A SLAVIC HOUSEHOLD.
We have seen that more than half the Italians, Croatians, Servians and Ruthenians are single men, and that a large proportion of the other races are similarly placed. Many are married but their wives are across the seas. Their policy is to make all they can and spend as little as possible. We have also seen that the wages of common labor are from $1.35 to $1.65 a day and that those who have acquired a little skill earn from $1.75 to $2.25. The monthly expenditure of single men bent on saving will not exceed ten dollars a month. Some Russians complain when their monthly bill amounts to eight dollars. The drinking bill will not exceed five dollars a month; and the sum spent on clothing will hardly equal that. Hence a common laborer can save from ten to fifteen dollars a month; the semi-skilled workers from twenty to twenty-five dollars; and boarding bosses accumulate what is to them a competence. A banker doing business among the Servians of the South Side stated that each pay day he sent back between $20,000 and $25,000 to the old country on deposit. In September of 1907, one of the banks on the South Side where the foreigners do business had $600,000 on deposit. Such a showing has come only after a vigorous campaign on the part of the banks of Pittsburgh to overcome the mistrust which foreigners feel toward private institutions. Individual small banks conducted by men of their own nationality were the rule for many years. The institutions were ephemeral and the impression prevailed among the laborers that they were schemes of sinister men to wheedle their money from them. Some men still secrete their savings, trusting no one.
Through the kindness of one of the Pittsburgh bankers, this table of twelve representative Slavic depositors is given:
| Single Men. | Married Men. | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1906-1907. | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Sept.-Nov. | $95 | $103 | $45 | $35 | $110 | $100 | $60 | $240 | $70 | $100 | $105 | |
| Dec.-Feb. | 115 | 63 | 25 | 135 | 60 | 100 | 60 | 150 | 190 | 50 | ||
| March-May | 20 | 93 | 25 | 95 | 60 | 100 | 60 | 50 | 145 | 100 | 200 | 90 |
| June-Aug. | 207 | 76 | 105 | 73 | 50 | 55 | 115 | 120 | 200 | 140 | 40 | |
| Totals | $437 | $335 | $200 | $338 | $280 | $300 | $265 | $555 | $525 | $300 | $440 | $285 |
UNIFORMED NATIONAL SOCIETIES IN SESQUI-CENTENNIAL PARADE.
