roomers, but also to help their fellow countrymen in establishing themselves.

The great desire of some southeastern European immigrants-and in this respect they differ somewhat from the northerners-is to save money at any sacrifice, so that they may some day go back to the land

IMMIGRANTS FIRST GO TO LIVE IN CROWDED DISTRICTS AND OLD HOUSES

of their birth and live in ease. Others, who have left families in Europe, save vigorously, not only to support them at home, but to bring them to this land.

A frequent American attitude toward such saving is expressed in an editorial from the Boston Transcript of July 17, 1919. The writer was discussing the return of Italians to Italy with the money which they had saved in the United States:

The voluntarily returning laborer or trader usually makes it a point to have laid up $2,000 before he returns to his native country. . . . And it was neither a very long nor a very difficult matter for him to save $2,000 in the United States. . . . As the Italian laborer's wages in this country have fully doubled, it would appear that $5,000 is now as easy for him to get as $2,000 was formerly.

The long days of back-breaking work, the nights spent in wretched holes, that this amount might be saved, have evidently been forgotten by the author. The object of such strict economy is legitimate; the result is often wretched housing, with consequent ill health for the savers.

The presence of the immigrants in the tenement districts of our cities, forming new Italies, Polands, and Portugals,, cannot be accounted for on an economic basis alone. They have been segregated by the intolerance of those who regard themselves as the only real Americans. Real-estate owners, both native and foreign born, testify to this fact. The foreign born feel bitter that they are not allowed to rent or buy houses in the better residence sections of our cities.

Occasionally, by some mischance, a foreign-born family does slip into such a neighborhood. Then the native real-estate owner tells a tale of woe. Near-by native tenants, learning of the invasion by the foreignborn American family, immediately get panicky, conclude that "the neighborhood is running down," and move away to other regions. Then property depreciates. Is it any wonder that the real-estate owner does all he can to keep the foreign born out of the better residence districts? In any city a little investigation will expose the fact that immigrant families

moving outward from the center of congestion find themselves following fleeing Americans.

Fresno, California, may be mentioned as an illustration. This city of more than fifty thousand population lies in the midst of an extremely prosperous and rapidly developing agricultural district, where raisins and fruit are the most important crops. The foreign residents of Fresno were estimated in 1919 to number twenty thousand or more, one third of the total population. With their children included they would constitute more than one half. In the report on "Fresno Immigration Problems," by the State Commission on Immigration and Housing of California, it is said that 55 per cent of the public-school children have foreign-born fathers. Armenians, Russian-Germans, Italians, Mexicans, Germans, and Japanese form the largest groups; but there are considerable numbers of Danish, Portuguese, Chinese, Swedes, Hindus, and Greeks.

One quarter of the city is notably "American," filled with houses of the characteristically comfortable and attractive California type. The adjoining quarter on the same side of the railroad track contains a number of less prosperous native born and various other nationalities, but it is dominated by the Armenians. Houses in this quarter give less appearance of prosperity, but they are still comfortable. On the other side of the track, separated as it were by a great social gulf, live most of the newer incomers, some, like many of the Russian-Germans, in tiny houses, others in crowded tenements or "barracks."

Lines of social cleavage are sharply drawn about the Armenians, who are probably the largest single

group of foreign born in Fresno. They came to California a generation ago and have been successful in farming and in business. Gradually they have moved from the "other side" of the railroad track to the portion of the city which they now occupy. They want contact with native born. Their prosperous members endeavor to buy houses in the American quarter, but cannot do so. A prominent resident in Fresno said that a native-born neighbor of his could have sold his property to an Armenian for 50 per cent above its ordinary value, but he refused to do so, and he would have been socially ostracized by his friends if he had. In the high schools the nativeborn children are rarely allowed to mingle socially with Armenians.

Race prejudice, language barriers, strange customs and manners, have all had their share in this unnatural shutting away of our foreign-born Americans in the dreary districts of our cities. Wretched and unsanitary housing is not the immigrant's responsibility alone. The native American must bear a large share of the guilt.

Improvement of health and housing depends not so much on details as upon the readiness of people to work together to substitute desirable for undesirable conditions. Lack of mutual knowledge among different race groups strikes a body blow to community spirit and renders successful health work far more difficult.

HOMES AVAILABLE TO THE IMMIGRANT

The quarters which the new arrival finds available to him are, in general, of three types: First, the large old

houses, once occupied by the better-to-do element of our cities, which have been more or less remodeled to meet the new demands; second, the tenements which have been built especially for the immigrant; and third, the houses erected by industry for their employees.

The first of these provide probably the most wretched living conditions. Built originally as spacious homes for small families, they are ill adapted to remodeling for large numbers of people. They had large rooms, windows for light and ventilation, rambling, connecting spaces, airy hallways, and but few toilets and washing facilities. When these structures are turned into tenements, what happens?

Sometimes practically no alteration is made, and many families must live under conditions suitable for only one. More frequently, changes are instituted. The big airy rooms are divided into many small ones. Thus the lighting and ventilating capacity of the original windows is lost, and dark rooms with no outside ventilation are formed. Toilets are built into the narrowed and darkened hallways, and faucets are put in on each hall floor for the common use of the tenants. Into these patched-up structures crowd the immigrants, accustomed to the outdoors and agricultural life, ignorant of urban sanitation and toilet facilities.

The tenements are, as a rule, a step better than these remodeled houses, although they have insufficient allowance for sunlight and air as well as inadequate toilets and washing conveniences. Only too often model tenements erected for the foreign born come to be occupied by the semiprofessional class, such as