Part 1

Chapter 14,055 wordsPublic domain

SOME IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORS

_Interdenominational Home Mission Study Course_

Each Volume 12mo, cloth, 50c. net: paper, 30c. net.

_1. Under Our Flag_ _By Alice M. Guernsey_

_2. The Burden of the City_ _By Isabelle Horton_

_3. Indian and Spanish Neighbours_ _By Julia H. Johnston_

_4. The Incoming Millions_ _By Howard B. Grose, D.D._

_5. Citizens of To-Morrow_ _By Alice M. Guernsey_

_6. The Call of the Waters_ _By Katharine R. Crowell_

_7. From Darkness to Light_ _By Mary Helm_

_8. Conservation of National Ideals_ _A Symposium_

_9. Mormonism, The Islam of America_ _By Bruce Kinney, D.D._

_JUNIOR COURSE_

Cloth, net 40c.; paper, net 25c.

_Best Things in America_ _By Katharine R. Crowell_

_Some Immigrant Neighbours_ _By John R. Henry, D.D._

_Issued under the direction of the Council of Women for Home Missions_

SOME IMMIGRANT NEIGHBORS

BY JOHN R. HENRY

_ILLUSTRATED_

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 123 North Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

To Eloise Elizabeth Henry

FOREWORD

This little book for Junior Home Mission Study classes has been written from the point of view of a New York City pastor. The races that have been selected for study are so chosen because the writer knows them at first hand through having labored among them in institutional and church work.

The book is an invitation to become acquainted with the immigrant and be his friend and good neighbor.

The thanks of the author are due the many writers whose works he has freely used, the members of his staff, and Miss Alice M. Guernsey for helpful suggestions, and the Rev. F. Mason North, D.D., for reading the manuscript and for valuable criticisms.

J. R. H.

CHURCH OF ALL NATIONS, New York City, April, 1912

ILLUSTRATIONS

_Page_

“Where Us Fellows Has to Play” _Frontispiece_

A Jewish Immigrant Boy 17

A Little Maid of Italy 17

The Home of a Russian Peasant 48

A Russian _Moujik_ and His Family 48

From the “Church of All Nations,” New York City 66

An Italian Kindergarten (Penn.) 74

How the Chinese Babies Ride 82

Rescued Slave Girls (New York City) 82

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. Who Are They? 13

II. Why Do They Come? 21

III. Our Jewish Neighbor 35

IV. Our Russian Neighbor 43

V. Our Italian Neighbor 51

VI. Our Chinese Neighbor 59

VII. Makers of Good Neighbors 69

VIII. Good Neighbors and Bad 77

IX. Neighbors to the World 87

WHO ARE THEY?

“Dago,” and “Sheeney,” and “Chink,” “Greaser,” and “Nigger,” and “Jap.” The Devil invented these terms, I think, To hurl at each hopeful chap Who comes so far over the foam To this land of his heart’s desire To rear his brood, to build his home, And to kindle his hearthstone fire. While the eyes with joy are blurred, Lo! we make the strong man sink, And stab the soul, with the hateful word, “Dago,” and “Sheeney,” and “Chink.”

—_Bishop McIntyre._

WHO ARE THEY?

Since we are going to study about “Some Immigrant Neighbors,” it is well to know just what we mean by the words “Immigrant” and “Neighbor.”

_Immigrant._ The word Immigrant is confusing because it looks and sounds so much like the word “Emigrant,” but they are quite different. An Immigrant is one who comes _into_ a country, generally with the intention of settling there. An Emigrant is one that goes _out_ of a country, with the intention of settling in some other land.

The people we are to study are the Immigrants who have come, and are coming, into America.

_Neighbor._ Every one knows the meaning of the word neighbor. A neighbor is one who lives near another, across the street, or next door, or maybe in our own village or town. If you live in a large city it is not so easy to feel that the people who live near you are your neighbors. It was much easier years ago, when all that are now cities were only towns and villages, and many cities now well known were simply prairie with waving grass and flowers, roamed over by bands of Indians and trampled by the hoofs of countless bison.

The word neighbor has a larger meaning than merely one who lives near another. There is a wonderful description of a neighbor, given by One who is the World’s Good Neighbor. He tells of the traveler who found a stranger lying by the roadside, wounded and helpless. At personal inconvenience and expense the traveler cared for the half dead man, and continued his aid until the stranger was again able to care for himself.

We shall have gained a great deal from the study of this book, if we learn not only to look on these immigrants as neighbors, those who live near us, but if we seriously ask ourselves how we may be Good Neighbors to the strangers from across the sea.

_The Neighbors to be Studied._ We are not going to talk about all of the thirty-nine races of immigrants that are separately listed by our government, but only about four of them. Some one says, “I hope you will tell about the ones I like.” Well, we hope before we are through you will like the ones we shall tell about, and we are sure you will, for you will be better acquainted, and it is wonderful how much more likable the immigrant is when you know him.

_Numbers._ Although we are to study only Chinese, Jews, Russians and Italians, 333,694 of these four classes of immigrants landed in America in 1911; 920,299, almost a million, landed in the three years last past, and that is a large falling off as compared with some previous periods. In 1911 the Jews and Italians numbered thirty-five out of every hundred that came. You see that while we discuss but four classes, two of these are more than one-fourth of all that come.

These numbers may suggest very little to us, but how they would have startled the fathers of our country. The warlike Miles Standish, or, in later years, the peppery Peter Stuyvesant, would have declared no such numbers could be brought across the sea in a year. The only ships our fathers knew were small wooden sailing vessels like our coasting schooners; the giant, floating hotels that we call steamships, that carry a big village every trip, were not dreamed of in those days. The sailing vessel took weeks and months to make the voyage; now we can reckon, almost to the hour, the time of the arrival of a great liner.

It might be well if these numbers did startle us more and if we better realized how great is this invading army of strangers, friendly as it may be.

_Dislike of Foreigners._ Many people do not like the immigrants simply because they are foreigners. This prejudice is as old as the world, and its origin is a most interesting study. Perhaps some high school boy or girl can give a reason for this early dislike.

“The reasons for disliking the foreigner in early times were that no one traveled much and there were no newspapers, consequently neighboring tribes, or nations, did not get to know each other. Nearby tribes were suspicious of each other and were much at war, continually robbing and killing. Every stranger was a possible enemy.”

Yes, that is a good answer. Now, give a reason for present dislike of the immigrant.

“I have a reason,” one boy says. “My father lost his job because an ‘Eyetalian’ offered to work for less.”

Yes, I am sorry to say that is a very real cause of dislike. That is also war, although it is now called by a different name. To take a man’s position, by which he earns his bread, or to steal a man’s cattle, from which he and his family were fed, amounts to about the same in the end. Give some other reasons for disliking immigrants.

“They talk such funny English.” “They don’t dress like us.” “They don’t eat like us.” “They can’t play ball.”

Yes, undoubtedly all these are reasons for feeling that foreigners differ from Americans, but are they good reasons for disliking the foreigner?

I saw a “grown-up” show this hostile feeling one day as I was passing along a crowded street on the East Side of New York. An American youth of about eighteen years of age snatched some fruit from the push cart of a young Italian of the same age. The Italian grappled with the young thief and was giving him a sound thrashing when a policeman, leisurely swinging his club, turned the corner. With one glance he took in the scene of the Italian-American war. Raising his club and shouting, “You Dago,” he charged full at the Italian. The young fellow saw him coming and took off down the street as hard as he could run, dodging as he went the flying club the policeman had hurled. When the tempest had calmed I stepped up to the officer and said, “Officer, what did the Italian do?” “Do?” said he with supreme disgust, “he was a Dago.” Evidently the sole crime of the Italian consisted in being a “Dago,” a foreigner.

To some people all Italians are either Dagos, or Guineas, all Jews are Sheenies, all Chinese are Chinks and all Russians are Owskies. They are foreigners, and that is enough. Such people forget that while the language of the immigrant sounds “funny” to us, ours sounds just as strange to him. While we laugh at the pig tail and queer shoes and strange clothes of the Chinese, they follow the American in crowds through Chinese cities and make fun of his absurd dress, and call him names that are not wholly complimentary, all because he is a stranger to them.

_Our Debt to the Foreigner._ It will help us to cultivate the spirit of a Good Neighbor if we remember that we are hopelessly in debt to all these foreigners.

_Our Debt to the Chinese._ The Chinese invented the mariner’s compass that enables the sailor to strike boldly out into the deep, sure of not losing his way across the trackless ocean when stars and sun are gone. He is likewise an example to all the world in his reverence and care for old age, for father and mother. A traveler recently returned from China says he has never seen old faces more calm and kindly than those he met among elderly Chinese farmers. They seemed to think of nothing but the welfare of others. The rights of the parent are such that any father or mother with sons or grandsons living is assured in old age of the best care the children can provide. Though the son may be fifty years of age and have a family of his own he will yet give his own salary into the hands of his father week by week. The father need not worry about the future as do many fathers of large families in our own land, hence the calm eyes and care-free faces among old Chinese farmers. The Chinese teach that it is an honor and a duty for the young to toil for those who are old.

“Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,” is an old command and promise. The Chinese Empire is hoary with age. Can one reason for its long life be its obedience to this command?

_Our Debt to the Italians._ An Italian, Columbus, discovered the New World. Who, then, has a better right to inhabit it than his own countrymen? An Italian captain, Verrazano, was the first man to push the prow of his ship into the harbor of what is now the greatest city of the new world. Roman law rules the world and her treasures of art and literature have enriched every nation on earth. What school boy would like to be without the story of Julius Caesar, or not to have heard of the cackling of the geese high up in the Capitol the night the city was in danger, and how that cackling awoke the citizens and saved Rome?

_Our Debt to the Russians._ As to the Russian, it is an ungrateful American who forgets the service rendered this country in that saddest war of history, when brothers of the North and South rose in arms against each other. France had determined to found an empire in Mexico. She knew that this could be done only after the American Union had been destroyed. Russia refused to join with France and England in the course that might have made possible this division of our country. In the darkest days of our struggle the Russian fleet appeared at American ports as a pledge of her friendship and a protest against the attitude of these European powers.

_Our Debt to the Jew._ If we said nothing more than that through the Jew has come the Bible, that gift would place all of us forever in his debt. No other sacred book tells us so clearly of God; no other book shows us so truly how we may obey Him and be useful, strong, and holy. In no other place are we told the secret of that

“City builded by no hand, And unapproachable by sea or shore, And unassailable by any band Of storming soldiery forever more.”

It is true some of the Jewish people did oppose Christianity, but other Jews were the founders of the Christian church.

Through the Jewish nation came our Lord. Upon the streets of Jewish cities “walked those blessed feet that nineteen hundred years ago were nailed, for our advantage, to the bitter cross.”

Kind neighborliness to these strangers is one way of repaying our debt.

WHY DO THEY COME?

Lo, the tyrant’s days are numbered, Liberty no longer slumbers, Error dark no longer cumbers; Risen is the Sun.

—_H. A. Clarke._

WHY DO THEY COME?

MIGRATION. Why do such vast armies of human beings leave their homes? Why do they travel weary miles over land and sea and suffer such hardships and privations? The causes would indeed be urgent that would induce us to take a like journey and leave behind our pleasant, comfortable homes. Can it be that the home of the immigrant is not pleasant and comfortable? As we continue our study we shall find at least some of the reasons for this greatest migration in history.

On a beautiful day in autumn you may have seen large flocks of swallows wheeling around the steeple of some old church—“a river of winged life.” Some one has told you they are gathering before they migrate. “Oh, yes,” you say, “they are going away because they do not like the cold winter.” In the spring, you have seen a great moving V in the sky all made of birds, and some one has cried out, “There go the wild geese,” and you are told that they are journeying to the far, desolate North where the summer will soon be and where no one will molest them while they rear their young. So when great companies of people migrate there is a good reason. No one wants to leave a comfortable home without good cause.

You will be interested to study the causes of some of the great migrations in the past. If you will turn to the Book of Exodus you will find there the story of a vast human river of slaves flowing out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, into the wilderness. Why did they migrate? What drove the Goths down into the pleasant valleys of Italy? Did the richness of the Italian cities, the fertility of the plains, and the indolence of the inhabitants have anything to do with it? What brought the Tartars into China where as Manchus they have ruled 300 years, and where their long rein is now ended? The answer is simple. The Manchus were warlike Tartars, soldiers of fortune of a barren country. The Chinese were peace-loving dwellers in fertile valleys and plains. The better soldier was the victor.

There is no great nation of ancient or modern times but can tell its own story of migration. There once crossed into England a company of many thousands of splendid craftsmen bringing from France the secrets of trades that have helped make England great. What drove these Protestant families from their beloved land? There rang in their ears the solemn tolling of a great palace bell. That bell, sounding over the city of Paris, was the signal for the death of over forty thousand of the noblest Protestants of France. The St. Bartholomew massacre caused the migration.

In recent years a great tide of Irish began to move across the Atlantic. In ten years this mighty tide totaled over one million and a quarter human beings. The reason they came was the failure of the potato crop. The potato was their great food staple, as bread is ours. Great armies of Germans began to come after 1848. It would be interesting for you to find the reason of their coming. How hard it must be for the Southern Italian to leave his beautiful home and exchange his blue skies and hills and mountains for a dark, ill-smelling tenement, or for toil far underground in a mine. Why does he migrate and in numbers so great as to form every year a city the size of Portland, Oregon? We may find the answer farther along in our studies.

“If I were a Russian,” some one says, “I would want to leave home. The winter is so long, there is so much ice and snow, I would be glad to get to a warmer country.” But the Russian loves his winter. He drives his _sankey_ with its hoop of tinkling bells arched high over his horse’s back faster than any other horseman in Europe. In his home is a great brick oven and on top of this the family sleeps, no matter how the storm blows, as warm as a Negro boy in a Southern cotton field. The Russian does not leave his home because of the winter.

WHY THEY BECOME OUR NEIGHBORS

_Opportunity._ Some one says another name for America is “opportunity.” Amid weeping and “_Il Signore vi Benedica_,” “God Bless You,” Giuseppe has gone away. He has been earning as _contadino_ (farmer) 20 cents per day and is like a serf tied to the land. He earns in America $1.50 a day, or as much in one day as he earned before in seven. Giuseppe is frugal. He rises in his position to better pay, spends little money, and his bank account goes up until he has a sum that would have seemed a fortune in the little Sicilian village. Then, work slacking, he returns home. His watch and ponderous gold chain, his stylish American clothes, an exhibition of lofty independence, all make him a marked man.

Wherever you meet him on the village street, an awed, admiring group of friends is with him. He spreads the glowing tale of the New World and you may be sure the reality loses nothing in the telling. Every youthful heart is fired to a like adventure, to seek the golden, western world. As one returned immigrant said:—“It’s a land where all wear shoes, where trains shoot through the air, and shoot through the ground; even the poor ride, no one needs an umbrella, the cars pass everywhere.” It is little wonder they want to come. In America labor is dear and materials are cheap; in Italy labor is cheap and materials are expensive. There it pays a landlord to hire a man to watch his cows, rather than to build a fence, wood is so costly. In America no one would think of hiring a man for such a purpose, labor is so high.

The price paid in health and suffering for the money they take back is often far more than its worth. Many a poor fellow pale and haggard with that dread disease, tuberculosis, goes home hopeful that his genial skies will cure him of the death-blow the wet and cold and exposure of America have given him. But the defeated come home in the twilight, unattended and silent, while the successful swagger in at noonday with the blare of trumpet and beat of drums. As one Italian said to me no later than yesterday, “My uncle never told me the hardships I would have to face. I was far better off in Italy than here, but I am ashamed to go back.” And yet, all who come realize that the possibilities of success are far greater here than at home. As another said, “In Italy I wanted to do but could not. In America I want to and can. I am sorry, but ‘Good-bye, Italy.’”

The same opportunity for riches attracts the Chinese. He lives in a land that, labor as he will, is barely able to feed its almost half a billion human mouths. His wages at home are so meagre he can never hope for independence; two cents per day is what the farm laborer in Shantung earns. Since as a laborer he cannot legally enter the United States, he comes in under cover of darkness over the Mexican or Canadian borders, or any other way he can devise. The same hope of wealth attracts the Chinese.

_Steamship Advertising._ Many come because the steamship companies are such good advertisers. These companies paint beautiful pictures of the New World, and the peasant sees great farms, busy factories, and wealthy cities. The companies never show any views of dark, unhealthful tenements.

Through this steamship advertising many unfit persons sail for America, persons whom the agents might have known would be rejected, while many of the lowest class are induced to leave their country because their country is glad to get rid of them. It is said that in one small district in Austria two hundred and seventy criminals were released from prison one year and one hundred and eighty of them were in America within the next twelve months.

The Commissioner of Immigration at New York stated one year that 200,000 of the one million immigrants of that year were a real injury to the best interests of the country. Since the steamship company must be at the expense of returning an immigrant who is sent back, they make doubtful cases give a bond repaying them the return fare if the immigrant fails to slip by the “man at the gate.” Of course the only interest the company has is to get the immigrant’s money.

One steamship line anxious to make money brought over on one ship three hundred and eighty diseased peasants that Ellis Island promptly sent back. Among those peasants were many people of Montenegro. The Montenegrins are great soldiers. Tennyson wrote of them as

“Warriors beating back the swarm Of Turkish Islam for five hundred years.”

For five hundred years they have stood as a bulwark between the Turk and Europe. When they reached the home port, they stormed the offices of the steamship company, demanding the return of their fare, and after one look at their determined faces the clerks promptly locked themselves in and telephoned the authorities for help.

Some are induced to part with all they own, selling their little business and then, because of ill health or other difficulties that the agent might easily have known, are turned back broken-hearted and poverty-stricken to the village whence they came. Sometimes they are even sent to ports entirely different from those to which they had planned to go. This, of course, is all wrong.

_The Employer._ The reason back of the coming of many of these people is the employer, the man who manages the railways, the mines, or large contracts. He works through the padrones, and the Italian banks that “direct two-thirds of the stream of Italian immigration.” You may be surprised to know that the news of a big railroad contract reaches Italy as soon as we hear it. If we are to build subways or barge canals, or carry an underground river into New York, or let great railroad contracts, or make a garden of the desert with colossal irrigation reservoirs and canals, the message flies under the ocean to far-away Italy and there is spread through a thousand villages.