Class TZAi Bookie
CiffimiGHi' DEPosrr.
I
Distribution ^Poreignrljorn
Itallans^^ Greatcrl^ewYofk
Cleigya^ Laity
ISacli dot represent A 1,000 It all ana
(Taken from Mangano. "Sons of Italy.") Used by permission of Missionary Education Movement, owners of copyright.
nixe Second Generation of Italians in Ne^^> York Gtp
BY
JOHN HORACE MARIANO ^
submitted in partial fulfillment of tKe requirements for the
degree of doctor of philosophy? at New Tork University)"
{Department of Sociology)
Qhe Christopher Publishing House Boston, U. S. A.
^'>-<S-
Thk Christophbr Publishing Housb
APR -6 1921 p_ g)CI,A6il517
CONTENTS PART I — NATURE AND EXTENT OF INVESTIGATION
CHAPTER I —Plm of Study ....^^1
Purpose: A Sociological study of Italian life in New York City. Scope : Limited to Americans of Italian ori- gin. Sources : A first hand study of the people them- selves. Original survey of types of organizations and institutions prevalent. Original data. gained in a sym- posium. Statistical reports, government data, etc.
CHAPTER II — Difficulties underlying an investigation of the
Italian element 6
Difficulty of collecting data: The adult Italian is un- trained and suspicious. Italian immigration : Its recency. Unsettled problems. Reasons for investigation.
PART II — SURVEY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
CHAPTER III ^Population and Distribution 11
Difficulty of accurate enumeration. Density. Distribu- tion of Italian colonies in New York City: Manhattan, 'Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Richmond. Table of colonies in New York City: Age distribution. Sex classification. Conjugal relationship. Mixed marriages. Relationship between size of family and its place in the socio-eco- nomical scale.
CHAPTER IV — Occupations 31
Relation of Italian to other stocks in American indus- tries. Distribution of Italian blood in different indus- tries. Distribution in New York City. What the "new" generation hopes for.
CHAPTER V — Health 37
Introduction. Vital statistics. Italian health agencies.
CHAPTER VI — Standard of Living 45
Introduction: Definition of terms. Changing standards. Incomes : Adult bread winners. Lodgers or boarders.
V
CONTENTS vi
Child labor. Housing: Average number of rooms. Housing in relation to expenditure. Savings and thrift. Thrift compared with other nationalities. Estimated savings.
CHAPTER YU — Literacy 57
The "old" versus the "new" generation. Status in the schools at large. In the high schools. In the primary- schools. Elimination and retardation : at large. In New York City. The present need.
CHAPTER YUl — Citizenship 65
Obstacles to citizenship: Ignorance of language. Ten- dency to return to "homeland." Relation of immigrant to native vote. Citizenship status in New York City. Place of women of Italian blood. Differences between Italy and America.
CHAPTER IX — Philanthropy and Social Welfare 71
Introduction. Dependency. Delinquency.
PART III — PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS
CHAPTER X — Introduction — Basis for Classification of Types.... 82 Difficulties of classification. Economic status. Pleas- ures or recreation.
CHAPTER XI — The "Tenement" Type— An Ideo-Emotional Type 87 Background: Physical; street, slums, tenement districts. Mental; subnormal. Vocational; varied and inter- mittent. Home conditions ; unsocial. Personal character- istics: Type of disposition; instigative, convivial. Co- operation : Perception of resemblances and of differ- ences ; prompt. Attitude towards strangers ; suspicion and distrust. Pleasures; motor-sensory. Type of mind; ideo-emotional.
CHAPTER XII — The "Trade'' or "Business" Type— A dogmatic- emotional type 97
Background: Physical; shop or factory. Mental, varied. Vocational; steady and skilled labor. Home conditions; narrowing and un-American. Personal characteristics : Type of disposition; domineering, austere. Coopera- tion; Perception of resemblances and of differences; keen. Attitude towards strangers; unfriendliness. Pleasures; emotional ideation. Type of mind; dogma- tic-emotional.
vii CONTENTS
CHAPTER Xlll — The "College" Type— A transitionol type 103
Background: Physical; typically American. Mental; formal discipline. Vocational; undetermined. Home conditions; varied. Personal characteristics: aggres- sive and convivial. Cooperation ; Perception of resem- blances and of differences ; none on racial grounds. At- titude toward strangers ; open and frank. Pleasures ; in- ductive ideation. Type of mind; critical-intellectual.
CHAPTER XIY—The "Professionar Type— A critical-intel- lectual type 110
Background: Physical; home and office. Mental; dic- tated by pleasure and vocation. Vocational; profes- sions, law, medicine, teaching. Home conditions; nor- mal Americans. Personal characteristics: Type of dis- position; creative. Cooperation: Perception of resem- blances and differences; none on racial grounds. Atti- tude toward strangers ; broad. Pleasures ; dictated by choice. Type of mind; critical-intellectual.
CHAPTER XV— The Italian-speaking Colony in New York City.MS The "old" generation. The "new" generation. Relation between the "old" and the "new" generation.
CHAPTER XVI — Recapitulation 132
PART IV — SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
CHAPTER XVII — Introduction 138
Definition of terms : Basis of classification ; Overlapping character of aims. Correspondence between "mental" type of mind and character of organization effected.
CHAPTER XVIIl — Types of Organisation 140
The Social Club: Particular group; the "Husky" Asso- ciation. Type of member; the "tenement" type, ages, 21-35; education, elementary; vocations, physical labor; pleasures, sensory. Type of activity; recreational, social. Relation and effect of "social" club to commun- ity, anti-social. The "Athletic" Club: Particular group ; the "Nameoka" Athletic club. Type of member; the type. Ages, 18-35 ; education, elementary and high school; vocations, physical and mental; pleasures, motor-sensory. Type of activity; recreational and phy- sical. Relation and effect of "Athletic" club to com- munity; unsocial. The "Religious" Club: (a) The "Cath-
CONTENTS vwi
olic" Club : Particular group ; The "Ozanam" associa- tion. Type of members; ideo-emotional. Ages, 18-30; education, elementary and high school; vocations, skilled and unskilled ; pleasures, of sense, idea, and emotion. Type of activity; social, recreational, spirit- ual, (b) The "Protestant" Club: Particular group; The Broome Street Tabernacle club. Type of members ; Ages, 18-30; education, elementary and high school; vo- cations, skilled and unskilled; pleasures, of sense, idea, and emotion. Type of activity; social, recreational, spiritual. Relation and effect of "religious" club to community; friendly, sympathetic, social. The **Benev- olent" organization. Particular group; The Bagolino Benefit Society. Type of members; dogmatic-emo- tional. Ages, 18-45; education, elementary; vocations, skilled, unskilled, professions; pleasures, of sense, emo- tion and thought. Type of activity; social, physical, ideational. Relation and effect of "Civic" association to community; social. The "Social Welfare" League: Particular group; The League for Social Service. The Italian Welfare League. The Young Men's Italian Edu- cational League. The Italian Educational League. Type of mmbers ; critical-intellectual. Ages, 18-50; education, college and university; vocations, professions; pleas- ures, of thought. Relation and effect of "Social" Wel- fare" League to community; social. The "College" Cir- colo: Particular group ; The Columbia Circolo. Type of members; critical-intellectual. Ages, 19-28 j education, college and university; vocations, undetermined; pleas- ures, of sense, emotion, and thought. Type of activity; social, ideational. Relation and effect of "College Cir- colo" to community; friendly and social. The Pfofes- sional" Cltib: Particular group; The Italian Teachers' Association. The Italian Lawyers' Association. The Societa Medica Italiana. The Circolo Nazionale. Type of members; critical-intellectual. Ages, 26-60; educa- tion, college and university; vocation, professions; pleasures, of thought. Type of activity; social, profes- sional, ideational. Relation and effect of "Professional" club to community; unrelated.
CHAPTER XIX — Miscellaneous Organisations 182
Dramatic; The Marionette Theatre. Musical; The In- ternational Festival Chorus (Italian division). Educa- tional; Verdi, Auxiliary, Italian Intercollegiate, Italian Scholarship Fund, Dante Alighieri Society, Dante League of America. Fraternal; Alpha Phi Delta, Sigma Phi Theta, Delta Omega Phi. Social Welfare ; The Ital-
CONTENTS
ica Gens. Recreational; The Italian American Scout- craft Association. Arts and Industry; Suola Italiana d'Industrie, The Italian Industrial School, Society for Italian Women. Propaganda;, The Roman Legion of America, The Italy-America Society, The Italian Bureau of Public Information.
PART V — WHAT THE AMERICAN OF ITALIAN
EXTRACTION CONTRIBUTES TO AMERICAN
DEMOCRACY
CHAPTER XX — Introduction „ 205
Reasons for phrase "Americans of Italian extraction." Definition of Democracy*
CHAPTER XXI — Old Ideas Regarding Italians 209
Incomplete knowledge regarding Italians. Type of Italian that comes to America. Recency of Italian Im* migration. Friction and misunderstanding due to mal-^ adjustment ; lack of proper sociological milieu.
CHAPTER XXII — T;^^ Present Viewpoint 213
Practical demonstrations of leadership and initiative visible today along agricultural, industrial, and pro- fessional pursuits. Practical experience of social econ- omists and social workers regarding their qualities of cooperation. Testimony of "Pblitical Leaders" regard-^ ing their place in our American Democracy. Theoret- ical findings ; Genetic psychologists, Anthropologists, Sociologists. Conclusion.
CHAPTER XXIII — ^ Socio-Ethnic Problem 229
The problem stated; synthetization with other racial strains in America.
CHAPTER XXIV — Does This Type Contribute to American
Democracy f 233
He is easily assimilable. He is himself creative. He is fertile and facile with respect to both imitaton and initiation. He is intelligent and can become delibera- tive and rational. He is law-abiding. Ignores the in- stitutions of adults or parents that are purely Italian (their banks, newspapers, hospitals, societies, are un- satisfactory to him). Does not retain language, reli- gion, habits and ways of parents. His voluntary organ-
CONTENTS X
izations are of a reflection of Americanism and are largely tinged with American culture. Organizations created are various and cover every field. Where none exists the proficient American of Italian extraction has entered so fully into the life and spirit of America that none is needed. An absence of an organization does not show a lack of cooperation or ability to organize but that absorption has been complete.
CHAPTER XXV — Symposium (looo questionnaires) 237
What the American of Italian extration loses. What the American of Italian extraction gains. What the American of Italian extraction contributes. Statistical tables.
CHAPTER XXVI — Some Positive Measures of Reform 284
How to economically preserve the high powers of the raw immigrant and facilitate the process of synthetiza- tion. Abolition of "Padrone" system. Regulation and control of unemployment. Elimination of disease. Re- creation. Socially prepare for a more frictionless mix- ing. Different attitude of mind. Education. Politically distribute a greater share of executive leadership to such as are fit.
CHAPTER XXVII — Conclusions 304
General: This is a study in Americanization. The in- fluence of the community in determining types. Speci- fic: Sociological status of Americans of Italian extrac- tion in New York City. Their "contributions," "loses" ' and "gains." What the future has in store.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ; 311
CHAPTER I NATURE AND EXTENT OF INVESTIGATION
PURPOSE— What is there about the American of Italian extraction that distinguishes him from other Americans? Is there a real difference? The Ameri- cans of Italian extraction that are studied here form one of the largest elements numerically in our population. Before any adequate understanding of them is to be had a thoroughly modern and scientific sociological sur- vey needs to be made with respect to their individual natures and their concerted or group reactions.
The purpose of this study is to afford a sociological evaluation of the psychological traits and social organ- ization of this type of American, based upon a first hand investigation of the type in question. Personal experi- ence gained through a variety of contacts with these people, supplemented by information gained in interviev\'s with people who are closest to this problem afforded the bulk of the evidence analyzed. Where personal inter- views were out of the question, in many cases it was possible to get at the ideas that exist regarding these people by means of a questionnaire described in a later chi^pter. The information gathered from the above sources and elsewhere, as will be described later, is used to denote the sociological status of Americans of Italian extraction in New York City. These Americans, like the second generation of Americans of other racial stocks, form an integral part of our American popula- tion, distinct and apart from our immigrant population "per se." Whereas in the past in considering the status of the racial elements within our borders one's chief attention or interest centered upon a type that was either foreign or Americanized through the legal naturaliza- tion process, here the emphasis is to be placed upon a type that to begin with is AMERICAN. From a mere description, therefore, of types that have characterized studies of the past, we pass on to an attempt to analyze the character and measure the force of the contribution.
2 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
if contribution there be, that these Americans of Italian blood make to our older American life, customs, and ways of doing things.
The main purpose of this study, therefore, is, (1) to intelligently interpret Americans of Italian extraction to other Americans by pointing out what the fundamen- tal characteristics of this type of American are as re- flected through their social organization and other visi- ble activities ; (2) to interpret these activities from the standpoint of what we understand Americanisfm to mean and (3) to show what and how much this type of Amer- ican is contributing towards the solution of the prob- lem peculiar to America, namely, the synthetization of her composite population groups and the evolving of a stable American type.
SCOPE — This study is limited to those Americans of Italian blood that were either born here or who came here when they were very young. It excludes the adult immigrant who as a rule, among the Italian stock at least, is so thoroughly ingrained with the traditions of the "homeland" that he himself is neither able to be affected in any very radical way through his contacts with our institutions nor to contribute creatively to our American Democracy.
Likewise the activities described and evaluated here are limited to those whose origin and existence strictly depend upon such Americans as above indicated, and not upon the immigrant.
For various reasons the writer has seen fit to limit this study to Americans of Italian extraction domiciled on Manhattan Island and in its immediate environs i. e. parts of what are known as and make up the "Greater City," viz : Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Richmond.
The reasons for this limitation are obvious. First for purely physical reasons it has been impossible to subject to the same uniform scrutiny and thoroughness of investigation the dense colonies of individuals similar in descent and located at such diverse places as Newark, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, New Orleans, etc.; second, the problem of investigating this type is nowhere so pressing as it is here (more individuals, taking both
TO AMEiaGA.M>,i>EM©CRACY
our type in questioji^^]^J:.t|^eir Jnim^diate parents, live here than in Naples, the largest city of Italy); third, practically every socio-economic problem that exists elsewhere among these people is duplicated here; fourth, the opportunity for making comparisons v^ith other races exists here in the most marked degree ; fifth, the nature of the "milieu" or human nature stuff in and among which this American is reacting, is in itself a potent fac- tor in determining the nature of his reactions, and there- fore not only numbers, but diversity of races is a fac- tor to be considered ; sixth, the nufherical factor involved in making a study in New York City rather than else- where is a happy one, in that we have a more just basis for making deductions ; lastly. New York City combines in its outlying districts, namely in Queens and Staten Island, the looser and more spread out or sparsely set- tled character of the colonies composed of Americans of Italian extraction existing elsewhere.
The method used in this survey will vary. Wherever possible, the statistical method will be employed. By means of statistical data, an attempt will be made to point out, quantitative measurements permitting, the numbers of these people and their sociological position in the community. These will be evaluated sociologically in the light of comparisons made with the products of other racial stocks. For instance, it is a fact often de- plored of the Italian stock that relief work among the Italians in New York City is largely dependent upon the initiative and leadership of persons other than those of Italian blood. An instance in point is the case of the numerous war relief societies that sprang up during the war and whose aim was to bring succor to the Italian portion of our war's destitute. To a casual observer, such a condition among a people numbering easily the third or fourth largest element in our population might mistakenly betray a lack either of leadership or of the power of cooperation, and as such it has not infre- quently been c'hanacterized. It more truly instances, however, the uniform lack of great financial men of Italian extraction in New York City. As evidence of this witness the names Morgan, Davison and Lamont — all
4 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
prominent in charity work among Italian speaking peo- ple here.
On the basis of the figures shown in the numerous tables throughout, and the comparisons that these tables afford, some deductions regarding the value of the type under surveillance will be attempted. It will be noticed that our method is not primarily that of an intensive study of individual cases ; but rather, an extensive study of the larger sociological relationships has been the end held in view throughout. Where so many are concerned one would get nowhere if the former method were tried. In fact, there are plenty of institutions where such stud- ies can better be made. In this way only was it possible to get a perspective of the tendency towards which the type is gravitating, and to distinguish the subtypes and varieties into which, as all indications point, the Italian strain is beginning to ramify, just as the older German, Scotch-Irish, and English did some decades ago.
SOURCES — The sources for the interpretations set forth are mainly gathered from a first hand study of the people in question themselves, gained by the writer throug'h a constant and intimate contact as one of them in their play, school, and work. Back of this similarity of origin and supplementing this original contact lies the writer's experience, extending throughout five years as a social worker for the Children's Aid Society of this city, and as "Special National Field Scout Commissioner" with the Boy Scouts of America, permitting him to do organizing and executive work among Italian colonies all over the United States. These afforded an unparal- leled opportunity for studying the nature of the various kinds of organizations effected by these people as well as for observing practically all of their other activities.
The writer's position made it possible for him to come in contact with and interview many of the most promi- nent Americans of Italian blood in New York City who are today actually engaged in mastering this problem of social interpretation and their testimony forms a sub- stantial part of this study. Relative to this problem, it has been deemed advisable also to insert statements of Italians who are in our midst, causing to stand out
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 5
clearer by way of contrast, the information gained from those who, remaining essentially Italian in their thoughts, actions, and speech, are looking at American- ization from another angle.
Lastly, the views of representative Americans of other ancestry than Italian, whose work or studies make their ideas valuable, are utilized, and, some of them have ex- pressed themselves upon a concrete phase of these peo- ple's activities. Many such Americans have spent their lives in a devoted service to the welfare and uplift of Italians, and the representative character of their of- fices can be fairly assumed to insure the widest latitude for fairness and disinterestedness in their expressions. All these facts are incorporated in the questionnaire de- veloped on pages 238 to 373 inclusive.
The writer has also not failed to supplement his per- sonal experience with a prolific use of the statistical records compiled by government officials, the publications of the Census Bureau, reports from social welfare and Americanizing agencies. In all cases where such data have been used, credit has been given and the source duly recorded.
THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
CHAPTER II
DIFFICULTIES UNDERLYING AN INVESTIGATION OF THE ITALIAN ELEMENT
DIFFICULTY OF COLLECTING DATA— The adult Italian is untrained and natively suspicious and yet be- fore one can fairly or adequately interpret this rising generation of Americans it is absolutely essential that the observer know something of the individual type from which he sprang. One must become familiar with the conditions that beset this problem and make it distinc- tive. Collecting information from the "untutored" is not without its own difficulties.
The majority of Italian immigrants who seek our shores are driven here by stern economic necessity.* The hope of securing a better livelihood, the desire for the greater individual liberty that comes from added leisure, and, with some, the anticipated savings which will make it possible for them to return and live out their remain- ing years in the "homeland" in comparative opulence in return for the hazards undertaken — formed in the past as in the present the greatest of impelling motives. How closely related to the phenomenon of immigration was the pressure of the population upon the means of sub- sistence in Italy is shown by the Italian census in 1881 when the population was 257 to the square mile, and two decades or twenty years later when in spite of the great annual afflux to both North and South America this den- sity had increased to 294 per square mile. •
* "Italy even today is in the unique position of seeing her population increase with the going on of war. This apparent paradox is easily explained if one remembers that several hun- dreds of thousands of Italians returned from abroad to serve under her colors ; and that had it not been for the war Italy would have lost by emigration about half a million men and women each year for the past four years. The war by prevent- ing emigration has kept all that population at home thus in- creasing Italy's population at a rate far greater than in time of peace in spite of the war losses," (Statement by Dr. Felice Ferrero, Director, Italian Bureau for Public Information, Sat- urday Post, July 20, 1918.)
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 7
On the whole the class of Italians that comes here rep- resents the element lowest in the socio-economic scale that Italy possesses. This is to say that the stratum of Italian life in which the margin of economic subsistence has followed most closely and pressed most heavily upon the margin of possible economic resistance, has been the class that has poured its legions into our midst. Such people have had little opportunity in life, are untrained and as a rule, offer less intelligent contact to one gath- ering data than would otherwise be the case. Their sus- picion and distrust make it difficult to secure reliable in- formation.
RECENCY OF ITALIAN IMMIGRATION— Another consideration is the comparative recency of Italian im- migration. Emigration from Southeastern Europe be- gan about 1880 and is the most recent of the great emi- gration movements from the continent to our shores. The Italian makes up a large portion of this newest wave of immigration and at the outbreak of the war in 1914 represented the country that sent over the greatest number.
With the immigrant the chief problem is to secure a position ; his next is to see to it that it is permanent. Arthur Train says in speaking of the Italian immigration movement to this country "it would take a generation for these people of the old world to get out of their sys- tems the tradition that in some ways they are bound to the soil where they serve and cannot leave it ; a genera- tion for them to realize that they are free to come and go and to take part in the activities, political and other- \^ise of the nation at large. Herein lies the difference between the old im'migrant, the adult Italian,'-^ the man who seeks refuge in America for his declining years and the boy of twelve, fifteen or eighteen the American of Italian extraction^"^ who has life all before ihim. The older man is set in his ideas. This is shown in New York City in the Genoese districts where the grandfather who came to this country took up his abode and where he still lives." Such an individual rarely hopes for much else. Leader-
* Italics are ours. ♦* ditto
8 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
ship, if it be there, is largely confined to work in the Italian community and such individuals become semi- patriarchal potentates giving advice, alleviating suffer- ing and even dispensing justice. Cooperation is invaria- bly confined to others who have come over from Italy with them and from the same town. The radius of their circle of cooperation is practically zero when Americans of other stocks are concerned. Their own internal co- operation serves to set them off as a group apart and they act as a community within a community. This holds true for all nationalities and is a psychical not a racial characteristic. This exclusive character of adult Italian life therefore offers great difficulty to outsiders gather- ing data, and information which on the surface of things appears reliable may easily lead to gross errors in inter- pretation. Differences in dialects, customs, habits of life, in some instances represent wide cleavages ; in other in- stances such differences are more apparent than real.
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN ITALIAN — By far the majority of the immigrants from Italy have come from its southern districts ; few from the north. One can- not fail to be impressed with the wide differences that exist educationally and socially between the North and South Italian. These differences however are not inher- ent in the type but reflect the better economic advantages that North Italy affords.
It is not surprising therefore to find these people men- tally lowest in the scale of culture among immigrants that come to our shores. Some years ago when, with a million or more of immigrants pouring into our midst, the problem had become acutest, statistics showed that seventy percent of the immigrants from southern Italy were illiterate.
The great disparity in mental and material cultures between the northern and the southern adult Italian im- migrant is reduced to a nullity in the case of their off- spring, showing the powerful levelling influence of American democracy and systems of education.
UNSETTLED PROBLEMS — Interested as we are in ascertaining what the value of the descendants of these people is in our democracy, we shall try to center our
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 9
attention upon several facts that in a democracy are of the greatest moment. First with respect to the question of "leadership." On the basis of the activities disclosed in the section on Social Organization with reference parti- cularly to New York City, we are to raise the question, "Is the American of Italian extraction deficient with re- spect to the qualities that make for leadership?" So many people say that if an undertaking centering chiefly upon matters that affect the Italian is to be successful it must be organized and managed by others than those of Italian blood! Equally serious is the charge that a lack of cooperation exists among these people and that their relative disorganization is shown in the variegated sec- tions within the Italian colony itself where on one street lives a type that has customs and habits entirely distinct from the customs and habits of those occupying the next street. "Is this lack of cooperation more apparent than real?" Finally and most important we are interested in knowing if what the American of Italian extraction brings to us is a pro rata share towards the creation of the type of mind and character of institution that we can label as being distinctively AMERICAN.
It is not expected that questions such as those above will be settled by this study. It is sufficient, if by rais- ing these issues, it will become more apparent than was hitherto true, that a great deal of the internal racial problems of America are due to SOCIAL MAL-AD- JUSTMENTS in immigrant localities rather than to any inherent defect of mental traits — thus raising a prob- lem, essentially sociological rather than psychological, for the future to solve.
REASONS FOR INVESTIGATION— «One may ask for the reasons of a study of this kind. There are many reasons why a study of this description is useful. The chief one is a lack of definite sociological data regard- ing the second generation of Americans of Italian ori- gin. Equally important is such a study because as the writer believes, with the detailed sociological and psy- chological study of racial groups such as this is, there will be less of that forwardness on the part of some individuals to assert superiority for any one group. It
10 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
will more clearly be seen how much is due to opportunity and environment and how little to race superiority, if such a thing exist at all. Again, with regard to the pro- cess of Americanization, it is desired that chief attention be given to aspects of synthetization.
Not unimportant also is this study in defining anew for us the term ''democracy" and the help that such a study gives in reminding us of the need of keeping constantly in the foreground the fact that for us, as yet, democracy needs to be continually redefined; that it is not a com- plete and finished thing but is being constantly moulded and shaped in accordance with our changing socio-po- litico-economic conditions. It can clearly be seen, there- fore, that such a study is of great value in increasing the means whereby we can rationally and intelligently direct our Americanizing movements, and is of inesti- mable importance in marking out a clear line between the old emphasis of the past, which was built chiefly around an alien, and the new, which aims to focus its fullest rays of light upon those individuals who, to be- gin with, are distinctly AMERICAN. Lastly, if we wish, we might read into this study, in so far as the Ital- ian strain is concerned, at any rate, something con- cerning the rate of success that our social institutions are meeting with in their endeavor to turn out normal Americans.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 11
PART II
SURVEY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
CHAPTER III
POPULATION AND DISTRIBUTION
DIFFICULTIES OF ACCURATE ENUMERATION — It is difficult to ascertain with absolute accuracy the number of Americans of. Italian extraction located in the greater city. The reason for this is that no organi- zation, social, educational, political or religious exists today which is sufficiently interested in collecting and keeping statistics of the type of American under con- sideration here apart from Americans of other racial stocks.
If one were to attempt this task the ideal method would be a house to house canvass. The thousands of homes that would thus have to be canvassed make this impossible. Instead therefore, the figures of this pop- ulation under investigation are derived from other sources.*
The only study ever made and bearing on this problem is not a recent one and many changes have occurred since to modify the findings then reported , As an ap- proximation tho it can still be instructive. In 1903 the Italian Chamber of Commerce decided to find out how many Italians were domiciled in both the City and the State of New York.
♦Since the war Italian immigration has become nil. Never- theless, the process of Americanization is still going on among those who have come here from Italy and among their de- scendents. As these latter people become more and more ma- ture, they move away from the settlement formerly inhabited and locate elsewhere. It is safe to say that nine out of every ten such individuals the moment it is possible for them to do so move out and locate elsewhere than in the original set- tlement of the parent, thereby mingling inextricably with Americans of other extractions. Because of this fact and also because of a definite percentage who thru marriage become inseparably intermingled with other stocks any attempt to deal conclusively with the numbers of Americans of Italian blood in New York City is well-nigh futile.
12 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
A committee was appointed of which Giovanni Bran- c'hi, then Consul General, was chairman. This commit- tee reported the following data :
RESIDENT ITALIANS NEW YORK STATE NEW YORK CITY
272,572 (pop. in 1900) 225,026 (pop. in 1900)
18,322 (excess of births over 14,121 (excess of births over
deaths) deaths)
195,281 (excess of arrivals 143,628 (excess of arrivals over departures) over departures)
486,175 (total 1903) 382,775 (total 1903)
The large excess of births over deaths is testimony to the high vitality of the race while the high preponder- ance of male entrants as compared to females is an in- dication of the type's economic possibilities.
Various other writers have at times attempted to cal- culate the distribution of Italian blood in New York City. Professor Willcox figured that in 1900 the Italian popu- lation in New York City was 145,433.* The last census in 1910 found 340,322 Italians residing here who had been born in Italy. A great many of these tho came here at a very early age; to be exact 10.4% came to this country before their fourteenth birthday and therefore are eli- gible for inclusion in this study. Altogether in 1910 there were 531,857 Italian speaking people domiciled in Greater New York from which those born in Italy, namely 340,322, are to be subtracted leaving us a total of 191,535 Americans of Italian extraction residing here for the year 1910. To this are to be added the subse- quent births for the ensuing years. These latter figures are 206,163 distributed by years, viz :
NUMBER OF REPORTED BIRTHS OF ITALIAN PARENT- AGE IN NEW YORK CITY**
1911—28,290
1912—29,600
1913—29,533
1914—31,023
1915—29,717
1916—29,011
1917—28,989
Total— 206,163 ♦Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 20, pp. 523-46 **Thru courtesy of Dr. Wm. H. Guilfoy, Registrar of Records, Department of Health.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY i3
From 1911 to 1917 one million seven thousand Italians entered this country but from this number the 801,792 that returned are to be subtracted.* Of the 205,208 that remained only 24 per cent or 49,249 located in New York City. This last added to the 340,322 persons of foreign- born Italian stock here in 1910 raises the present popu- lation representing the older generation to 389,571. The deaths for the Italian strain since 1910 have averaged in any one representative year 10.24 per thousand popu- lation.** This permits us to deduct 27,923 and 28,504 from the figures representing the older and the younger generations respectively, leaving a final grand total of 730,842 Italian speaking people domiciled in New York City. These computations include both the adult Italian and his offspring the American of Italian extraction. In tabular for^m these figures compared to the total popu- lation of the Greater City are :
ITALIAN BLOOD IN POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY,
1917
Total Italian-speaking Population
|
v> |
to 3 |
n |
|||
|
1-1 |
Cu |
•-t |
|||
|
O n |
r> |
O |
o |
||
|
O n> |
°z |
P q |
|||
|
P |
►3 P |
^ ^ |
.— 3 |
P ^ |
|
|
>— n |
• pj |
1— o |
|||
|
? |
P ^ |
4 |
Rl' |
?l |
|
|
o |
? p |
> |
•p p ►-t |
||
|
K| |
p |
Cu |
3 |
O- |
|
|
n |
o' |
w' |
j_j. |
o |
^ |
|
►-1 |
3 |
3 |
O |
o |
|
|
1880a |
1,911,698 |
12,223b |
6 |
X |
|
|
1890 |
2,507,414 |
74,687 |
3 |
40,190 |
2 |
|
1900 |
3,437,202 |
145,429 |
4 |
74,168b |
2.5 |
|
1910 |
4,769,883 |
340,322 |
7 |
191,545 |
4 |
|
1917 |
5,748,629c |
361,648 |
6 |
369,194d |
6 |
a In 1850 the Italian portion of this country's population was so small as to be negligible amounting to but 0.2%. (Century of Pop. & Growth. Bur. of Census, p. 130)
b Foerster, R. F. The Italian Emigration of Our Times, p. 325.
c New York City Board of Health figures.
d Computed from original data furnished thru kindness of Dr. Guilfoy.
X Negligible owing to large percentage of early returns to homeland and scarcity of females.
14 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
For the first and second generations of Italian blood alone the figures given below are arranged to include not as Italians but as Americans the 10.4 per cent of the entire Italian foreign born population of this city that entered who had not attained their fourteenth birthday. These individuals, notwithstanding their foreign birth, are for our purposes here classed as Americans of Ital- ian origin because the plastic state of both their minds and bodies will unquestionably render them extremely susceptible to American ideas and education. They rep- resent a type different from the adult Italian who is so ingrained with the traditions of the "homeland" that he himself is neither able to be affected in any very radical way by American conditions nor to contribute creatively to American democracy. Some of the biggest leaders of the second generation of Italians in New York City as well as some of the most promising material now at- tending our schools and universities are of this class. It it curious and interesting to note in this connection that the only two books intelligently written on the subject of Italians in America and recently published should be written by individuals of this type who having been born in Italy came here before their 14th birthday. Wm. P. Schriver and Dean George Hodges in writing the pre- faces for "Sons of Italy" by Antonio Mangano and "So- cial and Religious Life of Italians in America" by Henry C. Sartorio both make mention of this fact.
Instead of tabulating the figures below as "first" and "second" generation it is more proper to label them as "Italian" and "American of Italian extraction." For the entire city the figures are :
THE ITALIAN SPEAKING POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY— 1917 TYPE NUMBER PERCENT
Italians 324,037 44.3
Americans of Italian extraction 406,805 55.7
TOTAL 730,842 100.0
* Compiled from Annual Reports of Commissioner-General of Immigration.
** Actual death rate for Italians in New York City in 1915. (vide, Guilfoy. Influence of Nationality upon Mortality of a Community, Monograph Series, 1917, No. 18, p. 26.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 15
Other writers make the figures a little lower. An- tonio Mangano in a very excellent book referred to above figures that the Italians in New York City approximate 600,000.* Others put it at 700,000.** The more recent writers accept this-f Corporation Counsel Burr before a recent meeting of the Academy of Political Science said that there were more Italians here than there were in Naples. If this ir so not only would the approximate figures of 700,000 be true but it would make of this city the greatest Italian center in the world.
DENSITY — By density is meant the number of per- sons to each square mile of land area. No very recent figures exist for comparing the densities of the various racial groupings scattered thruout the city. Certainly, the Italian colonyj located at Mulberry Bend Park is as densely populated as any other section of the city. Not very long ago it was found that the most densely popu- lated spot in the world was located somewhere in the section around 10th and 11th avenues, north of 34th
♦Published by the Missionary Education Movement, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City. (Mangano takes no account of the population increase since the last 1910 census).
** World Outlook; Italian Number, October 1909. ed. Willard Price.
t Train, Arthur, "Unhooking the Hyphen," Saturday Evening Post, August 10th, 1918.
t One great difficulty universally experienced in writings dealing with people of Italian blood is the haphazard and loose way in which the term Italian is used to designate individuals. If an individual's name ends with a vowel, he is classed as an Italian tho he may have come from stock that was born in this country, as is true particularly of a large group of Genoese located around the Five Points section in Mulberry Bend. Italians who have come from Italy and who have never been naturalized, Italians who after having lived here a greater or less number of years, have become naturalized and there- fore are Americans, and Americans born of Italian stock, and Americans born of Americanized Italians — all are promiscu- ously lumped together and dealt with as tho they were of a likv. class. Very often the gulf between them is wide. This stuay thruout uses the terms "Italian," and "American of Ital- ian extraction," the two main types, very guardedly and de- precates the use of careless language with its consequent con- fusion, described above.
16 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
Street and south of 59th Street and that there were lo- cated in this section 11,000 persons to the acre.*
The survey of the Federation of Churches, conducted in 1904 found the block bounded by Second and Third streets, Ave B to Ave. C (a Jewish block) to have 4,105 residents and "this appears by a comparison of all the blocks of the Tenement House Report to be the largest population within four streets of Manhattan." Dr. Laid- law adds however that while it may be the most popu- lated it need not be the densest.f It is likely, however, that since then other sections have increased at a more rapid rate so that the most densely populated section of New York City lies elsewhere. The writer is inclined to believe that this distinction lies between the large Jew- ish colony located on such streets as Rivington, For- sythe and Eldridge and the Italian colony at Mulberry Bend, Bayard, Baxter, Elizabeth and Hester Streets, both of which sections have very many characteristics that are similar.
Dr. Bushee found the density of population in the Italian quarter at the North End of Boston to average 1.40 persons per sleeping room.** This was true in 1891 but it has since increased 65%. The same condition exists among the Italian quarters in New York City. The only data we have regarding density in such quarters is fairly recent. In 1912 Dr. Antonio Stella made a study of housing conditions in the Italian quarters in the lower part of this city. His findings are both interesting and instructive. "The old seventh ward which contains a great part of the Italian population," he says, "has a density of 478 people per acre. This is greater than the density of the districts of Bethnal Green and Skelder- gate in London where the greatest density was found to be 365 and 349 people to the square acre respectively, and this Rowntree considered greater than that of any other city of Europe."*** Five separate investigations
* Lectures by Prof. Franklin H. Giddine:s ; in Inductive So- ciology given at Columbia University in 1915. (It is to be added tho in this connection that accurate data regarding condi- tions in China and in India are not to be had). ,
t Federation, December, 1904.
** Bushee, Prof. F. A. "Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston" American Economic Ass'n. Third Series, 1903.
*** Stella, Dr. Antonio; La Lotta comtra La Tubercolosi fra gli Italiani nclla Citta di New York. p. 47 passim.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 17
made at various points in this city are quoted here to point out the general character of over-population and unusual density among Italian speaking people. In cer- tain places on East 13th Street, a Sicilian district, Dr. Stella found that 1231 people lived in 120 rooms, an av- erage of ten people to a room, v^ith less than 18 cubic meters of air for each individuaLf
In another section on Seventh Avenue, a Calabrian section, he found twenty rooms populated by eight fam- ilies totalling 42 people of whom 24 were children. Dr. Guilfoy found seven tenement houses populated by 1500 people.* Block X of the old 14th Ward, Lord found to have the most unenviable distinction of being the most densely populated of Italian blocks he investigated and to contain the largest number of Italian families of Italian origin in the city. In this block 492 families were lodged in an area extending north from Prince Street between Mott and Elizabeth Streets. In one of these blocks alone, the so-called "Lung" block, were counted more than 4000 people, one quarter of whom were Americans of Italian extraction.** Lastly Chapin's study of con- ditions in New York City showed the Italians (disre- garding the Bohemians whose numbers are insignifi- cant) rivalled only by the Austrians in over-crowding, viz: J
OVER-CROWDING BY NATIONALITIES Total No. No. reporting more
Nationality of Families
United States 67
Teutonic 39
Irish 24
Colored ' 28
Bohemian 14
Russian 57
Austrian 32
Italian 57
TOTAL 318
These findings if true point to the fact that perhaps in the Italian colony at Mulberry Bend Park there are
t ibid. p. 48. * Medical Record, Jan. 5th, 1908. . ,**Lord, Trenor and Barrows. The Italian in America.
t Chapin, Robert C. The Standard of living in New York City, p. 81.
|
than 1^ persons |
Percent |
|
per room |
|
|
20 |
30 |
|
8 |
21 |
|
12 |
50 |
|
16 |
57 |
|
11 |
79 |
|
35 |
61 |
|
21 |
65 |
|
37 |
65 |
|
160 |
50 |
18 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
more individuals living per square acre than upon any other square acre that we know of in the world. Prof. Foerster's vivid description is both interesting and in- structive in this connection.^ New York City's total acreage is 201,659. With a population of five and one half million this would average a population of 22.31 per square mile. Distributed by boroughs the figures of the city's population fo*- all nationalities are :* DENSITY OF POPULATION PER ACRE IN NEW YORK
CITY Year N. Y. City Manhattan Bronx Brooklyn Queens Richmond 1910 23.66 166.08 16.56 32.89 3.78 2.34
While we see in the above the density per acre for the city at large is but 23.66, in the old Second Assembly district which is predominantly Italian it jumps to 170.4 and in the old Sixth District to the astounding figures of 397.6,** pointing to a physical background for the type that we are studying that is highly abnormal.
t "Who that has sauntered thru these colonies can forget them? Who, since they are unique, can describe them? An ant hill is like them or a bee-hive — but too soon all analogies break down ! Where East Houston, Mott, Prince and Eliza- beth Streets come together in New York, making one block fairly long but very narrow, dwell 3500 people, 1100 to the acre. It disputes with few other blocks the dismal honor of being the most populous spot on earth. Its tenements rise four or five stories into the air but each story bursts, as if the inward pressure were too great, into a balcony. The street below is at once playground and place of business; one threads one's way betwixt pushcarts and stands, past little children and quite as little old women, whose black eyes scin- tillate above their bronzed Sicilian cheeks. Here doctor and mid-wife might make a living while scarcely leaving the block. (One child in nine dies before the age of five.) On each floor, as a rule, are four 'flats,' often of two rooms ; one room serv- ing as kitchen, dining-room, and general living room, the other as bed-room. 'There is not,' says a government report, 'a bath-tub in this solid block, unless there be some in the Chil- dren's Aid Society building, and only one family has a hot water range. In one of the buildings there are radiators in the hall, but the furnace has never been lighted in the recol- lection of the present tenants. All halls are cold and dirty the greater part of the time, and most of them are dark.' Neither bath-tub nor stove is an institution which these immigrants have known in Italy, but in America both cHmate and the perils of crowded living make their omission costly." (Taken from The Italian Emigration of Our Times, p. 382-3).
♦Pratt, Edward E, Industrial Causes gi Congestion jn New York City, p. 28.
** ibid p. 31.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 19
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES— Because as one writer puts it "no other nationality in New York City is so given to aggregation as the ItaHan" there is scarcely another nationality that so thoroughly stamps as foreign the district it occupies. Never- theless in with the Italians are Hebrews, Syrians, Greeks and other nationalities of Southeastern Europe. Again there are thousands of Italian speaking people domiciled in sections where other racial stocks predom- inate so that these are not included in the estimated fig- ures by districts that follow. It is understood that the figures given for the population of the different colonies or sections are approximate. A distribution of the Ital- ian speaking population in New York City by Boroughs follows : DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES IN MANHATTAN
Section Chief Estimated
or Street Boundaries Dialects Population
Locality • Spoken (Approx.)
Genoese Mulberry Worth, Lafayette, Bow- Calabrian nnnnn
Bend Park ery and Houston Sts. Neapolitan ii",wu
Sicilian
Calabrian West Side Canal, West 4th, West Piedmontese (lower) Broadway, North River Tuscan
Neapolitan
East Side East 9th St., East River, Sicilian iq nnn
(middle) 2nd Ave., and 33rd St. Calabrian ^^'^^
Neapolitan West Side 34th St., 59th St., North Genoese it;nnn
(middle) River and Ninth Ave. Turinese ^'"""
Milanese
Neapolitan E. Harlem 134th St., 125th St., 2nd. Calabrian 75 qqq
(Little Italy) Ave. to East River Sicilian '
Salernitano
White Plains Ave.
Van Cort- landt
Gun Hill Road
Scattering
TOTAL
70,000
|
Neapolitan |
3,500 |
|
Sicilian |
2,000 |
|
Calabrian |
1,500 |
|
Miscellaneous |
15,000 |
|
310,000 |
20
THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES IN BRONX
Section
or Locality
Street Boundaries
Chief Dialects Spoken
Estimated
Population
(Approx.)
Fordham
Morrisania
Williams- bridge
Van Nest
Bedford Pk.
Scattering TOTAL
Fordham Rd,, So. Boule- vard, 180 St. and 3rd Ave
3rd Ave., 149th St., Park Ave.
Bedford Pky Pky., Jerome Ave The Concourse
Abbruzzese Barese Sicilian Barese
St., 161st Sicilian
Abbruzzese
Neapolitan
Neapolitan
Sicilian
Neapolitan
Calabrian
Moshulu Calabrian and Neapolitan Sicilian Miscellaneous
35,000
20,000
20,000 15,000
15,000
10,000 115,000
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES IN RICHMOND
Section
or Locality
Street Boundaries
Chief Dialects Spoken
Estimated Population (Approx.)
Rosebank
Tompkins- ville
New Brigh- ton
Arrochar
Port Rich- mond
West New Brighton
Dongan Hills
Tottenville Stapleton Arlington Mariner's
Harbor Elm Park,
etc.
TOTAL
St. Mary's Ave., Tomp- kins Ave., Chestnut Ave.
Van Duzer St., St. Paul's Ave., Hannah St.
Jersey St., Brighton Ave.
Richmond Ave. Old Town Road
Elm Street
Richmond St., Brighton Ave.
Puritan Ave., Liberty Ave.
|
Sicilian Calabrian Neapolitan |
6,500 |
|
Neapolitan |
3,500 |
|
Calabrian |
3,000 |
|
Sicilian |
2,000 |
|
Neapolitan |
1,000 |
|
Sicilian |
1,000 |
|
Neapolitan |
500 |
Miscellaneous 2,500
20,000
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 21
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES IN BROOKLYN
Section
or Locality
Street Boundaries
Chief Estimated Dialects Population Spoken (Approx.)
Bridge
Section
City Park
Hamilton Ave.
Fourth Ave.
Lefferts Pk.
Bath Beach & Coney Is.
Franklin Ave.
Williams- burg Ave.
Bushwick
Flatbush Troy Ave. East N. Y.
Elton St.
Scattering TOTAL
Front, High, Gold, and Prospect Sts.
Hudson Ave., Navy Yard, N. Portland & Myrtle Avs
Hamilton Ave., Court St., Atlantic Ave., Columbia St.
Fifth Ave., Degraw St., Nevins St., and 22nd St.
New Utrecht Ave., 60th St., 11th Ave., 70th St.
Bay 11th, Bath Avenue to Coney Island
DeKalb Ave., Marcy Ave., Flushing Ave., Grand Ave.
Union Ave., N. 6th St., Bedford, Graham, John- son Aves.
Evergreen Ave., Willough-
by Ave., Knickerbocker Sicilian
Ave., Flushing Ave.
Calabrian 10,000
Neapolitan ^c^qqq
Gragitano '
Sicilian 20,000
Neapolitan 30,000
Calabrian 10,000
Sicilian 15,000
Calabrian 15,000
Neapolitan 40,000 30.000
Malbone St., Nostrand Ave., Kings County Bldgs and Flushing Ave.
Troy Ave., St. Marks Ave. Utica Ave., Fulton St.
Rockaway Ave., Liberty Ave., Pennsylvania Ave., and Fulton St.
Atlantic Ave., Ashford St., Glenmore Ave., Essex St.
Neapolitan 5,000
Neapolitan 5,000
Neapolitan
Salernitano 20,000 Barese
Neapolitan 5,000
Miscellaneous 15,000 235,000
22
THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN COLONIES IN QUEENS
Section
or Locality
Street Boundaries
Chief Estimated
Dialects Population Spoken (Approx.)
Long Island
City (No. Sec.)
Willow St., Washington PI., Hallet St., Hoyt Ave.
Ninth Ave., Astoria Ave., Steinway Ave. Ridgwood, Hamilton St., Peeree St., Washington (West. Sec.) Ave., Webster & Graham Ave., Ridge St., Camilier St.
Fifth to 10th Avenues Fifth Ave., Moore St., Sycamore Ave., Alburtis Ave.
Corona Ave. Scattered
(East. Sec.)
(So. Sec.)
Corona - (West.Sec.)
(No. Sec.) (East. Sec.) Jamaica (West.Sec.)
Flushing (East. Sec.)
Scattered TOTAL
Abruzzese Salernitano
Sicilian
Neapolitan
Piedmontese
Neapolitan
Salernitano Neapolitan
Basilicatanese Miscellaneous
6,000 4,000
6,000
2,000
6,000
2,000 2,500
South St., Rockaway Ave. Basilicatanese 6,500
Amity St., W. Grove St. H^HH,,,
Calabrian
and Vicinity
Miscellaneous
5,000
15,000 55,000
AGE CLASSIFICATION— According to the 1910 cen- sus the actual age distribution of Italians that entered was : AGE GROUPS OF ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS BY PERCENTS,
1910 Year Race or People Under 14 Yrs. 14-44 Yrs. 45 Yrs. and over 1910 Italian 10.4 83.5 6.1
W^hen we come to consider Americans of Italian ex- traction it is perfectly safe to say that because of the very recent character of Italian immigration this type will plot its heaviest below the 21 year age line. When we consider that immigration from Italy that first amounted to anything started in 1882 with but 32,160 entering and that it was not until 1900 that it had crossed the 100,000 mark, we see that the descendents of these
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 23
people must be in a comparatively youthful stage. A glance at the age-figures of those entering in a repre- sentative year will show how truly homogeneous is this group of Italian origin from the standpoint of age-char- acter— the great bulk of their parents being still in the prime of life when they arrived at this port. In actual numbers those entering in 1914, the year of the greatest immigration notwithstanding the abrupt stoppage due to the war, were :
ITALIAN IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES, 1914 Number
Race Admitted Under 14 yrs. 14-44 yrs. 45 yrs. & over
Italian, North 44,802 4,775 38,106 1,921
Italian, South 251,612 32,936 201,428 17,248
Total 296,414 47,711 239,534 19,179
There are no age statistics for the second generation. The census bureau lumps the native-born of all foreign stocks together and makes one class of them. Before 1900 however the number (74,168) was so s'mall as to be inconsequential. It has steadily increased since so that in 1910 it more than doubled itself, rising to 191,545 in actual numbers. But it has remained for the last decade from 1910 on to witness the most phenomenal increase of this class in New York City.* From 1910-1917 there was an increase of 177,649 or a scant 15,000 to keep the original 1900 figure from again having doubled itself within seven years this time instead of ten. Computed in round numbers there are today in New York City 175,000 Americans of Italian extraction (or 47%) of the second generation between one and nine years of age; 125,000 or 34% between ten and nineteen years of age ; 35,000 or 9% in each of the two succeeding age groups namely,
♦The actual increase by births for each year is as follows:
1901 11,130 1909 24,882
1902 12,746 1910 28,369
1903 14,625 1911 28,290
1904 16,301 1912 29,600
1905 18,252 1913 29,533
1906 21,216 1914 .31,023
1907. 23,805 1915 29,717
1908 25,754 1916 29,011
1917 28,989
(Above figures from original data furnished by Dr. Guilfoy)
24 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
20-29 and 30-39 years, and finally 5,000 or 1% forty years and over.
As these figures show, the type we are studying is essentially in a state of transition, the majority of them or fully 90% being contained in the first two age group- ings all below twenty-one years of age. Because of this fact the socio-economic conditions that we shall disclose in subsequent chapters like the "Standard of Living" and "Occupations" will be a standard of living dictated by the old generation and the facts themselves be largely socio-economic facts pertaining primarily to the first rather than to the second generation. For the reader to remember this is important because it affects practically the entire body constituting the second generation the members of which represent a state of transition, not having definitely and fully adjusted themselves to Amer- ican life from the standpoint of their own free choices because of their immaturity in years. In the chapter on LITERACY we notice the position of this class "en masse" in our public schools. The figures there shown corroborate the above reflection for by far the greatest number, namely 72 percent of the American of Italian extraction is found in the primary grades.
According to the last available estimates of this city's population the figures put forth by the Board of Health show a population of 5,748,629 people. The population of New York City of school-going age i. e. 5-18 is 1,352,- 460 or 23.6 per cent of the total population. Italians and Americans of Italian extraction numbering 730,842 rep- resent 12.7 percent of the total population while the second generation constitutes 30.1 percent of the city's school going population.
SEX CLASSIFICATION— Just as in the age distribu- tion so in the matter of sex no one study is available showing the distribution of this 700,000 odd population. According to the census taken in 1901* Italy with a pop-
* The latest census was taken in June, 1911 and showed for the entire population over 10 years of age the following: males 12,889,847; females 13,680,201 or substantially no difference from the figures quoted above. (Taken from ITALY TO-DAY, Bul- letin of Italian Bureau of Public Information, 1918.)
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 25
ulation of 32,475,353 showed the following proportions between the sexes;
Date of POPULATION Proportion of
Country Census Male Female Males to
100 Females Italy 1901 16,155,130 16,320,123 99.0
The sex of our Italian immigrants was not anywhere thus evenly distributed because at the beginning approximately six males to one female entered this coun- try. This disparity has been steadily decreasing, how- ever, until now the proportion of men entering is three to one female.
In the United States the percentage of males to fe- males is 106 in favor of the latter. For New York City according to the last census 1910, the proportion between the sexes is as follows :
Borough Manhattan Bronx Brooklyn Queens Richmond
Dr. Laidlaw found thruout Manhattan as a whole which he considered representative, that native born fe- males of all racial strains exceed the native-born males by 12,277 while the foreign-born females exceed the for- eign-born males only by 1298. In the Bronx males ex- ceed the females among the foreign-born population while the females exceed the males among the native- born. Dr. Laidlaw stated, however, that the above dis- crepancy was in large part due to the fact that a great many Italians were at that time engaged on the public works of this Borough.* It would seem from all this that of the adult generations the males predominate ; but with the American of Italian extraction, no great dis- parity in sex exists that is of any moment, the distribu- tion between male and female being practically even. For the entire population of foreign parentage, as a mat- ter of fact, this same ratio of evenness between the sexes exists and has remained stationary since 1890 with a * Federation, April 1912, p. 25.
|
Males |
Females |
|
1,168,657 217,126 809,891 144,205 44,757 |
1,164,883 213,860 824,560 139,836 41,262 |
26 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
tendency in most cities towards a decline in the number of males.*
CONJUGAL RELATIONSHIP— Marital statistics foV Italians and Americans of Italian extraction show- marked differences as is to be expected. For all nation- alities daughters of the foreign-born show only 19% of those aged between 15-24 to be married, while among daughters of native-born parents 30% are married; for the men between 20-29 only 26% of the native-born sons of foreign stock are married; while of the sons of na- tives 38.5^" are married.** As Prof. Commons points out this phenomenon sustains what can be proved in many large cities, and New York City is no exception. The following table shows the conjugal condition of en- tering immigrants :
CONJUGAL CONDITION OF IMMIGRANTS, 1910 PERCENTAGE Sex 14 to 44 years 45 years and over
Single Married Wid. Div. Single Married Wid. Div. Males 55.3 44.2 0.5 a 5.2 86.8 7.9 a
Females 57.7 39.9 2.3 a 6.6 52.8 40.5 0.1
a. Less than one-tenth of one percent.
Fairchild points out the deep significance that these figures have for us in our problem of synthetization. More than half of all immigrants of both sexes are sin- gle, showing therefore that the immigration movement is not a movement of families. One of the greatest forces for Americanization in immigrant families is the growing children, in this case numbering 300,000 or 81 per cent. "Where they are lacking the adults have much less contact with assimilation influences."*"^* Together with the American of Jewish extraction, the type under surveillance here is able to bring all the possible ad- vantages that numbers carry upon the process of syn- thetization and Americanization. Our type here as we have seen is most numerous within the three to nine age
* See also hand-book of Federal Statistics of Children, Chil- dren's Bureau, Publication No. 5, Second Edition, passim, where for the entire country for both the foreign and native stocks "the number of boys and girls is always nearly equal." p. 10.
** Commons, J. R., Races and Immigrants in America, p. 203.
♦** Fairchild. H. P. Immigration, p. 202.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 27
group and is consequently for the most part unmarried.
MIXED MARRIAGES— In the matter of children the ^estion whether the two parents are of one strain is an important one. Dr. Jones found that the antipathy ex- isting between the Irish and the Italian vanished when the latter learned the American point of view, and he hereafter expects to see a family life where marriages between the Italians and the Irish will be as numerous as have been marriages between the Germans and the Irish. In the latter case there is perhaps more in com- mon. Both the Italian and the Irish colonies are strong- holds of Catholicism and this coupled with their con- vivial affinities would help draw the emotional and highly strung natures of both these stocks together more fre- quently. As a matter of fact this mixing of the Irish with the Italian is a process that is going on rapidly, particularly in the Italian families on the middle West Side of New York City. We call to mind in this con- nection the situation as it exists for the City of Boston where a special inquiry showed that 236 Italian families in a colony of 7900 were of mixed parentage with pre- dominantly Irish tendencies.
Some idea of the rapid absorption of Italian blood thru mixed marriages is afforded by the study of Ripley made some years ago. In all there were 484,207 Italians in the United States in 1900. Marriages of Italian mothers and American born fathers produced 2747 offspring; 23,076 had Italian fathers and native-born mothers ; 12,523 had Italian fathers and mothers of some other non-American nationality, while 3,911 had Italian moth- ers and fathers neither American nor Italian born. Thus of the 484,000 Italians, nearly 1/10 were of mixed blood. This is as high a ratio of blood mixture as is found among any other group of immigrants representing the "newer immigration."*
For New York City we have some interesting data available for the first time. In 1900 there were only 108 births of mixed parentage in this city; by 1916 this had increased to 530 or a gain of 390.7 per cent : the fol-
* Ripley, Ezra P. "Journal of the Royal Anthropological In- stitute" Vol. 38, p. 233.
28 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION .
lowing year 1917 saw a gain of 257 or 48.4 per cent over the preceding year* and if the figures of 1918 were available this percentage would be even higher. Dr. Guilfoy concludes from the above figures that "the war apparently has resulted in more Italian women marrying men of other nationalities." The war unquestionably was a factor in explaining the above but it was not the most important by any means. To the writer the main reason for the increasing prevalence of mixed marriages is the increasing number of Americans of Italian extrac- tion, men and women alike, that are coming into what Jones has termed "the American point of view" and be- cause of this, rather than because of the war we can confidently expect to see an increasing frequency of mixed marriages among these people.
RELATION BETWEEN SIZE OF FAMILY AND ITS PLACE IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC SCALE— It is obvious that for the earliest periods of family life there is a direct relation between the size of the family and its place in our socio-economic life. The more mouths there are to feed the more severe is the struggle for existence. This is but temporary, however, and after the children have grown up the burdens of the parents are considerably lessened.
It is the trying early period and the large percentage of the second generation among Italian speaking peo- ples of New York City that brought the Italians third in the bad preeminence of congested families. The test made was that of finding the greatest frequency for the highest number of persons per sleeping room. Twen- ty-two percent of all the Italians from the southern part of Italy occupied all of their rooms as sleeping rooms ; outranked by but the Greeks and the Syrians who showed for this same phenomenon the percentages of 42.9 and 42.1 respectively.**
The Immigration Commission found that approxi- mately 26 percent of the households they visited kept boarders or lodgers. In New York City this proportion
* Courtesy of Dr. Wm. H. Guilfoy, Registrar of Records, New York City Health Dept. **Jenks and Lauck; The Immigration Problem, p. 133 passim.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 29
was in round numbers 25 percent. Among Italians 42.9% were found to have used this means as an aid in solv- ing the problem of living. In this they were outranked by the Lithuanians with 70.3 and Hungarians with 47^°."^ In contrast we find that only 9.5% of the Germans had boarders; 5.3% of the Syrians; 16.7% of the Irish; 13.1% of the Bohemians — all of which groups excepting the Germans constitute what is called the "old immigration." The writer's knowledge of the Italian home and the Italian temperament makes him believe that the social and convivial nature of the Latin, apart from the econ- omy involved, helps markedly to give the Italian his high percentage.
The American of Italian extraction comes from a race where family ties are strong. This is evidenced by the fact that 13.7% of the contributors concerning them- selves with the question "What does the American of Italian extraction lose by his contact with American de- mocracy?" say that one of the chief losses that this type of American sustains thru his contacts with his new home in our American democracy is the loss of the warm and intimate family relationships that obtained among the older generation.** The nature of this strong family relationship is important to understand because usually the degree or intensity of saturation with Amer- ican culture gained by individuals of this type varies inversely with the degree or intensity of grip that the family life of the older generation holds upon such an individual. There is a constant struggle or competition going on between the forces of the outside world, rep- resenting on the one hand, AMERICANISM, and on the other hand the influences of the home or of family life playing for the predominance of Italian habits, customs, ways of thinking and of ideas.
Jane Addams in her book "Twenty Years at Hull House" tells of a play written by an Italian playwright which depicted the too often insolent break between Americanized sons and old country parents so touch-
* ibid.
** Symposium, infra Chapter 25.
30 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
ingly that it moved to tears all the older Italians in the audience. It is this tenacity of holding on at all costs and for all time by the adult Italian to some of their old world standards that often makes the Irishman hate him very bitterly for he is willing to work regardless of workingmen's standards in this country. In many cases this "hiatus" between both generations is enough to account for the entire difference between a delinquent and a normal member of society. The best instance of this is seen in the cases of girls belonging to Italian homes. Held down close to the home of the older gen- eration, essentially foreign, and dominated by the tradi- tions of an environment and way of life totally differ- ent— the newer impulse of our freer life when it comes is sufficient to account for the many over-balancings. As Woods says "the Italian girl unless she has stepped be- yond the confines of morality is rarely seen in any public place of amusement save in the company of an older person." It is this carrying over of foreign traditions and over-assiduity by the parents that makes for mis- chief and which accounts for the reason why so many girls of Italian origin are to be found in the custody of probation officers and the like. Yet as Woods again points out "no daughter is more carefully looked after than the child of Italian parents." The point we wish to make here is that the "family life" such as the Amer- ican of Italian extraction often encounters operates as a fetter or hindrance to a full-blown Americanism. In some cases and particularly in the poorest sections the "family life" is of a kind almost worse than none at all. Summarizing the above we see that the type of indi- vidual we are studying is unique in that it represents a new generation fitted into the standards of an older one. The restrictive influences of a perverting social environ- ment upon the full play of the forces that make for Americanism are easily seen. Most apparent of all is the paradox- attempted by the American of Italian ex- traction in seeking to retain the best and most represen- tative of the old world culture of an older generation while striving to secure a full measure of the new.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 31
CHAPTER IV OCCUPATIONS
RELATION OF ITALIAN TO OTHER STOCKS IN AMERICAN INDUSTRIES— It was found that foreign- born laborers made up 58% of the total number of the labor force in American industries.* Of this the Italians form 7%.** Their children, or Americans of Italian ex- traction, in a representative study made by the Immi- gration Commission constituted but .3% of the total can- vassed. It was found that while 22.5% of foreign-born laborers were so classified only 9.9% of their sons fell in the same category. f Compared with native-born Americans of foreign fathers from other countries the distribution of Americans born of Italian blood in Amer- ican industries is as follows :J INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANT WAGE- EARNERS General Nativity and Race Total of 21 Industries
Native-born of foreign father :
Germany 4.8
Ireland 4.6
England 2.1
Canada 1.9
Austria-Hungary 9
Scotland 6
Russia 5
Wales 4
Sweden 3
Italy 3
Netherlands 2
France 2
Switzerland 1
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIAN BLOOD IN DIFFER- ENT INDUSTRIES— Mangano says that three-quarters
* Lauck and Sydenstricker — "Condition of Labor in Amer- ican Industries" p. 1. ** Ibid p. 4.
t Immigration Commission Abstract of Report on Occupa- tions of the First and Second Generations of Immigrants in the United States, pp. 13-27.
$Jenks, J. W.— "The Immigration Problem" p. 516.
32 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
of the people of Italian blood who come here worked in the fields at home and that but 16% do similar work here. The remainder are employed chiefly in the coun- try's silk mills, machine shops, subways, water-works, railroad-construction gangs, quarries and mines.* Lauck found that the largest number are employed in railroad and other construction work.'^* Coming from Italy the status of Italian immigrants for the last two decades was as follows :t OCCUPATION OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS REPORTING
EMPLOYMENT 1899-1910 People No. Reporting PERCENT
Employment
Professional Skilled Laborers
Occupa- Occupa- including Misc. tions tions Farm
Italian, North 296,622 LI 20.4 66.5 12.0
Italian, South ^ 1,472,659 .4 _ 14.6 ^ 77.0 ^ 7.9
Prof. Pecorini's study of the industrial distribution of Italians in the United States shows that one-fifth of those from the North of Italy and one-sixth from the South are skilled.^
A distribution of such labor for 1914, the heav- iest year of Italian immigration to this country shows up as follows :§
Group NORTH ITALIAN SOUTH ITALIAN
Professional 508 608
Skilled labor 6,073 22,606
Misc. occupations 2,079 165,205
No occupation 10,142 63,193
There is no way of telling what the wages of the dif- ferent industrial groups according to racial lines ^ in either New York City or elsewhere may be. Other im- migrants from South-eastern Europe include Poles, Slavs, Hungarians, Austrians, etc., and all these are in-
* Mangano, Antonio — "Sons of Italy" p. 21. ** Lauck and Sydenstricker — "Conditions of Labor in Amer- ican Industry" p. 4.
t Statistical Review of Immigration, p. 53. $ Pecorini, Alberto— "The Italian as an Agricultural La- borer," Annals of the American Academy of Political and So- cial Science, Vol. 38—1909.
§ Reports of Commissioner-General of Immigration, p. 62 seq.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 33
extricably intertwined with Italians in the city's and the nation's working population. The average weekly earn- ings of industrial workers of Italian blood according to sex and generation, are shown in the following table, viz;*
AVERAGE AMOUNT OF WEEKLY EARNINGS OF AMER- ICANS OF ITALIAN EXTRACTION AND ITALIANS 18 YEARS OR OVER
Average for all Industries General Nativity and Race Male Female
Native-born of foreign father:
Italy $10.61 $7.70
Foreign-born : Italian, North 11.28 7.31
Italian, South 9.61 6.64
Italian, not specified 12.64 a
a Not computed, owing to small number involved.
DISTRIBUTION IN NEW YORK CITY— The ex- haustive inquiry into the racial composition of America's industrial army conducted by the United States Immi- gration Commission some years ago found that Amer- icans of foreign fathers constitute 17% of this country's total working force. Just how much of this includes Americans of Italian extraction in New York City is im- possible to determine. Different proportions hold for the adult Italian and for his children. Of the former 82% are industrially employed; for his children no ade- quate figures are available. Prof. Ogburn found that in New York City 7.5% of its entire children were gainfully employed in industry in 1910. If this rate held true for children of Italian blood, and unquestionably it does, then fully 30,000 Americans of Italian origin are industrially employed.**
In New York City it is safe to say that the Italian predominates in the Street Cleaning Department, sub- way construction work, barber shops and building trades. It is impossible to predicate a distribution of their de- scendants because as yet the vast majority have not at- tained the years and maturity necessary to their be-
♦Jenks, J. W.— "The Immigration Problem" p. 521 seq. ** Ogburn, W. F.— "A Statistical Study of American Cities" Reed College Record, No. 27, Portland Oregon, Dec. 1917.
34 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
coming "set" or "adjusted;" thus we cannot assign them a place in the industrial and commercial world. The few that have gone out before represent but an infinitesimal portion of the Italian blood in this great- est Italian center in the world. The chances are that when this chapter comes to be written it will differ markedly from the situation as it exists today among the adult ancestor. This is to be expected because of the marked disparity in the percentages of the industrially employed Americans of Italian extraction and Italians proper, as was shown in the preceding diagrams.
Most conclusive of all, however, is the marked differ- ences in the occupations chosen by the Italian and the American of Italian extraction as shown in the Report of the Immigration Commission. The very notable advance is made in the rank of clerks and copyists from twenty-fourth place in the first generation to fourth in the second; and of salesmen from twenty-first in the first generation to sixth place in the second.*
By far the greatest majority of these industrial work- ers are crowded in the lower part of Manhattan as is shown in the following diagram :**
DISTRIBUTION OF ITALIANS AND RESIDENCES OF WORKERS EMPLOYED IN LOWER MANHATTAN
Proportion of total workers living in Sex Manhattan Manhattan Other
below 14 St. above 14 St. boroughs Jersey
Male 61.7 14.4 21.3 2.6
Female 75.7 8.5 10.5 5.3
WHAT THE "NEW" GENERATION HOPES FOR— Miss Brandt tried an experiment some years ago, going down to the large Italian School at Mulberry Bend Park and asking the children there what they would like to do for a living. She says, "The most striking manifes- tation of the American spirit was disclosed in the econ- omic aspirations of the children i. e. Americans of Ital- ian extraction. The ambition which in Italy would have
* Occupation of the Immigrant — Vol. 65, p. 173. *♦ Pratt, E. E., "Causes of Industrial Congestion in New York City" pp. 138-140.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 35
been dormant is aroused in America by the all pervasive idea of 'getting ahead.' It is the exception if the son of the immigrant who works at the shovel or goes out with the hod, grows up to use the same tool." t Of the 150 children of whom the question "What are you going to be, or what do you prefer doing for a living," was asked, the following were the answers received:
BOYS (66) GIRLS (77)
4 — undecided 47 — dressmakers
10 — chose father's calling 13 — teachers
2 — not indicated in any way 49 — vocation different from father
NOTE: Of the 49 who chose vocations different from that of their father's, the following occupations were noted in order of greatest frequency — physician, lawyer, musician, painter, writer of books, teacher, sculptor, policeman, fireman, and saloon keeper.
Dr. Van Denburg* put practically the same question "What do you expect to do for a living" to 211 boys and 278 girls in the public high schools of this city and got the following results: Of the 211 boys who ex- pressed a choice, the occupations chosen were
Vocation Number Pupils Approximate Percent
Architect 7 3.3
Business 36 17.0
Electrician 9 4.2
Civil Engineer 39 18.4
Electrical Engineer 27 12.7
Mechanical Engineer 5 2.3
Law 24 11.4
Medicine 7 3.3
Msce. Trades 8 3.7
Msce. Construction 14 6.6
Teacher 11 5.2
Engineer 5 2.3
Scattering 19 9.0
TOTAL 211 100.0
t Brandt, Lillian— "A Transplanted Birthright" The De- velopment of the Second Generation of Italians in an Ameri- can Environment, Charities, 1904.
*Van Denburg, Dr. J.— "Causes of Retardation and Elimi- nation in our City Schools" Columbia University, Studies in Education, Teachers College Record, p. 49.
36 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
The girl's choices were expressed as follows:
Vocation Number Pupils Approximate Percent
Bookkeeper 9 32
Designer 6 2.1
Dressmaker 7 2.5
Musician 7 12.5
Stenographer 46 16.9
Teacher in Public School. 167 60.0
Teacher 12 4.3
Scattering 24 8.6
TOTAL 278 100.0
The same experiment as conducted by Miss Brandt was repeated at the Italian School by the writer with the following results :
BOYS (81) GIRLS (78)
Vocation Number Vocation Number
Ad^echanic 17 Dressmaker 31
Stenographer 6 Operator on machines 21
Soldier 6 Typists 8
Sailor 6 Teacher 8
Printer 6 Embroiderer 4
Carpenter 5 Doll maker 2
Engineer 4 Music teacher 1
Civil Engineer 4 Glove maker 1
Machinist 4 Pianist 1
Truckman 4 Housekeeper 1
Doctor 3
Shipping Clerk 3
Lawyer 3
Professor 3
Telephone operator 2
Chauffeur 2
Fireman 1
Artist 1
Musician 1
These figures all show beyond peradventure of doubt the Americanizing influences going on rapidly apace among the Italian element in the life of our city. It also tends to show that the day is passing when most of the physical work, such as digging, building, and heavy con- struction work is to be done chiefly by our Italian ele- ment. The growing generation of Italian origin changes markedly in his desires, aspirations and ambitions for the future from his parents, as the figures show. Of those al- ready sufficiently advanced to show what choices are actually being made the profession of medicine seems most popular. This is followed by law and lastly by teaching. For the girls, no adequate indices exist that warrant us making any statement.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 37
CHAPTER V HEALTH
INTRODUCTION— The American of Italian extrac- tion is descended from a race that is noted for its ro- bustness and vitaHty. Years of labor in the sunny fields of Italy, a life almost continuously out of doors, have served to enrich the Italian with a native physical con- stitution and endowed him with a fund of rugged health that stands him in good stead. This fact alone has made possible his standing up under the severe strain and stress to which his physical constitution is subjected in doing such work as digging tunnels, erecting sky-scrap- ers, and building railroads. With his children however, the case is different. An unusually high, in fact the highest mortality rate for first generation of Americans of all descents obtains among the offspring of the Ital- ian. With respect to tuberculosis, the disease that is most ravishing and takes the highest toll. Dr. Stella, who has made specific and detailed studies of Italian sec- tions in New York City, says, "If we are to accept the principle of health, that a density greater than 25 persons per acre and an aggregation greater than 2 people per room which does not allow at least 85 cm. of air per person, is bad for both the social well being and the in- dividual health, we must immediately conclude that the homes in which the Americans of Italian extraction live are absolutely responsible for their acquired suscepti- bility to tuberculosis."* Other authors in attempting to explain the high death rate among Italians, have mis- takenly had recourse to the facts of diet as the entire cause for this high mortality rate. Jones, for instance believes that, "The necessity for a different food from that to which he has been accustomed is not understood at first. Italians learn to eat the proper amount of meat only after they have been here some time and find them- selves unable to cope with the conditions of labor and
* Stella, Antonio — "La Lotta contra la Tuberculosis f ra gli Italiani nella Citta di New York", p. AS,
38 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
of weather to which they are subjected. The high death rate among them is totally due to a diet too exclusively vegetable to supply the necessary nutrition."*
The authors of "The Tenement House Problem" also conclude that, "The generally high death rate of the Italian race is due to the fact that they are unable to adapt their diet to our climate and live upon a kind of food, adequate for the South of Italy, but totally inade- quate for New York City."** In this the authors fail to keep apart the problem of the Italian and that of the American of Italian extraction. The two problems from the standpoint of health are as different as are the in- dividuals concerned. It is patent that in the case of the American of Italian extraction who has not known for at least the first twenty years of his life, the frugal cereal diet of his father, the problem of dietary read- justment is of less concern than that of congestion, over- crowding and filthy rooms, inadequate ventilation, lack of sanitary appliances, and absence of fresh air and sun- light. It is these latter causes that have given the Amer- ican of Italian extraction the highest mortality rate of any descendants of any immigrant stocks in our city, and have made for the "heightened susceptibility" to disease of which Dr. Stella speaks.
VITAL STATISTICS— Comparing the death rate for foreign-born children with the children of native stock, it is impossible to determine for the racial stock that we are studying, figures that apply directly in this connec- tion. An investigation conducted some years ago on an extensive scale in New York City among school children will point out what undoubtedly in a general way exists among this particular type, excepting that conditions on the whole are constantly being bettered.
Taking the entire city, it was found that about two- thirds of the children examined in the public schools several years ago were physically defective. The spe- cific causes found were mal-nutrition, present in 12.9% of the defective children ; 79% with bad teeth that needed treatment; 45% suffered from throat trouble; 47% with
* Jones, T. J. — "Sociology of a City Block", p. 72. **De Forest and VeilHer— "The Tenement House Problem", p. 294.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 39
nose trouble; and 70% suffered from enlarged glands. In round numbers, the conditions found in New York City showed that 41,600 children were insufficiently fed, and that almost 300,000 had bad teeth.*
Among the higher ages, correspondingly high figures for New York City were obtained. For the whole coun- try during the war more than 50% of our young men were rejected on account of physical unfitness out of which city boys contributed 28.47% in New York City.** At many recruiting stations 80% out of 100% recruits who presented themselves, were frequently found unfit. Out of a group of 80 volunteers only 8 could stand the preliminary examinations. f Dr. Ayres' investigation of 3,304 New York City children, found only 919 to be without defects.^
Data from the office of the Italian Consulate for a representative year showed that out of 11,396 men about 20 years of age examined for military service, 3,921 were rejected and only 7,475 accepted. In Italy the percentage of rejections varied from 15% to 22% ; in New York City, for the same stock the percentage jumped from 30% to 35%.
In the only study of its kind made in New York City bearing directly on the type in question here, we are able to present some data regarding the extremely high mortality rate prevalent. Dr. Stella, President of the Roman Legion of America who made this study says, "thru the courtesy of Dr. Guilfoy, Registrar of Vital Statistics and who personally checked the figures herein cited, and to whom I desire publicly to express my grat- itude, I am able to present some very interesting data regarding Italian children in certain blocks in New York
* American Statistical Association, Vol. X, p. 30. Frederick Hoffman, "The General Death Rate of Large American Cities." (It is added by the author that the term "foreign-born" is seriously misleading if the various nationalities are considered in the aggregate for there are wide differences in the mortality and disease liability of the different nationalities.)
** Evening Mail Editorial, July 10, 1918, Dr. Maximilian P. E. Groszmann.
t Rumely, Dr. E. A., Evening Mail, July 6, 1918.
$ Ayres, Leonard P. — "Laggards in our City Schools," p. 124.
40 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
City, classified according to ages and kinds of sickness. This is the first time that such a study has been made with respect to age and nationality in Manhattan and the results are extremely instructive."*
The studies conducted by Dr. Stella are particularly valuable because they represent actual conditions. What he did was to make a fi.rst-hand investigation or a health- assay as it were, of specific localities. His data repre- sent concrete facts painstakingly gathered and carefully analyzed. As he himself puts it "it was a study of the particular conditions and habits, in short of the whole life of that population which is crowded in blocks below East 112th Street, between First and Second Avenues, and of Block X, East Houston, Prince, Elizabeth and Mott Streets. The conditions found afford graphic evi- dence illustrating the effects of over-crowding. I have picked for the study ten blocks afterwards described be- cause they contained a representative number of tene- ment houses in various parts of the city among those most populated and which were at the same time in- habited by Italians."**
The results of his investigations are amazing.
According to the original data carefully collected from certain typical blocks, it was found as can be seen in the following tables that the general mortality for New York City when this study was made was 18.35 per 1000 popu- lation and for children below 5 years of age, 51.5 per 1000. On the other hand contrasted to these figures the data for 6 typical Italian blocks gave the following as- tonishing results :
AVERAGE ITALIAN MORTALITY (For 1000 Inhabitants)
Block (isolated) A 24.5 Below 5 years of age 87.03
92.2
81.6
74.7
83.1
59.5
|
B |
24.9 |
|
c |
224 |
|
D -22..'; |
|
|
F |
22.3 |
|
F |
23.2 |
♦Stella, Antonio; La Lotta Contro La Tubercolosi fra gli Italian! nella Citta di New York, ed Effetti dell' Urbanismo. (The struggle against tuberculosis among Italians in New York City and the effects of city life.)
**The quotations below are translations by the writer from Dr. Stella's work cited above.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 41
AVERAGE MORTALITY FOR RESPIRATORY DISEASES
For the entire city (per 1000 pop.) 12.7
Rate for Italian blocks (below 5 years) :
Block A 32.9 Block D 28.6
" B 47.8 " E 49.0
" C 35.3 " F 17.8
AVERAGE MORTALITY FOR INFANTILE DIARRHEA
Average mortality for the entire city (per 1000 pop.) 12.9
Average mortality for Italian blocks :
Block A 22.3 Block D 13.8
" B 19.1 " E 19.3
" C 17.6 " F 14.9
GENERAL MORTALITY FOR DIPHTHERIA
Mortality for entire city (per 100 inhabitants) 2.8
Average mortality for Italian blocks :
Block A 4.34 Block D 8.93
" B 3.71 " E 3.20
" C 4.61 " F
These figures speak for themselves. Dr. Guilfoy, Regis- trar of Vital Statistics for the New York City Depart- ment of Health, in reviewing them calls it "an astonish- ing condition heretofore unheard of, for the rate of mor- tality presented by these above figures was over 2^ times that among American boys and girls." He has himself recently collected the same data though for all nationalities and brought them down, up to date, in an excellent little monograph.* In this little brochure Dr. Guilfoy shows where the rugged constitutions of the Italian parent operate to have a favorable showing for the Italian stock when compared to the native American stock.** These figures hold for children under 1 year of age:
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN— 1915
INFANT MORTALITY ACCORDING TO NATIONALITY
OF MOTHER FROM CONGENITAL DISEASES
PER 10,000 BIRTHS RECORDED
Country Total births Deaths Total congenital Rate
reported diseases
United States 17,210 81 937 544
Italy 14,946 53 442 295
♦Guilfoy, Dr. Wm. H.— "The influence of Nationality upon the Mortality of a Community" (with special references to the City of New York) Monograph Series No. 11, Dept. of Health, Nov. 1917. ** Ibid. p. U,
42 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
These figures show to the great disadvantage of the native or American population. As the Italian lengthens his stay here however, environment begins to tell. In considering the mortality of children up to five years of age according to the nationality of the mother, the high- est mortality was found among the Italian children where 425 out of every 10,000 children of Italian mothers died during the year 1915. Taking the mortality figures for particular diseases we note the following: for in- fectious diseases the children of Italian parents show the highest mortality or 381 per 10,000 births as compared to 259 for children of native stock in 1915; for respira- tory diseases their preeminence is established again with 176 deaths as over against 97 for every 10,000 births of native stock, or what is more than 3^ times that of children of German mothers, almost 3 times that of children of Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Irish moth- ers and a little less than double that of American mothers.*
HEALTH AGENCIES — There are two chief agencies that look after the health of these people, (1) The Ital- ian Colony and (2) The New York City Health Depart- ment. Because the work of the latter is in no way dif- ferent among these people from that which obtains among other city dwellers only the first agency is dealt with here.
The work of the Italian health agencies in this city, however, need not detain us long. Mangano says:** "There are numerous special efforts made to reach the Italian stock, yet it is a lamentable fact that few insti- tutions exist as a direct result of Italian initiative." There are no Mt. Sinai's in the Italian colony. The two chief reasons for this are (1) the lack of a moneyed class among the Italian-speaking people, (2) the compara- tively low percentage of medically employed Americans of Italian extraction in 'New York City who are in a position to point out to the public particular conditions, and put into effect possible remedies.
Columbus Hospital is the oldest Italian health agency
* Dr. Guilfoy, p. 13 seq. ** Mangano — "Sons of Italy" p. 136.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 43
in the city. It is located on 20th Street, between Second and Third Avenues, and was organized in 1892. Its su- pervision is under the order of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Columbus Hospital has no en- dowment, and depends entirely for support on the work of the Sisters of this Order. Although it is generally known as an Italian institution, yet figures for some years back show that of the 21 doctors on the staff, not one was Italian. The Sisters, who are responsible for the continuance of this institution though, are all native Italians; of the patients, fully 95% are of Italian blood.
The one public enterprise that has had the backing and support of Italians in New York City is the Italian Hospital on E. 84th Street. * The wealthy silk manu- facturer Celestino Piva has made this his particular "hobby" and an annual reception is given under his di- rection, the proceeds of which go toward the mainte- nance of this institution. In this way thousands of dol- lars are collected. The Italian Hospital, while not a large hospital, is thoroughly up-to-date, with modern equipment, and does a very effective work.
The Washington Square Hospital in Washington Park was started some years ago by Dr. Carlo Savini. Dr. Savini is one of the best Italian surgeons here and his hospital is as efficiently managed as is any mod- ern high class private institution. Dr. Savini has at- tracted to him not only Italian-speaking people, but many of other descents in this city.
Notwithstanding the rather dark picture of conditions in the Italian districts above painted, the Tenement House Department declares that the tenements in the Italian quarter are much cleaner than those in the Jew- ish or the Irish quarters. The writer believes that there is very little to choose from any one of these three that would, in any great way, be different today, though in the early days going back as far as 1842, in his first an- nual report for the Health Department, Dr. Griscom de- scribed unhygienic conditions, dirt, and gave mortality
*The president of this institution is the well known and popular Dr. John W. Perrilli, who not long ago was appointed by Mayor Hylan a Trustee of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals.
44 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
figures among the Irish of that day that were very much worse around Cherry Hill, Crosby Street and the Five Points section, than are those which exist today in the worst Italian blocks.
There is no doubt that the values in Italian quarters have risen immensely and that this is not entirely due to the unprecedent rise in New York City real estate values. Mangano says that "Fifteen years ago before the Italian influx, twenty-five foot tenements were worth $10,000 to $15,000. They are now worth $40,000." How much of this is due to the fact that Italians make desir- able neighbors, and how much to the natural increase in values it is of course impossible to say. Both obtain. Education and municipal attention to the problem of health is doing much to better the health standards of this group and increase the value of the quarters they oc- cupy. The Charity Organization Society conducts in greater New York under the authority of the City Health Department an Italian Bureau, and furnishes the latest knowledge in preventive measures. By means of lec- tures, slides, literature, and practical demonstrations, an effective campaign is being constantly waged against that most insidious foe — ignorance.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 45
CHAPTER VI STANDARD OF LIVING
INTRODUCTION— The "Standard of Living" is a phrase that has been variously defined. Streighthoff says that "the st^andard of living consists of what men ac- tually enjoy."* Chapin, in a study bearing directly on conditions in New York City holds that the problem of the standard of living presents both an absolute and a relative aspect, namely (1) "a reliable presentation of actual data for a given time, place, and class" and (2) "a comparison with the standards of different times, places, and classes."** Morimoto in the most recent study on this subject says that "the standard of living is the controlling element in economic activities. "f Franklin H. Giddings says "the commodities that a la- boring class consumes are not its standard of living. They are merely an index of its standard. The real standard of living is a certain conception of economic life which regulates beliefs and new ideas in varying proportions and changes as these factors change. "$
It may seem strange that in studying Americans of Italian extraction we should concern ourselves with so- ciological data that are preeminently Italian. This fol- lows though necessarily from the fact that the first and even the second generations of Americans of Italian blood are never absolutely removed from the influences and physical environment of the Italian parent. For twenty years, and more in very many cases, the Ameri- can of Italian extraction has been under the shaping in- fluences of a home that in many cases is more Italian than American. §
* Streighthoff, F. H. "The Standard of Living" p. 2ff. ** Chapin, R. C. "The Standard of Living Among Working- men's Families in New York City" passim.
t Morimoto Kokichi, "Standard of Living in Japan, John Hopkins Univ. Studies," 1918. p. 11.
$ Giddings, Franklin H. "Descriptive and Historical Sociol- ogy", p. 253.
§ See explanation, supra, p. 29.
46 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
The degree of saturation with foreign culture varies. There is a constant change and shifting in the influence and importance of home life upon the American of Ital- ian extraction rising directly from the fact that he is get- ting older and thinks for himself, and secondly, because the parents themselves are slowly but surely becoming changed.
In times like these it is difficult to get any data con- cerning family budgets and living expenses that the next few years will not see materially changed. It is a ques- tion whether any of the past studies will hold to the same relative degree because of these shifting stand- ards due to the war. How different conditions are from what they were a year ago can be seen in a little re- port* made by a special committee appointed to investi- gate increased living costs. The findings of this com- mittee show an increase of 85% in food and clothing prices alone. An investigation carried on among families of limited means in Boston showed similar results. In this latter instance of the 200 families studied which included seventeen nationalities, one-fourth were Ital- ians. The average income of each family was shown to be somewhere between $15-$19 a week.** In New York City a group of 377 families, a majority of which were exactly the type that we are studying according to the investigation made by the New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor showed that increased living costs had mounted to 26% or that "the wage earner's dollar of January, 1918 had slightly less than four-fifths the purchasing power of the wage earner's dollar of 1917."f
That the whole general stratum of living costs in re- lation to wages has been upset by war times can be readily seen when we consider that Federal statistics show the increase in the cost of living to be about twice
♦Bankers Trust Company Report on Increased Living Costs, 1917.
♦♦League for Preventive Work — Food Supply in Families of Limited Means, Michael M. Davis. Jr., Boston, 1917.
tWinslow, "My Money Won't Reach" Committee on Home Economics, Charity Organization Society, April, 1918.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 47
as great in relative percentages as the increase in wages.*
Perhaps as good an impression of the way wages have changed within the last few years can be gathered from a copy of the "Report of the Committee on War Finance of the American Economic Association" given to the writer by its chairman Prof. E. R. A. Selig- man. The committee in summarizing the data of wage changes for different sections of the country shows "that the average increase of laboring men's wages from 1913- 1918 was somewhere between 40-50%."** In some dis- tricts wages advanced from 40-70% but in very many others, wages such as those of iDakers, hod carriers, bricklayers, plasterers, etc., increased but 20%. This same committee's report on price changes show the aver- age advance "of 75% from 1913-1917 and of 92% to 1918
*The index number for the relative prices of food alone in the United States prepared by the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics shows an average increase from 1913-1917 of 46% where- as wages have risen less rapidly. Dr. Kemmerer through the courtesy of Dr. Royal Meeker, U. S. Commissioner of Labor Statistics was able to give in advance figures regarding the Bureaus recently compiled index numbers covering rates of wages per hour for union labor in a large number of occu- pations throughout the United States. The official figures are given in column 1 of the following table, and the same figures adjusted to the basis of the average for the period 1910-1914 as 100 are given in column 2. (See American Economic Re- view, Vol. 7, June 1918, p. 265.)
INDEX NUMBERS OF UNION WAGE RATES
Year 1 2
1910 105 96
1911 107 98
1912 109 100
1913 111 102
1914 114 105
1915 115 106
1916 119 109
1917 127 117
This shows an increase of 14% in Union wages since 1914, as compared to 75% increase in wholesale prices and 46% increase in the retail prices of food.
** Report of the Committee of War Finance, Amer. Econ- omic Association, p. 106.
48 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
for wholesale prices ;"* for retail price changes the com- mittee quotes the average increase of 70% given out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the 77% increase for clothing; 45% for fuel and light and 15% for rents — quoted by National Industrial Conference Board.**
The most thorough study of conditions representing the standard of living in New York City was made by Chapin in 1909. Three hundred ninety-one families were studied, of which sixty-nine were Italian — a number that was surpassed only by the American and the Russian groups. It can be assumed therefore that the Italian families studied are fairly representative of the type to be met anywhere in the Italian colonies in the greater city. Of the sixty-nine Italian families investigated, fifty-seven showed that they possessed annual incomes between $600 and $1100, while the average number of persons per family was five.f
INCOMES — There are three chief sources of income in the home of which the American of Italian extraction forms a part. They are (1) the adult breadwinner (2) boarders, (3) the work or labor of this type of Ameri- can himself. The adult breadwinner includes both male and female workers. An investigation made by the Im- migration Commission revealed the fact that of the women of Southern Italian families studied, two-thirds reported average earnings of less than $200. The writer is inclined to think this amount too small because as a rule the immigrant worker is suspicious and distrustful about making disclosures of this sort. Among the men the average yearly wage for the 2000 cases studied was found to be between $500 and $600. Another source of income as shown by its prevalence among the poorer Italian homes is the lodger or boarder. Here though the Italian family has a low average compared with
* Report of the Committee on War Finance, American Economic Association, p. 104.
** Wartime Changes in the Cost of Living, Research Report No. 9, Aug. 1918, p. 64.
t In a study of 200 workingmen's families in New York City, Mrs. L. B. More found 6 persons to be the average. (Wage-earnerg Budgets — L. B. More.)
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 49
other races. Lauck found that excepting for the He- brew and Bulgarians, the Southern Italian ranked well up with an average of but 33.5% of householders keep- ing boarders or lodgers. The Serbian family was high- est with an average percentage of 92.8% and was fol- lowed closely by the Roumanians with 77.8% respect- ively.*
In a study of over 2000 households these figures were largely substantiated in the following:** NUMBER AND PERCENT OF HOUSEHOLDS KEEPING BOARDERS AND LODGERS
Households keeping lodgers or boarders General nativity Total number and race of head of
household households Number Percent
Italian. North 653 223 34.2
Italian, South 1530 512 35.5
The third and last chief source of income in the Ital- ian household occurs when the American of Italian ex- traction himself is made to go out and help support the family. If this is ever at all necessary it usually begins at an early age and is one of the greatest handicaps in the development of this type.
The chief channels open to children of fourteen to eighteen are usually the making of artificial flowers, working on garments for girls, machine operating, run- ning errands, shoeblacking, truckdriving, office work and other blind alleys for the boys. Divided among male and female it was found that 9.9% of males and 7.3% females of these foreign-born children between the ages of six and sixteen were at work. For the male this is but 2% higher than the average of all nationalities of children in New York City gainfully employed as found by Prof. Ogburn.*** The percentage of females so em- ployed is normal when compared with other nationali- ties.
An age distribution of over 500 Americans of Italian extraction found doing work in their tenement homes
* Lauck and Sydenstricker, "Conditions of Labor in Amer- ican Industries," p. 299. **Jenks and Lauck, "The Immigration Problem," p. 506. ***op. cit. p. 33.
so THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
by Dr. Stella while making his investigations is the fol- lowing :
CHILDREN FOUND AT WORK IN TENEMENTS
Number AGES
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1314-16T't'l Children
found at work 1 3 21 23 44 45 76 71 62 90 76 46 558 Boys 1 4 8 10 14 26 15 21 26 19 8 152
Girls 1 2 17 15 34 31 56 41 64 57 38 406
Attending school 12 16 41 43 70 68 59 82 67 33 491
Not Attending school 13973263389 13 67
In this matter of child labor it was found in the in- vestigation made by the Immigration Commission that the lowest percentage fell to the Italians, namely 13.3%. The Germans pressed closely after with 13.9%, and the Syrian and Scotch were highest with 22.6% and 19% respectively.*
Of 184 cases of Americans of Italian extraction be- tween the ages of fourteen and eighteen studied by the Immigration Commission, it was found that the weekly wage averaged $6.14 for the boys and $5.54 for the girls.**
A similar investigation conducted among working- men's families in Buffalo contained one-fourth of Ital- ian famihes. In 29% the mother's earnings added to the income, and the number of cases were fairly evenly distributed among the different races with one excep- tion. The exception was in the Italian families where only one mother was reported as adding to the in- come.***
In New York City the comparisons afforded in Chap- in's study of different nationalities with respect to their sources of income "show that the greatest dependence on other sources than the father's wages is found among the Bohemians, Austrians, and Russians. "f The Italians rank better than the average with almost 51% of families supported entirely by the father — leading all the other racial stocks of the "newer immigration." This is a sub- stantial verification of the responses that the symposium
* Report of Immigration Commission on Manufacturing and Mining, Abstract, pp. 194-195.
**Jenks — "The Immigration Problem" pp. 534-535.
*** Report on The Standard of Living Among Working Fam- ilies in Buffalo.
t Chapin, R. C, Standard of Living in New York City, p. 59.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Si
in Chapter XXV brought out in showing that 18% of the contributors attest to the quality or trait of indus- triousness as being a marked characteristic of the Ital- ian people.
HOUSING— Of the 3,437,202 people living in New York City at the time the Tenement House Commission made its investigation 2,372,079 people were occupying 82,652 tenement houses where there were 350,000 dark interior rooms.J Conditions therefore that we shall de- scribe among Italians are GENERAL. An assay of one section will reflect truly the general conditions that exist in all of the Italian colonies scattered throughout the city. Dr. Laidlaw found the housing conditions of the Italian district he visited involving 9,353 tenement families living in 31,522 rooms, an average of 3.37 rooms per family. There were eleven blocks of the thirty-two he visited with 3,413 families resident without a bath- tub. In one of these blocks lived 628 families, mostly Italians.*
Chapin's investigation showed the average size of the families that constituted the type he investigated to be five, and the average income anywhere from $600- $1000. Of this sum $144 or 18% must be paid for rent. Compared with conditions in Chicago among Italians we see that things are worse here. In Chicago** the me- dium rental for a four room apartment was $12.00 to $12.50 paid by Italians. This is higher than what is paid by any other race and is a condition that is general among Italians for less than 15% of such families own their own homes. The average number of rooms per apartment was found to be 3.64.f The average number of occupants per sleeping rooms was 1.42 as compared to .93 of native-born white of native father. In New York City no existing investigation is available that has feat- ured housing expenditures according to nationalities. Chapin with reference to his own labors states that the
X DeForest and Veillier— "Tenement House Problem" Vol. 1, p. 3.
* Federation, Sociological canvass of the fourteenth dis- trict (assembly) of the lower east side, June 1900, p. 231.
** Walker— "Greeks and Italians in the Neighborhood of Hull House."
tFairchild — "Immigration" p. 136.
52 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
number of cases is too small to warrant very confident assertion. What meagre data were obtainable showed that the Italians ranked lowest with an average of 2.6 for incomes at $600 and 3.9 for incomes at $900.§
In the matter of crowding the Italians showed up again badly viz :*
Total number Number reporting more Nationality of families than 1^ persons Percent
per room U. S. 67 20 30
Teutonic 39 8 21
Irish 24 12 50
Colored 28 16 57
Bohemian 14 11 79
Russian 57 35 61
Austrian, etc. 32 21 66
Italian 57 Zl 65
318 160
Jones corroborates these findings, discovering 120 families housed within 14 buildings and numbering al- most 900 people. Supporting these are the figures of Dr. Laidlaw who also discovered the Italians at the top in this deplorable characteristic with 13.3% of their fam- ilies housed in one room. In a study of 76 families out of 11,546 in New York City where overcrowding was found, the Italian distribution showed up as follows :**
|
Number of |
Number of |
Number of |
It; |
ilian |
|
families |
persons |
rooms |
nationality |
|
|
Z7> |
6 |
3 |
4 |
|
|
14 |
8 |
4 |
3 |
|
|
11 |
9 |
4 |
2 |
|
|
11 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
10 |
4 |
1 |
|
|
7 |
8 |
3 |
1 |
|
|
1 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
n 54 23 13
The Italians in this investigation lead with 13.3% of overcrowding. The Americans are lowest with but .2%. SAVINGS AND THRIFT— Of the families studied by
§ Chapin — "Standard of Living in New York City" p. IT. * Chapin — "Standard of Living in New York City," p. 81. ** Federation. Report of Auxiliary D, Third Sociological Can- vass, p. 60.
See Mrs. L. B. More's investigation of 2200 workingmen's families in New York City, Wage-earners Budgets, p. 67.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 53
Chapin in New York City, the largest percentage report- ing a surplus fell to the Italians, viz :* Total Number TOTAL
|
Nationality of |
Balance within $25 |
Surpl |
us |
Deficit |
|
|
Families |
No. % |
No. |
% |
No. % |
|
|
U. S. |
67 |
27 40 |
15 |
23 |
25 37 |
|
Teutonic |
39 |
21 54 |
9 |
23 |
9 23 |
|
Irish |
24 |
9 38 |
7 |
29 |
8 33 |
|
Colored |
28 |
9 32 |
7 |
25 |
12 43 |
|
Bohemian |
14 |
12 86 |
2 14 |
||
|
Russian |
57 |
11 19 |
29 |
51 |
17 30 |
|
Austrian, etc. |
32 |
13 41 |
16 |
50 |
3 9 |
|
ItaHan |
57 |
14 25 |
33 |
58 |
10 17 |
|
TOTAL |
318 |
116 36.5 |
116 |
36.5 |
86 27 |
How much of this is due purely to thrift, industry, and savings, and how much because this type is satis- fied to endure a lower standard of living is impossible to determine. Industry and thrift, as an overwhelming majority of the contributors to the symposium on page 252 prove, are innate traits of the Italian family. Regarding the second point, the matter of a lower stand- ard of living Chapin reports a very favorable finding for the Italian viz :**
NUMBER OF FAMILIES BELOW STANDARD AS RE- GARDS FOOD, CLOTHING AND SHELTER
C u
Si?
. « ^« ^v So a)-d
^ :=: u.^ u'o o'o ^ c
^ S ^o ^g ^g ^^x.
S S clj c2 ^2 ^"S^
.2 i> u ^ u J^-C^
U. S. 67 4 4 7 2
Teutonic 39 3 2 1
Irish 24 1 2 6 1
Colored 28 3 5 8
Bohemian 14 4 1
Russian 57 14 18 14 10
Austrian 32 6 8 13 5
Italian 57 2 2 31 2
TOTAL 318 33 45 81 20
* Chapin— "Standard of Living in New York City," p. 235. ♦* Ibid, p. 240.
54 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
This thrift spirit of the Italians was by Chapin re- ported to have resulted in the largest proportion of fam- ilies with savings viz :*
SAVINGS BY NATIONALITIES
Nationality No. of families Savings
United States 67 5
Teutonic 39 14
Irish 24 1
Colored 28 6
Bohemian 14
Russian 57 19
Austrian 32 9
Italian 57 29
TOTAL 318 83
This same spirit has left its influence on New York City through the fact that of the real estate of New York City a conservative estimate is that $100,000,000 of such land is today owned by Italians or Americans of Italian extraction,** and this is proportionally not as much as is owned by this same type in St. Louis, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere.
Lord says that the thrift of the Italian is so exceptional that even bootblacks and common laborers sometime figure as tenement owners. Italian barbers quite fre- quently acquire equities in tenements. There is further a rising disposition of the more wealthy merchants and fruiterers to invest their earnings in tenements in the Italian quarters. f This is born out by G. Tosti, a real estate dealer who says that whereas twenty years ago there was hardly an Italian real estate owner, today one is able to list over 800 in this city alone.
The war brought forth in a most marked way their spirit of saving. In Brooklyn the Italians have organ- ized very effectively under the leadership of F. P. Buon- ora and enrolled in the aggregate fully one-third of all the Italians in Brooklyn for the purpose of ^'saving" through the purchase of War Saving Stamps. Over 200
* Chapin— "Standard of Living in New York City," p. 243. ** Sartorio, Henry — "Social and Religious Life of Italians in America," p. 20.
fLord, Trenor and Barrows— "The Italian in America," p. V.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 55
societies were banded together and more than $100,000 was collected. The best record however that comes to light in this connection is that made by the people of Italian blood in the north-end district in Boston. Their thrift netted them $300,000 for war-savings and thrift stamps alone, and to them was awarded a silver cup and banner for having made the largest percentage of gains in the sales of War Saving Stamps for Suffolk County. The Hanover Street Postal Station under the able leadership of Lawrence A. Brignati ranked third in the country in the amount received in postal savings, having on deposit about $100,000,000, of which about 85% is to be credited to Italians and their off- spring.* In this city the latest reports show Italian blood here to have invested $20,000,000 in the last Liberty Loan. The savings banks of New York City show that $24,000,000 is credited to them.
The ItaHan Savings Bank at 64 Spring Street is the largest bank of its kind in this city, having a total of de- posits amounting to $7,769,064 and a surplus of $453,622. Perhaps the bulk of savings owned by Italian speaking people not only of this city but for the country at large is in the hands of private bankers. Lionello Perera, 69 Wall Street, probably is the largest and most influential Italian private banker in this city, having a working cap- ital of almost half a million. M. Berardini, owner of the M. Berardini State Bank at 34 Mulberry Street is perhaps next with a capital and working surplus amount- ing to three-quarters of a million. Others to be men- tioned in this connection are the Banca Tocci, Sessa, Verrilli, Prisco and Avalona.
Italian finance in this city is represented by four in- stitutions. The Banca Commerciale with a capital of twenty-five million is of continental fame. The Credito Italiano is represented in this city by Felice Bava, 66 Broadway. The Banco di Napoli is the oldest Italian bank and is capitalized at one hundred and eighteen mil- lion lire. Its offices are at Spring and Lafayette Streets.
Two important features pertaining to Italian finance
* Boston Chamber of Commerce— Current Affairs, July 15, 1918, p. 7.
56 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
in this city are of recent date. One is the purchase by the Banca Commerciale of the Lincoln Trust Company. The 100,000 shares of this stock were purchased at $80 above their par value. The other is the opening of the new Banca Italiana di Sconto with a working capital of half a million and jointly controlled by the Guaranty Trust and the Italian Discount and Trust Com- pany. These two features Luigi Criscuolo believes to be "undoubtedly part of a plan whereby commercial credits between Italy and American business concerns can be facilitated."* The East River National Bank is an Ital- ian owned bank. The names of Giannini and Granata stand out in this connection.
* Luigi Criscuolo, former secretary of the Advisory Finance Committee, United States Railroad Administration; II Car- roccio, Jan. 1919, p. 68.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 57
CHAPTER VII.
LITERACY
THE "OLD" VERSUS THE "NEW" GENERATION — "Thanks to the excellent public schools of the United States and to the compulsory educational laws of many of our states, the question of illiteracy is not one of the greatest importance in the second generation."* With the immigrant however the case is different. The rate of synthetization of our racial stocks depends in the first instance upon the degree of literacy prevalent. The percentage of illiteracy varies greatly among immigrants of different countries. The following tables showing the different percentages of illiterates among Italians as compared with other immigrant stocks were compiled from the reports of the Commissioner General of Immi- gration and appeared in the Statistical Review of Im- migration.
ILLITERACY OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS 1899—1910
|
Immigrants 14yrs. |
Immigrant illiterates |
|||
|
of |
age and over |
14yrs.of age |
and over |
|
|
People |
Number |
Percent |
||
|
Jewish |
806,786 |
209,507 |
26.0 |
|
|
Bohemian and Moravian |
79,721 |
1,322 |
1.7 |
|
|
Croatian |
320,977 |
115,785 |
36.1 |
|
|
English |
347,348 |
3,648 |
1.0 |
|
|
Finnish |
137,916 |
1,745 |
1.3 |
|
|
German |
625,793 |
32,236 |
5.2 |
|
|
Greek |
208,608 |
55,089 |
26.4 |
|
|
Irish |
416,640 |
10,721 |
2.6 |
|
|
Italian, North |
339,301 |
38,897 |
11.5 |
|
|
Italian, South |
1,690,376 |
911,566 |
53.9 |
|
|
Lithuanian |
161,441 |
79,001 |
48.9 |
|
|
Magyar |
307,082 |
35,004 |
11.4 |
|
|
Polish |
861,303 |
304,675 |
35.4 |
|
|
Ruthenian |
140,705 |
76,165 |
53.4 |
|
|
Scandinavian |
530,634 |
2,221 |
.4 |
|
|
Scotch |
115,788 |
767 |
.7 |
|
|
Slovak |
342,583 |
86,216 |
24.0 |
TOTAL 8,398,624 2,238,801 26.7
Illiteracy figures for the total immigration to the
United States show that the Southern Italian leads, *Jenks — "The Immigration Problem," p. 33,
sg
THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
being surpassed only by the Turk and the Portu- guese. Looking at this question in the large, how- ever, the authors quoted above conclude that too much emphasis must not be laid upon the ques- tion of illiteracy since this disadvantage in most cases disappears in the second generation, i. e. the type we are studying here. When we consider that in Italy 84% of the taxes are spent upon the national debt, upon the administration, and upon the national defense, leaving but 16% for other expenses, we can realize the financial predicament that faces the Italian there, for out of this 16%, only 2.79% may be spent upon education.
STATUS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AT LARGE — The School status of Americans of Italian extraction for the country at large as com.pared with other Amer- icans was found by the Immigration Commission to be as follows : *
PERCENTAGE OF PUPILS IN THE DIFFERENT GRADES
OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY GENERAL NATIVITY AND
RACE OF FATHER OF PUPIL
|
^ |
^ |
^ |
Q |
^ |
H |
|
|
g |
i-t |
-t |
o |
|||
|
3 |
5" |
p |
^ |
|||
|
a- |
3 |
3 |
sr |
p |
||
|
cr |
m |
p |
^^ |
|||
|
(T> |
::i, |
i-i |
3 |
cn |
||
|
't |
CfQ |
"<! |
p |
XT |
||
|
General nativity |
o |
ft) |
o |
o o |
||
|
and |
Q |
3 C/J |
p |
■-t p |
•"" |
|
|
Race of Father |
n' |
Vi |
||||
|
Native-born White |
32 |
4.3 |
52.1 |
34"5 |
9.1 |
100.0 |
|
Foreign-born : |
||||||
|
Bohemian |
10 |
4.2 |
61.4 |
32.5 |
1.9 |
100.0 |
|
Danish |
7 |
2.4 |
49.8 |
42.6 |
5.1 |
100.0 |
|
Dutch |
3 |
4.8 |
53.1 |
31.3 |
4.8 |
100.0 |
|
English |
30 |
3.2 |
50.7 |
38.5 |
7.7 |
100.0 |
|
French |
11 |
3.3 |
54.7 |
36.6 |
5.4 |
100.0 |
|
German |
29 |
4.4 |
53.8 |
37.2 |
4.7 |
100.0 |
|
Hebrew, German |
18 |
5.4 |
48.7 |
38.8 |
7.8 |
100.0 |
|
Hebrev^, Russian |
30 |
4.3 |
63.1 |
30.2 |
3.3 |
100.0 |
|
Irish |
31 |
3.5 |
52.3 |
37.4 |
6.9 |
100.0 |
|
Italian, North |
16 |
5.8 |
69.9 |
22.7 |
1.6 |
100.0 |
|
Italian, South |
20 |
7.8 |
n:j |
18.7 |
.8 |
100.0 |
|
Lithuanian |
7 |
3.1 |
75.3 |
20.3 |
1.4 |
100.0 |
|
Magyar |
5 |
7.6 |
62.6 |
26.4 |
8.4 |
100.0 |
|
Polish |
17 |
5.8 |
72.6 |
20.0 |
1.6 |
100.0 |
|
Portuguese |
5 |
1.0 |
79.6 |
18.9 |
.5 |
100.0 |
|
Russian |
7 |
6.2 |
67.8 |
21.3 |
4.7 |
100.0 |
♦Jenks — "The Immigration Problem," p. 306.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 59
The report of the Immigration Commission on the school attendance of over 2,000,000 children of immi- grant fathers brought out the fact that Americans of Italian blood ranked third in magnitude with a percent- age of 6.4 of the whole, being outnumbered by the Jews and the Germans.*
IN THE HIGH SCHOOLS— We see by the foregoing that the Southern Italians have the very low percentage of .8% of their children in the High Schools. This is accounted for in large part by the fact that the vast majority of the descendants of Italian immigrants have not yet reached the average age of pupils eligible to enter High School i. e. 14 years. The other chief contributory fact is the very low economic status of the average Italian family that makes impossible a continued stay of any great length for their children.
IN THE PRIMARY GRADES— In the primary grades the percentage of pupils of Italian blood attending jumps to 72.7%, a figure exceeded but by two other ra- cial stocks whose numbers in proportion are incompar- ably smaller; in the kindergarten the percentage is 78 % and is the highest. The only lesson these figures offer is the stressing of the comparative recency of Italian immigration as a movement "en masse."
RETARDATION AT LARGE— More significant than mere numbers of school attendance though is the con- dition of affairs regarding retardation or the percentage of pupils of a race older than the normal age for that grade, and the reason for that abnormality. It was assumed in the instance of the study made throughout the entire country by the Immigration Commission cov- ering thousands of cases of descendents of immigrants of all stocks, that seven years was the normal age for the first grade, eleven for the fifth, and fourteen for the eighth. It was found that the average retardation for all foreign-born races was 36%, a scant margin above the 34.1% representing the average for all white chil- dren of native stock. *'''
Different races, tho, show marked fluctuations and the type under surveillence here achieved the unenviable pre-
* Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vols. 29-33. **Jenks and Lauck, "The Immigration Prpblem," p. 308.
60 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
eminence with 48.6% followed closely by the Poles and French-Canadians with 48.1% and 43.1% respectively. The Finns made the best showing with but 27.7% of re- tardation. If one were to go into the details beyond the data disclosed, he would get some interesting in- formation.* A study of 46,846 pupils of the types above mentioned was made and marked differences were found between those whose foreign-born fathers could, and those who could not speak English. In the case of the German pupils whose fathers spoke English, 31.7% were retarded; of those whose fathers did not, 40.6% were retarded.f The Americans of Italian extraction showed 59.2% of retardation for those who came from homes where English was spoken and 72.7% where it was not.J
Similarly with respect to whether or not English is spoken at home ; of the Germans early in migration to this country, 30.4% are retarded where English is spoken and 37.4% where it is not ; the American of Ital- ian extraction had 56% of retardation where English is spoken at home and 67.Z% where it is not.§
A very bad showing though for this type is to be had when we consider retardation as existing between those who attend school regularly and those who do not. It was shown that with pupils of eight years or more who attended school three-fourths or more of the time, the degree of retardation for the children of native-born whites was 26.2% ; where they attended less than three- fourths of the time this percent rose to 43.9%. Of the Americans of Italian extraction the percentage of those in the first instance was found to be 56%, and in the latter 85.6%. Here again Jenks adds "the fact that
* In extenuation of the above figures, the authors making the study add that ahho opinions were asked of the teachers as to the excuses for retardation, the answers were not defi- nite enough to be tabulated. The figures show tho, that in- ability of the father to speak English and the use of a foreign language at home are very important factors. Races making up the "newer" immigration show higher percents of retarda- tion. Retardation is also due to ill health, late entrance to school, mental defects, etc.
t ibid. p. 309.
t ibid. p. 309.
§ ibid. p. 309.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 61
children of certain races show a greater degree of re- tardation than others is not necessarily a sign of less mental ability but rather of some external circumstances, that in another generation may entirely disappear."
RETARDATION IN NEW YORK CITY— Touching on conditions in New York City the findings exhibited above for the country at large are generally substan- tiated. In speaking of the mentality of the Italians and particularly of the Southern Italians from whence this large percentage of illiteracy and of retardation is de- rived Mangano says "The Southern Italian is illiterate but not unintelligent. Northern Italians have as low a percent of illiteracy as 11.8 and are outranked by but four other nationalities i. e. the Scandinavians with A%, the English with 1.1%, the Irish with 2.7%, and the Ger- mans with 5.3%." In all of these excepting the last, the difficulty of mastering a new language as exists with the Italian does not obtain. This percent of 11.8 is but a fraction higher than the average of the illiteracy of the general population of the United States which is 10%.
In New York City the average daily attendance of pupils in the public schools according to the latest avail- able reports from the Supt. of Schools is shown to be 721,136. The percentage of pupils of foreign-born fa- thers was 71.5% of the total attendance. Of this the Americans of Italian extraction represent 30.1% or ap- proximately 200,000 of the total school-going popula- tion of this city.
Concerning retardation among pupils of Italian origin in our schools here, we have some very interesting data. Dr. Ayres made a study of fifteen nationalities in fifteen New York City schools and took 20,000 records. He found the American of Italian extraction to lead in re- tardation, viz :*
Nationality Percent recorded
German 16
American 19
Mixed 19
Russian 23
English 24
Irish 29
Italian ^^
♦Ayres, Leonard P. Laggards in Our City Schools. Russell Sage Foundation.
62
THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
Dr. Ayres adds however, by way of comment on these figures that "opinions may differ radically as to the sig- nificance of these figures." The conclusion is that while the nationality factor has a distinct bearing on the prob- lem of retardation and elimination, there is no evidence that these problems are most serious in those cities hav- ing the largest foreign population.
Dr. Van Denburg who also studied the causes of the elimination of students in public secondary schools of New York City has some interesting figures regarding the distributions of pupils studying there. His figures by nationality of pupils attending the High Schools of New York City show that the Italians of whom there is a constantly increasing number in that city, send more boys than girls to High School. The ratio is ap- proximately three boys to two girls. This is shown in the following table, viz :
TOTAL HIGH SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ARRANGED BY PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES
|
Parentage of Pupil |
Boys |
Girls |
Total |
|
American, White |
4,666 |
6,610 |
11,276 |
|
Russian, Hebrew |
1,661 |
1,354 |
3,015 |
|
German |
1,330 |
1,443 |
2,773 |
|
Irish |
618 |
1,043 |
1,661 |
|
German, Hebrew |
624 |
652 |
1,276 |
|
English |
323 |
598 |
921 |
|
Italian, North and South |
342 |
197 |
539 |
|
Scotch |
140 |
244 |
384 |
|
Polish, Hebrew |
171 |
165 |
336 |
|
Swedish |
101 |
164 |
265 |
|
Roumanian, Jew |
143 |
110 |
253 |
|
Canadian, English |
84 |
131 |
215 |
|
American, Negro |
78 |
123 |
201 |
|
Danish |
47 |
130 |
177 |
|
French |
67 |
103 |
170 |
|
Montenegrin |
49 |
76 |
125 |
|
Russian |
36 |
87 |
123 |
|
Magyar |
67 |
53 |
120 |
|
Bohemian |
51 |
31 |
82 |
|
Spanish |
38 |
34 |
72 |
|
Polish |
35 |
31 |
66 |
|
Holland, Dutch |
18 |
23 |
41 |
|
Canadian, French |
13 |
25 |
38 |
|
Welsh |
7 |
24 |
31 |
|
Roumanians |
13 |
8 |
21 |
|
Austrians |
9 |
11 |
20 |
|
Scattering foreign |
66 |
59 |
125 |
|
Unclassified foreign Hebrew |
666 |
458 |
1,124 |
TOTAL
11.463
13.987
25.460
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 63
Comparing the percentage of population in New York City at large with the percentage represented in the High School, Dr. Van Denburg finds the Irish most poorly represented. With 19% of the population they furnish but 6.5% of the total High School registration. Next come the Italians making up 6.4% of the popula- tion and furnishing but 3.1% of the High School pupils.
GENERAL POPULATION VERSUS HIGH SCHOOL POPULATION*
Countries of Origin Numbers Percentages
High School General High School General Population Population Population Population
|
United States |
11,477 |
907,351 |
45.1 |
26.4 |
|
Germany |
4,049 |
735,992 |
15.9 |
21.4 |
|
Russia |
3,166 |
240,805 |
12.4 |
7.0 |
|
Ireland |
1,661 |
649,302 |
6.5 |
18.9 |
|
England |
921 |
116,044 |
3.6 |
3.4 |
|
Italy |
539 |
217,920 |
3.1 |
6.4 |
|
Poland |
392 |
51,621 |
1.5 |
1.5 |
|
Scotland |
384 |
37,668 |
1.5 |
1.1 |
|
Sweden |
265 |
41,234 |
1.0 |
1.2 |
|
Canada, English |
215 |
19,623 |
.8 |
.6 |
|
Denmark |
177 |
8,223 |
.6 |
2 |
|
France |
170 |
23,203 |
.6 |
.7 |
|
Norway |
125 |
16,746 |
.5 |
.5 |
|
Canada, French |
38 |
3,899 |
.1 |
.1 |
|
Wales |
31 |
3,119 |
.1 |
.1 |
|
Other Countries |
1,942 |
361,472 |
7.6 |
10.5 |
TOTAL 25,452 3,434,222 100.0 100.0
THE PRESENT NEED— When the Immigration Commission made its report, it found less than 100 teach- ers of Italian blood in the public schools. In New York City there were 17 teachers of parents from the North of Italy, 8 from the South and 7 not specified, in all less than .1% of the total number of teachers of foreign lineage in this city. Today, according to Dr. Vittorio Racca, president of the Italian Teachers Association this mark has more than been doubled. Nevertheless on a pro-rata scale, or compared with the number of children of Italian origin in this city, the one great deficiency with respect to providing an incentive necessary to
♦Van Den Burg, Dr. J. K. — "Causes of Elimination of Stu- dents in Public Schools (Secondary)" p. 36.
64 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
raising the low percentage of pupils of Italian origin in the schools of this city is the lack of teachers among their own kind. If there were a large well-knit and actively operating corps of public school teachers of Ital- ian origin interested in visiting the homes and families of the great masses of Italian-speaking people in this city, the great stopping-off place between the public and the high school would cease to exist.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 65
CHAPTER VIII CITIZENSHIP
OBSTACLES TO CITIZENSHIP— Ignorance of the language is perhaps the greatest bar to citizenship. With the Itahan another factor enters, namely, the tendency to return to Italy. Fully 30% of these immigrants go back to the homeland after they have accumulated some "savings." Taking the period of 1905-1910 as an ex- ample, we note the following proportions of returning immigrants.*
1905—31% 1908—34%
1906—38% 1909—30%
1907—62% 1910—42%
Because of this tendency the state of affairs found in 1898 when out of 16,000 workmen engaged in the con- struction of the Erie Canal 15,000 were unnaturalized, is not surprising.** This is not the whole story however. Fully 15% who returned to Italy with their savings are inevitably found among those who come to America the following year, viz :
PREVIOUSLY ADMITTED ITALIAN SPEAKING
IMMIGRANTS— 1899-1910
Number In United States previously
People Admitted Number Percent admitted
Italian, North 372,668 56,738 15.2
Italian, South 1,911,933 262,508 13.7
But both these factors are absent in the case of the offspring. Many of these individuals do not speak Ital- ian as well as they do English, and a few speak no Ital- ian at all. The majority, not having known Italy, have no desire to go there and reside permanently.
RELATION OF IMMIGRANT TO NATIVE VOTE— The importance of immigrant races as possible voters is greater than their importance in proportion to the popu- lation. This is so because males come in greater numbers than do females. For instance 10,000,000 foreign-born population furnishes 5,000,000 males of voting age, but
* Stella, Dr. Antonio— "Assicurzione Obbligatoria Degli Emi- granti contro la Tuberculosi," p. 15. **New York Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1898, p. 1155.
66 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
66,000,000 native population furnishes only 16,000,000 males of voting age. This is to say one-half of the foreign born and only one-quarter of the native-born are po- tential voters.* Of the foreign-born population two- thirds have either become citizens or have declared their intentions in 1900. Probably the proportion of native- white who did not vote was 15% of the total number while the percentage of the foreign-born who did not was over 40%.** This last proportion however varies with different races. Commons thinks that it is not so much a difference in willingness as it is a difference in appreciation. To be naturalized one must live in the country five years. The census authorities found that whereas 40% of those who had been here six to nine years have not declared their intentions of becoming citizens, only 7% of those who had been here twenty years had retained allegiance to their former govern- ment.
The "older immigration" represented by the German and Irish stocks have greater political significance be- cause of this when compared with the "newer immigra- tion," the Italians, Slavs, and Russian Jews. While but 7 to 13% of the foreign immigration are aliens, from 35 to 60% of the immigration from Southern Europe are aliens and therefore have no influence through the fran- chise. Time however will reduce this disparity very ap- preciably. The percentage of Italians that are citizens as found by the Immigration Commission in a represent- ative investigation covering more than 8000 cases is :
NUMBER PERCENT
Race No. reporting Fully First Fully First
complete data Naturalized Papers Naturalized Papers Italian, North 4,069 1,028 834 25.3 20.5
Italian, South 3,811 597 547 15.7 14.4
This percentage of 25.3 true in the case of the North- ern Italian surpassed the percentages found in this in- vestigation for other numerous immigrants from South Eastern Europe. The Russian Hebrew had but 22.7% ; the Lithuanian 21.1%; the Poles 19%; the Russian
* Commons — "Races and Immigrants in America," p. 191.
** "Twelfth Census Abstract," p. 18.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 67
15.1%; the Slovak 12.1%. Further investigations have shown that 111,696 out of a total of 145,333 persons born in Italy were naturalized in 1900.
CITIZENSHIP STATUS IN NEW YORK CITY— In speaking of the contribution to citizenship that the Ital- ian makes to America, Roberts says, "The Italians are old at the game of politics. In the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries they furnished political leaders to every country in Europe."* Lord on the same subject says, "The innate bent for politics of the Italian is strongly marked and nowhere is this more plainly shown than in America in spite of the common handicaps of un- familiarity with our language and the absorbing de- mands of the struggle to earn a living. He is quick to comprehend the use and possible force of his ballot here, and is eager to become naturalized. This is signally shown in the extraordinary percentage of naturalized Italians in comparison with the total number of Italians in New York City. The carefully prepared records of the Commission established by the Italian Chamber of Commerce showed that 191,289 of the 225,026 persons of Italian parentage then living in the city were either born or naturalized Americans comprehending 83.4% of the total Italian population."**
Today this percentage is even higher for approxi- mately 200,000 Italians of those who were unnaturalized have returned to Italy to fight. These represent a lot almost hand-picked from the unnaturalized group so that it would not be greatly out of the way if we said that perhaps of all the immigrant groups representing the "newer immigration" the greatest percentage of naturalized citizens belongs to the Italian group.
Notwithstanding the frequent disparaging remarks made about the "Italian vote being a joke" by city poli- ticians, or past criticism that the Italian has a constitu- tional defection regarding the qualities of political ge- nius, we have testimony of two men who are in a posi- tion to know, pointing to the contrary. George B. Mc-
* Roberts, Peter — "The Newer Immigration," p. 256. ** Lord, Trenor and Barrows — "The Italian in America," p. 223-224.
68 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
Qellan for seven years Mayor of New York City and whose last (1909) election could have been swung one way or the other according as the Italian vote was cast says, "Already we are beginning to feel the good effect of our schools upon our foreign-born population. Take the Italian . . . the number of them that are taking out citizenship papers is increasing every year. They make good citizens." The present incumbent of this office says, "The Italians in this city are among our best citi- zens and are held in great respect."*
THE PLACE OF THE WOMAN OF ITALIAN BLOOD — There is at present no way of telling how the girl or woman of Italian blood is going to take to her newly acquired citizenship and right to vote. As Dr. Van Denburg has shown, the Italian sends his boys to the city's High Schools in the ratio of three to every one girl that attends. The strong family ties of the Italian home are against and look with disfavor upon any and all worldly activities tending to break these bonds. Nevertheless Miss Elvira Barra, Italian District Leader in the Little Italy Harlem Colony, from her ac- tual experience recently said, "These people have changed — the older woman who at first shrugged her shoulders at the thought of voting has become enthu- siastic. I have reached the mothers through the younger generation who can read and write. "f This is one of the new and fertile fields yet unexplored as it is even with many men. As Prof. Steiner says, "Perhaps the greatest problem still to be solved is how to interpret the one supreme gift which most men never possessed — the right of citizenship."**
DIFFJERENCES BETWEEN ITALY AND AMER- ICA— In passing it is well to make mention of the dif- ferent attitude regarding the matter of citizenship that exists between the two governments — Italy and Amer- ica. Italy holds that the children of any subject no mat- ter where these children are born, take the status of the
♦Letter from Mayor John F. Hylan to F. P. Buonora, Sept. 10, 1918. tNew York Evening Telegram — Sept. 8, 1918. ** Steiner, E. A.— "The Immigrant Tide," p. 199.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 69
parent. The United States holds that the individual de- cides this for himself and that the place of birth is a factor. Speaking for the people themselves it is safe to say that the majority of Italians come here to stay and willingly take on the obligations in order to exercise the privilege of American citizenship. A con- crete instance of the way that Americans of Italian ex- traction and naturalized Americans from Italy have lived up to these obligations is shown in the present war. "20% or 70,000 of the total voluntary enlistments around Boston at the beginning of the war were of Italian blood."* The American of Italian extraction is an Amer- ican and considers himself such. The difficulty that arises in relation to Italy is one of long standing and apparently due to the rigidity of the Italian constitution. In this instance it is illuminating to quote from a speech of the former Italian Foreign Aflfairs Minister Senator Tom- maso Tittoni given in the Chamber of Deputies at the March 3rd, 1905 sitting:
"practically, from the Italian point of view, the question (naturalization) presents itself as follows : our Civil Code establishes at Article 4 that the son of a father who is an Italian citizen is himself an Italian citizen, and at Article II it declares that, whoever has obtained naturalization in a foreign land loses his Italian citizenship. Therefore the Italian subject who has fixed his residence in the United States finds himself confronted with this alternative : either to remain faithful to his nation- ality of origin and renounce those political and ad- ministrative rights which, in the great centers of emigration, would be the most efficient means of influence and protection of his interests ; or else to accept the nationality of the country he resides in, losing de jure and de facto his Italian citizenship. "... inasmuch as regards the avoiding of pos- sible conflict negotiations have been opened with the United States of America with the purpose of endeavouring to regulate by fixed rules all those
♦Prof. James Geddes, Jr., From his contribution to the Symposium, p. 272,
70 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
cases which could give occasion to such conflict. After having reached a certain point, however, it has been impossible to proceed with these negotia- tions on account of the manifest reluctance of the
United States. In order to satisfy Senator
aspirations on the subject of naturalization it would be necessary to modify our Civil Code. It is a grave and arduous question upon which I can not commit myself; but since it has been so often raised I will have it examined by a Commission of Jurists and Sociologists acting in colleague with the Minister of Grace and Justice."* This matter still remains to-day as it was left then by the Italian Foreign Minister with the result that no American of Italian extraction may go to Italy except- ing that his father has been naturalized before his birth, without fear of being taken up as an Italian subject. In this matter of citizenship it is coming to be a great source of racial pride and loyalty among the Italians and the Jews as well as with other races to place thetnselves on an equality with those who assume superiority over new-comers. They wish to escape the contempt with which the ignorant treat foreigners. As Woods puts this "they crave the full round of American experience . . . soon they realize that their children are to be Americans and this makes American citizenship more clearly their own destiny . . . the word REPUB- LICAN is one that the Italian is familiar with and it has inspiring associations for him. They make good polit- ical workers. They organize effectively."**
* Senator Tittoni Tommaso, Italy's Foreign and Colonial Policy (Memorial Volume dedicated to Rt. Hon. A. Balfour, translated by Baron Bernardo Quaranta di San Severino, p. 168-9.
** Woods, R. A. — "Americans in Process," p. 138.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 71
CHAPTER IX. PHILANTROPHY AND SOCIAL WELFARE
INTRODUCTION— It has been found that there are two periods when the immigrant is most in need of re- lief. The first occurs when he has landed and follows from the fact that he has a slender store of savings upon which to depend. Among the Jews in New York City the United Hebrew Charities Society office stated that 7% of the total Jewish immigration found it necessary to apply for relief within one year. According to the reports of the two chief agencies in New York City that offer relief to Italian immigrants we find that the num- bers run into the thousands. The Italica Gens took care of 27,861 cases during a period of eight years and the San Raffaele almost a thousand every year.
In New York City during the year 1917 for the Italian element 117 men and 23 women and no children under 16 years of age applied for relief ; in 1916 (a year of in- dustrial depression) there were 10,035 men, 187 women and no children. Roughly speaking the average for persons of Italian blood was a little over 1% of the total number of persons who applied to the Municipal Lodg- ing House for relief.* Private agencies of relief cor- roborate this low finding of approximately 1%.**
Relief of this sort however, is temporary, for unless the immigrant becomes self-supporting soon, the law makes him liable to deportation. The other occasion when such a one is most liable to need assistance is after he has spent some years in this country. He has then exhausted his native fund of physical vigor and lost his former elasticity of youth and so becomes unable to struggle against those who are fit and who adapt them- selves into our industrial system.
Individuals of this sort represent a chronic state of
♦From original data furnished by the Secretary of the De- partment of Charities.
**Wm. L. Butcher, Supt. Brace Memorial Home, New York City.
n THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
dependency which naturally affects their children. It has been found that of all the foreign-born heads in cases cared for by charity organization societies 38% had been in the United States twenty years or more and 70.7% ten years.*
The percentage of cases reported by the Charity Or- ganization Society to the Immigration Commission for the country showed the North Italian to have made the best showing with a percentage of but 25.6%.** Like the Jew, the Italian sees to it that he does not tax un- duly the state into which he migrates.
DEPENDENCY— With respect to the causes of de- pendency among Italians it is interesting to compare their status with other nationahties if
Cause Italian Irish English German Jews Neglect or bad habits
of breadwinner 8.7 20.9 14.0 15.7 12.6
Lack of employment 67.8 34.8 63.3 58.1
In the first instance the Italians show up best; in the latter there is but a slight preponderence in their dis- favor due chiefly to the fact that they represent the "newer immigration."
The American of Italian extraction comes from a home that knows little of what it is to be dependent upon others. Yet this can scarcely be said to be the common impression of most people. Too often the Ital- ian is accused of being a characteristic beggar. Riis in "How the Other Half Lives" said on this point, "It is curious to find preconceived notions quite upset in a review of the nationalities that go to make up our squad of street beggars. The Irish lead off the list with 15% and the native American is only a little way behind him with 12%, while the Italian has less than 2%. The Ger- mans constitute 8%." The analysis of the Bureau of Immigration confirms this. The Irish in the charitable institutions of the country compose 30% ; the Germans 19% ; the English 8.5%, while the Hebrew and the Ital- ians both have 8%.
♦"Paupers in Almhouses," p. 101. ** Fairchild — "Immigration," p. 322. t Associated Charities of Boston — 23rd Annual Report.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 73
Other authorities follow the same strain, viz: "The variation in the number of Italians applying for relief is interesting. 54 families came to us in 1891 and only 69 last year though the Italian population had increased 15,000."* In New York State the data submitted in the 35th Annual Report of the State Board of Charities by the Hon. John W. Keller, President of the Department of Public Charities for New York City, contained the following tables :
TABLE A (Showing nativity of persons admitted to almshouses)
|
Countries |
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, Denmark and Sweden 22 6 |
28 |
|
|
Italy |
15 4 |
19 |
|
Other Countries |
50 36 |
86 |
|
TOTAL |
1,695 1,241 TABLE B |
2,936 |
|
(Nativity of those |
admitted to incurable hospitals) |
|
|
Countries |
Male Female |
Total |
|
United States |
7 4 |
11 |
|
Ireland |
5 6 |
11 |
|
England |
1 1 |
2 |
|
Poland |
1 |
1 |
|
Germany |
4 |
4 |
|
Italy |
1 |
1 |
TOTAL 17 13 30
TABLE C (Nativity of those admitted to blind asylums)
Countries Male Female Total
United States 45 4 49
Ireland 36 3 39
England 3 3
Germany 4 15
Italy 1 _1
TOTAL 89 8 97
♦Associated Charities of Boston— 23rd Annual Report.
74 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
Other data available regarding the Italians in New York City are the "statistics for a representative year showing that out of every 28,000 Italians in the city of New York there was only one in the almshouses on Blackwells Island; while out of every 28,000 Irish there were 140."* Mr. James Forbes, Chief of the Mendi- cancy Department of the Charity Organization Society says that he has never seen or heard of an Italian tramp. The fact that for actual dependency this strain repre- sents but one percent of the city's pauper population is the other side of the almost universal recognition of his industry and thrift.
DELINQUENCY — The subject of crime in discussing newer types in our population is often connected with the problem of the pauper. The only study that any court of record in the United States ever made with race differences serving as a basis was in New York City. In 1909 the Court of Special Sessions upon the instigation of the Immigration Commission investigated over 2200 cases that came before it and demonstrated the futility of attempting to prove any relation between im- migration and crime. Their conclusions were that no satisfactory answer could be found to the questions: (1) Is the volume of crime in the United States augfmented by the presence of the immigrant and his offspring? and (2) if immigrants increase crime, what races are re- sponsible for such increase? Not only did this investi- gation conducted among immigrants and their offspring in New York City find no basis for the common notion that the Italian race furnishes the highest percentage of those filling our jails but in the words of the committee making the investigation "immigrants are less prone to commit crime than the native American."** Changes, however, are noticed in the character of crimes com- mitted. In the matter of crimes committed against the person the Italians lead but as is usual with such crime statistics for the whole United States, no differentiation is made between the Italian proper, who has come here
* Ed. by Willard Price— World Outlook, Oct. 1917.
** Report of Immigration Commission — Immigration and Crime Abst.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 75
and his offspring, the American of Italian extraction who was born here. As it is but three percent of crimes committed by Itahans for murder are convictions.*
This whole question of crime among both the Italian immigrant and his descendants needs more careful study than has been accorded in the past.** Some time in the future when we know the Italian nature better, we will appreciate what Dr. Prelini, Professor of Engineer- ing in Manhattan College has in mind when he says, "The contribution of the Italian toward American de- mocracy are sincerity of purpose, and the greatest re- spect for justice, which are the essentials of true de- mocracy; they hate hypocrisy; the respect for justice is so deeply rooted in the Italian mind that many crimes are committed to redress suffered wrongs. Under this point of view even the crimes committed indicate a mis- applied respect for justice among the lower classes of Italians."***
An interesting and instructive attempt has been made by Lord, Trenor and Barrows to set in its true light the apparently mistaken conception that some people have with respect to the so-called innate trait of criminality among Italians. These authors go on to say, "A careful examination of police records secured from every city in this country where nationalities are distributed in the
* Mangano, Antonio, Sons of Italy, p. 122.
** The fact that Prof. Bailey in a study of juvenile delin- quency in New Haven found the American of Italian extraction to constitute 47.7% of the total number arraigned though ac- cording to the 1910 census only 15.7% of the total number of the native-born population of foreign parentage were of this nationality carries but little weight. New Haven has a popu- lation of but 133,605 (1910 census) and in no wise can be con- strued as constituting an example that is indicative of a con- dition that is general.. It is interesting to note in this con- nection that this same investigation was extended to New Britain, a typical manufacturing town with a population of approximately 50,000 and of the total number of native-born delinquents of foreign extraction that appeared before the courts of this state, not one was of Italian blood. Bailey, Wm. B. — "Children Before the Courts of Connecticut." Children's Bureau, Department of Labor. Bureau Publication No. 43, p. IZ.
*** Contribution to symposium, infra Chapter 25.
1^ THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
records of arrest does not justify the assumption that the criminal tendencies of the Italians exceed the aver- age of the foreign or of the native population. It must be born in mind that no comparison is valid which does not take into account the factor of age and relative pro- portion of males to females. Yet in Boston, Providence and even in other cities attracting the greater part of the Italian immigration the percentage of arrests of Italian foreign-born is less than the average for the total foreign-born," viz :
COMPARISON OF PERCENTAGES OF ARRESTS BE- TWEEN ITALIAN AND OTHER NATIONALITIES*
|
o |
c |
2 -S |
||||
|
.bflrt •59 |
. 0 CO |
ci 0 |
v.. (U en |
talian oreigr lOpula |
+J -4-> |
|
|
Z. ^ |
-^"S |
^iS |
•^ -^ |
1— (--M » |
.2 |
|
|
So |
E2a |
7^ rt |
%of total born |
|||
|
Boston |
197,129 |
19,952 |
13,738 |
1,219 |
7.0 |
6.1 |
|
Providence |
55,855 |
3,902 |
6,252 |
422 |
11.02 |
10.8 |
It will be noted, these authors eo on to sav. that in both the cities cited the record of arrests is for 1903, or three years later than the census population count. The Italian influx has raised materially the percentage of total Italian born, hence the strictly correct comparison would be more notably to their advantage. But since 1904 the year when Lord wrote, fully a million Italian immigrants have entered and this serves to push still further down the already low percentage. These au- thors say that in Paterson and other cities in New Jersey containing a considerable proportion of Italians like Newark, Elizabeth, etc., the comparison is still more favorable on the side of the Italians.
These local figures are corroborated by those for the country at large. The Italian strain in 1910 while con- stituting 10.1% or the second largest racial group of foreign born population furnished only 7.1% of the total
♦Prepared from tables in "The Italian in America" by Lord, Trenor and Barrows.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 77
number of foreign-born prisoners and juvenile delin- quents. The most frequent offenders were of Irish ex- traction making up 26.9% of the total and with a ratio of commitments in proportion to their numbers twice as frequent as the Italians. Of the seventeen nation- alities studied on the basis of commitments the Italians took the astonishingly high rank (considering common notions) of being twelfth down from the top or worst position. The countries listed according to highest ra- tios are:
RANK OF COUNTRY WITH RESPECT TO THE RATIO* OF COMMITMENTS**
Mexico 1
Ireland 2
Scotland 3
Austria 4
England & Wales 5
Canada, English 6
Sweden 7
Norway 8
Canada, French 9
France 10
Poland 11
ITALY 12
Russia 13
Hungary 14
Denmark 15
Germany 16
Switzerland 17
When we come to consider the nature of offense com- mitted we come to what has always been a knotty prob- lem. Here again the figures offered are for the entire country. We have what in the face of things looks like a blasting indictment because in crimes committed against the person i. e. assault, the Italian strain shows up at the top with the highest rate of any. The figures are:
* The ratio referred to is the number of foreign born white prisoners and juvenile delinquents committed in 1910 per 100,000 white population born in the same country.
** Report on Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents. Bureau of Census 1919, p. 128.
78 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
PRISONERS AND JUVENILE DELINQUENTS COMMITTED
FOR ASSAULT*
1910
Nationality Number Percentage Ratio§ of
Commitment
ITALY 903 12.8 67.2
Hungary 243 10.6 49.0
Poland 487 9.7 51.9
Austria 595 8.6 70.4
Russia 433 7.7 36.6
Other Countries 331 6.6 44.3
One must be cautious however in interpreting the sig- nificance of such figures as the above. The figures cited by the census authorities are based on the total number of offenders and not on the total population, or to use the words of Dr. Joseph A. Hill, Expert Special Agent, who pre- pared this report, "The figures above do not necessarily mean that in proportion to their numbers in the total population the Italians are committed for assault more frequently than other nationalities."**
In New York City however, the figures Lord was able to collect showed slightly to their disadvantage as was to be expected, viz :***
Total foreign -born population 1,270,080
Total born in Italy 145,433
Italian percentage of total foreign-born population 11.5%
Total arrests for foreign-born 59,077
Total arrests of Italian nationality 7,307
Percentage of arrests of Italian nationality 12.3%
In further explanation of the above the authors point out that there is at the outset a deduction to be made for discharges and acquittals ; that the arrests made are largely for breaches of city ordinances such as peddling without a license, etc.
Lord shows the injustice in past attempts operating
* Compiled from tables in "Report on Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents." Bureau of Census, 1919, pp. 130-131.
§ Number committed per 100,000 white population born in the same country.
** Compiled from tables in "Report on Prisoners and Juve- nile Delinquents." Bureau of Census, 1919, p. 130.
*** Lord, Trenor and Barrows— "The Italian in America."
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 79
to jack up the figures showing Italian criminality to be higher than the average through the device of dropping from the record all crimes resulting from drunkenness. Such an instance is the following: A report had been prepared by the Immigration Restriction League based upon the criminal record of Italians in Massachusetts. Now Massachusetts is the one state that has made the most thoro examination of the whole question of in- temperance as related to crime, and the report showed that about 87% of all crimes committed in Massachusetts grow out of intemperance of some form. The Italian population of Boston and of Massachusetts show a higher percentage of arrests than all the races from Northern Europe ; but while three in any one hundred cases of the Northern races including the Scotch-Irish, the English, and the Germans were arrested for intem- perance, only three in one thousand cases of the Italians were so arraigned. In fact, from the investigation made by the Committee of Fifty of nearly 30,000 cases in the records of Organized Charity, the Italians had the re- markably low percentage of 3.5, while the Irish and the English showed 25%, Americans 24%, and the Ger- mans 24%.*
The following excerpt taken from the Joliette Prison Post, a paper edited by prisoners of the Illinois State Penitentiary will attest to the universal rather than the national trait of wrong-doing among human individuals, viz:
"One of the most popular but highly erroneous be- liefs of the day is that illiteracy and crime are closely related. It is customary to plead for a wrongdoer that he did not enjoy the advantage of an education when young. Quite recently a survey was made of the prisoners in the State Penitentiary which served to upset some of these cherished no- tions."
"In a total population of 1886, it was found that 1181 had received a major portion of an elementary education and only 309 were illiterate. There were
♦Koren. John— "Economic Aspects of; the Liquor Problem/'
80 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
29 University graduates on the roll, and 106 High School graduates. The survey was made by a man convicted of forgery and educated at the Lake For- est College."*
.The lesson from these and other figures is not diffi- cult to read. Prof. Howard writing on this question says :
''Among the foreign-born residents of the United States, the relative percentage of felonies due to in- temperance for each nationality stands in direct ratio to the drinking habits of such nationality. The hardest drinking peoples show the highest relative per- centages of heinous crimes induced by alcohol. '''\
When we consider the exceptionally low percentage of alcoholism among the Italian-speaking population this last statement has increased significance. Miss Clag- horn's intensive studies of Italians in New York City leads her to think that "The Italian immigrant is very little given to drink." This statement is frequently made and universally accepted. If one were to enter almost any home in New York City where Italian is spoken, he would be sure to meet with the usage of wine. Ital- ian families use wine as a food and have through cen- turies so regulated their diet and manner of living with respect to it that abuses of it are rarely encountered.
The writer is able to present for the first time the actual statistics relating to the frequency of the phe- nomenon of drunkenness among Italians thruout the United States. The Census Bureau has just published its final report on prisoners based upon the data ob- tained from the last census in a large 535 quarto page volume. The figures below are compiled by the writer from the tables contained therein, and show for the Italian strain the lowest percentage of commitments arising from causes of this description when compared with all other nationalities :
♦Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol. 8, p. 140.
tThe American Journal of Sociology — "Alcohol and Crime," George Elliott Howard, July 1918, p. 65.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 81
PRISONERS AND JUVENILE DELINQUENTS COMMITTED FOR DRUNKENNESS, 1910*
|
Ratio of |
|||
|
Nationality |
Number |
Percentage Commitments§ |
|
|
ITALY |
2,124 |
30.0 |
158.1 |
|
Russia |
2,771 |
49.4 |
234.0 |
|
Austria |
3,525 |
50.9 |
416.9 |
|
France |
3,354 |
51.2 |
302.0 |
|
Hungary- |
1,185 |
51.5 |
239.1 |
|
Switzerland |
209 |
53.5 |
167.4 |
|
Germany |
5,060 |
57.1 |
218.9 |
|
Mexico |
3,031 |
59.0 |
1,379.0 |
|
Canada, English |
3,531 |
64.1 |
435.4 |
|
Canada, French |
1,549 |
63.2 |
402.3 |
|
Ireland |
20,825 |
nn |
1,540.1 |
|
Other Countries |
2,735 |
54.5 |
366.0 |
* Compiled from "Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents" — Bu- reau of Census, 1919, pp. 130-131.
§ Number committed per 100,000 white population born in the same country.
82 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
PART III.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS*
CHAPTER X
INTRODUCTION
DIFFICULTIES OF CLASSIFICATION— In placing Americans of Italian extraction in the four** classes de- scribed below the writer is following a purely arbitrary plan of classification. It is not meant that there is any hard and fast line which serves to mark off one class from another or that any objective indicia exist that can be used to measure exactly subjective states of mind; or even that the four following types exhaust all the types of mind that there are to be found among the peoples of Italian lineage that make their homes here. Relative rather than absolute standards are behind the classifications made.
The question of the quantitative measurement of sub- jective states of mind has produced a good deal of dis- cussion. Giddings has attempted to derive a law of sym- pathy, and therefore likeness, inherent in a population based upon their "consciousness-of-kind", seeking to show that the nature of a population's density and homo- geneity corresponds to the character of its material en- vironment.f Another well-known sociologist Gabriel Tarde in his "Social Laws" holds that intellectual activi- ties of the individual can be quantitatively measured.!
* The terminology, classifications, and descriptions, used — through PART III — Psychological Traits, follow closely and are adapted from the terminology, classifications and descrip- tions of Giddings (vide, Inductive Sociology, passim.)
** The four types of individuals to be briefly described in this section are:
(a) The "tenement" type (an ideo-emotional type).
(b) The "trade" and "business" type (a dogmatic-emotional type).
(c) The "Y. M. C. A." and "College" type (a transitional type).
(d) The "professional" type (a critical-intellectual type), t Giddings — Inductive Sociology, p. 118.
t Page 34.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 83
M. M. Davis, Jr., shows how this quantitative method has been applied to anthropological data.§ With socio- logical data, however the case appears to be different. Too many factors are concerned, and too many variables need to be considered. Social facts can not altogether be stated in terms of number or volume or density. An able presentation of this last view is the recent article by Boodin who holds "that statistical methods applied to social processes must indeed seem vague as compared to the laws of mechanical science and we are indeed rightly suspicious of too exact formulas in the social sciences."* Munsterberg has shown that the only way mental eval- uations can be quantitatively compared is by first reduc- ing them to their physical correlates as is done in phy- siological psychology. But this leaves out the very heart of the phenomenon that is to be compared. As Bristol says "evaluations differ from moment to moment and social facts are the outcome of these ever shifting mo- ments." Finally one of America's foremost sociological methodologists in a very recent text while ascribing the utmost importance to precision in preparing the data for social science does not believe its true aim is to bring society within the sphere of arithmetic. He says "exact prediction and mechanical control for the social world I believe, to be a false ideal inconsiderately borrowed from the provinces of physical science. There is no real reason to think that this sort of prediction or control will ever be possible."**
It is impossible therefore to subject Americans of Italian extraction to any statistical analysis that would permit us to measure quantitatively their mental product and to compare it with the product of other Americans. The only alternative is to judge them by the institutions which reflect their stage of mental, moral and general civilizatory progress and to sociologically evaluate these. Just such an analysis is attempted in Part IV, Social Or- ganization of this book.
§ Psychological Interpretations of Society, p. 217. * Boodin — American Journal of Sociology, March 1918, p. 705 passim. ** Cooley, Charles Horton, The Social Process, p. 398.
84 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
At some time or other probably every one in the class labelled the ''tenement" type, in certain specific reac- tions, closely resembles individuals falling v^rithin the class labelled the "professional" type and vice versa. But taking a broad perspective it can be said that the reactions of those individuals described in the class called the "tenement" type consistently resemble the type of mind that Giddings has called the "ideo-motor" type ; as does the class of individuals making up v^hat is called here the "trade" and "business" type resemble more than any other, the type of mind called by Gid- dings the "dogmatic-emotional"; and as the last two types here described namely the "college" and "profes- sional" types resemble the so-called "critical-intellectual" type of mind.
In dwelling then on the general characteristics of the American of Italian extraction it would be difficult to say that any one individual corresponded altogether and exactly, to such and such a type. One finds that in cer- tain situations this individual's reactions are such as categorize the "ideo-emotional" type, and in other sit- uations the reactions more nearly correspond to those distinguishing the "critical-intellectual" type. In be- tween these two types of extremes are represented all possible combinations and shadings of reactions that make classifications difficult at best and open always to grave sources of error. Dogmatization her^ ^i^s for the sake of clarity. ^j ^^
While the basis for classification of types,^,-9;f Ameri- cans of Italian extraction is therefore a purely arbitrary one, nevertheless there are certain constant factors no- ticed thruout that are helpful in forming a judgment as to what logically constitutes the proper ground or basis for classifying an individual in such and such a category. More important perhaps than any other factor is that of education. Not only does it determine the kind of activities that are indulged in. l)ut also the associations that are formed and the nature of the contacts estab- lished. The full volume of the type under surveillance here has not yet advanced sufficiently in years to give us any basis for making any conclusions in this respect.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 85
ECONOMIC STATUS— The economic status of the home determines in most cases the circle in which the individual is to move. As a rule the American of Ital- ian extraction is poor and this class has not produced any great financial men such as the Hebrews have. Not infrequently however, the individuals of this class rise above the economic obstacle. The president of the Co- lumbia Circolo* at Columbia University at the outbreak of the war figured out that almost fifty percent of this type of student at Columbia was there either thru schol- arship aid or by means of work done after school hours. The economic background for the great majority of Americans of Italian extraction is that lowest down in our wage scale.
PLEASURES— The physical background for by far the overwhelming majority of this type of American is the "street." It is their playground. The home is not to be considered as a desirable place to spend one's leisure time in so far as fully 85 percent of these Ameri- cans in New York City are concerned. That the "street" has the better of the competition between the two is shown by the frequent claim made by so many Italian mothers that "their children are wild and so they put them in an institution or an asylum." A survey of the Italian colonies in New York City shows that there are at least 300,000 such people in New York City of an age calculated to make fit subjects for the influences of the "street" to effectively work upon.
The ages of each group determine the nature of the activities indulged in. For instance in the professional type our individuals are settled and matured. Their status can be more easily determined and with greater accuracy than that of the other three types discussed which are still in a transitional or unsettled stage.
Length of stay in this country affects the vocation of the individual but hardly his status with the different groups noted. But the degree of parental influence ob- taining is very important in that it determines largely the attitude one takes towards questions in politics. If one is closely linked up with the family of an older gen-
* Nicholas Bucci— "Italian Scholarship at Columbia." The Italian Intercollegiate— Vol. 1, Jan. 1917, p. 4.
86 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
eration and the influence of the parent is strong he is apt to think as does the parent, thereby thwarting the development of a full-blown American habit of thinking and of action. In the instance here under discussion however, this family bond or parental sway, among the Italian speaking Americans, is very attenuated.
By noting one's play and recreational activities we get the surest index of the innate bent of the type. Among these people too often the work they do is least expressive of themselves but *'in their pleasures they are themselves and follow their bent."* The largest modicum of free choice is evidenced in one's play, and so by observing the nature of the recreations indulged in one is afforded another way of judging the type of mind in question. One's mode of life includes such fac- tors as cooperation, individual and social choices, per- sonal characteristics, etc., and these are all helpful in- dices for judging the type.
Whether one is a citizen or not plays little part in determining the class into which he falls. Vocation is a factor in determining the way an individual is to de- velop and the class into which he is placed. All these factors together serve to point out or gauge in a rough but approximately certain way the general trend of the individual type. None of the distinctions made are ab- solute— a constant over-lapping exists and the classifi- cations made correspond as was said before, in a rough way and reflect the type of organization described in the chapters on Social Organization. So that judging from the above we find what we have been led to suspect, namely that it is the "ideo-motor" and "ideo-emotional" types of mind among Americans of Italian extraction in New York City that belong to the "street," "athletic" and even "settlement" clubs ; the "dogmatic-emotional" type that is joining the Y. M. C. A. Associations and their like, such as the religious and benevolent associations and the civic club ; and the "critical-intellectual" type of mind that is interested in the high-school and college Circolo, the Social Welfare League and the Professional club.
♦Williams, An American Town, A Sociological Study, Co- lumbia University Studies in Political Science, etc., p. 107.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 87
CHAPTER XI
THE "TENEMENT" TYPE
(AN IDEO-EMOTIONAL TYPE)
BACKGROUND— A general survey of the features characterizing the "tenement" type of American of Ital- ian extraction will disclose the following information. As a rule they are not the muscle-bound, stolid, heavy-set coarse physical type such as is represented by the immi- grant who comes here "en masse." Boas' studies of the descendants of Italian immigrants show that they suffer physically from the readjustment to this climate and environment.
The home conditions are such that one wonders why there are not more perversions of the natural instincts than actually is the case. Coming from neighborhoods whose inhabitants find their margin of economic subsist- ence a very slender one, as a rule little time is left or inclination evolved that can be devoted to things of the spirit or to matters cultural and influences refining.
Congestion, poor sanitation, foul air and poverty all breed in time a nonchalant indifference to these. Am- bition is starved and where not actually killed, the resi- dual modicum lives on to embitter a rancorous cynicism. It is true that as you keep piling on opportunities, a lad is apt to hold them cheaply if not altogether indiffer- ently; but it is equally true that if the struggle to achieve be made too bitter it will inevitably poison the springs of character. For those of Italian stock the percentage of criminals is recruited largely from this class, and is the shadowy basis for the grossly exag- gerated statement of Hall that the descendants of the ItaHan immigrants are twice and three times more crim- inal than are their fathers. To a large extent these Americans "gone wrong" have lived too long under the perverting influences of the "street" and the niggardly auspices of our social organization which found no proper outlet for their pent-up energies.
88 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
Looking at the spiritual development of this type one must report a dearth or paucity of spiritual thinking or even interest. They are a people of deed and not of C7'eed. Where there is avowed adherence to religious tenets it is apt to be of a formal and perfunctory kind, in many cases representing what is feared rather than understood. Dr. Jones was led to say that the "religious life of the Italian is spasmodic and is stimu- lated chiefly by religious celebrations that appeal to the dramatic instincts, or as it is stirred by some calamity that befalls the individual or his friends."* This is ex- actly what Woods has in mind when he says that "the Italian goes to church for social reasons."**
It can safely be said that the "tenement" type has had little if any schooling extending beyond the grammar grades. The work they do must be financially remun- erative and that immediately so. The membership dis- tribution of the "Huskies" and of the "Nameoka" As- sociations which are the two organizations with mem- bers of this type specifically described showed that the majority are practising vocations that require little if any school discipline. Such vocations as are practised are varied and the character of application to such is intermittent. The home offers little incentive to con- tinued employment, for in the main the influences eman- ating from the crowded tenement homes where the Ital- ian speaking population literally teems, are unsocial in character. The growing generation of such Italians in New York City misses by a wide margin the courtesy, politeness and generally social qualities of his parent.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS— In disposition these Americans correspond most nearly to what Gid- dings calls the "instigative" type. A marked tone of pleasure-craving exists thruout and is perhaps dominant. The pleasure-loving character of this type calls for pleasures that are of a motory and sensory kind. Boon companions, a good social time and not too long and
♦Jones, Dr. Thomas J., Sociology of a New York City Block, p. 95. ** Woods, Robert A., Americans in Process.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 89
concentrated time and attention on any one problem — betray the "Latinity" of this group.
While no adequate statistical proof exists from which to determine the distribution for all types of disposi- tions for all nationalities that are most prevalent, com- mon observation assures us that instigative dispositions are more numerous than the "aggressive" and much more numerous than the "domineering" while relatively few dispositions are "creative."* In noting these indi- viduals of the "tenement" class as instigative in dispo- sition we see that they conform to the type of disposi- tion that is most prevalent for all races.
We find also that theirs is a type of character that employs "temptation" and "persuasion" as a means of ac- complishing its end. The dispositions of this "tene- ment" population are made to follow along indirect ra- ther than direct channels. There is always some "dou- ble-crossing" (to use their own expression) going on among these people. The native suspicion of the mem- bers of this class makes this a widely used thing.
COOPERATION— These people all have the Italian language as a background for their linguistic inheritance. But it is not that liquid and musical Italian of which we read; instead it is a blend or jargon of dialects under- stood only by the group of families that came from the same district in Italy. Cooperation for the adult is lim- ited to these similarly speaking Italians ; for the younger generation it is limited by the objective conditions that obtain. The generally cooperative nature of the Amer- ican of Italian extraction is shown by the numerous so- cial, educational and political interests that he always has in hand. Subjective conditions of cooperation are determined by type of mind, of disposition and of char- acter. Because the mental type of this class of indi- viduals is largely "ideo-emotional" we have a coopera- tion evidenced that is largely based upon action swiftly and even superficially sympathetic. All the forms of ac- tivity indulged in show simple action and lots of it whether it is a picnic or a dance. Giddings found an
* Giddings, F. H., Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 210.
90 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
overwhelming majority of the American people to be of the "ideo-emotional" and "dogmatic-emotional" type. His words on this point are "the general conclusion that the mental mode of the American people as a whole is 'ideo-emotional' to 'dogmatic-emotional' may probably be accepted as established."* In this instance therefore and so far as mental modes are concerned our American of Italian origin is not very different from the native stock.
The group of organizations with memberships of in- dividuals falling within this category among Italian speaking Americans affords many instances of the char- acter of their cooperation ; and because their Latin ap- preciation is relatively high the result is that the coop- erative activities entered into fall along instinctive as well as along sympathetic lines. There is no doubt that in every organization effected on the East Side the indi- viduals comprising it are foremost of all else conscious of their group integrity and deliberately seek to follow out lines of cooperation that will strengthen the instinc- tive basis upon which they are organized.
When the Italian has lived here long enough to no longer resist the assimilating influences of environment, this instinctive character or basis of their forms of co- operation will be changed, but not before. Dr. Jones says "tenement dwellers see many sights and hear many sounds and are influenced by many people every day of their lives. But each day the stimuli are the same, in Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn and the people they meet are very much the same as those to whom they are accustomed. There is little time for individual improvement and so while the elements composing these people are immeasurably different in character and in mind, assimilation is inevitable. Appreciation of one another will increase ; inter-marriage and blending of characteristics will follow and similarity of behaviour will be greater. The Italian will be less impulsive in his responses."** When this occurs, probably not until
* Psychological Review, Vol. 8, No. 4, July 1901, pp. 337-349. ** Jones, Dr. Thomas J., Sociology of a New York City Block, p. 40.
TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 91
the third generation, a radical modification of this in- stinctive basis for the forms of social organization of this type will be in order.
Because such groups of this "tenement" type of peo- ple are limited in membership to those who come from the same district or neighborhood and are easily access- ible one to another, intercommunication is easy, contacts are frequent and both these serve to strengthen the sub- jective conditions of cooperation. Frequent contacts af- ford the widest opportunity for intimate associations but as Jones has intimated, only with those of a relatively like kind. It is not surprising therefore to find the "esprit de corps" among such groups remarkably te- nacious. Concrete instances of collective behaviour are numerous. At practically all bazaars, entertainments, and benefits of an extra-local nature where the call is made on the basis of their common Italian ancestry these individuals are enlisted with enthusiasm. Such affairs are numerous. Some of those of recent date are the McDougal Alley Festa, Italian Allied Bazaar at the Grand Central Palace for the relief of Italian Reservists, the Italian Village, New York Public Library (auspices of Italian Ambassador), Italy Day (June 24th), the An- nual Benefit for the Italian Hospital, etc. It is this dis- play of the cooperative spirit within the group that largely makes possible the continuity of such affairs. One could very easily add numerous other instances to show how definite and real are the bonds between such individuals that make for cooperation.
The "tenement" type of Italian speaking American, it is true often contributes to affairs as have been men- tioned without any very great understanding of their real nature ; but this is because he is able to discern one of his own kind or of a relatively like kind very readily. As a rule his Italian nature is apt to view with distrust advances made by strangers. Possible friends are greeted with a cordiality that depends not so inuch upon any reflective sympathy as it is due to the spon- taneity of their effervescent natures.
This is to say that their consciousness of kind is in- tensive in feeling but narrowly grooved. It does not
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allow for the breadth and latitude discernible in the wholly tolerant and always *'open mind" which devel- ops only from extensive reading, varied intercourse, in- tercommunication and wide travel. Let the intense Ital- ian nature once get "set" and it becomes intolerant of doubt, impatient with hesitation and scornful of weak- ness in others. In eighty-six families within the Italian block studied by Jones, instinctive responses of this type of mind to set stimuli were found to be the pre- dominant method of appreciation and in 93 cases were judged to be an important subordinate method.*
Americans of Italian extraction of this class desire and feel afifection ; desire and expect sympathy ; experi- ence penetratingly the desire to be recognized and ap- preciated; are acutely conscious of resemblances — but their environment and associations do not operate to give them the mellowness and sanity of balance in these things as come only with varied intercourse and associa- tions, communication, quiet time for reflection, leisure, deliberation, opportunities for exercising options and the exercise for independent judgment on matters of finan- cial and social import. These aspects of development are pitifully circumscribed in their cases, by the fact that many of these opportunities are the reflection of a cer- tain economic freedom and relatively higher social plane of living than is that with which they are familiar or that their circumstances permit them to enjoy. Further- more, the environment of the East Side and of the other colonies where there are Italians, acts as an effective damper upon any excessive and sustained idealism and, incubus-like, clots out any such effort.
PLEASURES — Pleasures of this type, as has been said, are largely of a motor and sensory kind and in no way greatly different from the pleasures of the ''tene- ment" types of the various nationalities that one readily meets in a tour thruout the slum sections. One meets with the usual round of socials, dances, picnics, parlor and athletic games. Music is always made most of and individual performances by persons of superior talent
* vide Jones, Thomas J., Sociology of a New York City Block, p. 52 seq.
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the writer has found more numerous among these peo- ple than among the American of Jewish, Irish or Ger- man extraction. Cards are a close second and the game invariably is attended with betting.
Pleasures of emotional ideation include religious ac- tivities. One notes that interests along these lines are not up to par, in many cases not even extending to at- tendance of religious services. Belonging to a church, with many, is a mere verbal adherence to its traditions. Little if any original thinking is done. Some outward manifestations such as church going, wearing amulets, charms, and lighting candles in the homes are practised but all this is indicative of the adult's prerogative. If it means anything to the youth it is a sapless acquies- cence to what is feared rather than what is understood. They say and feel themselves to be living in the present and in their thinking what is not in the present is not at all.
With regard to his pleasures of inductive ideation the case is more hopeful. Practically all read, for all have had a smattering of public school education, some even having- finished the elementary course. It would be difficult to say what constitutes the back-bone of read- ing for this type. Topics run thru the whole field of choices and are both well chosen and persisted in. News- papers and magazines are commonly read. Of news- papers perhaps the Journal is the most read and more widely known than any other. This group character- ized as the "tenement" type is the most common type of mind among the Americans of Italian extraction in New York City and more than quadruples the "critical- intellectual" type of mind existing among the profes- sional class.
TYPE OF MIND — Already several investigations have been made each attempting to determine the most preva- lent type of mind characterizing the "tenement" type of the Italian portion of this city's population. All agree that the "ideo-emotional" type is the most common. Douglas* in specifically describing six representative in-
* Douglas, David W., Influence of the Southern Italian on American Society (Columbia Univ. Studies in Sociology).
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dividuals by character sketches, points out that they are representative of the entire population so situated. Like- wise Haynes** in the group described by him, again using the method of individual character sketches, in eight out of ten specific instances points to this ideo- emotional tone as indicative of the entire "tenement" portion of Italian speaking Americans. Jones'f findings are in like accord. Elsewhere the present author^ has used the same method, employed by these writers, and describing minutely the individual characteristics and personal traits of over a dozen individuals of this class, pointed out the "ideo-emotional" nature of their mental modes. It seems fairly well established therefore that this is the most prevalent type of mind in the Italian quarters of this city.
It would not however be without profit if we inserted here just one such character sketch, typical of this type, as it is pictured by one not of a like racial strain. Bryce
Haynes says of A .
"We have no difficulty in classifying A as dis- tinctively of a pleasure-loving, convivial type of character and of an instigative disposition. His motor reaction is rather slow and continuity of thought decidedly intermittent. The kind of move- ment may most properly be described as semi- voluntary; his emotions as weak and temperament as sanguine. His formation of belief or judgment may be classed as objective and his mode of reason- ing as imaginative (analogical). His motives of appreciation are clearly pleasures of sense, idea and emotion and his wide interest would cause his method of appreciation to be called 'curious inspec- tion.' While his degree of appreciation is high, his motives of utilization are clearly appetitive or craving for pleasures and the method that of insti-
** Haynes. Bryce, Some Italian Types of Mind (Columbia University Studies).
t Jones, Thomas J., Sociology of a New York City Block (Columbia University Studies).
t Mariano, John H,, A Sociological Study of Certain Italian- Americans. (Columbia Univ. Studies in Sociology).
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gation. Motives of characterization may most properly be classed as new desires while accommo- dation fittingly describes the method. Comparing the above with the description of the ideo-emo-
tional type of mind we find that A is a typical
example."* Naturally with such individuals we find that motor impulses are high and strong; instincts are saturated with varying emotions, the gay predominating. In sym- pathy the American of Italian extraction of this class is quick to respond but the reactions tend to be instable as often as they are stable. An overwhelming exuberance regarding a new undertaking is frequently apt to meet with a quiet death through as rapid a disinterestedness. The American of Italian extraction is rich in imagina- tion, again speaking for this type only, with greater than the pro rata decrease in creative intellect that often corresponds. Ideas are abundant but tend to be loosely org'anized and so lack much of that strong centralizing bond that is needed to harness them and render them fit to be put into execution. But much that is depreca- tory in this respect is subject to some discounting by virtue of the fact that excellency in these is a reflection of exposure to systematized instruction and maturity in years neither of which factors are of paramount im- portance in considering this American of the "tenement" class.
The American of Italian extraction as we find him here is quick to respond to any stimulus but such prompt- ness is often at the expense of persistency. Such reac- tions are apt to be as involuntary as they are voluntary. Reactions are followed frequently by discussions setting forth good reasons why a particular enterprise should be supported giving the whole affair an air of concerted volition supplemented by rational, intellective motives and by logical rather than by analogical reasons. But this again is apt to be more external than internal. Dr. Jones believes from this that "the manner and intensity of response to stimulus is quick but irregular. Often
Haynes, Bryce — "Some Italian Types of Mind."
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it seems out of proportion to the stimulus in kind or in intensity — likewise can be noted the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race in the close correspondence of stim- ulus to response."* This last deduction may be "rela- tively" but not "absolutely" true. One must raise the question, not "Does the American of Italian extraction gesticulate more?" but "Does he reason less?" An an- swer to this question is still forth-coming from the gen- etic and social psychologists. We leave this type of American therefore with the feeling that his greatest need is "direction."
* Jones, Dr. Thomas J. — "Sociology of a New York City Block/' p. 28.
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CHAPTER XII
THE TRADE OR BUSINESS TYPE
(A DOGMATIC-EMOTIONAL TYPE)
BACKGROUND — As was said earlier there is no absolute way of measuring quantitively innate differ- ences of type. Everything therefore must be relative. All the individuals in one category are found at times acting in ways more or less used to distinguish a dif- ferent type.
The Americans of Italian extraction described here as constituting the "trade or business" type are not the adult Italians in New York City who are in busi- ness today. Such individuals for the most part are products of a different environment and social organiza- tion. The numerous businesses trafficking in wines, li- quors, oils, macaroni, cheeses, groceries, fruits and other Italian products are for the most part conducted by Italians or (Americans now) who were not born in this country and such as a class fall outside this study. What we are describing here is a type of American of Italian blood who has been since his early years engaged for the most part in subordinate positions in different American industries of all descriptions, offices, factories and other commercial enterprises.
These Americans of the "trade" or "business" type are so-called because to all obvious appearances the main activity which admits of observance is that con- cerned with the work which brings in their weekly wages, in other words, their vocation. The matter of temperament however is just as important and must not be overlooked.
It seems that such individuals are less susceptible to American methods, ways of thinking and of doing things. Their membership is largely recruited from individuals representing the 10.4% portion of Italian immigration that came here before thejr fourteenth birthday. Their "Italianism" hangs with them too long for them to be
98 THE ITALIAN CONTRIBUTION
permitted an early start into American life. If a house to house canvass of this type were possible it would be found that a less proportion of these are voters than is true of any of the other classes. For instance the Ital- ian banks, benefit societies, fraternities and newspaper hold little or no attraction whatsoever to any of Italian extraction belonging to the tenement, college, or pro- fessional types, but to the American of Italian extrac- tion of the "trade" or "business" type the opposite holds true and one-third of them support such institutions in some way or other.
Such individuals reflect also a larger share of suscep- tibility to home culture. They are not likely to go to work as office boys as do the "tenement" or settlement types, or as clerks in American industries and business houses downtown, or as clerks for the U. S. Postal Service or even as truckmen. Instead they flock to the shops and factories performing mechanical work or work such as tailoring, cloth sponging, cigar-making, etc., where a knowledge of the English language is least necessary. It is from this group that the adult immi- grant institutions derive all of the little flow of the younger generation they have to swell their ranks.
The physical background for the "trade" type is the same as that of the previous type with the dif