Old World Traits Transplanted
Chapter 6: Immigrant Institutions
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THERE is an obvious resemblance between the behavior of a Russian mir or a South Slav zadruga (see documents 2l, 22, 9.3, p. 31) and that of a pack, flock, or herd of animals. In each case there is some mechanism for securing unanimity—the thing that makes all the sheep follow the leader over the wall. In the animal it is instinctive, predetermined in the nervous system. In the simple community there is, plus the gregarious instinct, a process of defining-the situation by discussion (and the latter element is of course the basis of the democratic organization of society). Our discussion of the primary group organization (Chapter II) and of the types of demoralization in America—some of the latter even reaching insanity (see document 56, p. 72)—show that the immigrant does not know how to live except as member of a group.
The situation of the new immigrant would be singularly helpless here if he did not find some points of identity with his previous
( 120) life, and these he does in fact find among those of his own group or nationality who have preceded him. He almost always comes to friends; frequently they have sent him his ship ticket, and he boards with them until he has found employment and "worked back" the ship ticket. And the different immigrant groups have formed spontaneously in America, organizations that reproduce to some extent the home society or replace it with forms more adapted to the needs of the immigrant here: These organizations are not, in fact, pure heritages, but the products of the immigrants' efforts to adapt their heritages to American conditions. The immigrant, therefore, comes to a society of his own people, and this society, not native American society, is the matrix which gives him his first impression. The character of this society, as we shall see in more detail later, is the primary influence in determining the desire and capacity of the immigrant to participate in American life. The immigrant institutions are not to be commended indiscriminately as means of Americanization. They are primarily de-vices to make life go on with some success and efficiency, and when they are more than this they often represent the determination to be loyal to the old country rather
( 121) than to America, but they are none the less the point of first importance in any study of the individual's transition from one cultural world to another.
FIRST-AID INSTITUTIONS
There are, first of all, certain organizations developed simply as business enterprise, mainly by more instructed and sophisticated members of the various immigrant groups, to meet the practical needs of their country-men. Among these are boarding houses, banks, steamship agencies, labor and real-estate agencies, the padrone system, etc. The character of these organizations and the abuses connected with them have often been described,[1] and we have given examples of the abuses in documents 47 (p. 56) and 59 (p. 77). The more important point, however, is not the abuses, but the fact that the immigrant must have this aid. These organizations are a practical solution which he must accept; they are the only organization of forces within his reach. The great American banks and steamship agencies are not adapted to his needs. The Jewish woman in New York buys a steamship ticket
( 122) for her sister in Russia from a ticket peddler, who collects fifty cents a week; the Polish laborer deposits his money with the saloon keeper; and this peddler or saloon keeper will eventually become a joint steamship agent, banker, employment agent, real-estate agent, etc., and may perhaps start a newspaper, or form a coalition with one, to promote his schemes.
86. Strange as it may seem, its very equipment prevents the American bank from entering into a fair competition with the immigrant banker. A Slovak immigrant banker, in apologizing somewhat for the appearance of his banking room, stated that it was necessarily ill kept because the men would come in in their working clothes, often covered with mud, frequently intoxicated, which, together with smoking and spitting, kept the room in a constant state of disorder. Such a condition would not be tolerated by an American bank. Moreover, the average immigrant feels a certain hesitancy in entering in his working clothes a building of the character of some city banks. This informant, who had been a banker for nearly twenty years, stated that he had often been urged to move into more pretentious quarters, but had refrained because he knew he could not keep them clean except at the cost of prestige and business.
These conditions, together with the inconvenient hours maintained by local banks, prevent any wide-spread patronage of them on the part of the immigrant.... [2]
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87. The proprietor's ability to perform the services required comes primarily from his intimate knowledge of foreign conditions, places, languages, and names. His banking hours are made convenient, and in the ignorance and dependence of the immigrant he is looked upon as the safest depository and quickest means of transmission. Moreover, his position is greatly enhanced by racial and sectional prejudices, which are not infrequently encouraged and fostered by the banker to that very end. His business is usually confined to his countrymen or members of allied races. The Sicilian Italians, for example, are divided into five or six groups based upon provincial boundary lines, and a system of mutual patronage has sprung up among the members of each group.[3]
88. Those proprietors, who confine their operations to bank and steamship agencies, as distinguished from those who conduct such in connection with some other business, are usually the most intelligent men of the immigration population of any colony or locality. They are always possessed of considerable influence, and may be political leaders in the older and more established immigrant communities... .
Hundreds of saloon keepers and grocers act as bankers without the least fitness or equipment. It is true that they become bankers only as individuals through the fortunate chance of their position as merchants... [4]
89. The most serious charge that is brought against such a coalition of bankers and newspapers is that by constant appeal to the prejudice and patriotism of the immigrant his Americanization is not only retarded, but deliberately combated, in
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order that he may be held as a source of income to 'those whom he trusts. An instance in point is the case of a certain Slovak banker, an ex-student of theology, who operates a large, handsomely furnished establishment, with two branch houses. This banker is a national and religious leader among his people, having organized and headed a national Slovak society in this country. He issues a daily, a weekly, a humanistic monthly, a yearly almanac, and from time to time other publications. Although he has renounced allegiance to Hungary, severed all political ties with that country, and become an American citizen, he does not advise his Slovak countrymen to do the same, but instead preaches in all his publications a militant and enthusiastic "Pan-Slovakism." So long as the Slovaks remain Slovaks and can be filled with Slovak patriotism and enthusiasm by such agitation, just so long will they remain a source of profit to the banker. Prior to the recent industrial depression this man was accustomed to transmit abroad, on behalf of his patrons, from $2,000,000 to $2,500,000 annually and to sell 6,000 steamship tickets per year.[5]
MUTUAL AID AND BENEFIT SOCIETIES
There is evidence [6] showing that back of the familial and communal solidarity of the European peasant is the fear of death and of its attendants and preliminaries—hunger, cold, darkness, sickness, solitude, and "mis-
( 125) cry." The peasant is strangely indifferent to death, but he fears any irregular features—suddenness, inappropriateness. He ,wants to die decently, ceremonially, and socially. Since a man's death is usually the most conspicuous incident in his life, attracting the universal attention and interest of the group, since it is the occasion of judgments and speculations on the status of the family—whether they are thereby impoverished, whether they are rich—death and burial are not only the occasion of the natural idealization of the dead, but a means of securing recognition. Immigrant families are notorious for lavish expenditure on funerals.
90. . . . Now I inform you, dearest parents, and you, my brothers, that Konstanty, your son, dearest parents, and your brother and mine, my brothers, is no longer alive. It killed him in the foundry, it tore him in eight parts, it tore his head away and crushed his chest to a mass and broke his arms. But I beg you, dear parents, don't weep and don't grieve, God willed it so and did it so. It killed him on April 20th, in the morning, and he was buried on April 22d. He was buried beautifully. His funeral cost $225, the casket $60. Now when we win some [money] by law from the Company we will buy a place and transfer him, that he may lie quietly. We will surround him with a fence and put a cross, stone, or iron upon his grave. For his work let him at least lie quietly in his own place.[7]
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Out of this sentiment grows the mutual-aid society, with death, burial, and sickness benefits. The business institutions are formed for the immigrant, but the mutual-aid society is organized by the immigrants; It is the basic institution, out of which grow the numerous lodges, orders, and fraternal organizations.[8]
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In addition, the more prosperous and responsible members of the immigrant groups who have the burden of providing for the sick and burying the dead of the penniless (for however loose the community ties, these are occasions on which neighborly aid can-not be denied) have evidently had an interest in forming these provident organizations as a matter of self-protection. The obligation is not repudiated, but regulated.
91. Father belonged to a society in which he was an active member. The men often came to our house to talk things over with him and he felt important and often offered our front room for committee meetings. , Before they opened the meeting they always assured mother that they would not keep us up any later than ten o'clock. But when the
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time came they were so deep in discussion that they never even heard the clock strike the hour. I used to sit down in the doorway of the kitchen and front room from where I could see all their faces and listen to their heated arguments. Always it was a piece of burial ground that was the subject of discussion, and when a member, or anyone belonging to his family, died, whether the rest of the members should contribute an extra dollar to cover burial expenses, and whether as a society they should or should not employ a doctor and pay him out of the society fund. At twelve o'clock or even later they would at last break up with the question of the burial ground and the extra dollar and the doctor still unsettled "....[9]
92. The Slovenians have many fraternal organizations. The most important are: the Carniolian Slovenian Catholic Union, organized in Joliet, Illinois, April 2, 1894. It has 17,000 members, capital to the amount of $650,000, and has paid out $1,376,135.39, in benefits. The Slovenian National Benefit Society was organized in 1904, and has its headquarters at Chicago. Its capital is $525,000; it has over 18,000 members and has paid out in benefits $1,029,081. It has 341 branches, distributed in 27 states, and one in Canada. The Slovenian Workingmen's Benefit Association was founded August 16, 1908, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Its assets on June 30, 1918, were $158,096.93, of, which $45,000 was invested in Liberty Bonds. It has 146 branches, which include 7,299 adult members and 4,500 junior members. It has paid out in benefits $1,000,000. In Cleveland there are 5 branches with a total of 605 members .[10]
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93. The Italians of Chicago have 110 mutual-aid societies, representing a population of about 150,000. As the names suggest, the membership is generally from the same Italian province and frequently from the same village.... The most popular ... the Unione Siciliana, has 28 lodges. Sick benefits in this order range from $8 to $12 per week, and a death benefit of $1,000 is paid. The monthly fees of these societies run from 80 to 60 cents. There is also, in all societies, a death assessment, making the average cost of membership from $12 to $15 per year....Funeral expenses ranging from $50 to $90 are paid, and every member makes a contribution of $2 to the family of the dead member. During the sickness of a member all other members are obliged to visit and assist him if he lacks a family... . All members are obliged to attend the funeral, under penalty for absence. A band of musicians is always provided.[11]
94. ... The Jewish [fraternal] orders constitute a valuable and important factor in our communal life. The interests of about a million Jews are involved in their existence and welfare.... An important phase is that the recipient of benefits from the lodge or order does not lose his self-respect, nor his standing in the organization, as is often the case of recipients of public charity... .
The lodges of the various orders have been and still are the most. valuable schools through which our immigrated Jews pass. Many have learned their English at their lodge meetings. Others have acquired there their knowledge of parliamentary procedure and decorum at public meetings. Many
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of our best-known public men and speakers have begun their careers modestly, in filling an office in their lodge or joining the debates at the meetings. In fact most of our people gain their connection with and knowledge of American Jewish activities, and take an interest in the same, through their affiliation with the Jewish fraternal orders... . For organizing, molding and interesting large masses of Jews in the large Jewish problems, they have been found the best means.[12]
95. The prefectural societies [composed of those from the same province in Japan] are very numerous. Of 344 men from whom personal data were obtained 99 had membership in these organizations, the societies of t7 different prefectures being represented among them. The societies indicate the strength of the localities among the Japanese. They serve as centers of social life and give assistance to those who are in need.
The Japanese Benevolent Society was organized in 1901. Its object was to make more complete provisions for the care of the sick, injured, and unfortunate than had been made by the several missions, the Japanese Association, the prefectural societies, and trade associations. . . . This does not indicate the importance of its work, however... . One of the more important branches of its work lies in securing reduced rates from the steamship companies for those who are sick or in need, in order that they may return to Japan. As a result of the efforts of this society and of the other institutions to which reference has been made, no Japanese become public charges in San Francisco.[13]
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96. The six [Chinese] companies . . . are commercial guilds. The people from different sections belong to their several companies, analogous to the Hibernian, Saint Andrew's, Slavonian, Italian,, German, or New England societies. These societies have their by-laws, their presidents, secretaries, treasurers, interpreters," etc. These officers are chosen by ballot every year and receive their salaries. They are for mutual aid. For certain benefits which are extended to the members they are willing to pay the dues and taxes imposed. The officers of these companies, together with prominent men among the merchants and others connected with the companies, are called together to deliberate and advise on occasions of important events, such as a murder, a riot in the mines or anywhere, a quarrel between members of different companies, the failure of some Chinese firm, or threatened persecutions, or any impending danger, or to make arrangements to receive and do honor to any dignitary. These meetings are simply advisory. They act often as arbitrators in difficulties, so as to prevent their people, if possible, from going to law; or when their countrymen have been robbed or murdered in the mines they take steps to procure through the government officers the apprehension and prosecution of the offenders.
Some of the companies in early Californian times built and supported hospitals for their countrymen. An old building down on what was called Washer-woman's Bay was built and supported by the Chinese for a hospital in early times. These companies do not import coolies; they are not immigrant associations; they are not civil or criminal courts to try and execute offenders; nor are they secret
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combinations for the purpose of subverting or interfering with the course of justice in the countries to which their people go to sojourn... .
One advantage in remaining connected with the six companies, which has weight with most of the Chinese here, is that their bones, wherever buried, will be gathered up and returned to China, and a portion of the dues to each company is for this purpose. . . . Another of the benefits of these companies (in the minds of Chinamen who are in business) is that they help in the collection of debts, or rather oppose barriers to the absconding of debtors. These companies have an arrangement with the different shipping houses by which no Chinamen can get his ticket for his passage -unless he brings a stamped permit from his company. If a Chinaman is known to be insolvent, or if there are suspicions that he desires to defraud his creditors, or if a telegram comes from any part of the country saying, "Stop such a man," he will be hindered from going until the case has been investigated and satisfactory arrangements have been made.[14]
NATIONALISTIC ORGANIZATIONS
All the immigrant groups have societies of the character just shown, and the more formal, nation-wide societies are usually made up of these. Nationalistic organizations are readily formed by combining these local units into a city-wide and, eventually, a country-wide organization. Thus the Sons
( 133) of Italy, the most powerful Italian organization in the United States, which has a membership of 125,000, and 887 lodges in 24 states, is a congeries of benefit and insurance societies, but its object is also:
97. To unite fraternally all white males and females of Italian descent residing in the several states of the United States of America . . . in one family, without regard to religious, philosophic, or political faith or belief... .
To assist with all its vigor and strength the individual members at all times and to aid any of their relatives in the event of difficulty in obtaining entry into the United States as immigrants, or in case of other distress or difficulty.
To aid in maintaining alive the patriotic spirit and love for the fatherland, by the observance of such holidays as Columbus Day, by providing means for the diffusion of the Italian language, and by adopting the same as the official language at all meetings of this order.[15]
Similarly, the Polish National Alliance is an insurance company and at the same time the largest Polish nationalistic organization, with about 1,700 branches and a member-ship of about 130,000. (See Map 1, on p. 134). It was founded in Philadelphia, in 1880, as a direct response to the following letter, and up to the present has worked in the spirit of this letter:
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98. Since emigration exists and constitutes a great power—a fact which cannot be denied—it should be the task of a well-understood patriotism to make it as useful as possible for the national cause. This can be done only through organization, which will unify the scattered members and control them in such a way that they will not be wasted but will be preserved for the fatherland... .
Every Polish peasant, from whatever Polish province he comes, even from one of those which, like upper Silesia or East Prussia, have been for a long time separated from the national body, when transferred to a strange soil among foreigners develops a Polish sentiment and a consciousness of his national character. This phenomenon is incomprehensible for those who saw the peasant at home without a consciousness of national duties. And yet it is quite natural. National consciousness, originates in him spontaneously in a foreign country in consequence of the feeling of the striking difference between his speech, his customs, his conceptions, from those of the people who surround him... .
If, after the formation of a conception and sentiment of nationality in him, there is some one capable of explaining to him the meaning of this national character and of making him understand the duties resulting from this character, then this plain man, formerly ignorant and passive for the national cause; will become an individual consciously and actively serving the idea which rests upon nationality. . .
There is, therefore, no doubt that if a national intellectual class is formed in America the numerous masses can and must be changed into an active
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human group useful for the national cause; and in order to give them the possibility of becoming useful and at the same time surround them with conditions which will prevent them from losing their nationality, it is indispensable to unite the isolated individuals into more or less numerous associations and communities and bind these together in such a way that the resulting organization, while serving the purposes of the Polish cause, will be not only useful, but indispensable for the private interests of every one of its members.. .
When the mass of Poles in America is morally and nationally raised by the fact of being unified and is economically prosperous—which should be also one of the tasks of the organization—it will render great services to Poland, even by the mere fact of representing the Polish name well in America. These services can gradually become very consider-able, when the Poles begin to exercise an influence upon the public life of the United States, when they spread among Americans adequate conceptions about the Polish cause and information about the history, literature, and art of our nation, when finally they become intermediaries between Poland and the powerful Republic so as to foster sympathy with our efforts for liberation and develop it into an enthusiasm which will express itself in action.
Then only can happen that which is most desirable—i.e., the emigrants who have acquired training in practical lines and wealth in America will begin to return to their fatherland to be useful citizens. . . . We do not need to put forward those benefits which a large organization of Poles in America could bring at the decisive moment when the future
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of our fatherland will be at stake, for this is easy to see.[16]
Another Polish nationalistic organization composed more exclusively of intellectuals, is the Alliance of Polish Socialists. Like the Polish National Alliance, it has worked, up to the present, mainly to establish a Polish nation in America as a substitute and center of influence for a Polish state in Europe. The Polish socialists, however, have had more definitely the program of preparing in America leaders for Poland when her "day" should come. This principle was formulated, for instance, in a letter of Kozakiewicz, one of the founders of the Alliance, which was read and indorsed at the general meeting of delegates in 1917:
99. "In view of our weak direct participation in the political life of this country . . . we should direct all our work to the aim of training active, independently thinking socialists, educated men, and conscious citizens, ready to sacrifice themselves for our idea....Let us form men everyone of whom will be ,able in any locality, without help, spontaneously to create and—more than this—to lead an. organization." The ultimate aim has been up to
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the present, as we have seen above, realization of the socialistic ideal in Poland rather than in America. When the time comes for our companions to return to Poland, may we be able to say with pride, "These are men from the American school, trained by the Polish organizations."[17]
While among some of the immigrant groups (the Poles, for example) interest in the nationalistic movement has tended to dominate all other interests, the Zionism of the Jews is merely one expression of the general organization and growing self-consciousness of this group:
100. The nationalist Jew . . . is the product of two historic movements. The Haskallah (enlightenment) movement in Russia during the middle of the last century caused many Jewish students to forsake the Talmudical halls of learning and . . . to devote their energies to the creation of a new literature in Hebrew, expressive of the facts of modern life and of the new orientation of the Jews in the modern world. The ideal of this movement, the Haskil (the en-lightened), is one who is acquainted with science, literature, and art, and who knows thoroughly the literature of his people, both ancient and modern, even to the extent of being able to contribute to it. With the Haskallah movement another force combined in creating the nationalist Jew. This force was Zionism. Modern Zionism originated in Russia as a "Love of Palestine" movement, and spread
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throughout the world under the leadership of Dr. Theodore Herzl.... It is simply a modern formulation of the age-long yearning of the Jew for Zion. It looks to the establishment of a "publicity secured, legally assured homeland for the Jews in Palestine," and to the "fostering of Jewish consciousness through-out the world." [18]
Similar motives—the desire to serve the mother country in and from America—have inspired the representatives of other "oppressed and dependent" European and Asiatic nationalities (see documents 71, 72, 78, p. 98). The Chinese nationalistic activities, for example, are carried on largely by university students and commercial clubs, and have the sympathy and participation of American friends of China.
The Japanese Association of America is nationalistic only in the sense that it regulates the life of the Japanese in America and promotes their efficiency. It is really a bureau of information both for the home government and for the Japanese in America. It advises the Japanese government as to the policy to be pursued, how many and what kind of Japanese shall be permitted to come, whether the practice of sending "picture brides" leads to disorder, and so forth. (See document 109, p. 169.)
( 140) There is in America a body of about 1,100,000 French Canadians, settled mainly in the New England states, who are carrying on a struggle for the perpetuation of their culture along the same lines as the French in Canada. As a consequence our New England mill towns have the French language, French parishes and parochial schools, French nationalistic societies (St. Jean de Baptiste d'Amérique, Canado-Américan), and a French nationalist press. (See Map e, on p. 141.)
101. The French Canadians of Quebec have increased in population from 60,000 in 1763 to 8,000,000 scattered through the United States and Canada. Wherever in New England these have settled in numbers, that community is gradually ceasing to be English. Lewiston, Maine, is an example which has not only ceased to be a "Yankee" city and is losing its American characteristics, but is gradually assuming a French aspect. The parish with its organizations has successfully prevented its parishioners from coming under native influences and is driving the English language from the business sections....The French Canadian population of Biddeford is nearly 70 per cent. . . . This population is fairly well distributed over the whole city. A Yankee section exists rather than a French section. .
Three thousand young French Americans are annually sent to the colleges of French Canadian nationalism in the province of Quebec.... Probably the most important and most popular newspaper among the New England Franco-Americans is La Presse, of
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Montreal. . . . An examination of Who's Who in America fails to reveal the name of any one of the 110,000 Frenchmen of the state of Maine. [19]
Nevertheless, the French Americans recognize that this is a transitory situation. Some of their organizations—e.g., St. Jean de Baptiste—have been obliged to allow proceedings to be conducted in English to prevent young people from joining American societies. (See document 163, p. 290.)
A number of elements enter into the nationalistic sentiments of the immigrant: (1) the idealization of home conditions, natural in one who is absent; (2) the desire to aid the struggle for self-determination going on at home; (3) the desire to gain recognition at home, preparatory to a return; (4) the wish to improve his status in the eyes of the American public by improving the status of the national group; (5) the feeling of non-participation in American life which leads to the attempt to create here a situation in which he can participate. All these sentiments stimulate participation in public life, some of them participation in American life. The form taken by the movement in the different groups depends on the character of their historical expe-
( 143) -riences. When, for example, the superior member of a foreign group compares his community with the larger American community, and particularly when he is humiliated in the latter because of his connection with the former, he may wish to repudiate his native group, try to lose the marks of identification with it, because he is ashamed of it. Thus, the cultured Italian may find it impossible to identify himself with a Sicilian group containing the caffone and black-hand elements, and may avoid the Italian group altogether. Similarly, the Jew may wish to lose his identity as Jew because of the popular prejudice against his race. But this effort usually fails because the individual cannot completely lose the marks of identity with his native group; he is betrayed by some sign—his speech or gestures, or sentiments. He consequently finds himself out of his old society without being completely in a new one and in a painful position—without recognition from any group whatever. We find, therefore, that the men who begin by deserting their groups end by attempting to improve the status of these groups-seeking to make them some-thing with which a man may be proud to identify himself. The fact that the individual will not be respected unless his group
( 144) is respected becomes thus, perhaps, the most sincere source of the nationalistic movements in America. To this extent the nationalistic movements represent an effort to participate in American life.
CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS
There remain certain cultural institutions of the immigrant, the press, the
theater, the school, the church, etc. The press and the school are treated in
other volumes of this series, and in Chapters VII and VIII we mention these
institutions, especially the church and synagogue, in characterizing the
immigrant community.
