■ , === THE SOCIAL SCIENCE PAMPHLETS ESSENTIALS IN GEOGRAPHY — HISTORY — CIVICS BY HAROLD RUGG EARLE RUGG EMMA SCHWEPPE OF THE LINCOLN SCHOOL OF TEACHERS COLLEGE AN EXPERIMENTAL EDITION Of Pamphlet No. 1 of Volume I: The Seventh Grade Series AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Who They Are Where They Come From Why They Come Why They Came in the Past How They Are Received What They Do Here How They Become Americans This edition is published by the authors for cooperative experimentation in schools with which arrangements are made. It is not for general commercial distribution. u. 0F!U MR. 1'-1L *1 53 Copyright, 1922, by Harold Rugg, Earle Rugg, and Emma Schweppe. The reproduction of these materials is expressly prohibited. T HIS is one of The Social Science Pamphlets for the school grades Seven, Eight, and Nine. Although these Pamphlets are not a perfected curriculum, it is necessary that they be printed at this time in order to determine experimentally their reorganization. Thl^&iie$t fihat they represent has been taught in mimeographed form in three grades of The Lincoln School of Teachers Col- lege, 1920-1922. For two years and a half the authors have also carried on curriculum investigations seeking to validate the content of this social science course. The present status of these studies justifies the printing of a trial edition. The purpose of the trial edition is to deter- mine by measured experimentation the grade placement and teaching arrangement of the material. As a result of their cooperative use in public schools, 1922-1923, The Social Science Pamphlets will be completely revised and issued in another experimental edition for use in cooper- ating schools, 1923-1924. A series of monographs will be published to accom- pany this curriculum which will report the research by which the materials have been selected and organized. America and Her Immigrants is Pamphlet No. 1 of Vol. I, the Seventh Grade Series, in a complete Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Grade curriculum in geography, his- tory, and civics. Five or six pamphlets will be issued for each grade. They will deal with the following aspects of American life, presenting essential contemporary matters together with needed historical background and geo- graphic conditions and explanations: I. Immigration and Americanization. II. Conserving Onr Natural Resources. III. Industry, Business, and Transportation. IV. Schools, the Press, Public Opinion. V. The American City and Its Problems. VI. The Culture of America and of Other Lands. VII. Problems of Government in a Representative Democracy. • VI II. Primitive Peoples, Past and Present. IX. America and World Affairs. The authors need cooperation and criticism from pub- lic schools. They will welcome inquiries and suggestions about this experimental work. Address all inquiries to : Harold Rugg, The Lincoln School, 425 "West 123rd Street, New York, N. Y. AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Pamphlet No. 1, of Volume I, Seventh Grade Series Si V a v o r* T HOSE who are engaged in the making of these materials of instruction believe that the future of representative democracy in America depends upon the intelligence of the common man. They believe that the known facts of intel- ligence are worthy of the hypothesis that there is in the group mind sufficient capacity to express its will effectively through industrial, social, and political machinery. This means that potential capacity must be transformed into dynamic ability. They are equally confident that, although America has practised universal education on a scale never before attempted by a large nation, our instruction has fallen far short of preparing the rank and file for the intelligent operation of democratic government. After more than a century of democracy, there are signs of serious import that we are facing a near impasse in citizen- ship. The impasse, if such it is, is undoubtedly the natural outgrowth of our spectacular conquest of vast material wealth; of our reception into the country of thirty- three millions of people of diverse races, nationalities, practices, and beliefs, and of the massing of human beings in cities at a rate of which we had hitherto not dreamed. The present crisis has been brought about in large part by the mushroom growth of a fragile and highly specialized mechanism of industry, transportation, com- munication, and credit. With these stupendous material ad- vances, resulting in the artificial inflation of our economic and social standards of living, there has not been a parallel aesthetic, spiritual, and cultural growth. To relieve this impasse, we must substitute critical judg- ment for impulsive response as the basis for deciding our social and political issues. The thoroughgoing reconstruction of the school curriculum is a necessary first step in the process, for the reason that the public school is our most potent agency for social regeneration. Especially through the curriculum in the social sciences must we subject our youth to a daily regimen of deliberation and critical thought. Only those who have been trained through years of practise in the analysis of facts, in the making of decisions, the drawing of inferences and conclu- sions, will resort to intelligence instead of to predisposition as their guide for conduct. H. R. A SUGGESTED SCHEDULE OF LESSONS. To the Teacher: The study of this pamphlet should not take more than 32 school exercises if the remaining topics are to be distributed equitably over the remainder of the year. The following schedule is the one we shall try to follow. We suggest it to you. Feel free to adapt it as you like. You may wish to save time by omitting some sections. If more readings are needed for some pupils use the eighth and ninth grade pamphlets on this topic. You will notice the variety of work provided by these lessons : 1. The reading of little episodes of real human happenings; 2. The reading of long stories; 3. Making and studying varied types of maps and graphs; 4. Outside read- ings and individual pupil reports; 5. Frequent tests; 6. Constant note-taking; 7. Aswering thought questions about each topic; 8. Weaving history, geography and civics into natural relationships. Lesson No. 1. Read with the class and discuss the “Foreword to the Pupil.’ ’ Turn through the major topics of the entire pamphlet. We sug- gest that you read with the pupils the list of questions at the very end of the pamphlet: Important Questions You Should he Able to Talk About. 2. Read and discuss: What Is an American? Fifteen Million Americans of Today Were Not Born in America. Remainder of the hour to be spent in reading the story: How Carlo and His Family Came to America. Assign rest of story as home work. 3. Class discussion of the story : How Carlo and His Family Came to America. The long story gives the sweep of the entire immi- gration problem. 4. Further discussion of topography, climate, industries and customs in Italy. 5. Read and discuss: America the Country of Many Nationalities. 6. Read and discuss : What are the Differences in Nationality Be- tween the Old Countries and the New. 7. Study of episodes which illustrate: Why Immigrants Come to America Now. 8. Outside readings and pupil reports to class on: Why the Colon- ists Came to America, 1607-1750. 9 and 10. Two class exercises on testing and learning the location of European emigrant countries. 11. The Hundred Years Long Sweep of Immigration. SCHEDULE OF LESSONS 111 12. How the American People — Native and Immigrant — Took Over the Land of the West. 13. Why the Irish and the Germans Came, 1845-1855. 14. The American Viewpoint on immigration seventy years ago. 15. The Change from the “Old to the New” Immigration, 1890-1922. Who the Slaves are and Where They Live. 16. Exercise on the topography of countries, climate, industries and location of Slavic people; map study. 17. How the Slavs Live in Europe. 18. Map study : Ports of Europe from Which Emigrants Sail for America. 19 and 20. Map study : The Testing and Learning of European Cities. Map study : Railroads of Europe and America. 21. The Emigrant En Route for America. 22. The Gateways to America. Map study. 23. Map study: Testing and Learning the Port Cities of the United States. 24. The Immigrant’s First Sight of His New Country: How We Receive Him at Ellis Island. 25 and 26. Where the Immigrant Lives in the United States. Maps and episodes. 27. How the Immigrant Finds Ilis Job and the Conditions Under Which He Works. 28. How the Foreign-Born Live in America. 29. How We are Trying to Make Americans Out of Immigrants. 30. Summary : Important Questions About the American People You Should be Able to Talk About. 31. A final test on the work of the pamphlet. I. FOREWORD TO THE PUPIL SOCIAL STUDIES FOR THE SEVENTH GRADE GEOGRAPHY— HISTORY— CIVICS What the Seventh Grade Pamphlets Will Teach You. You are beginning a year’s study of interesting things about your own country and its people. You are going to learn who Americans are, where they have all come from, how they live in different parts of the United States, what kinds of work they do, and many other things about the people whose life is different from yours and from others of your town or city. The pamphlets you will read tell many true stories of real life which will surprise and interest you. They tell how people from all the other countries in the world have been coming to this country for many, many years, the important things that have happened to them, how they have become a part of our nation. Of course we are most interested in understanding what is going on today ; we want to know what troubles our country is hav- ing and what dangers we, as a people, are facing. But in order to understand these things, we need to know how our country grew to its present size. We need to know the important history of her great “polyglot” people, how they came here and why, how they settled the wilderness and the prairie, the mountainous uplands, and the broad fertile valleys between the two oceans — nearly three thou- sand miles from coast to coast. We want to see how they built great cities far apart from each other, and then tied them together with railroads, telephones and telegraph, Uncle Sam’s postal service, and how countless newspapers carry the news of one city to another from day to day. We want to know a great deal about the important industries of the country, about our schools, about our government, so that we will know how to be good citizens and how to help America solve her problems. We need to know some of the things that geography teaches, too — where certain cities and mountains and important rivers are, why cities grew at some places and not at others, why railroads are where they are, the reasons for locks in canal-building, why great ports have developed. You will study maps and charts and graphs, and learn to make them, and to talk about the influences that facts of geography have had upon our industries, upon the way our people live, and upon our dealings with other nations. In order that each of you shall truly understand what is going on today, and how things of the past have led up to things of the present, we shall have a good deal of practice in thinking over the various problems. The “good citizen” is, after all, the person who knows the FOREWORD TO THE PUPIL Y facts and has trained his mind so that he can think out his opinions from the facts. The good citizen does not let his prejudices decide things for him. So you have two important tasks before you in studying the Social Science Pamphlets: First, to master the big facts about how we live today in this world of ours, and how it came to be what it is ; second, to make sure that you have sufficient facts on both sides of any ques- tion, then to weigh those facts carefully before forming your opinion as to which side is right. There are many big problems today about which we can only have opinions; we can not be sure that one side is right and the other wrong, but the more we read and the more we think and study about them, the more apt we are to make right decisions. Our real task, then, is to try to master the facts and begin thinking about our problems. Read the questions at the close of this pamphlet and you will understand better what we mean. The lessons have been arranged with a view to giving you practice in thinking carefully and learning to make sound conclusions. In each lesson you should constantly be asking yourself such questions as these : 1. What are the true facts about this matter? 2. Have I all the facts I need? 3. Is there another side to the question that I have not considered ? 4. Are the facts I have read or been told probably reliable? Can I depend on them as being true? 5. Is there reason to believe that the people who gave the facts are prejudiced? 6. Which side of the question is supported by the most important facts ? In your work in the social studies you will also have frequent opportunity to practice writing and speaking off-hand about different questions. When you really know facts about a matter that the class is discussing, you should volunteer to answer; stand up and tell your ideas in as orderly a way as you can. We want to have a great deal of discussion and “class debate,’ ’ for in these lessons there are many lessons that have several sides to them and should be debated. Each day also you are expected to take notes on the important points that have been brought up in the lesson. Later we will give you some sug- gestions for note-taking. We hope you will become interested and want to read books and magazines that tell more about the things we take up in these lessons. You will find additional reading suggested at the end of this pamphlet, and your teacher will help you select the best things to read. Work out the answers to all the questions asked in the exercises and in other parts of the lessons. Among the things that will interest you most in the pamphlets are the true stories that are given. You must be sure with each one that you know the important point, it. VI AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS illustrates. Every map and graph and picture also means something, and you must be sure that you understand these, too. Study them carefully as you go along. Your Note-book. We suggest a loose-leaf note-book, large enough to take note-paper, size 8-J by 11 inches. Use the note-book for writing down your assign- ments, for jotting down important points that are brought out in class discussions, and for summaries of lessons. A short summary is to be made of each lesson. It should be dated and handed in to the teacher for approval. It is important to keep these summaries in the right order, according to dates — September 10, September 11, September 12, etc. The summary should be brief and definite; it should contain the important facts of the lesson. Keep all notes on paper of one size. Assignments. Reserve a special place in your note-book for assignments, and keep them in the order in which they are given. If you miss a day, leave a place for the assignment, and put it in the next day. Write down the assignment exactly, with all directions as to what to do, things to look up, and questions. Date each one, giving the day of the month — September 10, September 11, September 12, etc. If you are absent, be sure to find out the assignment you miss, and make it up in a manner approved by your teacher. How to Use These Pamphlets. Suggestions for Class Preparation. 1. Read the lesson through rapidly, not stopping to think out the answers to the questions. This first view will enable you to see what the lesson is about. 2. Read the lesson through again, this time carefully, working out all the exercises and answering all the questions. Study each figure, whether it be map, chart, graph, or picture, and answer all the test questions that are asked. 3. Put your pamphlet out of sight. Try to recall the important facts discussed in the lesson. 4. Open your pamphlet to the lesson again, and glance over it rapidly. See how many of the important points you forgot. 5. Repeat Nos. 3 and 4 until you are sure you have all the important facts in mind. 6. Place in a special section in your note-book, separate from the section in which you take your class notes : a. Any questions you want to ask. FOREWORD TO THE PUPIL vii b. Any points that are not clear to you. . — — c. Additional illustrations of the lesson that you are able to find. — d. Your summaries and outlines. 7. Read over the summary that you have made in your note-book as a brief review of the lesson just before the class begins. Directions Concerning Class Discussion. 1. Always have your note-book at the class recitation. 2. At the beginning of class each day, place on the teacher’s desk any outline, graph, map, or summary that your lesson for that day’s work directs you to have ready. Such exercises of the previous day will be returned to you. Keep these all together in the order in which you do them. 3. Be prepared to do from the notes you have made, any black- board work — maps, charts, or outlines — that is called for. 4. Be ready to summarize any part of the work, either in review or the lesson for the day. 5. Make sure that questions and exercises that you do not clearly understand are explained in class. 6. You should be always ready to take a test on work that has been completed. How to Review. 1. Frequent review is essential to an understanding of the mate- rial in the pamphlet. You cannot expect to remember all of the facts and conclusions you learn day by day. You must therefore make a practice of selecting the important facts and conclusions of each day’s lesson and making summaries of them. Ask yourself such questions as these: a. What important fact does this lesson bring out ? b. How is it related to previous lessons? c. What conclusions are to be drawn from this page, or from this lesson ? d. What problem grows out of the facts of this lesson? 2. Read over your summary of the previous day’s work before beginning to study the new lesson. Once a week review the principal facts and conclusions of the week’s work. 3. Tests covering each pamphlet will be sent to the teachers to be given to the pupils at the completion of the pamphlet, and also a test to cover the entire term’s work. Use these directions for studying and for reviewing the entire course to make sure that you have mastered the important material. Vlll AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Summary Chart of the Course. One of the important steps in the year’s work is for each pupil to make a large chart on which the important facts of each pamphlet may be summarized. This chart is to be begun as soon as one pamphlet is finished. Large manila sheets 24 x 36 inches may well be used. Each sheet is to be divided into six columns of equal width, and in each column the pupil writes the principal points of each pamphlet. At the close of the year, and of the last pamphlet, the chart should show all the very important facts and conclusions that you have covered in the seventh grade. The pamphlets will be on the following subjects: Immigration; Conservation of Natural Resources; American Indus- tries and Business; Education and Our Schools; The American City; The Culture of Our People and Those of Other Lands; The American FOREWORD TO COOPERATING TEACHERS THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CURRICULUM IN GEOGRAPHY- HISTORY— CIVICS NEW FEATURES IN CURRICULUM MATERIALS You will notice, as you study the materials of these pamphlets, certain new features of curriculum construction. These will be dis- cussed in a series of articles during 1922-23 and will be treated more fully in the social science monographs. Briefly noted they are : First: We are attempting to determine by scientific methods what ought to be taught to junior high school pupils in geography, history and civics. We believe that curriculum materials in the social sciences can be and ought to be validated ; so we are endeavoring to substitute for the present a priori opinion of individual text-book makers careful objective analyses of what should be taught. Our curriculum as it appears in these pamphlets is based upon a list of some 300 problems and issues of contemporary life. The present statement of these prob- lems has been prepared from the careful reading and tabulation of some 150 books which deal with contemporary and historical matters in the fields of immigration and population, industry and economics, government, community and national life and world affairs. The pres- ent list of problems has been written and revised several times. The scientific studies underlying our curriculum will be reported in a separate series of social science monographs. The first will appear some time in 1923. Teachers may rest assured that the content of the course in its permanent form will be carefully validated. In the meantime practically all of the topics of this experimental edition have been included in the course because they are demanded by our investi- gations. Their inclusion or rejection is but little determined by our judgment. This method of curriculum making has resulted in the inclusion of a wealth of material which has not previously been taught to pupils in public school courses. Yet the mastery of this material is necessary if our youth are to help America solve intelligently her crucial problems of assimilation of diverse peoples. Second: A wealth of reading material is employed which deals largely with rich human episodes. This is in distinction from the present practice of making school books mere compilations of brief “texts.” We hope that the episode — the true story — will become a definitely accepted vehicle of instruction in our intermediate and high schools as well as in the primary school. Third: Needed facts — minimum essentials — are taught in two ways — first, by incorporating the facts into the body of a story (fre- quently a long original story) to secure the impressive, effect of an X AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS “interest drive”; second, through definite, concise, orderly testing and drill exercises. You will notice the way in which the principles of contemporary dynamic psychology are applied, for example, in the economical and systematic “place location” drills. Fourth: Historical backgrounds are taught by means of sharp contrasts between what life is today and what it was at some partic- ular time in the past. That is the hypothesis on which we wish to experiment next year. Of course historical perspectives are to be taught chronologically ; common sense demands sequence. We believe that the issue over the teaching of historical sequence is not the “chronological vs. the psychological” as it has so frequently been stated. The issue is': How much of the detail is to be given at any one time. We believe very little filling in should be done in the lower grades between tfie periods which are sharply contrasted with the present. Make history move rapidly in the lower grades, somewhat more slowly (that is, filling in more of the gaps) in the high school — is our principle. You will find scores of illustrations of the use of this hypothesis in these pamphlets. Fifth: We are attempting to supply a real need by constructing a continuous curriculum — each year reasonably complete in itself, yet growing gradually and naturally into succeeding ones. Eventually we hope to propose to public schools a completely graded curriculum from the primary grades through the high school. At the present time we are experimenting only with a continuous course for the seventh, eighth and ninth school grades. During the school year 1922-23 many of the same materials will be taught in three successive grades. Results will be tested so that sound evidence should be at hand to help deter- mine the proper grading of social science material. At the present time materials have been graded as a result of our two years of trial of them in three grades in the Lincoln School of Teachers College. The present organization is, frankly, very tentative and we want your searching criticism of grade placement and teaching organization. Sixth: Activities for the pupils, exercises and questions are dis- tributed through the body of the lessons at the place where we are reasonably sure the pupil will have a felt need for them; not at the end, where they will be ignored or not used at proper times. Our principal endeavor has been to set questions and activities in such a form as to compel pupils to form conclusions from situations which have been presented to them in great detail. Study how this is done in the cases where we have the pupils read several episodes at one sitting, following this by a series of thought questions. To answer these the pupil will be forced to deliberate. We have also employed two economical types of test, now fast coming into use: “selecting best reasons” and the “completion exercise.” These will stimulate FOREWORD TO COOPERATING TEACHERS XI pupils to draw conclusions from the study of important facts and principles. Seventh: Every effort has been made to present ideas graphically. It is effective and it is economical. Study carefully how the graphs and charts bring out important causal relations. Furthermore, the data of a given problem should be presented on the graph. We are trying to do that in these pamphlets. In addition to the foregoing principles, we believe the class work shall be frequently initiated by, and organized about, pupils’ activities — excursions and surveys of the community, independent reading and report, debating, use of school organizations, use of pupils’ activities in other school subjects, etc. Through your use of this experimental edition, we hope to obtain suggestions of how such activities may best be included and organized into the body of the material. Throughout the year’s work the class should be kept keenly aware of the supplementary and illustrative material which can be found in current magazines and newspapers. Opportunity should be given frequently for individual pupils to make reports to the class on the reading of such material. If possible secure the cooperation of the English department in stimulating pupils to read books in the supplementary reading lists or other books in the field with which you or your colleagues are familiar. Lack of space prevents us from printing much material from these books that is important, interesting and suitable for pupils in the junior high schools. Your cooperation in following up the study helps is earnestly solicited. Our experience demonstrates their value. We would also suggest that you provide yourself with copies of the pamphlets for the other two junior high school grades. Each pamphlet will constantly refer to the lessons designed for the other two grades. It will increase the effectiveness of your work to have your school library supplied with copies of these other pamphhlets, so that you can send pupils to them for reports and supplementary reading. HOW THE PAMPHLETS MAY BE USED. These pamphlets may be used in several ways. First: we need many teachers to cooperate with us rather closely, so that we may revise each pamphlet in accordance with the suggestions they make after having taught the material to their pupils. If you are willing to help us in this way we will send you at intervals a question-blank in which we will ask specific questions about each unit of material. If you will answer these and return the blanks to us it will aid us very much. You can help us most, however, by making notes on an extra copy of the pamphlet you are teaching. We have sent each cooperating AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS xii school one extra copy to be used in this way. What we need most is a detailed criticism of the content and organization of the pamphlets. The easiest way for you to give these criticisms, we think, would be to write them on the margins of the pamphlets or on attached pages. If you can do this we shall appreciate it very much indeed. Second: If you and your colleagues wish to experiment with the material yourselves we are glad to help you. For example, it would be an interesting experiment to teach the course set forth in these pamph- lets in one or more classes in your school system and to teach the con- ventional geography and history course in other classes, both classes to be taught under carefully controlled conditions. We will be glad to furnish without charge tests of socially-worthwhile geography, his- tory and civics. With these tests you can compare the two types of course. Third: If conditions are such that you cannot depart from the regular geography and history course these pamphlets may be used as supplementary readings. They will be supplied for this purpose only when cooperators expressly agree to give us criticisms of the materials. Finally, it is our hope that, no matter which method you wish to follow, you will write us frequently making criticism of the materials and suggestions for their improvement. The pamphlets are sold at cost and are sent only to teachers and administrators who will give us the benefit of their criticism. I. WHAT IS AN AMERICAN ? Can you tell an American by his appearance f These people are called Americans. Two of them were born in Europe ; one of them was born of Polish parents in this country. The forefathers of the other two came to America over a hundred years ago. They are all Americans now. They work together ; they go to the same theatres and amusement parks; they live in much the same way. Their children go to school together and play together. (These pictures by Lewis W. Hine, from Orth: “Our Foreigners," by permission of Vale University Press.) 2 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS One of these men was born of Slavic parents, one of Italian, one of American, one of Polish, and one of English parents. Can you tell from the pictures which of these was born of American parents ? The answer is given in the footnote on page 2. Compare your answer with it. One day some people walking in the Italian quarter of New York City overheard a quarrel going on inside one of the houses. They stopped a moment to listen. A woman was scolding a little boy, and a man, probably the father, was taking the child's part. They heard the mother say in very strong Tuscan : “You shall speak Italian and nothing else, if I beat you; for what will your grandmother say when you go back to the old country, if you talk this pig ’s English ? ’ ’ “Aw gwan! Youse tink I’m goin’ to talk dago ’n be called a guinea ! Not on your life. I ’m ’n American, I am, and I want you to understand it.” The mother evidently understood well enough, for she poured forth a torrent of Italian full of strange, misplaced American oaths. Then the father ended matters by saying in mixed Italian and English : “Keep still, both of you. I wish I spoke English like the chil- dren do.”* What do you think? Is the boy an American? Evidently he thinks he is. The father wants to be known as an American, too, and is ashamed of his broken and imperfect English. What are the ways you can tell that a person is American? What are some of the differences between an American and an Englishman, Frenchman, Scandinavian, German, Slav? Do you think the differences are in the shape of the face, the color of the hair and eyes? Or are the differences in their clothing? Do we know that they are not native Americans, by their curious fashions that so often appear quite outlandish to us? Is it their customs, per- haps, — what they eat, the kinds of work they do, the way they spend their holidays, the way they amuse themselves? Is it in the rude thatch huts in which the peasants and cottagers live, in sharp con- trast to our wooden and brick buildings, that we see the differences? What about the language they use? Do some of their phrases mark them as of foreign birth? What about the heroes they look up to, •Adapted from Brandenburg, B. : “Imported Americans,” pp. 19-20. Of the pictures on page 1, No. 1 was born of English parents; No 2 of Italian; No. 3 of American; No. 4 of Slovak; No. 5 of Polish parents. Did you guess them correctly? WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? 3 and the poetry they love? Just what are the differences between peo- ple who are born here, those whose parents are born here, and those who come from other lands ? What are the likenesses ? This is one of the first subjects we are going to take up in the geography-history class. FIFTEEN MILLION “AMERICANS” OF TODAY WERE NOT BORN IN AMERICA. America is unlike every old-world country in one respect: it is peopled by millions of inhabitants of more than a score of nationalities and races. In this same respect it is probably unlike what any other country has been at any time in the entire history of the world. Some of the newer countries, Brazil, Argentina and Australia, resemble America in being composed of many nationalities. Fig. 1 tells the story in an interesting w T ay. (Literary Digest, May 7, 1921.) Fig. 1 What conclusions do you draw from this picture? What does the height of each man tell? From what country have the largest number of our foreign-born come? W'HAT DO YOU WISH TO KNOW ABOUT OUR “FOREIGN- BORN”: — WHY SO MANY COME TO AMERICA? What does the picture make you curious about? Does it make you wonder why five million Slavs live here instead of in Europe? One and a half million Germans ? A million and a half Italians ? Can there be something about the way they live in Italy, or in Poland, or in Russia, that causes the European peasant to uproot all his home ties and to bring his family over here to a strange land, thousands of miles away? Do they earn as much money as we do? Do they have enough to eat? Have they comfortable houses to live in? Perhaps their gov- ernments are harsh to them — it may be there is not as much freedom as here. (For in many countries they still have kings and emperors 4 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS and petty princes and stern rulers governing the people. Did you know that?) Perhaps they come here because America is not con- stantly fighting terrible wars, as European countries are. Do you suppose some of them come because they want to avoid spending several of their best years in the army? Perhaps what they have heard about America from relatives and friends who were already here has made them want to come. These reasons have all been suggested to explain the coming of hordes of Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavians, Italians, Germans, Poles, Slavs, Russians, and other nationalities. Here is a story which tells what two travelers actually saw on a trip to Italy and back, about twenty years ago. It helps us to under- stand our immigrant peoples, for, although it is about the Italians chiefly, the life and conditions it describes are fairly typical of most of the southern and eastern Europeans ; and their reasons for wanting to come to America are the same. You will be given about thirty minutes to read the story. As you read, try to keep in mind the following questions so that you will be able to answer them when you have finished. The answers can be found in the story. To the Teacher: It would be best to have the pupils read the entire story at one sitting. There probably will be in- sufficient time to do this at the second class exercise. We suggest that you let each pupil read as far as he can in class and assign as home-work for the next ex^ ercise the reading of the remainder of the story. At the next class exercise discuss the story, using such general questions as those given herewith. DO NOT EXPECT DETAILS IN THE ANSWERS. The story has been written to give the children a broad view of the whole immigration problem. The episodes which come later, cover the various aspects more fully. In addition to a general feeling for the sub- ject of immigration, it supplies part of the basic geography work for the seventh grade. QUESTIONS THAT THE NEXT STORY HELPS TO ANSWER. WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED READING IT, WRITE THE ANSWERS IN YOUR NOTE -BOOK. 1. Give five reasons why Italians come to America to live. Which do you think is the reason that the greatest number come? 2. Do you think these Italians will make good Americans ? Why ? 3. What are the important differences between the way Italians live and the way native Americans live ? WHAT IS AN AMERICAN? 5 4. If you had control over immigrant steamship lines, what changes would you make in the 1 ‘ steerage ” ? 5. What does the Italian government think about thousands of its people coming to America? What should it do to insure better treatment on the way, of those who come? 6. Do you feel that the Italians who come over here will become a real part of America? Are there things that they can teach us as well as things that we can teach them? Explain your answer. II. HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA One morning when I was out in the garden of a big estate where I was spending the summer, one of the numerous workmen about the place, an Italian who was trimming the hedge nearby, ventured timidly to ask if I would like some flowers before he sprinkled them. He was so gracious and smiling, so shy and foreign, that I asked him a question or two, and then to encourage him to talk I told him my friend was writing a book in which there was an Italian character. He was greatly interested, and wanted to know if I “like Italian.” A slim little fellow he was, as limber and light-footed as though he had neither bones nor weight ; his soft blue shirt was open at the neck and his sleeves rolled to the elbow. He wore khaki-colored trousers that were puckered into a waistline by a leather belt, and his bright eyes and lively gestures seemed to say as much as his voice. He had been in this country a little over six years, he said, and was going back in September for his father, mother, brothers, and sisters. “I might get married, too,” he confided in his broken way, “but I doan know. I had nice girl in Italie who I luv mootch, but after I came way dis countree she marry somebody else who treat her bad, and she not wait for me like I tole her. But I luv her and I might bring her here because man gone away.” When he found he had a listener he became eager to talk, and said the story of his life would make a fine book. He told me that he had a father, a mother, four brothers, and two sisters in Italy, and a brother also in America but he didn’t know where. He “look for him all time,” he said, but “never find him since we get separated at Ellis Island. ’ ’ I saw at once that the little man was exactly the person I had been looking for, and without letting him know how excited I was over making his acquaintance, I hurried into the house and called upstairs to anyone who might be there, that I had found my companion for Italy ! “What,” cried my mother, “not the little fellow I just saw you talking to doAvn in the garden ! ’ ’ “Yes, yes,” I said, “he’s going back for his family, a large one, this summer, and I’m going too and travel back with them as an Italian immigrant.” “Splendid,” came my sister’s voice. “I’ve been watching that little chap ; his name is Carlo. He ’s the best worker of the lot, and very well-mannered.” ‘ ‘ Oh, but you cannot think of traveling steerage ; that is impos- sible, my dear, and you must get it out of your head at once.” Mother was hastening downstairs in great anxiety. “Just the thing!” called my brother from below. “I’ll lend you a red bandanna to wear on your head when you’re going by the HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 7 embarkation office. But be sure to bring it back safely so I can show my children what their aunt wore when she came over from the old country.” “ Don’t encourage her so, Rob,” put in my sister as she joined the assembling family. Poor mother could find no amusement in the idea, for she knew I was serious in my plan, and that what I had been waiting for was just such an opportunity as now offered. To think of a passage across the ocean in steerage was nothing less than horrifying to her. A few days later my mother and I went in to the Grand Central Station in New York to meet my father, who was returning from a short Western trip. Like most elderly people, my mother always wanted to start for places “plenty early,” so we arrived at the sta- tion fully a half hour before the train was due. While we were walk- ing around to pass the time, a gate near us was suddenly thrown open for a crowd to come through. It was headed by a short, fat, pros- perous-seeming man, speaking Italian in one sentence and English in the next so fast and so loud that his words nearly toppled over each other; and he swung his fat-headed umbrella as though he were lead- ing Sousa’s band. Instead of an orderly file of brass-buttoned bri- gaders which one might reasonably have expected from his haughty air, the little company which followed him were thirty haggard and forlorn immigrants just arrived from Europe, with heavy luggage heaped upon their backs, and large awkward bundles half dragging along the floor with their feet. Their faces were tired and drawn, their eyes dull and unseeing; even the children looked cheerless. In the most dejected way, they trundled through the gate after their leader, while an officer in rough manner counted them off, tagged them, and passed them through to a second gate to board another train. My mother was much affected by the sight. “Poor tired things,” she said, “you’d think they were some sort of animals with that ugly person for a swineherd. I expect they were sorry they started before they ever got this far.” “But they’ll get over their tiredness, mother,” I said, “and just think of the opportunities they’ll have here that they would never have in their own country ! Some of them will probably be what they call rich in a short time, and perhaps some of them even w T hat we call rich.” “They can be contented and happy on much less than we can,” agreed my mother, “and I don’t know what we’d do without them to clean our streets and work in the roads. But they were so doleful looking and old that they wouldn’t be able to get work like the others.” “That’s the way they all look when they come, madam,” put in a pleasant guard who wanted to pass. 8 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS It was time to meet my father, and the conductor allowed us to pass through to the train, which was due on the track next the immi- grant train. We stepped up for a last glimpse of the newcomers. They and their luggage were huddled up together in the car, grouped according to the towns for which their big yellow tags read; and some of them were already half asleep. My father heard about the immigrants all the way home, for mother had suddenly taken a great interest in them. The steerage had lost none of its horrors for her — she had once visited it on a voyage to Europe, and viewed it as one views the animals in a cage at the Zoo — but I noticed that she seemed more willing that I should go to Italy as she told father about Carlo. She was sure, she told him confidently, that I could get all the infor- mation I needed and see enough of the way the steerage-ers travelled from the cabin deck. Father agreed. Carlo’s eyes danced and sparkled when I told him of the plan and invited him up to the house one evening to talk it over. He could not believe that he understood me right until I had explained it to him several times. When he came to the door I scarcely recognized him, for he was brushed and shined from head to toe. He was so polite and gentlemanly, so clean and bright-eyed that he charmed us all. My brother was persuaded to accompany us, and it was arranged that Carlo should go in the steerage as he had come, meet us at Naples, and all go together in a somewhat round-about way to his home in a little mountain village of Sicily. We sailed the middle of August on a ship called the Lahn. It took us twelve days to cross to Naples from New York, and the weather was fine for the whole trip. Twice on the way we caught sight of Carlo, once to talk to him for a very few minutes. Late in the morning of the twelfth day we could see the shores of Italy. How thrilling it is, that sense of being so far away from your own country as almost to touch another! The new land is a sort of refuge from the great gap between. Yet so unknown, so strange and uncertain, so new and full of possibilities ; ‘ ‘ a great adventure ’ ’ seems to be its unspoken greeting or warning. How lively the imagination becomes! The new country may be beautiful; it is sure to be inter- esting. We grow nearer, and see trees and buildings; they at least are familiar, and good to see. We are all the while getting closer, out- lines are filling in, colors becoming more vivid, and the Lahn is actually edging in beside the naval sea wall of the beautiful city of Naples. There is a general hurry and flurry all about, baggage being gotten together in one part of the ship; the sailors or “gobs,” as they call them, running to their posts; the anchor is thrown. Almost before we knew it, we had crossed the gangway into the tender, with just time to get a glimpse of Carlo and exchange signals with him. HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 9 As the tender steamed off we could get a fine view of the ship. It was surrounded by bumboat-men selling the sweet fruits of Italy to the home-comers, who bought as though they were hungering and thirsting for some taste of the homeland. Then just outside the bum- boat-men were forty or fifty more boats of runners for immigrant lodging-houses. These men would get the eye of a returned emigrant on board and would bargain with him for a room, then take him off with his baggage. A police officer in plain clothes, who was aboard the tender, told us that one of the worst curses of Naples is the prac- tice of these lodging-houses. They are congregating places for thieves and robbers, who lay in wait for their simple-minded countrymen to rob them of the few T hundred dollars, earned in America by hard toil, which they are bringing back home. Many poor fellows who have been far-sighted and calculating enough to save sufficient money to make the trip to get a wife, a mother, or family, are not clever enough to escape the thieves at Naples; and they reach their homes penniless, or nearly so. People less simple than the steerage travelers are often caught in these carefully set traps; and even we, who were on our guard, did not altogether escape. Dishonesty in Naples is as much a part of the air as is the smell in the district of the stock-yards. For this reason Naples is called the City of Thieves. It was here that Carlo rejoined us, eyes gleaming with happiness and excitement. “Dis my countree, where I liv, ” he said a little shyly, but with unconcealed pride. “Many tings you see differn fum America. But America nize, peebles nize, mootch monies, ” he quickly added lest our feelings be hurt. We managed to get all our baggage in a safe place, and started out to see something of the district. It was the finest time of the whole year for us, for it was full harvest. In the next days we took long walks through the country and villages ; and, though it was dusty and hot, we enjoyed every hour of our trampings. We saw rows and rows of trees, heavily laden with fruit, which were used as posts to support miles of running vines with great bunches of luscious-looking grapes hanging all about them. In every village there were the hemp- workers, usually women, piling the long stripped stalks of hemp into bundles, and binding them ready for the mangling machines. On care- fully brushed stone squares men, women, and children were threshing beans and peas, and before every door were flat, shallow troughs in which figs or fruits of some sort were drying. Figs were sold on the string in Italy, not in packed boxes as in this country. On many of the housetops, red tomatoes w T ere being made into a dark red mash to be used in making the delicious sauces with which Italians serve maca- roni. Often along the dusty highways we would pass long-horned oxen or patient donkeys, with sometimes an undersized horse, drawing 10 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS carts loaded with casks made ready for wine, or bundles of hemp stalks, or shocks of wheat. The towns and whole countryside were full of life, and there was not a spot where one could stand, even if no people were in sight, and not hear voices all about. Many of the Italian lace-workers, barrow-men, coal, wood, and ice men in this country come from the section around Naples. The poor conditions under which the peasants live is one of the most difficult problems for the Italian government today. There are a great many beggars; these are not paupers, however. Paupers, in the Italian sense, are people who are not only without money, home, or friends, but those who are unable to work or to take any care of them- selves whatever. The beggars are those who are able to work, but for whom there seems to be no place; their great numbers is one of the reasons that their government does so much to encourage emigration to other countries. Besides, these emigrants, the government knows, will bring money back, of which it can get a part through taxation. From the Neapolitan country, we journeyed northward to the vicinity of Rome. Carlo was seeing more of his country than he had ever seen before, and it was a joy to see him delighting in every- thing he saw. Sometimes when we would show particular interest in hemp-binding or fruit-drying, he would pop up his eyes and say, “I ken do it, ” or “It is home dun like dat.” After a day in Rome, however, he left for his home in order to be there ahead of us ; with strict instructions to say nothing of our coming. If Naples is rightly called the “City of Thieves,” Rome might be called the “City of Institutions.” It is the center of the worldwide Catholic Church, of the political and military interests of Italy, and of art, education, and literature. As everyone knows, Italy is shaped something like a boot, and the southernmost parts of it are called the Heel and Toe. From the Roman zone we journeyed to the Heel, and then on to the Toe. Like the South of this country, the South of Italy — that is, the foot of the boot — produces a great deal of cotton. There are also large olive orchards, and every town of any size is a center for the manufacture of salad-oil. In our country the language is the same from North to South and from East to West, but in Italy it is different. These Southerners, who live in the Heel and Toe, cannot even understand some of the Italians of the North. There are about twenty different kinds of Italian languages spoken in Italy, we were told, and there is a very hostile feeling between these different sections ; they feel like strangers toward each other, and it takes very little to bring them into a quarrel. But they have not “belonged to a Union” as long as the states of this country have ; it was only as far back as 1871 that Italy became a unified kingdom. HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 11 It was a gloriqus morning when we strolled down in the bright sunlight toward the steamer waiting to ferry us over to Messina on the island of Sicily ; we were bound at last for the mountain village of Gualtieri, the home of Carlo’s family. As we looked across the straits to the island, which is called Sicily, we thought his home must be in a beautiful paradise. Many English colliers, or coal-carrying vessels, were ploughing up the channel from the South, and scores of boats fishing for sardines were in sight. Directly opposite were the abrupt -V purple hills of Messina dotted with creamy white houses. In the dis- tance to the south rose that giant volcano, Mount Aetna, its great frame towering into the sky-line. As the steamer neared the shore, we could see fruit orchards extending for miles to the south. Many clean-looking business build- ings loomed up, and the whole effect of the city was more prosperous, if less pretentious, than Rome or Naples. In the harbor was a large steamer taking on emigrant passengers, and large posters all about announced the departure of emigrant ships for the United States, Australia, and South America. 12 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Our stop at Messina was short, long enough only for food and change of clothes, and then we took the train for Gualtieri-Sicamino, from where we expected to make our observations of Sicily. Gualtieri was said to be a town of 5,000 people, and we were anxious for fear it would be too large a community to contain the typical country kind oj: family from which the great mass of Italian immigrants come. Toward the end of the afternoon our train left the tunnels and mountains and came down to the sea in plain view of the island volcano Stromboli, belching its volumes of vapor into the heavens ; and we drew into Santa Lucia, listed as the station of Gual- tieri. When we stepped from the train we could see nothing but the little stuccoed station and a few scattered houses in the distance. We thought surely there was a mistake and wanted to go aboard again, but the guards kept calling ‘‘Santa Lucia — Gualtieri — Sicamino — Pagia — San Filippo,” and presently the train started off and left us standing there. We gazed around trying to locate a town of 5,000 people, but the most we could see were little clusters of white houses on the hillsides which seemed to be small, separate villages; and we decided that if there was a town so large it was very carefully hidden from us. As we surrendered our tickets to the station-master, my brother asked : ‘ ‘ Is this the station for Gualtieri-Sicamino ? ’ ’ “Yes, sir.” “Well, where is the town?” “Just go along this road,” said he, pointing to a narrow wagon road running along the tracks for a short way, then winding into the hills. It was very dusty and very hot, and we turned again to ask : “How far is it to the town?” “Eleven kilometers, sir.” (Seven miles and more!) “Where may we hire a carriage?” “There’s no cart around here now.” “How about a donkey or two?” He put his hand to his forehead and looked from one end of the countryside to the other, then shook his head and said: “No, they’re all loaded with grapes.” With a heavy camera and heavy valise, which we dared not risk leaving, we started on the seven miles walk. A little way down the road we passed three women going along in a sort of dog-trot with great baskets of figs, just picked, on their heads, a bit of rolled-up cloth between head and basket. Farther on we met a farmer carrying a heavy sack of things purchased in Messina for his various neighbors. In one hand he had two salt cod, still drip- ping with brine. When he caught our English, he demanded to know whether we had been in America or not; when we avowed that we had, HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 13 he asked excitedly if it were not true that we were the friends that the rich Carlo Tonello was expecting. We had to admit that we were, for in spite of our frequent reminders to Carlo that he was to keep our coming quiet, and even more so our nationality, it was evident that These people are like the peasants who were met on the road to Carlo’s home. (From Brandenburg: “Imported Americans,’’ by permission of the publisher, F. A. Stokes Co.) we were expected. One could not have told from our dress that we were Americans, or from our actions, for we had been very careful from the time we left the Lahn to so conduct ourselves that if we were not taken for northern Italians, we would at least be thought 14 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS French or Spanish; and we had so far succeeded. But Carlo had not been able to keep the secret, though he did not know just when we would arrive, and the whole town had been expecting us for weeks. They were even planning to have a festival the day we came, and the A view of an Italian town. Notice the way the houses are huddled together and how they all look alike. (From Brandenburg - : “Imported Americans,’’ by permission of the publisher, F. A. Stokes Co.) mule cart, which had been elaborately decorated to convey us from the train, was reposing peacefully in a Tonello shanty while we tramped along in the dust, unmet and unwelcomed. The farmer declared himself our friend and said he would take us directly to the Tonello house, for he had a cousin in America and was HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 15 going there if his wife ever got well enough. From that time on, everyone we met turned “ right about face” and accompanied us back to the town, shouting the news as we passed to the people of every house, and to the men, women, and children toiling in the fields. We overtook a flock of sheep being driven to water, and soon we were the advance-guard of one of the most picturesque troupes that ever was seen on the king’s highway — men, women, sheep, babies, donkeys, and goats. From a distance the country looked thinly settled, but close at hand it swarmed with life and voices. All along the way the boys gathered fresh figs for us from the trees, grapes from vineyards we passed, blackberries from bush-grown stone-heaps, apples, pears, plums, and other fruit. Finally, as we turned a sharp corner in the road, we beheld a mass of stone-built, plaster-covered houses piled against the side of a high hill, and all so near alike that one could hardly tell public buildings, stores, or churches from private houses. Nearly all the villages of southern Italy are either on the hilltops or on the slopes, and built on the same general plan as Gualtieri. A street or two circles the base of the hill, then come one or two tiny squares without grass or trees; and a succession of narrow, zigzag paths leads the way to the top of the hill. The paths are too narrow to be called streets, and sometimes the ascent is so sharp that stone steps are used. The clustering hills of Gualtieri were dark green with vineyards, olive, and lemon orchards ; and the bed of the mountain stream looked like a wide white ribbon, from which arose many upward paths. Along the paths went little flocks of milk-goats; stoop-shouldered men carrying long-bladed hoes and spear-shaped spades; erect women with brilliant-colored skirts, scarfs, or kerchiefs, carrying water-jars, baskets, or bundles on their heads. The principal church of the town was a low squatty building with a small tower containing a cracked bell and a noisy clock; the “municipal offices” were two rooms on the second floor of a merchant’s combined store and home. In all the town there was not a street over twelve feet broad, and some would not measure over three. We began to hear voices on every hand proclaiming that “Carlo’s Americans” had arrived. All fears that Gualtieri was not a typical country town from which the great number of emigrants came, quickly disappeared for once and all. Suddenly we were facing a sign over the door of a small hole-like room in the wall, which read : BOTTEGA DI NICOLA TONELLO, and seeing two boys at work with a small anvil and hand-drill, we knew that this was the blacksmith shop of Carlo’s younger brother. 16 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS A kindly old face appeared at the next door an instant, our procession set up a shout, and we knew at once that this was Carlor’s mother. We were conducted into a large, cool, windowless room with red tile Village life and vineyards in Sicily. Notice how the peas- ants farm in terraces. Why do they do it? Notice the church clock. (From Brandenburg': “Imported Americans,” by permission of the publisher, F. A. Stokes Co.) floors and whitewashed walls. There were rows and rows of rush- bottomed chairs, and we wondered if the family numbered so many. We soon found out, however, that these chairs had been provided for HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 17 the throng of neighbors who came nightly to listen to Carlo tell of the wonders of America, and to laugh over his yarns about buildings that were twenty stories high. Poor Mrs. Tonello was bewildered over the fact that Carlo and all the family were out in the fields. She ushered us up to a room, which proved to be Carlo’s, to get us away from the excitement and shouting; left us; and returned in a jiffy with some of their best wine. In another few seconds she reappeared with sugar-coated cakes, and an- other trip brought a heaping dish of grapes, fresh figs, apples, plums, and pears. By that time the news had gone to the field, and the family came pouring in. The total of the family is father and mother, eight children, one daughter-in-law, and one grandchild. Guiseppe, twenty-nine, is the oldest ; Carlino, twenty-seven, is next ; Nicola, who has charge of the blacksmith shop, is twenty-five; Giovanina, twenty-two, is the oldest daughter — a sweet, lovable girl. When her soldier lover finished his first term in the army, she was so delicate that the marriage was postponed, and he went in for a second term. In about a year he will be discharged with a life pension for his fourteen years of service, and she is very happily looking forward to the day when her long, lovely dream will come true. Maria is a bright-eyed girl of nineteen, wild with excitement at the prospect of going to America. Between Nicola and Giovanina is Antonio, or “Tono,” as the little ones call him. He went to America with Carlo, but at Ellis Island they were separated and never saw or heard from each other for the whole six years that Carlo was there. Recently the mother had a letter from Tono, and they expect him home most any day, and all hope that he will arrive before we leave ; we hope so, too. Vicenzo is a half-grown boy, merry, tuneful, and without a care. We are all very fond of him, and are glad when we hear his whistle coming toward the house. The little pet of the whole family is Ina, the five-year-old daughter of Guiseppe and his wife, Camela. Her mother shows great emotion when the trip to America is talked about, and little Ina always runs to her and says, what would be in English, “Me do too, ain’t it, mamma?” When her mamma tells her yes, she runs away and plays until she hears “America” again. The most interesting character of all is the mother, a kind-hearted, busy little woman of fifty-five. Her hands are knotted from hard toil, but she is always cheery and full of energy. In her ears are heavy gold earrings with large coral centers. They were a gift from her grandmother when she was sixteen years old, and when little Ina is sixteen she in turn will receive them as a present from her grand- mother. But now the family were trooping up the stairs escorting Carlo as though he were the King himself, and indeed his welcome to us 18 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS was a royal one. There were cousins by the score for us to meet, and neighbors from near and far. When we got out our camera, a new shout of excitement went up, and it had to be explained in detail. Carlo wanted to take us at once to see his vineyard which had been purchased for him by money sent from America. He said that on the way he wanted to show us the town ; we hadn ’t gone far before we realized that he was showing us to the town instead of the town to us, so we paraded in as stately a fashion as possible. From that time on, everything was done in procession. If my brother went to take a picture, five hundred inhabitants wanted to help him. If I went to the public laundry with the women, a host of other women went too. If we visited the field or vineyard, a multitude followed in our train. On our return from town at sun-down, the house was crowded to its capacity with callers, and there were enough people outside to fill a circus tent. Everyone was clad in Sunday attire, and they came, not one or two at a time, but whole families together. We had had an abundance of fruit all day, but were beginning to feel as though we could eat a little dinner. No mention, however, had been made of a night meal, and we could see that the guests had no intentions of leaving. They stood rapt in excitement over every- thing we said, and were fascinated by the most commonplace story of the land of their dreams. They w r anted to hear us tell about the high buildings, so my brother repeated the stories that Carlo had told them, and they laughed and were highly amused all over again. Then I told them about the dresses, manners, and customs in America, and they had many questions to ask, but no one mentioned dinner. It was eight o’clock when my brother finished an impromptu lecture on “American liberty.” At nine o’clock I had answered what seemed a thousand questions on the cost of clothes, groceries, and rent, but still there were no signs of dinner. My brother and I glanced questioningly at one another, for w T e were both getting very faint, having had lunch at eleven in the morning and nothing but fruit since. But we talked on about mills and factories in America, and favorite Italian dishes, and theatres and street-cars, and churches and subways. At eleven o'clock all the children were asleep either on the floor or in their mothers’ arms, and we were exhausted with fatigue and want of food, when something suddenly broke the spell. Mrs. Tonello threw up her hands, rolled her eyes heavenward, and darted upstairs. In ten min- utes we were seated at a most delightful supper. The whole family had forgotten all about dinner in the excitement, but they made up for it twice over. In the Tonello house, as in most others, the top floor was used for dining room and kitchen, so that the scent and heat of cooking went up the chimney instead of through the whole house. The kitchen was in one corner of the dining room, and it comprised a sort of low altar HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 19 of stone and plaster, with a hollow in the center for charcoal. We sat at the table until the cracked bell in the church tower struck one, and then we were shown to the guest-room. Instead of dropping onto our bed, we almost needed a stepladder to get into it, it was so high. For some of the beds in foreign countries, one does need a stepladder. We were awakened next morning by the sound of a boy’s voice singing up in the vineyards : “Who was it called them down ? ’Twas Mister Dooley, brave Mister Dooley, The finest man this country ever knew; Diplomatic, Democratic, Oh! Mister Dooley — ooley — ooh.” Then came a chatter of men, women and children who had been pick- ing grapes, and stopped to listen to the American song. The boy had been in America two years with his parents, but the father became 111 and they all returned for his health. He was eight years old and •determined to go back as soon as he was big enough. He declared he could make more money selling papers after school over here than in a whole day of labor in the fields over there. Besides, he said, — there was “never no time lift for fun.” In all Italy, all Greece, all Syria, all Hungary and Roumania, the boys and their fathers feel the same way, and to the women folks as well New York is a magic word — meaning the land of plenty, the place to get rich, and the place for opportunities to go to school. We began our first day of Gualtieri life with a vegetable stew, bread, and fresh fruit. This is the customary breakfast, except that in winter they have dried fruit instead of fresh. Canned fruit is seldom used. The noon meal is much the same, with the difference that once or twice a week meat, eggs, or fowl take the place of vege- table stew. In the evening soup is served, a meat stew may be added to the noon-day items, and more fruit and wine. Black bread, fried pumpkin, and fico-d’indias often comprise the meal of poor families, while in well-to-do homes we often had very good course dinners. Beginning with the morning of the second day, people came to us •continuously for advice. One man, who was too old to work any more, wanted to send his sons to America to get a foothold in order that later they might return and take him over. He wanted to know what was the best work for a young man to do in my country. A poor old woman tramped several miles across the hills to implore me to take her to America that she might find her daughter who had gone there as a servant a year ago. She had not heard a word from her since and was nearly frantic. I had to tell her that she was beyond the age limit, and would not be allowed to pass Ellis Island. Another old mother came with her husband one afternoon to ask me to look up her son from whom she had not heard in two years. He had dropped 20 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS his Italian name, she said, because he found it too long and trouble- some, and had adopted the name of John Smith. She thought I would be able to find him, although she didn’t know in what state he lived. More than once a whole family came over to pay their respects, who before they left would timidly draw out a strip of paper, worn almost to threads, on which was written the name and address of a son, a brother, father. Although they knew our home to be in New York, their faces fell in great disappointment when we could give them no news of their relatives in Alabama, Texas, Minnesota, or even Brazil. It chanced that once in New York we shook hands with an Italian tradesman whose name we remembered because it was so odd, and when we told his relatives this they cried actual tears of joy. The people had very queer ideas of what the United States was like. Those who had friends or relatives in New York believed the whole country was a mass of high buildings ; those whose sons were in Pittsburgh thought it was all coal mines and steel mills. One woman thought that because her bartender husband filled his letters with accounts of his parrot, and that belonging to his neighbor across the street, every American family must own a parrot. She asked what kind of a parrot we had. “We have no parrot,” I told her. “You do not come from America,” she said. “Why do you think that?” “Because you have no parrot.” And from that time on she seemed to regard everything we said with suspicion, until after reading several of her husband’s letters I was able to explain that some people had parrots, others had dogs or kittens, others had only children ! She was partly convinced. We travelled over Sicily somewhat as we did over the Roman area and Neapolitan zone, but found that Gualtieri was a very typical village. The northern side of the island was more fertile and therefore more densely populated. Back in the mountains where travel was difficult, a stranger was almost a catastrophe, and a man who could read and write had distinction in the community. On the slopes which get the hot winds from Africa, the families are nearly Malayan in complexion, and the long black hair of the women is very beautiful to see. The farming methods were all very primitive and none of our labor- saving devices were used. Instead of large wagons such as we have for hauling our products in this country, one would see strings of donkeys heavily loaded and women and children with their large head-baskets. And indeed if some generous person should suddenly make these coun- try folks a gift of enough modern machinery to do all their work, it would be as bad as though a plague were visited on them, for it would throw great numbers of people out of work, leaving them noth- HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 21 ing to exchange for their foodstuffs. Even the wines were made by hands and feet. I have seen a half dozen little girls, some of them too young to speak plainly, go paddling along the dusty roads from vineyard to press with loads of grapes on their heads. The grapes are dumped into a trampling-vat built of stone. When there are enough, about six inches of them, the peasants get in with pants and skirts rolled up, and tramp the grapes into a pulp. The trampling is usually done by old men and women, whose sight is defective, or who are for some other reason of less value in the fields. Many of the vineyards and smaller patches of ground on which the people work belong to someone else, very often to a few rich men in the village. Most of the holdings around Gualtieri are owned by a Duke who lives in Naples and never comes near Sicily ; he has an agent at Faro who is a faithful collector of his large rents. The farmers till the soil, buy the seed, supply the implements, look after the irrigation, harvest the crop and market it; then the collector comes along and demands half of all they have produced. Of what is left, three per cent is paid out in taxes, and one-tenth is given “volun- tarily” to the church. After the landlord, the church, the army, and the tradesmen have each taken their slice of the produce, there is very little left for the poor farmer who has done all the work. With more than nine-tenths of all the production in southern Italy agricultural, it is not hard to understand why these people are so poverty-stricken or why they are so eager to go to America. The excitement of our coming to Gualtieri was exceeded only by that of our departure. Every person within a radius of several miles was well aware that on the last day of September Carlo Tonello, with his “Americans,” his father and mother and all the children except Giovanina, with a number of their neighbors, would be leaving for Naples, there to embark on the Prinzessin Irene for New York. Six years before when Carlo and Antonio had been two of a small group who were the first to leave that section, every one had felt very doubt- ful about the undertaking. Since then more than a tenth of the whole population had followed him, and those who were too poor or old to go were very sad indeed. To the very last minute the unfor- tunate ones were imploring us to find some way of taking them along. A great upset occurred in the Tonello family when the father announced one morning that he would not go. He seemed very blue over Carlino’s not coming, though he gave every reason but this for staying behind. This of course settled it for the mother ; she could not go without her husband. Vincenzo was persuaded to wait until his ear was operated on, and little Ina with tears in her eyes, not knowing what it all meant, clung for dear life to Camela, her mother. To comfort them all, Carlo promised to return next year for those who wanted to go then. Carlo’s show of prosperity was a constant sur- 22 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS prise to us ; but he had saved very carefully, and told us of good incomes he was receiving from investments he had made in New York. The first step in securing a passport is to get a birth certificate from the secretary of the town in which one was born. We all went before the magistrate, he looked up the birth dates, and issued certifi- cates. It was difficult for my brother and I to get birth certificates as Italians — for we must do this in order to travel through Ellis Island as Italian emigrants — but we fibbed a little and he made us satisfactory ones affirming that we were the son and daughter of Paolo Brandi and Migone Caterina. They did us little good, how- ever, in the' end. All the certificates were sent by the shoemaker steamship agent to a man in Messina, where the personal records of all the people in the district were kept. This record gives the place and date of birth, the amount of time served or to be served in the army, shows any criminal charges that may have been brought and any sentence that may have been served. If, after looking over the record of an individual, there is any reason why the magistrate thinks he will be refused admittance to the United States, he declines to issue him a passport. It so hap- pened that my brother and I were the only ones of our party who were refused passports, the reason being that they had no record of us. Had we been recorded as criminals, we should have been more than welcome to passports ; for these are the sort of people the district police are glad to be rid of, and the American police records show that this class are coming over in increasing numbers. We knew we would need to have passports in Naples, but that until then we need not worry. There was great preparation being made. Each person had a new suit, and some whole new wardrobes. When Americans go to Paris, they usually wait and buy their wardrobes over there; but when Italians come to America, where they wear Italian clothes only about two days after they arrive, they want to bring enough clothes to last them all the time they are here, together with all their household furnishings and kitchen utensils, as though America were a wild, uninhabited island. In spite of Carlo’s emphatic protestations and ours, Camela crammed into huge boxes two sets of heavy mattresses with heaps of bedding; large cans of pomidoro; olive oil; dried figs; flasks of wine ; whole cheeses ; and old and new cooking utensils. The baggage of Concetta and Angelo Fomica, little neighbor girls who were going to live with their barber brother in Stonington, Conn., was similarly packed. The amount that had to be paid for extra baggage would have paid for the whole wardrobe and furnishings twice over in America. About sunset on Saturday, two days before our departure, the bells in the old church tower rang with unusual clangor, and we were HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 23 told that the Tonello relatives had paid for a special service at vespers for the safe journey of our party. On our way to the village we met one of the priests, a kind old man and one of the best of all the rural-priests we saw; after taking a pinch of snuff, he offered the box to my brother with a smile, knowing Americans did not care for it. People were pouring down to the church, some in holiday dress, but most of them in the clothes in which they left the fields, the wine presses, the smithies, the cheese-shops, and the orchards. The quiet, restful service, with the forms and symbols inherited from the earliest Roman church, seemed to carry one back to the middle ages; and it was the wailing of the infant who was to be christened at the end, that brought us again to a sense of where we really were. At home in the evening the relatives and friends were gathered for a dance in which young and old joined hands. Mrs. Tonello amazed us, when a dance by the old folks was called for ; she stepped out and danced with an ease and grace that would have put her eight children to shame if it had not made them very proud. Sunday morning the weekly process of cleaning up and dressing up began very early. Little Ina appeared in a pretty little white dress, with a long white veil, and on her head was set a wreath of artificial leaves and white flowers. It being her last Sunday, all of her little friends, wearing white dresses in her honor, marched from one church to another. Streams of callers arrived and departed during the afternoon ; and in the evening we were serenaded by a troupe of male vocalists from the village, with guitar accompaniment. The next day was one of great turmoil and flurry, particularly in the evening when the trunks of the whole party were gotten off to the station. People were coming to bid us goodbye for the last time and to bring presents both for us and for their relatives in Missouri, Texas, or Alabama, many of which we were obliged to refuse since they consisted of everything from a twenty-pound form of cheese to a five-gallon can of olive oil. In the night the house was deathly still except for the sobs of the poor mother who was so soon to part with six members of her flock. We started before dawn, winding down through the dark, narrow streets to where the donkeys were in readiness to take us back over the seven miles which we had walked through dust and heat to the Tonello house, some weeks before. It was here that the final farewells were said. The poor mother and father Tonello were as heart- broken as though they knew they would never see their children again, and little Ina, who meant to be gay, was weeping bitterly at seeing her grandmother in tears. “ Pronte ! Pronte!” A blast of the conductor’s horn and we were off for Messina. 24 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Arrived there, the baggage was all ripped open by the customs officials, weighed, excess collected, boxes retied and hustled to another place. Carlo made the care of the baggage his job, and the poor fellow had his troubles. When next we saw it, it was stacked on a barge, guarded by a fat uniformed official who begged before he left for enough to buy his dinner ; he was entirely satisfied with the equivalent of six cents. The next thing was to join the crowd going to the steamship broker’s office. As each one steps up with his passport, he is asked questions similar to the twenty-tw T o that he has to answer later at Ellis Island. The broker instructs him how to answer them so that he will not be excluded. After getting our papers all cleared, receipts for our baggage, tickets to Naples, and to America from Naples, our party scattered, some going to visit relatives and friends in Messina for a brief fare- well. There were two mishaps before we all got together again. One of the boys was told by a man who had been practicing his fraud for three years, that he must have his ticket stamped by the “American doctor. ’ ’ When he answered that he did not have his ticket with him, the man said he could get a stamp which he could paste on, thereby saving himself a long wait in the line. Salvatore, having heard that he must encounter this “doctor” some time, thought he would do it now and get it over with. He paid about 66 cents and received a worthless sticker. Curro fell a victim to a street dentist, who was relating the suffering from toothache caused by the motion of the ship and urging emigrants to have their poor teeth extracted. The boy had paid his money, gotten up into his carriage, and would have been minus a good tooth if my brother had not given the fake dentist a good hard whack in his own jaw just in time. He even succeeded in getting the villain arrested, and we have often hoped aloud that the law gave him his just deserts. There was a great rush and clamor in getting the emigrants and their baggage aboard the steamship for Naples. Although this trip was included in the 200-lire ticket, the boatmen who took us across demanded and succeeded in extracting from us two lire more for the ride. This was the beginning of the trickery that we were to meet with until we reached Ellis Island. This was the beginning also of the rough treatment, jerking about, and fiendish brutality that is ac- corded the emigrant all the way across. I thought back to the little company that I had seen with my mother in the Grand Central Sta- tion, and did not wonder that they looked ‘ ‘ doleful ! ’ ’ The men ’s and women quarters in the ship to Messina were separate, but very similar. In the center are blocks of eight or nine double-tiered beds — that is, upper and lower berths — and others are arranged in rows around the sides. The lumpy mattresses are cov- HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 25 ered with coarse dirty bagging, which serves as bedding. No food was offered during the twelve hours to Naples, but fortunately we had brought some with us, and were hungry enough to eat it even amid the foul smells and gross discomforts of the place. Nothing could quell the happiness of the emigrants ; musical instruments on every hand were playing accompaniment to groups of singers, and those who were not singing or playing were chattering like magpies. What might have been a pretty symbol of the last farewell to Sicily turned almost to disaster. Little Disalvo, who with several others had joined our party at Messina, stood for a long time by the rail with eyes intently watching the shore. Just as we passed Scilla he struck a match and lit a long, twisted newspaper which he swung above his head in slow circles. Presently pieces from his flaming torch were flying down the full length of the deck, and it took swift action to avert a fire in two places. A big burly officer presently stood over Disalvo pouring out a brutal lip-beating, but the little fellow was fastened to the spot watching the light below his own cottage move up and down — a signal from his home folks which he had been trying to answer. My brother and I stayed on deck long into the night, dreading to go below. When we did go, the crying babies and the singing and playing of the people who could not sleep made the hours- almost a nightmare. Finding that the separation rule was not enforced, Carlo and my brother stayed beside us to protect us not from the passengers, but from the ship’s people. At last dawn came, and within two hours we were in the beautiful Bay of Naples, snuggled alongside a ship which was unloading a throng of home-coming passengers. Imagine the excitement and delight of our party when Carlo spied his brother Antonio in the stream of home-comers. “Tono! Tono, Tono,” went up a chorus of voices, and a dozen Antonios turned to answer. Our Tony was too far away to hear the call, and, try as we could, we were unable to get his attention. Just as he got across the gangway, a uniformed officer stepped up, put shackles on his wrists, did the same to his companion, and off the three of them went out of our sight. Carlo tried his best to get off the ship, but his efforts were in vain. The arrest did not frighten him, however, and he explained that it was probably for military duty. A great many young men go to America or elsewhere in order to escape the com- pulsory term of service imposed by the Italian government; but if they return, even for a visit, they are arrested as soon as they land and are compelled to serve their time. It does not help them at all to have become American citizens in the meanwhile by taking out naturalization papers, because, as far as the Italian government is concerned, a person born in Italy is always a citizen there. In their eagerness not to miss anyone, the officers frequently arrest men who 26 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS have served, and this, Carlo thought, was probably the case with Tono, but he was anxious to make sure and to see that he was released at once. Naples is the world’s greatest port of embarkation. How many men, women, and children go through the terrible processes of exam- ination, vaccination, thievery, trickery, brutality, to say nothing of the terrible seasickness most of them suffer during the long passage across the ocean, only to find at the end of their trip that they will not be allowed to enter the United States. What can they do but go back over the long, tiresome journey they have come, with a great deal less money than they had when they started, unpack their new things and old, and then realize in bitterness and poverty how much better off they would have been never to have started. Many families sell their home, their furniture, their stock, all that belongs to them in order to get enough money for their passage. Then if for some reason they are turned back at Ellis Island, what have they got to go to? No home, no work, no money, nothing. Why does not all the necessary examination take place before they leave their homes at all? This is for the makers of laws controlling immigration to answer. Under the present system, there is no way for a person to tell whether he will be admitted until he gets to Ellis Island. And it is because of this uncertainty and the consequences of being refused admittance, that the emigrants will allow themselves to be treated like brute ani- mals and make no murmur of complaint. They are filled with fear lest they provoke some official who may have power to turn them back. Our steamer did not sail for two days. As another ship was sail- ing at once, we were herded out of the way off by a high iron picketed fence where we could sit in the hot sun until someone gave us the signal to move. A large, cheery young woman came along with some warm, licorice-flavored water to sell, serving all customers with the same glass. When some of our party asked if this was the kind of treatment they were to expect all the way, she laughed heartily and said, “This is heavenly to what you will find later on.” Next came begging friars telling the emigrants that the best way to ward off the dangers of sickness and disease on the voyage was to purchase the prayer-cards which they were selling. After a while an old man with a host of young clerks appeared, called the roll of the party, and issued tickets which were good for meals at the steamship company’s restaurant while we were held in Naples. Each one had to show his passport and almost all his papers before he could get a ticket. This process over, we were marshaled in squads into the Capitaneria, where the customs-house officials examined our baggage for eatables. This was an occasion for great fear lest it would lead to arrest for something or other. Then the HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 27 baggage had to be checked, and by the time we reached our abiding place for the two nights we were to be in Naples, we were about three-quarters asleep. Before we got to the Rose hotel, the thieves were at us again. They wanted to take us to lodging-houses that were much better, but the moment we stopped to listen to them, an old man stepped up and warned us against them. As was said earlier, these are the places where a great deal of money is quickly pried loose from the emigrants. We were assigned three large rooms, filled with single beds, and were allowed to sort ourselves among them as we saw fit. The women and children were given the front room, and the men took the others. The class feeling that is so strong in Italy appeared at this point. The Tonello boys and one or two others, who considered themselves members of a better class than some of our farmer boys, took the best room, leaving the third, which was dark and close, for the others, who accepted it without a word. There was no explanation necessary. The third-room boys understood, and did not even feel hurt as would happen in this country in a similar situation. My brother was amused that Carlo refused always to carry his baggage; and when my brother picked up his own suit-case, Carlo never failed to protest. He was afraid we would be taken for people of the lower class. It was hard to picture Carlo back working in the garden on Long Island again. He seemed of so much better a type in his own country. Antonio was of larger build, and from the short glimpse we had of him he would have appeared important in any country. It was before six o’clock when our host roused us to say that if we wanted to take advantage of the one meal a day that the steamship broker was paying for, we must be on our way. At the restaurant we waited a half hour for other emigrants to finish eating so that we could have their places. Supper consisted of soup made with tomatoes and paste, a stew of vegetables and half -spoiled goat meat, melons and wine. Poor little Ina was so happy to find afterward that she no longer felt faint ; and she said she was glad she ifelt better because she was afraid “they wouldn’t want to take a fainty girl to America.” The children were fast learning the ways of the city. At first they were as frightened at everything as little wild rabbits, and in their excitement would become so confused that they were in danger of losing their lives any minute. Once little Concetta begged to be taken indoors: “All this noise makes my head as big as a house.” They learned very quickly, however, and their pop eyes sat more com- fortably in their sockets by the end of our two days at Naples. When my brother and I went to the American office to see about our passports, we found that there was only one way to manage the complication, and this was accomplished when the American consul 28 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS arranged for us to go without a passport. It was there that we learned of the schools where they instruct emigrants for a few days so that they will be able to answer correctly the simple questions put to them at Ellis Island. In the morning early, after breakfast, we gathered our baggage and left the hotel. All the way to the broker’s offices we were beset with fruit venders and others who had “ indispensables ” to sell. When we got there, the first thing to see to was the separation of the hand baggage from the hold baggage ; it was then opened, inspected, and numbered by the American agent, then by the port health authorities, then received and receipted for by the company’s agent. That accom- plished, we had to fall over trunks, bags, and people’s feet getting our party to a small steamer which took us to the fumigating-station across the harbor. Again there were thieves. One of the sneaking Neapolitans came up to me and said that we didn’t need to go to the fumigating station. ‘ ‘ Is that so ? ” said I. ‘ ‘ How can we avoid it ? ” ‘ ‘ I know some men who will put on the same labels over here, and no one will know you have hot been there. ’ ’ While he was telling me how much the labels would cost us, my brother, who had overheard, succeeded in getting an officer to take charge of him. This was the second good turn that my brother did the poor emigrants, but there were plenty more of the kind to do. The next thing was vaccination. And we heard a voice behind us say: ‘‘For a lire I’ll tell you how to keep from getting a sore arm.” Carlo gave him a lire, and this was his recipe : “When the doctor vaccinates you, rub your shirt sleeve down over the scratched place quickly, then suck them. He will not stop you.” Our whole party escaped sore arms from following his instruction. But this smooth thief had something else in store. He wanted us to go with him to get * ‘ something nice to eat ; ” we knew his game and didn’t go. Then Jie threatened to tell the officials that we had fraud- ulent labels on our baggage, and we were able to tell him that we had had his friend the culprit accompanied away from the scenes by a “nice” uniformed man. The thief disappeared so quickly that we couldn ’t see the direction in which he ran. Other thieves were warning the emigrants that they must change their money into drafts. Of course they had plenty of drafts on hand which they would be glad to exchange, and the emigrant was again the loser. We talked to some people who were about to take the eye treatment. We asked what it was, and they told us that the doctor could put some- thing in their eyes that took away the diseased look. The effect of this medicine would last until they got through Ellis Island. We HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 29 found that by ‘ ‘ paying some money to somebody ’ ’ — how often we heard that phrase — almost anyone could get smuggled into the country through some port or other, mostly through Canada. It was a motley stream of men, women, and children that struggled up the gangplank of the Prinzessin Irene ; people from every part of Italy, but by far the most from the southern parts. Some were stag- gering under the weight of their luggage, and even the little tots were carrying baskets of fruit, wine, and cheese forms that were almost as big as their little bodies. The party soon became scattered in every direction, and we were forced to sit on our bundles until the bunks could be assigned. Babies were crying, men were pacing about as though they had lost their minds, and the women were nervous and noisy. In a low-ceilinged space about the size of six ordinary rooms there were beds for 195 persons: 214 women and children occupied them. The beds were two-tiered and arranged much the same as in the steamer to Messina. Bags of straw or grass served as mattresses, and there were no pillows. As each person came past the store-room at the entrance she was given a blanket, which served the purposes of all bed clothing and many other things besides. Rolled up in each blanket were a fork, spoon, tin cup and long pan, to serve as our eating utensils. When my brother reached his compartment, his 183 sleeping-companions were either taking their shoes from their blistered feet or tuning up on their guitars and mandolins. The air was suffo- cating all over the steerage deck. With this condition inside, bumboats surrounding the ship selling melons, candy, brushes, razors, mirrors, seasickness charms, toothache and stomach-ache medicine, knives, and numberless other articles “good for the journey,” it was glorious to look out and up and see the great Vesuvius in all her purple majesty standing erect against the warm glow of the sunset sky. We watched until even her outlines grew faint. From the time we boarded the ship there had been a continuous clamour, some people complaining, some shouting, some crying with hunger, others thumping on their tambourines. Food was now on the way. From the steerage galley, the cooks and stewards began to lug great tanks of food and baskets of bread. The tanks were enormous tin things holding about twenty-five gallons each. From one we got a ladleful of macaroni, from another a chunk of beef, from a third red wine, from a fourth boiled potatoes, and lastly hunks of bread from the baskets. One person was supposed to collect enough food for six, distribute it, then gather and wash the dishes when the meal was finished. Tanks of cold, running sea water were provided for the purpose, and, needless to say, it was impossible to get the dishes clean enough to make them fit to use for a second 30 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS meal. The food itself was as good as most of the Italians get at home, but the manner in which it was thrown together made a sickening mess of it. At the end of the meal most of what was left on the plates was thrown carelessly about the deck, so that one needed to be careful not These scenes were taken of the steerage. (From Brandenburg: “Imported Americans,” by permission of the publisher, P. A. Stokes Co.) to slip on a bit of macaroni or potato. The night was hot, the com- partments noisy, and the air foul. After I had tried in vain to rest, I slipped quietly out on the deck where I found my brother had already posted himself, and there we slept by dozes until the deck hands began stirring about the ship in the morning. The filth that some of the HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 31 dirty travellers accumulated in attempting to wash their dishes at their beds, by pouring a drinking cup full of water over them, and other such effort-saving devices, is indescribable. By the second day the old ship was beginning to roll. Shorter and shorter grew the food lines, and greater and greater became the risk of life on deck. How sick those poor people were ! They expected it, and made no efforts to ward it off ; but there was no cure. The women were lying flat about the deck, and the children wailing at the top of their voices. Many thought they were surely going to die. Boys would sit perched up any old place near their mothers, and the ghastly green look that came over their faces made any thought of food perish at one glance. Little Ina was most pathetic. She was lying with her head on Carlo’s shoulder, trying to conceal her sobs. When I asked her what was the matter, she said, “Oh, I’m so all sicked, and I’ll die, an’ they’ll trow me oberboard, and I never see my gamma nor nobody adain.” Often we were gazed upon by the cabin passengers, who thought the sight “ disgusting. ’ ■ One day as my brother stood on the steerage deck, four first cabin passengers — all native Americans — came and looked down at him. This is what he overheard one of them say to his friends : ‘ ‘ Why do they permit such people to come into our country , they are a menace to our civilization. Look at that fellow,” pointing to my brother. ‘ ‘ What a villainous face he has ! I ’ll bet he ’s a crim- inal with a record a mile long in Italy, and that he will add to it in America.” The sad part was that my brother dared not give away our secret by answering their haughty remarks. At Gibraltar, which we reached on Monday morning, our crowd was enlarged by Spaniards, Portuguese, and a Moor or two. Our stop there also gave a chance for a few purchases from bumboat-men, and refreshments. From then on for ten long days the voyage was one drawn-out woeful affair. The seasickness grew worse than ever, and the whole compartment was almost unbearable with its stench, its noise, and its foulness beyond description. And yet the cost of cabin passage was only twice as much as steerage. It is not hard at this rate to see on which class the steamship companies make the most money. The hour finally came — for days we had been counting hours until we would land — when cooped up in a barge we waited to be picked up in our turn and ferried across to Ellis Island. We saw all the races of Europe go by in the ferry before we heard the call at last: “All ready for the last Irenes!” What a strange motley of Old World humanity streamed, again with their baggage, out of the barge onto the quay! An interpreter half way up the stairs to the building shouted to us to have our health tickets ready, by which we knew that, late though it was, we would pass through Ellis Island that night. 32 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS The registry floor was divided into two parts, almost alike, so that two shiploads could be handled at one time. At the corner of a railed- off aisle, a doctor looked each of us over, paying particular attention to eyes and head, occasionally putting a chalk mark on the lapel of a coat, and passed us on. Another doctor along the aisle examined the eyes with a small instrument, turned back the lids, and used disin- fectants. The disease of the eyes, called trachoma , is very contagious and the reason for many refusals at our ports. Some cases they attempt to cure in Ellis Island, but the permanent effect of the treat- ment is very uncertain. We next passed a woman inspector who looked us over, and tried to discover what men and women belonged to the same family. Here we were permitted to sink down on wooden benches until we were called for the next process. My brother and I hurried in ahead of the rest of our group so as to be through to receive them and keep the party together. We were passed as “New York Outsides’ ’ for the reasons that our papers were all straight, we had enough money, had been passed by the doctors, and were destined for New York. Besides the “New York Outsides,” are the “New York Detained, ’’who are held awaiting the arrival of friends or relatives; the “Railroads,” who go to the stations for shipment outside New York; and the “Special Inquiry” class, who are held for further examinations and possible return. We did not know what was meant by the “Stairs of Separation” until four of the members of our party waved good-byes as they went down one of the three stairways. This was the place, we knew then, that Carlo and Antonio got separated when they had come six years before; their work was in different places, and they were sent direct. If this seems heartless, it is not hard to see why it is necessary, for the sad partings would cause endless confusion and delays, and do no good. By confessing to the authorities our real identity, we were given the special privilege of having our group released so that we could be with them to see their first impressions of America and of its greatest city, New York, and then send them on their way properly fed and refreshed. When we reached our home, a letter awaited us which delighted the hearts of all. Antonio had soon been released from the police, had surprised his parents at Gualtieri, given the townsfolk another occasion for a festival ; and he now wrote that he had persuaded his father and mother to come back with him as soon as they could get ready. They are to bring with them Carlo’s bride-to-be, whom we did not see and heard little of. When they come, they will find Carlo in a prosperous HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA 33 situation at cabinet-making — the trade he learned before he first left Gualtieri. He is spending his evenings making household furniture, and we are already looking forward happily to his wedding.* To the Teacher : Expense prohibits the insertion in this pamphlet of sufficient pictures to illustrate Italian life. We suggest that you refer your pupils to geographies at their disposal for addi- tional illustrations. Did you enjoy the story? W T hat parts were most interesting to you ? Do you now understand why Italians come to America to live ? Do you think you should want to come if you were an Italian? Have you a pretty good idea of the way some Europeans live in their home countries ? To the Teacher : Following the read- ing of the story, have a brief and general class discussion of such questions as these. Here are the questions that we asked you to keep in mind while reading the story. See if you can answer them now. If you are unable to do so, go back and read through the story again. QUESTIONS ON “HOW CARLO AND HIS FAMILY CAME TO AMERICA” 1. Give five reasons why Italians come to America to live. Which do you think is the reason that the greatest number come? 2. Do you think these Italians will make good Americans? 3. What are the important differences between the way Italians live and the way native Americans live? 4. If you had control over immigrant steamship lines, what changes would you make in the ‘ ‘ steerage ’ ’ ? 5. What does the Italian government think about thousands of its people coming to America ? What should it do to insure better treat- ment on the way of those who come? 6. Do you feel that the Italians who come over here will become a real part of America? Are there things that they can teach us as well as things that we can teach them ? To the Teacher: We suggest that in the general class-discussion the basic map- location work on Italy be done. Such questions as the following should be an- swered : ♦The material for this story has been drawn from a true account of the actual experiences of Mr. Broughton Brandenburg, written up in his book called “Imported Americans,” published in 1902 by F. A. Stokes & Company, New York. Our account has been written by our editorial assistant, Miss Marie Gulbransen. We should like to express our sincere appreciation to both author and publishers for permission to adapt the theme and use some of the illustra- tions for the purposes of this pamphlet. 34 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS 1. What was the principal city in each of the two regions that the Americans and Carlo visited before they went to Carlo ’s home ? Point to them on the wall map. 2. What kind of work were the people doing in these areas ? 3. How is the southern part of Italy spoken of ? In what respects does it resemble the southern part of the United States ? 4. On what Island was Carlo’s home situated? What is the great industry of this Island? 5. Name and point out on the wall map the chief places visited by the writers of the story? 6. What do you remember about Naples? Point to it on the wall map. 7. How could a great deal of expense and disappointment be saved the immigrants ? Whose duty is it to make the change ? 8. What is the greatest port of embarkation in the world ? 9. What does it cost the emigrants to travel to America in com- parison with what it costs the cabin passengers ? JJg. SOME FACTS ABOUT ITALY AND IMMIGRATION. To the Teacher : With the background of Italian emigration as told through the story of Carlo the pupils will need an- other lesson on the topography and indus- tries of Europe. Choose in the geography book you are using a physical map of Italy, a population map, and if possible maps showing chief products of Europe. From the story, do yon remember that Carlo travelled from the country around Naples to Rome, then down into the heel, then west to the toe, and over to his home village near Messina? On the map of Europe find the railroad line in which this journey was taken. Why do these railroads follow the coast line? Why do they not cut straight down the east coast by the shortest route ? Now find a physical map of Europe and see how the mountains on the north of Italy, the Alps, swing round to the south and so join the Apennines. The Apennines in turn take up most of the surface of this boot-like peninsula, extending to the very toe, and continuing over on the island of Sicily, where Carlo lived. It makes one wonder how it ever happened that this island became separated from the peninsula. Just the narrow Strait of Messina lies between. Turn back to Fig. 3, what country sent the largest number of immi- grants in 1921 ? On a physical map of Europe in your geography book, find out in what parts of Europe are the broad low lands? How would you describe the elevation of the land in Italy? What do you think the “lay of the land” has to do with the agriculture of the country? What relation do you think there would be between the mountainous country in southern Italy and the great amount of emigration from there ? Study Fig. 2. What is the most important conclusion you can get from this map? From Fig. 2, find the regions from which we receive the smallest number of immigrants. Notice that the province of Umbria is in the heart of the Apennine Mountains. If your geography has a map which shows the amount of population in Italy, you will notice immediately that this region has the fewest number of inhabitants. Shepherds take theii\ flocks up the mountains for pasture in the summer in this prov- ince, and come down into the warmer valleys as the weather grows cold. The country is too mountainous to support many people, and the scanty population which live there are shut off from the news of the world. Very few indeed can read, and doubtless few indeed have heard of America. So not many have come to America from there. Find the area occupied by Lombardy, Venetia, and Liguria. What great river valley do we find here? Use your population map of Italy 36 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS again. Notice that Italy’s densest population is found here. In fact about as many people live here as anywhere in Europe; — over 250 to the square mile! Italy, smaller than Iowa and Missouri together, is the home of 36,000,000 people. Six times as many people as Iowa and Missouri have ! How does it happen that this section of densest popu- lation does not send us many immigrants? There are two important reasons which gives us a partial answer to our question. Study the physical map in your geography. Notice this broad valley watered by the Po River which has flowing into it many small streams from the mountains of the north — the Alps, and the mountains of the south — the Apennines. What kind of farming land do you think you would find in the Po Valley? Very rich fertile soil indeed, like that of our own Mississippi River Valley. Like it, the Po Valley has been built up from the sediment carried down by these rivers. In another way the Po Valley is like the Mississippi River Valley. It was formerly an arm of the Adriatic Sea which has been lifted and built up until today it is a fertile valley above sea level. Here Italian peasants are working on lands owned by a few great landlords. Their living is easier than that experienced by the southern Italians, however, and more and more they are beginning to own the land they till. The wealthy lords and upper class of this northern section of Italy are very industrious and northern Italy has become a great manufac- turing region. They have improved the farms, put in irrigation where it was found profitable, and have assisted tenants in adopting new and improved farm machinery and methods. These rich and powerful men have also established industries throughout this section. The lack of coal has been met by using the water power furnished by the many mountain streams which join the Po River. Turin and Milan and Venice are the largest of the manu- facturing centers that have grown up here. (Find these cities on your map. How are these centers in the Po Valley tied together?) The development of the Po Valley means that the many people of this section can find work in the textile mills, the mills where automo- biles or machinery or locomotives are made, working in the great export and import centers of Genoa and Venice, or on the railroads which connect this fertile and industrial valley with Europe and its ports. Notice that there are four of these large railroad trunk lines which lead northward. Each of these is using tunnels through the mountains or natural passes. Try to find these on your map. You see now that the northern Italian has a great choice of work, and more opportunity for work than has the southern Italian. This helps to explain the large immigration from the southern section and the very small immigration from the northern section. There still remain other reasons which you will learn about later. IV. AMERICA— THE HOME OF MANY NATIONALITIES. The next picture portrays in a very interesting way the fact that America is a country of many nationalities. Fig. 1 (p. 3) showed this fact, too. TWENTY-FIVE NATIONALITIES IN A NEW YORK EVENING SCHOOL American, Armenian, Austrian, Bohemian, Cuban, Dane, Dutch. Fin- lander, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Norwegian, Pole, Roumanian, Russian, Scotch, Slovak, Spanish, Swede, Swiss. Can you tell them apart? (From Steiner: “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” by permission of publisher, Revell & Co.) All of these men, representing 26 nationalities, are Americans now. But at one time each lived in some foreign country. They have all experienced the trials of the “ steerage,’ ’ of the inspection at Ellis Island, of locating a suitable living place, of finding a job at which they could earn a living, and — worst of all — the terror and loneliness of life in a strange land. What differences there are in their appear- ances! Yet they are all a real part of America. They have homes here; probably many of them have families here. They vote like native-born Americans do ; they help choose the mayors and aldermen of our cities, the governors of states, the representatives in state legis- latures, and the Congressmen and the Senators at Washington. Of course they cannot vote when they first come to America. They must live here five years. At the end of that time, provided they are able to answer a few simple questions about our history and govern- ment, they receive what are called “naturalization papers.” These Canada t EUROPE 38 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS immigrants that entered the United States in 1921 from different countries AMERICA — THE HOME OF MANY NATIONALITIES 39 make them full citizens of the United States with all the rights and privileges of native-born Americans. So you see that merely coming over here and being admitted to America doesn’t make one an Amer- ican. We will learn more about this in a later lesson.. To the Teacher: You will find the naturalization process completely dram- atized in the pamphlet on Immigration for Grade Nine. Who could ask for a finer illustration than Fig. 3 gives of the fact that America is the magnet for the humanity all over the world that need a chance to live better lives? Thirty -four different nations sent people here in 1921. Which four countries sent the most? Which four tKe least? Why is the arrow that points to New York so heavy? Why does not the great continent of South America send more people? Why does not Australia? Point to the six countries in the wall map that sent the largest number. ’ In what two ways are the number of immigrants shown? What is the purpose of the black bars opposite the name of each country? Which tells you the more clearly how many immigrants came here in 1921 from the different countries — the table of numbers, or the bars? The set of bars is called a BAR-GRAPH. What do you think the lengths of the bars stand for? We need to learn how to read a BAR-GRAPH when the numbers are not given, and we also need to know how to make graphs. Much use is made of graphs nowadays. The newspapers and magazines print them frequently when it is necessary to express numbers or percentages. School books use them, too. In the social studies pamphlets we shall have many of them. So we must learn how to read them and to make them. Let us look at Fig. 4. How many immigrants came to America in 1920 from Asia? How many from China? From Japan? From India? Look up each of these countries in your geography and be able to point to them on the wall map. Why do you think so few come from Asia to America to live, when so many come from Europe? We are going to study this matter care- fully after a while. From a map of the world tell which is farther from United States, Germany or Japan? About how many miles distant is each? Is England or India the farther? South Africa or Argentina? Norway or the Philippines? 40 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS HOW TO READ THE SCALE ON A GRAPH. At the top of the diagram is a horizontal line labeled “The Scale.” How is it marked off ? What do these markings mean ? If the figures were not printed beside the bars, could you tell how many people came? How accurately could you tell? Total Immigration 605,228 ~r^i e Scale. Europe 652,364 1 Canada 72,317 | Mexico 30,758 | Asia 25,034 | West Indies 13,774 1 South America 5,015 | Central America 2,254 | Australia 2,191 | Africa 648 | Number of immigrants who entered the United States in 1920 from Europe, Asia, South Amer- ica, Central America, Canada, Australia, Africa. Fig. 4 Who can tell the class how to make a BAR-GRAPH? We will not take the time now, but later we will learn how to do it more care- fully. One of your lessons this year is to learn how to make and read tables and graphs. Now turn to a good large map in your geography book. How can you tell distances on it? Scale of statute miles 0 10 50 100 150 200 250 This illustrates how the scale on a map appears. Look for the scale on each map you see. Fig. 5 Do you find a scale marked off in the lower corner that looks something like the illustration in Fig. 5. AMERICA THE HOME OF MANY NATIONALITIES 41 How many miles does the note say each inch represents? Put your ruler on the scale and see how many inches represent 250 miles on the map. How many miles is it around the whole earth ? If you do not know, find out from a globe in your school-room. Look for the scale and then figure up the total distance around the world. How far is it half way around ? A quarter way around ? Can you find out from your geography book the distances of the different countries from the United States? (If you have a copy of Dodge’s Advanced Geography, you will have no difficulty in getting this information.) V. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES IN NATIONALITIES BETWEEN THE OLD COUNTRIES AND THE NEW? One of the things that astonished Carlo’s Italian group most as they went about in New York City was the number of different nation- alities they found represented among the people. Instead of finding the population of one type, one complexion, of one language, and with similar traits, they encountered Bulgarians and Chinese, Bohemians and Jews, Germans, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and occasionally a native American. In the street cars, in the stores and churches, shops, factories — wherever they went, there was this same mixture of nation- alities. New York, more than any big city of the world, is made up of all races. Here the people of every land meet and partly mingle. In other cities, especially where there are factories and mills, there is a similar variety. Everywhere the writers of our story went while in Italy, they found that about 99 out of every 100 residents were native Italians; only one per cent of the people of Italy are not native born. In Scotland only one-tenth of one per cent are not native born. If our travelers had gone there, they would have found that 999 out of 1000 residents were Scotchmen. In France there is a slightly larger pro- New Countries with many Foreign Born Argentina 25 A% 1895 Canada 21.4% 1911 Australia 17.1% 1911 United-States 13.0% 1910 France 2.9% 1911 ■ Germany 1.9% 1910 | Sweden 039% 1910 | Italy 0.20% 1911 | Old Countries with very few Foreign Born tig. (o. Old countries have few foreign born. New countries have many. The length of the bars show the percent of the country’s population that is foreign born. Note how differ- ent new countries are from the old ones. (l) Percent based on total population including negroes Dom in. U.5. portion of foreign-born : 3 out of 100 ; 97 per cent are native French- men, and most of these trace their French ancestry back for gen- erations. The only countries besides the United States that have a large percentage of foreign born are the “new” countries — Argentina and Brazil in South America, Canada in North America, and Australia, an English possession south of China. DIFFERENCES IN NATIONALITIES 43 Fig. 6 shows the difference in the make-up of the population of the old European countries (Asiatic countries would look similar if they were included) and of the new countries of the Americas and Australia. At a glance you can tell whether the percentage of the foreign-born in each country is large or small by the length of the black bar. But even in the countries which have the longest bar, the largest part of the population is, of course, native born. In Brazil it is principally Spanish, Portuguese and Italian ; in Australia and Can- ada, chiefly English. What per cent of the population in Argentina are foreign-born? In Canada? In Australia? In the old countries of Europe, as Fig. 6 shows, nearly all the people are native-born. Now, we should remember that these “old” countries are really very old — more than a thousand years old, while the new ones are very, very young — most of them younger than a hundred years. See Fig. 7. It shows you on a TIME LINE that the history of France, England, Germany, Italy, and Sweden began over a thousand years ago. The Old Countries England France 6ermany Italy ^ Sweden *-■ i ' - i I I I 1 — A.D. 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1922 ~"r rr_ l i i 1600 1700 1800 1900 This is a time line. It helps you to remember when things happened. _ L ^ Argentina The Mew Australia Countries Brazil ^ Canada UNITED STATES] I75&-1825 Fig. 7 Although they have been different in size at various times, and have been governed in different ways, they have continued as nations to this day. But Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, and the United States are the newcomers into the family of nations. This is an impor- tant point and one we shall come back to many times. (Study how the Time Line is made. One of your tasks in this class is to make one when we come to talk more about the history of our country.) There is another difference in these people of the eastern coun- tries of Europe : they seldom leave the little villages in which they live. To sleep away from their own beds is almost unheard of. Of course that is true of some of our native Americans, too, especially of families who have lived for generations in little towns of New England. But Americans on the whole travel more than other people. They think much less of going to a near-by city or to another state, or 44 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS even across the country. We shall read interesting examples of this stay-at-home life in other lessons, but here is one incident told by an American who was travelling in Austria. “Some twenty years ago, while travelling from Vienna on the Northern Railway, I was locked into my compartment with three Slavic women, who entered at a way station, and who for the first time in their lives had ventured from their native home by way of the railroad. In fear and awe they looked out the window upon the moving landscape, while with each recurring jolt they held tightly to the wooden benches. “One of them volunteered the information that they were journey- ing a great distance, nearly twenty-five miles from their native village. I ventured to say that I was going much further than twenty-five miles, upon which I was asked my destination. I replied: ‘America/ expect- ing much astonishment at the announcement ; but all they said was : ‘ ’Merica? where is that? Is it really further than twenty-five miles?’ ”* People do not move freely from country to country in Europe as we move from state to state here. This helps to account for the fact that most of the people who live in these older countries were born where they live. If you went to Prague, you would find Czechs, with perhaps just a few Germans. If you visited Warsaw in Poland, you would be surprised to find a person who was not either a Pole, a Ger- man, or a Jew. If you went to Lemberg in Southern Poland, you would meet a few Ruthenians, possibly an occasional German ; but all the rest would be Poles. If they move at all, they uproot their homes entirely and move all the way to one of the “new” countries. America has been called the great “Melting Pot” of the world, because it is the great haven for peoples from all the nations of the earth. It is a magic word; most of them know little of the country before they come. But when they arrive, they mix and mingle, and finally become a real part of our nation. Today in the United States every nation, every race, every religion, every trade, is represented. There are Europeans and Asiatics, dark and light, swarthy and blond; Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Anglo-Saxons, Latins, Africans, with all sorts and kinds of ideals, prejudices, hopes, ambitions, all together in this one great land of plenty. What will be the result of constantly adding to this mixture in the melting pot? This is the most important question before the Amer- ican people today. All our thought in these social studies will revolve around it in some way or other. *Steiner, E. A.: ‘On the Trail of the Immigrant.” p. 16, F. H. Revell & Co. DIFFERENCES IN NATIONALITIES 45 In the story of Carlo and his friends we got a glimpse of the conditions in Italy that were driving the people to America. Before we leave the subject we should find out why other Europeans have come here in such great hordes. Try to imagine yourself a foreigner who is thinking of coming to America. Place a check mark before any of the ten following phrases that would make you think of America as “the promised land.’’ . 1. The climate in America is temperate. 2. It is interesting to travel. 3. No one is persecuted for his religious beliefs in America. 4. Wages are much higher in America. 5. American clothes are more attractive. 6. No one is forced to serve in the army in America. 7. America offers fine opportunities for amusement. 8. The public schools in America are free to all people. 9. Friends and relatives write about “wonderful America.” 10. All Americans can vote and hold office. We have collected a number of interesting anecdotes that illustrate why immigrants from the different countries come to America. As you read them, think about the reasons you have checked in the fore- going test, and see if you would change any of your answers. REASONS WHY IMMIGRANTS COME TO AMERICA NOW. WITH ANECDOTES FOR ILLUSTRATION. We, who live in comfortable circumstances in America, can hardly believe some of the descriptions we hear of the living conditions of the southeastern Europeans. It is easier to understand why they come to a strange far-off land to begin life over again after reading such accounts as this one : “In Hungary I had a wife, two children, house, six acres of land, two horses, a cow, two pigs, and a few poultry. That was my fortune. This same land that afforded an existence to my father and grand- father could not support us any longer. Taxes and the cost of living in the last few years have advanced so greatly that the expenses can- not be covered from as much as a small farm can yield. “[Things became worse, an early spring storm killed his crop, he had to buy his bread for money.] My horses were killed from disease. I had to sell my cow to buy winter clothes for the family. There was no money to work the land and without horses and work the land will not produce. I had to mortgage my home. . . . “As a farm laborer in Hungary can earn only enough for bread and water, how is he to pay the taxes, living expenses, and clothing? There was but one hope, America, the golden land of liberty, where the rivers and mountains are full of gold. . . . 46 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS ‘‘We will never go back to Hungary. It only deprived us of our home and land, while in America the soil covers our child. We have a home, money, and business, everything acquired in America. We lost everything in Hungary. We love Hungary as our native land, but never wish to live in it again.”* Usually our immigrants come because friends or relatives who came before them, have either written back reports of the “wonderful land of plenty” across the ocean, or have returned on visits and told them of the better conditions here. By far the most of them come because they can earn a better living for themselves, and save money to send back to the folks in the home-land. Here is an account written by a Swedish farmer : “A man who had been living in America once came to visit the little village near our cottage. He wore gold rings set with jewels and had a fine watch. He said that food was cheap in America and that a man could earn nearly ten times as much there as in Sweden. There seemed to be no end to his money ! Sickness came, with only black bread and a sort of potato soup or gruel for food, and at last it was decided that the older brother was to go to America. The first letter from him contained this : ‘ I have work with a farmer who pays me sixty-four kroner [nearly $17.00, for the krone is worth about 27 cents in our money] a month and my board. I send you twenty kroner, and will try to send that every month. This is a good country. All about me are Swedes, who have taken farms and are getting rich. They eat white bread and plenty of meat. One farmer, a Swede, made more than 25,000 kroner on his crop last year. The people here do not work such long hours as in Sweden, but they work much harder, and they have a great deal of machinery, so that the crop one farmer gathers will fill two big barns. ”t The first of the English colonists — the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620 — came to escape religious persecution; they wanted to live according to their own beliefs. Since that time, hardly a year has passed without great numbers coming to America because it was a land of open-mindedness and freedom. The story is told of a Pole who settled in Chicago a few years ago : “He was a teacher in Warsaw — a specialist in teaching the Polish language. His activity and success aroused the suspicion of Russian officials. They gave him notice to quit and closed his school. His income was two thousand dollars a year — a handsome income in Warsaw. In wrath he left the city and came to America, longing for a ♦Park and Miller: “Old World Traits Transplanted,” pp. 84-85, Harper & Brothers. fGrose, Howard B.: “Aliens or Americans?” pp. 37-38. DIFFERENCES IN NATIONALITIES 47 country where he could practice his art without molestation. He could not talk English, but began to study it, and while doing so worked for a dollar and half a day. This exile still works, but hopes to become a professor. His wife and children are still in the father- land, but he longs for the day when he can bring them to America, the land of freedom, and make this country his permanent home.”* An editor of an Esthonian paper settled in New York City. “A class to study English was organized in his office, of which he and twelve other men were students. After one of the lessons the teacher sat conversing with the group that was rapidly mastering the English language. During the conversation, one of the men, pointing to the editor, said: ‘If he goes back to Esthonia, he’ll be shot!’ We asked,. ‘Why?’ and his offense was, that as a patriot he had dared write some articles against the Russian government and its policy in his native country. To escape Siberia he came to America.”! And here is an account of how a Lithuanian Russian happened to come here: “He tells how it was the traveling shoemaker that made him want to come to America. This shoemaker learned all the news, and smug- gled newspapers across the German line, and he told the boy’s parents how wrong it was to shut him out of education and liberty by keeping him at home. ‘That boy must go to America,’ he said one night. ‘My son is in the stockyards in Chicago.’ These were some of his reasons for going: ‘You can have free papers and prayer books; you can have free meetings, and talk out what you think.’ And more precious far, you can have ‘life, liberty, and the getting of happiness.’ When time for military service drew near, these arguments for Amer- ica prevailed and the boy was smuggled out of his native land. ‘It is against the law to sell tickets to America, but my father saw the secret agent in the village and he got a ticket from Germany and found us a guide. I had bread and cheese and vodka (liquor) and clothes in my bag. My father gave me $50 besides my ticket. ’ Bribery did the rest, and thus this immigrant obtained his liberty and chance in America. ”+ “An Irish cook, one of ‘sivin childher,’ had a sister Tilly, who emigrated to Philadelphia, started as a greenhorn at $2 a week, learned to cook and bake and wash, all American fashion, and before •Roberts, Peter: “The New Immigration,” p. 7. tRoberts, Peter: Op. cit., p. 7. tGrose, Howard B.: “Aliens or Americans?” p. 36. 48 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS a year was gone had money enough laid up to send for the teller of story [her sister, the cook]. The two gradually brought over the whole family, and Joseph owns a big flour store and Phil is a broker, while his son is in politics and the city council, and his daughter Ann (she calls herself Antoinette now) is engaged to a lawyer in New York. That is America’s attractiveness and opportunity and transformation in a nutshell.”* Was the United States wise to allow the man who wrote the following letter to enter our country ? ‘ ‘ I have been already ten years in the blessed country, where there are no passports. “I am doing honest labor as a machinist’s assistant. In Russia I was a plain criminal. Yes, a criminal. I am openly saying so, for that was in my far-away past. And it seems to me that I am speaking not of myself, but of another unfortunate man, whom circumstances made a thief and a forger. ... I knew well what the criminal prison means. . . . America accepted me as I was. America gave me a chance to stand on my own feet. I was taken in with my shame- ful past, as if I were equal to the best. And I have repaid America with respect that only death itself can take away from my heart. “Excuse me for not signing my name. My Russian name I have, indeed, thrown out together with my Russian past, and as to my American name it is a clean one, and is not guilty for the past of the one who carries it.”f EXERCISE 1. Make a summary in your note-book of the different reasons why immigrants have come here in recent years. Give at least four. *Grose, Howard B.: “Aliens or Americans?” pp. 38-39 fLetter to the newspaper “Russkoye Slovo” (New York) quoted in Park, R. E., and Miller, H. A., “Old World Traits Transplanted,” pp. 91-92, Harper & Brothers. WHY THE COLONISTS CAME TO AMERICA, 1607-1750 To the Teacher : From the anecdotes, the reasons why immigrants come here now should be clear. At this point it will be wise to bring out the reasons why the early colonists came, between 1607 and 1750. This is a good time to have the pupils make class reports. Assign, either to individuals or to groups, the task of finding out from any school history of the United States why the people who founded each of the following colonies came : 1. Jamestown 2. Plymouth 3. New Netherlands 4. Massachusetts Bay 5. Pennsylvania 6. Maryland 7. Georgia New France This provides an opportunity to teach the use of an index if pupils do not al- ready know it. Have individual pupils make their reports in class. Make a blackboard outline of the reasons given. Then have the pupils make a summary in their note-book, opposite the summary of the earlier discussion, — something like this : 1607—1750 1. To escape religious persecution. 2. Etc. 1890—1922 1. To get a better living. 2. Etc. 2. Refer to some history of the United States and find out the principal reasons why the early colonists came — those between 1607 and 1750, and make a summary in your note-book. Write the reasons opposite those which you have given for the coming of the more recent immigrants, in such a way that they will be easy to compare. VI. GEOGRAPHY WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE COUN- TRIES FROM WHICH OUR IMMIGRANTS COME •As you read the little anecdotes of the last few pages, did you have a clear picture of where the native homes of the immigrants are located on the map? Can you call up in your mind where Hungary is ? Bremen ? Where an Italian peasant would take the boat to Amer- ica? By what route a Scandinavian would journey to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ? Many facts like these you should know, for even in your news- paper and magazine reading you will see them often mentioned. Can you locate on the wall map these countries from which immi- grants come to America and places where they settle: Poland, Sweden, Warsaw, Belgium, Germany, Holland, Chicago, Czechoslovakia, Detroit, Ireland, Austria, Philadel- phia, New York, Russia, Denmark, Jugo-Slovakia, Greece, France, England. Trace the routes that you think people from each of the foregoing countries would take in emigrating to New York City. To the Teacher : Give a test on Euro- pean place geography at this point. Pass out blank mimeographed maps of Europe and have the pupils do the following ex- , ercise. It is important that the pupils should have a clear idea of a few basic place-geography facts. EXERCISE TO TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE PRINCIPAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE. Before you begin this test read the directions all the way through. Follow the two steps of the test exercise as given here. First step : (a) Take a mimeographed map of Europe, draw the boundary lines clearly, and letter in the names of the following twenty countries : 1 . England 11. Portugal 2. Italy 12. Sweden 3. France 13. Denmark 4. Spain 14. Switzerland 5. Germany 15. Belgium 6. Czechoslovakia 16. Holland 7. Poland 17. Austria 8. Russia 18. Hungary 9. Ireland 19. Jugo-Slovakia 10. Scotland 20. Greece Second step : Exchange papers with a neighbor. Open your geog- raphy book to a map of Europe. Now correct your neighbor ’s map GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES 51 by comparing his work with the geography map, and write the name of each country which was incorrect on the left margin. The teacher will pass around among the pupils and check up the corrections of the maps. Return the paper to the owner. To the Teacher : The number of coun- tries each pupil had correct should be re- corded in your grade book for comparison with the scores made a week hence when the test is repeated. As a result of this test, you now know which countries you need to study so that you can place them accurately. How many got all right? Those who located all the countries correctly do not need to do. the next exercise; the}^ can spend their time on other work. To the Teacher : Pass out another blank mimeographed map of Europe. First step : Open your geography to the same map as before. Study very carefully the position and outlines of the countries you missed. See what the neighbors of each one are. For example, try to fix in your mind that France, say, is bordered by Spain, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland. Try to get a feeling for the general position of the country, its direction from America and from other countries, whether it is partly bounded by water. Second step : Now close your eyes and try to see the picture. Can you see its position with relation to each of the others? Third step : Open your eyes and compare the picture you had with the map picture. Study the map carefully. Now close your eyes and recall it again. Is it clearer than before? Look once more at the map and repeat this process until you are sure you have the position and boundaries clearly in mind. Fourth step : Close the geography, and on the clean mimeographed map make the picture. When you have finished, compare your work with the geography map. If it is incorrect this time, you must go through the whole process again, and again, until you succeed in getting it right. Fifth step : Do the same thing for all of the countries you missed in your test. When all are correct have the map 0. K.’d by the teacher. Sixth step : Bind the two test maps into your note-book for safe- keeping. In about a week we will repeat this test to see if you can remember the countries correctly. U. OF ILL LIB. U. OF ILL LIE VII. IMMIGRANTS HAVE BEEN COMING TO AMERICA FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS. Fig. 8 shows two interesting things: (1) that immigration to the United States is not something new, but that for many years — ever since the United States has been a nation — Europeans and people from other parts of the world have been coming to America to live; (2) that the number who are coming is increasing by leaps and bounds. You may wonder why the chart begins with the year 1820. For a long time the immigrants were not counted, but it has been estimated that between 1776 and 1820 the number who came averaged about 5000 a year. In 1819 Congress passed a law requiring that from that time on a permanent record should be made of all foreigners who came to our shores. So now we have a chart showing the number that have come each year from 1820 to 1920, a whole century. You will notice that the figures at the top represent the years between 1820 and 1920, and that those at the sides represent the number of immigrants. Each square represents 20,000 immigrants, so that each five squares, which are marked off by heavy horizontal bars, represent 100,000 immigrants. At the base of the chart, the dates are designated in ten-year periods, and the total immigration for each period is shown in figures between. Suppose now that you want to find out how many immigrants came over in, say, 1849. You would put your pencil vertically on a line with 1849. At the point where the heavy line from the bottom meets it, slip your pencil into a horizontal position and see what figure is at the end of the line to the right or left. Do you find that it is 300,000? Take the year 1888. Remember that each little square stands for 20,000. Do you find that the number you want is two squares below 600,000 ? What is your answer ? In the following list, underscore the ten-year period during which the most immigrants came : 1830—1840 1390—1900 1860—1870 1870—1880 In which period of ten years does your chart show that less immi- grants came than at any other? Now set off the ten-year period 1860-1870. Do you notice within this period an increase or a decrease in the number of immigrants arriving? Can you tell the reason? What do you notice about the year 1915? Why should there have been a decrease in immigrants at this time ? And what would you say was the reason for the increase in 1920? ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 53 ARRIVALS 1820 TO 1920. 3H.ti30.104. ESTIMATED ARRIVALS 1770 TO 1820. 250.000 54 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS HOW MANY HAVE COME SINCE 1820 ? Can you find the answer to this on Fig. 8? How can you find the total number of immigrants from Fig. 8? When we stop to think that there are one hundred and six million people in the United States today (in 1922), it seems still more re- markable that in the last 101 years we have received from other countries a total of one-third this enormous number. If we counted those who came before this — that is, between 1492 and 1820, this figure would probably be doubled. Yet, it seems to us today that the Euro- peans who came in the 328 years between 1492 and 1820 were very slow indeed in clearing and settling regions in the New World. Those who came to the eastern seaboard of the United States during this Nationalities - Number- Percent English 2,605,699 82.1 ■ Scotch 221,562 7.0 | 6erman 176,407 ■ Dutch 78,559 J i Irish 61,534 19 1 French 17,619 0.6 | All Others 10,664 03 1 Total 3,172,444 100.0 This figure shows that we were a country of English blood in 1790. What are we 9 now 7 Fig. 9 time were nearly all English, as Fig. 9 shows very clearly. Those who opened up South and Central America were nearly all Spanish. We have no accurate idea of the numbers of these latter people. In 1790 we were a nation of more than three million people. Suppose that this movement of immigrants coming to the United States • had suddenly stopped. How large a nation do you think we would be today? The Census Bureau in 1900 made a very careful study to answer this question and estimated that we would have had a popula- tion of thirty-five million people in 1900. # Fig. 10 will show you how we have grown* in numbers from three million to 106 million in 130 years. This chart also gives the number ♦Orth, Samuel P., “Our Foreigners,” p. 38. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 55 of immigrants who arrived during the same period. Study it carefully to see whether the number of immigrants arriving had any relation to the increase in our population. Fig. 10 During what period of ten years did our population increase most rapidly ? Does the immigration show a corresponding increase in the same time? See how the population curve mounts decade by decade ! Do you notice that it was 1840 before immigration added any important number to our growing nation? What was the gain between 1830 and 1840 in total population ? About what fraction of this number was due to immigration ? What fraction of the gain in population between 1850 and 1860 was due to immigration ? Make a table in your note-book showing the approximate fractions of the increases in population decade by decade that was caused by immigration. Is there any period during which we gained more people by immi- gration than from any other source? ' VIII. HOW THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WERE PUSHING WESTWARD FROM THE APPALACHIANS TOWARD THE PACIFIC OCEAN, 1820-1880. We may wonder how the United States could grow in population from three million to one hundred and six million. It was because the United States was growing in area as well as in numbers. In 1820 the United States owned all the land west to the Rocky Mountains. It had obtained the territory from the Alantic Ocean to the Mississippi River when it became independent of Great Britain after the Revolutionary War in 1783. It had gained from France what is called the Louisiana Territory in 1803 ; this included the whole western region from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. To the Teacher : The pupils should be made somewhat familiar with chief re- gions referred to in the accounts of the Westward Movement. Do not interrupt the course of the reading and discussion to systematically teach their location. In- stead, point them out carefully on the wall map as you go along. Always have a wall map showing before the children as they read. Here is a list of the regions which should be marked off : 1. Appalachian Mountains 2. Rocky Mountains 3. Mississippi River 4. Atlantic Coast region 5. Louisiana Territory (look up in a school history) 6. Ohio Valley 7. Northeastern United States 8. Pacific Coast region 9. Texas What part of the vast region had been settled by 1820? Fig. 11 shows this clearly. The map shows that most of the people were still living east of the Appalachian Mountains, particularly along the At- lantic Coast. The heavy black line on the map is called the frontier. The government defines ‘ ‘frontier” as a line drawn north and south where the settlements average less than two people to the square mile. Why do you think the frontier extends so much farther west in the region of the Ohio Valley than in the northern and southern parts? Now look at Fig. 12 and compare the settlements of 1820 with those of 1880. What do you think was the most important thing the Amer- ican people were doing in these sixty years? Instead of gradually pushing the frontier westward, they broke through the line and settled in big patches of the Great West, leaving large unsettled territories THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 57 between, as shown by the white spaces on the map. From your study of Fig. 12, what would you give as the reason that the frontier entirely disappeared ? EXERCISE Place a check mark before two sentences in the following list that best explain the map of 1880, shown in Fig. 12. 1. People were living in the Rocky Mountains. 2. Most people were living in Northeastern United States. 3. Some people were living in every state. 4. The Indians were still opposing the advance of the Amer- icans. 5. There were less people in the far west because there were no rivers. Now turn to Fig. 20 on page 116, and compare it with Fig. 12. In what way are they similar? Do you notice that even forty years ago northeastern United States was much more thickly populated than the south or the west? After completing the following sentences you will be better able to answer this question. 1. Our reading to date shows that most of our foreigners came from the continent of In coming to the United States, they either entered through the port of or come through Fig. 20 shows that per cent of the 58 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS immigrants settled in northeastern United States. American manu- facturers were using more and more machinery after 1865-1870. These new machines required less skilled labor and more unskilled labor. The native Americans would not accept the wages for which the v were willing to operate these machines. But in those days there was always the Great West where anyone could obtain free land and become a farmer. The preferred to Fig. 12- THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 59 take his chances with the West, to working for the low wage which the was receiving in the East. Some of the Western States in which they settled were , , Fig. 12 also shows that in 1880 our country extended from the Atlantic clear to the Pacific. In 1845 Texas was annexed to the United States; the following year, 1846, the States that are now Ore- gon and Washington became American territory; and in the Mexican Years War, 1848, we took by conquest California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This general moving to the West between 1820 and 1860 the his- torians call “The Westward Movement.” In the twenty years before 1820 Americans broke through the Appalachian Mountains and began to settle the Ohio Valley. By 1840 they were settling the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi River, and hundreds of them had crossed the Rockies and settled on the Pacific Coast. Gold was found in 1848 in California. That discovery caused hundreds of thousands 60 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS to ‘‘sell out” where they were living and go West. Others failed in business, or could not compete with the increasing number of foreigners that landed in America and made wages low; these also “pulled up stakes” in the East and started life anew in the great western plain where land was “free.” In the last half of the nineteenth century they settled the region from western Iowa and Missouri to the Rocky Mountains. During this time ten states were created in this area. Our laws required that any territory must have at least 60,000 people before it could be made a state. What conclusion would you draw as to the number of native Americans that “took their chances” in the West? About what part of a million would you estimate the number to be? Now read the next story of how American families went West. “GOING WEST” IN THOSE DAYS. If one had been out in the open prairie in a certain part of Wis- consin in the summer of 1870, he would perhaps have noticed, sil- houetted against the sky on the far horizon, a procession of horse-drawn covered wagons, followed by a small herd of cattle. For such a caravan was conveying the Randals from their home in Wisconsin all the way to the quarter-section of unbroken land they had pur- chased in Iowa. Nor were the Randals the only family who were finding their way through the tall, untrodden grass to a home farther westward. The Garlands, the Greens, the Bracketts, the Burdicks, the Gallaghers, the MacClintocks, were all driven by the pioneer’s spirit of adventure to break into new ground in the direction of the sunset. Cheer up, brothers, as we go O ’er the mountains, westward ho, Where herds of deer and buffalo Furnish the fare. This was the song they sang. There is a ballad, too, which many a husband and wife sang together in those days, the husband singing the first verse, the wife answering with another verse, the husband taking a second turn, and the wife again answering. The husband would sing : Away to Colorado a journey I ’ll go, For to double my fortune as other men do, While here I must labor each day in the field And the winter consumes all the summer doth yield. The wife would then reply : Dear husband, I ’ve noticed with a sorrowful heart That you long have neglected your plow and your cart, Your horses, sheep, cattle at random do run, THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 61 And your new Sunday jacket goes every day on. Oh, stay on your farm and you’ll suffer no loss, For the stone that keeps rolling will gather no moss. But the husband would insist : Oh, wife, let us go; Oh, don’t let us wait; I long to be there, and I long to be great, While you some fair lady and who knows but I May be some rich governor long ’fore I die, Whilst here I must labor each day in the field, And the winter consumes all the summer doth yield. The singing of more verses and many such ballads was the feature of many a long evening’s entertainment when the neighbors gathered into one of the farm-houses. With none of the conveniences which we can hardly imagine being without — such as railroads, packers, draymen, automobiles, the poor wives had to pack up their household goods and trundle along with their babies to the unsettled countries where the husbands felt sure fortunes awaited them. To the tune of Then o’er the hills in legions, boys, Fair freedom’s star Points to the sunset regions, boys, Ha, ha, ha-ha! the kitchen stove, kettles, beds, and other furniture were loaded into the wagons, or, if it was winter, into huge sleighs, for a journey which often took many days. “Go West, young man,” was the slogan Which seemed to ring in the ears of all the farmers. “West,” however, was always shifting its location. The farther the people moved, the farther “West” became. After Iowa, it was Nebraska; after Nebraska, the Dakotas, Idaho, Wyoming, California. The Westward Movement finally reached clear across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. A little girl, whose parents and grandparents moved on to Ne- braska when she was a baby in arms, wrote down as a story what her parents had told her about their early days there when she was too young to remember. There were no houses at that time, and the new- comers built their own of sod, or lived in dug-outs in the banks of rivers. There were no railroads and no mail deliveries, and no trees except along the river banks. The openness of the country made the weather much more severe than now. One time the little girl’s father started with his team of oxen to meet another family of pioneers, friends from the old farm, whom he expected on a certain day. It was a trip of sixty-four miles and took four days to get there. When he was about ten miles from home, a terrible storm came, and he had to take shelter where he could. It was a whole week before his wife heard anything of him ; then, when she was almost frantic, and was about to 62 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS start off in search of him, he and his oxen came driving in. The storm had cleared, and together they started off to get supplies, leaving the little girl, twelve years old, alone. They were not four miles away from the house when another storm arose. The oxen will not face a storm; they turn around and break everything in sight. The father and mother were helpless. Night came, and the end of another day; the storm raged and they could not go back. Meanwhile, the little girl had used up all her firewood and had no other fuel. She finally managed to get to a neighboring dug-out a mile away, and there she stayed in safety until her parents returned. Many children today hear stories from their fathers and grand- fathers of these “going West” expeditions. But, like the Civil War veterans which many of them were, the fathers and mothers who had these experiences themselves are becoming fewer and fewer; and still fewer the grandfathers and great-grandfathers who moved West when West was almost what we call East today. The Westward Movement started much further back than anyone living today can remember. From the time that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, people became filled with the spirit of adventure that made them want to break into the wilderness and unexplored country. From the little colonies formed by the Pilgrims along the eastern coast, the settlements spread out to western New York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Wiscon- sin, Iowa, and gradually pushed on all the way to the Western coast from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes families moved in groups, sometimes singly. They ti aveled in wagons drawn by horses, mules, or oxen ; some rode on horseback, some walked. The families were very large in those days, and frequently three generations lived together. The men folks hunted along the way for game and wild honey, always on the lookout for a good location in which to settle. The children kept the cattle and extra horses from straying too far away. At night the travelers camped along the roadside, near a spring if possible, and cooked their food, fed the stock, and made preparations for the next day’s journey. When the plantation people of the South moved, they carried all their tools and work animals with them so that they could set their slaves to work in the new home at once. For the slaves, moving was a succession of holidays; they enjoyed every new sound and sight by day, and sang and danced around the campfire in the evening. Travel by river was easier and cheaper than travel by land, but it was attended with so much danger that men with families usually took the land routes. Whatever the means of travel, the trips were full of hardships and danger; the weather was uncertain, the danger THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT 63 from exposure great, and food supplies could not be counted on. It was very hard on the wives and mothers, for besides leaving their homes and all that they knew and loved, they had to endure the severe hard- ships of starting all over again in a new place, with large families of children to protect and care for as they went. The grandfathers and great-grandfathers who pioneered westward were strong and brave, for the faint-hearted soon turned back if they ever started. EXERCISE Make a summary in your notebook of the principal points of this section. IX. ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION Study Fig'. 14 carefully, and then summarize in your notebook the chief facts about “A Century of Immigration” by completing these sentences : 1. The principal Old immigrant countries are , , and 2. The principal New immigrant countries are , , and 3. The great difference in numbers is due to the fact that most of the immigrants who came before 1880 were from Europe, and most of the immigrants who came after 1880 were from Europe. 4. Reasons why immigrants have come to America, according to the figure are , , , and 5. Reasons why immigration to America decreased at certain times are and Writers on immigration have constantly spoken of the “tide of immigration. ’ ’ Does this pictorial representation of it make you think of the “waves” of human beings thrown up on our shores at different periods in the last century? Look at Fig. 14 as a whole, first. Compare the numbers of the “old” immigration with the numbers that came after 1880. Try to see the comparison as a whole. What is the fact that stands out above all the rest? When our country was being settled between 1830 and 1870, what European nations contributed to our population? Did Italy help build our early canals and railroads during the 1830’s to 1840 ’s? Did the Slavs of Austria-Hungary or Russia cross the mountains on pack-horse, or tramp on foot through the forests of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky during the first quarter of the nineteenth century? What foreign born peoples do you think did? Does the chart lead you to think that the Russians helped to settle our states west of the Mississippi River, 1850 to 1890? Did the Slavs “homestead” the land of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and the Dakotas in the ’sixties and ’seventies when the Homestead Law of 1862 threw open that great undeveloped plain to any farmers that would start out and establish a home on it? No, the Germans, the Scandinavians, and the Britons, — these were the people who were the pioneers of our Westward Movement. These were the “old” immi- grants. The “Old” Immigration The“New” Immigration From Northern Europe From Southern & Eastern Europe ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 65 66 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS The “new” were still to come — after 1880 when the West was reclaimed, when railroads had pierced the Rocky Mountains, and the telegraph and telephone had tied together the Atlantic and Pacific and the North and the South, when great cities were rapidly developing after all the free land was gone. It was from then, through the ’eighties and ’nineties, right into the present years of the twentieth century, that the coming of the Slavs has changed the tide of immigra- tion from northern and western to southern and eastern Europe. Why Immigrants Came to America From the Old Countries From 1840-1880 THE IRISH came, 1846-1855 Did you know that there were more Irish people or people of Irish descent in America than in Ireland? In 1910 there were 4,504,360 people of Irish blood in the United States. A few came before 1845, but the number was small. The first great numbers came in the ’forties and ’fifties of the nineteenth century. See how this is shown on Fig. 14. The chart says “Famine and rebellion in Ireland.” What does famine for a whole country mean? Why, it means that the people in thousands, even hundreds of thousands, die because they cannot get •enough to eat. It is a hard thing for us to realize when we have plenty to eat, and plenty of fuel and clothing to keep us warm, that there are many thousands of people in the world who do not have enough to keep them from starving or from freezing in the winter. This has been true at times in our own country. But it has been especially true in other countries like India and China and Persia and Ireland. How did it happen that in 1847 and 1848 and 1849 the Irish people flooded to the great harbors in tens of thousands and took passage for America? It happened because the Irish people had come to depend on only one crop in their farming. This was the potato crop, and it failed. You all know the Irish potato, how nourishing it is, and how easy it is to grow. It was almost the only substantial article of food that the Irish used. They rarely ate meat, as we do. The American people eat a great deal of meat — perhaps too much for their health. But the Irish seldom eat it. During the period from 1800 to 1850 many Irish boys and girls grew up to be men and women without ever having tasted any kind of meat. Many even grew to be fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers without ever having eaten it. So you can see how much they had learned to depend on the potato crop. And you can understand what a real calamity it was when the potato crop failed in 1845, 1846, and 1847. The most unfortunate circumstances occurred. The summer of 1845 was very damp and cold in Ireland. Crops could be grown only with very great difficulty. In ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 67 1846 and 1847 a plant disease swept over the farms, ruining all the potatoes, and bringing suffering to the people. Can you imagine 2,000,000 people dying because they were starving? Think of whole towns being exterminated. Imagine what it would be tomorrow morn- ing, if when you got up you were told by your mother that you could not eat breakfast because there was no food in the house. Then at noon you would go without lunch and at night you would go to bed without dinner. The next day would be the same. You couldn’t buy food (bread or potatoes) at the store because the storekeeper had no food to sell. He was starving, too. Your neighbors would gradually use up all their food, and then would follow days when no one had anything to eat. The people, where such a thing really came to pass in 1846-1847, becoming greatly frightened, began to go in search of fruit and herbs. They ate berries from trees and bark and straw — anything that seemed to have any food in it. Then as they became weak, disease broke out, and whole villages of people died. That is what happened in Ireland in 1845-1847. Is it any wonder that, when America sent food in relief ships to be distributed to those who could get to a port, many thousands came back here in the ships. These ships were not very sanitary or comfortable. People died on them — a great many. But the Irish were ready to brave even the dangers of a sea trip in the awful “steerage” (where all the poor people had to live on board ship) rather than live in Ireland. That was one reason why the Irish came to America in large num- bers in the years between 1846 and 1855, and again from 1881 to 1885 — “famine in Ireland.” But there was another good reason — “rebellion in Ireland.” For hundreds of years Ireland had been oppressed by the English king and Parliament — even more severely than the Colonies in Amer- ica before the Revolution. There were differences in faith. The Eng- lish were largely Protestant and the Irish largely Catholic. There was also a money matter difference. The Irish had learned how to manufacture things — woollen cloth, cotton goods, articles of glass, iron, and to refine sugar. As early as 1600 the Irish made fine woollens. They sold these abroad, in England and in France, and in other countries of Europe. We must remember that Ireland was under the English Government then as it is now. It was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. English weavers also had learned how to make fine cloth. Of course, no power machinery was used until after 1750, for people had not learned how to make steam or gas engines or electrical motors. The weaving and other kinds of manufacturing was done by hand very slowly and laboriously. Now’ English weavers did not want their trade interfered with. So they got the English Government to forbid the Irish to make woollen 68 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS cloth. This was as early as 1699. In the next hundred and fifty years England passed one law after another that in the end made it prac- tically impossible for Irishmen to manufacture or sell the things they had learned to make. All they could do was farm their small plots of land. Against this state of affairs they rebelled. It made them a dis- satisfied people, and they have been leaving Ireland continuously on this account. An Irish immigrant who came to this country thirty years ago has told what he thinks about it : “You may wonder w T hy we are a nation of farmers. The real reason is that England wished us to be; she would not let us become an industrial nation. Englishmen engaged in manufacture, did not want us to manufacture goods with which they would have to com- pete lest it hurt their business. As early as 1699 we were forbidden by the English Government to manufacture woollen goods and sell them to foreign countries. Then it w r as other goods — cotton, glass, hats, iron, sugar. Whatever business Ireland turned her hand to was soon forbidden by laws made in England. Is it any wonder we came to America? Farming was all we could do at home. Everyone doesn’t like farming any more than everyone likes teaching. If we went to ■Canada we would again be under English rule. We were very poor and ignorant. Many of us could neither read or write, and many knew no trade at which to work. We huddled in the poorer quarters of eastern American cities and became men of the spade and the hoe. It didn’t look then as though we would make very good American citizens. In 1846 we filled the almshouses, and Irish beggars wandered in many of the streets of Atlantic coast cities. By 1850 there were over a hundred thousand Irish in New York, and there was not one rapidly growing Eastern city that did not have its Irish town or shanty-town where the immigrants clung together.” The Germans Came, Too. Turn back to Fig. 14. Notice how, as the “wave” of Great Britain immigration receded, the German or Teutonic “wave” advanced. And what a remarkable contrast there was between these two races elbow- ing each other in their rush to get into the “promised land of liberty and plenty.” The plodding German leaving his native land to seek a home in the new world, and the hot-headed, fervid, temperamental Irishman meeting him at the ports of entry on the same errand. They were almost the exact opposites in ways of living, in the work they desired to do, in disposition, in ambitions. “The Irishman went to the city, joined our construction gangs on railroads, roadway or canal, or entered the trades in our factories. On the other hand, the German sought the land, was content to be let alone, had no desire to command others or to mix with them, but was determined to be ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 69 reliable, took things as they came, met opposition with patience, clung doggedly to a few cherished convictions and sought passionately to possess a home and a family, to master some minute mechanical or technical detail and to take his leisure and his amusements in his own customary way.”* Why Did the Germans Come? In 1910 there were eight million people of German blood in the United States. Why should all these people have left their homes and journeyed across the sea to begin life all over again in a strange coun- try? Let us see. What kind of a government did Germany have until 1918 ? Was Germany a republic like the United States and like France? Did the people vote and elect the head of their government as we in America do? Did they say who should be the officials over their provinces? They do now, in 1922 ; but did they before 1918 ? No, Germany was a great empire ruled over by an emperor and grand dukes and princes; so was Austria-Hungary; so was Russia until 1917. The people had very little control over their own lives. In the autumn of 1918 — just before the end of the Great War — the people of middle Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary, started a revolution. It spread very quickly, and within three months was so strong that the German Emperor, William II of Hohenzollern, and the Austrian Emperor, Charles of Hapsburg, had to leave their thrones and run for safety to other countries. Wilhelm II fled to Holland, where he has since lived as plain William Hohenzollern ; and Charles of Austria went first to Switzerland and then to the island of Madeira, where he recently died. How were these rulers chosen ? They were not chosen as the heads of our government are chosen. In this country we elect our officers for definite periods. Each citizen goes to the polls and votes for President, for the governor of his state, for mayor of his city, for the representatives in the state legislature, and in our national Congress at Washington. In Germany and Austria-Hungary the emperors come to their thrones not by the vote of the people, but by hereditary right. That is, the office passed from the father to the eldest son ; if there was no son in the family, it passed as a rule to the nearest male relative ; in a few cases the eldest daughter succeeded to the throne. How did it happen that the Hohenzollern family in Germany and the Hapsburg family in Austria-Hungary controlled the throne by hereditary right? Many centuries ago, these countries were divided •Orth, S. P., “Our Foreigners,’’ pp. 124-125, 70 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS up into hundreds of little principalities about as large as our counties or some of our smallest states. There was no organized government then with one king or one emperor at the head of it; there was no organized army or police system ; and the people were constantly getting into quarrels with each other. As in every community, there were a few people who w T ere strong enough to protect those who were unable to defend themselves. The w T eak, in return for their protection, worked and fought for the strong. As time went on, two classes of people developed : the lords, and the serfs. The lords became more and more powerful as they gained the allegiance of the serfs; some of them were even able to conquer other lords and their serfs. The serfs, on the other hand, who had to work for their lords a certain number of days a week, and had to give them a large amount of their produce, and fight for them, became more and more dependent on their lords, and at the same time poorer and poorer themselves. Gradually the principalities in Germany (there were about 1500) were conquered until about 300 lords controlled them all. Then Na- poleon came along and reduced them to 82. By 1871 there were about 25 ; and Prussia, the most powerful of them all, was able to unite them all into one country, Germany. The Prussian King became Emperor, and his grandson was Wilhelm II, who ruled until 1918. As the lords grew in power and the peasants became more depend- ent on them, it is easy to imagine what happened. The lords took advantage of their strength, and the peasants suffered the consequences. The living conditions of the two classes became very different. The peasants lived in poor sorts of huts with no comforts as we know them. The huts were low and dirty, with only the hardened earth for floors. The roofs were made of straw-thatch. The houses were usually of one room only — just hovels of wood and sticks plas- tered together with mud. The room as a rule had no chimney, and the only place for smoke from the open fire to get out was through an open hole in the roof. We can picture what this meant in cold weather or in time of storms, rain or snow ! The houses were built along scraggly lanes where chickens and pigs and children played together in the dirt. The peasants had no ideas of cleanliness or sanitation as we have today. Even the stables and barns were under the same roof as the house, and this is still true in many countries of Europe today — Germany, Russia, France, and Ser- bia. We would think it astonishing to live that way. In fact, most of us in America would be quite miserable if we had to endure such unhealthy conditions. The lords’ homes, however, were much better, and the peasants did all their heavy labor. The lord spent most of his time in dueling and superintending his lands. The common man of these Middle Ages, say from 1000 to 1500 A. D., was bound to the land. He was regarded ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF IMMIGRATION 71 as just so much real estate, and could not leave the land he was on. If the land was sold, he was sold with it. He had his own bit of ground to plant and take care of, but he had so much work to do on the lord’s land that he seldom had time to get a good crop from his own. If he did succeed in getting a harvest, he had to pay a large part of it to the lord for the use of the land. He also paid many dues and fines. Sometimes these were in money, but usually the peasants had no money, so they paid in eggs, or geese, or chickens, or calves, or grain. Now as this was the way the great mass of the people lived for almost a thousand years, you can understand how a spirit of rebellion was gradually growing up. Of course, for hundreds of years the common people did not have enough education to know that their lives could be made better, for none but the priests in the church could read or write; and there were very few books in those days. Even the kings and lords could not read. But slowly from about 1100 to 1300, cities and towns began to grow up in Central Europe and in England, and some of the people learned of better ways of living. The thatched hovels of the peasants were replaced by fairly clean and comfortable homes. They were not like ours, with gas and electric light and running water, but they were a great improvement over the old ones. The peasants had to carry their water from wells just as our pioneer forefathers did only a few years ago in America. There was no city water supply, and no paving of streets or sewer systems. There are none today in such places as China. They had no street lights at night either, as even our smallest villages in the United States have nowadays. But even so, the people in the cities were not bound down by the laws and regulations that their forefathers were bound by ; they were gaining a measure of freedom. Gradually more and more people learned to read and write, and as they did so, they began to get new ideas of freedom, and then to make demands of their rulers. Whenever the kings or emperors wanted to make a war, they would promise to give the people what they asked, when the war was over. But when the war was over, they forgot all about their promises and were more severe and oppressive than ever. From the time that Germany was unified in 1871, there was an organized army which grew to the size of one million soldiers. (Com- pare this with our little army of 70,000 men before 1917.) All men in Germany were compelled to serve in the army — that is, all but a very few privileged ones. Most of them did not want to serve. They were peaceable farmers and tradesmen just like most of the people in other civilized countries, and they wanted to be let alone to grow their crops, educate their children, and develop happy homes. The Emperor and his sons, and the princes who had been at the head of the separate AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS 72 principalities, and the archdukes and nobles, and others of the “nobil- ity,” had full control of the army. They could make war whenever they wished and compel the soldiers to fight, and until 1918 the soldiers obeyed. The educational system in Germany is different from ours, also. In America each boy and girl has at least an opportunity to go to school. The schools, beginning with the kindergarten, go through to the college and university. Any boy or girl whose family can afford to let their child stay in school that long, has the privilege of going to a free public school, a free high school, and then on to college, and, if they are bright enough, into one of the professional schools. In Germany it has been different. There were different kinds of schools for different classes of people. A peasant boy had to go to the poor people’s school, called the “ Folks-school ’ ’ (Yolkschule). The boy from the wealthy classes and nobility went to a select school (gymnasium), and then into the university. He became a lawyer, or a doctor, or an officer in the army, or perhaps a high official in the government. The peasant boy rarely was able to do this. Is it any wonder that the desire to emigrate to America was strong? As far back as 1846, as Fig. 14 shows you, over 300,000 Germans came over. An Englishman who was over in one of the German states on the Rhine River in 1846 said that “long files of carts met you every mile carrying the whole property of these poor wretches who were to cross the Atlantic.” But the Germans who came here in tens of thousands in the years of the revolutions in Europe, 1846, 1847, 1848, were much better off than those who stayed behind. They had saved their money for a good purpose. The book stores of German towns by that time had many little books to sell which described conditions in America and told how to get here. Many of the people, like those in Italy and other countries, were told in letters from friends and relatives already here, and offered work if they would come. Those who stayed behind all these years when their countrymen were coming to this free land of America lived under one of the most autocratic governments the world has ever known. We shall learn later how it happened that the great World War came to pass in 1914, and how it was that after centuries of oppression and rebellion, Ger- many was at last made a republic. X. THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT. Now we have seen emigration from the European’s point of view. Let us see what the Americans thought about all these people coming over. How could the United States accommodate them and find work for them to do? First of all, what was the condition of our country when they started coming, about 1820? For ten or fifteen years we had been busily improving river traffic. Transportation and travel in the Missis- sippi Valley was much more important than the traffic farther east. For a time the Western rivers were the only routes by which settlers could trade among themselves, or ship their products to foreign and Eastern markets. Before the steamboat came into use, all cargoes were carried in barges, keel boats, and flats. A farmer with the help of several of his neighbors would load a flat with cotton or tobacco, and float downstream with it to wherever he could find a market. There he would dispose of both cargo and boat, and return home on foot. New Orleans was the final destination, and it was then the most important export district in the United States. Each trip took months of time and involved a good deal of danger. Often the Indians would kill the crew and steal the cargo ; in later years there were river thieves all about. Sometimes the farmer would pole his heavy boat back up the stream with a load of manufactured goods, but this was a slow, labor- ious task. In 1807 Fulton launched his first steamboat, the Clermont , and made a trip up the Hudson to Albany — 150 miles in 32 hours. This proved that steam navigation was possible and practicable. Other steamboats quickly followed, and traffic and travel became so much easier, cheaper, and quicker that business and shipping grew rapidly from that time on. The next step was to develop waterways and railroads, for factories were springing up almost over night, and the best and quickest possible means of distribution of the manufactured products was needed. So they started building canals parallel with the rivers and lakes. By 1825 the Erie Canal was completed, and within a few years the citizens of Philadelphia and Baltimore were trying to engineer canals through the mountains to Pittsburgh. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois took up the work of connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi Valley, while Maryland and Pennsylvania directed their efforts to reaching the head- waters of the Ohio. There was great excitement about it all. Mer- chants saw how these improvements in transportation would help their business in the West. Towns grew up along the canals where there had been only wilderness before, and shops and factories flourished. No sooner was the canal-building well on its way than the first railroads were planned. Work was begun on the Baltimore & Ohio 74 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS in 1828, and in 1830 ground was broken for the Mohawk & Hudson Bailway in New York State. Many of the states also included in their improvement schemes the buildiug of wagon roads. The wagon road was older as a public work than either the canal or railroad. The Cumberland road which had been started from Cumberland, Maryland, in 1806, reached Van- dalia, Illinois, in 1830. Turnpike companies were authorized by the states to build roads and bridges from public funds ; in some cases toll was charged, others were free. All of these projects, of course, required a great deal of labor of all kinds, both skilled and unskilled. Workers were needed for factory and farm, for railroad construction gangs, and for canal construction gangs, and for wagon-road gangs. The native supply of labor was not great enough to meet this sudden demand. Where could laborers be procured ? The answer was Europe. The builders and manufacturers sent agents to European countries, and to England and Ireland, to tell the people over there about the opportunities in America. They showed them money. A peasant who was earning 25 cents a day was told that in America he could earn a dollar a day — four times as much. And he was told about the thou- sands of acres of rich land in this country waiting for men to come and make it into valuable farm lands. But America was a long way to go, especially as many of them had never been outside of their native villages; it was unknown, full of uncertainties, and there was a great deal to leave behind to which they might never be able to return. So they came slowly at first. After they had been here a while, they wrote back reports of the new land to friends and relatives in Europe, telling of the wages they were getting, of the opportuni- ties on the land, and of the living conditions here. This brought larger numbers. When there have been famines or wars or revolutions in their own countries, they have come here to get away from them. Frequently when conditions have been normal over there, an indus- trial boom here has attracted them, or hard times here have kept them away. An interesting story shows how willing they were to leave their homes in 1B30 : “A ship captain about to sail for America advertised in the Man- chester Times [England, September 26, 1830], that on a certain day he would be at an inn in Deansgate to contract with such as were disposed to go to Baltimore. He had expected a dozen, but so many came that the inn and the street before it were filled with persons struggling to be first to speak with him. Not one had the means to pay for the passage, and when informed that none would be taken who had not five pounds [about $25.00], they cried out that they were willing to be bound to service in America till their wages amounted to THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT 75 the cost of conveying them there. Despairing of making them under- stand, the captain fled to his room, whither the people followed, and were with difficulty persuaded to go home. Between six and seven hundred are said to have been in the crowd. ’ ’* ‘‘A Westbury weaver, writing from Philadelphia [in 1830], de- clares he had no trouble in finding work, that there are hundreds of cotton and woollen mills in the city, that weavers were in demand, that the days are clear for weeks together, that meat costs but two- pence ha'penny a pound, gin but threepence a pint, and that 'there is no complaining in our streets.’ ”f About the same time another of these newcomers, near the Hudson River, wrote back commenting on the "puddings, pies, preserves, pickles, and fruit in season that load the farmers’ tables,” and re- marked that "servants sit down at the same board with their masters. ‘They do not think of locking the doors in this country, and you can gather peaches, apples and all kinds of fruit by the side of the road.’ ”f Another from Germantown, Pa., wrote : ‘ ‘ There is a great many ill-conveniences here, but no empty bellies. Farmers now work from sunrise to sunset, all the year around ; they get from ten to twelve dollars per month and their board, or three-fourths of a dollar per day. A man or woman need not staj^ out of employment one hour here. No war nor insurrection here, but all is plenty and peace. ”f The Change from the old to the New Immigration, 1890-1900. Turn back to Fig. 14 and study the w T aves of immigration. What interesting change was taking place in the character of our immigra- tion ? What peoples became interested in the United States about 1890 that had not been concerned before ? Study carefully the reasons that are given for this change and make a summary of them. Between 1900 and the beginning of the World War in 1914, more than three million Italians and six million Slavs poured into America — an average of more than a half million a year. The increasing num- ber was not the only important thing ; the character of the immigrants was different, they were of different temperament, with different stand- ards of living and different customs, and they knew different trades. In the eleven years from 1899 to 1910, nearly three-fifths of all the immigrants were either Italians, Slavs, or Hebrews. Total Immigration 1899-1910, 8,514,103 Number of Italians, 2,061,148 24 per cent “ Slavs, 1,849,139 22 11 “ " “ Hebrews, 990,182 12 " “ 4,900,469 58 •McMasters, J. B., “History of the People of the United States,” Vol. 6, p. 81. tlbid., p. 80. 76 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS It was in one of these years that Carlo returned to Italy and brought back his brothers and sisters and friends. Turn back to the story and see if you can answer the questions given at the end of it. It is estimated that there are six million Slavs in America at the present time. Very few of these, as Fig. 14 shows, came before 1890. Who are the Slavs ? They are not all in America by any means ; nearly one-third of the whole population of Europe is Slavic. Study Fig 15. Would you say that they are a unified people like the English, French, Germans, Italians, or Swedes? No, nor are they a unified people like the people of the United States. Keep this statement in mind as you read on to the end of the section, and see if you are able then to tell why America, which contains all the nationalities of the earth, is more unified than the Slavic nations, who have very few people from outside countries. Now look carefully at Fig. 16. The area inhabited by the Slavs is darkened. Notice the number of countries marked off in this area: Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Jugo- slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine. Each one of these has people from each other one, but they are all Slavs. Between 1899 and 1908 we received Servians from : Croatia Bosnia Servia Slavonia Herzegovina Montenegro Istria Bulgaria Turkey Dalmatia South Hungary Think of it — Serbians from eleven different countries! In the same years we received Croatians from seven different countries : Croatia Slavonia Istria Dalmatia Herzegovina Bosnia South Hungary THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT 77 We received Bohemians from Bohemia Moravia Silesia and Poles from Galicia Russia Germany This variety shows how every one of these areas is sprinkled with people from every other. This makes it impossible to draw boundary lines around the area inhabited by the Bohemians, or that inhabited by the Croatians, or by the Serbians, and so on. The territory in which the Slavic peoples live cannot be said to be a Slavic country, because one area belongs to Poland, another to Russia, another to Aus- tria-Hungary, and together they are not united states as our states are Fig. 16 United States. These millions of Slavs can be thought of, however, as belonging broadly to eight family groups. Fig. 17 shows what these are. Can you answer the questions now as to why in America all na- tionalities combine to make one great nation, while in Europe the territory inhabited by the Slavs does not comprise a single nation? Why is not the Slavic territory also a melting pot? MAP EXERCISE ON THE SLAVS Turn to a new map of Europe in your geography book. It must be one made since 1918, otherwise the boundaries of the Slavic nations will not be correct. You see, the World War greatly changed the boundaries of Austria-Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Russia and 78 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS it was in these countries that most of the Slavs lived. The treaty at Paris in 1918 created the new countries of Czechoslovakia and Jugoslovakia, and made the country of Poland much larger. Fig. 16 gives the location of the principal Slavic nations as they are in 1922, but it does not show where the various divisions of the Slavs live — such as the Ruthenians, the Croatians, the Bosnians, the Herzego- vinians. See if you can find these on your geography map of Europe. Fig. 17 Look at Fig. 16 again. About what fraction of the territory of Europe do the Slavs occupy? How does this compare with their proportion of the population? EXERCISE Complete these sentences to test your knowledge of this lesson. 1. The change from the Old to the New Immigration means first that— A— and...! (which nationalities?) have been coming to America rather than the and (which nationalities?) de- scribed in the previous lesson as the “Old” immigrant countries. 2. Between 1899 and 1910 about....;— '..u— — per cent of the total number of immigrants coming to America were from the countries of Europe from the “new” immigration. 3. In addition to the Italians and Hebrews, the are a very important immigrant group. They make up about (what fraction?) of the total population of Europe. Between 1899 and 1910 about.. .SL!^— .. per cent of all im- migrants landing in America were... THE AMERICAN VIEWPOINT 79 4. Check any of the peoples you think belong to the nationality referred to in question 3. 1. Ruthenians 2. Rumanians 3. Hungarians 4. Russians v' 5. Bulgarians 6. Letts 7. Polish 8. Serbians 9. Esthonians 10. Bohemians 11. Croatians r' 12. Austrians 13. Bosnians V" 14. Czechs r 15. Finns 16. Greeks Now correct your answers, using Figs. 16 and 17. Make a list of those you missed, and study them for tomorrow. 5. Write a little summary in your notebook telling the important changes in immigration between 1890-1910. XT, PORTS OF EUROPE FROM WHICH IMMIGRANTS SAIL TO AMERICA Here is a list of incoming and outgoing steamers and transatlantic mails that we clipped from the New York World for June 7, 1922, in looking up accommodations for a party going to Europe. uuiwii^vj oiriAiviriivo. NAME TIME SAIL THURSDAY. Laconia — Queenstown 12.00 M Taormina — Naples 12.00 M Hellig Olav — Copenhagen 1.00 PM Susquehanna — Danzig 4.00 PM SAIL FRIDAY. Cambrai (U.S.A.T.) — Antwerp. 10.00 AM Bergensfjord — Bergen 12.00 M SAIL SATURDAY. Homeric — Southampton 12.00 M Noordam — Rotterdam 12.00 M Kroonland — Antwerp 12.00 M George Washington — Bremen.. 12.00 M Drottningholm — Gothenburg . . 12.00 M La Savoie — Havre 12.00 M Italia — Vigo 12.00 M New York — Naples 1.00 PM TRANSATLANTIC MAILS. Europe, Africa and West Asia, via Cherbourg and Southampton; also par- cel post mails for Great Britain, Ire- land, France and the countries men- tioned in Notes “A” and “B” below, via Cherbourg and Southampton (con- necting despatch for “Cairo-Bagdad” Air Mail), S. S. Mauretania, 8 A. M. TO-MORROW. Italy, Malta, Greece and Jugo-Slavia (specially addressed only), via Naples, Malta, Patras and Dubrovnik; also par- cel post mails for Jugo-Slavia, S. S. Belvedere, 8.39 A. M. Europe, Africa and West Asia, via Plymouth and Cherbourg. Mail must be specially addressed for despatch by this steamer; also parcel post mails for Ger- many, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Hun- gary and Switzerland, via Hamburg, S. S. St. Paul, 11 A. M. THURSDAY. Ireland (other countries must be spe- cially addressed for despatch by this steamer), via Queenstown and Liver- pool; also parcel post mails for Ire- land. via Queenstown, S. S. Laconia, 8 A. M. Azores Islands (Italy must be spe- cially addressed for despatch by this steamer), via Ponta Delgada and Na- ples; also parcel post mails for Azores Is’ands, S. S. Toarmina, 9 A. M. Germany (specially addressed only) in Bremen, S. S. Hanover, 1.30 P. M. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Fin- land, via Christiansand, Christiania and Copenhagen; also parcel post mails for Norwav, Sweden and Denmark, S. S. Hellig Olav. 10 A. M. Germany and Poland (specially ad- dressed only), via Bremen and Danzig; also parcel post mails for Poland, via Danzig, S. S. Susquehanna, 2.30 P. M. FRIDAY. Belgium and Luxemburg (specially addressed only), via Antwerp; also par- cel post mails for Belgium, Luxem- burg and Belgian Congo, U. S. A. T. Cambrai, 6.30 A. M. Norway, via Bergen; also parcel post mails for Norway, S. S. Bergensfjord, 9.30 A. M. Italy, Greece, Constantinople and Roumania, via Naples, Palermo, Pira- eus, Constantinople and Constanza; also parcel post mails for Italy, Greece and Roumania, S. S. New York, 10.30 A. M. Europe, Africa and West Asia, via Plymouth and Boulogne. Mail must be specially addressed for despatch by this steamer; also parcel post mails for Netherlands, via Rotterdam, S. S. Noor- dam, 8 A. M. To the Teacher : Pass out mimeo- graphed maps of the world and have pu- pils do the following exercises. If you find there are too many assign particular ones to individual pupils and have them report to the class. Map and Notebook Exercise. Using an outline map of the world, the map of Europe in your geography and the list of steamers do the following exercise. Answer the questions in your notebook. 1. Do you think a Bohemian resident of Prague would sail for the United States from Hamburg or from Bremen ? Why ? 2. If you were an Italian peasant and wished to come to the United States, from what port would you take the steamer? Locate it by a dot on your outline map. PORTS OF EUROPE 81 3. Where would a Bohemian go to sail to America ? Locate this on your map. 4. Where would a Swedish farmer living on the west side of Sweden go to take the ship ? Locate it on your map. 5. A Prussian? Place his port on your map. 6. What ports would probably be used by Bosnians, Serbs, Monte- negrins, Croatians and Slavonians? Locate these places on your map. 7. What is the last port through which mail for Bucharest (Rou- mania) passes? Locate it on your outline map. 8. Trace its route from New York on your outline map. 9. By what route would a Pole from Warsaw come to America? Trace it on your map. 10. What nationalities probably use Budapest as a railroad center in travelling to a port of embarkation? 11. Would any countries use Constantinople? Which ones? 12. A party of Germans from northeastern Prussia planned to •come to America. What would be the most economical route for them to take ? Trace it on your blank map. 13. From where could residents of southern France sail? Locate these places on your map. 14. Count the total number of times English ports are mentioned in the list of outgoing steamers. Why do you think so much reference is made to English ports ? Count the number for other countries. 15. Guisseppe Yaro, a New York Italian, wrote to his brother, Maro, who lives in Florence. In time for which boat in the list of Transatlantic mails should he post his letter? 16. Choose the five cities from the steamer and mail lists that seem to you to be the most important European passenger and mail ports. Write these in your notebook with a clear title. Opposite each •one write the population of the city. You will find these in the back of your geography. These cities are selected because they are centers Tor passenger traffic and mail transportation. Are they important in any other way? Do you think they have grown to be large ports chiefly because of passenger and mail traffic? You will study many things about the growth of great cities during the present year. We cannot take the time just now to study it carefully. 17. But, so as to compare what you know now with what you learn later, write in your notebook all the reasons you can think of why these port cities grow. I can think of at least five good reasons. How many can you give? / XII. TEST No. 2. TO TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF A FEW IMPORTANT EUROPEAN CITIES To the Teacher: It will be wise to have the pupils master a few of the principal European cities at this time. We suggest that you pass out blank maps of Europe and give the following test and practice., exercise. First: On a blank map of Europe locate each of the following cities by writing its number in the proper place. (Time limit, 6 minutes.) Second: Exchange papers and correct with a geography map of Europe before you. Do as you did with the countries. Third : Learn the ones you have missed by exactly the same method which we used in learning the countries. To the Teacher: Record the number- each pupil got right. 1. London 2. Paris 3. Vienna 4. Stockholm 5. Constantinople 6. Glasgow 7. Liverpool 8. Moscow 9. Warsaw 10. Berlin 11. Petrograd 12. Rotterdam 13. Brussels 14. Madrid 15. Messina 16. Budapest 17. Hamburg 18. Manchester 19. Naples 20. Amsterdam XIII. HOW THE SLAVS LIVE IN EUROPE Most of our Slavic immigrants are “peasants,” or farmers. A peasant in Central, Eastern or Southern Europe is a landholder, just like our American farmer. But he farms in a different way. His farm, instead of being in one big plot of ground as the farms in this country are, is divided into strips, or oblongs, which are here and there, with neighbors’ lots between. The adjoining patches are some- times planted with the same crop, but more often they are not, so that the hillsides frequently give the effect of a patchwork quilt with their many shades of green and brown. A traveler journeying through the farm lands of Europe for the first time wrote: ‘ 1 1 have counted thirty men ploughing at the same time, each work- ing his share of the same big, unbroken field, — open, for each man’s share is marked, not by hedge, fence or wall, but only by a furrow some thirty centimeters (or about a foot) wide, which must not be planted. It is said, and I believe the case has actually occurred, that the strips are sometimes so narrow that a man must walk on his neigh- bor ’s land to lead the plough-horse on his own. You may follow such a strip with the eye, over hollow and swell, till it disappears over the last ridge in sight. When land is divided, for instance among sons, each strip is generally split lengthwise to insure equality. Otherwise one might get the sunny slope and the rich hollow, another the cold slope and a poor bit of sandy soil. Thus the strips get ever narrower. This system is wasteful in every way. First, it is wasteful of land. Where the holdings are in strips only seven meters (22 feet) wide, the boundary furrows take up nearly a tenth of the land (8.6 per cent). Moreover, the strips being straight, if a field happens not to be rec- tangular, awkward corners are left which must be laboriously worked by hand. It is wasteful of time, for a man has to travel all over the crazy-quilt of the township to work his many scattered bits of land. ”* In the small villages there is often a large estate owned by a rich “gentleman,” or nobleman. Between the peasant and the “gentle- man” there is a difference which is hard for us to understand. The peasant takes off his cap to all those dressed like gentlefolk, whether they are known to him or are strangers, and bears himself toward them with humility. He feels himself beneath them. On the other hand, there are groups of people to whom the peasant feels superior, and is so recognized. These are the cottagers who do not own land, the day-laborers and the farm servants. Some of the cottagers own land, but so little that they have to eke out their living by working at trades, as shoemakers, *Balch, E. G. f “Our Slavic Fellow Citizens,” pp. 40-42. 84 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS or smiths, or weavers. The day laborers and farm servants have no land at all. This supeeriority of the peasant to the cottagers is shown by a Bohemian poet, who tells about Heaven: “All the rivers still were wet, The stones they still were hard; And the cottagers’ wives complained That the peasants are too proud.’ ’ In all European countries this feeling of superiority of one class of people over another is very marked. Do you remember how Carlo made his Italian friends carry his baggage? Caste or class divisions are very old, and in some countries very strong. In India one cannot marry out of his class. Persons of a lower class must always use the titles of Mister, Sir, Squire, My Lord, etc., in addressing the upper class or the gentlefolk. On the other hand, members of the lower classes are always addressed as just plain “Jones,” “Timmins,” or whatever the last name may be. The customs and dress also vary with the class. A low class foreigner, though he may have become very wealthy over here, will humiliate himself before an upper class countryman though he were a rascal and a villain and poor as poverty. And he will suffer at the hands of his countryman of an upper caste what he would not tolerate for one moment from an American. Among Amer- icans such caste divisions are not found, for they came about chiefly through the ownership of land. With millions of acres of land in this country free for the asking, distinctions between families that were building the American nation were soon lost sight of. Each person had to work for his living. In the early days they shared work, and it was not everyone for himself, but everyone for all. Their common work, their common hardships, and their common enemies, the Indians, made them equal in each other’s sight. It is this spirit of friendliness and mutual helpfulness that we call democracy. The history of Euro- pean countries was different, and the results are different. How do these people get along in the different Slavic nations ? Are they as prosperous as our farmers and tradesmen? What kinds of houses do they have ? What crops do they raise ? What kinds of peo- ple are they? The Following Stories of Life in Slovakia Will Help Answer the Questions. “The villages, while sometimes dreary, are often full of life and charm. As a quiet pond is a common feature of a South Bohemian village, characteristic of a Slovak village is a brook running through HOW THE SLAVS LIVE IN EUROPE 85 its midst. It is peopled by geese, now plump and sleek, now newly plucked and dismal, by playing children and by women knee-deep in the cold water pounding their linen on little wooden stands. Willows and a foot bridge, and a wagoner watering his horse before he drives through the shallow ford, perhaps complete the picture. “ If it is a town and not a village, there may be a church, occasion- ally of some architectural pretensions, and perhaps a good deal else of historical interest, such as the remains of the old wall that kept out the Turks in their day, with a stone cannon ball embedded in its side; the former gallows hill ; and an old linden which now shades the image of a Christian saint but under which a heathen god may once have been worshipped (for the linden is the sacred tree of the Slavs). “Just outside some of the towns will be seen a gipsy settlement, all dirt, naked children and beggary. One man is squatting over a fire forging a chain, for the gipsies are clever iron workers. In a grass- roofed hovel, where the air is dense with smoke, a violin hangs on the wall. The boy who earns it may some day be earning gold and glory as a member of one of the gipsy bands which afford the Magyar such extravagant delight, but a gipsy he will remain in every fibre. “The return from such a settlement to the Slovak town or village is a return to another world. Here are long, low houses, neat and clean, ranged with their gable roofs end to end in an even row, flush with the street, the eaves just above the door. The roofs are apt to be of handmade shingles, for thatch means plenty of grain to supply the straw, and not much grain grows there. The houses are generally either of brick, frequently merely sun dried, or of wood. Often the ends of cross-laid logs or great squared beams show clearly at the cor- ners. But whatever the material, it is generally covered with plaster or raw clay, and either white-washed or painted some pale shade or buff, blue or green. The houses are generally perfectly plain in their design, though some have pretty woodwork at the gable ends, or pat- terns painted on the walls or about the windows — a kind of work which is a specialty of the women, who are said to do it freehand. “Of course, conditions vary with localities and with individual housewives, but my general impression is of interiors tidy and home- like, however deep the mud in the village street. Even an earthen floor may be made to suggest cleanliness. I remember especially a call at a house where the daughter had recently gone to America to get work. The mother who welcomed us led us through the entry, where a girl was washing, into the living room and offered us the traditional “bread and salt” — that is, as a matter of fact, a loaf of rye bread and a knife, that we might serve ourselves unstinted. We honored the pretty old custom, and I wished that I had cut off a bigger piece, it tasted so good. 86 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS “The room was low but scrupulously neat. On the wall hung^ gay colored crockery, products of an old home art, specimens of which collectors highly prize. There were double windows, opening casement fashion, and, in the space between, pots of wallflowers. On the bed were piles of square feather pillows, the pride and visible assets of the thrifty housewife. Each has a bright undercover (among rich city people these would be of satin, — yellow, pink, blue or what not) over which is drawn a case of handspun linen, with ends of lace insertion, also handmade, through which the color peeps prettily. It takes some sixteen geese to supply one feather bed. There was a sewing machine and a table on which lay a copy of a Sokol magazine (that is, the organ of one of the universal patriotic athletic associations). On the wall were pictures of sacred subjects. These often, even in much poorer homes, make a sort of frieze about the top of the room. Often, too, there hangs over the table a curious little ornament made of a blown eggshell, with tail and wings of pleated paper. This represents a dove and symbolizes the Holy Ghost. “In many houses there was a loom, but I think we never saw a spinning wheel, for the spinning season was over. It is only in winter that the famous spinning bees take place, where young and old gather in separate groups to sing, tell legends and, in the case of the girls, receive their lovers who drop in toward the end of the evening. Clothes are kept for the most part in chests, which are sometimes painted with rude designs of flowers on a red, blue or green background, and which the bride must bring to her husband well replenished.”* You can now understand why an Austrian complained of our shocking waste of wood : ‘ ‘ This sometimes went so far, ’ ’ he said, ‘ ‘ that the inhabitants used wood to build fences, simply to save the trouble of having the cows herded.” What would we think of an American farmer who would pay an able-bodied person to watch one or two cows day after day, to save building a fence? This Austrian was thinking of wages such a man would get in Austria, at most 26 cents a day with his board. Here is a description of a Croatian house. “A Croatian house of the poorer sort is often very pretty, with its steep shingled roof and whitewashed or stuccoed sides. Frequently there is no chimney, and the little trapdoor in the roof is kept closed during the winter, so that till spring the smoke has no exit. This is not so bad as it sounds, as the fire is often on a stone hearth in the centre of the house, while to the right and left are rooms which are really more like little dwellings or boxes built inside the house. The smoke rolls through .the space above the planking which ceils these, and this part of the building is often crusted with the black, shiny ♦Balch. E. G.. “Our Slavic Fellow Citizens,” pp. 88-90. HOW THE SLAVS LIVE IN EUROPE 87 deposit of the soot while the living room is clear of it within. This room may be heated with a stove of unglazed tiles which is fed from outside the room through an opening in the wall and which, like all European stoves of this type, gives no direct fire heat and no ventila- tion, but radiates warmth from its own surface. Such a stove is heated like a Dutch oven, with a brisk fire quickly burned out and usually made only once a day. These Croatian stoves are often made of what looks like a series of unglazed flower-pots embedded, empty, and mouths out, in a mass of clay. This pigeon-holed exterior gives a great extent of radiating surface, which is the prime object in all stoves con- structed on this principle, and will sometimes give out warmth for three days without needing to be re-heated. Around the stove are rails for drying wet clothes. ‘ ‘ In poorer houses there may be simply a fire of twigs and branches on the floor and a baby wrapped in rags lying in the ashes. The family sleep probably in one room, occasionally on straw covered with the curious Croatian blankets, which are almost as shaggy as the original sheep, and woven in bright, angular patterns. “The windows are apt to be small. We heard of people having been burned up because they could not get out through the windows when the house was on fire and the doorway cut off. But this defect is not confined to Croatia. It was among the Slovaks that a priest told us that he preached against windows ‘so small that it made an eclipse of the sun if a hen flew in.’ It was in Galicia that a woman pointed out a small single pane fixed in the wall to the east so that it might be possible to see the sun rise and know when to get up, and explained to us that there was no window to the north because the north is evil. “The cattle are often accommodated under the same roof with the family, either on the same level, only separated by a partition, or underneath in a sort of basement stall. I frequently heard, and not alone in Croatia, that families had animals living with them more sociably than this, as the Irish used to have both at home and in Amer- ica, but I never saw a case — except, indeed, hens straying in and out, and once some small pigs who seemed to have the run of the house.”* This is the way they live in Galicia and Ruthenia: “Of course the conditions of life among the peasants [of Galicia! differ from place to place, and vary, as they do everywhere else, according to the character of individuals. From what I have heard, however, as well as from what I saw, I should say that in general things were even poorer in Galicia than among the Slovaks. I recall the establishment of a peasant family near Lemberg, better off than many, with a whole series of small farm buildings besides the dwelling house, granary, barn, wattled bin for Indian corn, cow stall and so ♦Balch, E. G., op. cit., pp. 164-165. 88 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS forth, grouped about the yard. The old peasant mother, and what we saw of her housekeeping, would have done no credit to any slum, and the farm maid slept in a little, dirty, filthy cow-house, where there was no trace of any regard for health or comfort, unless a hole for shoveling out manure on to the heap outside could be called that. . . . “As I paint this dark picture I think of another village, a Ruthen- ian one, where the friendly and intelligent priest took us to call in one peasant home after another. The houses were close together, in an irregular settlement, and the visitor had to pick his steps amid pools and barnyard compost heaps to pass from one to another. But in spite of primitive conditions, we saw wholesome, friendly, attractive family scenes. The way in which the priest’s hand was kissed as he came in had far more of friendly feeling than of formal respect, and girls, interrupted in the midst of a Sunday toilette in the single family room, were neither abashed nor bold, but quietly and deftly finished the braiding of hair and slipping on of outer garments. These were taken from the little chest which, as the only place for keeping personal articles where closets, wardrobes, bureaus, drawers, shelves and hooks are alike wanting, is an important piece of furniture. The rooms were low and whitewashed; the main objects were always the same — a big earthenware stove, beds, and possibly a bench along the wall. Perhaps a baby 7 s cradle might be added. 7 ’* “An interesting result of the emigration to America, and this not alone in Galicia, is, as has already been said, the breaking up of large estates. The large landowner finds times very unfavorable, and as land comes into the market it is apt to be cut up and sold in small lots. In Galicia 50,000 to 90,000 acres are “ parcelliert 7 7 in this way annually, and often the money for the purchase comes from America. Interesting instances of this process were related to us among the Ruthenians in Hungary. In one case an estate of some 700 acres was for sale. A hundred or so peasants acting together bought this for $40,000. In another case where some $64,000 was to be paid, a lawyer offered to procure the money for them on easy terms, but they said, “Oh, no, we will send to America for it,” and they did so. They paid $24,000 down, and $40,000 more was sent in the course of two years from America to complete the payment. To show how values have risen — this land in Hungary which sold for $64,000, was perhaps a fifth part of an estate which was sold about 1870 for something over $8000. ‘‘A curious by-result of Galician emigration is an increased de- mand for American agricultural machinery. ‘McCormick, for in- stance, 7 said my informant, the secretary of an important Chamber of Commerce, ‘owes his Galician market to the fact that there are work- ♦Balch, E. G., op. cit., pp. 142-143. HOW THE SLAVS LIVE IN EUROPE 89 ers here who understand how to use his machinery.’ This is only one instance of what must be in the aggregate a considerable demand for American goods in districts ill which returned emigrants spread their use directly or indirectly. “One hears interesting accounts of the return of emigrants. In some places they say that the friends of a man who comes back meet him outside the village and bring him his home clothes to put on, that he may not be embarrassed by having to appear in strange American dress. In other places — among the Slovaks — I was told that an ‘Amer- ican’ would come to church for a few Sundays in his Yankee clothes, but in the village there would be no one to ‘do up’ his starched shirt for him, and he would soon go back to the old village dress. ’ ’* The Love of the Beautiful Among the Slavs. ‘ ‘ The old village life may not always be sanitary or clean or moral, but it is harmonious, complete, self consistent. Lying aside from beaten routes of travel, many Slavic districts retain to an amazing extent an old-world aspect which gives them unspeakable charm. The beautiful costumes, fixed by tradition but differing from village to vil- lage, ornamented with exquisite embroidery, hand lace, rich braiding or leather work, are still in many country places the ordinary and general dress. They are seen at their best at the weekly market, in the crowded church during mass, or at a wedding or a dance on the green. “The gift of the Slav for color and for music touches the whole life with poetry. Every occasion and act, every wood and hill and stream, has its adornment of custom, superstition or legend which, with its glamor, veils to the sentimental traveler at least, the hard and sor- did side of lives often close to actual want. And indeed, the primitive and natural labors of plowman and reaper, of spinner and weaver, of craftsman and shepherd, need no adornment to be beautiful.”! “It is difficult to describe the dress, it varies so from place to place. Every little village has its own peculiarities, so that its people are dis- tinguishable to the initiated, and this doubtless helps to give a strong sense of local solidarity. Within the village there is the most scrupu- lous adherence to custom. The kerchief knotted under chin, apparently carelessly, is in reality arranged in certain folds and at a certain angle, precisely as prescribed by local usage and in a way that is dif- ferent from that of the next place. “The colors are generally harmonious and brilliant, though in some districts a wonderful effectiveness is gained by heavy embroidery of black on white, with no color. In many places bright-patterned stuffs, usually in large flowered designs, are attractively used for skirt, bodice or apron. The latter is generally the show piece in a woman’s holiday •Balch, E. G., op. cit., p. 57. tBalch, E. G , op. cit., p. 57. 90 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS costume. I was interested to note the same curious and beautiful com- binations of color, most unlike those that we are accustomed to choose, which had struck me years ago on a visit to the settlement of Slavs (Vends) which survives in the Spreewald, near Dresden* “The great beauty of these costumes is the embroidery which is indeed, with song, the chief art of the Slovak. The women do this work mainly in winter, when their fingers are sufficiently soft again after the field work. They are said to often embroider their patterns without first drawing them, and they work so neatly that the under side is almost as perfect as the upper. The variety of stitches is great, and embroidery is combined with pillow lace and drawn work. The feeling for style is admirable. The designs are conventional and the motives, generally from plant life, are roses, poppy heads, tulips, cornflowers, and so forth. One animal motif, the cock, is also commonly introduced, but perhaps the commonest single figure is the heart-shape. Special units of design often have special names, like the quilting patterns of our grandmothers. Many of these seem to be quite fanciful — the ‘lover’s eye’ or the ‘little window’ may have no visible resemblance to the object named.”* Test. Summarize “How the Slavs live in Europe” by filling in the sen- , tences below. 1. A peasant in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe is a - , like the American farmer. But he is different from the latter in the he 2. A peasant in Europe land in an field which many other peasants also use. 3. This strip system is very wasteful in 2 ways. a. It is wasteful of b. It is wasteful of 4. You find a marked feeling of between peasants and the gentlefolk. 5. Beside the gentlefolk and peasants there are other classes such as the and Check the statements below that best describe Slavic life in Europe. 1. A pond or a brook is a common feature of Slavic villages. 2. Every village has a church. 3. The houses in these villages are long, low attractive houses. 4. The interior of each home is very neat. 5. These people make their own clothes. 6. Each home is well lighted and heated. 7. The cattle are kept in the same building with the peasants. •Balch, E. G., op. cit., pp. 90-91. XIV. THE EMIGRANT’S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 1. How Does He Get from His Home to the Port of Embarkation? The first thing you will think of is that he goes by railroads of course. What about the railroads in Europe ? Do you think there are as many there as here, and are there trains as frequently? What did we learn about the Europeans as far as travel was concerned? Were they great folks to visit around from town to town and take long trips across the country as we do here, or were they stay-at-homes ? In America we have great railroad centers, like Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit ; we have interurbans, electric trolley lines between cities, and we have cars in small towns that connect with trains. Would you imagine that in Europe, where the people travel so little, they would have all these ? Next month we are going to learn a great deal about railroad systems, but just now we need to get some idea of them. The fact is that the United States has far more miles of railroad than any other country in the world ; and it has almost as many miles as all Europe put together. Find in your geography or history book a map showing the rail- road lines in the United States, and one showing those in Europe. To the Teacher : If possible use a wall map like those in the series of Finch Eco- nomic Maps, published by A. J. Nystrom, Chicago. What is your first big conclusion from a glance at these two maps ? Write it down in your notebook. Now in one column make a list of the chief railroad centers in the United States, and in another column a list of those in Europe, and opposite each city write its population. Do you find that most of the large cities are railroad centers? In what sections of Europe do you notice that transportation is better developed? Which countries have the most railroad mileage? Now think back again to the people who want to emigrate to America. Are they always near a railroad? Do you think those who are not can take trolleys and easily get to one the same day ? What do you suppose are the reasons that in certain places there are more railroads than in others? Did you ever hear a description of the railroad trains in Europe? Does anyone know whether they are like our trains ? Again we meet the “caste” system. There are first, second and third-class trains, or “trams” as they call them. Which would you say at once that there were most accommodations for — the first class or the third class? Why? There is little difference between the first and second class carriages, perhaps a little more elbow room in the first and a richer color of upholstery. The accommodations for third- class passengers are sometimes nearly as good as those for second 92 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS class, but generally they are not. On many of the trains in the early morning and late evening carrying workmen in and out of the large cities, the third-class cars have hard wooden benches upon which their occupants may be seen huddled together, each passenger supporting the person next to him. The cost of the ticket, of course, varies with the class of passage. Upon many local trains there is a fourth class, which allows for standing room only. On many of the fastest trains, there are no third or fourth-class accommodations. Their trams are also constructed differently than ours. Instead of having a center aisle, with seats on either side, there are from five to eight closed-off compartments, each of which seats eight people, all opening into a single passageway on one side of the car. The best ones are very comfortable, more so perhaps than our Pullmans. It is very expensive to take a berth in foreign trains, and one who needs to make a night trip usually trusts to luck that the train will not be crowded and he can stretch out full length in his compartment. EXERCISE 1. See if you can trace on the wall map of Europe the route the following emigrants would take in going from their homes to ports of embarkation : a. An Italian living ten miles from Salerno. b. A German living in Hanover. c. An Austrian living at Gratz and sailing from a German port of embarkation. d. A Pole living near Lemberg and embarking for Amer- ica by way of a Polish port. e. A Swede living in Upse^a and departing from a Swedish port. /. A group of Hebrew refugees from Kief who crossed the frontier into Roumania, embarking at Constanza. g. A Swiss family leaving from a French port, Havre. 2. Trace the route of a letter mailed at Belgrade for a. The German port of Hamburg. b. Fiume. c. Constantinople. 3. Show about how a letter mailed at Prague would travel to a. The Dutch port of Rotterdam. b. The Italian port of Trieste. c. The French port of Cherbourg. XY. THE EMIGRANT’S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 2. From Port of Embarkation to Ellis Island. Now that you have located the railroad centers and the ports of embarkation, you are ready to follow the emigrant to Ellis Island. The following descriptions were written by people who actually came over to America as emigrants from European countries. at the ports. The first is part of a story written by a Croatian school teacher telling how the people feel in leaving their homes, and what their loved ones experience in being left behind. NOTES FROM MY VILLAGE. ‘'Today they are telling in the village that fifteen are going to- morrow to Fiume by the early train — men, women and young girls Slavic immigrants taking the train in Europe. Notice how the cars are built with narrow compartments, each compartment having a separate outside door. (From Steiner: “From Alien to Citizen,” by permission of the publisher, Revell & Co.) on their way to America. They were all blessed by the priest after mass. The prayer for their happiness away from home was very moving. All who knelt before the altar were pale, struggling against the tears in eyes which may never see this church again. On this consecrated spot they took leave of the fatherland, our dear Croatia, who cannot feed her children because she is not free nor the mistress of her o\%n money. She must let them go among strangers in order 94 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS that those who remain may live, they and their children and their old people. And the old people die in peace because they have hope the little ones shall fare better than ever they have done. “This morning all went early to confession. With God they go safer on their long journey. Toward evening they can be seen hurry- ing from house to house taking leave of those that they love. Who can say that there will ever be another meeting for them? It is very late before they have finished these visits and the family waits for them with impatience. With impatience, how else when this eve- ning or rather the few hours still left are so short? This is the last supper at home. There is no going to bed, for at three they must start for the station as the train goes at four. It is so sad to hear them driving through the village singing a song which expresses all the feelings of their sore hearts. ‘ ‘ The saddest moment of all is the departure. The train has come, they must get on board. How many tears and sobs and kisses in our little forest and rock-bound station. Friends go with them to Fiume — all but the children and old folks, who stay in the village alone. “In Fiume the girls buy what they need for the journey and a little gold crucifix. That must be bought in the fatherland. So must rings, too. Often the parents buy the betrothal rings for their sons and daughters who marry in America and send them to them. Faith and love come from the homeland. “Finally at the ship goodbyes must be said, the last. One little girl whose older sister was going by train to Vienna, had gone with her to Fiume. But when the train was about to go the little one flung herself down upon the ground in her distress and shrieked terri- bly. Everyone tried to pacify her, but she pressed her little hands ov^r her eyes to hide the engine from her sight, and answered, ‘It is easy for you to talk, but this hateful engine, is robbing me of my sweet sister.’ She was quite ill with suffering and they had much ado to get her away. But it is hardest for the mothers who let their daughters or their sons go. “Very late, after midnight, people come home — alone. Now come quiet tears and prayer that God may grant the travelers a safe arrival. With what anxiety and joy do they wait for the news from the agent that their dear ones have reached New York in safety. There relatives are already expecting them and the journey can be peacefully con- tinued in their company. Our people generally go to Michigan. In one town there are so many that our people call it ‘New Lipa.’ ”* Let Mr. Edward A. Steiner, himself an Hungarian immigrant, who has become known all over the world as an American writer on immi- gration, tell how the emigrant is taken to the ship. Mr. Steiner has ♦Balch, E. G., “Our Slavic Fellow Citizens,” pp. 183-185. THE EMIGRANT'S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 95 been over in the steerage ten different times so as to learn all about conditions, and he has been very influential in improving them for the immigrant. “These formalities [of passports] over, the travelers move on to the market square, a dusty place, where women squat, selling fruits and vegetables ; the plaster cast and gaily decorated saints stoically receiving the adoration of our pilgrims, who come for the last time with a petition which now is for a prosperous journey. ‘ ‘ There also, the agent qf the steamship company receives with just as much feeling their hard earned money in exchange for the long coveted ‘Ticket,’ which is to bear them to their land of hope. “From hundreds of such towns and squares, thousands of simple- minded people turn westward each day, disappearing in the clouds of dust which mark their progress to the railroad station and on towards the dreaded sea. “From the small windows of fourth-class railway carriages they get glimpses of a new world, larger than they ever dreamed it to be, and much more beautiful. Through orderly and stately Germany, with its picturesque villages, its castled hills and magnificent cities they pass ; across mountains and hills, and by rushing rivers, until one day upon the horizon they see a forest of masts wedged in between the warehouses and factories of a great city. “Guided by an official of the steamship company whose wards they have become, they alight from the train ; but not without having here and there to pay tribute to that organized brigandage, by which every port of embarkation is infested. The beer they drink and the food they buy, the necessary and unnecessary things which they are urged to purchase, are excessively dear, by virtue of the fact that a double profit is made for the benefit of the officials or the company which they represent. “The first lodging places before they are taken to the harbors, are dear, poor and often unsafe. Much bad business is done there which might be controlled or entirely discontinued. For instance, in Rotterdam three years ago, coming with a party of emigrants, we were met by an employee of the steamship company and taken in charge, ostensibly to be guided to the company’s offices near the harbor. On the way we were made to stop at a dirty, third-class hotel (whose chief equipment was a huge bar) and were told to make ourselves comfortable. While we were not compelled to spend our money, we were invited to do so, urged to drink, and left there fully three hours until this same employee called for us. I complained to the company through the only official whom I could reach, and who no doubt was one of the beneficiaries, for the complaint did not travel far. “This is only the remnant of an abuse from which the emigrant and the country which received him, used to suffer-, for our stringent 96 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS immigration laws have made it more profitable to treat the immigrant with consideration and to look after his physical welfare. “Yet, admirable as is the machinery which has been set up at Hamburg for the reception of the emigrant, these minor abuses have not all passed away, and while care is taken that his health does not suffer and that his purse is not completely emptied, he is still regarded as prey. . . . When the official has done with the emigrants, they are taken to the emigrant depot of the company (which in many cases is inadequate for the large number of passengers), their papers are examined and they are separated according to sex and religion. At Hamburg they are required to take baths and their clothing is dis- infected; after which they constantly emit the delicious odors of hot steam and carbolic acid. The sleeping arrangements at Hamburg are excellent. Usually twenty persons are in one ward, but private rooms which have beds for four people can be rented. “The food is abundant and good, plenty of bread and meat are to be had, and luxuries can be bought at reasonable prices. At Ham- burg music is provided and the emigrants may make merry at a dance until dawn of the day of sailing. “The medical examination is now very strict, yet seemingly not strict enough, for quite a large percentage of those who pass the German physicians are deported on account of physical unfitness.”* Mr. Steiner tells in another book of his experiences in coming to America the first time. Here is a little from his account: “Long before we reached Bremen, where for the first time I was to embark for America, the train was boarded by runners, who tagged us to make sure of their prey. The region near the railroad station was full of lodging houses whose motto was always to give as little as possible and get as much as they could. Many of these houses were tributary to the sub-agents or agents. The profit was not only from, the fare, but from our board, so it was to the advantage of somebody to get us there as early as possible and keep us long. “I am sure that the steamship company knew nothing about this, and wanted to know T nothing. It is only in the last two or three years that the lodging house problem, which finally became a menace to the health of the city, has received any kind of attention. “At the lodging house I was told all sorts of untruth about what to buy and how to prepare myself for the ordeal of examination. Efforts were made to frighten me. I was told that police supervision was so strict that I surely would be apprehended, and protection was offered me for a sum of money. ”f •Steiner, E. A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant/’ pp. 32-35. tSteiner, Edward A., “From Alien to Citizen,” pp. 30-31. THE EMIGRANT’S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 97 CROSSING THE ATLANTIC. How many of you have ever been aboard an ocean liner? If you write to the steamship companies such as the White Star Line or the Cunard Line in New York, they will send you advertising material which gives pictures of modern steamships. Steamers are not alike any more than the houses we build are alike, but most of the larger ones provide for three kinds of accommodation. The first class section is very much like a modern hotel, with beautiful drawing rooms, dining rooms, deck space, individual or double cabins, as the bedrooms are called. On some of the largest liners these cabins have private bath rooms and are in every way as comfortable as the rooms in our largest and best hotels. The second class section is toward the stern of the boat, it is very comfortable indeed, though not as elegantly furnished as the first class. You do not find quite as many drawing rooms or as much deck space, but the food is the same and the service is good. The cost of travel by second class is considerably less than by first class. At the back of the boat, which sailors call 1 1 aft, ’ ’ you may go down two or three flights of narrow iron stairs, then wind in and around all sorts of huge pipes and funnels, and finally you will come to the steerage or third class quarters. Let us follow Mr. Steiner and the other emigrants that were with him : “An uncivil crew directs the bewildered travels to their quarters, which in the older ships are far too inadequate, and in the newer ships are, if anything, worse. “Clean they are; but there is neither breathing space below nor deck room above, and the 900 steerage passengers crowded into the hold of so elegant and roomy a steamer as the Kaiser Wilhelm II, of the North German Lloyd Line, are positively packed like cattle, making a walk on deck when the weather is good, absolutely impossible, while to breathe clean air below in rough weather, when the hatches are down, is an equal impossibility. The stenches become unbearable, and many of the emigrants have to be driven down, for they prefer the bitterness and danger of the storm to the pestilential air below. . . . “The food, which is miserable, is dealt out of huge kettles into the dinner pails provided by the steamship company. When it is dis- tributed, the stronger push and crowd, so that meals are anything but orderly proeedures. On the whole, the steerage of the modern ship ought to be condemned as unfit for the transportation of human beings. . . . “The steerage ought to be and could be abolished by law. It is true that the Italian and Polish peasant may not be accustomed to better things at home and might not be happier in better surroundings nor know how to use them ; but it is a bad introduction to our life 98 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS to treat him like an animal when he is coming to us. He ought to be made to feel immediately that the standard of living in America is higher than it is abroad, and that life on the higher plane begins on board of ship. ... ‘‘On many ships, even drinking water is grudgingly given, and on the steamer Staatendcmi, four years ago [1902], we had literally to steal water for the steerage from the second cabin, and that of course at night. ”* “I have made comparative studies of the different classes and have found that although the steerage pays a third as much on an average as the minimum first cabin rate, it receives less than one per cent of sheltered deck, a trifle more than that of smoking and lounging rooms, not ten per cent of food value and nothing in the way of courtesy or civility. And yet the steerage holds a luxury which is growing rarer and rarer in the cabin — good fellowship.”! “The average steerage passenger is not envious. His position is part of his lot in life ; the ship is just like Russia, Austria, Poland or Italy. The cabin passengers are the lords and ladies, the sailors and officers are the police and the army, while the captain is the king or czar. So they are merry when the sun shines and the porpoises roll, when far away a sail shines white in the sunlight or the trailing smoke of a steamer tells of other wanderers over the deep.”f While all these frightful conditions in steerage travel still exist, there are better accommodations for the emigrant in recent years. The better ships that are now being built provide better rooms, better beds, better sanitation, and more deck space ; but it is still from the third-class passengers that the steamship companies make the biggest proportion of their profit. In one of our largest boats the bunks look like a series of narrow shelves, with four to eight in a “cabin.” The mattresses are of straw, but the beds are made up with sheets and a blanket. There is a place in each to hang a few clothes, and a sta- tionary washstand with towels. The dining-room is small and simple, but clean ; and the deck space is small and uncovered. EXERCISE Check the sentences that are true about how the immigrant travels from his home to America. 1. The first part of his journey is usually made on foot or by wagon. 2. European peasants have to get passports at the nearest village through which the railroad passes. 3. The peasants ride in first class cars. ♦Steiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” p. 38. fSteiner, Edward A., “From Alien to Citizen,” pp. 38-39. JSteiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” pp. 41-42. THE EMIGRANT'S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 99 4. They are treated harshly and have to be very careful of their belongings at the ports of embarkation. 5. They are lodged in very excellent quarters while waiting to take the steamer for America. The steerage trip is very uncomfortable because of the crowd- ing. 7. Sometimes the immigrants are given second-class accommoda- tions. 8. The immigrant is very envious of the cabin passengers. Check the two most important improvements that should be made in the way immigrants travel : 1. They should be forbidden to carry much baggage. 2. The steamship companies should be made to limit the number of immigrants per voyage. 3. Special agents should protect the immigrants from thieves at ports of embarkation. 4. Immigrants should not be permitted to embark for America without passports. XVI. THE EMIGRANT’S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 3. Gateways Through Which He Is Received. We have learned that the United States is made up of many nationalities and races. At this time we need to review what we learned from the map of Fig. 3 on page 38. Turn back to it now. What is the most important immigration port in America? Is there any question at all about it in your mind after studying Fig. 3 ? Note the large number of immigrants who come from Canada. Being such close neighbors, it is little wonder that so many come to us. But many Americans also emigrate to Canada. Can you find out the number that went to Canada in 1921? Do you think there will always be a large immigration from Mexico ? You probably know that for the last fifteen years Mexico has been a very uncomfortable and very unsafe place to live in. Notice from Fig. 3 how many more immigrants come to us from Europe than from Asia and other continents. The port through which the immigrants enter depends upon where the steamship companies are operating from; with immigrants from Canada or Mexico, of course, the point of entrance depends upon where the railroads cross the borders. The ports of entry are always cities where the greatest trade cen- ters. You all know the largest port of the United States. Is it also Mew York 330,549 Canadian Border I 13,406 Mexican Border 68,816 Other Small Ports 49, 19Z Ban Francisco 22,698 Boston 17,007 ■ I Fwj.Ifc. Number of Immigrants who entered United 5+ates through different- Ports the largest city? Explain what being “the largest port of the United States” means. Does it mean the largest harbor, or does it mean the place where the largest number of steamers come? THE EMIGRANT'S JOURNEY TO AMERICA 101 Notice from Fig. 18 that as many immigrants enter through the port of New York City as through all the other ports put together. Here is a list of the principal ports of arrival of immigrants. Find in the appendix of your geography book the population of each city, and write it at the end of the line. New York Boston, Mass Philadelphia, Pa Baltimore, Md New Orleans, La Galveston, Texas San Francisco, Cal Portland, Ore Seattle, Wash. Detroit, Mich Perhaps what you have just done has helped you to understand why the government chose the cities it did as ports of entry. What is your explanation? Do you think it is a good thing for the United States to bring immi- grants into the country through just a few large ports like New York and Boston? What effect does it have on where the immigrants go to live ? This is very important, and we shall study more about it later on. The government establishes an immigrant station at each of the ports through which immigrants enter. For New York this station is on Ellis Island; for Philadelphia it is at Gloucester City, New Jer- sey ; for Baltimore the station adjoins the Fort McHenry reservation ; for Galveston it is located on Pelican Spit, Galveston Harbor ; and for San Francisco the station is on Angel Island. These stations are equipped to take care of our immigrants for the length of time it takes to decide whether they can be admitted into the country. The American people have had to face many difficult problems because of the tremendous increase in population during the last fifty years. In 1921 a law was passed restricting the number of immigrants that could enter each year and each month. Every ten years a census is taken of the number of foreign-born in the country. Up to 1921 the last one taken was that of 1910, so the new law provided that immigration should henceforth be restricted to three per cent of the number of foreign-born in the country as shown by the census of 1910. 102 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS In order to keep more than this percentage from coming, it has been necessary to guard the borders between Mexico and Canada as well as the ports through which the European immigrants enter. This has been a large task, especially on the Mexican boundary. The Mexican workmen are wanted as laborers by American farmers, railroad com- panies and manufacturers. Notice from a geography map of the United States how close Mexico is to us. The Rio Grande River, which forms a boundary for some distance, is not a real barrier. In the Commissioner General of Immigration’s report of 1920 (page 442) he says : ‘ ‘ Aliens are advised on the Mexican side that it is a foolish procedure to apply legally for admission to the United States and submit themselves to the indignities of examination by the American, officers, when they can go up the river one or two miles above or below Laredo and cross much cheaper, and when theey are once in this country are able to go to any part that they desire. ’ ’ The Canadian border is still more difficult to guard because there are many more miles of it. At present, however, there are more Americans going into Canada than Canadians coming to us. Even at the larger ports of entry there are difficulties enough, and the officials can tell a great many stories of how the immigrants try to evade the law. One case is told of a Russian who made a dash for liberty from Ellis Island. He escaped from the guard, plunged into the water and swam to the New Jersey shore. He was captured after great trouble and deported because of a disease which debarred him.* Oftentimes immigrants who have been refused at one station try another and another station until they are admitted. One woman who was deported from Ellis Island because of having tuberculosis, immediately sailed as cabin passenger in another ship bound for an- other port, and entered without difficulty. To the Teacher : As an optional activ- ity for the pupils, we suggest that each one make a new map illustrating the facts that are given in Fig. 3 and also in Fig. 18. Pass out blank mimeographed maps of the world and give directions something as follows: MAP EXERCISE. Fill in a blank map of the world so that it will show the extent of emigration to America. Study Fig. 3 and Fig. 18 for suggestions. We want you to try to invent interesting ways to show the following facts : 1. The countries from which the immigrants come. 2. The number that come from each. 3. Their routes to America. 4. The ports through which they enter. Roberts, Peter, “The New Immigration,’’ pp. 23-24. XVII. DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE LARGE PORTS OF THE UNITED STATES ARE LOCATED 1 EXERCISE. To the Teacher: At this point test the pupils’ knowledge of place location of large ports of the United States. Do ex- actly the same as you did in testing on the countries and cities' of Europe. On a blank mimeographed map of the United States, locate each of the following cities : New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Galveston, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Detroit. Write the name of each city at exactly "the proper place on the map. Exchange papers and correct, writing the name of each city incor- rectly placed, on the left margin of the map. (The teacher will record the number each pupil gets right.) Now learn the cities you missed in this test as you learned the countries in an earlier one. First step : Open your geography to map showing cities of the United States. Study carefully the position of the city you missed. Second step : Close your eyes and see if you can call up in your mind exactly where the city is. Open your eyes and see if you were right. Try it again and again until you can see in your “mind’s eye” the exact position of the city on the map. Third step : Do this for each city you missed. Fourth step : Take a fresh blank map and locate all of the cities you missed ; then have the teacher 0. K. your work. To the Teacher: It is very important that you have the pupils read all these next episodes at one sitting. All but the very slowest should do it in fifteen min- utes. Following the reading use such questions as those on page — to guide the discussion. Now that you know the gateways through which immigrants enter America, we shall read some stories that show how our citizens-to-be are received. As you read them, ask yourself whether America is doing all she can to make these people welcome, and then to keep them happy and contented. Since New York is by far the most important port of entry, our stories are about its immigration station, Ellis Island. XVIII. THE IMMIGRANT’S FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY Imagine yourself a Sicilian who sailed from Palermo, or a Hun- garian who sailed from Bremen or Hamburg, or a person from any other of the many groups who are coming now, and let us see what your experiences at the Ellis Island immigrant station would be. It is the last day of your journey! Soon you will land at New York City. Everyone on board your boat is up long before the usual time, anxiously watching the shore line to which you are very slowly drawing nearer. At Sandy Hook, United States inspection officials come on board and the first inspection begins. You wonder what these uniformed officials want. If you understand English, you find out that they are making sure that no infectious or contagious disease has been aboard ship. When this fact has been established, the ship is allowed to enter without further delay. It has seemed hours that you have been within sight of land, without landing. How slowly the great steamer passes the “Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.” You and all fellow travellers anxiously look up at the huge gray monument. The unusual silence on the ship makes you realize that every man and woman is conscious of its meaning. It is the sentinel which guards the gates of Liberty. Here you are at the very moment of entering a changed life in a land of opportunity. Your breath shortens and your heart thumps. You tremble with anticipation; yet fear, too, lurks within you. Slowly the big ship passes up the river. Finally it comes to rest at its long pier. You can hardly wait to get off, but again you must wait until all the first and second-class passengers have passed the custom officers. It is noon before the signal is given for the steerage passengers to come ashore. With baggage gripped in both your hands, with children clambering in front and all around you, you pass down the gang plank. The noise has completely confused and distracted you. How hungry you are ! How very, very tired already. An officer with a mechanical instrument, which records the number of passengers leaving the ship, stands at the end of the gangplank and counts all who pass down. You are only one of six or seven hundred. Presently you find yourself headed into a large barren waiting room. The dock- men are giving orders in English, which probably mean as much to you as Greek would mean to them. You know that they are shouting in a most savage manner, sometimes using sticks vigorously to keep the passengers in place. It seems an outrageous reception. How hun- gry and tired you are. Finally you are hustled to a waiting barge and crowded into it. This takes you at last to Ellis Island, the immigrant station. THE IMMIGRANT *S FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY 105 A few of your companions are wondering where they are going, but you have gotten to the point of not caring. On landing you look up at the large building, and you see the crowd ahead swarming up the broad stairs at the entrance. A sturdy officer is shouting first in one language, then in another. You hear in your native tongue : “Get your health tickets ready.” Your arms full of baggage and perhaps, children, you fumble around a bit, put a piece of baggage down for the time being. Finally you get hold of the precious ticket, stick it in your mouth, grab up your baggage, and start on again. At the head of the stairs, just before you enter the larger hall, a uniformed officer takes your health ticket and stamps it. This is the second doctor who has looked you over. The first one was at Sandy Hook. The large hall you see before you is divided into curious railed-off compartments. You are turned off into one of the narrow alleyways. You pass another doctor, who looks you over from head to foot. He This shows the track through Ellis Island that the incoming immigrant has to take. A. Immigrants landed from barges enter by these stairs. B. Surgeon examines health tickets. C. Surgeon examines head and body. D. Surgeon examines eyes. Suspects go to left for further examination. F. Group enters and sits in pen corresponding to ticket letter or number. G. Inspector examines on twenty-two questions. H. Into special inquiry court. I. Stamping railroad ticket orders. J. Money exchange and telegraph office. K. To railroad pen. L. To New York pen. M. To the ferry and New York. N. Telegraph office. (From Brandenburg: “Imported Americans,” by permission of the pub- lisher, F. A. Stokes Co.) 106 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS is looking for any signs of skin disease, deformity, or surface ailment. The man just ahead of you has had a chalk mark put upon his coat lapel. This means that the doctor has detected a disease, or at least wants to have him more thoroughly examined. You do not know this and rather hope he will put a chalk mark on you. On you go to the next doctor, who turns up your eyelids with a small instrument so quickly that you do not realize what has happened. This doctor was looking for the dreaded eye disease, trachoma. How fortunate you do not have it, for you would surely be turned back. -h ! IN THE LAND OF LIBERTY. (From the “Literary Digest,” October 1, 1921.) On you trudge into an enclosed space, where you wait. It feels good to sit down. One of the first things you notice is all the chalk marked passengers are together in another railed-off space. You won- der why. They are the uncertain ones who must wait for a more thorough examination. Every one around you looks frightened. You wonder what will happen next. It is probably better that you do not know what happens to all your fellow passengers. Some may be having the experience Mr. Steiner tells about in this story : ‘ ‘ Two boys under ten years of age came unattended ; fine looking boys. Over their heavy blue coats hung tickets with the mother’s address. How happy they were to be going to mother. She had THE IMMIGRANT ’S FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY 107 preceded them by several years to work out for herself and for them a new destiny on this side of the sea; for on the other side life had been blighted by the unfaithfulness of her husband. At last the hour came when she could send for her children. How she watched their journeying, and how anxious she was while they were on the sea ! They are on this ship, and she is waiting for them behind the iron grating at the island. Crowds pour into the great hall, past the physician, towards the inspectors, towards the great centre, to the east and the west. Now she sees them ; the physician looks at their faces, and bends low over their chests; but instead of walking straight towards her they are turned aside with those suspected of contagious disease.”* Ellis Island has a hospital where such cases are taken care of. The patients must be fully recovered before they are allowed to leave it. The mother in this story will probably have a long wait before she can have her boys. Maybe there is a mother in that very hall now having an experience like this : “A Polish woman by my side has suddenly become aware that she has one child less clinging to her skirts, and she implores me with agonizing cries, to bring it back to her. In a strange world, at the very entrance of what is to be her home, without the protection of her husband, without any knowledge of the English language, and with no one taking the trouble to explain to her the reason, the child was snatched from her side. Somewhere - it is bitterly crying for its mother, and each is unconscious of the other’s fate.”f Many of those detained are found to be diseased in some way. “Gdeye moya shena” (where is my wife?) an old Slovak cries as he looks wildly about for her, whose physique was suspected of being below the normal and who was passed on for further examination. “A Russian youth, stalwart and strong, is separated from his household which came together to settle in Dakota; but now he, the mainstay of the family, is gone and they are perplexed and distracted. ‘ ‘ A little girl, scarcely five years of age, cries : ‘ Mitter, mitter, ich will zu meiner mitter gehen;” she is there alone and uncomforted, surrounded by rough-looking men, while not far away her mother is working herself into hysterics because she must wait in the detention room the supreme decision. “A woman with three children has two of them taken from her because they are suspected of disease and found to be afflicted by trachoma; the mother also has the disease, but her husband, now an American citizen, comes to claim her, and she passes in while the little ones are held in custody by the immigration authorities. ’ •Steiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” p. 70. tSteiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” p. 65. tSteiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” pp. 65-66. 108 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS The three medical examinations you have passed do not mean that you are ready to enter New York. You pass along another narrow railed alley. This time an inspector examines your passports and “manifest” (your official record). Through an interpreter who speaks your language he asks you many questions. You are an honest person and answer frankly. The inspector has your answers checked by the statements in your manifest, marks you with an “R” and asks you to move on. Let us imagine that you have been allowed to enter the room where those who have been refused permission to enter the United States for one reason or another are waiting. In reality you would never get such a permission. “Imagine a room filled by at least fifty people, many of them doomed to recross the terrible sea and to be landed upon strange terri- tory, to find the way unattended to their obscure little village. When they arrive there they are usually paupers with a stigma resting upon them; for were they not rejected in America, and why? Ah, who knows why ! “Let us pass through this room, ‘Brother, why are you here?’ A stalwart Lettish peasant boy answers demurely, ‘Because I haven’t money enough. I had some money and they stole it out of my father ’s pockets.’ The father and the boy have been marked by the inspector as likely to become a public charge, because they had neither money in their pockets nor friends waiting for them. A matter of ten or twenty dollars is between these men and the fulfillment of all their desires. “The court may be lenient, but the father is old and the boy young and it is more than probable that they will both end their days on the rough Baltic. “A Servian peasant, browned by the hot sun which shone upon the Danubian plains where he lived, edges up to me, for he hears a familiar Slavic note in my speech, and he brings this bitter plaint. ‘How far I have travelled from Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and Ham- burg. I have spent all my money and now it looks as if I must go back. Must I go? Tell me.’ The court will tell him tomorrow that he has passed the dreaded dead line, is over fifty years of age, not too well built, used up by the hardships of his native country, and that as he is likely to become a public charge he is marked for deportation. He will be sent back to Hamburg, and how he will find his way home I do not know. “A German woman with three children is the next whom I notice. She is at the point of a nervous breakdown. She has a husband waiting for her, she has over $100, but P. C. is marked on her slip ; so she THE IMMIGRANT ’s FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY 109 must face the court, which will admit her, but she has a long twenty- four hours to wait and the strain is terrible. She needs to be re- assured and comforted. . . . “ ‘Where are you from, my boy?’ ‘Russia.’ One of the few real Russian peasants whom I have met. He measures five feet six inches, is sound as an oak, and having escaped through the cordons of gendarmes which separate his native country from the rest of the world, came here to meet his brother who was at work in the coal mines near Scranton, Pa. ‘What about your brother?’ ‘Ah, Barin (sir), my brother, they say, was killed in the mines and they are afraid to let me in; so I suppose I shall have to go back to Russia,’ and the big melancholy peasant cried like a baby. ‘Buy this shirt from me, Barin ; I need money ! ’ 9 ’ * If you had several days to spend at Ellis Island, you would realize what a great sifting machine it is. Before the journey is com- plete, you will be interested to hear of the cases where the immigrant has been detained because of the mistakes of others. “The work of deportation is accompanied by many hardships. Some men are turned back for trivial causes. Four Greeks came from Patras, a distance of more than 4500 miles, and their destination was Canada. The laws of that country demands that each immigrant going to a city in the Dominion must have $25 over and above trans- portation to destination. Each of these men had $24.37, and the four were rejected. A score of men, learning of their difficulty, would have gladly supplied the deficiency; but no, they could not enter. It was suggested that they apply for entrance into the United States, and one of the officials was consulted. His reply was: ‘We don’t take Canada’s rejected.’ The men were deported for want of the sixty- three cents each, although they were admissible in every other respect. The law of the United States does not specify any special sum which the immigrant must have; but those who have little money and no friends are deported — the plea advanced is, that they are liable to become public charges and have no visible means of subsistence. Immi- grants who only lack money are sent to the temporary detained rooms. If they can find a relative who can become their security, or who will advance them a reasonable sum of money, they will be admitted.”! “There are also some humorous cases. Deputy Hurley, of Boston, tells of the arrival of a young woman who was detained because of an affection of the eyes. A young Jew secured a pass to see her, and then busied himself in trying to secure her admission. After the first few days’ vain effort, he asked permission to bring in a friend to see her. The request was promptly granted. The friend came, tarried awhile, and left. No sooner was he gone than the young Hebrew appealed •Steiner, Edward A., "On the Trail of the Immigrant,” pp. 68-71, tRoberts, Peter, "The New Immigration,” p. 21. 110 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS to the Commissioner to allow his wife to land. The friend he brought was a rabbi, who performed the matrimonial ceremony, and the young man, being a citizen of the United States, had a right to land his wife, and the Commissioner was helpless to refuse his appeal/’* Let us go back to our trip. Suppose that you have satisfactorily passed the inspector and are ticketed “R.” You are next directed to the railroad ticket office. Here your ticket-order is stamped. You then go to a banker’s desk and get your money exchanged for Amer- ican money. Now you are ready to take one of the “Stairs of Sep- aration.” Can you guess why they are so named? The stairway to the left leads to the ferry-boat which takes immigrants to New York. The one to the right leads to the railroad barge room. Your destina- tion is in some other city than New York, so you board a barge here which takes you to the railroad station. Still another stairway leads to the waiting-room. Those who are fortunate enough to have friends to meet them take this stairway. I always think of the following little story told of an Italian girl who went down this last mentioned stairway. “There at the ‘Kissing Gate,’ for instance, one smiles and cries alternately. Maria Fortunata had come to the end of her long voyage. She stands waiting patiently, somewhat fearfully, a lonely sort of little figure and yet resplendent in her pale blue and white figured silk gown, with its tight-fitting waist and full-gathered skirt. A blue silk hand- kerchief knotted at her throat falls down over her shoulders. Her black hair is severely parted in the middle. A bit of red coral dangles from her ears. She holds a carefully folded embroidered silk handker- chief. At her side is a big, bulging leather pormanteau and a bundle tightly sewed in blue and white ticking. An officer goes to the door, calls an . . . Italian name and the face of Maria lightens. Where- upon Michael enters with the confident assurance bred of three years in New York and a job on the aqueduct. Quick glances of recognition are exchanged as he passes to the desk to answer the necessary ques- tions. From his point of vantage he covertly looks her over, surveys her from head to foot and back again. The blue silk dress! In his sophistication he is wondering, perhaps, how she will appear on Eliza- beth Street. Without a public demonstration such as the young Italian woman had made, he carries the bags to the corridor and there embraces her crudely with a kiss on each cheek. The air is cold and Michael wraps a great shawl about Maria’s shoulders, gathers up the baggage and hastens her out toward the ferry. ”f You remember you were starting down the stairway to the barge which takes you to the railroad station. The barge is under the care of a man in a government uniform. He is there to protect our new ♦Roberts, Peter, “The New Immigration, pp. 31-32. tShriver, William P., “Immigrant Forces,” pp. 3-4. THE IMMIGRANT ’S FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY 111 comers. When the station on the New Jersey side is reached, you go to the immigrant room and wait until the immigrant train is ready for you to board. The immigrant train is made up at night, you are told, so that means another long wait. The railroads carry our immigrants to their new homes with re- markably few mistakes. One story is told of how a conductor mixed the tickets of two men. One was going to St. Louis and the other to Pittsburgh. You can imagine what such a tangle would mean. Often the passengers arrive at night and, unless met by a friend, have to spend the night in the depot. The railroads have been severely criti- cized for turning them loose in the depots at unseasonable hours, but it is one of the difficult problems of immigration to take care of the many thousands who come in and travel on these immigrant trains. After reading these episodes, what would you say were the reasons the government guards our coast line and insists that immigrants must come through ports of entry? Put your reasons into your note-book. Write also the answers to the following questions in your note- book : 1. What kind of people are not permitted to enter the United States? Is it fair to keep them out? Would it be fair to the people of the United States to let them come in? 2. What changes do you think we should make in the way we receive immigrants at our immigrant stations? 3. Should the European governments inspect emigrants when they leave their native countries? Why? SUMMARY. Who Is Permitted to Enter? Until 1920 about 98 per cent of all the people who came over to this country were permitted to come in ; that is, only one in fifty was turned back. We had continued all these years to hold out a welcom- ing hand to the people of other lands, as we did in the days when the country was first being settled. For what reasons did we turn back even the few? Fig. 19 answers this question for you. Study it carefully. On what years are the figures based? We need to be cautious in drawing conclusions for a long time from the facts of so short a period, but it happens in this case that the facts shown for the ten years from 1911 to 1920, in- clusive, are true of the last hundred years. What three principal classes have been rejected in this period? Do you know what a “contract laborer” is? See if you can tell after reading this little episode: 112 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS “Mr. Brandenburg learned from an Italian woman that her hus- band had been commissioned by a contractor in Pittsburgh to go into the Italian provinces of Austria and engage two hundred good stone- masons, two hundred good carpenters, and an indefinite number of unskilled laborers. These people were to be put in touch with sub- Classes Number Excluded Paupers 90,045 Afflicted with 7 77 ni Diseases 0/ ’' ul Contra ct Laborers 15,516 9,127 Criminal and Immoral Aliens Unable to read and 5 Qg^ H over 16 years of acje. ’ ® Mentally Unfit 4,283 | Alien Enemies 81 Chronrc Alcoholism 52 Special classes of people who are not permitted to enter the United States Fig. 19 agents of lines sailing from Hamburg, Fiume and Bremen, and these agents were to be accountable for these contract laborers being got safely into the United States.”* EXERCISE. 1. Make a check mark before the sentence that describes best what a contract laborer is : a. They are people who come to visit relatives in America. b. They are men who come with a definite promise of work. c. They are people who come to inspect property here. d. They are men who have heard that there are many jobs open here. 2. Copy in your note-book from Fig. 19 the list of special classes of people who are not permitted to enter the United States. Write a few lines telling why you think each class should or should not be excluded. Brandenburg. Broughton, “Imported Americans,” p. 33. THE IMMIGRANT ? S FIRST SIGHT OF HIS NEW COUNTRY 113 WHO IS PERMITTED TO ENTER UNDER THE 1921 LAW? A very important change has been made since the World War in the way we determine who shall come in. The cartoon tells yon some- thing of what it is. Before you read further, see if you can work out for yourself what the cartoon means. What does the 3 per cent sign mean on the gate that Uncle Sam seems about to close? It means that our Congress passed a law on May 19, 1921, providing that no more than three per cent of the number of people of a particular nationality residing in the United THE ONLY WAY TO HANDLE TT. (From the “Literary Digrest,’’ May 7, 1921.) 'States in 1910 can enter in any one year. For instance, if there were 100,000 Czecho-Slovaks in the United States in 1910, only 3000 will be permitted to enter in any one year in the future. What do you think of the wisdom of such a law ? Does the cartoon help to explain why it was passed ? Let us see how it will affect the number who come from each country. The next table shows the number that came from the dif- ferent countries in 1913, the year before the Great World War sharply shut off the flow of foreigners into the country: 114 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS 254,825 came from Austria-Hungary. 34,329 came from Germany. 265,542 came from Italy. 291,040 came from Russia. 32,767 came from Scandinavia. 43,363 came from the United Kingdom. Under the new law, not more than the following could come in 1921: 13,079 could come from Austria-Hungary. 68,039 could come from Germany. 42,021 could come from Italy. 34,247 could come from Russia. 37,716 could come from Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). 77,206 could come from the United Kingdom (England, Scot* land, Ireland and Wales). Is this new law going to change our immigration in any important way? Study these two tables and see if you can tell how. XIX. HOW THE IMMIGRANT IS OFTEN TREATED ON ARRIVING The trials and hardships of the immigrants are by no means over when they have been permitted to land. Inexperienced in the ways of the world, ignorant of onr language and customs, and filled with won- der, even terror, at our cities, they fall easy prey to thieves and other dishonest persons who are on the watch to rob them. “Share now the experience of an Italian immigrant on the first hour of his arrival in the promised land. Arrived with his son in Brooklyn he was on his way to Milwaukee. In his fear and suspicion he refused the services of the ‘Immigrant Guide and Transfer’ which has been established for the help of just his sort. On the dock he was taken into the toils of a hackman, whose charge was $3 for driving him to the Liberty Street Ferry. Two other immigrants were taken in the hack and all were charged the same price, making $9 for the trip. At the ferry an expressman explained to the Italian immigrant that he should return to Ellis Island to exchange his order on the steamship company for a railroad ticket. The expressman took him in his wagon from Liberty Street to the Battery, a short drive, and charged him $3. Whereupon he was misdirected by a policeman and sent to the Grand Central Station. From this point he was taken to the Battery a second time by a colored porter, who charged him $1 for his services and 15 cents carfare. Here an investigator found him, too late in the afternoon to go to Ellis Island to exchange his order, and he was obliged to remain over night in New York, the whole transaction having cost him over $8. The case of this poor Italian illustrates the operation of exploiters preying upon immigrants at the ports of entry, at docks and railroad terminals. It gives some encouragement, however, to add to this story, that the expressman was called before the Commissioner of Licenses on the following morning, who ruled that he had no right to transfer passengers, ordered the refund of the $3, and stated that the man’s license would be revoked if another similar complaint was received.”* There are a good many instances of this kind of treatment. Other stories are told of the simple ignorance of the newcomers. “Where are you going, Signor?” asked Mr. Steiner of an Italian on board with him. “Ah, I am going to Mulberry Street; great city, yes, Mulberry Street, great city.”f You see, he really meant New York City; Mulberry Street was the city to him. ‘ ‘ ‘ Polak, where are you going ? ’ 1 Kellisland. ’ 1 Where do you say ? ’ ‘Kellisland, where stones are and big sea.’ ‘Yes, yes, I know now: •Shriver. William P., “Immigrant Forces,” pp. 131-132. tSteiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” p. 44, 116 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Kelly ’s Island, in Ohio. Fine place for you, Polak ; powder blast and white limestone dust, yet a fine sea and a fine life. ’ ’ ’* You will remember the stairways of separation at Ellis Island. It was a very large number who were marked “R” and therefore went down the stairs that led to the ferry to New York. The railroad tickets of most of them read to places in the New England States, or New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois. In fact, 70 out of every 100 of the arriving immigrants were bound for some point in the immigration region shown in Fig. 21, page 119. Here there is much coarse, rough and heavy work to do, and our incoming Slavs Occupation Percent Professional 1.0 | Farmers 1.0 | and Italians are ready to do it. They are accustomed to hard work- The majority of them are not skilled or trained to do much but the heavy, unskilled labor. Look at Fig. 20, and then tell why the immigrant is not trained to do much more than heavy, unskilled work. About what number of the total are common laborers or have ‘no occupation’? Why are only one per cent of them ‘farmers’?” Only about 16 per cent of all immigrants are skilled at some trade. Of these the greatest number are Bohemians; 25 per cent of the Bohemians know a trade. Only 11 per cent of the Southern Italians and 14 per cent of the Irish are skilled workmen. The trades that our skilled immigrants know 7 are, in order of the number who enter them, those of tailor, miner, carpenter, shoemaker, locksmith, butcher, Fi cj.ZO. Kinds of work our Immigrants did irriheir native countries. Figures are for the years 1898' 1909 Steiner, Edward A., “On the Trail of the Immigrant,” p. 44. HOW THE IMMIGRANT IS TREATED 117 clerk and accountant, baker, and mason. Except for the miners, many of those who enter these trades are also farmers, who combine their trade with the tilling of a bit of land. But why don’t they go to the South or West and farm, you may ask. This is the work they know best. Some have done that. We are told that 65 out of every 100 farmers in this country who own farms or work as farm laborers, are immigrants. But again, we are told that 70 out of every 100 in our coal mines are foreigners; that the foreigners make up 69 out of every 100 of the steel and iron- workers, — and more startling still, that 90 out of every 100 workers who have been building our railroads in the last thirty years were newcomers to America. The number in farming must be a very small per cent of all who have come. By far the greatest percentage have gone into the industries. We must remember that to become a farmer takes land, and land is expensive whether bought or leased. Again, it is expensive to set up a farm with tools and machinery. Furthermore, it is expensive to reach our farming lands where the land is cheaper. Railroad fares from New York to Oklahoma or Kansas would mean a fortune to those men and women. Added to all this, they are ignorant of what the United States has to offer. They are like the Italian in the story, who said Mulberry Street was a gpeat city. Very small indeed is their knowledge of the geography of the United States, but never- theless many have turned to farming — fewer now, however, than in the past. TEST. 1. Summarize in a line in what way the immigrant is inspected at Ellis Island in respect to : 1. Health. 2. Passports. 3. Money. 2. Put an “A” in front of those in the list below that are ad- mitted and an “R” in front of those that are rejected: 1. Wives of naturalized citizens. 2. Foreigners coming to visit relatives here. 3. Paupers. 4. Children accompanied by parents. 5. The physically well. 6. Contract laborers. 7. Agents of foreign governments. 8. Criminals and immoral aliens. 9. Those who cannot read or write. 10. Those affected with disease. 11. Foreign business men. 118 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS 12. The mentally strong. 13. Those who come after three per cent of each nationality have already been admitted. 14. Those who come with insufficient money. Make a summary in which you point out ways that the immigrant could be protected from robbery and fraud after arriving at Ellis Island. To the Teacher : Part or a full class exercise could be spent on debating any of the following topics: 1. Resolved, that we should continue to restrict immigration over three per cent of the number of each nationality resident in the United States in 1910. 2. Resolved, that all immigrants who cannot read or write be excluded. Or a class period could be spent drama- tizing the immigrants , experiences at Ellis Island. Assign certain pupils the parts of various immigration officials and let the remainder of the pupils take parts suggested by the episodes. Helpful books on inspection at Ellis Island are: Brandenburg, B. Imported Americans. F. A. Stokes Co., New York, 1903. Grose, H. B. Aliens or Americans t Young People’s Missionary Move- ment, New York, 1906. Roberts, P. The New Immigration. Macmillan, New York, 1920. Steiner, E. A. On the Trail of the Im- migrant. F. H. Revell Co., New York, 1906. XX. IN WHAT PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES DO IMMIGRANTS LIVE? When the Germans and Scandinavians came over in the middle of the nineteenth century they went to live in different parts of America. No group all settled in New York or Boston, the port cities through 'which they entered the country. Some of the Germans went to Wis- consin, some to Nebraska, Iowa, Chicago. Many settled in St. Louis and helped build up the industrial life of that great community. Hundreds of thousands of them went onto farms. We have read stories of the pioneering that they did in the westward settling of our continent. But now all that, along with so many other things about American life, is changed. Fig. 21 will lead you to expect quite a different story about where the new immigration settled in America from that which . you learned about the “old.” Study it very carefully and see if you can pick out the statement in the following list that is the truest account of what is shown on the map. Fig. 21 1. The map shows that there are many foreign-born in every state. 2. Cities grew because foreign-born people settled them. 3. The largest industries are in the blackest area. 4. The foreign-born settled there because it was nearest to Europe. 5. The foreign-born concentrate in Northeastern United States. 120 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Now turn back to Fig. 12, on page 58, and compare that map with the map of Fig. 21. In what ways are these two maps similar? Which of the following reasons best explains their similarity? 1. New York is the best place for immigrants to land. 2. Work that these foreigners can do is found in northeastern United States. 3. The black area is best adapted for manufacturing. 4. Transportation facilities are better in the black area. 5. The climate is more suitable than in other localities for man- ufacturing. Notice how the heavy line on this map starts from northeastern North Dakota, extends south to where the Ohio joins the Mississippi, then runs directly east to Baltimore and across New Jersey. About what proportion of the whole area of the United States is included in the “Immigration Zone”? How is this area related to the propor- tion of immigrants who go there to live? Write in your note-book a statement of your chief conclusion from a comparison of these two maps. Why Does the Immigrant Go to Live in the Northeastern Section ? There are two very good reasons why the immigrant settles in the ' industrial zone. The first is that he cannot do the work to which he was most accustomed in his native country — that is, farm. You have learned that by far the most of those who come here nowadays from southern and eastern Europe are farmers. But when they arrive in America they are left in large cities where nothing but manufacturing and trade is carried on, — hundreds of miles from the great farming region of the Middle West. Point out on the wall map these fine farming states : Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, North and South Dakota. Now trace on the wall map the railroad routes by which immigrant farmers could get to places where farming is done on a large scale. About how much does a railroad ticket cost from New York to, say Chicago? If you have no way of finding out the exact fare between different places, remember that railroad fares are about 3 1 cents a mile. So from New York to Chicago would certainly cost as much as-V-H.v.^.V..;^ But your readings about Ellis Island told you that it is customary for immigrants to have less than $50 in money when they land. So even if they should go to the Middle West, they would have no money left when they got there and would need to go to work at once at the first job they were offered. Then, too, it costs a great deal to buy land, to start in farming; two or three thousand dollars at the very least for a very small farm — say of 80 acres. This being the case, it is of course beyond the hope WHERE IMMIGRANTS LIVE 121 of a newly arrived immigrant to own his own farm. He may go out to a farming community and get work as a hired hand; and some do, but not many. No, most of our “new” immigrants stay in the big cities and go to work in the shops and factories as unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Look at Fig. 20. This shows you that not only the industries are in the northeastern section, — the cities are there, too. Thirty-two of the fifty largest cities of the country are in this area. In one of our later lessons we shall find out the reasons that cities grew, especially in this section. We are more interested just now, however, to see where the foreign-born are living. The following table will help you to understand Fig. 20 and Figs. 23 and 24, on pages 124 and 125. This table shows the percentage of the total population that are native whites, that are children of foreign white parentage, and foreign-born whites living in ten typical cities of this immigrant zone. Native Born Born of Foreign Stock Per Cent Born Per Cent Born Per Cent of of Native of Foreign Foreign-born City Parentage Parentage Whites Boston 24 38 36 Chicago 20 42 36 Cleveland 24 40 35 Fall River 13 44 43 Grand Rapids .. 36 38 25 Lowell 20 40 41 Minneapolis .... A , 32 39 29 New York 19 38 40 Newark 27 38 32 Rochester 34 38 27 Average... 25 39 35 Negroes average about one per cent. This table is based on table in Jenks, J. W., and Lauck, W. J.: ‘‘The Immi - gration Problem,” p, 575. Their table is based upon an abstract of the Nine- teenth Census of the United States, 1910. From the table, see if you can tell about what part of all the people in the cities of our industrial zone are natives. Are you astonished at what you find ? Most people are when they first learn this fact about But what a difference between the make-up of these cities and of cities outside the immigration zone. The next table of figures shows the difference very clearly indeed. 122 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Native Stock Foreign Stock City Per Cent born of Native Whites Per Cent born of Foreign Parentage Foreign born White Negroes Atlanta, Ga 59.4 4.2 2.8 33.5 Denver, Col 50.1 28.7 18.2 2.5 Kansas City, Mo 61.9 18.4 10.2 9.5 Portland, Ore. 50.3 24.6 21.1 0.5 Richmond, Va. 54.2 6.0 3.2 36.6 Average 55^2 16.4 11.1 16.5 Things you wear. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Clothing Cotton Goods Wool 6c Worsted Goods Silk Goods Boots 8c Shoes For t he home you live in. Construction Work ■■■■■■■■■■■■El Rope, Twine 8c Hemp Iron 8c Steel Copper Mining 8c Smelting Coal Mining (Bituminous) Oil Refining Furniture SI Meat Packing Sugar Refining r^rn Percent erf all workers who are foreign born. Per cent of al I workers who k\\\i are native born of foreign father. . . Percent of ail workers who 1 1 are native born of native father. What the Immigrant does for you. Fig. 22 Between 50 and 60 per cent of the people are native whites — twice as large a percentage as in the industrial zone cities. Two of these five cities are Southern, so of course the per cent of negroes is very large. The second reason why the immigrants crowd up in the north- eastern zone, then, is that they can find work there so easily. In the past thirty years the immigrant has become so important in our indus- tries that we depend upon him to do the heavy labor. WHERE IMMIGRANTS LIVE 123 Fig. 22 tells in a very startling way how important the immigrant is to our every-day lives. In this country over half of us live in cities. Very few people raise the food they eat or make the clothes they wear or the houses they live in, as they did in the pioneer days of only sixty years ago. All these things, our food, our clothes, our houses, our lux- uries, are now made in factories. And nearly all of the factories depend upon iron, steel, coal, transportation, and other such industries. Here is what the immigrant, speaking for the immigrants as a whole, might say : “I am the immigrant. Since the dawn of creation my restless feet have beaten new paths across the earth. My uneasy bark has tossed on all seas. My wanderlust was born of the craving for more liberty and a better wage for the sweat of my face. I looked toward the United States with eager eyes kindled by the fire of ambition and heart quickened with new-born hope. I approached its gates with great expectation. I entered in with fine hope. I have shouldered my burden as the American man-of-all work. I contribute 85 per cent of all the labor in the slaughtering and meat packing industries. I do 7/10ths of the bituminous coal mining. I do 7/8ths of all the work in the woolen mills. I contribute 9/10ths of all the labor in the cotton mills. I make 19/20ths of all the clothing. I manufacture more than half of the shoes. 1 build 4/5ths of all the furniture. I make half of the collars, cuffs and shirts. I turn out 4/5ths of all the leather. I make half the gloves. I refine nearly 19/20ths of the sugar. I make nearly half of the tobacco and cigars. And yet I am the great American Problem. When I pour out my blood on your altar of labor, and lay down my life as a sacrifice to your God of Toil, men make no more comment than at the fall of a sparrow. My children shall be your children, and your land shall be my land because my sweat and my blood will cement the foundations of the America of Tomorrow. If I can be fused into the body politic, the melting pot will have stood the supreme test.”* ' Survey , 40: 214. May 25, 1918. 124 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS Does this not show us clearly what the immigrant does for us? Of all the industries, the coal and iron and steel industries are the greatest and perhaps the most important of all. Our daily lives depend upon having coal to run our trains, so that milk and meat and other perishable foods may be brought to our cities regularly each day. Think of the thousands of babies that would die if the milk trains stopped running for more than a single day! And in order to light our homes, and heat our houses and school buildings in autumn and winter, and make the power to run our street cars, we must have coal. Where iron and steel manufacturing is done in America. Does this explain why immigrants work in this zone? Fig. 23 And for nearly all these things we must have iron, too, and steel. Railroad tracks, locomotives, cars, machine shops, bridges, great city buildings — all would cease, and much of our modern civilization with them, if the supply of manufactured iron and steel should give out. All of these statements show how important the Slav immigrant is, for he is doing most of the rough labor in the coal, iron, and steel industries. A captain of a mine in the Michigan region was asked, ‘‘How many foreigners are in these mines?” His reply was, “We’re all that here.” “How many of your men are able to talk English so they can get along?” “About half,” was his answer. Figure 23 helps us to understand the immigration zone. What do you think is the difference between the immigration zone and the zone WHERE IMMIGRANTS LIVE 125 of the steel industry? How does Fig. 23 help to explain the cause of immigrants living in the northeastern industrial zone? Do you notice in Fig. 23 that the iron and steel manufacturing is not done as much in New England as in the Pennsylvania region? New England has many machine industries, but since 1800 she has led in another kind of industrial work: the spinning of yarn and the weaving of cloth. In Massachusetts, for example, a score of cities have thousands of immigrants working in their mills at semi-skilled or skilled trades. Fig. 24 shows where the mills are. They are Where textile manufacturing is done in America. Does this help explain why immigrants work in this zone? Fig. 24 thickest in what states? Compare the map in Fig. 24 with that in Fig. 20. Does Fig. 24 help to explain the large immigrant population in the New England States ? So far two reasons have been given why the southern Europeans crowd our cities: First, they can’t buy land, and the good free land is gone; and second, they can get work easily in the industrial plants nearer the coast. Furthermore, for their work they can get wages which are handsome to them, although to our native workers they seem very low. A third reason is that their relatives and friends, who came here before them, congregated in certain cities in the East, and in particular quarters of those cities. You sec the immigrant knows nothing about the United States except the little he has heard from his own people. They in turn know 126 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS little beyond the small neighborhood they work in. So we find nation- alities in special industries, as the Slovaks and Russians in coal mining and in iron and steel plants; the Russian Jews in the clothing trade; the Magyars in coal mining, sugar refining plants, steel and plow plants, and silk dyeing; the Poles and southern Italians in almost every phase of mining and manufacturing. Do you think it would be wise for the United States to make it a part of its care of immigrants to establish bureaus to aid them in locating work and homes in the United States? TEST 1. Complete the sentence as a test of your knowledge of where immigrants settle in the United States, and why they settle there. 1. Foreigners concentrate in w T hat is known as the~**4^vc*^. zone. More than.-'g:. per cent of them live here. 2. This region includes the section of the United States. 3. They settle there principally because they can find... cAl ...... .. 4. The immigrant does over.... per cent of the work in the principal industries of America. 5. His occupation at home, that of mostly, is not open to him in America because 6. Figs. 23 and 24 show that the and are also concentrated in the zone. 7. The foreign-born not only congest in the zone, but in the larger of that region. 2. Outline for your notebook what you think should be done to distribute immigrants more evenly throughout the country. Tell briefly how it could be done and who should do it. Why do you think it necessary ? XXI. HOW THE IMMIGRANT FINDS HIS JOB AND THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH HE WORKS Imagine that you were a Pole recently arrived in Chicago. You have just five dollars left. That means that you would have to go to work immediately. What would you do to get a job ? Remember you have always lived in the shadow of starvation, and you never have known what it means to have a simple, comfortable house, enough clothes for a change, and you never have gone to school. Your wildest dreams are “to have feather beds, a crowing cock in the barnyard, and a pig-killing once a year.” You are ignorant of English, and' filled with astonishment and even horror at "the sights of the tremen- dous city. Before this trip you had never seen a town of more than 5000 people. What would you do to get a job? How does each bewildered immigrant get his first job? Read these little anecdotes to find out what experiences foreigners have when they try to find work. Mr. Peter Roberts noticed that many Italians passing through Ellis Island carried the address of one man in Buffalo. He was very curious to find out why, so he looked up the address in Buffalo. He found that the man was running a combined store, steamship ticket agency, and labor agency where immigrants could learn about jobs. He asked the proprietor the whereabouts of one of the newly arrived immigrants in whom he had been interested and who carried the address of the store. It took the proprietor some time to place the man referred to, then he said, “Gone out to work on the road, living in a camp.” You see this proprietor, who was acting as a labor agent, was one of the immigrant’s countrymen who had put him in touch with work he could do. Most of our incoming immigrants are taken care of by friends who get them jobs, just as this Italian did. Never is the family too poor, too crowded, too tired, or too busy to help one of their own countrymen. The newcomer is cordially received and taken along to work next morning, and helped in every way to get a job. The coming, in large numbers, of our immigrants in the past thirty years has made job-finding a regular business for some of the immigrants themselves who are settled in the United States. The person carrying on this business is usually a member of the same nationality as those who come to him seeking work. He has learned to speak English, possibly only in a broken way, but so that he can make himself understood and can deal with the 'employers who hire workers. He soon becomes a leader among his people. They are very dependent upon him. All the business between the employers and these workers must go through the “padrone/’ as this leader is called. He charges the company a fee for each laborer he secures for 128 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS them, then in turn he charges the laborer a fee for getting him the job. It is usually a profitable business for the padrone. One of these padrones for a group of Greeks charged each worker in a railroad camp a dollar a month for acting as their interpreter, and he charged the company a dollar for each man he secured for them. You see he made $2.00 on every man hired. Often the charges made by the padrones are outrageous, like one found near Chicago, who charged the workers $5 for the job, and after the job was secured, $2.50 a month as an insurance that the worker could keep it. The padrone is actually the boss of all the workers. Often he has been the saloon-keeper of the neighborhood; he is the bar-tender or the store-keeper; sometimes he is only one of the workers in the industry. These are the persons most often guilty of evading the contract labor law, for you see how profitable it would be for them to import laborers directly from the home country and so earn more. The Story of Mark, the Padrone In an industrial city in Ohio lives one of these leaders. He has prospered greatly, although he has made many enemies. When Mark came to this town he was wretchedly poor, so poor that he had to borrow fifty cents from the superintendent to buy a pair of suspenders that he badly needed. He began to furnish the company with laborers, acted as an interpreter, and then received permission to open up a store to supply the workers. After four years his influence with the foreigners had grown so strong that the com- pany could only employ the workers that Mark agreed to hire. Then, because “he thought he owned the factory,” the superintendent dis- charged Mark. Now there was another factory in the city. At the time that Mark was discharged it was in great need of laborers. The owners came to Mark to make an agreement with him for the furnishing of unskilled laborers. Now Mark, because of his great power over the men, could almost make the arrangement at his own terms. He therefore demanded that the company advance him money with which to build a town to shelter the workers he would bring. Second, he demanded that he should be given absolute control over this town. This the company agreed to do. In a very short time Mark had built a town which housed three thousand people. He built a fence around that town. No vehicle had the right to pass the gate to sell goods to the people of “Hunkey Town,” as it was called. Think of it, a town in the United States with a fence built around it. It sounds like the time in the Middle Ages, when the lords built their castles with moats around them so that their enemies could not reach them. Well, Mark was the “lord” THE IMMIGRANT’S JOB 129 of this town. He had a large store, a saloon, a hall for dances and meetings; in fact, everything these workers needed had to be bought from Mark. He did not charge them much more than another store would charge. Their rents were not unreasonably high, but every- thing they did or spent was done through Mark. He has grown very rich. But he has many enemies — men who lost their jobs because of him, men who envy him his fine house and money. And his enemies have made Mark’s life so uncomfortable and unsafe that he had to ask for special police protection.* This story of Mark shows us how bad it is for a foreign-born leader, who does not know American ways of living, to have such absolute control. The people in “Hunkey Town” are not really living as Americans ; they do not know Americans, nor do they have to learn the English language to get along. Don’t you think we should try to work out some better way for our foreigners to get jobs than through such men as Mark? Our government made a good start on this problem when it established employment agencies in our large cities during the war. Here is another account of the way in which padrones work : ‘'Every charge made by the padrone is deducted by the railroad employers before the wages are paid, upon the sole statement of the padrone; $1 to $3 is deducted every two weeks for supplies, whether the men buy supplies or not. If the food is ‘rotten’ or the men do not receive all they order, no refund or adjustment is ever made and the prices in this padrone’s camps are higher than any similar place in the state. The company also deducts $1 per week for shack rent. Some of the camps are so filthy that the men have built huts outside or sleep out-of-doors. . . . The employment fee charged by this padrone is $1 to $3. No man can go to work for this road unless he gets a brass check from the padrone, and for this the road deducts the amount the padrone asks. ”f “Last June several Russians who were looking for work were picked up on the street and piloted to an employment office by a runner. For this service he charged the immigrants $1.50 apiece. At the office arrangement was made for them to work in the woods as sawyers, and transportation and office fees were to be advanced. They were given an address in Kineo, Me., taken to the depot and sent to Calumet, Mich., where they were expected to work in the copper mines. When they got away and were picked up by the Immigrants’ Protective League in Chicago, after they had worked their way down from Calumet, they had still the card of the Boston agent, calling for work as a sawyer at Kineo, Me. They were unable to explain what had *This story has been adapted from Roberts, Peter: “New Immigration, ” pp. 177-178. tShriver, 'William P.: “Immigration Forces,” p. 90. 130 AMERICA AND HER IMMIGRANTS happened to them, had no idea where Maine was, or why they were taken to Michigan. They knew they had been deceived, had been compelled to leave their little bundle of clothes in order to effect their escape, and insisted that their only desire was to get back to their relatives in West Hanover, Mass.; but when the expense of returning was explained to them they were completely discouraged. More than two hundred Russians and Poles were sent to Calumet through this and another agency last summer. How many of them knew they were being sent to the mines and were to be used as strike-breakers cannot be said. As yet little is done to protect the immigrant from such robbery as the next story shows : “An investigator for the commission was sent out in November by one such agent with forty Poles. All of them, after a walk of twenty miles, were put to work. On his way back to Boston, this investigator found a group of Poles who had paid fees of $4 (in one case $5) in a Boston employment office, and had been given the card of a Bangor agent. In Bangor they were told that they should have paid nothing in Boston, and were given cards to the camp ‘boss,’ marked ‘office fee due.’ They walked about twenty miles to the camp, and at the end of a week were discharged because, they were told, some of the old employees had returned. Of three men who had paid fees to the Boston agency one was given $3 when discharged, and two others were given $3.50. They had all been promised free transportation and $35 a month and board if they stayed until they were discharged, and $28 a month if they left before the completion of the work. These men had lost two weeks in time, had walked about forty miles, had spent some money for the things they thought they should need in the