Part 1

NEW HOMES FOR OLD

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_Americanization Studies_

SCHOOLING OF THE IMMIGRANT. Frank V. Thompson, Supt. of Public Schools, Boston

AMERICA VIA THE NEIGHBORHOOD. John Daniels

OLD WORLD TRAITS TRANSPLANTED. Robert E. Park, Professorial Lecturer, University of Chicago Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology, Oberlin College

A STAKE IN THE LAND. Peter A. Speek, in charge, Slavic Section, Library of Congress

IMMIGRANT HEALTH AND THE COMMUNITY. Michael M. Davis, Jr., Director, Boston Dispensary

NEW HOMES FOR OLD. Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, Professor of Social Economy, University of Chicago

ADJUSTING IMMIGRANT AND INDUSTRY. (In preparation) William M. Leiserson, Chairman, Labor Adjustment Boards, Rochester and New York

THE IMMIGRANT PRESS AND ITS CONTROL. (In preparation) Robert E. Park, Professorial Lecturer, University of Chicago

THE IMMIGRANT'S DAY IN COURT. (In preparation) Kate Holladay Claghorn, Instructor in Social Research, New York School of Social Work

AMERICANS BY CHOICE. (In preparation) John P. Gavit, Vice-President, New York _Evening Post_

SUMMARY. (In preparation) Allen T. Burns, Director, Studies in Methods of Americanization

_Harper & Brothers Publishers_

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AMERICANIZATION STUDIES ALLEN T. BURNS, DIRECTOR

NEW HOMES FOR OLD

BY

S. P. BRECKINRIDGE

PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ECONOMY UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1921

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NEW HOMES FOR OLD

Copyright, 1921, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America

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PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The material in this volume was gathered by the Division of Adjustment of Homes and Family Life of Studies in Methods of Americanization.

Americanization in this study has been considered as the union of native and foreign born in all the most fundamental relationships and activities of our national life. For Americanization is the uniting of new with native-born Americans in fuller common understanding and appreciation to secure by means of self-government the highest welfare of all. Such Americanization should perpetuate no unchangeable political, domestic, and economic regime delivered once for all to the fathers, but a growing and broadening national life, inclusive of the best wherever found. With all our rich heritages, Americanism will develop best through a mutual giving and taking of contributions from both newer and older Americans in the interest of the commonweal. This study has followed such an understanding of Americanization.

FOREWORD

This volume is the result of studies in methods of Americanization prepared through funds furnished by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It arose out of the fact that constant applications were being made to the Corporation for contributions to the work of numerous agencies engaged in various forms of social activity intended to extend among the people of the United States the knowledge of their government and the obligations to it. The trustees felt that a study which should set forth, not theories of social betterment, but a description of the methods of the various agencies engaged in such work, would be of distinct value to the cause itself and to the public.

The outcome of the study is contained in eleven volumes on the following subjects: Schooling of the Immigrant; The Press; Adjustment of Homes and Family Life; Legal Protection and Correction; Health Standards and Care; Naturalization and Political Life; Industrial and Economic Amalgamation; Treatment of Immigrant Heritages; Neighborhood Agencies and Organization; Rural Developments; and Summary. The entire study has been carried out under the general direction of Mr. Allen T. Burns. Each volume appears in the name of the author who had immediate charge of the particular field it is intended to cover.

Upon the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation a committee consisting of the late Theodore Roosevelt, Prof. John Graham Brooks, Dr. John M. Glenn, and Mr. John A. Voll has acted in an advisory capacity to the director. An editorial committee consisting of Dr. Talcott Williams, Dr. Raymond B. Fosdick, and Dr. Edwin F. Gay has read and criticized the manuscripts. To both of these committees the trustees of the Carnegie Corporation are much indebted.

The purpose of the report is to give as clear a notion as possible of the methods of the agencies actually at work in this field and not to propose theories for dealing with the complicated questions involved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Publisher's Note v

Foreword vii

Table of Contents ix

List of Tables xiii

List of Illustrations xv

Introduction xvii

CHAPTER I. FINDING THE NEW HOME 1 The First Adjustments 1 Homes Studied 6 Dissolving Barriers 14

II. FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 19 Separated Families 20 Keeping Boarders 23 The Man Without a Family 27 The Single Woman 29 The Migrant Family 32 From Farming to Industry 34 The Wage-earning Mother 39 Changed Duties of a Mother 43 Paternal Authority Passing 47

III. THE CARE OF THE HOUSE 54 New Housekeeping Conditions 54 Demands of American Cookery 58 Water Supply Essential 60 Overcrowding Hampers the Housewife 62 Women Work Outside the Home 65 Housing Improvement 66 Government Building Loans 75 Instruction in Sanitation 80

IV. PROBLEMS OF SAVING 85 Present and Future Needs 85 Unfamiliarity with Money 88 Irregularity of Income 91 Reserves for Misfortunes 92 The Cost of Weddings 98 Christenings and Fête Days 103 Buying Property 105 Building and Loan Associations 109 Postal Savings Banks 111 Account Keeping 115

V. THE NEGLECTED ART OF SPENDING 117 The Company Store 119 Shopping Habits 122 Modification of Diets 130 Furniture on the Installment Plan 134 New Fashions and Old Clothes 135 Training Needed 138 Co-operation in Spending 141

VI. THE CARE OF THE CHILDREN 149 The Unpreparedness of the Immigrant Mother 150 Breakdown of Parental Authority 153 Learning to Play 157 Parents and Education 159 Following School Progress 163 The Revolt of Older Children 169 Relations of Boys and Girls 174 The Juvenile Court 181

VII. IMMIGRANT ORGANIZATIONS AND FAMILY PROBLEMS 187 Safety in Racial Affiliations 188 Local Benefit Societies 192 National Croatian Organizations 196 Care of Croatian Orphans 199 Organizations of Poles 201 Polish Women's Work 203 Lithuanian Woman's Alliance 209 Ukrainian Beginnings 215 Growth of National Organizations 218

VIII. AGENCIES OF ADJUSTMENT 222 Immigrant Protective League 223 A National Reception Committee 227 The Public School 230 The Home Teacher 236 Settlement Classes 238 Co-operation of Agencies 240 International Institutes 243 Training for Service 248 Home Economics Work 254 Government Grants in England 263 The Lesson for the United States 266 Mothers' Assistants 268 Recreational Agencies 272

IX. FAMILY CASE WORK 277 The Language Difficulty 280 Standards of Living 286 Visiting Housekeepers 289 Knowledge of Backgrounds 298 Training Facilities Needed 301 The Transient Family 304 Need for National Agency 307

APPENDIX 313 Principal Racial Organizations 313 Czech 313 Danish 314 Dutch 315 Finnish 315 German 316 Hungarian 317 Italian 318 Jewish 319 Jugoslav 324 Lithuanian 326 Polish 327 Russian 329 Slovak 330 Swedish 331 Ukrainian 331 Menus of Foreign Born 333 Bohemian 333 Croatian 335 Italian 335 Slovenian 340

INDEX 343

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE I. Number and Per Cent of Families Carrying Life Insurance and Average Amount of Policy According to Nativity of Head of Family 94

II. Number and Per Cent of Immigrant Home Owners in Different Chicago Districts 107

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Coming of New American Home Makers _Frontispiece_

A Railroad Camp for Immigrant Workers in a Prosperous Suburban Community, 1920 _Facing p._ 4

An Immigrant Railway Worker Lives in this Car with His Wife, Six Children, and Three Dogs " 4

Even a Boarding House of Eighteen Boarders in Five Rooms is More Cheerful than a Labor Camp for Men Alone " 24

Almost at the End of the Journey " 32

Floor Plan of Houses in Poland _Page_ 55

This Pump Supplies Water to Four Families _Facing p._ 60

A Community Housing Plan _Page_ 73

Italians Have Their Own Financial Center and Labor Market in Boston _Facing p._ 110

It's a Long Way from This Elaborate Czecho-Slovak Costume to the Modern American Styles " 136

A Slovak Mother, Newly Arrived " 150

Immigrant Children Acquiring Individual Initiative in a Montessori Class at Hull House " 160

Who Will Welcome Them? " 192

Lithuanian Mothers Have Come to a Settlement Class " 238

A Case-work Agency Found Four Girls and Eighteen Men Boarding with This Polish Family in Four Rooms " 288

INTRODUCTION

The following study is the result of effort on the part of several persons. Miss Helen R. Wright, formerly research assistant of the Chicago School of Civics and member of the staff of the Massachusetts Immigration Commission of 1914, had much to do with the planning of the inquiry, the framing of such schedules as were used, and the organization of certain portions of the information gathered. Through Miss Laura Hood, long time a resident of the Chicago Commons, it proved to be possible to obtain many intimate views with reference to the more subtle questions of family adjustment in the groups that are of special interest in such an inquiry as this.

Certain questions of uniformity in method and style of presentation were determined by the editorial staff of the Study of Methods of Americanization. For the final drafting of a considerable portion of the study, especially in the earlier chapters, the members of this editorial staff are responsible, though the writer is glad to acknowledge full responsibility for all conclusions drawn or recommendations offered.

SOPHONISBA P. BRECKINRIDGE.

_April_ 15, 1921.

NEW HOMES FOR OLD

I

FINDING THE NEW HOME

The great westward tide of immigration has again begun to rise. Annually to the ports of entry and to the great inland centers of distribution come thousands of immigrant families, strange men and women with young children, unattached girls, and vigorous, simple lads. With few exceptions no provision by native Americans has been made for their reception in their new places of residence. Communities of kindly-intentioned persons, because of their lack of imagination and their indifference, have allowed the old, the young, the mother, and infant to come in by back ways, at any hour of day or night. Frequently they have been received only by uncomprehending or indifferent railroad officials or oversolicitous exploiters.

THE FIRST ADJUSTMENTS

It is not strange that in most American communities there is no habit of community hospitality. Communities are in themselves transitory and fluid. Many of the native born have as yet become only partially adjusted to their physical and social environment. At least the childhood of most of our older generation was spent under the influence of those who had either migrated or immigrated. "_Nous marchons tous._" We are all "pilgrims and strangers." Some have come sooner, and some have come later, and except for the colored people and those in territory acquired in 1848 and in 1898, all have a common memory of having come deliberately either _from_ something worse or _to_ something better. All have come from where they were into what was a far country.

While the earlier arrivals are making their own adjustments, there are knocking at their gates strangers from a more distant country speaking a foreign tongue, accustomed to totally different ways of living and working. Their reception, however, need not be an impossible task. On their arrival they are formally admitted, and information as to their origin and destination must be supplied. Methods could be devised for receiving them in such a way as to make them feel at ease, and for interpreting to them the changed surroundings in which they must find a home and a job in the shortest possible time.

If discomfort and confusion were the only distress into which the strange group fell, the situation might be only humiliating to our generous and hospitable spirit and could be easily remedied. But the consequences of failure to exercise hospitality at the beginning endure in lack of understanding on the part of both groups. The immigrant fails to find natural and normal ways of sharing in the life of the community, and becomes skeptical as to the sincerity of perfectly well-meaning, but uninformed, professions on the part of the older residents. Spiritual barriers as definite, if not as easily perceived, as the geographical boundaries of the "colonies" formed in the different sections of our cities, develop.

This is often true in connection with the foreign-born men and tragically more true of the women. One Italian woman in Herrin, Illinois, for example, who had lived nineteen years in this country, told an investigator for this study that she had never received an American into her home as a guest, because no American had ever come in that spirit. A Russian woman had lived in Chicago for nine years and had, so far as she knew, not become acquainted with any Americans. Several instances were found in which efforts have been put forward to secure the united effort of the whole community, and yet large groups of immigrants have remained substantially unaware of these efforts and were entirely untouched by them.

There are several other attitudes, too, that have perhaps blinded some to the need of provision for community hospitality. One attitude might be characterized as that of the "self-made man." Hardship may have either of two different effects. In one person it will develop sympathy, compassion, and a desire to safeguard others from similar suffering. In others it may lead to a certain callous disregard of other people--a belief that if one has been able to surmount the difficulties others should likewise be able. If not, so much the worse. This kind of harshness characterizes the attitude of some of those immigrants who have come at earlier dates toward those who have come later.

It is like the occasional successful woman who is indifferent to the general disadvantages of her sex, and to the negro who makes for himself a brilliant place and argues that color is no handicap. In talking to women about bringing up their children, it was a significant fact that some of the women who had had no trouble with their own children said that where there is trouble it is the fault of the parents. The following comment, for example, was on the schedule of Mrs. D., a Polish woman who has been in this country since 1894, and has three children, aged twenty-five, twelve, and six. "If a child is not good, Mrs. D. blames his mother, who does not know how to take care of children. She thinks they are too ignorant."

There is also the sense of racial, national, or class superiorities. The virtue of the Anglo-Saxon civilization is assumed; the old, as against the new immigration, is valued. There are many who crave the satisfaction of "looking down" on some one, and it makes life simpler if whole groups--"Dagoes," "Hunkies," "Polacks," what you will--can be regarded as of a different race or group, so that neither one's heartstrings nor one's conscience need be affected by their needs. The difficulty is increased by a similar tendency of immigrants to assume the superiority of their people and culture and so hold aloof from the new life. This assumption of superiority on both sides tends to hinder rather than to further mutual understanding.

Clearly, if we are to build up a united and wholesome national life, such attitudes of aloofness as have persisted will have to be abandoned. If that life is to be enriched and varied--not monotonous and mechanical--the lowly and the simple, as well as the great and the mighty, must be able to make their contribution. This contribution can become possible, not as the result of any compulsory scheme, but of conditions favoring noble, generous, and sympathetic living. The family is an institution based on the affection of the parents and their self-sacrifice for the life and future of their children. Of all institutions it exemplifies the power of co-operative effort, and demands sympathetic and patient understanding. This is perhaps especially true of the foreign-born family.

This discussion of the family problems of the foreign-born groups in relation to the development of a national consciousness and a national unity is based on the belief that no attempts at compulsory adjustment can in the nature of things be successful. Sometimes the interests of the common good and of the weaker groups demand for their own protection the temporary exercise of compulsion, but the real solution lies in policies grounded in social justice and guided by social intelligence.

HOMES STUDIED

The material in this study is of a qualitative sort. No attempt has been made to organize a statistical study. The problems of family life do not lend themselves to the statistical method except at great cost of time and money.

A large body of data with reference to conditions existing during the decade just prior to the Great War, exists in the reports of several special government investigations, especially the report of the United States Immigration Commission, that of the United States Bureau of Labor relating to conditions surrounding women and child wage earners, and that of the British Board of Trade on the "Cost of Living in American Towns." The regular publications of certain government bureaus, especially the United States Children's Bureau, the Bureau of Home Economics in the United States Department of Agriculture, and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, were found useful. These publications have been studied so far as they discuss the problem of family life. Their contents are presented only in illustration or in confirmation of statements made.