New Homes for Old Part 13

In the interviews we have had with the leaders among the groups the point has been repeatedly emphasized that Americans can never appreciate the situation of immigrants during their first ten years in this country. The strangeness, the poverty, the pressure to send money home, the inadequate, irregular income, the restriction to the low-skilled job--"there is in America, at first, nothing for an immigrant but the shovel"--the lack of knowledge of money values and ignorance of American domestic and social practices--these conditions drive the immigrants into co-operative effort. The appeal sent out by a Russian national society organized in 1912 begins with some such words as these:

While we are in this country we are doing the lowest kind of work, and many accidents happen to us; if we do not belong to an organization we are without help.... The purpose of our brotherhood is to help our brethren in a strange country.

Not even in a.s.sociated effort can they always find security, however.

One of the reasons now being given very often by immigrants seeking pa.s.sage back to Europe is their feeling of uncertainty about their future here. They say that America is all right so long as a man is young and strong enough to do the hard work in the industries, but they cannot see what is in store for them as they grow older, for they cannot save enough to provide for themselves; in Europe, a little land and a cottage are a.s.surance of the necessities for old age.

There are, of course, many cases in which there is failure within the group as there is neglect without. Exploitation of immigrants by their fellow countrymen, and the evils of fraudulent banks, steams.h.i.+p companies, "tally-men," are well known. At the same time there is a great ma.s.s of neighborly service and of kindness of the poor to the poor, and of the stranger to the more recent comer.

Benefit societies based either on neighborhood a.s.sociations here or on village a.s.sociation in Europe, soon grow up. These are usually self-a.s.sessment societies, in which each member pays a small sum each month, often only 25 cents. Out of the funds thus raised, a sick benefit of from $3 to $5 a week is paid. On the death of a member an a.s.sessment of from 50 cents to $1 is laid on the surviving members, and the resulting sum is paid to the bereaved family, helping to meet the funeral expenses.

Such societies are not incorporated, their officers are usually without business training, and they are often unstable. They include, however, a considerable proportion of the more recent immigrants, who, through fear of falling into distress and dread of charity, are influenced to keep up the members.h.i.+p. In addition to the money benefit, these neighborhood societies often mean friendly interest and help in nursing, in the care of the children, and in household work.

As the fees are low and as provision for the sick benefit seems very important, a person often belongs to several such societies.

Owing to the instability of these organizations the effort is often made to combine them and to establish them on a sound financial basis as national fraternal insurance societies. These societies subst.i.tute fraternal insurance for the sick and death benefit. As the immigrant family gains a foothold in the new community the members are likely to join a national fraternal insurance society or, in the second generation, an organization of the type of the Catholic Order of Foresters, Knights and Ladies of Security, Tribe of Ben Hur, or Woodmen of the World.

The national fraternal insurance society is, among the Slavs, highly organized. Often in one national group as many as three flouris.h.i.+ng societies will be found, with members.h.i.+p determined by religious or political preferences. As they exist now, these societies are all much alike, differing in the elaborateness of their organization in accordance with the period covered by the immigration of the group or with the strength of its cohesion in America. Leaders who wish to communicate directly with the great body of their co-nationals in America, do so through the channels provided by these organizations.

As the group develops a feeling of confidence, the insurance function becomes less urgent. In fact, officers of the national societies predict that the societies will gradually abandon the field of insurance and develop along other lines. Many societies already admit a considerable number of uninsured persons, who join in order to share in other enterprises. It would be neither possible nor profitable to describe all the groups, but the organization of a Croatian society and the relation of women to certain societies in the Polish and Lithuanian groups will be briefly discussed.

NATIONAL CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS

The strongest societies among the Croatians are the National Croatian Society of 50,000 members, and the Croatian League of Illinois of 39,000 members, sometimes called the "New Society," which in spite of its name is really a national organization.

The purpose of the National Croatian Society is set forth in its const.i.tution:

... to help people of the Croatian race residing in America, in cases of distress, sickness, and death, to educate and instruct them in the English language and in other studies to fit them for the duties of life and citizens.h.i.+p with our English-speaking people, to teach them and impress upon them the importance and duty of being naturalized under the laws of the United States, and of educating their children in the public schools of the country; these purposes to be carried out through the organization and establishment of a supreme a.s.sembly and subordinate a.s.semblies of the Croatian people with schools and teachers.

Those eligible to become members are:

Croatians or other Slavs who speak and understand the Croatian language, of all creeds excepting Jews. All between the ages of sixteen and fifty may be admitted, provided they are neither ill nor epileptic nor disabled, are not living in concubinage, and have not been expelled from the national society.

The structure of the society is quite elaborate, and the conditions of admission and of members.h.i.+p, the organization and conduct of the lodges, the relations among the lodges and between a lodge and the national society, are all carefully specified in the const.i.tution and by-laws.

Lodges are often organized on a s.e.x basis, and in a community in which there is a lodge for men and a lodge for women, no one of one s.e.x can be admitted to the lodge organized for the other. There is no special notice taken of women's interests in the structure of the national society, but there are local women's lodges, and women const.i.tute about one tenth of the total members.h.i.+p.

The functions of these local lodges, aside from their official relation to the national organization, as specified by the by-laws, are:

... to a.s.sist those members who do not know how to read and write (either an officer or member shall, at least once a week, teach such members reading and writing); to establish libraries for members and gradually supply the same with the best and most necessary books; to hold entertainments with a view to building up the lodge treasury and to provide for brotherly talk and enjoyment.

The officers and members of some of the local lodges in Chicago have endeavored to develop and extend the social and recreational features of the lodges to meet what they believe to be one of the greatest needs of their people, but the efforts have so far met with little success.

Failure has been attributed to conditions found in the community and to the altered circ.u.mstances of family life in America. It has been difficult to find suitable meeting places, as Croatian people have no halls of their own and do not feel at home in the neighborhood recreation center. Any kind of recreational activity planned is, of necessity, so different from that to which these men and women are accustomed, that it does not interest them at once. Large families of small children make it impossible for men and women to take their recreation together, or for women to leave their homes at all except for a very short time.

Leaders whom we have consulted feel, however, that it is only through the development of such organizations within the group that Croatian women can be drawn into any social or recreational activities in considerable numbers; for, because they feel peculiarly strange and ill at ease when with persons who are not of Croatian origin, they lead secluded lives.

The important projects of the National Croatian Society have been the raising of funds for the establishment in each large colony of a national headquarters under the name Croatian Home, and for the erection and maintenance of an invalid home. A "National Fund," into which each member pays a cent a month, is created for the "culture and enlightenment of Croatians." The orphan children of members of the society are given the preference in the distribution of any benefit paid from the national fund.

CARE OF CROATIAN ORPHANS

The Croatian community in the United States has been peculiarly confronted with the problem of care of orphan children. The estimated number of orphan children is large in proportion to the number of Croatian families because a very large proportion of the Croatian men work at low-grade labor in the steel industry, in which fatal accidents are common.

At the last convention of several of the national societies, the representatives agreed to form a new national council especially to undertake the care of orphan children and to raise funds for this cause. The plan was formed to buy a tract of land in the vicinity of Chicago, on which an orphan home and training school were to be erected. The sum of $10,000 was devoted to the site and $100,000 to buildings. As free thinking has spread rapidly among Croatians in America, it was intended to establish a nonsectarian inst.i.tution and to take children of free-thinking parents away from the Roman Catholic schools as well as to provide for children who should be later orphaned.

Through contacts established in the course of this study, the leaders in this group have been led to inquire concerning American methods of child care. Attention was directed to the latest standard discussions on the subject.[52] After some consideration of the method of caring for dependent children by placing them in family homes, the Chicago Croatian committee decided to delay action on the erection of a costly inst.i.tution, to take time for further study and to hold a conference with the national committee representing the other Croatian societies interested. In the meantime action has been taken to change the name of the new national organization from the "Society for the Erection of a Croatian Orphanage" to the "Society for the Care of Croatian Orphans," and the by-laws of the society are being rewritten so that the movement need not be committed to inst.i.tutional care at the outset, but will be free to choose in the light of the best information at hand.

Some of the leading members of the committee are convinced that placing-out should be included in their plan, but feel that it may take some time to convince the Croatian people of this wish to delay operation until the question can be freely discussed throughout the whole Croatian community in America. Plans are now being made for the national committee, representing all the societies interested, to confer with the representatives of public and private child-placing agencies. The question arises as to how relations may be established between such organizations in the separate national groups and those in the American community who are concerned with improved methods in the care of dependent children. Until provision is made that such information will be shared with members of groups like these as a matter of course, there is great loss and waste.

ORGANIZATIONS OF POLES

The Polish people are, no doubt, the most highly organized of the Slavic nationalities. It may be said that Chicago is their national center in the United States, and the headquarters of the three great national fraternal insurance societies, the Roman Catholic Union of America, the Polish National Alliance, and the Polish Women's Alliance. As these organizations are much alike in general plan, a description of the organization, character, and methods of work of one will give an idea of them all.

While these societies have always been divided upon political issues, and while there has been at times considerable bitterness in the antagonism between them, they have been able to unite their efforts in important undertakings for the general welfare of the Poles throughout the United States. Common interest in the Polish cause during the war, too, has united them as never before, and there is every reason for the confident expectation that they will co-operate in any new projects undertaken for the benefit of the Polish community in America.

The Polish National Alliance is the largest single organization. In addition to providing insurance, this society carries on, through its national organization, extended work of a social and educational character.

There is, for example, among its "commissions," an Emigration Commission for aiding immigrants, which is charged with the duty of framing rules for the proper supervision of homes established for the care of newcomers. Under this Commission the Alliance has maintained immigrant aid stations in New York, Baltimore, and Boston. In New York there is a home in which immigrant girls and women arriving alone may be accommodated until relatives can be located.

The Chicago office co-operates with the offices at the ports of entry in securing information about relatives of Alliance members, and in case of special necessity arranges to have immigrants destined for Chicago met at the station. As relatives are supposed to be notified of the expected arrival before the women leave New York, the Chicago office has done little in this direction. The need for such services, however, has been made clear in the Annual Reports of the Immigrants'

Protective League, showing the numbers of unattended Polish girls coming to Chicago to be much larger than the number in any other national group.

The Polish National Alliance has been carrying on a number of projects, both for the Polish people throughout the country and for the local community in Chicago. During the war many forms of work that had been developed for the service of Poles in the United States were laid aside for the more urgent needs of the time, and the funds of this organization were devoted to the support of the Red Cross and of other relief work. When the needs especially arising out of the war have been met and the necessity for sending relief to Poland is no longer urgent, these projects, abandoned for the time, will be taken up again. Polish immigration has for a time ceased. In the opinion of the Poles in Chicago it will be very light for years after the war, so that projects hereafter undertaken will be concerned with the welfare of the community as it has become established in the United States.

POLISH WOMEN'S WORK

There is a Women's Department, directed by a committee of fifteen women members. The central government frames regulations for this department "conformably to the requirements of a given moment." An ill.u.s.tration of its activities can be found in a movement initiated to maintain oversight of the employment of Polish girls and women. A great many Polish girls go into domestic work in private homes and in hotels and restaurants. Because girls from the rural districts in Poland find customs and living conditions here so different the societies have undertaken to study the problem. In order to investigate places of employment the women found they must represent a regularly licensed employment agency. Some delay in securing a license has held up their work, but they plan to establish in the near future a "Polish Women's Employment Agency."

Many cases came to their attention showing the need of protective work and legal aid for workingwomen, so that in 1917 the "Polish Women's Protective League" was organized to provide free legal advice and aid to Polish workingwomen.

The official organ of the Polish National Alliance is a weekly publication, _ZG.o.da_. There is a daily, the _Dziennik Zwaizkowy_, that has a semi-official status. The Women's Department is represented in the official organ by one page of ordinary newspaper size, without ill.u.s.tration. In the daily paper one page each week is devoted to items of especial value to women. Different material is used in the two issues, but both give considerable s.p.a.ce to such subjects as household management, the care of children, and problems of health and hygiene.

There is, in fact, a marked development among the Polish, Bohemian, Slovenian, and Lithuanian groups, of a definite division between the men's and the women's departments. This began first in the local lodges as they grew from mere meetings for the payment of dues into something more in the order of a center for the discussion of questions of importance in group or family life, or for action on those questions.

A woman who, more than eighteen years ago, organized one of the first lodges in the Polish National Alliance said that in the lodges of mixed members.h.i.+p women were supposed to have the same rights and privileges as men. As a matter of fact, she said that they had no voice in matters in which they felt their interest as women were especially concerned; the women were always in the minority, and there were very few who would even voice an opinion in the presence of men.

The older women in the community came, therefore, to feel that there were many problems of vital interest and importance for the immigrant woman upon which action would never be taken in the lodge meeting, in which there was a mixed members.h.i.+p. They believed, too, that the meetings of the local lodge might become a real source of help to the newly arrived immigrant women. The women's lodge was therefore formed, and to the first meetings came women who still wore the handkerchiefs over their heads. Some of the more prosperous members protested that they did not want such women as these in the lodge, but the leaders insisted that their purpose in organizing women's lodges had been to reach through them just such women. The leaders felt that women who knew little of American life and customs would gradually acquire that knowledge by coming into the lodge.

A lodge of this kind under the leaders.h.i.+p of progressive women of the older immigration has become a center in which are discussed many of the questions the women have to face for the first time. The plan in the Polish National Alliance is to have lodges so organized that women from Russian Poland may be in one, those from Galicia in another, or to organize lodges on the basis of the neighborhood a.s.sociation in the United States.

It is hoped that by such a plan as this the more backward women may be drawn into some of the social activities of the Polish community.

Although English has not been the language of the meetings, women have been encouraged to learn English as soon as possible after their arrival. The older women urge the younger women to acquire the language. They have learned the importance of a knowledge of the language to the mother of boys and girls who are growing up in surroundings of which the mother knows little, and where custom and convention are so different from those to which she was accustomed.

With the multiplication of women's lodges came the demand on the part of the women for representation in the national organization. As a result, the Women's Auxiliary has been given an official place, and women have been elected to the national board of directors.

Polish women have felt that the welfare of the group as a whole is largely dependent upon the fitness of the women to meet the new situation. They have recognized the fact that, because of the national att.i.tude toward women, Polish women of the cla.s.s represented by the bulk of the immigration are very backward. They have therefore sought to inaugurate a campaign for the education of women on a national scale.