Woman's work in municipalities

by Mary Ritter Beard

The North American Civic League for Immigrants supported for some time in Rochester a Bureau of Information and Protection for Foreigners, which was the creation originally of Florence Cross (now Mrs. Kitchelt), a social worker among the Italians there. Miss Cross explained the need of this bureau in this way:

“There are in Rochester a large number of foreign-born inhabitants who are ignorant of our civic institutions, ignorant of the laws of sanitation and hygiene, ignorant of the protection offered them by our laws and our various philanthropic institutions. Except through the influence of their children in the schools, many of these adult foreigners have little opportunity to understand those municipal activities which are intended to help rather than to punish. Many of them know nothing of the Public Health Association, the Legal Aid Protection Committee, the Provident Loan Association, the evening schools and similar well-established agencies for reaching just such needs as theirs.

“Therefore this bureau was established on a modest scale as a clearing house to bring inquirers to the people who can assist them. The rooms are open every afternoon and evening, where foreigners who are in any kind of trouble or perplexity may come for advice. During four months when the bureau was first opened, the callers averaged 71 per day.”

This bureau received reports from the New York office of the Civic League for Immigrants about all newly arrived immigrant children whose destination was Rochester. The children were located on their arrival and their names sent to the School Census Board. Among these, a number of cases of child labor have been found and reported. Several positions for men out of work have also been found. Leaflets on tuberculosis have been distributed and cases, when discovered, sent to the proper authorities. A pure milk station has been maintained at the bureau and its other activities have included the preparation of Italian dances for the National Playground Congress; a series of articles contributed to the Italian press on living standards, health, duties of citizens, school laws, savings banks, honest elections and similar topics; and a suggestion made to the City Club, which was adopted, that a Fourth of July banquet be tendered the newly naturalized citizens of Rochester.

The Rochester Bureau came most prominently before the public during the directorship of Miss Cross while a strike of Italian laborers was going on in Rochester. The story of this strike illustrates fundamental elements in the work of assimilation. The Italian laborers’ union some nine years previously had succeeded in getting a wage increase. The increased cost of living in the meantime had made their wage inadequate for a decent standard of living, so the union gave contractors a six months’ notice of its demand for a second increase. The demand was ignored and the strike commenced. Mr. Kitchelt thus relates the story:

Newspapers began their campaign then. Those who had blamed the Italians for their low standard of living now criticized them for trying to improve it by the only means in their power. The chief of police held a conference with the contractors, and groups of strikers were attacked by the police.

Some men were shot and others arrested. The cases of the latter were twice postponed in spite of their desire for a speedy trial and they were finally discharged for lack of evidence. The strikers appealed to the mayor to try to effect a settlement and several conferences were held in his office. But he was himself a contractor and the results were not apparent. Arbitration through Italian lawyers was tried but with no success.

In this extremity some of the strikers’ executive board turned to the Bureau for help. Miss Cross called together a committee of prominent citizens and had the men tell them their story. It was shown that the wages of the laborers averaged $6.50 a week, an amount inadequate to maintain a family in health and strength; that the city was being injured by a continually lowering standard of living; that the injection into the community of irresponsible strike-breakers was a menace to the public peace and welfare.

The newspapers were induced to print the truth about the strikers. Public sentiment gradually changed in favor of the workmen. Petitions from residents and shop-keepers along the torn-up streets were laid before the mayor. After a strike of four weeks, the contractors consented to a conference which resulted in an immediate increase of one cent an hour and an agreement to arbitrate the wage scale before the next season’s contracts were entered into.

Among the various national associations which aid the immigrant directly and indirectly is the Council of Jewish Women, organized primarily to aid Jewish immigrants to adapt themselves to American conditions of life and labor. It has sections in all the larger cities and towns, with a central system of organization whereby rapid coöperation is secured among the sections in times of need.