New Homes for Old Part 7

This Polish custom of giving money gifts offsets to a large extent the cost of the wedding. Among three Polish families visited, one whose wedding cost $200 collected $60; another spent $150 and collected $160; and a third spent $200 and collected $300. But this custom, too, tends to disappear in the second generation. A young Russian couple, for instance, were opposed to a regular collection, but the parents, who consider it the blessing to their daughter, could not resist each leaving a ten-dollar bill as they left. The young people were embarra.s.sed, but the other guests quickly followed the suggestion, and $100 was collected.

CHRISTENINGS AND FeTE DAYS

This nave solicitation of gifts is also practiced on the occasion of the christening of the infant. An unmarried G.o.dmother may be preferred because, having no children of her own, she is more able to make handsome gifts at the time and to continue her contributions. One young Russian girl, whose marriage with the father of her unborn child was arranged by a social worker, asked the new friend to serve as G.o.dmother, and then expected an outfit for the infant in christening robes, little veils, and other articles, costing about $75.

Observers interested in customs in immigrant districts say that the custom of soliciting gifts at christenings was modified during the war. Among Polish families, for example, each guest used to make a present in money to the child who was christened. During the last few years it has become more and more customary for the collection to be taken for the benefit of Polish war orphans. The amount collected is then announced in the paper and serves as a source of prestige to the family.

There are also numerous fete days and religious celebrations which call for special expenditure. It is impossible to consider all these here, but attention should be called to an important event in the religious life; namely, the occasion of the first communion. The expenses for the confirmation of a boy are not great. He usually has a new suit and wears a flower in his b.u.t.tonhole. He must have beads, prayer book, and, if he is Polish, a candle.

One little Polish girl who made her first communion in the summer of 1919 had an outfit that cost her $30. This did not represent the entire cost, as she had several parts of the outfit given to her; her G.o.dmother made the dress, although the little girl herself furnished the material; the veil with the wreath of flowers was given her by a nun who had taken an interest in her, and the candle, which it is still customary in Polish churches to carry, was given by a cousin who is a nun. She had to buy the material for her dress, white slippers, stockings, and long white gloves, beads, flowers, and photographs. If she had herself borne all the expense, a minimum estimate of the cost would be $50.

BUYING PROPERTY

A third motive for saving is the desire for home ownership or for acquiring land. There is no doubt that to own a home of their own is the desire of most immigrant families. Many of them come from countries where the ownership of land carries with it a degree of social prestige that is unknown in more highly developed communities of the modern industrial civilization.

Representatives of the Bohemians, Lithuanians, Poles, and Italians have all emphasized the fact that their people want to own their own homes, and bend every energy toward this end, so that the whole family often works in order that first payments may be made or later payments kept up. The Croatians, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Slovenians are also said to be buying houses, although, as they are newer groups, they have not yet done so to the same extent as the other groups. The Serbians, Rumanians, Bulgarians, and Russians in Chicago are, on the other hand, said to be planning to return in large numbers to the old homes in Europe, and hence are not interested in buying property in this country. Their feeling for the land and their desire to own their homes in the country in which they decide to settle is said to be as strong as in the other groups.

The longing for home ownership was apparent in the family schedules we obtained, and in studies of housing conditions[26] in certain districts of Chicago we find additional evidence of the immigrants'

desire to own their own homes, and the way in which this desire leads many to buy, even in the congested districts of the city. The following table gives the number and the percentage of home owners in eight selected districts. It will be noted that the percentage of owners varied from eight in one of the most congested Italian districts known as "Little Sicily," to twenty-four in the Lithuanian district.

The strength of the desire for homes can also be measured by the sacrifices which many of the families make to enable them to acquire property. It means in some cases the sacrifice of the children's education, the crowding of the home with lodgers, or the mother's going out to work. In fact, immigrant leaders interviewed seem to think that women's entrance into industry during the war was largely due to the desire to own their own homes. After the t.i.tle to the house is acquired, it is often crowded with other tenants to help finish the payments.

TABLE II

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF IMMIGRANT HOME OWNERS IN DIFFERENT CHICAGO DISTRICTS

================================================================ NUMBER DISTRICT TOTAL OF PER FAMILIES OWNERS CENT -------------------------------------- -------- -------- ------- Bohemians--10th Ward 295 36 12 Polish--16th Ward 2,785 355 13 Italian--"Lower North" Side 1,462 119 8 Italian--19th Ward 1,936 208 9 Polish and other Slav--South Chicago 545 100 18 Lithuanian--4th Ward 1,009 241 24 Slovak--20th Ward 869 148 17 Polish, Lithuanian, other Slavic--29th Ward, Stockyards District 1,616 298 18 ================================================================

The housing studies in Chicago furnish many ill.u.s.trations of this sacrifice.[27] For example, among the Lithuanians in the Fourth Ward, there was a landlord who lived in three cellar rooms so low that a person more than five feet eight inches tall could not stand upright in them. The kitchen, a fair-sized room with windows on the street--though its gray-painted wooden walls and ceiling served well to accentuate the absence of sunlight, was merely gloomy, but the other two rooms were both small and dark, with tiny lot-line windows only four square feet in area. In one of these rooms, 564 cubic feet in contents, the father and one child slept; the other, which contained only 443 cubic feet, was the bedroom of the mother and two children. One of the highly colored holy pictures common among the Lithuanians and Poles, though it hung right by the window, was an indistinguishable blur.

The agency through which the purchase is made may be either the real-estate dealer of the same national group, or, more commonly, the building and loan a.s.sociation. The real-estate agents to whom the foreign-speaking immigrants go are like the steamship agents, the immigrant bankers, the keepers of special shops. Those who are honest and intelligent render invaluable services; those who wish to exploit have the same opportunity of doing so that is taken advantage of by the shyster lawyer, the quack doctor, the sharp dealer of any kind who speaks the language and preys upon his fellow countrymen. Reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the services rendered by the building and loan a.s.sociations in enabling the foreign born to obtain homes. They also render services in providing the means for safe investment for those with only small sums to invest.

BUILDING AND LOAN a.s.sOCIATIONS

These societies are frequently organized along national lines. For example, among those listed in 1893 by the United States Commissioner of Labor[28] are the Bohemian Building and Loan, organized February 1, 1886; the Bohemian California Homestead (February 15, 1892); the Bohemian National Building Loan and Homestead (January 30, 1888); the Bohemian Workingmen's Loan and Homestead (April 20, 1890); the Ceska Koruna Homestead (May 6, 1892); the King Kazimer the Great Building and Loan (January 27, 1886); the King Mieczyslaus the First National Building Loan and Savings Bank (June 3, 1889); King Zigsmund the First Building and Loan (April 15, 1891). December 1, 1918, there were 681 such organizations in Illinois; 255 of these were in Chicago and the majority were conducted and patronized by the foreign born.

The following is briefly the method by which the building and loan a.s.sociations perform the two services of providing for investment and lending money on homes:[29]

The stockholder or member pays a stipulated minimum sum, say one dollar, when he takes his membership, and buys a share of stock. He then continues to pay a like sum each month until the aggregate of sums paid, augmented by the profits, amounts to the maturing value of the stock, usually $200, and at this time the stockholder is ent.i.tled to the full maturing value of the share, and surrenders the same.

A shareholder who desires to build a house and has secured a lot for that purpose, may borrow money from the a.s.sociation of which he is a member. Suppose a man who has secured his lot wishes to borrow $1,000 for the erection of a house. He must be the holder of five shares in his a.s.sociation, each share having as its maturing value $200. His five shares, therefore, when matured, would be worth $1,000, the amount of money which he desires to borrow.... In a building and loan a.s.sociation the money is put up at auction, usually in open meeting on the night or at the time of the payment of dues.

Those who wish to borrow bid a premium above the regular rate of interest charged, and the one who bids the highest premium is awarded the loan. The man who wishes to build his house, therefore, and desires to borrow $1,000, must have five shares of stock in his a.s.sociation, must bid the highest premium, and then the $1,000 will be loaned to him. To secure this $1,000 he gives the a.s.sociation a mortgage on his property and pledges his five shares of stock. To cancel this debt he is constantly paying his monthly or semimonthly dues, until such time as the constant payment of dues, plus the acc.u.mulation of profits through compounded interest, matures the shares at $200 each. At this time, then, he surrenders his shares, and the debt upon his property is canceled.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ITALIANS HAVE THEIR OWN FINANCIAL CENTER AND LABOR MARKET IN BOSTON]

In some cases the sums paid are fifty or even twenty-five cents a week, and the shares may be $100 instead of $200. Among some groups shares are taken in the name of each of the children, and the investment const.i.tutes an educational fund. There are those, however, for whom the building and loan has not provided adequate opportunity for deposit and safe investment. It is probable that the building and loan has proved most efficient for the income group $1,500-$1,800. For the group below that, home ownership is for the time impossible. As a device for saving, for both the lower and higher income groups, who come from countries familiar with similar devices, the postal savings banks are supposed to offer efficient, honest, and convenient service.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS

These banks were established under an act that went into effect June 25, 1910. Under this law, as amended May 18, 1916, persons over ten years of age may deposit any amount, providing the balance to the credit of one depositor does not exceed $1,000. Two per cent interest is paid on deposits, and there is provision for exchange of deposits for United States bonds of small denominations.

The facilities thus provided were immediately taken advantage of by the foreign-born groups, and the postal savings banks became almost banks for the foreign born. That is, in September, 1916, 375,000, or 80 per cent, of the total number of depositors were persons of foreign birth, and they owned 75 per cent of the deposits. In proportion to population the deposits were in 1916 about eleven times as great as those of the native born (due allowance being made for the age of the two population groups). The Greeks, Italians, Russians, and Hungarians, all coming from countries in which there are postal savings arrangements, found it especially easy to make use of them.

The department felt, however, that the facilities could be greatly extended, even among the foreign born. Therefore, circulars describing the organization, methods, and advantages were distributed. They were written in the following languages: English, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, j.a.panese, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Yiddish.

In spite of the fact that this system is characterized not only by security, but also by certain democratic and convenient features especially serviceable to many foreign born, there are certain limitations to which Professor Kemmerer has called attention in the following statement:

As a matter of fact, the interest rate paid is so low that it makes a very weak appeal to the cla.s.s of people who deposit in the postal savings banks. Their motive is primarily security. The government is now realizing large profits from the postal savings system--for 1916 the estimated profit was $481,816--and this profit is coming from a cla.s.s of people in the community, the thrifty poor, from whom it is bad social policy to take it. Of course it would be administratively impracticable to pay interest to depositors on average daily balances--no savings banks do that. Would it be expecting too much, however, to ask for our postal savings depositors the allowances of interest on half yearly or even quarterly balances? Moreover, is it unreasonable to ask the Board of Trustees, in view of the nomadic character of our foreign-born population which patronizes the postal savings system most, to devise a simple system of transfer by which a depositor who is changing his place of residence may transfer his postal savings account without forfeiting his acc.u.mulated but yet undue interest?[30]

Not only should the postal savings bank law be amended, rendering it more flexible and more attractive, but there should also be enacted in those states in which no such legislation is yet on the statute books, laws regulating the conduct of banks, steamship companies, and all agencies receiving deposits or otherwise performing banking functions.

It is clear that the foreign born, during the early years of their residence in the United States, encounter all the difficulties of others whose incomes are inadequate and precarious, and are also the easy victims of special forms of exploitation. In addition, they find themselves unfamiliar with the standards and customs connected with the great events of family life. In the matter of weddings and funerals and other ceremonial occasions there is no reason to expect them to be wiser, more economical, and farsighted than the native-born group.

In the adjustment between future and present needs, foreign-born housewives need, as most housewives need, instruction in the art of spending, in the selection of food and clothing, and the variety of demands for which provision must be deliberately made in a modern industrial community. In an earlier and simpler situation provision for these needs was made without conscious effort.

In this connection it is interesting to note that the "Thrift Leaflets" prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Treasury for the war saving stamps thrift campaign, urged care in the use of articles and dealt with prevention of waste rather than with saving. Obviously, if goods were more carefully used, more could be saved and invested in the securities thus being indirectly urged. It is conceivable, however, that wise use may mean the purchase of better food, the selection of more satisfactory clothing, and the enjoyment of better housing, rather than investment in government or any other securities. The thrift campaigns of the United States Treasury proposed standards of saving only for those receiving an income of $1,200 or more, with the exception of unmarried persons earning as much as $780.

ACCOUNT KEEPING

The basis of sound saving or spending is the account book, carefully kept over an interval of time, allowing comparison between the outlay and enjoyment as experienced at different periods. Such account books are being urged by the extension departments of the state agricultural colleges in co-operation with the Departments of Agriculture.

Most account books that have been so far devised are, however, quite difficult and uninteresting, even for the American housewife, demanding cla.s.sifications of items which require too much time and consideration. An account book on a weekly basis, providing very simple divisions of the expenditures of the household, and giving s.p.a.ce also for the personal expenses of the various members of the family, has been published by the Committee on Household Budgets of the American Home Economics a.s.sociation.[31]

These books could be easily issued in different languages and be made available for the foreign-born housewife. She, like all housewives, would be benefited by seeing what she is spending her money for. It would lead to a definite planning of her expenditures. By this means it could be suggested that things may have changed in value for her in the new country. Old wants are replaced by new ones, and a new system of saving and spending might be worked out.

FOOTNOTES:

[21] Haskins, _How Other People Get Ahead_, Savings Division, United States Treasury Department, p. 4.

[22] _Report of the Health Insurance Commission of Illinois_, p. 223.

[23] _Report of the Health Insurance Commission of the State of Illinois_, pp. 443-483.

[24] _Ibid._, pp. 523-532.

[25] _Ibid._, pp. 483-497.

[26] Chicago Housing Conditions, _American Journal of Sociology_, vol.

xvi, p. 433; vol. xvii, pp. 1, 145; vol. xviii, p. 509; vol. xx, pp.

145, 289; vol. xxi, p. 185.

[27] Chicago Housing Conditions, ix, "The Lithuanians in the Fourth Ward," _American Journal of Sociology_, vol. xx, p. 296.