CHAPTER VII.

SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS.

Diseases peculiar to immigrants-Criminality-Literacy-Conjugal condition-Age classification of employees and members of their households [Text Tables 453 to 465 and General Tables 244 to 252].

DISEASES PECULIAR TO IMMIGRANTS.

The initial difficulty met with by physicians practicing among the immigrants is the attitude toward treatment which the latter assume. A single visit must produce marked improvement in the patient or the physician is likely to be dismissed, another being summoned if the case is serious. Either through fear of incurring expense or ignorance of the conditions entering into the cure of disease, they in many cases defer calling a physician until it is too late. The Italians are said to be an exception to this rule. Owing to the fact just referred to the tardiness with which a physician is summonedand the crowded and hence insanitary conditions in boarding houses, and the poor diet and care, immigrants overtaken by serious disease seldom recover. The better class of Italians, Jews, and Germans are the most susceptible to treatment.

In general, the immigrant population is composed of young and vigorous people in the prime of life, with few children and almost no old persons among their number. Consequently, diseases of the heart are practically absent. The infectious diseases which are present to a significant degree are typhoid fever and tuberculosis. The city is now supplied with a modern filtration plant by which all parts of the borough are furnished with good drinking water. Wells, however, are still used in outlying districts. With reasonable precautions on the part of the borough authorities there ought to be no serious outbreak of typhoid in the future. The Servians and Macedonians have been the severest sufferers from this disease, and they are reported by physicians to be the least cleanly of all the races. It is thought that this characterization is somewhat unjust to the Macedonians, whose houses appear fairly clean and wholesome.

Of tuberculosis, about 20 per cent of the cases occur among the negroes. Among the foreign population the Slavic races and the poorer class of Jews are most subject to it. The health officer-the executive arm of the board of health-expressed himself as quite uninformed with regard to the exact race of the families with which he comes in contact in the performance of his duties.

One physician expressed the opinion that a number of cases of tuberculosis are contracted by the immigrants in their native land, and that they are allowed to enter this country in spite of their condition. He states that several such cases have come under his observation where the disease was evident on landing in this country, and one case in particular where the person was treated in Europe more than a year before coming here. There seems to be a general

consensus of opinion that little can be done to check the ravages of this disease so long as the present insanitary conditions continue. Boarders among Slavic races are in the habit of spitting upon the floor and walls of their sleeping rooms, and also in the kitchen, where they gather to eat and smoke and spend their leisure time. It must be remembered that this is the room where all the cooking is done, and that the younger children are free to play about the floor.

The immigrants themselves are ignorant of the consequences of such habits, and are seemingly indifferent to the crowding which greatly aggravates the situation. Personal cleanliness is not appreciated. The difficulties of bathing the entire body in overcrowded boarding houses in winter, without even a makeshift for a bathroom, are almost prohibitive. Lack of closet rooms or garrets is a contributing cause to the insanitary and unwholesome odors present in such apartments, for the perspiration-soaked clothing of men who have worked in the steel mills is hung about the walls of the sleeping room.

Physicians agree that venereal diseases are very prevalent among the Slavic immigrants. Two physicians assert that 90 per cent of the Austro-Hungarian and Servian immigrants are thus afflicted. The proximity of the community to certain vicious resorts in a neighboring larger city is alleged to be the cause of this condition.

CRIMINALITY.

The following shows by race and character of offense the number of cases tried in the principal justice court of the community for the period, March 1, 1907, to December 1, 1908:

TABLE 453.-Cases tried in the principal justice court of Community C, March 1, 1907, to December 1, 1908, by race.

In the table next submitted the same showing is made as in the one preceding for the cases coming under the jurisdiction of the chief burgess court.

TABLE 454.-Cases tried by the chief burgess of Community C, March 1, 1906, to December 1, 1908, by race.

In this table only those races designated locally as "foreigners" are entered in full. "Other races" includes American, Negro, German, and Irish principally.

The preceding tables throw an important light upon the criminal tendencies of the immigrants of this community. The first table consists of an analysis of 654 offenses tried in the principal justice court of the borough during a period of a year and nine months. Cases in which a warrant is sworn out charging violations of the laws of the commonwealth are tried in the justice courts, a constable making the arrests. Cases of violation of borough ordinances, on the other hand, are tried before the burgess, the arrest being made by the salaried police officers of the borough. The latter class of offenses consist principally of drunkenness and disorderly conduct upon the streets of the borough. Out of 186 offenses for a period of two years and nine months, 171 were of this nature. It will be noted that the recent immigrants contributed 63 out of the total of 179 cases (eliminating the 7 "unknown"), or about 35 per cent.

Referring to the table of justice cases of 634 defendants (eliminating the 20 "unknown") 418, or about 66 per cent, were recent immigrants. It must not be supposed, however, that these figures prove conclusively criminal tendencies among recent immigrants nearly twice as pronounced as among the balance of the population. The manner in which immigrants are encouraged by interpreters, constables, and others to make charges against one another would discredit that conclusion. Further reference will be made to this matter below.

Referring to the nature of the offenses charged, the following are seen to be the most numerous:

These offenses are such as might be expected to be found among a population of heavy-drinking laborers living together in crowded boarding houses. Fights are frequent, usually due to drunken disputes; hence the majority of the cases of assault. Personal property of lodgers living without the possibility of privacy proves a strong temptation to cupidity; hence many of the cases of larceny. With little luggage to remove from the premises lodgers find it comparatively easy to evade payment of their accounts with the boarding boss. Finally, the presence of unattached women of doubtful character among the immigrant population as well as the absence of the men from their families results in a considerable number of cases of criminal immorality.

Gambling is also prevalent among the immigrants, and formerly many arrests were made on this charge. The justice-court parasites derived considerable profit from this class of prosecutions, but little improvement was visible. About two years ago, through the influence of the steel company, arrests from this cause were stopped. It is said that the numerous arrests were endangering the labor supply and interfering with the work of employees. It is likely that the abolition of the judicial exploitation of immigrants was also a motive.

Not long ago the steel company projected a hotel and beer garden to be located in a spot convenient to the foreign section with the hope of improving conditions among the immigrants. It was thought that a well-regulated place of assembly for the foreigners where social relaxation and temperate indulgence in drinking could be carried on, would do much to fill the vacuum which then and still exists in the lives of the immigrant men, who have no respite from labor except forms of association which involve dissipation and drunkenness. Difficulty was experienced in securing a license, however, and the scheme was abandoned.

There seems to be a consensus of opinion, fairly well substantiated by the records, that the Macedonians, Italians, and Slovenians are peaceable and law-abiding members of the community. The Italians, however, are regarded as especially apt to commit serious crimes when once involved in a quarrel. This, fortunately, has not been of frequent occurrence. The Magyars, unlike the Slavs, seem to offer scant encouragement to interpreters, or justices who make a profit by stirring up cases among the foreign population. Living apart from the Slavs, in a long street of their own, which they share with the Hungarian-Germans, they succeed in settling most of their disputes among themselves, and seldom figure as defendants in the justice courts. The Croatians, although ranking second in numbers, have furnished more than their quota of cases. Their record, however, appears comparatively good when the number of cases in which Servians figure as defendants is considered. This latter race numbered over 2,000 men during the good times preceding the depression; women and children were very few, and the extremely large boarding groups in which the men lived were the scenes of frequent carousings and fights.

The method of procedure in some or perhaps the majority of cases in the justice courts consists of frightening the defendant into the conviction that he has committed some grave offense calling for imprisonment or a very heavy fine. This process is facilitated by the