Chapter III: Part 3

Interesting suggestions on this point are to be found in the two articles, to which prizes were given by the American Institute of Architects in the June and July, 1919, numbers of their journal. There is much experimentation yet to be done, as the question of the separate house with its separate plot of ground is by no means a settled one. It is particularly desirable that the interest of the foreign born be enlisted, both that they may contribute to the solution of the question and that they may become acquainted with all the possibilities of access to the land which are being worked out.

In spite of some defects and the need for further experimentation along the lines suggested above, there is no doubt that the projects of Massachusetts and of the Federal government mark a very real advance. The most pressing need is to construct a sufficient number of these houses so that they may be available for immigrant groups. One means of doing this is by the employer's building houses for the workers to buy or to rent. Although this has sometimes been found to help solve the housing situation, factors may enter that limit its usefulness. The industrial relationships between employer and employee may be such that subsidy for housing by employer would hinder rather than help. Where a community is largely comprised of one industry it may be very unwise for the industry to go so far toward the control of community affairs. Labor unrest in the northern iron ranges can be traced in part to such company provision of housing and sanitation.

The limited dividend company, organized not for profit, and operating under the careful supervision of a governmental department, is another solution. This agency has been particularly successful in Massachusetts under the stimulus as well as under the supervision of the Massachusetts Homestead Commission, and is undoubtedly capable of further development.

GOVERNMENT BUILDING LOANS

Another possibility is that the local or state government advance the money and enable the worker to buy his own home. That is the plan adopted by the Massachusetts Homestead Commission in its experiment at Lowell. It is also one of the policies adopted by the Canadian government, which will loan money to provincial governments to be advanced for building houses on land owned (a) by the provincial or municipal government, (b) by the limited dividend company, (c) by the workman himself. This latter plan would probably commend itself most readily to the foreign-speaking groups.

Direct loans by the local government to the worker are advocated in the careful and thorough plan worked out by Mrs. E. E. Wood.[17] One suggestion is a proposed amendment to the Postal Savings Law, authorizing loans from postal savings deposits to workers with annual incomes not in excess of twelve hundred dollars. The investigation of the application is to be in the hands of the nearest local housing board. A suggested amendment to the Farm Loan Act is that housing loans be made by the Farm Loan Board on the same terms on which farm loans are now authorized. It is interesting to note that this plan contemplates the continued activity of the building and loan associations with which the foreign born are already familiar. It suggests that the first loan be given by the government and the association be content with a second mortgage, receiving in return the greater stability that is secured from a transaction carried on under governmental supervision.

According to Mrs. Wood's report, before 1915, 700,000 houses had been built or acquired in the United States through the aid of building and loan associations.[18] She thinks that the moderately paid wage earner, but not the unskilled worker, was benefited. This conclusion is disputed by officers of four building and loan associations in Chicago interviewed in connection with this study. That the associations reach the foreign-speaking groups seems to be evident from the names in the Annual Report of the auditor of the state of Illinois for 1918. The Bohemians had the largest number of societies, and the Poles were second. The Italians alone of the large national groups were unrepresented.

Mrs. Wood's plan also calls for a national housing commission in the Department of Labor, to be created under congressional act, with organization and powers analogous to those exercised by the Federal Board for Vocational Education. For the use of this commission it is proposed that a fund be created by the issue of bonds, from which loans could be made to certain designated agencies for the clearance of congested areas and the increase of housing facilities.

The Federal legislation is to be supplemented according to Mrs. Wood's plan by state legislation, including:

1. A restrictive housing law, a constructive housing law, and a Town Planning Act. This plan contemplates a state commission on housing and town planning through which the Federal aid for the state would be made available; to which should be intrusted the responsibility of investigating and approving or disapproving housing schemes proposed by local agencies and associations.

2. A state fund similar to the Federal fund is proposed, and definite suggestions for its use are worked out. For the local authorities, local housing and town-planning boards, probably with the county as the basis of organization, are proposed.

This housing fund, composed of the Federal fund, the state fund, and in some cases local funds, is to be used to make loans to municipalities, housing organizations that are not organized for profit, limited dividend companies, co-operative associations, or even employers. The plan contemplates that the lowest paid wage earners, among whom are numbered a large per cent of the foreign born, should continue to rent; but the landlord should not be a private individual seeking to make profit from providing the workers with shelter.

The plan also takes note of the plan for co-partnership ownership adopted by the United States Housing Corporation. The main features of this arrangement are:

1. Ownership vested in a local board of trustees bound to operate the property in the interest of the tenants and until the property is fully amortized in the interest of the government.

2. Formation of a tenants' association to which all residents of three months are eligible on payment of small yearly dues. This association to elect a tenants' council to act as directors of the association, to confer with the board of trustees, and to carry out such duties as trustees direct.

3. Any tenant may become a co-partner by applying for bonds to the amount of 25 per cent of the value of his dwelling, and accompanying his application with a cash subscription of one half per cent of this.

4. Tenant co-partners are given a voice in the management by the right to elect trustees, the number increasing with the amount of subscriptions to bonds.

5. Tenant co-partners granted remission of one month's rent a year.

6. Tenant co-partners leaving or desiring to discontinue as co-partners have the right to sell their bonds to trustees at par.

Mr. A. C. Comey, the author of the plan, says of it:[19]

Such a co-partnership scheme as this will present to workmen
a unique opportunity for saving, for not only will they get
as high a rate of interest as a safe investment justifies,
but they will be to a large degree custodians of their own
security and will thus be able to protect their investments
in much the same way as actual home owners. On the other hand
they will avoid most of the pitfalls of home owning, such as
loss through deterioration of a neighborhood, forced sales in
case of departure, and inability to realize on assets locked
up in private homes. Moreover, they will tend to develop a
high degree of community spirit, usually so lacking among
apartment dwellers, and thus take more interest in public
affairs and become better citizens generally.

These are advantages which it would be especially desirable for the foreign-born groups, as many of them have experienced the pitfalls of home ownership. It is a complicated system and would have to be explained in detail to the various groups. The medium for such explanations is at hand in the foreign-language press and in the immigrant societies, and the effort that it would involve is surely worth making. It should also be noted that it is not so complicated a system as the land tenure in many of the countries from which the immigrants come.

INSTRUCTION IN SANITATION

The subject of housing reform as a means of easing the housewife's task was considered first, as it is useless to talk of helping her in her work until she is given some of the conveniences with which to work. It is evident, however, that that is not all that is necessary for the foreign-born housewife. She is not accustomed to the use of a house of the size contemplated by the proposed plans--the Italians, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Hungarians, and doubtless others have known only the one and two-room house--and there is always the possibility that, given more rooms, they may be used to take in more lodgers. Such was the case, for example, in the relatively adequate houses provided by the United States Steel Corporation at Gary.

It is not necessary, however, to use the method of that corporation, and turn out of the houses persons who need instruction in the use of the house. Persuasion and instruction in the uses of the special features of the house could have been tried. It might have been possible for the rent collector or a sanitary inspector with a social point of view to establish friendly relations on their regular visits to the families. With confidence gained and tact displayed, much in the way of education could be accomplished. To construct houses so that each room can serve one and only one purpose would in part meet the difficulties. Above all, patience and a realization of the difficulties that the foreign-born housewife meets, are essential.

A point on which some architects lay special stress in the structure of low-cost houses is the devotion of the entire first floor to cooking and living uses--not sleeping. That is, the living room, dining room, and kitchen are either combined or so open into each other that no temptation is offered to close off part for sleeping purposes. The bedrooms are then on the second floor, each room having only one door, and the bathroom and the storage space are slightly elevated above the second and offer no temptation to be used for purposes other than those for which they are designed. If, then, families inexperienced in the use of modern accommodations come into the community, they may perhaps be helped to an understanding of modern devices by the experience of living in houses arranged in this way.

Both the rent collector, if it be a case of tenancy, and the building official, if it be a case of ownership, should not only understand the principles of sanitation and hygiene, but should understand the people they serve. To render the best service to immigrant groups, such officials must speak the language of the group and understand something of its peculiarities. They should, in fact, be public assistant housekeepers, through whose assistance the gradual and voluntary initiation of our foreign-born neighbors into community life can take place. New standards of efficiency and new amenities can be developed. Our community life might, then, be freed from the old physical dangers connected with human adjustment to physical surroundings, and take on new dignities suitable to a democratic and adequate life for the whole people.

There remain the difficulties described at the beginning of the chapter, which come from the fact that the processes of the work of caring for the house are different in this country from those in the country from which the foreign-born housewives came. These difficulties are not so easy to solve as those of housing. They are undoubtedly surmounted as time goes on, but it is a gradual process. Many forces are at work. Necessity is probably the primary one. The foreign-born woman early learns to use American cooking utensils and fuel because they are all she can get. She has to feed her family with the only food the store at the corner furnishes. American furniture and furnishings soon attract her attention, and she is curious as to their purposes and uses.

In part, the foreign-born housewives have learned from one another; that is, from the members of the group who have been here longer; and in part they have learned by going into the more comfortable American homes as domestic servants. Those who have done the latter are, usually, the girls who come alone or the elder daughters of the family. In some communities, such as a Bohemian community near Dallas, Texas, it is said to be well understood that the girl will learn domestic science by a kind of apprenticeship in the home of her employer. When she has learned what she thinks sufficient, she leaves to practice in her own home and to show her family how things should be done. The limitations and difficulties of domestic service for the inexperienced immigrant have been well set forth in the reports of various protective societies.[20] But the foreign-born women with whom we have conferred in this study have repeatedly emphasized the advantages that come from being shown how to do housework under the conditions in this country. Yet women of the "new" immigrant groups enter domestic service much less than those from the "old" ones.

In the end, no doubt, many foreign-born housewives have learned to care for their homes and raise their families as systematically as their American neighbors, who have had fewer difficulties to contend with. It is, however, a wasteful system which leaves the instruction of the immigrant housewife to the chance instruction she can gain from fellow countrywomen who have themselves learned only imperfectly. If the community only realized what the difficulties were for the housewife from a different civilization, it would undoubtedly stretch out a friendly and helping hand to assist her over the first rough path. Whatever form this help takes, it must be offered in the spirit of friendly co-operation, and not of didactic superiority, if the desired result is to be gained.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Details may be secured from the National Housing Association, 105 East Twenty-second Street, New York City.

[14] Chicago Housing Studies, _American Journal of Sociology_, vol. xx, p. 154.

[15] Children's Bureau Publication No. 9, "Infant Mortality, Johnstown, Pennsylvania," p. 29.

[16] See Edith Elmer Wood, _The Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner_; _Report of Massachusetts Homestead Commission_; _Reports of United States Housing Corporation_.

[17] Edith Elmer Wood, _Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner_, chap. viii.

[18] Edith Elmer Wood, _Housing of the Unskilled Wage Earner_, p. 233.

[19] _Survey_, June 28, 1919.

[20] See _Annual Report of the Immigrants' Protective League, 1910-1911_, and Abbott, _The Immigrant and the Community_, chap. v, "The Special Problems of the Immigrant Girl."

IV

PROBLEMS OF SAVING

There has been in the past much harsh and thoughtless criticism of the foreign-born groups, because of the extent to which they have seemed able and willing to subordinate present necessities and enjoyments to provide for certain future contingencies.

PRESENT AND FUTURE NEEDS

Many of those who come to this country are in debt for their passage. Others have left near relatives at home who must be helped to come over. Some have come, intending to establish themselves and to be married here. Some expect to take back a part of their earnings to better the condition of those left behind. Their coming, whether to stay permanently or to return, often does not relieve them of their obligations to the group in the old country.

One of the strongest impressions that the reader gets from the letters in _The Polish Peasant_ is that of the frequency with which relatives in the old country ask for money from the one who has gone ahead. It is not only his wife and children, or aged parents, that ask for money, but all the members of the wider familial group, and sometimes even friends with no claim on the score of kinship.

The purposes for which they ask money are various; in the Borek series, for example, a son of the family is asked to send money because the family is in debt and has taxes to pay; to send money for the dowry of his sister; for a forge; for a sewing machine, and for a phonograph. He is also told that if he sends money home it will not be wasted, but will be put out at interest. Other claims for money are put forward in other series, possibly the most common one being a request for a steamship ticket. The letters show clearly that it is customary to send money for fête days, "name days," or birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and other occasions. A failure to do so brings reproach coupled with a reminder that others who had gone from the village had sent money. In the Wrobelski series the family ask money from the member in this country for a new church at home. Every Sunday the priest reads aloud the names of those who have contributed. It therefore seems to the immigrant imperative that from his present earnings certain amounts shall be set aside.

When the first hard times are past and the members of the immediate family are reunited, there comes the reaction to the experience of depending on the money wage. There arises the fear of disaster growing out of interruption of the income, or misfortune involving especially heavy expenditure.

The United States Treasury Department in its "Thrift" campaign lays down the doctrine _save first_ and _spend afterward_.[21] This is what the members of the foreign-born groups have long been doing, and probably this policy is the only possible basis for a rational use of one's resources. Yet doing this gives rise to comment on the "low standard of life." And thrift often seems to border on miserliness.

Indeed, the problem is by no means so simple as the use of the categorical imperative would indicate. The whole question of deciding between the claims of the present and of the future is a very difficult one. The economist gives us little definite help. He lays down the so-called "rule of uses" and tells the housewife so to apply her resources that the utility extracted from any unit may be at least as great as if that unit were applied elsewhere. Now the foreign-born housewife, like other housewives, has certain resources of money and time and strength, and these she wishes to distribute wisely. But she labors under many disadvantages, of which it is only fair to take notice.

UNFAMILIARITY WITH MONEY

In the first place, her income is in an unfamiliar form. There is first the fact that the money units are strange to her. A woman who recently came over, being called on to make an unexpected payment, handed her purse to a fellow traveler, asking that the required amount be taken out. In the second place, for many there is the difficulty growing out of the exclusive dependence upon money payments, when before there were both money and the products of the land.

The fact should always be kept in mind that, to the extent to which the foreign born are from rural districts, they have the difficulty experienced by all who are forced to adjust themselves to an economy built on money, as distinguished from an economy built on kind. In the country where things are grown, there is little opportunity for acquiring a sense of money values.

It is then peculiarly difficult to value in terms of the new measure those articles with which one has been especially familiar under the old economy. For example, when vegetables and fruits have been enjoyed without estimating their value, it is difficult to judge their value in money. While meat was before thought out of reach, it may be purchased at exorbitant rates under the new circumstances, because one has no idea of how much it should cost. Evidence as to this kind of difficulty is found among all groups. It takes the form, sometimes, of apparent parsimony, sometimes of reckless and wasteful buying.

The Lithuanians seem, for example, to experience difficulties of this kind everywhere. The small farmer in Lithuania was accustomed to an irregular cash income at harvest time. Sometimes it carried over from one year to another, while young stock was growing. He had little need of money except for extraordinary expenses, such as those for farm machinery, or building. The local store, which was usually co-operative, carried only such imported articles as salt, sugar, spices, tea, and coffee. All other foods were produced at home or secured through neighborly exchange. All the clothing for the family was of home manufacture, even to the cloth. If a boy were sent to school in the nearest large town, his board was paid with poultry and dairy products.

The tenant laborer had house rent free, a garden, a cow, a few pigs, and all the poultry he cared to raise, in addition to the yearly wage of from 125 to 150 rubles a year.

Other farm laborers had board and clothing in addition to their wage of 25 rubles a year. Women received 3 rubles a year for farm labor, in addition to board and all ordinary clothing. The food provided by the farmers was coarse and monotonous, but it was plentiful and nourishing. Laborers were housed in two-room log or board houses, with thatched roofs; farm workers without families slept in the farmer's granaries and ate at a common table.

To the inexperienced peasant the daily wage of $1.50 and $2 in the United States seemed ample, but it was not long after the family arrived before it was found inadequate. The situation becomes still more confusing if employment is seasonal and irregular. In Lithuania, contracts were made by the year and unemployment was unknown. Through apprehension they begin to adopt a low standard of living in order to economize, a practice now common in many Lithuanian communities in this country. They have never paid rent in their native country, so one of their first instincts is to economize at that point in the new country by taking lodgers.

Among other national groups there are evidences of the same difficulties. Bohemian women, it is said, buy recklessly at first, spending money for jewelry and all sorts of things they see for sale in the neighborhood stores. Ukrainian women control the expenditure of the family income here, but in the village life in Galicia they never had much money to spend; the table was supplied from the farm, clothing was of home manufacture, furniture was seldom bought. They are, therefore, when they first come, little fitted by previous experience for wise expenditure of the family income.

IRREGULARITY OF INCOME

To these difficulties are added those connected with the uncertainty and irregularity of wage payments and with the length of intervals recurring between these payments. The ways in which periods of unemployment and consequent cessation of income are met are illustrated by the following experiences described by those with whom we have conferred.

The story of how the mother or children have gone out to work, of how boarders have been taken into the home, savings have been spent, money has been borrowed from friends, or charity has been accepted, occurs over and over in the experience of all the national groups. A Ukrainian mother tells how she and the older children at various times have worked during the father's unemployment. A few years ago, when it lasted for two years, she was no longer strong enough to work, and they sold their home in order to keep the children in school.

Another Ukrainian family has of late depended upon the earnings of the children and savings, but there have been times when they had nothing in the house but water, and could not buy food. A Polish mother borrowed money of the Jewish grocer when her savings were gone and her earnings insufficient. One Bohemian family had to draw on their savings in the building and loan association during a year of unemployment.

RESERVES FOR MISFORTUNES

It is easy, then, to understand how out of the most meager present income some provision for possible disasters will be attempted. The urgency of this claim of the future explains the fact that the possession of a balance at the end of the year constitutes no evidence that the income for the year has either been adequate or been regarded as adequate. The social investigator has found savings taken from the most inadequate incomes; and judgment has been sometimes passed on the "low standard of life" of the immigrant, when a moment's sympathetic consideration of the problem would have discovered the explanation in the ever-present fear of being caught unprepared.

The occasions for which this provision is made are, to be sure, not all of the nature of an unexpected disaster; they are, often, the ordinary events of life. There is, first, the constant possibility of sickness and of death. After the establishment of the family group, these perhaps make the first claim on the family's savings. The fear of these events may be so great that even the well-being of the children in the present may be sacrificed. For example, a Polish widow with two children, who was being supported by the United Charities in Chicago, was found to have a bank account of $192.57 which she had saved from her allowance of $3 a week in addition to her rent. When the visitor talked with her about it, she explained that she was afraid of dying and leaving her children unprovided for, and that her husband had always told her to put away part of her income.

While the need for providing for dependents is thus felt, most wage earners realize that they cannot during their own lifetime lay aside enough money to provide for their children. The most that they can do is to provide some life insurance. Even this, in most cases, must be entirely inadequate, since the premiums mean a great drain on the family's resources.

In a study of 3,048 families in Chicago, the Illinois Health Insurance Commission found that 81.9 per cent of all the families carried some kind of life insurance. The average amount of the policy, however, was only $419.24. The following table shows for the various nationalities in the group the per cent carrying insurance and the average amount of the policy.[22]

TABLE I

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF FAMILIES CARRYING LIFE INSURANCE,
AND AVERAGE AMOUNT OF POLICY ACCORDING TO NATIVITY
OF HEAD OF FAMILY

=================================================================
| TOTAL | PER CENT | AVERAGE
NATIVITY OR RACE OF HEAD OF | NUMBER OF | WITH LIFE | AMOUNT
FAMILY | FAMILIES | INSURANCE | OF POLICY
-----------------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------
All families | 3,048 | 81.9 | $419.24
| | |
United States, colored | 274 | 93.8 | 201.48
Bohemian | 243 | 88.9 | 577.58
Polish | 522 | 88.5 | 353.48
Irish | 129 | 88.4 | 510.72
United States, white | 644 | 85.2 | 535.56
German | 240 | 85.0 | 416.49
Lithuanian | 117 | 79.5 | 170.38
Scandinavian | 232 | 75.4 | 401.58
Other | 225 | 75.1 | 410.96
Jewish | 218 | 63.8 | 465.09
Italian | 204 | 57.8 | 403.94
=================================================================

It is interesting to note that the Bohemians are among the national groups showing the largest per cent (88.9) of families having life-insurance policies. They also show the largest average policy ($577.58) of any national groups, including the native-born white.

The method by which this particular provision is made is often through the fraternal order, the benefit society, and the form of commercial insurance known as industrial insurance. The fraternal orders that are used by foreign-born groups are usually societies of their own national group, such as the Polish National Alliance, the Croatian League of Illinois, the Lithuanian National Alliance. They differ from the benefit societies, such as the Czecho-Slav Workingman, the Znanie Russian Club, and the Congrega di Maria Virgine del Monte Carmelo, in that the fraternal orders are organized under the state laws governing fraternal insurance societies, are incorporated, and usually have a more than local membership. Most of the benefit societies are small local societies without national affiliation, often not observing good insurance principles and without the needed succession of young lives.

These types of insurance were made the subject of special study by the Illinois Health Insurance Commission of 1919. The judgment of the Health Commission as to the value of these organizations is, that the fraternal societies, although they are democratic, co-operative, and nonprofit-seeking organizations, thus being particularly attractive to wage earners, are often not on an actuarially sound basis.[23] The benefit societies of the foreign born present an even more precarious means of providing for future needs.[24] Sooner or later they find that the dues must be increased, their membership declines, and the period of decay sets in.

Industrial insurance provides a safer method than either of these, but it presents a number of other disadvantages.[25] The policies are usually small, sufficient only for burial expenses, and the rates are relatively high because of the bad risk among the wage earners, and especially because of the expense of weekly collections. Here, as everywhere, the poor who must buy in small quantities get relatively less for what they pay.

It is often urged against industrial insurance that it makes no real provision for dependents, and merely pays for a somewhat elaborate funeral. It must be borne in mind that the funeral, however modest, is an expense that often places the family in debt, and that even the thriftless will try to make some provision for it. The following expense account of the funeral of a Polish man is typical of the accounts received during this inquiry, and exhibits no unusual expenditure when compared with American customs:

Embalming $ 11.00
Casket 65.00
Crape and gloves 2.50
Candles 3.00
Hearse 11.00
Carriage 9.00
Grave 12.00
Outside box 6.00

Total $119.50

It is a matter of common knowledge that unscrupulous undertakers often obtain possession of the insurance policy and make the charge for the funeral equal to the whole amount. This may, in part, explain the criticism that the funerals in foreign-born families are often unnecessarily expensive. An Italian woman interviewed, the president of one benefit society and a member of four others, speaks of going to buy a casket at the time of the death of a friend during the influenza epidemic. The cheap, wooden casket cost $150. The next day, when she went with another friend to the same undertaker, the casket which had been $150 cost $175. She could not understand how such prices could be allowed, and exclaimed, "The government regulates prices of flour and sugar, and why not such things as the cost of coffins in times like these!"

There may also be expenses connected with the service itself. In some churches the tolling of the bells must be paid for by the mourners, and sometimes it is the poorest who will insist that the bells be tolled the longest. In a church in South Chicago it is said that the parishioners paid for the chimes with the definite understanding that the bell-tolling at funerals should no longer be a special charge. The need of provision against sickness and death is keenly felt in every immigrant community. One of the older women, who had been frequently called into the homes in cases of sickness and death, said that in sickness there was never money for the doctor, or night clothes, or bedding, and in case of death never enough of anything.

THE COST OF WEDDINGS

After providing for sickness and death, a family must lay aside the sum necessary to secure an advantageous marriage for the daughter, and to meet her family's share of the wedding. Similarly, the young man anticipates marriage as a natural development in his life. It is interesting to consider the share of the cost borne by the girl's family and that borne by the young man, and to notice also certain customs connected with the wedding itself that contribute toward the expense.

The customs connected with weddings which have grown up in the old country may, when transplanted, mean an expense which seems entirely out of proportion to the family's economic status, especially when American customs are added to those of the native country. An Italian woman says that weddings were, as a rule, much simpler in Italy than in the United States. There a maid of honor and "other frills," such as automobiles, flowers, and jewelry, were unknown. A large feast, usually of two days' duration, was customary, and is continued here, even in a city. A hall must be rented for the dance, and when food prices are high the cost is enormous.

To avoid the expense of renting a hall which would cost $100 for six hours, a recent Italian wedding reception in Chicago was held in the butcher shop owned by a cousin of the bridegroom. The living rooms in the rear were used for the dinner, and the shop itself became the ballroom. The floor was crowded, and the children had to be turned out into the street to play, but the enjoyment of the party was evidently not at all lessened by the somewhat incongruous surroundings. The fact that there is near by not only a great settlement where a comfortable hall might have been available, but likewise a park house similarly equipped, is perhaps indicative of a failure of these institutions to meet the very needs of the neighborhood they are designed to serve.

It is an Italian custom for the father of the bride and the father of the bridegroom to share the expense of the feast, although the bridegroom sometimes pays for the music and the hall, and the bride's family furnish the food. An Italian pastry dealer says that the amount spent for pastries varies from $15 to $120, and an equal amount is spent in home baking. For well-to-do families the expenditures may be much larger; for example, one family recently spent $200 for pastry alone.

There is, however, a feature of the wedding feast which reduces the cost to the family. It is customary, when the party is assembled after the wedding, for the bride to be placed on a "throne," and the guests place their presents of money in her lap. Money is usually given, although useful articles for the home are sometimes included. The greater the number of guests invited perhaps the lower the net cost of the ceremony.

The other principal expense of the Italian bride's family is for the bridal linen and the girl's underwear. These, of course, vary with the circumstances of the family. These articles are usually the accumulation of several years.

The bridegroom pays the other costs. He buys not only the household furniture and his clothing, but the wedding ring, earrings, a gift for the bride, and some of her clothing. If the girl is poor he may even buy her underwear and the linens. It is said that these things often cost all the bridegroom's savings, and that the couple start married life with nothing saved for emergencies. The expense of the bridegroom in a recent Italian wedding in Chicago was $2,000.

It is the custom for the man to buy for the bride a complete costume for two days--the wedding day and the eighth day--when the newly married couple return the calls of the wedding guests. An Italian saleslady in a store in the Italian district says that the amount usually spent on the bride's clothes is $200 or $250. The very least spent in these days is $100, and the outfit may cost as much as $500. When the family is a recently arrived one, the man usually accompanies the girl or her mother to the store and pays the bills on the spot.

Among other groups as well as among the Italians it seems to be customary for the bridegroom to bear part of the expense of the wedding and of the bride's outfit. The Polish bridegroom often gives $50 to the bride, and she buys her clothes, linens, and the food for the feast. The Russian girl gives a white handkerchief to the groom, and he pays for her dress.

Another item in the expenses of a wedding is the cost of photographs. It is the custom in most foreign-born groups to have large photographs, not only of the bride and groom, but of the whole wedding party. The Polish people also have another picture of the bridesmaid taken with the best man. These photographs cost as much as $30 a dozen and at a higher rate if less than a dozen are ordered. The number ordered depends on the economic condition of the family, but the minimum is six of each. The pictures of the bridal party are the largest and most expensive and are usually given only to the immediate family and the attendants. The smaller pictures of the bride and groom are given to all the friends and relatives, especially those in the old country. This is an important means of keeping up the connection with those at home. An enlarged and colored copy framed in an ornate gilt frame is usually ordered for the newly married couple, and is an added expense.

The cost of automobiles is also important. The bridal party, and sometimes the guests whom it is desired to honor, are taken to the church, then to the photographer's, and then to the hall where the feast and dance are held. Sometimes as many as six automobiles are observed drawn up in front of one of the little photographers' shops in an immigrant district.

Many people seem to think that the festivities among the foreign born are becoming simpler. The extravagance is perhaps again a question of the transition to a money economy. The ceremony in the old country was an occasion for great celebration, with feasting and dancing for several days, but was perhaps not expensive when the necessary articles were produced at home or received in exchange for home products. Here the immigrant family does not at first realize the real value of the money which seems so plentiful, and the old customs are not only carried out, but elaborated because of the added feeling of prosperity.

In many ways the old customs are now being modified. Among the Polish, for instance, the guests used to give presents of money, practically buying a dance with the bride. The custom has been frequently abused here, as the men have divided their gifts into small parts and demanded many dances with the bride, often causing her to dance so much as to cause serious fatigue. For this reason we heard of one bride who simply "walked with the plate" instead of dancing. Another story is told of a wedding in a Polish community, at which the men threw dollars at a plate. The one who was successful in breaking the plate might dance with the bride.

This Polish custom of giving money gifts offsets to a large extent the cost of the wedding. Among three Polish families visited, one whose wedding cost $200 collected $60; another spent $150 and collected $160; and a third spent $200 and collected $300. But this custom, too, tends to disappear in the second generation. A young Russian couple, for instance, were opposed to a regular collection, but the parents, who consider it the blessing to their daughter, could not resist each leaving a ten-dollar bill as they left. The young people were embarrassed, but the other guests quickly followed the suggestion, and $100 was collected.

CHRISTENINGS AND FÊTE DAYS

This naïve solicitation of gifts is also practiced on the occasion of the christening of the infant. An unmarried godmother may be preferred because, having no children of her own, she is more able to make handsome gifts at the time and to continue her contributions. One young Russian girl, whose marriage with the father of her unborn child was arranged by a social worker, asked the new friend to serve as godmother, and then expected an outfit for the infant in christening robes, little veils, and other articles, costing about $75.

Observers interested in customs in immigrant districts say that the custom of soliciting gifts at christenings was modified during the war. Among Polish families, for example, each guest used to make a present in money to the child who was christened. During the last few years it has become more and more customary for the collection to be taken for the benefit of Polish war orphans. The amount collected is then announced in the paper and serves as a source of prestige to the family.

There are also numerous fête days and religious celebrations which call for special expenditure. It is impossible to consider all these here, but attention should be called to an important event in the religious life; namely, the occasion of the first communion. The expenses for the confirmation of a boy are not great. He usually has a new suit and wears a flower in his buttonhole. He must have beads, prayer book, and, if he is Polish, a candle.

One little Polish girl who made her first communion in the summer of 1919 had an outfit that cost her $30. This did not represent the entire cost, as she had several parts of the outfit given to her; her godmother made the dress, although the little girl herself furnished the material; the veil with the wreath of flowers was given her by a nun who had taken an interest in her, and the candle, which it is still customary in Polish churches to carry, was given by a cousin who is a nun. She had to buy the material for her dress, white slippers, stockings, and long white gloves, beads, flowers, and photographs. If she had herself borne all the expense, a minimum estimate of the cost would be $50.

BUYING PROPERTY

A third motive for saving is the desire for home ownership or for acquiring land. There is no doubt that to own a home of their own is the desire of most immigrant families. Many of them come from countries where the ownership of land carries with it a degree of social prestige that is unknown in more highly developed communities of the modern industrial civilization.

Representatives of the Bohemians, Lithuanians, Poles, and Italians have all emphasized the fact that their people want to own their own homes, and bend every energy toward this end, so that the whole family often works in order that first payments may be made or later payments kept up. The Croatians, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Slovenians are also said to be buying houses, although, as they are newer groups, they have not yet done so to the same extent as the other groups. The Serbians, Rumanians, Bulgarians, and Russians in Chicago are, on the other hand, said to be planning to return in large numbers to the old homes in Europe, and hence are not interested in buying property in this country. Their feeling for the land and their desire to own their homes in the country in which they decide to settle is said to be as strong as in the other groups.

The longing for home ownership was apparent in the family schedules we obtained, and in studies of housing conditions[26] in certain districts of Chicago we find additional evidence of the immigrants' desire to own their own homes, and the way in which this desire leads many to buy, even in the congested districts of the city. The following table gives the number and the percentage of home owners in eight selected districts. It will be noted that the percentage of owners varied from eight in one of the most congested Italian districts known as "Little Sicily," to twenty-four in the Lithuanian district.

The strength of the desire for homes can also be measured by the sacrifices which many of the families make to enable them to acquire property. It means in some cases the sacrifice of the children's education, the crowding of the home with lodgers, or the mother's going out to work. In fact, immigrant leaders interviewed seem to think that women's entrance into industry during the war was largely due to the desire to own their own homes. After the title to the house is acquired, it is often crowded with other tenants to help finish the payments.

TABLE II

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF IMMIGRANT HOME OWNERS IN DIFFERENT
CHICAGO DISTRICTS

================================================================
| | NUMBER |
DISTRICT | TOTAL | OF | PER
|FAMILIES| OWNERS | CENT
--------------------------------------|--------|--------|-------
Bohemians--10th Ward | 295 | 36 | 12
Polish--16th Ward | 2,785 | 355 | 13
Italian--"Lower North" Side | 1,462 | 119 | 8
Italian--19th Ward | 1,936 | 208 | 9
Polish and other Slav--South Chicago | 545 | 100 | 18
Lithuanian--4th Ward | 1,009 | 241 | 24
Slovak--20th Ward | 869 | 148 | 17
Polish, Lithuanian, other Slavic--29th| | |
Ward, Stockyards District | 1,616 | 298 | 18
================================================================

The housing studies in Chicago furnish many illustrations of this sacrifice.[27] For example, among the Lithuanians in the Fourth Ward, there was a landlord who lived in three cellar rooms so low that a person more than five feet eight inches tall could not stand upright in them. The kitchen, a fair-sized room with windows on the street--though its gray-painted wooden walls and ceiling served well to accentuate the absence of sunlight, was merely gloomy, but the other two rooms were both small and dark, with tiny lot-line windows only four square feet in area. In one of these rooms, 564 cubic feet in contents, the father and one child slept; the other, which contained only 443 cubic feet, was the bedroom of the mother and two children. One of the highly colored holy pictures common among the Lithuanians and Poles, though it hung right by the window, was an indistinguishable blur.

The agency through which the purchase is made may be either the real-estate dealer of the same national group, or, more commonly, the building and loan association. The real-estate agents to whom the foreign-speaking immigrants go are like the steamship agents, the immigrant bankers, the keepers of special shops. Those who are honest and intelligent render invaluable services; those who wish to exploit have the same opportunity of doing so that is taken advantage of by the shyster lawyer, the quack doctor, the sharp dealer of any kind who speaks the language and preys upon his fellow countrymen. Reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the services rendered by the building and loan associations in enabling the foreign born to obtain homes. They also render services in providing the means for safe investment for those with only small sums to invest.

BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS

These societies are frequently organized along national lines. For example, among those listed in 1893 by the United States Commissioner of Labor[28] are the Bohemian Building and Loan, organized February 1, 1886; the Bohemian California Homestead (February 15, 1892); the Bohemian National Building Loan and Homestead (January 30, 1888); the Bohemian Workingmen's Loan and Homestead (April 20, 1890); the Ceska Koruna Homestead (May 6, 1892); the King Kazimer the Great Building and Loan (January 27, 1886); the King Mieczyslaus the First National Building Loan and Savings Bank (June 3, 1889); King Zigsmund the First Building and Loan (April 15, 1891). December 1, 1918, there were 681 such organizations in Illinois; 255 of these were in Chicago and the majority were conducted and patronized by the foreign born.

The following is briefly the method by which the building and loan associations perform the two services of providing for investment and lending money on homes:[29]

The stockholder or member pays a stipulated minimum sum, say
one dollar, when he takes his membership, and buys a share of
stock. He then continues to pay a like sum each month until
the aggregate of sums paid, augmented by the profits, amounts
to the maturing value of the stock, usually $200, and at this
time the stockholder is entitled to the full maturing value
of the share, and surrenders the same.

A shareholder who desires to build a house and has secured a
lot for that purpose, may borrow money from the association
of which he is a member. Suppose a man who has secured his
lot wishes to borrow $1,000 for the erection of a house. He
must be the holder of five shares in his association, each
share having as its maturing value $200. His five shares,
therefore, when matured, would be worth $1,000, the amount of
money which he desires to borrow.... In a building and loan
association the money is put up at auction, usually in open
meeting on the night or at the time of the payment of dues.
Those who wish to borrow bid a premium above the regular rate
of interest charged, and the one who bids the highest premium
is awarded the loan. The man who wishes to build his house,
therefore, and desires to borrow $1,000, must have five
shares of stock in his association, must bid the highest
premium, and then the $1,000 will be loaned to him. To secure
this $1,000 he gives the association a mortgage on his
property and pledges his five shares of stock. To cancel this
debt he is constantly paying his monthly or semimonthly dues,
until such time as the constant payment of dues, plus the
accumulation of profits through compounded interest, matures
the shares at $200 each. At this time, then, he surrenders
his shares, and the debt upon his property is canceled.

In some cases the sums paid are fifty or even twenty-five cents a week, and the shares may be $100 instead of $200. Among some groups shares are taken in the name of each of the children, and the investment constitutes an educational fund. There are those, however, for whom the building and loan has not provided adequate opportunity for deposit and safe investment. It is probable that the building and loan has proved most efficient for the income group $1,500-$1,800. For the group below that, home ownership is for the time impossible. As a device for saving, for both the lower and higher income groups, who come from countries familiar with similar devices, the postal savings banks are supposed to offer efficient, honest, and convenient service.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS

These banks were established under an act that went into effect June 25, 1910. Under this law, as amended May 18, 1916, persons over ten years of age may deposit any amount, providing the balance to the credit of one depositor does not exceed $1,000. Two per cent interest is paid on deposits, and there is provision for exchange of deposits for United States bonds of small denominations.

The facilities thus provided were immediately taken advantage of by the foreign-born groups, and the postal savings banks became almost banks for the foreign born. That is, in September, 1916, 375,000, or 80 per cent, of the total number of depositors were persons of foreign birth, and they owned 75 per cent of the deposits. In proportion to population the deposits were in 1916 about eleven times as great as those of the native born (due allowance being made for the age of the two population groups). The Greeks, Italians, Russians, and Hungarians, all coming from countries in which there are postal savings arrangements, found it especially easy to make use of them.

The department felt, however, that the facilities could be greatly extended, even among the foreign born. Therefore, circulars describing the organization, methods, and advantages were distributed. They were written in the following languages: English, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish.

In spite of the fact that this system is characterized not only by security, but also by certain democratic and convenient features especially serviceable to many foreign born, there are certain limitations to which Professor Kemmerer has called attention in the following statement:

As a matter of fact, the interest rate paid is so low that it
makes a very weak appeal to the class of people who deposit
in the postal savings banks. Their motive is primarily
security. The government is now realizing large profits from
the postal savings system--for 1916 the estimated profit was
$481,816--and this profit is coming from a class of people in
the community, the thrifty poor, from whom it is bad social
policy to take it. Of course it would be administratively
impracticable to pay interest to depositors on average daily
balances--no savings banks do that. Would it be expecting too
much, however, to ask for our postal savings depositors the
allowances of interest on half yearly or even quarterly
balances? Moreover, is it unreasonable to ask the Board of
Trustees, in view of the nomadic character of our
foreign-born population which patronizes the postal savings
system most, to devise a simple system of transfer by which a
depositor who is changing his place of residence may transfer
his postal savings account without forfeiting his accumulated
but yet undue interest?[30]