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CHAPTER XXV.

IMMIGRANT INSTITUTIONS.

Church facilities-Fraternal organizations-Recent immigrants in business-Employment and steamship agency-Immigrant boarding houses.

CHURCH FACILITIES.

Four English-speaking Protestant churches and one Englishspeaking Catholic church are found within the limits of the town itself. None of these particularly affects the immigrant population, whose churches, so far as they exist, are found in the mining communities surrounding the town. Directly across one of the small rivers upon which the town is situated, the Polish, Lithuanian, and Slovak adherents of the Roman Catholic faith maintain a church. There is a resident priest and a fair degree of interest is manifested by the parishioners. The Ruthenians assist in supporting a Greek Catholic church in the same vicinity. The congregation is scattered widely, however, the members living in the towns along the main line of the railroad for 20 miles in each direction. The English-speaking population in an adjacent mining camp have a church building where the same priest who officiates in the town church conducts worship. The Italians are almost entirely without the influence of any church, except that for burials and the various rites of the church they go to the priest of the English-speaking Roman Catholic church. A branch of the Young Men's Christian Association formerly existed in the town, but it failed because of lack of financial support. The general attitude of the Americans and English-speaking people in the community toward the religious welfare of the recent immigrant is one of indifference.

FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS.

The Americans, Irish, English, and Welsh are members of the usual fraternal societies and also patronize industrial and other insurance companies. The Irish have a branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which does not differ from such branches elsewhere. The recent immigrants have organized benefit societies along racial lines, and the reason for this is readily explained by two facts: (1) The natural inclination of a race in a new country, where the language and institutions are only partly understood, is to segregate itself for beneficial and protective purposes; and (2) the absence of any industrial insurance in connection with the mines except trade-union benefits, as well as the absence of practically all forms of welfare work

or aid on the part of the employers, throws the employees upon their own resources. In the light of these considerations, the Poles maintain a benefit society for members of their own race, who contribute 50 cents per month and receive, in case of sickness or accident, $5 per week. Similar organizations are maintained by the Lithuanians and by the Slovaks and Ruthenians jointly.

RECENT IMMIGRANTS IN BUSINESS.

As soon as the immigrants learn English and accumulate a little capital, it is possible for them to engage in business in a small way within the community. The Italians are much ahead of the other races in establishing themselves as business men, despite the fact that they are less attached to the locality than the Slavic races and more often intend to return to the home country. The only stores in the town proper under the control of recent immigrants are two general grocery stores and a fruit store, all conducted by Italians. There are also three Italian barbers and three Italian cobblers. The largest Italian mercantile establishment is operated in connection with an employment and steamship agency. The other grocery store is managed by a resident Italian for an Italian who lives in New York City. These stores cater especially to the tastes of Italian customers, importing or securing imported articles of various kinds, but at the same time they do a general business in the community at large. This is also true of the Italian cobblers and barbers. Their interests, of course, are small, but their general business standing is good. The only other recent immigrant engaged in business, either within or without the town proper, is a Pole, who conducts a small grocery store near one of the detached mining camps. The mercantile business in the semidetached communities is controlled by the different mining companies, and there is scarcely any opportunity for competition.

EMPLOYMENT AND STEAMSHIP AGENCY.

An Italian conducts, as has been already pointed out, a steamship and employment agency in connection with a large mercantile establishment. His employment agency is quite extensive, and he has numerous connections through which he meets the demands of contractors in various States for unskilled labor to be used on railroad and other construction work. He keeps in close touch with the labor situation in the surrounding territory, and assembles the unemployed and dissatisfied, thus acting as a clearing house in the adjustment of the fluctuating supply and demand. No compensation, it is claimed, is received from the men for whom he secures work, but profits are secured from the contractor or construction company to whom the labor is furnished. In return for the right to maintain a commissary, or store, and collect all bills for supplies and lodging through the construction company's paymaster, the employment agency agrees to send or bring to the scene of the work the requi

site number of men at specified wages and to pay the contractor or construction company 5 per cent of the bills collected to cover the trouble and expense of collection."

IMMIGRANT BOARDING HOUSES.

The Italians, as compared with other races of recent immigration, rarely acquire property, and in few cases have families with them. There are, therefore, more single men or boarders among them, and in general their standard of living is below that of the Slavs. The system of living which prevails among the Italians and the unmarried men, or men without their families, of all races, is the so-called "boarding-boss" plan. Each member of the boarding group pays a specified sum for his lodging, cooking, and washing, and buys his own food independently of the other members of the group. The cost of lodging, cooking, and washing ranges from $1.50 to $3 monthly for each individual. The monthly food cost ranges from $7 to $9, according to the individual, making the total average cost of subsistence not more than $12 per month.

a See sample of this form of contract in Immigrants in Industries: The Floating Immigrant Labor Supply. Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. XVIII. (S. Doc. No. 633, pt. 22, 61st Cong., 2d sess.)

CHAPTER XXVI.

SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS.

Criminality-Conjugal condition of mine workers-Literacy-Age classification of employees-[Text Tables 295 to 301].

CRIMINALITY.

The foreign population supplies very much more than its share of cases to the justice courts. The offenses most frequently committed are assault, drunkenness, and larceny. The Italians are the most hot blooded and quick tempered, and the Poles and Lithuanians also are to a certain extent given to crimes of passion. The Slovaks are the most peaceful race.

CONJUGAL CONDITION OF MINE WORKERS.

The table on the page following shows, by age groups, the number of mine workers in Community B 16 years of age or over who are single, married, and widowed.'

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