CAUSES OF CONGESTED DISTRICTS

The chief evil arising from the incoming of the immigrants to our cities is the tendency to crowd together in a certain section, and, even when not living in unsanitary conditions, to remain isolated from the Americans, thus forming foreign colonies and checking assimilation. Naturally, the great majority that come to these cities come to join relatives or friends. The original selection of a residence is largely a matter of chance, unless it is determined by the residence of friends. The majority of newly arrived immigrants report that over three-fourths of their people have spent the entire period of their residence since they came to the United States in the neighborhood where they now are. Of course, the economic difficulty of changing their location hinders moving; but there is the further influence of a common language, the common race, and usually a common religion, which keeps them together. Moreover, in many cases the desire to avoid the expense of transportation to and from work prevents them from moving far from the place in which they have first settled.

On the other hand, the increase in earnings, improved education, social ambition, interest in American institutions, all tend to hasten the scattering and absorption of the immigrants into the general body of residents. Whenever their earnings have become such that the expense of moving is not important, or when they feel that they have finally established themselves as citizens, they naturally look for a place of residence outside the crowded districts. Ability to speak and read English, and familiarity with the conditions of the country, help their choice in selecting a new home.

Very frequently the influence of the children who have been to American schools and have grown up as Americans, and who in consequence do not like to be identified with a foreign section of the city, is a predominant factor in determining the selection of a new home.

Industrial Cities and Towns

Unsatisfactory household arrangements and crowded living conditions are even more characteristic of the strictly industrial towns and cities than of the principal urban centers of population such as New York, Chicago, and other large cities. This condition of affairs arises in large measure from the less degree of permanency of residence among the purely industrial workers. The constraining motive among the immigrant wage-earners at first is to earn all they can under the existing conditions of employment, live upon the basis of minimum cheapness, and save as much as possible.

"THE BOARDING-BOSS SYSTEM"

Mention has already been made of the preponderance among industrial workers of recent immigration of single men or, what practically amounts to the same thing, of married men who have left their families abroad. This situation, taken in connection with the low range of earnings and the desire to save, is responsible for the small extent to which an independent form of family life exists in the immigrant colonies of American industrial cities and towns. The heads of families find it necessary to take boarders

and lodgers into the home in order to supplement their earnings in the mines, mills and factories, while the larger proportion of males without families creates a demand for a cheap group method of living. The plan usually followed in industrial localities is popularly known as "the boarding-boss system." Under the "boarding-boss" arrangement a married immigrant or his wife, or a single man, constitutes the head of the household, which, in addition to the family of the head, will usually be made up of from two to twenty boarders or lodgers. Each lodger pays the boardingboss a fixt sum, ordinarily from $2 to $3 per month, for lodging, cooking and washing, the food being bought by the boarding-boss and its cost shared equally by the individual members of the group. Another common arrangement is for each member of the household to purchase his own food and have it cooked separately. Under this method of living, which prevails among the greater proportion of the immigrant households, the entire outlay for necessary living expenses of each adult member ranges from $9 to $15 each month. The additional expenditures of the recent immigrant wage-earners are small.

OVERCROWDING

The congestion resulting from this method of living is very marked. A recent study of 15,127 households of immigrant industrial workers disclosed the fact that 4,978, or 32.9 per cent., kept boarders or lodgers. A similar study of 1,139 households of native whites showed that only 114, or 10 per cent., had boarders or lodgers. The following table shows the situation of the principal races of recent immigration among

The average number of boarders and lodgers for each 100 of all immigrant households keeping boarders or lodgers was 353, as contrasted with only 168 for each 100 native white American households. For some of the southern or eastern European immigrant households the average was much higher than that shown for all races. The Rumanians averaged 12.23 boarders or lodgers per household keeping boarders or lodgers, the Bulgarians 8.29, Servians 7.25, Croatians 6.39, and Russians 4.02. The crowding which resulted may be readily realized when it is known, for example, that one-third of the Bulgarian households were living in one-room apartments, and twofifths in two rooms.

Of all the households of foreign-born wage-earners, numbering 15,127, about one-tenth were housed in two rooms, one-fifth in three rooms, and almost onethird in four rooms. The immigrant households averaged 581 persons for each 100 apartments, 138 persons for each 100 rooms, and 253 occupants for

each 100 sleeping-rooms. By way of contrast, the households of the native whites of native fathers had only 415 persons for each 100 apartments, 77 persons for each 100 rooms, and 184 persons for each 100 sleeping-rooms. Many of the households of recent immigrants had from four to eight persons for each sleeping-room, the maximum number being conditioned only on the available space.

CONGESTION IN SLEEPING-ROOMS

Another significant aspect of the situation is the tendency exhibited by immigrant households to use all of the rooms of their apartments for sleeping purposes. Of the total number studied in detail by the Immigration Commission about 5 per cent. used all of their rooms as sleeping quarters. Of the Bulgarians 63.3 per cent., of the Greeks 16.4 per cent., of the Ruthenians 12.1 per cent., and of the Slovenians 10.3 per cent. used all of the rooms of the apartments in which they lived for sleeping purposes. A little more than one-third of the immigrant households had only one room available for cooking, eating and general living purposes.

RENT IN ITS RELATION TO STANDARD OF LIVING

Perhaps the best general indication of the congested conditions and low standards of living which prevail in the households of immigrant industrial workers may be seen in the average rent payments per person, due to the tendency of the immigrants to crowd together in order to reduce the per capita rent outlay. The average monthly rent payment per person of wage-earners who were native-born whites of native