider whether the policy we have hitherto pursued in regard to immigration is calculated to maintain that standard or to endanger it.—Idem.
I. Method of Admission
Chief Ports of Entry
How do immigrants obtain entrance into the United States? New York is the chief port of entry, and if we learn the conditions and methods there we shall know them in general. The great proportion coming through New York is seen by comparison of the total admissions for 1904 and 1905 at the larger ports:
| Port | 1904 | 1905 |
|---|---|---|
| New York | 606,019 | 788,219 |
| Boston | 60,278 | 65,107 |
| Baltimore | 55,940 | 62,314 |
| Philadelphia | 19,467 | 23,824 |
| Honolulu | 9,054 | 11,997 |
| San Francisco | 9,036 | 6,377 |
| Other Ports | 22,702 | 24,447 |
| Through Canada | 30,374 | 44,214 |
The Floating Gateway
The proportion for New York is not far from eight tenths of the whole. Hence it is true, that while the "dirty little ferryboat John G. Carlisle is not an imposing object to the material eye, to the eye of the imagination she is a spectacle to inspire awe, for she is the floating gateway of the Republic. Over her dingy decks march in endless succession the eager battalions of Europe's peaceful invaders of the West. That single craft, in her hourly trips from Ellis Island to the Battery,[13] carries more immigrants in a year than came over in all the fleets of the nations in the two centuries after John Smith landed at Jamestown."[14]
Human Storage Reservoirs
Reading about the arrivals at Ellis Island, no matter how realistic the description, will not give a vivid idea of what immigration means nor of what sort the immigrants are. For that, you must obtain a permit from the authorities and actually see for yourself the human stream that pours from the steerage of the mighty steamships into the huge human storage reservoirs of Ellis Island.[15] We know that however perfect the system, human nature has to be taken into account, both in officials and immigrants, and human nature is imperfect; much of it at Ellis Island is exceedingly difficult to deal patiently with. Hence, from the very nature of things and men, the situation is one to develop pathos, humor, comedy, and tragedy, as the great "human sifting machine" works away at separating the wheat from the chaff. The tragedy comes in the case of the excluded, since the blow falls sometimes between parents and children, husband and wife, lover and sweetheart, and the decree of exclusion is as bitter as death.
Make Yourself an Imaginary Immigrant
To make the manner and method of getting into America by the steerage process as real as possible, try to put yourself in an alien's place, and see what you would have to go through. Do not take immigration at its worst, but rather at its best, or at least above the average conditions. Assume that you belong to the more intelligent and desirable class, finding a legitimate reason for leaving your home in Europe, because of hard conditions and poor outlook there and bright visions of fortune in the land of liberty, whither relatives have preceded you. Your steamship ticket is bought in your native town, and you have no care concerning fare or baggage. A number of people of your race and neighborhood are on the way, so that you are not alone.
The Ship's Manifest
Before embarking you are made to answer a long list of questions, filling out your "manifest," or official record which the law requires the vessel-masters to obtain, attest, and deliver to the government officers at the entrance port.[16]
Numbered and Lettered
Your answers proving satisfactory to the transportation agents, a card is furnished you, containing your name, the letter of the group of thirty to which you are assigned, and your group number. Thus you become, for the time being, No. 27 of group E. You are cautioned to keep this card in sight, as a ready means of identification.
The Voyage
Partings over, you enter upon the strange and unforgetable experiences of ten days or more in the necessarily cramped quarters of the steerage—experiences of a kind that do not invite repetition. Homesickness and seasickness form a trying combination, to say nothing of the discomforts of a mixed company and enforced companionship.
First Experiences in the New World
Your first American experience befalls you when the steamship anchors at quarantine inside Sandy Hook, and the United States inspection officers come on board to hunt for infectious or contagious diseases—cholera, smallpox, typhus fever, yellow fever, or plague. No outbreak of any of these has marked the voyage, fortunately for you, and there is no long delay. Slowly the great vessel pushes its way up the harbor and the North River, passing the statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, that beacon which all incomers are enjoined to see as the symbol of the new liberty they hope to enjoy.
Ship Landing
At last the voyage is done, your steamship lies at her pier, and you are thrust into the midst of distractions. Families are trying to keep together; the din is indescribable; crying babies add to the general confusion of tongues; all sorts of people with all sorts of baggage are making ready for the landing, which seems a long time off as you wait for the customs officers to get through with the first-class passengers. At last word is given to go ashore, and the procession or pushing movement rather begins. You are hurried along, up a companionway, lugging your hand baggage; then down the long gangway on to the pier and the soil of America.
Unnecessary Cruelty
It is not a pleasant landing in the land of light and liberty. You have been sworn at, pushed, punched with a stick for not moving faster when you could not, and have seen others treated much more roughly. Just in front of you a poor woman is trying to get up the companionway with a child in one arm, a deck chair on the other, and a large bundle besides. She blocks the passage for an instant. A great burly steward reaches up, drags her down, tears the chair off her arm, splitting her sleeve and scraping the skin off her wrist as he does so, and then in his rage breaks the chair to pieces, while the woman passes on sobbing, not daring to remonstrate.[17] This is not the first treatment of this sort you have seen, and you feel powerless to help, though your blood boils at the outrage.
Unpleasant Beginnings
As you pass down the gangway your number is taken by an officer with a mechanical checker, and then you become part of the curious crowd gathered in the great somber building, filled with freight, much of it human. Here there is confusion worse confounded, as separated groups try to get together and dock watchmen try to keep them in place. Many believe their baggage has been stolen, and mothers are sure their children have been kidnaped or lost. The dockmen are violent, not hesitating to use their sticks, and you find yourself more than once in danger, although you strive to obey orders you do not understand very well, since they are shouted out in savage manner. The inspector reaches you finally, and you are hustled along in a throng to the barge that is waiting. You are tired and hungry, having had no food since early breakfast. Your dreams of America seem far from reality just now. You are almost too weary to care what next.
America's Gateway
The next is Ellis Island, whose great building looks inviting. Out of the barge you are swept with the crowd, baggage in hand or on head or shoulder, and on to the grand entrance. As you ascend the broad stairs, an officer familiar with many languages is shouting out, first in one tongue and then another, "Get your health tickets ready." You notice that the only available place many have in which to carry these tickets is in their mouths, since their hands are full of children or baggage.
Receiving Room at Ellis Island
(A) Entrance stairs; (B) Examination of health ticket; (C) Surgeon's examination; (D) Second surgeon's examination; (E) Group compartments; (F) Waiting for inspection; (G) Passage to the stairway; (H) Detention room; (I) The Inspectors' desks; (K) Outward passage to barge, ferry, or detention room.
Medical Inspection
At the head of the long pair of stairs you meet a uniformed officer (a doctor in the Marine Hospital Service), who takes your ticket, glances at it, and stamps it with the Ellis Island stamp. Counting the quarantine officer as number one, you have now passed officer number two. At the head of the stairs you find yourself in a great hall, divided into two equal parts, each part filled with curious railed-off compartments. Directed by an officer, you are turned into a narrow alleyway, and here you meet officer number three, in uniform like the second. The keen eyes of this doctor sweep you at a glance, from feet to head. You do not know it, but this is the first medical inspection by a surgeon of the Marine Hospital Service, and it causes a halt, although only for a moment. When the person immediately in front of you reaches this doctor, you see that he pushes back the shawl worn over her head, gives a nod, and puts a chalk mark upon her. He is on the keen lookout for favus (contagious skin disease), and for signs of disease or deformity. The old man who limps along a little way behind you has a chalk mark put on his coat lapel, and you wonder why they do not chalk you.
Examination of Eyes
You are now about ten or fifteen feet behind your front neighbor, and as you are motioned to follow, about thirty feet further on you confront another uniformed surgeon (officer number four), who has a towel hanging beside him, a small instrument in his hand, and a basin of disinfectants behind him. You have little time for wonder or dread. With a deft motion he applies the instrument to your eye and turns up the lid, quickly shutting it down again, then repeats the operation upon the other eye. He is looking for the dreaded contagious trachoma or for purulent ophthalmia; also for disease of any kind, or any defect that would make it lawful and wise to send you back whence you came. You have now been twice examined, and passed as to soundness of body, freedom from lameness or defect, general healthfulness, and absence of eye disease or pulmonary weakness.
Detention Room
As you move along to the inclosed space of your group E, you note that the lame man and the woman who were chalk-marked are sent into another railed-off space, known as the "detention pen," where they must await a more rigid medical examination.The Wicket Gate One other inspector you have faced—a woman, whose sharp eyes seem to read the characters of the women as they come up to her "wicket gate;" for it is her duty to stop the suspicious and immoral characters and send them to the detention rooms or special inquiry boards. Thus you have passed five government officers since landing on the Island. They have been courteous and kindly, but impress you as knowing their business so well that they can readily see through fraud and deception.
Entrance Examination
The entrance ordeal is not quite over, but for a little while you rest on the wooden bench in your E compartment, waiting until the group is assembled, all save those sent away for detention. Suddenly you are told to come on, and in single file E group marches along the narrow railed alley that leads to officer number six, or the inspector who holds E sheet in his hand. When it comes your turn, your manifest is produced and you are asked a lot of questions. A combined interpreter and registry clerk is at hand to assist. The interpreter pleases you greatly by speaking in your own language, which he rightly guesses, and notes whether your answers agree with those on the manifest.
The Ticket System
As you have the good fortune to be honest, and have sufficient money to escape being halted as likely to become a public charge, you are ticketed "O. K." with an "R" which means that you are bound for a railroad station. You see a ticket "S. I." on the lame man, which means that he is to go to a Board of Special Inquiry, with the chances of being debarred, or sent back home. On another, as you pass, you notice a ticket "L. P. C.," which signifies the dreaded decision, "liable to become public charge"—a decision that means deportation.
The Three Stairs of Separation
All this time you have been guided. Now you are directed to a desk where your railroad ticket-order is stamped; next to a banker's desk, where your money is exchanged for American money; and finally you are motioned to the right stairway of three, this leading to the railroad barge room. Here your baggage is checked and your ticket provided, a bag of food is offered you, and then you are taken on board a barge which will convey you to the railroad station. You have left your fellow-voyagers abruptly, all save the railroad-ticketed like yourself. Had you been destined for New York, you would have gone down the left stairway and been free to take the ferryboat for the Battery. If you had expected friends to meet you, the central stairway would have led you to the waiting room for that purpose. Those three stairways are called "The Stairs of Separation," and there families are sometimes ruthlessly separated without warning, when bound for different destinations.
Careful Supervision
The officers, who have treated you courteously, in strong contrast to the steamship and dock employees, keep track of you until you are safely on board an immigrant car, bound for the place where your relatives are. Your ideas of great New York are limited, but you have been saved by this official supervision from being swindled by sharpers or enticed into evil. You are practically in charge of the railway company, as you have been of the steamship company, until you are deposited at the station where you expect to make your home. You are ready to believe, by this time, that America is at least a spacious country, with room enough in it for all who want to come. At the same time you will admit, as you recall some of your fellow-passengers in the steerage, that there should not be room in the country for those who ought not to come—not only the diseased and insane, crippled and consumptive, who are shut out by the law, but also the delinquent and depraved, whose presence means added ignorance and crime. You only wish the inspectors could have seen some of those shameless men on shipboard, so that in spite of their smooth answers they might have been sent back whence they came, to prey upon the innocent there instead of here. Now that it is all over, you shudder for a long time at night as memory recalls the steerage scenes, through which your faith in God and your constant prayers preserved you.[18]
The Alien's Chance
In such manner the alien gains his chance to become an American. What he will make of that chance is a matter of grave importance to the land that has opened to him the doors of opportunity and liberty. Having seen how the immigrants get into the United States, let us now see how they are kept out. When we know what the restrictive laws are, and how they are enforced or evaded, we shall be in a position to judge as to their sufficiency, and the need of further legislation.
II. Governmental Regulation
Evasion and Violation
The United States has some excellent immigration laws, the best and most extensive of any nation, as one would expect, since this is the nation to which nearly all immigrants come. The trouble is that every attempt is made to evade these laws, and where they cannot be evaded they are violated. The laws are of two classes: 1. Protective, in favor of the immigrant; and 2. Restrictive, in favor of the country.
Protection for the Immigrant
There is a law against overcrowding on shipboard, going back as far as 1819, but overcrowding has gone on ever since.[19] There seems to be no doubt that even on the best steamships of the best lines there is ready disregard of the law when it interferes with the profits to be made out of the steerage. Strong evidence to this effect is given by Mr. Brandenburg. Here is a condensed leaf from his own experience which shows how much regard is paid to the comfort and health of the steerage passengers:[20]
Steerage Horrors
"In a compartment from nine to ten feet high and having a space no larger than six ordinary rooms, were beds for 195 persons, and 214 women and children occupied them. The ventilation was merely what was to be had from the companionway that opened into the alleyway and not on the deck, the few ports in the ship's sides, and the scanty ventilating shafts. The beds were double-tiered affairs in blocks of from ten to twenty, constructed of iron framework, with iron slats in checker fashion to support the burlap-covered bag of straw, grass, or waste which served as a mattress. Pillows there were none, only cork jacket life-preservers stuck under one end of the mattress to give the elevation of a pillow. One blanket served the purpose of all bedclothing; it was a mixture of wool, cotton, and jute, predominantly jute; the length of a man's body and a yard and a half wide. For such quarters and accommodations the emigrant pays half the sum that would buy a first-class passage. A comparison of the two classes shows where the steamship company makes the most money.
Feeding Like Animals
"Enrolled in the blanket each person found a fork, spoon, pint tin cup, and a flaring six-inch-wide, two-inch-deep pan out of which to eat. The passengers were instructed to form groups of six and choose a mess-manager, who was supposed to take the big pan and bucket, get the dinner and drinkables, and distribute the portions to his group. After the meal, some member was supposed to collect the tin utensils and wash them ready for next time. But the crowd in the wash-room was so great that about one third of the people chose to rinse off the things with a dash of drinking water, others never washed their cups and pans. Yet the emigrant pays half the first-cabin rate for fighting for his food, serving it himself, and washing his own dishes. The food was in its quality good, but the manner in which it was messed into one heap in the big pan was nothing short of nauseating. After the first meal the emigrants began throwing the refuse on the deck instead of over the side or into the scuppers. The result can be imagined. It was an extremely hot night, and the air in the crowded compartment was so foul I could not sleep. The men and boys about me lay for the most part like logs, hats, coats, and shoes off, and no more, sleeping the sleep of the tired.
Remedy Proposed
"My wife said the babies in her compartment were crying in relays of six, the women had scattered bits of macaroni, meat, and potatoes all over the beds and on the floor, and added dishwater as a final discomfort. Two thirds of the emigrants were as clean as circumstances would permit, but the other third kept all in a reign of uncleanliness. The worst could not be put into print. The remedy for the whole matter is to pack fewer people in the same ship's space, and a regular service at tables. The big emigrant-carriers should be forced to give up a part of their enormous profits in order that sanitary conditions at least may prevail."
Laws Rigidly Enforced
This certainly is not an unreasonable demand, and proper laws with regard to the steerage rigidly enforced would tend to discourage immigration, instead of the reverse, since the rates would doubtless be raised as the numbers were lowered. Cruel treatment of the helpless aliens by the stewards and ship's officers should be stopped. Mr Brandenburg's description, which by no means tells the whole story of steerage horrors, should serve to institute reform through the creation of a public sentiment that will demand it.Steerage Reforms Needed There is no other way to reach such conditions; and here is where the young people can exert their influence powerfully for good. Money greed should not be allowed to make the steerage a disgrace to Christian civilization and an offense to common decency. Of course it is difficult to detect what goes on in the hold of a great steamship, and when immigrants make complaint they frequently suffer for it. It is possible, however, to provide government inspectors, and inspectors who will inspect and remain proof against bribes. The one essential is a sufficiently strong and insistent public opinion.
III. Putting up the Bars
Protection for the Country
The need of some regulation and restriction of immigration was felt early in our national life. The fathers of the Republic did not agree about the matter, and in this their descendants have been like them. Washington questioned the advisability of letting any more immigrants come, except those belonging to certain skilled trades that were needed to develop the new country. Madison favored a policy of liberality and inducement, so that population might increase more rapidly. Jefferson, on the other hand, wished "there were an ocean of fire between this country and Europe, so that it might be impossible for any more immigrants to come hither." We can only conjecture what his thoughts would be if he were to return and study present conditions. Franklin, certainly one of the wisest and most far-seeing of the earlier statesmen, feared that immigration would tend to destroy the homogeneity essential to a democracy with ideals. Equally great and good men in our history have taken one or the other side of this question, from the extreme of open gates to that of prohibition, while the people generally have gone on about their business with the comfortable feeling that matters come out pretty well if they are not too much interfered with.
First State Law in 1824
While statesmen were theorizing and differing, conditions made the need of some actual regulations and restrictions felt as early as 1824, although the total immigration of that year was only 7,912, or less than that of a single day at present. The first law resulted from abuse of free admission. It was found that some foreign governments were shipping their paupers, diseased persons, and criminals to America as the easiest and most economical way to get rid of them. This it undoubtedly was for them; but the people of New York did not see where the ease and economy came in on their side of the ledger, and in self-defense, therefore, the state passed the first law, with intent to shut out undesirables.[21] This state legislation was the genesis of national enactment. The history of federal laws concerning aliens is covered compactly by Mr. Hall, and those interested in the details of this important phase of the subject are referred to his book.[22] A comprehensive table, by means of which all the significant legislation can be seen at a glance, will be found in Appendix B.
Government Control
In 1882 there came a tremendous wave of immigration, with effects upon the labor market that largely induced the passage in that year of the first general immigration law. The Federal Government now assumed entire control of the ports of entry, as it was manifestly essential to have a national policy and supervision. Since 1862, when the Chinese coolies were excluded, under popular pressure, Congress has passed eight Acts of more or less importance, culminating in the Act of 1903,[23] which is said by Mr. Whelpley, who has collected all the immigration laws of all countries, and is therefore competent to judge, to be "up to the present time the most far-reaching measure of its kind in force in any country; and the principles underlying it must serve as the foundation for all immigration restriction." Under this law we have practically unrestricted immigration, with the important exceptions that the Chinese laborers are not admitted, and that persons suffering from obvious contagious diseases, insane persons, known anarchists and criminals, and a certain small percentage likely to become public charges are debarred. The law does not fix a property, income, or educational qualification, does not insist upon a knowledge of a trade, nor impose a tax. In other words, we have at present a more or less effective police regulation of immigration, but we are not pursuing a policy of restriction or limitation.
Un-American Discrimination
As to the Chinese, we have made an exception, and one that fails to commend itself to many. Grant that there is much to be said in favor of the proper restriction of Chinese immigration, especially on the ground that the immigrants would come only to earn money and return home, not to become Americans; that there can be no race assimilation between Chinese and Americans; and that such bird-of-passage cheap male labor is a detriment to the best interests of the country. All the force in these arguments applies equally to a large proportion of the immigration from southeastern Europe which is admitted. The laws should be uniform. The right to shut out the Chinese coolies is not questioned; but if these be debarred, why not debar the illiterate and unskilled laboring class that comes from Ireland, Italy, and Austria-Hungary? The Chinese certainly can fill a place in our industries which the other races do not fill equally well. Their presence in the kitchen would tend to alleviate domestic conditions that are responsible in large measure for the breaking up of American home life. It is a ludicrous error to suppose that all the Chinese who come to America are laundrymen at home. Let Mrs. S. L. Baldwin, a returned missionary who labored in China for eighteen years and knows the people she pleads for, bear her witness:
A Missionary's Plea for the Chinese
"The Chinese are exactly the same class as the immigrants from other lands. The needy poor, with few exceptions, must ever be the immigrant class. Those who come to us across the Pacific are largely from the respectable farming class, who fall into laundry work, shoemaking, etc., because these branches of industry are chiefly open to them. I have no fear of the Chinese immigrants suffering in comparison with those who come across the Atlantic. It is not the Chinaman who is too lazy to work, and goes to the almshouse or jail. It is not he who reels through our streets, defies our Sabbath laws, deluges our country with beer, and opposes all work for temperance and the salvation of our sons from the liquor curse. It is not the man from across the Pacific who commits the fearful crimes, and who is longing to put his hand to our political wheel and rule the United States. There are no healthier immigrants coming to this country. It is with difficulty, and only under pressure of necessity they are induced to leave China, so that the bugbear of millions of coolies overrunning America is absurd."
Call for Fair Play
Workers in the Chinese missions and Sunday-schools in this country will assent to Mrs. Baldwin's words. And Americans will appreciate her sense of the ludicrous when an Irish washerwoman in San Francisco, indignant that a Chinese servant had been brought to America by the missionary, said to her, "We have a right here and they haven't." As for the Chinese, the time will come when the injustice of discriminating against a single nation will be recognized and the wrong be righted. There are no more stable converts to Christianity, no more generous givers and zealous missionaries, than the Chinese converts. Let us have American fair play, about which President Roosevelt says so much, in our treatment of them. Recent developments prove that the United States is unwilling to imperil the relations of friendship which have existed with China.
IV. Excluding the Unfit
Intelligence of Inspectors
At Ellis Island one may see what is aptly termed "the tragedy of the excluded."[24] The enforcement of the laws comes into operation at the ports of entry. Practically everything depends upon the intelligence and faithfulness of the inspectors, who are charged with grave responsibility. Immigrant and country are equally at their mercy. Necessarily a large margin must be left to their judgment when it comes to the question, Will the applicant now before me probably become a public charge—that is, fall into the pauper or criminal class—or is he of the right stuff to make a respectable and desirable American citizen? In cases of plain insanity or idiocy or disease the decision is easy; but when it comes to the moral and economic sphere an expert opinion is required.Trickeries Attempted Then, the inspectors have to be constantly on the lookout for deception and fraud. Immigrants who belong to the excluded classes have been carefully coached by agents interested in getting them through the examination. Diseased eyes have been doctored up for the occasion; lame persons have been trained to avoid the fatal limp during that walk between the two surgeons. Lies have been put into innocent mouths and the beginnings of falsehood into the heart. Mr. Adams gives this instance showing how the mind of the inspector works. The line is passing steadily, ceaselessly. A flashily dressed French girl has plenty of money but unsatisfactory references and destination, and back she is turned.
Detained for Special Examination
Discretion
"Next comes a bookkeeper, so he says. His father gave him money and he was coming here to make his fortune. The inspector is not satisfied and he is turned over to the 'S. I.' Board. But his papers, money, and statements are clear and he is admitted; they give him the benefit of the doubt as they always do. But next in line comes a well built stocky Pole, with nothing in the world but a carpet bag, a few bundles, and a small showing of money. Ambition is written all over his face and he is admitted. 'Now,' says the recorder, pausing for a moment, 'see the difference between these two gents. The first duffer will look around for a job, spend time and money to get something to suit him, and keep his job for a short time; then he will give it up, run through his money, borrow from his friends, and then give them all the cold hand. He won't wear well, and his dad knew it when he sent him over, but he was glad to get rid of him. So lots of them are.Picking the Winning Man Now look at the difference between him and that Pole. He knows nothing but work. Look at his eyes, mild but good. He has been brought up next to mother earth; turn him loose from the train when he reaches his destination and he will dig. He won't hang around looking for a job, but he will till the soil and before you or I know it he will have crops and that is what he will live on. He comes from a hard country, is tough, and when you and I are going around shivering in an overcoat, he will be going around in his shirt sleeves. That is the stuff we want here, not the first kind, with flabby hands and sapped vitality.' Sure enough the bookkeeper did not wear well, and falling into the hands of the police, some months later, he was deported under the three-year limitation law, and the country was better for it."
Wise Partiality, and Work Praised
The inspectors are wise in showing partiality to the men who have plenty of days' work in them, even if they have less money. It is not at all safe to judge the immigrants as desirable or otherwise according to the amount of money per capita they bring. It is the head and not the head-money that should be looked at. Think of the responsibility. More than 300,000 women passed through the "moral wicket" at Ellis Island last year. Of course many of bad quality, men and women both, get through, for inspectors on too meager salaries are not omniscient, but a good word should be said for these public servants, who in the main are conscientiously performing a delicate and difficult task.[25] Let us see some of the results of their work. This will give an idea of the large numbers who ought never to have been allowed to leave home.
Record of the DebarredThe following table shows the principal classes of excluded for the past fourteen years, with the total debarred for each year, and the percentage:
THE DEBARRED FOR THE YEARS 1892-1905
| Year | Immigrants | Idiots | Insane persons | Paupers, or likely to become public charges | Loathsome or dangerous or contagious diseases | Convicts | Assisted Immigrants | Contract laborers | Total Debarred | Percentage of whole |
| 1892 | 9,663 | 4 | 17 | 1,002 | 80 | 26 | 23 | 932 | 2,164 | 0.4 |
| 1893 | 439,730 | 3 | 8 | 431 | 81 | 12 | .. | 518 | 1,053 | 0.2 |
| 1894 | 285,631 | 4 | 5 | 802 | 15 | 8 | .. | 553 | 1,389 | 0.5 |
| 1895 | 258,536 | 6 | .. | 1,714 | .. | 4 | 1 | 694 | 2,419 | 0.9 |
| 1896 | 343,267 | 1 | 10 | 2,010 | 2 | .. | .. | 776 | 2,799 | 0.8 |
| 1897 | 230,832 | 1 | 6 | 1,277 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 328 | 1,617 | 0.7 |
| 1898 | 229,299 | 1 | 12 | 2,261 | 258 | 2 | 79 | 417 | 3,030 | 1.3 |
| 1899 | 311,715 | 1 | 19 | 2,599 | 348 | 8 | 82 | 741 | 3,798 | 1.2 |
| 1900 | 448,572 | 1 | 32 | 2,974 | 393 | 4 | 2 | 833 | 4,246 | 1.0 |
| 1901 | 487,918 | 6 | 16 | 2,798 | 309 | 7 | 50 | 327 | 3,516 | 0.7 |
| 1902 | 648,743 | 7 | 27 | 3,944 | 709 | 9 | .. | 275 | 4,974 | 0.8 |
| 1903 | 857,046 | 1 | 23 | 5,812 | 1,773 | 51 | 9 | 1,086 | 8,769 | 1.0 |
| 1904 | 812,870 | 16 | 33 | 4,798 | 1,560 | 35 | 38 | 1,501 | 7,994 | 1.0 |
| 1905 | 1,026,499 | 38 | 92 | 7,898 | 2,198 | 39 | 19 | 1,164 | 11,480 | 1.2 |
| Total debarred in the fourteen years, 59,248. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Right of Appeal
The debarred have the right of appeal, from the Special Inquiry Board which excludes them, to the Commissioner of the Port, then to the Commissioner-General, and finally to the Secretary[26] of Commerce and Labor. The steamship lines that brought them have to pay costs of detention and deportation, which is one means of making these lines careful.
Exclusion by Races
A second table, which shows the exclusion by races, will repay study. It is given in Appendix A. It not only shows where the bulk of the excluded belong, but reveals not a little concerning the character of those admitted who come from the same races. The intention of the present Commissioner-General is to enforce the laws strictly, yet in a humane spirit. Comparing the figures for the two years 1903-1904, he says:
Increase of Undesirable
"The most significant feature of this statement is the large increase in the number of idiots, insane persons, and paupers during 1905, which, coupled with an increase of twenty-five per cent. in the number of diseased aliens, justifies the Bureau in directing attention to the flagrant and wilful disregard by the ocean carriers of the laws for the regulation of their business of securing alien passengers destined for the United States."[27]
Fraud of Transportation Companies
This brings up a point of vast importance in more ways than one. The official reports charge wholesale deception, evasion, and fraud upon the great transportation companies. The fact stands for itself that in 1904 they were fined more than $31,000 under the section of the law imposing a $100 penalty for bringing a diseased alien whose disease might have been detected by a competent medical examination at the port of departure. For many years these companies have in doubtful cases demanded double passage money, so that they might make a profit both ways if the alien were rejected. The Italian government has passed an Act giving an alien right to recover the money illegally retained in this way, showing the practice, and the government opinion of it.
Artificial Swelling of Passage Fees
The truth is, the transportation agent has become a figure of international consequence and concern. The artificial cause behind the present unprecedented exodus from Europe, according to Whelpley, is the abnormal activity of the transportation companies in their effort to secure new and profitable cargo for their ships. In 1900 over $118,000,000 was invested in trans-atlantic steamship lines, which are largely owned by foreigners. New lines to the Mediterranean have been put on with distinct purpose to swell the Italian and Slav immigration. Rate cutting has at times made it possible for the steerage passenger to go from Liverpool to New York for as low as $8.75. The average rate is not high enough to deter anyone who really wants to come. An English line, in return for establishing a line direct from a Mediterranean port, has secured from the Hungarian government a guarantee of 30,000 immigrants a year from its territory.
Solicitation Law Violated
The law forbids transportation companies or the owners of vessels to "directly or through agents, either by written, printed, or oral solicitations, solicit, invite, or encourage the immigration of any aliens into the United States except by ordinary commercial letters, circulars, advertisements, or oral representations, stating the sailings of their vessels and terms and facilities of transportation therein." That this restrictive provision is persistently evaded is made plain by the reports of government inspectors sent abroad to investigate. The annual migration involves more than a hundred millions of dollars, and where money is to be made law is easily disobeyed.
The Ubiquitous and Unscrupulous "Runner"
One of the inspectors says the chief evil in this solicitation business is the so-called "runner." Here is his description of this mischievous genus homo. "It is he who goes around in eastern and southern Europe from city to city and village to village telling fairy tales about the prosperity of many immigrants in America and the opportunities offered by the United States for aliens. The runner does not know of anyone who is undesirable; he claims to be all-powerful, that he has representatives in every port who can 'open the door' of America to anyone. It is he who induces many a diseased person to attempt the journey, and it is also he and his associates who do their best to have the undesirables admitted. The steamship companies, as a rule, do not deal with these runners directly and disclaim all responsibility for their nefarious practices. But the official agents of the steamship companies do pay their runners commissions for every immigrant referred to them. I have especially studied this problem along the borders of Germany, Russia, and Austrian Galicia. Here most of the emigrants are smuggled across the frontiers by these runners and robbed of the greater part of their cash possessions. When they arrive at the 'control station' it is remarkable that most emigrants have cards with the address of a certain steamship ticket agent, and the agent, on the other hand, has a list of all the individuals who were smuggled across the frontiers. When I asked one of these representatives how this was done, he told me that he paid 'good commissions' to the runner on the other side of the frontier for each case. When steamship companies and their agents stop paying commissions to runners for emigrants referred to them, individuals will only by their own initiative attempt to come to the United States, and most of those considered undesirable will remain at their native homes."[28]
Law in Contempt
Violations of law abound. Smuggling persons is regarded with much the same moral leniency as smuggling goods. The law forbids importation of persons under contract to work. In April last two Italian steamships carried back to Europe more than 1,000 laborers, who had been brought over in violation of the contract-labor laws. Commissioner Watchorn had word from his special investigators abroad that the men had been collected in the Balkan States to work for padrones in this country. So back went the thousand Slavs; but it was a chance discovery. The men admitted that the padrones had paid their passage and agreed to furnish them work. They said the rosiest conditions had been painted before their eyes, and they believed "big money" was to be made here. The steamship companies had to bear the expense of taking them back, but the padrones have not suffered any penalty, and will go on with their unlawful work.
How the Laborers are Engaged
Mr. Brandenburg learned from an Italian woman that her husband had been commissioned by a contractor in Pittsburg to go into the Italian provinces of Austria and engage 200 good stonemasons, 200 good carpenters, and an indefinite number of unskilled laborers. These people were to be put in touch with sub-agents of lines sailing from Hamburg, Fiume, and Bremen, and these agents were to be accountable for these contract laborers being got safely into the United States. This woman said many of her neighbors in Pittsburg had come into the country as contract laborers and held the law in great contempt, as it was merely a matter of being sufficiently instructed and prepared, and no official at Boston or Ellis Island could tell the difference.[29] Why should not the law be held in contempt, not only this one but all law, by the immigrant who is introduced to America through its violation, and trained to perjure himself at the outset of his new career? Does not the Commissioner-General sound a note of warning when he says:
The Christian Duty
"It is not reasonable to anticipate that if the great transportation lines do not respect the laws of this country their alien passengers will do so, nor can it be conceded that those aliens whose entrance to the United States is effected in spite of the law are desirable or even safe additions to our population."[30]
Remedy Demanded
It is painful to think that such conditions can exist in connection with so vital a matter as immigration. But it is better to have the facts known, in order that a remedy may be found. Publicity is the safety of republics and communities. And the disclosures of the lengths to which men will go in order to make money should give new and mighty impulse to those who believe in righteousness and have not bowed to the god mammon. If the work of Christianizing the aliens is made harder by the experiences through which they pass and the examples they have set before them by unscrupulous persons, it must be undertaken with so much the more zeal. Respect for law must be preserved, and one of the best ways to accomplish this is to see to it that the laws are enforced and the violators of them punished, even though they represent giant corporations and vast capital.
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER II
Aim: To Realize the Necessity of Just and Adequate Laws for the Admission and Restriction of Immigrants
I. Method of Admission.
1. What proportion of the immigrants now coming land at New York?
2. What is Ellis Island like—materially—spiritually?
3. Suppose yourself an immigrant: what steps would you take to reach New York? What processes would you undergo on landing? How would you be directed?
II. Governmental Regulation.
4. What two kinds of government regulation are practicable? Are both in force?
5. Do the steamship companies obey the law? with regard to its letter? to its real intent?
III. Restriction.
6. * Do you think unrestricted immigration is best for our country?
7. Why is the present discrimination against the Chinese not just?
8. When and to what extent was control over immigration assumed by the United States Government?
9. What measures were passed in 1903? Has there been any action since?
10. What classes of immigrants are excluded as unfit? Who decides in case of doubt?
11. Are many immigrants sent back? Why do the steamship companies bring the unfit?
IV. Violation.
12. How is immigration solicited? How is it coerced?
13. What is the purpose and what the actual working of the "Contract-Labor Law"?
V. What Can the Christian Public do to Improve Conditions?
14. * Can we expect immigrants to obey our laws, if they are started in such ways? Why not?
15. Has Christian public opinion any special duty in this matter? What is it?
References for Advanced Study.—Chapter II
I. Visit and inspect if possible, some receiving station for immigrants, and report; or else consult the statements and charts of Reports of the Commissioner of Immigration, for the year ending June 30, 1905.
II. Describe the Brandenburgs during life among Italians, and journey to this country as immigrants; their aims, and the results achieved. Brandenburg: Imported Americans, IV, XIII, XV, XXII.
III. The present regulation of immigrants, with special reference to "The Excluded." Laws for 1903. Hall: Immigration, 216-231. Brandenburg: Imported Americans, 248-274.
IV. Is there need for further restriction? Hall: Immigration, XI, XII. Hunter: Poverty, VI. Charities and The Commons, issue for March 31, 1906.
The evils attendant upon unrestricted immigration are not theoretical but actual. Emigration from one place becomes immigration into another. It is an international affair of greatest importance, and should be speedily recognized as such.—J. D. Whelpley.
III
PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION AND DISTRIBUTION
The immigration question in this country has never had the attention to which its importance entitles it. It has sometimes been the scapegoat of religious and racial prejudices, and always, in recent years, an annual sacrifice to the gods of transportation.—Prescott F. Hall.
It is exasperating to any patriotic American to have brought convincingly before him the proofs of a wholesale evasion of a very carefully planned code of laws which he fain would think is a sufficient protection of his country's best interests. It is more annoying to realize that the successful evaders are for the most part foreigners, and those, too, of commonly despised races. The conclusion is plain: Seek the grounds on which to deny passage to undesirable emigrants who wish to come to the United States, in the villages from which they emanate. In the communes of their nativity the truth is known and cannot be hidden.—Broughton Brandenburg.
The mesh of the law needs to be stiffened rather than relaxed. The benefit of the doubt belongs to the United States rather than to the alien who clamors for admittance.—Commissioner-General Sargent.
Distribution, rather than wholesale restriction, is being more and more recognized as the real way out of the difficulties presented by our immense unassimilated immigration.—Gino C. Speranza.
The need is to devise some system by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country.—President Roosevelt.
I. The Present Situation
Difficulties in the Way
There is a growing conviction that something ought to be done to check the present enormous inflow of immigrants. But when it comes to what that something is, difficulties at once arise. There are so many foreigners already in America, and so many children of foreign-born parents, that it is impossible to touch the stream at any point without protest from some source. As some one says, "You do not have to go very far back in the family line of any of us to find an immigrant. Scratch an American and you find a foreigner." And not a few of these foreigners sympathize with the Irishman who said to a lady against whom he had a grievance because she insisted on having a Chinese servant, "We have a right here that those who are here by the mere accident of birth have not." On the other hand, it was a foreigner of wide vision who said: "I do not believe there is any peculiar virtue in American birth, or that Americans are (per se) superior to all other nations; but I do believe that they are better fitted than all others to govern their own country. They made the country what it is, and ought to have the first voice in determining what it is to be. In this alone consists their superiority."[31]
The Immigration Conference of 1905
It is significant and hopeful that men are thinking upon the subject. What we want is full and fair discussion and thorough information. Nothing is so perilous in a democracy as ignorance and indifference. It is far better for men to disagree thoughtfully than to agree thoughtlessly. What all patriotic and Christian men seek is the best good of this country, which means so much to the whole world as the supreme experiment of self-government. That the people are awakening was shown by the Immigration Conference in New York in December of 1905, when five hundred men, most of them appointed by their state governors, gathered under the auspices of the National Civic Federation to discuss the whole question of immigration. The immigration experts of the country were present, and the company included United States Senators and Representatives, college presidents and professors, leading editors, lawyers and clergymen, and prominent labor leaders.
Conclusions Reached
No such conference on this subject has before been held, and the results of the discussion, which was for the most part as temperate and sensible as it was straightforward, were such as to bring about a better understanding between the men who are supposed to be theorists and the representatives of American labor. The resolutions unanimously adopted were conservative and practical. The most important recommendations call for admission tests in Europe rather than after the alien has reached America, for the spread of information leading to better distribution, and for the establishment of a commission to investigate the subject of immigration in all its relations, including the violations and evasions of the present law. Undoubtedly such a commission, appointed by the president and possessed of competent authority, could accomplish much good. For one thing, it could keep the matter before the people and wisely guide public sentiment.
The Right of Self-Protection
However much men may differ in view as to specific legislation, one point ought to be regarded as settled. That is, the right of Congress to pass such laws as may be deemed essential to safeguard American institutions and liberties. A nation has the inalienable right to protect itself against foreign invasion; and it does not matter whether the invasion be armed or under the guise of immigration. No foreign nation has the right to send its peoples to America, or by persecution to drive them forth upon other nations, and no foreigner has any inherent right to claim admission to the United States.
Welfare of the State Supreme
Right is determined, in migration as in civic relations, not by the will or whim of the individual, but by the welfare of the state. Further than this, the government has the right to deport at any time any aliens who may be regarded as unfit to remain. There ought to be no confusion as to rights in this matter.
Cases that call for Reform
The question recurs, however, is there need of doing anything? As to this President Roosevelt and the Commissioner-General of Immigration are agreed. In his last annual message the President recommended the prohibition of immigration through Canada and Mexico, the strengthening of our exclusion laws, heavier restraints upon the steamship companies, and severer penalties for enticing immigrants. It is a striking fact that nearly all of the proposed additions to our laws are intended to stop the evasion and violation of the laws we have, which are made ineffective by fraud and questionable practices of the most extensive kind. A recent writer[32] presents this matter in condensed form worthy of study, giving this "astonishing catalogue of abuses," brought to light by special inspectors in the employ of the Immigration Bureau:
Astonishing Abuses
"1. The importation of contract laborers, usually under the direction of padrones, from Greece, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.
"2. The smuggling of immigrants across the Canadian and Mexican borders who would be certain of rejection at our Atlantic ports.
"3. The 'patching up' of immigrants afflicted with favus, trachoma, and other loathsome or contagious diseases so that they can get past the inspectors without detection, even though the process is likely to augment their sufferings later.
"4. The forgery and sale of spurious naturalization certificates and the repeated use of the same certificates passed back and forth between relatives and friends.
"5. The assisting of immigration, either by local authorities in Europe or by earlier comers in America.
"6. The stimulating of immigration by transportation companies and their armies of paid agents and sub-agents in Europe."
A Plain Necessity
As a result, Mr. Ogg says, of the widespread operations through these underground channels there is an abnormal immigration movement so vast as "to override and all but reduce to a mere joke our whole restrictive system. That an appalling number of aliens who are on the verge of dependency, defectiveness, and delinquency do somehow contrive to get into the country every year is a fact too well known to call for verification here. Nobody undertakes to deny it." There is plain necessity, therefore, that some means of redeeming the situation should be found.
II. Proposed Legislation
Three Recommendations
The Commissioner-General of Immigration, in his report for 1905, devotes much space to new or amendatory legislation, which he regards as a necessity.[33] To bring the steamship companies to stricter regard for law, he would raise the penalty for carrying diseased persons from $100 to $500. He favors the debarring of illiterates, and as a special recommendation proposes an international conference of immigration experts, with a view to secure by treaty or convention the coöperation of foreign countries from which aliens migrate hither, both in reducing the number of immigrants and preventing the inadmissible and undesirable classes from leaving their own homes.
Value of International Conference
Such a conference would certainly be conducive to a good understanding between nations, would doubtless secure an effective restraint of the transportation agencies, and throw such light upon the attitude of foreign governments toward our present system of immigration restriction as would enable Congress to decide intelligently what additional measures are necessary to protect this country from the dangers of an increasing influx of aliens. This is an admirable recommendation. As Mr. Whelpley says, it is a question of emigration as well as immigration, and since two countries are interested in the migrants, the whole matter is properly one for international conference and action.
Immigration Bills in Congress
The interest taken by Congress in immigration is indicated by the introduction in the House during the session of 1906 of nineteen bills to regulate or restrict immigration, while a number were introduced in the Senate also. The House Committee on Immigration, of which Mr. Gardner, of Massachusetts, is chairman, took all the bills into consideration and reported a comprehensive Bill to Regulate the Immigration of Aliens into the United States. This proposed law advances considerably beyond the Act of 1903, which it is designed to replace. It raises the head tax from $2 to $5, introduces the reading test,[34] and practically creates a money test also, by requiring every male immigrant to have $25 in hand at the time of examination.[35] The money from the head tax is to constitute a permanent immigration fund, to defray not only the cost of the Immigration Bureau, but also that of maintaining an information bureau, to save immigrants from being deceived and show them where they are most wanted and likely to succeed.[36]
An Appeal from the Special Enquiry Board
to Comissioner Watchorn
The Reading Test Pro and Con
The section in this proposed legislation that has caused most discussion and dissension is the illiteracy test. This measure has been pressed upon Congress by the Immigration Restrictive League ever since the organization of that Society in 1894. Senator Lodge fathered it and it was passed once and vetoed by President Cleveland. President Roosevelt recommended it in his message of December 3, 1901, and it has received the endorsement of many boards of charities and many leading men. The strongest argument in favor of it is contained in a resolution passed by the Associated Charities of Boston, although the same argument applies broadly to the question of restriction. The reading test was discussed by speakers at the National Immigration Conference, but that meeting did not include it in the resolutions adopted. The Jewish influence is thrown strongly against it, since the Russian Jews who are fleeing from oppression are among the most illiterate of the present immigration. This is due to lack of school facilities, however, for the Jews naturally take to education and the Jewish children in the public schools and high schools are carrying off the prizes. "Not long ago I saw a Jewish girl in a New England academy win the prize in constitutional history over the heads of the boys and girls from American families, though her father was an illiterate Russian Jew."[37]
In Favor of Illiterates
That is not by any means an unusual testimony. Another fact worthy of note is that many of those who have worked most closely among the immigrants do not favor the reading test. Mr. Brandenburg, for example, suggests that the illiterates often prove less opinionated and more easily assimilable than others of the same race who can read and write, and says that so far as his experience goes the great proportion of the rascals and undesirables can read and write; that if he had his choice between admitting to this country a wealthy educated Roman nobleman or an illiterate Neapolitan or Sicilian laborer, he would take the laborer every time, for his brain and brawn and heart make the better foundation on which to build the institutions of our Republic. Miss Kate Claghorn and other experienced workers agree in this view, and think it would be a positive misfortune to make ability to read the deciding test. Nor would these experts favor the money test. They believe the inspectors should have more leeway, as judges of human nature, and would rather rely on their judgment as to the character of the applicant than upon any arbitrary tests. So this is an open question for discussion, with good arguments on both sides.
Three Further Propositions
There are three propositions further. The first is a measure introduced into the House by the late Congressman Adams of Pennsylvania. This would restrict by law the total number of immigrants from any given country in any one year to 80,000. This would decrease the south of Europe quota, and might increase that from northern Europe. It would at any rate tend to stop the million a year rate.
Itinerant Boards
The second measure is proposed by Mr. Brandenburg, who feels sure it would prove the desired remedy. His opinion carries a good deal of weight. His proposal is to "select emigrants before itinerant boards of two, three, or more native-born Americans who speak fluently and understand thoroughly the language and dialects of the people who come before them—these boards to be on a civil service basis," and to sit at stated times in the central cities of the countries whence aliens come.[38] This he believes to be "a correct solution of the gigantic problem." It would keep expense down, avoid opportunities for wholesale corruption of American officials by the transportation interests and the immigrants themselves, and enable the examiners to deny passage to persons desirous of going to districts already over-populated with aliens.
Inspection Abroad
The third measure is in line with the second, but instead of establishing itinerant boards of examiners, it proposes to select fifteen or twenty ports abroad which shall be made exclusive points for the embarkation of emigrants bound for the United States. Mr. Ogg states the plan as follows:
List of Cities
"Perhaps an adequate list would be Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Rotterdam, Antwerp, London, Southampton, Liverpool, Havre, St. Nazaire, Marseilles, Fiume, Trieste, Naples, Genoa, and Odessa. At each of these ports should be located an immigrant station, similar, in a general way, to the immigrant stations at our larger Atlantic ports to-day, and it should be made the duty of the resident commissioners, with their staffs of inspectors and medical attachés, to examine carefully and minutely every man, woman, and child of alien nationality who applies for passage to the United States. Successful applicants should be given a certificate which alone would enable them to land at the port of destination; those unsuccessful should be made to understand then and there that, in their present state at least, there is no chance for them to carry out their intention of migration, and that the best thing for them to do is to return to their homes."[39]
Do the Sifting in Europe
This radical plan proposes to transfer Ellis Island, in effect, to a score of points in Europe, and do the sifting before the starting. That would be sensible. Then only the desirable portion would get here. While the idea is radical, it is the outgrowth of years of experience and reflection, and Mr. Ogg says, immigration officials are generally agreed upon its wisdom and practicability. This system, thoroughly carried out, would not only stop all immigration that is illegal, but as much as possible of that which, though not illegal, is questionable and undesirable. More tests applied at this end of the route will be only partially effective, since experience proves that the present tests are evaded. The means of reform, upon which all other immigration reforms must wait, lies in this shifting of the main work of supervision and inspection to Europe. The foreign governments would welcome the plan, or at least accept it if proposed by this country.
What this would Accomplish.
This system would serve to prevent the tragedies of the excluded; would go far toward stopping the pernicious activity of the steamship companies and their enticing emissaries; would facilitate the detection and punishment of those breakers and evaders of the law who are now immune; and it would make possible a quite different and more searching examination of intending immigrants than is possible when the mass of them is poured out at Ellis Island, as through the small end of a funnel. Back to the sources is humane and wise. The expense involved could easily be met by an increased head tax; and if not, this is a case where expense in money is not to be counted in comparison with the country's welfare.
International Regulation
These are interesting propositions. Mr. Whelpley agrees with Mr. Brandenburg as to the necessity of dealing with the migrant before he reaches port, either of embarkation or disembarkation. He says our laws and restrictions are severe, and thoroughly and intelligently enforced, but fall short of their purpose for the simple reason that there is little or no control over the source of supply. "It is an effort to beat back the tide after it has rolled upon the shore, and in the vast multitude of arrivals many gain entrance legally whom the country would be better off without."[40] His plan is to have an international regulation of migration, so that each government will do its part to check the present conditions and regulate the matter at its starting point.
A Higher Standard
This subject of legislation is confessedly delicate and difficult. The diversity of opinion is confusing. Yet we cannot escape the conviction that the present immigration is altogether too vast for the good of the country. Suspension is not to be seriously considered, but surely it could do no harm to make the laws more stringent, to insist upon a higher physical standard, to debar degenerates, and to stop at any cost the solicitation and "assisted" immigration abuses which have caused so much suffering to the deceived and excluded victims of greed.
III. The Problem of Distribution
The Crucial Point
No phase of the immigration question is receiving more attention at present than that of distribution. There is a common opinion that if the proper distribution could be made, the chief evils of the tremendous influx would disappear. We are told that it is the congestion of aliens in already crowded centers of population that creates the menace to civilization; that there is land enough to be cultivated; and that vast enterprises are under way calling for the unskilled labor that is coming in. But the puzzling problem is how to get the immigrants where they are wanted and needed, and can be of value. On this point, Mr. Max Mitchell, Superintendent of the Federation of Jewish Charities, says:
An Expert Opinion
"The problem is that of overcrowding. We must not close our ports to the people of the Old World who seek a haven and a home in the land of liberty and plenty, but we must see to it that when they arrive here they are directed out of the city and into the country places where ordinary human industry is rewarded abundantly. The inclination of the immigrants themselves to stick so closely to the great centers of population must be overcome. If the great crowds of foreigners that inundate these shores every year could be distributed in a sensible and logical way over all the vast uncultivated territory in which this nation is so rich, we should never hear any complaint of too much immigration. No better farmers can be found anywhere than among the foreign peoples who seek America."
Legislation Required
Very likely, but the trouble is, they do not want to farm and they are free to prefer the squalor of the slums to the green of the fields. Nor is there much hope that this singular but strong inclination can be overcome save by government regulation, which shall settle the matter of location for those who have no specific destination or occupation. It is probable that on this point some reasonable legislation could be secured; especially if the various distribution societies and railroad companies should fail in their efforts to induce the aliens to go where they are needed. Commissioner-General Sargent has dealt plainly with this matter in his Reports for the last three years, and rightly estimates its importance. He says:[41]
Distribution of Prime Importance
"In my judgment the smallest part of the duty to be discharged in successfully handling aliens, with a view to the protection of the people and the institutions of this country, is that part now provided for by law. Its importance, though undeniable, is relatively of secondary moment. It cannot compare in practical value with, nor can it take the place of, measures to secure the distribution of the many thousands who come in ignorance of the industrial needs and opportunities of this country, and colonize alien communities in our great cities."
The Landing at the Battery in New York
From copyright stereograph, 1907, by Underwood & Underwood, New York
Information Agencies Proposed
Suitable legislation is strongly urged to establish agencies through which, either with or without the coöperation of the states, aliens shall be made acquainted with the resources of the country at large, and the industrial needs of the various sections, in both skilled and unskilled labor, the cost of living, the wages paid, the price and capabilities of the land, the character of the climates, the duration of the seasons—in short, all that information furnished by some of the great railway lines through whose efforts the territory tributary thereto has been transformed from a wilderness within a few years to the abiding place of a happy and prosperous population.
A Growing Evil
"Again the importance of undertaking to distribute aliens now congregating in our large cities to those parts of the United States where they can secure employment without displacing others by working for a less wage, and where the conditions of existence do not tend to the fostering of disease, depravity, and resistance to the social and political security of the country, is urged. The Bureau is convinced that no feature of the immigration question so insistently demands public attention and effective action. The evil to be removed is one that is steadily and rapidly on the increase, and its removal will strike at the roots of fraudulent elections, poverty, disease, and crime in our large cities, and on the other hand largely supply that increasing demand for labor to develop the natural resources of our country. Too much encouragement cannot be given to the reported efforts of certain railway companies to divert a portion of the tide of immigration to the Southern states. It is impossible, in the opinion of the Bureau, to overestimate the importance of this subject as bearing upon the effect of immigration on the future welfare of this country."[42]
Chart of Distribution
What are the facts concerning the present location and distribution of immigrants? The answer involves a most interesting study. Taking the immigration of 1905, the chart[43] on the next page illustrates the distribution by states.
BY PERMISSION OF THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION
Where the Masses Stay
The enormous proportion going to New York, Pennsylvania, and the North Atlantic section shows prominently. They got ninety per cent. of the whole, while the South received but four per cent. of the total, and only one per cent. of that went to the South Central States. The Great West had only four per cent. as against five the year preceding; showing conclusively how few of the million went where it would have been far better for the entire million to have gone. It is safe to say that there was little or no legitimate demand in New York, Pennsylvania, or New England for any of them. At the same time, there is some encouragement in the fact that the distribution of the past fourteen years shows that smaller proportions are now remaining in the states in which are located the principal ports of entry. For example, the percentage of New York State has steadily decreased from forty-two per cent. in 1892 to thirty per cent. in 1905. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio have gained proportionately.
Diagrams to be Studied
A series of diagrams which show the distribution of the foreign-born living in the United States in 1900, was prepared by Mr. F. W. Hewes, for the World's Work, and published in October, 1903. By the courtesy of Doubleday, Page and Company, publishers, they are reproduced. Each dot in them represents a thousand persons. They show at a glance where the immigrants were in 1900, and the totals by race or nationality. By adding to these totals the remarkable figures of the last five years, one can appreciate the great increase in the Italian and Slavic totals, and an idea of the present situation may be obtained, for as to locality the percentages have not materially changed.
Reproduced by special permission from "The World's Work" Copyright, 1903.
Reproduced by special permission from "The World's Work" Copyright, 1903.
Protective Societies
The further point to be considered as to distribution is the effort now being made to accomplish desired results. In lieu of legislation or government provision, these are (1) Societies organized by individuals, and (2) Railway companies. The Bureau of Information[44] proposed by the bill now in Congress would, if established, closely coöperate with the state agencies and all other bodies promoting distribution.
Italian Society
One of the most active and efficient of these organizations, which will serve as an illustration, is the Society for Italian Immigrants, with headquarters in New York, near the Battery. The Society thus states its purpose and methods:
"About 200,000 Italian immigrants are now landing at this port during every twelve months. These immigrants are almost entirely poor peasants who cannot speak our language. In order that these people may get a fair start in this new and, to them, strange country, and that they may become familiar as soon as possible with our laws, habits, and customs, help and instruction of various kinds must be given them. To furnish these either freely or at the lowest possible cost, is the object of The Society for Italian Immigrants.
A Real Service
"Accordingly, in its work the Society employs agents to look after the needs of the immigrants at Ellis Island; it runs an escort service, by which competent persons are furnished, at nominal cost, to take immigrants to their destination; it conducts an employment agency; it maintains an information bureau; it coöperates with the United States authorities to enforce the Immigration Laws; it manages labor camps for contractors; it wages war on all persons engaged in swindling immigrants; it is engaged in breaking up the padrone system in all its forms; and lastly and generally, it does all it can to help immigrants, so that as soon as possible they may become self-supporting and self-respecting citizens, a benefit and not a detriment to this country."
Grants from Italian Government
The Society is supported by voluntary contributions, and by grants to the amount of about $7,000 a year from the Italian government. The Society has met with the approval of the police department of the city, the United States authorities at Ellis Island, and the Italian Royal Department of Emigration, and of all individuals who have made themselves familiar with what it is doing. There is also a Boston Italian Society, organized in 1902, to protect newcomers from sharpers, thieves, and fraudulent persons; also from the frauds of bankers and padrones. The Italian government has given $1,000 a year to this Society.
Hebrew and Other Societies
A similar work is done by the United Hebrew Charities, and the Removal Bureau established by the Jews in New York in 1901. Through this agency in the past three years over 10,000 of the Russian or Roumanian Jews have been kept from increasing the overcrowded population of the ghetto and swelling the sum of sweat-shop misery. While the number distributed is small compared with the steady inflow (5,525 sent out in 1903, while 43,000 settled in New York), the work bids fair to make itself felt, and shows an appreciation by the Jews already here of the situation and the necessity of changing it, for the sake both of the immigrants and the country. Industrial removal is now known wherever Jews are found, and all that is possible is being done to stimulate artificial distribution as the remedy for the worst evils of unassimilated and congested immigration.[45] There are also German, Scandinavian and other societies, benevolent and protective, which aid in distribution.
A Chief Obstacle
The principal difficulty with the distribution scheme, so far as most of the present-day immigrants are concerned, is that with the exception of the Italians they are not fitted for agriculture, while it is the farms that most need workers. Another difficulty[46] is that the authorities of the various states object to receiving shipments of immigrants from the city tenement districts, regarding them as decidedly undesirable additions to the population. The United States Immigration Investigating Commission asked the governors of the different states what nationalities of immigrants they desired, and in only two cases was any desire expressed for Slavs, Latins, Jews, or Asiatics, and these two related to Italian farmers with money, intending to become permanent settlers. The officials protest against the shipment of southern and eastern Europeans from the city slums into the states. Care must be taken, too, that the immigrants do not settle in country colonies, which would render them almost as difficult of Americanization as though they were colonized in the city.
What the South is Doing
The New South is already giving object lessons to the country at large in the successful attraction and utilization of the alien influx. The Four States Immigration League, composed of representatives of business organizations in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, was organized in 1903 to secure desirable immigrants for those states. "It was keenly realized," observed the Chattanooga Times, "that of the enormous inflow from the old country, the number seeking homes in the South was ridiculously small and out of all proportion to the importance of the country and the inducements our productive fields hold out to home seekers." An Immigration Bureau has been established in Chattanooga, and South Carolina and other states have organized active departments of agriculture and immigration.
Reproduced by special permission of "The World's Work." Copyright 1909.
Reproduced by special permission of "The World's Work." Copyright 1909.
The leading railway lines promise active coöperation, as their interests lie positively in this direction. Some, indeed, have actively engaged in the work of securing distribution.
New Zealand Plan
The suggestion is a good one that we might study with profit, in this connection, the methods of New Zealand.[47] There the established Department of Labor has regarded as "its vital duty the practical task of finding where labor was wanted and depositing there the labor running elsewhere to waste." To this end a widely extended system of agencies is maintained for bringing workers and work together, the unemployed are scattered through the colony, and charity is refused. The experience there shows that city people and men of trades have been successful as farmers and farm workers. Mr. Lord says: "It may be a novel function of government to undertake the distributing of labor, but it is none the less more rational than an edict of exclusion would be, or the tolerance of congestion and slums now is."
Information Before Embarking
One thing that government can do is to make sure that intending immigrants are fully informed, in their own countries, before they start, concerning the laws of the United States, the conditions of the various sections, the advantages and drawbacks, the demand for labor and of what kind. An official bureau of correspondence and information would help check undesirable immigrants from coming, and distribute desirable ones when they do come.
Looking on the
Bright Side
While the question of distribution has only recently been taken up in earnest, its importance is now realized, and there is every reason to believe that it will receive henceforth large attention, and that wise measures will be vigorously pushed. Remedied congestion will mean increased assimilation and decreased danger. As we review the situation, while there is much in it that requires serious consideration and wise action, we agree heartily with these words of Dr. Charles L. Thompson:
Not Bars but Guides
"There is no need of becoming pessimistic. Above all we should not go back on the history of our Country. We have grown great by assimilation. Let us have a dignified confidence in the power of our institutions and of our Christianity to continue the process which has developed the strength of the Republic. If we are true to our principles we will be equal to any strain that may be put upon them. Only let us see to it that our principles—both civic and religious—are at work in full vigor on the questions which the floodtide of immigration raises. What we need is not more bars to keep foreigners out but more laborers to work with them and teach them how to gather the harvest of American and Christian liberty."[48]
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER III
Aim: To Study the Problems of Legislation and Distribution Regarding Aliens
I. The Opinions of Capable Observers Regarding Legislation.
1. Give the names and opinions of some who favor restriction of immigration. Of some who are opposed. With which do you agree?
2. The Immigration Conference of 1905: What was it? What did it recommend?
3. As to free admission: What are the rights of the government? Of the individual?
4. What does President Roosevelt recommend?
II. Proposed Legislation.
5. What abuses specially need to be corrected?
6. Name the chief provisions of the "Gardner Bill," before Congress in 1906.
7. * Give reasons for and against a reading test. Would you have voted for it or against?
8. Describe and give your opinion of other proposed methods of restricting immigration.
9. Would it be possible to sift immigrants before they leave Europe?
III. Distribution.
10. How much can be done toward a wider distribution of the stream of immigrants?
11. Where do the larger numbers now settle? In what cities? What states?
12. What Societies are helping them to find better locations?
13. What special efforts are being made by some Southern states?
14. How does New Zealand deal with this question? Can we copy that plan?
15. * What spirit is needed in dealing with the whole problem?
16. Can you tell of any special endeavors to bring about better control or direction of immigration?
References for Advanced Study.—Chapter III
I. Further Study of Opinions of United States Immigration Officials.
See Commissioner-General's Annual Report, furnished free from Washington upon application to the "Commissioner of Immigration." Report of 1902, pp. 59, 60. Report of 1904, pp. 37-47, 123-136. Report of 1904, pp. 61-70. Report of 1905, pp. 58, 75-78.
II. Provisions and Fate of Legislation of 1906 Proposed in Congress.
Text of "Gardner Bill" and Journal of the House for June 25, 1906, can be secured by writing to Washington.
III. Evils of Undistributed Immigration.
Warne: The Slav Invasion, IV, V.
Hunter: Poverty, VI.
Lord, et al: The Italian in America, IV, X.IV. Efforts to Secure Wider Distribution of Immigrants.
Hall: Immigration, XIII.
Lord, et al: The Italian in America, VII, IX.
To know anything about the actual character of recent and present immigration, we must distinguish the many and very diverse elements of which it is composed.—Samuel McLanahan.
IV
THE NEW IMMIGRATION
The world never before saw anything comparable to this tremendous movement of people in so short a space of time. The population Europe has lost in a hundred years is greater than the total number of inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland in 1860, and only a little less than that of the United States in the same year. It is equal to three fifths of the total population of Europe in the time of Augustus Cæsar. If the ships carried five hundred passengers on the average, about fifty thousand trips have been made in the transfer.
Emphatically too many people are now coming over here; too many of an undesirable sort. In 1902 over seven tenths were from races who do not rapidly assimilate with the customs and institutions of this country.—Prescott F. Hall.
There are two classes who would pass upon the immigration question. One says, "Close the doors and let in nobody;" and the other says, "Open wide the doors and let in everybody." I am in sympathy with neither of these classes. There is a happy middle path—a path of discernment and judgment.—Commissioner Robert Watchorn of New York.
Just as a body cannot with safety accept nourishment any faster than it is capable of assimilating it, so a state cannot accept an excessive influx of people without serious injury.—H. H. Boyesen.
It seems to me our only concern about immigration should be as to its character. We do not want Europe's criminals or paupers. The time to make selection is in Europe, prior to embarkation.—United States Senator Hansbrough.
I. New Peoples and New Problems
Change of Racial Type
So great has been the change in the racial character of immigration within the last ten years that the term "new immigration" has been used to distinguish the present prevailing type from that of former years. By new immigration we mean broadly all the aliens from southeastern Europe—the Italians, Hungarians, Slavs, Hebrews, Greeks, and Syrians—as distinguished from the northwestern Europeans—the English, Scotch, Welsh, Irish, French, Germans, and Scandinavians. The ethnic authorities at Washington make the following racial division, which is used in the official reports:
Race Classification
"Ninety-five per cent. of the immigration to this country comes from Europe. Most of these different races or peoples, or more properly subdivisions of race, coming from Europe have been grouped into four grand divisions, as follows:
"Teutonic division, from northern Europe: German, Scandinavian, English, Dutch, Flemish, and Finnish.
"Iberic division, from southern Europe: South Italian, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish: also Syrian from Turkey in Asia.
"Celtic division, from western Europe; Irish, Welsh, Scotch, French, and North Italian.
"Slavic division, from eastern Europe: Bohemian, Moravian, Bulgarian, Servian, Montenegrin, Croatian, Slovenian, Dalmatian, Bosnian, Herzegovinian, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Polish, Roumanian, Russian, Ruthenian, and Slovak.
"The Mongolic division has also been added, to include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, East Indian, Pacific Islander, and Filipino.
"Under 'all others' have been included Magyar, Turkish, Armenian, African (black), and subdivisions native to the Western Hemisphere."
The New Immigration
This new immigration has been commonly regarded as either decidedly undesirable or at least distinctly less desirable than the Teutonic and Celtic, which for so many years practically had the field of America to itself. It has not been uncommon to group the Italians and Slavs, and denominate them as the "offscouring and refuse of Europe," now dumped into America, which is described as a sort of world "garbage bin." Extremists have drawn in gloomy colors the effects of this inrush of the worst and most illiterate and unassimilable elements of the Old World. A distinct prejudice has undoubtedly been created against these later comers.
This chart shows what a mass of illiteracy is coming in from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Only those above the age of fourteen are counted as illiterates. The change in the source of immigration from northern and western Europe to southern and eastern Europe is responsible for this radical change in the number of those who cannot read or write. Of the southern Italians who came in 1905, 56 per cent. were illiterate; and of the Ruthenians, 63 per cent. Most of these illiterates will never learn to read, as they are beyond the school age.]
Reasons for Adverse Opinion
There is unquestionably some ground for the feeling that the new immigration is in many respects less desirable than the older type. These peoples come out of conditions of oppression and depression, illiteracy and poverty. Far more important than this, they have had no contact with Anglo-Saxon ideas or government. They are consequently almost wholly ignorant of American ideals and standards. There is a vast difference between the common ideas of these immigrants and those from the more enlightened and progressive northern nations. So there is in the type of character and the customs and manners.
The Older Type of Immigration
We are sufficiently familiar with the older type, and do not need here to dwell upon it. We know how large a part has been played in the development of our national material enterprises by the Germans, the English and Irish, the Scotch and Welsh, the Swedes and Norwegians. Millions of them are among the loyal Americans of to-day. The Irish originally came to perform the unskilled labor of America. Their women made the domestics, and many of them still rule the American kitchen. But the Irish men have moved up, into bosses and contractors, into the stores and trades and professions, and especially into politics, until they practically run the cities and have a lion's share of the governmental positions. The Germans have always been among the best of our immigrant population in intelligence, thrift, and other qualities that make the German nation strong and stable. They have Germanized us more than we have Americanized them. The Scandinavians have with excellent judgment distributed themselves and gone largely into agriculture. All these north of Europe peoples belong to a common inheritance of principles and ideas, and all have found it natural to assimilate into American life. America owes a large debt to them, as they do to the land that has become their own by adoption.
Necessity of Discrimination
But what can be said about this new immigration? First let us see how great the change in racial character has been, and then differentiate these new races. It will not do to brand any race as a whole. Discrimination is absolutely necessary if we are to deal with this subject practically and justly. There are Italians and Italians, Slavs and Slavs, just as there are all sorts of Irish, Germans, and Americans. No race has a monopoly of either virtue or vice. This table will help us to differentiate the millions of immigrants since 1820 as to race:
| Netherlands | 146,168 |
| France | 428,894 |
| Switzerland | 220,199 |
| Denmark, Norway, and Sweden | 1,730,722 |
| Italy | 2,000,252 |
| Japan | 88,908 |
| Germany | 5,187,092 |
| United Kingdom, Great Britain and Ireland | 7,286,434 |
| Russia | 1,452,629 |
| Countries not specified | 2,130,756 |
| China | 288,398 |
A Remarkable Shifting
To appreciate the significance of these figures, it must be remembered that while the totals from the United Kingdom and Germany amount to nearly twelve and a half millions, or considerably more than one half of the entire immigration down to 1905, the proportions have been rapidly changing. The immigration from the United Kingdom, for example, reached its highest point in 1851, when the total was 272,740, predominantly from Ireland. The German immigration reached high mark in 1887, the total being 250,630. On the other hand, the immigration from Italy did not reach 10,000 until 1880, and passed the 100,000 mark first in 1900. In the past five years nearly a million Italians—or one half of the entire Italian immigration—have entered the country, and the number in 1906 promises to exceed a quarter of a million more. The highest mark was 233,546 in 1903; but even this did not equal the birth-rate in Italy. In Hungary and Russia, also, the birth-rate is greater than the immense drain of immigration, so that this stream will continue to flow and increase, unless some check is put upon it, or some legislative dam built. The immigration from Russia, consisting chiefly of Jews, did not become appreciable until 1887, when it reached 30,766. It passed 100,000 in 1902; and from 1900 to 1905 the total arrivals were 748,522, or just about one half the entire number of Jews in the United States. The same is true of the Hungarian and Slav immigration. Its prominence has come since 1890.
The Inferior Checks the Superior
The point of importance to be considered is that as the immigration from southeastern Europe has increased, that from northwestern Europe has decreased. In 1869 not one per cent. of the total immigration came from Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Russia, while in 1902 the percentage was over seventy. In 1869 nearly three quarters of the total immigration came from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Scandinavia; in 1902 only one fifth was from those countries. The proportion has held nearly the same since.
Change in Source
The change is indicated most plainly in this table, which compares the total immigration of certain nationalities for the period 1821 to 1902 with that for the year 1903:
| 1821 to 1902 | 1903 | |||
| Country | Number | Per cent | Number | Per cent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria-Hungary | 1,316,914 | 6.5 | 206,011 | 24.00 |
| England, Wales | 2,730,037 | 13.4 | 26,219 | 3.1 |
| Germany | 5,098,005 | 25.0 | 40,086 | 4.7 |
| Ireland | 3,944,269 | 19.3 | 35,300 | 4.1 |
| Italy | 1,358,507 | 6.7 | 230,622 | 26.9 |
| Norway, Sweden | 1,334,931 | 6.5 | 70,489 | 8.2 |
| Russia, Poland | 1,106,362 | 5.4 | 136,093 | 15.9 |
This table shows not only the nations which have added chiefly to our population in the past, and which are adding to-day, but how the percentage of each has varied in the period before 1903 compared with 1903. Mr. Hall says: "If the same proportions had obtained in the earlier period as during the later how different might our country and its institutions now be!"
A German Family
"Seven soldiers lost to the Kaiser." (German Consul's remark on seeing this picture)
The Problem of Diverse Race Stocks
This brings up the question of type, of character, and of homogeneity. The new immigration introduces new problems. The older immigration, before 1870, was chiefly composed of races kindred in habits, institutions, and traditions to the original colonist.[49] To-day we face decidedly different conditions. At the same time study of these comparatively unknown races will bring us many surprises, and knowledge of the facts is the only remedy for prejudice and the only basis for constructive Christian work. We must know something, moreover, of the Old World environment before we can judge of the probable development of these peoples in America, or learn the way of readiest access to them. For they will not become Americanized unless they are in some way reached by Americans; and they will never be reached until they are understood.
II. The Italians
Extremes of Opinion
In our more detailed study of the new immigration we take first the Italians, who are seen wherever one turns in our cities, and are perhaps the most conspicuous of the immigrants. Here we come at once upon two extremes of opinion. One extreme finds little or nothing that is favorable to the Italians, who are classed all together and judged in the light of the Mafia, or "black hand," ready for all deeds of darkness. The other lauds these aliens so highly that an Italian himself said to the writer, referring to a recent book about his people in America:[50] "I suppose I ought to be glad to have us all made out to be saints, but I am afraid there is another side to the story." We shall hope to find the truth between these extremes. This has to be admitted, on the start, that in most cases those who have most to do with the Italians, of whatever class, become warmly interested in them, and believe both in their ability and in their adaptability to American life.
A Gifted Race
When so keen a writer as Emil Reich, in discussing "The Future of the Latin Races," in the Contemporary Review, says, "there can be little doubt that the Italians are the most gifted nation in Europe," we see that it is a mistake to class all Italians as alike and put them under the ban of contempt as "dagoes." They differ from one another almost as much as men can differ who are still of the same color, says a recent writer.[51]
Marked Differences Between North and South
Most northern Italians are of the Alpine race and have short, broad skulls; southern Italians are of the Mediterranean race and have long, narrow skulls. Between the two lies a broad strip of country, peopled by those of mixed blood. In appearance the Italians may be anything from a tow-headed Teuton to a swarthy Arab. Varying with the district from which he comes, in manner he may be rough and boisterous; suave, fluent, and gesticulative; or grave and silent. These differences extend to the very essentials of life. The provinces of Italy are radically unlike, not only in dress, cookery, and customs, but in character, thought, and speech. A distinct change of dialect is often found in a morning's walk. An ignorant Valtellinese from the mountains of the north, and an ignorant Neapolitan have as yet no means of understanding each other; and what is yet more remarkable, the speech of the unschooled peasant of Genoa is unintelligible to his fellow of Piedmont, who lives less than one hundred miles away.
Different Environment
The northern Italian is the result of a superior environment. His section is more prosperous, intelligent, orderly, and modern. The industrially progressive, democratic north presents a striking contrast to the industrially stagnant, feudal south. The northern division is full of the spirit of the new Italy, and its people are less prone to leave home. Central Italy, too, is making steady advances in agriculture and education, and the peasant farmer is a stay-at-home. In southern Italy agriculture is practically the sole reliance of the people, the lot of the day laborers is wretched, and the failure of a wheat crop is as disastrous as the potato famine in Ireland was to the Irish in 1847. United Italy is undoubtedly making progress in education and industry, the standards of living are rising, and the money sent or carried back to Italy from America has helped to some degree in this advancement. Religiously, of course, the domination of the Roman Catholic Church continues over all Italy, and in illiteracy as in other respects Italy is an example of what this ecclesiastical rule means where it has power over the people sufficient to enable it to work its will.
Common Poverty of the Peasants
In view of these facts regarding the home environment and difference in peoples, it will not do, evidently, to use sweeping generalizations, or to regard the organ-grinder and fruit-peddler as the representatives of Italy in America. We receive all grades, from cultured professionals to illiterate peasants, though mainly, of course, the peasant class. The one common feature of the Italian provinces is the poverty produced by the crushing taxes and agricultural depression. Absentee landlordism has blighted southern Italy as it has Ireland. Yet with great tracts of fertile soil thus held away from the people, and with no new territory to cultivate, the population of Italy has increased within twenty years from twenty-eight and a half to thirty-two and a half millions, an average density of 301 per square mile, and the excess of births over deaths amounts to nearly 350,000 a year. Hence the question with the people in overcrowded districts is simply emigration or starvation. The southern Italian is driven from home by necessity to work, and work is to be found in America, so he comes. His labor is mostly unskilled, and this is in demand here. The result is that almost eighty per cent. of the Italian immigrants are males; over eighty per cent. are between fourteen and forty-five, the working age; over eighty per cent. are from the southern provinces, and nearly the same percentage are unskilled laborers, and a large majority of these are illiterates. The eighty per cent. of "human capital of fresh, strong young men" is Italy's contribution to America, and is a force winning its way to recognition.
Figures of Italian Immigration
Let us note the growth of Italian immigration, its sources, and its distribution. In the sixty years from 1820 to 1880 only 68,633 Italians made their way to America, while during this period the total foreign immigration was over ten millions. The census of 1890 gave the Italian population of the United States as only 182,580, and at that date not over a half million in all had come here. The rapid increase during recent years is shown in the following table:
IMMIGRATION FROM ITALY TO THE UNITED STATES
| 1890 | 52,003 |
| 1891 | 76,055 |
| 1892 | 61,631 |
| 1893 | 72,145 |
| 1894 | 42,977 |
| 1895 | 35,427 |
| 1896 | 68,060 |
| 1897 | 59,431 |
| 1898 | 58,613 |
| 1899 | 77,419 |
| 1900 | 100,135 |
| 1901 | 135,996 |
| 1902 | 178,375 |
| 1903 | 230,622 |
| 1904 | 193,296 |
| 1905 | 221,479 |
Remarkable Increase
This shows how steady and remarkable the immigration has been since 1900. In five years 959,768 Italians have come to this country. Surely it is worth our while to know more particularly the character of this million and their promise as an element in our civilization. Thousands of them are "birds of passage"—that is, they come and go, earning money here and going back home to spend it and then returning to earn more; but tens of thousands come to stay, and will play their part in shaping our future.
Distribution of Italians
The distribution of the Italians is shown partially in the accompanying diagram.[52] This, however, is based upon the Census of 1900, and does not account for the million arrivals since 1900. The destination clause in the immigrant's manifesto gives light upon the matter of distribution, although the incomer does not always get to the point named in his papers. From the official report for 1905 these results are drawn:
| North | South | ||
| Locality | Italian | Italian | Total |
| New York | 9,733 | 81,572 | 91,305 |
| New Jersey | 1,272 | 11,494 | 12,766 |
| Pennsylvania | 7,554 | 43,078 | 50,632 |
| Connecticut | 1,626 | 5,835 | 7,461 |
| Massachusetts | 2,011 | 11,747 | 13,758 |
| Rhode Island | 196 | 2,422 | 2,618 |
| Illinois | 3,663 | 6,685 | 10,348 |
| Ohio | 861 | 6,230 | 7,091 |
| Michigan | 1,330 | 1,649 | 2,979 |
| West Virginia | 421 | 2,987 | 3,408 |
| Louisiana | 177 | 2,631 | 2,808 |
| Missouri | 769 | 1,477 | 2,246 |
| Mississippi | 674 | 213 | 887 |
| Eight Southern States | 467 | 1,036 | 1,503 |
| California | 4,513 | 1,081 | 5,594 |
| Colorado | 824 | 881 | 1,705 |
Largely in Cities
It is interesting to note that at least one Italian immigrant was destined to every state and territory. Of the total Italian population in this country in 1900, 62.4 per cent. was in the 160 principal cities, and nearly one half in New York alone. The percentage of Italians attracted to the cities is about the same as that of the Irish.
Italians and Irish Compared
An interesting parallel, indeed, may be drawn between these races. The Italians to-day occupy largely the place occupied by the Irish of yesterday. The Irish came in the earlier years by reason of distressing conditions at home, forcing them to seek a living elsewhere; this is now true of the Italians. The Irish were chiefly peasants, unskilled laborers and illiterate; so are the Italians. The Irish came mainly from agricultural sections and herded in the great cities; so do the Italians. The handy weapon of the Irish was the shillalah, that of the Italian is the stiletto. The Irish found ready employment by reason of the demand for cheap unskilled labor created by the vast material enterprises of a swiftly developing country, with cities and towns and railroads to build; this work is done by the Italians now, and they are commonly conceded to be in many respects better at the job. Here is a sample of the kind of testimony frequently given concerning them as workers:[53]
Good Workers
"I have learned to be cautious in comparing races. I find good, bad, and indifferent people in all races. But I dissent from the current notion that the southern Italian is so much inferior to the northern. As a people there is more illiteracy among them; but when he goes to school the southern Italian holds his own with the northern. Another fact of promise is that Italians have not lost the spirit of service. They are good workmen. Not long since, asking a contractor who was building a sewer in the city why he had only Italians in his employ, he replied, 'Because they are the best workmen, and there are enough of them. If an Italian down in that ditch has a shovelful of earth half way up when the whistle blows for dinner, he will not drop it; he will throw it up; the Irishman and the French-Canadian will drop it. And when the lunch hour is over, when the clock strikes the Italian will be leaning on his shovel ready to go to work, but the Irishman will be out under that tree and he will be three minutes getting to his job, and three minutes each, for 150 men, is not a small item. The Italian does not regard his employer as his natural enemy. He has the spirit of kindly service."
Cheerful and Responsive
The writer can confirm this from personal observation. The Italians are cheerful workers, and on hand ten to fifteen minutes before the hour to begin work. They relish a kind word, and can give lessons in politeness to many an American-born. Ask anyone brought in contact with them and you will get the same testimony.
Flower of the Peasantry
According to Adolfo Rossi, Supervisor of the Italian Immigration Department, who is deeply interested in the proper distribution and welfare of his countrymen in America, these immigrants are the flower of the laboring class of Italy. Economically they are doubtless of value at so many dollars per head. But of far more importance is the question, what are they in the social fabric? If, as some assert, the Italian race stock is inferior and degraded, if it will not assimilate naturally with the American, or will tend to lower our standards, then it is undesirable, even though the immigrant had a bank account in addition to his sturdy body. The further one investigates the subject, the less likely is he to conclude that the Italian is to be adjudged undesirable, as a race. He must be judged individually on his merits.
Demand for Unskilled Labor
Mr. Carr draws a decidedly favorable picture of the Italians, whether from north or south. He says that immediate work and high wages, and not a love for the tenement, create our "Little Italies." The great enterprises in progress in and about the city, the subway, tunnels, water-works, railroad construction, as well as the ordinary building operations, call for a vast army of laborers. It is the educated Italian immigrant without a manual trade who fails in America. The illiterate laborer takes no chances. The migratory laborer—for more than 98,000 Italians went back to Italy in 1903, and 134,000 in 1904—confers an industrial blessing by his very mobility. Then, in his opinion, there is something to be said for the illiterates who remain here. They are never anarchists; they are guiltless of the so-called "black hand" letters. The individual laborer is, in fact, rarely anything but a gentle and often a rather dull drudge. More than this, our school system deprives us of unskilled laborers. The gangs that dig sewers and subways and build railways are recruited from the illiterate or nearly so, and for our supply of the lower grades of labor we must depend upon countries with a poorer school system than ours.
Favorable Comparison
Concerning the charge that the Italian is a degenerate, lazy and a pauper, half a criminal, a menace to our civilization, it is shown that in New York the Italians number about 450,000, the Irish over 300,000. In males the Italians outnumber the Irish two to one. Consider these facts: In 1904 one thousand five hundred and sixty-four Irish, and only sixteen Italians, were admitted to the almshouse on Blackwell's Island.[54] Mr. James Forbes, chief of the Mendicancy Department of the Charity Organization Society, says he has never seen or heard of an Italian tramp.Italians Not Beggars In reply to this, those who dislike the Italians say that their cheap labor has made tramps of many who would otherwise be employed. As for begging, between July 1, 1904, and September 30, 1905, the Mendicancy Police in New York took into custody 519 Irish and only 92 Italians. This table will be found interesting:
NATIVITY OF PERSONS ADMITTED TO ALMSHOUSE (NEW YORK) IN 1900
| Male | Female | Total | |
| United States | 355 | 199 | 554 |
| Ireland | 808 | 809 | 1,617 |
| England and Wales | 111 | 87 | 198 |
| Scotland | 25 | 14 | 39 |
| France | 19 | 2 | 21 |
| Germany | 290 | 84 | 374 |
| Norway, Sweden and Denmark | 22 | 6 | 28 |
| Italy | 15 | 4 | 19 |
| Other Countries | 50 | 36 | 86 |
| —— | —— | —— | |
| 1,695 | 1,241 | 2,936 |
This ought to correct some ideas as to where the pauperism comes from. Certainly the Italians are not to be charged with it. Conditions in Boston show equally well for the Italians. The proportions for the whole country also give them a remarkably low degree as compared with other races.
Few Insane
As to insanity, the figures tell their own story: In the charitable institutions of the country, there were of the insane: Irish, 5,943; Germans, 4,408; English, 1,822; Scandinavians, 1,985; and Italians, 718. As shown by the analysis of the Bureau of Immigration, the proportion of Irish in the charitable institutions is 30 per cent., of Germans 19, of English 8.5, while the Italians and Hebrews are each 8 per cent.
Criminal Record
The important point of crime remains to be considered. Here the Italian is commonly rated very high, by reason of the violent and conspicuous nature of most of his crimes, which are against the person. We hear of the brutal murders, the threats of the Mafia, the secret assassinations, and frequent sanguinary stiletto affrays, and are apt to regard the whole race as quarrelsome and murderous. The facts do not bear out this opinion. Here again they appear rather to the disadvantage of the older type of immigrant. The United States Industrial Commission on Immigration shows, by its statistical report,[55] that "taking the United States as a whole, the whites of foreign birth are a trifle less criminal than the total number of whites of native birth." This report further says: "Taking the inmates of all penal and charitable institutions, we find that the highest ratio is shown by the Irish, whose proportion is more than double the average for the foreign-born, amounting to no less than 16,624 to the million."
Italians Temperate
By far the greatest proportion of crime is caused by intemperance, and here the Italians are at a decided advantage, for they are among the least intemperate of the foreign peoples, and far less so than the average native-born. Arrests for drunkenness are exceedingly rare among them, and a drunken Italian woman is as rare as one of immoral character. While in Massachusetts three in a hundred of the northern races, including the Scotch, Irish, English, and Germans, were arrested for intemperance in a given year, only three in a thousand of the Italians were arrested on this charge. In these respects the race is deserving of great commendation, especially in face of the tenement conditions into which most of the newcomers are thrust. If they become worse in America than they were when they came, we ought to take heed to the sins of greed, and not put all the blame on the aliens.
Crimes of Assault
In crimes against the person the Italians are at their worst, but the affrays with knives and pistols are confined mostly to their own nationality, and grow out of jealousy or rivalry or resentment at fancied injuries. "There are, no doubt," says Dr. S. J. Barrows,[56] "murders of sheer brutality, or those committed in the course of robbery. There are known instances also of blackmail and dastardly assassination by individuals or bands of ruffians. But such outrages are utterly at variance with the known disposition of the great mass of the Italians in this country. There are vile men in every nationality, and it does not appear by any substantial evidence that the Italian is peculiarly burdened, though it has been unwarrantably reproached through ignorance or prejudice." This is the opinion of an expert in criminology, who has traveled extensively in Italy and knows the people on both sides of the sea.
Italians not all Unskilled
It is a fact of importance that the great majority of the Italian immigrants, while classed as unskilled, have had some experience in farming or gardening or home industries of some kind. There is a larger percentage of skilled labor than is commonly supposed, and the list is interesting. The Annual Report on Immigration for 1905, for example, gives the distribution by occupation, from which we take some of the leading classes:
PROFESSIONS, TRADES AND INDUSTRIES OF THE ITALIANS ADMITTED IN 1905
| North | South | |
| Occupation | Italy | Italy |
| Architects | 10 | 10 |
| Clergy | 52 | 69 |
| Editors | 9 | 6 |
| Electricians | 24 | 20 |
| Engineers, professional | 20 | 24 |
| Lawyers | 12 | 25 |
| Literary and scientific persons | 19 | 15 |
| Musicians | 38 | 240 |
| Physicians | 34 | 72 |
| Sculptors and artists | 116 | 52 |
| Teachers | 31 | 45 |
| Bakers | 201 | 571 |
| Barbers | 82 | 1,718 |
| Blacksmiths | 168 | 909 |
| Butchers | 65 | 278 |
| Carpenters and cabinet makers | 367 | 1,857 |
| Dressmakers | 161 | 615 |
| Gardeners | 30 | 165 |
| Masons | 1,374 | 3,161 |
| Miners | 1,843 | 492 |
| Shoemakers | 287 | 4,004 |
| Stonecutters | 409 | 567 |
| Tailors | 239 | 2,591 |
| Farm laborers | 6,181 | 60,529 |
| Farmers | 1,397 | 4,814 |
| Manufacturers | 14 | 32 |
| Merchants and dealers | 557 | 1,415 |
| Servants | 2,752 | 8,669 |
| Laborers | 14,291 | 56,040 |
| No occupation, including children under 14 | 7,632 | 32,115 |
Tendency to Advance
It will be seen that not all the Italians who come are mere hewers of wood and drawers of water; while there is a distinct tendency on the part of those who begin at the bottom of drudgery, in the subways of American civilization, to advance.Desire for Education The desire for education and betterment is as manifest as it is hopeful. No parents are more ambitious for their children, or more devotedly attached to them, than are the Italian immigrants who have brought over their families, and no children in our schools are brighter or more attentive. There is good blood in the Italian strain. They are an art and music-loving people, and in this respect the southern Italians take the lead. They come from a land of beauty and fame, song and sunshine, and bring a sunny temperament not easily soured by hardship or disappointment. Otherwise the tenement and labor-camp experiences in America would soon spoil them. With the exception of the money they earn, the change has been for the worse.
Amazing Thrift
The thrift of the Italians is proverbial. To earn and save money they will live in conditions unsanitary, unhealthy, and degrading. It is not because they love dirt and degradation, but that they want money so much that they will put up with anything to get it. They can live and save a bit where an American family would starve. They have fairly monopolized for a time certain lines into which they entered—as the small fruit trade, the bootblacking business, and other pursuits. It is said that they have made the Americans a fruit-eating people. Supplanted in the street-vending of fruit by the Greek, the Italian has gone into business in earnest, and you find the small fruit stands everywhere, with always a good stock, and by no means a low price. As barbers and tailors, too, the Italians are becoming known. They have a passion for land, and acquire property rapidly. Take the increase of their real estate holdings in New York as an example. Mr. G. Tuoti, a representative Italian operator in real estate, says that twenty years ago there was not a single Italian owner of real estate in the districts where such owners now predominate. He has a list of more than 800 landowners of Italian descent, whose aggregate holdings in New York are approximately $15,000,000.[57]
Italian and Swiss Girls
Property Holdings
As to Italian savings and investments in the same city, Mr. Gino C. Speranza, vice-president of the Society for Italian Immigrants, finds on computation the Italian investments in the city savings-banks to total more than $15,000,000. He puts the real estate holdings at 4,000, of the clear value of $20,000,000. He estimates that 10,000 stores in the city are owned by Italians, and sets their value at $7,000,000, with a further investment of as much more in wholesale business. He makes the total material value of the property of the Italian colony in New York to be over $60,000,000, and says this value is relatively below that of the Italian possessions in Saint Louis, Boston, and Chicago. The Italian Chamber of Commerce has over two hundred members, and has done much to promote the interests of the immigrants. There is one distinctively Italian Savings Bank, with an aggregate of deposits approximating $1,100,000, and about 7,000 open accounts. Sixteen daily and weekly Italian newspapers in New York alone indicate that the people are reading, and that not all are illiterates by any means. The Italian Hospital, the Italian Benevolent Institute, and over 150 Italian societies for mutual aid and social improvement—all this in New York—indicate a degree of enterprise and progress. In the smaller cities the condition of the Italians is in many respects much better than in the great centers, since the tenement evils are escaped. The reports from such cities as Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Schenectady, New York, are most favorable as to the general character of the Italians as faithful workers and peaceful residents.
Reproduced by special permission of "The World's Work." Copyright 1909.
Increasing Land Values
In the cities and on the small farms of the South and West the prosperity of the Italians is marked. They take unproductive land and make it fertile soil for truck-gardening, and have increased the value of surrounding lands in Louisiana and other states by showing what can be done. If they can be distributed properly, and gotten out of the congested city wards, there is unquestionably a future of prosperity for them. A Texas colony described by Signor Rossi, who recently investigated conditions with view to securing a better distribution by informing intending emigrants as to the openings for them in agricultural sections, illustrates the success of the Italians as gardeners and farmers.
Successful Truck Farmers
In the neighborhood of San Francisco Italians have cultivated about 250 truck farms. They "obtain the manure from the city stables gratis, and transform into fertile farms the original sand dunes." Nearly all our cities where Italians have settled are receiving vegetables and fruit as the product of Italian labor, and the Italian is first in the market. They are found on Long Island and Staten Island, in New Jersey and Delaware, in Virginia, and in all the New England states. Near Memphis, Tennessee, there is a large and noted colony of truck farmers, and they have done much to remove the prejudice formerly existing against Italian labor in the South.[58] In this connection we give hearty second to the statesmanlike proposition made by a Christian worker who has been brought into close touch with the Italians and other foreign peoples in Brooklyn:[59]
A Good Proposition
"Pure philanthropy could not find a better field for the investment of a few hundred thousand dollars than in the organization of farm and garden colonies a few miles out from our great city. On Long Island there are many thousands of acres of light, arable land perfectly adapted to the raising of small fruits and garden products. Irrigation plants could be provided at moderate cost, insuring generous crops. The Italian is prepared by nature, and by training in his own home land, for the cultivation of the soil. In a small way he has demonstrated his ability in the land of his adoption to do the very things here suggested. What he needs is a fair chance.
Strong Guiding Hand Needed
"What is needed is the guiding hand of 'philanthropy and five per cent.' to lead out of the congested and squalid tenement districts thousands of these poor yet industrious people who could make our deserts of Long Island sand and scrub oak blossom as the rose. Let the modern method find illustration here. Let our philanthropist choose for himself a board of trustees to whom should be delegated the management of a generous fund toward the end proposed. Keen-minded and great-hearted business men there are who would delight to give time and care to so worthy an object; and within five years a colony of 25,000 Italians could be transported and translated from the ghettos and filthy, crowded tenement districts of our great city into God's open country, there to be speedily transformed into industrious, self-supporting American citizens. Having studied this problem for years, I believe it is entirely feasible. Brain and heart, time and talent, land and water, enlarging markets demanding produce, men, women, and children begging for an opportunity to earn a decent living—all these are ready and waiting for use and service.The Crucial Point All that is lacking is an adequate supply of good money to set the enterprise in motion. We have millions invested at Coney Island, at Gravesend racing track, and at the new Belmont Park, to beguile and hypnotize the masses. God must have in his keeping somewhere millions to uplift and redeem the masses. There is unspeakable need that they be ministered unto in the spirit of the Master."
Opportunity of Wealth
These are weighty and practical words, and some day Christian men of wealth will see the wisdom of them. How could American prosperity better insure itself and all it represents for the future?
Favorable Conclusion
What, then, is the conclusion of our study? On the whole, decidedly favorable to the Italian, while recognizing the vicious and undesirable element that forms a comparatively small part of the whole. The Italian in general is approachable, receptive to American ideas, not criminal by nature more than other races, not difficult to adapt himself to new environment, and eager to earn and learn. He furnishes excellent raw material for American citizenship, if he does not come too rapidly to be Americanized. But what he will mean to America, for good or ill, depends almost wholly upon what America does for and with and through him. Thus far, there has been too much of prejudice and neglect. Better acquaintance is the first step toward the transformation of the Italian alien into the Italian-American.
Roman Catholic Testimony
As for the religious side, here is testimony from a Roman Catholic source. Mrs. Betts says:[60]
"The relation between the Roman Catholic Church and the mass of the Italians in this country is a source of grief. Reluctantly the writer has to blame the ignorance and bigotry of the immigrant priests who set themselves against American influence; men who too often lend themselves to the purposes of the ward heeler, the district leader in controlling the people, who too often keep silence when the poor are the victims of the shrewd Italians who have grown rich on the ignorance of their countrymen. One man made $8,000 by supplying 1,000 laborers to a railroad. He collected $5 from each man as a railroad fare, though transportation was given by the road, and $3 from each man for the material to build a house. The men supposed it was to be a home for their families. They found as a home the wretched shelters provided by contractors, with which we are all familiar. This transaction, when known, did not disturb the Church or social relations of the offender, but it increased his political power, for it showed what he could do. He is recognized to-day as the Mayor of—— street; his influence is met everywhere."
Accessible to Evangelism
There is no doubt that the Italians are accessible to evangelical Christianity. Thousands of them appreciate the true character of the Church that tried to prevent Italian unity and liberty, and they are peculiarly open to the truths of democracy and the gospel. The home missionary finds among them a fruitful field. Dr. Lee expresses the conclusions of many observers, and indicates also a gate of personal opportunity to serve, when he says, as a result of personal observation and effort:
Exceptionally Open-minded
"Incident to the general recoil from the papal control, an enormous number of the Italians coming to this country are out of the old Church; they are without religion, yet are in a way groping after one. As a consequence the Italian is exceptionally open-minded. You can talk with him. He is not suspicious—not apprehensive lest you mislead him. He may have no respect for any kind of religion, but he is not afraid that you will lure him into forbidden paths. He is beginning to think—a privilege which he has been denied in the past. This open-mindedness is readiness to accept the spirit and theories of American life; for open-mindedness is an American characteristic."
And open-mindedness toward the gospel is the vestibule to conversion.
QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER IV
Aim: To Consider the Desirability of the Italians as Immigrants, and the Opportunity for Christian Work Among Them.
I. Contrast the Old and New Immigration.
1. What is the New Immigration?
2. What has become of the earlier immigrants? Was their coming a benefit to the United States?
3. Would your judgment concerning it have been the same when they were coming?
4. What races have gained and what have lost in their respective proportions?
II. The Italians.
5. What are the leading types at present? What are they likely to be in the future?
6. Mention opposing opinions as to the Italians? Which seem to you nearer the truth?
7. What differences are there between Italians from different parts of Italy?
8. From what class come most of the Italians now arriving? Of what sex? What age? What skill?
9. How has Italian immigration grown in numbers? How has it been distributed?
10. What proportion go West and South? Are efforts being made to attract them anywhere?
III. Are the Italians a Desirable Class of Immigrants?
11. How do they compare with the early Irish immigrants? With other nationalities?
12. What is the record of Italians in this country; as to work, citizenship, self-support, crime, temperance, thrift, care for education, financial ability?
13. Have many Italians taken to farming? Do they succeed? What sort of farming?
14. What efforts are being made to direct and distribute the Italian immigrants?
IV. What is the Opportunity of the Christian Church Among Them?
15. Do you know of any specific effort to uplift them through Christian influences?
16. Does this chapter make you feel that the churches can do more for them? How?
References for Advanced Study.—Chapter IV
I. Further Study of Contrasts Between Different Types of Italians.
Lord et al: The Italian in America, I, III, V.
Brandenburg: Imported Americans, IV, VI, XII.
Holt: Undistinguished Americans, III.II. Illiteracy Among the Northern and Southern Italians.
(1) Its bearing on their desirability as immigrants.
Brandenburg: Imported Americans, IV, XII, XX.
Hall: Immigration, 54-58, 80-83.(2) Its relation to the probable effect of a reading test for admission.
Lord, et al: The Italian in America, VIII, XI.
Hall: Immigration, 262-280.(3) Its bearing on their accessibility to the gospel.
McLanahan: Our People of Foreign Speech, 69-74.
Wood: Americans in Process, IX.III. Location of Italians After Their Arrival and Length of Their Stay.
Brandenburg: Imported Americans, II, XIX, XXII.
Lord, et al: The Italian in America, VI, VII, IX.IV. The Italians in New York City and State.
Benefits and dangers arising from their presence,
and efforts made to help them.
Riis: How the Other Half Lives, V, XXIV.
University Settlement Studies, Vol. I, Numbers
3 and 4, issue January, 1906.
Reports of the Society for Italian Immigrants, 17
Pearl Street, New York City.
Yesterday the Slav was a pauper immigrant; to-day he is what the English, Welsh, Irish, and German miner was a quarter of a century ago—on the way to becoming an American citizen. What sort of a citizen he will be will depend upon the influences brought to bear upon him.—F. J. Warne.
V
THE EASTERN INVASION
My people do not live in America. They live underneath America. America goes on over their heads.—Paul Tymkevich, a Ruthenian Priest.
"My people do not love America. Why should they, from what they see of it?" This is the profoundly suggestive question of a Ruthenian Greek-Catholic priest, of Yonkers, N. Y., who says his people do not come in contact with the better classes of Americans, but do come in contact with everyone who hopes to exploit them.
The subject of immigration is the most far-reaching in importance of all those with which this government has to deal. The history of the world offers no precedent for our guidance, since no such peaceful invasion of alien peoples has ever before occurred. It must have great and largely unforeseen effects upon our form of civilization, our social and political institutions, and, above all, upon the physical, mental, and moral characteristics of our people. Can such a subject be considered too seriously or too minutely? I cannot think it possible. The danger lies in the opposite direction.—F. P. Sargent.
It must not be forgotten that the Slav immigrants, and especially their descendants, are impressionable and adaptable; that forces are at work which have already done much for them, and will do more. The results of the public school are sure though slow. The full-grown individual must be brought under the influence of a yet more powerful agency, one which makes also for civilization and for Americanism in the best sense.—F. J. Warne.
THE EASTERN INVASION
Mistaken Opinion
Least known, least liked, and least assimilable of all the alien races migrating to America are the Slavs. That expresses the general opinion, based on ignorance and dislike. To the common view they seem to combine all the undesirable elements—low living, low intelligence, low morality, low capacity, low everything, including wages—this explaining in large measure their presence. The very name Slav excites prejudice. If an exclusion act of any kind were to be passed it would probably be easier to aim it at the Slavs than any other class of immigrants. We are now to submit this common opinion to the test of investigation, and see whether it is warranted in fact. Nowhere is discrimination based on knowledge more necessary than in dealing with this Slavic race division. First let us learn who the Slavs are. The following table shows this, and also how many of them entered our ports in 1905:
| Poles | 102,437 |
| Slovaks | 52,368 |
| Croatians and Slovenians | 35,104 |
| Lithuanians | 18,604 |
| Ruthenians | 14,473 |
| Roumanians | 7,818 |
| Magyars | 46,030 |
| Servians, Bulgarians, and Montenegrins | 5,823 |
| Dalmatians, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians | 2,639 |
| Bohemians and Moravians | 11,757 |
| Russians proper | 3,746 |
| Russian Jews[61] | 92,388 |
A Large Element in Europe
The Slavs proper number about 125,000,000, or more than one twelfth of the total population of the world. They have been concentrated, until the recent migration began, in the eastern and larger part of Europe. They make up the bulk of Russia, the great Slav power (numbering about 70,000,000), and of the Balkan States, and form nearly half of the population of Austria-Hungary. The various Slavic languages and dialects are closely related but differ as do German and Swedish, so that the different races cannot understand each other.[62]
The Slavs in the Mines
The Slav immigration is of comparatively recent date. Before 1880 it was unnoticeable. A small number of Bohemians and Poles had come, settling in the larger cities. But suddenly the thousands began to pour in. Demand for cheap labor in the coal fields of Pennsylvania drew this class, and presently the American, Canadian, English, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, and German mine-workers found themselves being supplanted by the men from Austria-Hungary and Russia—men who were mostly single and alone, who could live on little, eat any sort of food, wear any kind of clothes, and sleep in a hut or store-house, fourteen in a room. Of course the home of the English-speaking miner, with its carpet on the best room, its pictures and comforts, had to go, as did the miner and his wife and children, also the school and the church—for how could these stay when the Slav, homeless and familyless, could bunk in with a crowd anywhere, or build himself a hillside hut out of driftwood, and subsist on from four to ten dollars a month. The one conspicuous thing about the Slav was his ability to save money. Dr. Warne gives a graphic and pathetic picture of the struggle caused by the introduction of the Slavs into Pennsylvania, and his investigations may profitably be studied.[63]
Slav domination
The results in Pennsylvania thus far are the reverse of satisfactory. The cheap labor has become dear in more senses than one. Where in 1880 the English-speaking foreign-born composed nearly ninety-four per cent. of the mine workers, in 1900 they were less than fifty-two per cent., and to-day are much less still. The Slavs dominate in the mines. Strikes are not less frequent, but more difficult to control, and the necessity of frequent state control by militia, the riots and bloodshed, mark the failure to Americanize this growing class of aliens. A striking illustration of non-assimilation and the attendant perils may be found in Pennsylvania. Fortunately all the Slavs do not go to the mines, and those who follow agriculture or trades afford a pleasanter study. The census of 1900 gave a million and a quarter of foreign-born Slavs and the number has been largely increased. In 1903 221,000 came, not counting the 67,000 Russian and Roumanian Jews. Since these peoples are all prolific, with an oversupply at home, there is every prospect that immigration will increase, unless some check is put upon it. The Slavs will have to be reckoned with, most assuredly, as an element in our civilization.
Slav Distribution in the United States
The maps here given, by the courtesy of Charities, show the sections from which the Slavs come and how they disperse in this country.
Chiefly Unskilled and Illiterate
An analysis of the official statistics shows that, with the exception of the Bohemians, these newest immigrants are mainly unskilled, illiterate peasants from country districts, and with little money in their pockets when they land. Of the Bohemians and Moravians forty-four per cent. are skilled laborers, and only 1.50 per cent. over fourteen are unable to read and write; but of the Poles eighty-five per cent. are unskilled, and thirty per cent. can neither read nor write; and this represents the average. We are getting in an illiterate mass, therefore, and the amount of money they bring per capita averages about $10. But on this point a writer says, speaking from a wide observation:[64]
A Hopeful View
"This does not necessarily mean that they are undesirable immigrants. The illiterate, unskilled immigrant may be, in fact, more desirable than the better educated skilled laborer, or the still better educated professional or business man. There may be a great demand here for unskilled labor. Again, the moral qualities of the untaught but industrious, simple-minded, unspoiled countryman may be far more wholesome for the communities to which he comes than those of the educated, town-bred, unsuccessful business or professional man, the misfit skilled laborer, or the actual loafer and sharper of the cities, who comes over here when home gets too hot for him. As to illiteracy, moreover, the peasant is improving. The great mass of this unskilled labor pushes directly through the great gateway of New York, where unfortunately so many other races stop. They go to the eastern, middle, and northern states, mainly into our coal and iron mines, and our steel mills, but also to the farming regions, where they work patiently and thriftily, first as farm laborers, then as owners of abandoned farming lands or cut-over timber lands, reclaiming and making them fertile to the great advantage of the markets they supply."
Let us now look at this conglomerate immigration a little more in detail, and no longer class these peoples indiscriminately as "barbarian Huns."
I. The Bohemians
The Czechs and their History
We may well begin with the Bohemians, who are among the most skilled, least illiterate, and, to Protestants, most interesting of the Slavs. In studying any group of "strangers within our gates," it is necessary to know its preëmigration history. These people, who call themselves Czechs, are a principal branch of the Slav family and one of the large constituents of the Austria-Hungarian empire, numbering 6,318,697 in 1901. At home they are chiefly agriculturists. In 1900 there were in this country 325,400 persons of Bohemian parentage, of whom 156,991 were born in Bohemia. Since 1900 above 50,000 more have come. Three fourths of them all are in the north central states of the Mississippi Valley, with Chicago as their great center. Cleveland has about 15,000, New York about the same number; while in agriculture there are in round numbers 16,000 in Nebraska, 14,000 in Wisconsin, 11,000 in Iowa, and 9,000 in Texas.
A Group of Twelve Different Nationalities
Taken on the Roof Garden at Ellis Island
Stormy National Struggle
As to their history in the old world, the Bohemians have had such a stormy national struggle, and the bitterness of it has so entered into their lives, that it is impossible rightly to judge them apart from it. It has some instructive lessons for us. These are the conditions, as Mr. Nan Mashek, himself a Bohemian, states them:[65]
John Huss and Jerome of Prague
"For two hundred and fifty years they have been oppressed by a pitilessly despotic rule. In the day of their independence, before 1620, they were Protestants, and the most glorious and memorable events of their history are connected with their struggle for the faith. The history of their Church is the history of their nation, for on the one hand was Protestantism and independence, on the other, Catholicism and political subjection. For two centuries Bohemia was a bloody battleground of Protestant reform. Under the spiritual and military leadership of such men as Jerome of Prague, John Huss, and Ziska, the Bohemians fought their good fight and lost. After the battle of White Mountains, in 1620, national independence was completely lost, and Catholicism was forcibly imposed upon the country. All Protestant Bibles, books, and songs were burned, thus depriving the nation of a large and rich literature. Those who still clung to their faith publicly were banished, their property becoming forfeited to the state. After 150 years, when Emperor Joseph II. of Austria gave back to the Protestants some measure of their former freedom, many of the churches were reëstablished; but Protestantism had lost much of its strength. The political revolution of 1848 led to new subjugation, and emigration was the result. Large numbers left the country in quest of freedom, and some of these found their way to America."
Farmer Settlers in the West
The first Bohemian settlers were of the most intelligent and more prosperous classes. They went West, chiefly to Wisconsin, where their farms are among the finest in the state. In Kewaunee County they constitute over one third of the population, or 6,000 out of 17,000. They have developed into an excellent type of American citizenship, have looked well after the education of their children, many of whom have gone to college, and are in every way progressive. Read thoughtfully what Mr. Mashek says:
Easy Assimilation Through Religion
"In the country the assimilation of Bohemians is not a problem which offers difficulties. The public school is everywhere so potent an Americanizer that it alone is adequate. There is, however, one other influence which if brought to bear, especially in the large communities, would be helpful. I refer to the Protestant faith. For the most part Bohemians conversant with their history as a people are naturally hostile to the Catholic Church, and when the restraints which held them in their own country are removed by emigration, many of the more enlightened quietly drop their allegiance, and, through lack of desire or opportunity, fail to ally themselves with any other. So strong is this non-religious tendency among the Bohemians—especially in the cities—that it has resulted in active unbelief, and hostility to Church influence. This spiritual isolation, with its resultant social separation, is doing great harm in retarding assimilation. Aside from this matter of religion, the Bohemian falls into American customs with surprising readiness."
Protestant Opportunity
Thus a member of this race points out to Protestants their opportunity. Here is a people with inherited Protestant tendencies. They have been driven in Bohemia by an enforced Roman Catholicism into antagonism to the Church as they know it.
Freethinkers' Society
In Chicago, where over 100,000 of them make of that city the third largest Bohemian center in the world, they have a strongly organized Freethinkers' Society, with three hundred branches, which issues an atheistic catechism, and has it taught in its numerous Sunday-schools, as they are called. But there are thousands who do not belong to this cult, and who are open to the gospel. The same is true of the Bohemians in New York, Cleveland, and elsewhere who have not advanced to the Chicago infidel standpoint. Their character has not been well understood. They possess excellent qualities for the making of good Americans. Christianity in pure and true form is all they need.
A Home-loving and Musical People
The Bohemians are a home people, social, and fond of organizations of every kind. Music is their passion, and their clubs, mutual benefit societies, and loan associations, successfully run, show large capacity for management. They have forty-two papers, seven of them religious, two Protestant. Their freethinking is not all of it by any means of the dogmatic sort which has its catechism of atheism. There is another class, represented by an old woman with a broad brow over which the silvery hair is smoothly parted, who says to the missionary, "I have my God in my heart, I shall deal with him. I do not want any priest to step between us." That is the class which the gospel can reach and ought to reach speedily.
Where Located
About seventy-five per cent, of the Bohemians live in the northwest. In Cleveland they have entered into various industries. In New York they are largely employed in cigar-making, at which the women and girls work under conditions not calculated to inspire them with regard for God or man. The home life cannot be what it should when the mothers are compelled to work in the factories, besides having all the home cares and work. The testimony of the tenement inspectors is that the Bohemians are perhaps the cleanest of the poor people in the city, and are struggling heroically against the pitiful conditions of the tenement-houses in which they are compelled to exist.
II. The Poles
A Large Element
The Poles form one of the oldest and largest elements of the Slav immigration. In 1900 the census gave 668,536 persons whose parents were born in Poland, and of these 383,510 were themselves born there. Nearly a quarter of a million of the latter came to this country between 1890 and 1900, and in the five years following, 1900-5, about 350,000 more arrived. A third of a million Poles now in America do not understand English. The Polish strength is indicated by the Polish National Alliance, with 50,000 members, and by a list of fifty newspapers published in the Polish tongue, four of them dailies, printed in Chicago, Buffalo, and Milwaukee, the largest centers.
Reproduced by special permission of "The World's Work." Copyright 1909.
Religious Tolerance
"The higher classes of Poland were touched by the pre-Reformation movement of Huss at Prague, where they were generally educated. Reformation ideas did not gain as great currency as in Bohemia, but both Calvin and Luther were interested in their progress in Poland. A Jesuit authority complained that two thousand Romanist churches had become Protestant. A Union Synod was formed and consensus of doctrine adopted. Poland is described as the most tolerant country of Europe in the sixteenth century. It became an asylum for the persecuted Protestants of other lands, notably the Bohemian brethren. Later on, under the influence of Protestantism, literature and education were stimulated. But under succeeding Swedish and Saxon dynasties, and through Jesuit instrumentality, religious liberty and national independence were lost, and Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. As a race the Poles boast such names as Copernicus the astronomer, Kosciusko the patriot warrior, and Chopin the composer."[66]
Distribution
The distribution in America in 1904 was as follows: Illinois, 123,887, of whom 107,669 were in the vicinity of the Chicago stockyards; Pennsylvania, 118,203, mainly in the anthracite coal regions and about Pittsburg, with 11,000 in Philadelphia; New York, 115,046, 50,000 of them in New York City and 35,000 in Buffalo; Wisconsin, 70,000, 36,000 in Milwaukee; Michigan, 59,075, 26,869 in Detroit; Ohio, 31,136, 15,000 in Cleveland and 9,000 in Toledo; in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey, between 20,000 and 30,000 each; in Connecticut and Indiana, over 10,000 each; and in smaller numbers widely distributed. Their preference for the larger cities is shown by these figures. Recent immigrants are going more into the New England States. Already there is a second generation of them in the cities and the farming country of the Middle West, and they have their own teachers and doctors. In New England they are spreading in the factory towns, and Chicopee, Massachusetts, has six thousand of them; while in the tobacco belt of Connecticut they furnish a majority of the farm hands. Ten years ago Hartford had only three or four hundred Polish families; to-day there is a parish of a thousand people, and they have built a Catholic church and given $20,000 toward a school.
Independent in Spirit; Open to the Gospel
Like most of the Slavs, the Poles who come here are commonly poor, and of the peasant class; about one third of them are illiterate. They are clannish, and clash with the Lithuanians and other races. Lovers of liberty, they clash also with the Catholic authorities, going so far even as organized rebellion to obtain control of their church properties and freedom in the choice of priests. They have a superstitious dread of Protestantism, which has been misrepresented to them as extremely difficult. "Polish priests about Pittsburg are said to boast of the number of Bibles, distributed by Protestants, which they gather from the people and burn." If once Protestantism gets a grip upon them, rapid defection from ecclesiastical tyranny will follow. Dr. H. K. Carroll figures that the Polish Catholics as distinct from Roman Catholics, have forty-three churches and 42,859 communicants, with thirty-three priests—this representing the extent of revolt against the Romish Church. It must be granted that comparatively little has been done to reach this people, and it is not strange that as yet the number of Protestant Poles is small. It takes a larger and more imposing movement to make a definite impression upon those accustomed to the size and strength of the Catholic organizations.
III. The Slovaks
A Farming People
The Slovaks of northern Hungary number about two millions, and are closely akin to the Bohemians and Moravians. According to Mr. Rovinanek, editor of the Pittsburg Slovak Daily, they constitute the trunk of the great Slavonic national tree, from which have branched so many of the Slav people, at the head of whom now stands the powerful Russian empire. From prehistoric time they were celebrated as a peaceful, industrious people, fond of agricultural and pastoral life. The immigration has been from the agricultural class, and at first settlement was made in the mining regions of Pennsylvania. Farming had its inherited attractions, however, and there are hundreds of Slovak farmers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Ohio; while in Minnesota, Arkansas, Virginia, and Wisconsin there are colonies of them, where for many miles on every side the land is entirely in their possession. Kossuth was a Slovak, to their lasting pride. Over 100,000 of them have come to America since 1900, one fourth of them illiterates. They had little opportunity to be otherwise at home, but since coming here their advancement educationally has been marked.
Religious in Spirit
"This is due," says Mr. Rovinanek, "largely to the intensely religious spirit which prevails among the Slavic peoples, and to the fact that here they have been able to combine schools with their churches." The total number now in the country is estimated at 250,000, of whom 150,000 are in Pennsylvania. Two thirds of the immigrants are men.
Industrial Enterprise
They live usually in very poor and crowded quarters, one family having sometimes from fifteen to twenty boarders, and under conditions far from cleanly or sanitary. There are nearly as many newspapers in the United States in the Slovak language as in Hungary, with a much larger total circulation. This press has stimulated industrial and business enterprises in the Slovak communities. There are numerous small mercantile establishments. In Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, wire and tinware factories established with Slovak capital and conducted with Slovak labor are securing the cream of this trade in the country. For centuries the tinware of Europe was made largely by the Slovaks. They have a high position also for electrical designs and other skilled work.
Organizations
They are a great people for organization. The National Slavonic Society was organized in Pittsburg in 1890, with 250 members; it now has 20,000 active members and 512 lodges. It is primarily a beneficial organization, but has done a valuable work in educating its members and inducing them to become American citizens. The society requires its members, after a reasonable time, to obtain naturalization papers and thus promotes Americanization. It has paid out nearly a million dollars in death benefits, and much more in sick benefits; has aided students in this country and Hungary, and national literary and patriotic workers as well, besides coming to the rescue of Slavs in Hungary persecuted by the government. Many other societies have sprung from this parent organization, including a Presbyterian Slavistic Union, and hundreds of literary, benevolent, and political clubs, so that there are between 100,000 and 125,000 organized Slovaks in the United States.
IV. The Magyars or Hungarians
Conquerors of Hungary
The Magyars belong properly in a division by themselves. These people, who are Hungarians proper, do not class strictly with the Germans and Slavs of Hungary. They drove out their Slavic predecessors or subjugated them in the ninth century, and became masters of the Danubian plains. Roman Catholicism became the state religion about the year 1000, but during the Reformation period the Lutheran and Reformed types of Protestantism gained a large following and were granted liberty. This was afterward denied them, and bloody struggles followed, as in Bohemia. Protestants were again placed on equal footing with Roman Catholics in 1791. The Magyars number over eight millions and comprise a little more than one half the population of Hungary.
Good and Bad Qualities
There are at present between 250,000 and 300,000 Hungarians in America. They have a fair degree of education, are generally reputed to be honest, and as compared with the Slavs (with whom they are commonly confused) are more intelligent and less industrious, "more agile in limb and temper." Many are addicted to drink and quarreling. It is noticeable that the Protestants are morally and intellectually superior to the Catholics. The bulk of the Magyars (eighty-six per cent.) are in the Pennsylvania mining regions, in New York, New Jersey, and Ohio. At home chiefly agriculturists, here they work mostly in mines, mills, and factories. The Roman Catholic Hungarians are said to lapse easily from the Church, going into indifferentism and nothingism. This gives opening for Protestant mission work.
The City Colony
A writer who has made special investigations, in the line of social settlement studies,[67] says that eighty per cent. of the Magyars arriving in New York go at once to the farms and mines. The New York colony numbers 50,000 to 60,000, including the Hungarian Jews, who are scarcely distinguishable from the Gentiles. The life of their quarter is one continuous whirl of excitement. Pleasure seems the chief end. The café is their club room. Intensely social, fond of conviviality and gaiety, bright, polished, graceful, the Magyar soon learns English, and adapts himself to his new surroundings. The newspaper, literary society, and charitable organization are the only institutions he cares to support. Pride, independence, fertility of resource, lack of perseverance, love of ease rather than of a strenuous life—these are his qualities. Tailoring is the chief occupation in New York, though Hungarians are also furriers, workers in hotels and restaurants and various kinds of light factories, and some are shopkeepers and merchants. Those who speak from close knowledge call them excellent "citizen-material." In one of these typical East Side Hungarian cafés, as a guest of the Hungarian Republican Club, President Roosevelt spent the evening and made a noteworthy address on February 14, 1905. Among other things, he told them that "Americanism is not a matter of birthplace or race, but of the spirit that is in the man."
V. The Lithuanians and Letts
Mine and Mill Workers
The Lithuanians in Russia number about two millions. They began to come in 1868, driven out by famine at home, and the first comers went to the northern Pennsylvania mines. At present there are about 200,000 in America; 50,000 of them in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania, 25,000 in the soft coal mines of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia; 10,000 in Philadelphia and Baltimore; 15,000 in New York; 25,000 in New England; mainly in Boston, Worcester, Brockton, Hartford, and Bridgeport; 10,000 in Ohio and Michigan; 50,000 in Illinois and Wisconsin; while several thousand are scattered over the western states. Though nearly all raised on farms, they do not take to farming here, nor do they like open air work, preferring the mines, factories, foundries, and closed shops. In the cities many of them are tailors, and many are found in packing-houses, steel plants, hat and shoe factories, and mills. Their chief curse is intemperance, and they are not of strong character, having little of the quality of leadership. Generally they are devout Roman Catholics; when not they are apt to become freethinkers, and a freethinkers' alliance has been formed among them. They are described as commonly peaceable, well dressed, and good-natured. Their children are mostly in public schools. Little Protestant work has been done among them.
Three Types of Immigrants
Less Favorable Repute
The Lettish people, like the Lithuanians, their neighbors and kinsmen, are among the oldest races of Europe. They are clearly distinguished from the southern Slavs, being tall and fair, like the Swede, in complexion. The Letts at home number about a million and a half. Since 1900 nearly 35,000 of them have come to America, settling mostly in the anthracite coal regions. They are also found in New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Connecticut, and New Jersey. About one half are illiterate, and in the coal fields both Lithuanians and Letts have a poor reputation. In Boston, however, there is an encouraging mission work among the Lettish people.
VI. The Ruthenians
From a Poor Environment
The Ruthenians, or Ukrainians, called also the Little Russians, at home occupy the southern part of Russia, eastern and southwestern Galicia, and part of Bukovina in Austria-Hungary. Their number in Europe is computed at over 30,000,000. They are darker and smaller than the typical Slav. Roman Catholic in religion, they are generally poor, illiterate, backward in civilization, and oppressed. Immigration began perhaps thirty years ago, but not in appreciable numbers until recent years. In the four years ending in June, 1903, there were 26,496 arrivals, two thirds men, nearly all unskilled laborers, and one half unable to read or write. The number in 1905 was 14,473. Pennsylvania is their common destination. Estimates as to their present numbers in the country vary from 160,000 to 350,000, the latter figures given by Ivan Ardan, editor of their paper, Svoboda, at Scranton. He says there are 60,000 more in Canada, and as many in Brazil and other South American republics, or about half a million altogether in the new world. Probably there are 90,000 of them in Pennsylvania. They are said to be accessible to missionary influences, but their ignorance and crowded conditions of living make work difficult.
Mostly Laborers
About eight tenths of the Ruthenians here are laborers, chiefly in the mines; and about one tenth are farmers. The young women work in shops and factories, but prefer domestic service, and are efficient. The people are very saving, and scarcely one but has from $50 to $200 at least saved and put away in some hidden corner or in a bank. They buy lots and build houses, or take up farming. They have beneficial societies for sickness, injury, and death, including wife and mother as well as husband and father. Mr. Ardan says Ruthenian men and women drink, "farmers and Protestants being exceptions." What a notable exception and testimony that is.
Greek Catholics
Superstitious, devout, attached to their churches, the majority are Greek Catholics, with a few Protestants from Russian Ukraine, where Protestants are bitterly persecuted. There are 108 Ruthenian churches, composed of eighty Greek Catholic, twenty-six Greek Orthodox (Russian State Church), and two Protestant, besides several Protestant missions.
Hopeful Features
The people are as a rule very eager to learn both their native and the English language. They have their adult schools for this purpose. Their children go to the public schools. There are four Ruthenian weeklies and one monthly published in this country, and some books. Education is prompted by reading circles, lectures, and societies for self-improvement. The race has a fine physique, with great physical endurance. Individuality is more marked in it than in many Slavonic races, and assimilation is comparatively rapid. In this country they rapidly wake up to a new life and promise to make a worthy addition to citizenship. Such missionary opportunities should move our Christian churches to active efforts.
VII. Other Nationalities
Croatians and Dalmatians
We can only mention the remaining nationalities of the Slavic group. The Croatians and Dalmatians, unable to make a living at home, are fleeing from starvation and mismanagement, and seeking work in America. Croatia is a kingdom of Austria-Hungary. Dalmatia is the seacoast province of Austria.
Slovenians
The Slovenians come from the provinces northwest of Croatia. The three nationalities have probably sent between 200,000 and 300,000 persons to America. Dalmatians are oyster fishermen at New Orleans, make staves in Mississippi, are wine dealers in San Francisco, and vine growers and miners in other parts of California. The Slovenians are chiefly found in the Pennsylvania mines and other mining regions. The Croatians are mostly in the same regions and work, although in New York there are about 15,000 of them engaged as longshoremen and mechanics, and a small number are farmers out West. They are Roman Catholic, largely illiterate and unskilled. The Catholics do little for them, and the Protestant denominations have undertaken no specific work in their behalf.
A Needy Group
The Bosnians, Herzegovinians, Bulgarians, Servians, and Montenegrins are just beginning to come in appreciable numbers. They represent much the same home conditions as the nationalities mentioned more in detail. Catholicism, Greek or Roman, has cast them pretty much in the same mold. Ignorant, semi-civilized many of them, they have everything to get and learn in their new home, and afford still larger opportunity for Protestant Christianity in its mighty work of making and keeping America the land of righteousness and progress.
A Hopeful View
An interesting series of articles appeared in 1906 in a magazine devoted to social betterment,[68] the writer having spent a year in studying conditions in the Slav districts of Austria-Hungary. Living among the people, she has become profoundly interested in them, and takes a most hopeful view of their possibilities in America. She says the life from which the peasants mostly come to us is the old peasant life, but a little way removed from feudalism and serfdom. Each little village is a tiny world in itself, with its own traditions and ways, its own dress, perhaps even its own dialect. The amazing gift of the Slav for color and music permeates the whole home life with poetry. The Slav immigrants have the virtues and faults of their primitive world. They come to America to make money. The majority come with intent to earn money to take back home, rather than with expectation to settle here permanently. Unenterprising, unlettered, they are at the same time hardy, thrifty and shrewd, honest and pious. They are undoubtedly highly endowed with gifts of imagination and artistic expression for which in their American conditions they find little or no outlet.
Necessity of Christian Environment
And here again is the point we are constantly having impressed upon us. What the immigrant shall become, for good or ill, depends chiefly upon what conditions are made for him, and whether he is given a chance to express his best self in this country. Grinding monopoly, harsh treatment, prejudice that drives into clannishness and race hatred—these will make of the Slavs a peril. A genuinely Christian environment and treatment will find them receptive and ready for Americanization through evangelization.
VIII. The Russian Jews
An Interesting Group
In some respects the most interesting immigrants from the Slav countries are the Jews from Russia and Roumania. The German Jew and the Russian Jew must not be confounded; they are as distinct as any two races in the entire immigrant group. The German Jew came to America to make more money, and is making it. The Russian Jew, who comes from persecution, is rigidly orthodox, and regards the commercial German class as apostate. He forms a picturesque, vigorous, sui generis member of the alien procession.
Coming Rapidly
Since the year 1881 not less than 750,000 Jewish immigrants have arrived at the port of New York alone. On Manhattan Island more than every fourth person you meet is a Jew. The Jews admitted at Ellis Island during the past five years outnumbered all the communicants in the Protestant churches in Greater New York.
Where they Come from
Of the 106,000 Jews admitted in 1904, a large proportion of whom settled in New York, 77,000 came from the Russian Empire, 20,000 from Austria-Hungary, and 6,000 from Roumania. Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe are all one people.
Occupation
They show a larger proportion with skilled, professional and commercial training and experience than do any of the other newer immigrants except the Finns. Nearly twenty per cent. of the Hebrew immigrants are tailors, nearly five per cent. mechanics, merchants, or clerks, and almost one per cent. follow the professions. Of the remainder a very considerable proportion, though not a majority, are skilled workers such as bakers, tobacco workers, carpenters, painters, and butchers. The garment trades, to which they find themselves adapted, and for which New York is the world center, engages perhaps 100,000 of them, men, women, and children, many of them in the sweat-shops, which they created. For the first time in their history, the Jews have built up a great industrial class, this being an American development. According to a Jewish authority,[69] the "unspeakable evils of the tenements and sweat-shops" of the ghetto are undermining their physical and moral health.
Location
The newly arrived Russian Jew is kept in the ghetto of the larger cities—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston—not only by his poverty and ignorance but by his orthodoxy. In this district the rules of his religion can more certainly be followed. Here can be found the lawful food, here the orthodox places of worship, here neighbors and friends can be visited within "a sabbath day's journey." The young people, however, rapidly shake off such trammels, and in the endeavor to be like Americans urge their parents to move away from this "foreign" district. When they succeed, the Americanizing process may be considered well under way. Concerning the religious change that comes over the young Jew after he reaches this country, a writer says:[70]
Become Estranged from Judaism
"Many a young man, who was firm in his religious convictions in his native village, having heard of the religious laxity prevalent in America, had fully made up his mind not to be misled by the temptation and allurements of the free country, but he succumbed in his struggle and renounced his Judaism when first submitting his chin to the barber's razor, at the entreaties and persuasions of his Americanized friends and relatives. Religion then appeared to him not only distinct from life, but antagonistic to it, and since it was life, a free, full, undisturbed life he sought in coming here, he felt compelled to divorce himself from all the religious ties that had hitherto encompassed him. Thus it is that the immigrant Jewish youth, even those faithful and loyal to the institutions of old and who desired to conduct their lives in accordance with the precepts of their religion, became estranged from Judaism and suffered themselves to be swept along by the tide. Thus the immigrant Jew in America has frequently become callous and indifferent, and sometimes cynical and antagonistic to everything pertaining to Judaism." While they are thus lost to Judaism they are not won to Christianity, but they ought to be. The older people become reconciled with difficulty to this irreligious attitude and "the old Jewess still curses Columbus for his great transgression in discovering America, where her children have lost their religion."
Ambitious for Wealth and Education
The Russian Jews usually come in great poverty, but do not stay poor very long. In New York's East Side many tenements in Jewish quarters are owned by persons who formerly lived in crowded corners of others like them; and from this population comes many a Broadway merchant, and professional men in plenty. It is certain that the adult Hebrew immigrant has definite aspirations toward social, economic, and educational advancement. The poorest among them will make all possible sacrifices to keep his children in school; and one of the most striking social phenomena in New York City is the way in which the Jews have taken possession of the public schools, in the highest as well as lowest grades. The city college is practically filled with Jewish pupils. In the lower schools Jewish children are the delight of their teachers for cleverness at their books, obedience, and general good conduct; and the vacation schools, night schools, social settlements, libraries, bathing places, parks, and playgrounds of the East Side are fairly besieged with Jewish children. Jewish boys are especially ambitious to enter professions or go into business. For example, the head of one of the largest institutions of the East Side tells a story of a long interview with a class of boys in which all spoke of the work they intended to do. Law, medicine, journalism, and teaching came first. There were even some who intended to become engineers. A smaller number were going into business, and not one intended to learn any manual trade. Some were going in for music, and occasionally one is found who intends to make his living by art. But above all, the young Jew is ambitious and intends to rise. This is true in all cities.
Worthy Qualities
The strong good qualities of the Jews are absence of the drink evil, love of home, desire to preserve the purity of the family, and remarkable eagerness for self-improvement. They easily adapt themselves to the new environment and assimilate the customs and language of the new country. This leads to the danger of readily falling in with the vices found in the tenement districts—the children showing this in the large numbers of them that appear in the Juvenile Court. The remedy is removal, and this the Jewish parents seek as soon as they are able.
Good Citizens, but Poor Americans
With decent environment and a fair chance, the Russian Jew promises to become a good citizen, intellectually keen, commercially shrewd, professionally bound to shine. But that he will ever, except in rare instances, imbibe the real American spirit or understand the American ideals is a question. At the same time, the Jews are believers in the principle of democracy, and in case of an issue arising on the separation of Church and State, would be found standing with American Protestantism for the religious liberties of the American people.