New Homes for Old Part 9

The problem of how far the immigrant groups should be encouraged to modify their diet can be determined only after a careful study of their dietary practices. The price and quality of food available to immigrants must be ascertained. Their habits, customs, and preferences must be thoroughly understood. There can be no question, however, that help should be given them in making the modifications required by the changed environment.

There have been a number of suggestions of the best way to accomplish this. Visiting housekeepers or visiting diet.i.tians have been suggested and will be discussed later. It is highly probable that help must first be given to immigrant women in their homes before they can be persuaded to attend any cla.s.ses or demonstrations outside of their homes. They must gradually be persuaded to take advantage of the help obtainable in this way.

That the whole problem of diets suited to special needs of people is being considered is evidenced by the fact that it has been suggested that food be sold by units of energy value. Dr. Graham Lusk, for example, proposed at a time of great distress in New York that the Health Commissioner attempt to persuade grocers to prepare "Board of Health baskets" which would provide 10,000 calories daily for a family of five at a minimum cost.[37] The United States Commissioner of Labor indorses the idea in the following words, "There are no insuperable obstacles in the way of selling bread, beef, pork, eggs, milk, cabbage, onions, corn, sugar--by the 100 or 1,000 calories."[38]

Professor Murlin has advocated that manufacturers be compelled to place on food containers the calorie content of the package.

If such a plan could be worked out, the dietetic virtues and weaknesses of the different groups could serve as a basis for the special form in which foodstuffs were marketed in different areas. Any such project as applied to the foreign born is far from accomplishment. It is suggestive of a new att.i.tude which does not continue to leave the matter of diet to chance.

FURNITURE ON THE INSTALLMENT PLAN

In the purchase of furniture and of clothing there is the temptation to buy on the installment plan. This plan is open to all the objections ordinarily brought against buying on credit. The buyer is tempted to overestimate his ability to pay in the future, and he may not take the same trouble to calculate the actual value of his purchase as when he pays money down. In the past the form of sale has often been such as to place him peculiarly at the mercy of the seller, who might find it more profitable to reclaim the possession of goods on which a considerable share of the price has been paid than to extend the time of payment and allow the payment to be completed.

The superintendent of the Bohemian Charitable a.s.sociation says, for example, that it is very common for newly married people to load themselves with debt for household furniture, and that at least two thirds of the stoves which are commonly bought on the installment plan are taken back by the dealers before payments are finished. The immigrant from the rural community may be quite unused to purchasing furniture of any sort, and may be easily persuaded to buy what he thinks is "American style."

The Lithuanian peasant, for example, had little furniture at home. In the cottage of two rooms, one was used on the occasion of the visit of the priest or at the time of a wedding or funeral, and contained nothing but the shrine and the dowry chest of the daughters. The walls were decorated with paper flowers and cheap lithographs. In Lithuanian homes here one is struck by the fact that among the more prosperous the same sort of furniture is seen in all the houses. This consists of the heavy oak and leather sets of three or four large pieces usually sold on the installment plan by stores in the immigrant districts. It is not beautiful, and there is no reason to think that it is distinctly American, but the immigrant is not in a position to know that.

NEW FASHIONS AND OLD CLOTHES

Then there is the unsolved problem of clothing. As in the case of food, so with dress; the general effect of the organization of the department stores in the different neighborhoods can be only misleading and confusing. Many misleading devices that would no longer deceive the older residents are tried again on the newcomer.

The women at first find it difficult to judge of values and prices.

The local stores are there with the bargain counter and the special sale and all the other devices. The Poles and the Lithuanians with whom we have talked have dwelt especially on the helplessness of their countrywomen in the hands of the unscrupulous merchant or the shrewd clerk.

Clothing presents to even the enlightened and the sophisticated a most difficult problem in domestic management. "Fashion wears out more garments than the man." The anthropologist, the physiologist, and the sociologist are all concerned to explain why the clothing worn to-day is often so unsuited to bodily needs as well as to the demands of beauty and fitness.[39] To a very real extent practices of waste prevail in the selection of clothing, and to that extent neither reason nor art finds a place in the scheme. Where an attempt at economy is made, the influence of the new science of hygiene is impeded by old ideas of durability. So that from the well-to-do of the community comes little suggestion that can be of service in directing the expenditures for clothing of any other group.

[Ill.u.s.tration: IT'S A LONG WAY FROM THIS ELABORATE CZECHO-SLOVAK COSTUME TO THE MODERN AMERICAN STYLES]

The foreign born are faced with a particularly difficult problem. They often come from places where dress served to show where one came from, and who one was. In the United States, dress serves to conceal one's origin and relationships, and there results an almost inexorable dilemma. Follow the Old-World practice, and show who you are and where you come from, and the result is that you remain alien and different and that your children will not stay with you "outside the gates." Or follow the fashion and be like others, and the meager income is dissipated before your eyes, with meager results. The Croatians have emphasized the waste of American dress and the immodest styles often worn, while the Italians have chiefly dwelt upon the friction between parents and children.

In some neighborhoods Jewish agents go about offering clothing on the installment plan at prices much higher than those charged even in inefficient neighborhood shops. Shoes are particularly a source of difficulty, both those for the younger children and those for the older boy or girl who goes to work. In some neighborhoods where the older women go barefooted and are thought to do so because they wish to cling to their Old-World customs, they are simply saving, so that the children may wear "American shoes."

Certainly the foreign-born woman who undertakes to manage her family's affairs in an American community is confronted by no easy task. The question arises as to what might be done to render that task less difficult. The dull of sight cannot lead the blind at a very swift pace. But certain steps might be taken to simplify the problems for all consumers, including the foreign born. In fact, whatever renders the system of retail dealing less chaotic and less wasteful will benefit all. The establishment of markets for foodstuffs at appropriate places where grower and consumer can meet, and certain costs of double cartage can be eliminated, is, for example, a recognized item in reform of the present food traffic.

TRAINING NEEDED

The importance of the spending function of the housewife must be brought home more clearly to great numbers of women. Too few native-born housewives realize that they have any problem to work out, or that there may be an "art of spending." None of the ninety foreign-born women interviewed had received any instruction in buying except advice from friends or from their own children. What little instruction they had received had been concerned only with cooking.

Not one of these women recognized any difficulty in buying except the difficulty of speaking the language well enough to ask for things or to understand how much they cost, or of getting the wherewithal to pay.

It is by the slow process of continual suggestion that both women consumers and distributing agencies will be awakened to the problem.

Evidence of this awakening is already apparent. Schools and colleges, with their domestic-science and household-budgeting courses, are raising the question among an ever-widening circle of people. Banks and brokers with their special woman's department are advising and suggesting ways of spending that save. Newspapers, magazines, and clubs are discussing household problems. Organizations, public and private, have worked out ways and means of helping women budget their expenditures. So far these varied efforts have reached chiefly the American women. But no one group is isolated to-day, and as some awaken they set in motion the waves of thought and action that reach their foreign-born neighbor. Her inst.i.tutions of press and bank respond with information and a.s.sistance. Inevitably better housekeepers will result.

In the meantime, all possible a.s.sistance must be given. It is therefore especially important to establish contacts between agencies already responsible for developing an art in household management and the leaders among the various foreign-born groups. Provision should be made for young women from among those groups to obtain a higher education than has been commonly thought necessary by them or than has in many cases been possible from a pecuniary standpoint.

Much could undoubtedly be accomplished by the establishment in connection with departments of home economics and household arts in the various colleges of funds making possible the compilation of material bearing on these particular points. Scholarships and fellowships can be made especially available to young women from among these groups who desire to pursue their education in these lines.

The household arts departments of the various universities are attempting to plan a "standardized dress," the social workers are developing a list of garments,[40] and an estimate of expenditures for the use of case-work agencies in the care of dependent families,[41]

the Young Women's Christian a.s.sociation is carrying on a health campaign[42] directed particularly at the problem of proper shoes. In the meantime the Sunday papers carry full-page advertis.e.m.e.nts describing in specious and misleading terms the bargains in clothing to be had the following day, and the merry round continues. The tragedy works itself out both in the dissipation of the income and in the friction created between parents and children, to which reference will be made in another place.

But perhaps more important is the possibility of modifying the practices of the retail trade itself. Restrictions have been placed about the trade in such legislation as has been pa.s.sed against fraudulent advertising and other fraudulent practices, as well as by the so-called pure food laws of the United States and of the various states. And some influence has been exercised on the conditions under which goods are made, or under which they are sold, by the Trade Union Label League and by the Consumers' League. Neither of these organizations would, however, directly touch the life of the foreign-born housewife.

CO-OPERATION IN SPENDING

The question arises as to whether help is to be expected from co-operative distribution, which has had such an extraordinary history in England and been highly developed in a number of the other European countries. There is always the temptation to recall the winter evening in December, 1844, when twenty-eight weavers, of whom two were women, opened in Toad Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire, a little shop, and began to sell themselves the necessities of life. Their remarkable services in England have not been confined to their business undertakings, but have always included important educational activities.

In America there have for many years been a few co-operative stores, some succeeding, some failing, most of them working out their plans independently without connection with other similar stores from whose experience they might profit. Within the last few years, however, the number of such stores has greatly increased and the need for closer union has been felt. This has resulted in the formation of the Co-operative League of America. Education in co-operative buying is its main purpose. At what appears to be the beginning of an important period in the extension of the movement in this country it is worth while to consider how far the existing co-operative stores in this country are helping the foreign-born women.

Anything that a.s.sists her to lower the cost of living is beneficial.

Although sound practice dictates that consumer's co-operatives sell their goods at prices current in their neighborhood, the profits to the members appear in the return of a per cent of all purchases. In proportion as the local stores are able to supply the housewife with all her goods, the saving on the purchase of her daily needs will be more appreciable. Her interest in the enterprise will make her demand both greater variety and better quality of goods.

Moreover, there may be other than material gains to the foreign-born woman from her contact with a co-operative. If it is one formed by her countrymen, where her mother tongue is spoken, it may be her first and for a long time her only contact with anything outside her home.

Natural timidity will readily be overcome if she can go around the corner to a store kept by people who speak her language and understand her wants. As confidence is established she may venture to other neighborhoods or centers of distribution where more advantages can be gained. But unless she gains the confidence which few immigrant women have at first, she is an alien and isolated unit in a vast, strange country. Eventually she may become a member of a co-operative store.

If she does this, perhaps the most benefit to the foreign-born woman results. Her incorporation into this country may well be said to have been started when she has become an active member of an inst.i.tution which is a part of American life. The benefits are those which result to any individual from partic.i.p.ation in a going concern. Sharing responsibilities and evolving policies for a joint enterprise have educational implications that no other activity can supply.

The question, then, may be raised as to the extent to which a development of the co-operative methods in the United States may be looked to as likely to become an important educational agency in intelligent spending for the foreign housewife, enabling her to develop in her task something of a technique. As to the possibility of developing co-operative societies because the ordinary trade is wasteful, it should be recalled that the retail trade in the United States, while wasteful, is probably not less, but rather more efficient than in other countries. Moreover, in the United States there are often lacking those conditions that give rise to a sense of a permanent division of interest between those who sell and those who buy. In fact, when the foreign-language store exists, there may be a tie between shopkeeper and purchaser.

In communities in which there is an apparent division of interest between the foreign born and the native, or between two foreign groups, the national bond may grow into a social bond that for a time at least would serve as the basis for the collective action by one group against the other group. If the dealers then belong to the outside group, or if the dealers of the foreign-born group seem to betray their fellow countrymen, there may develop a movement strong enough to carry over into organization.

Among some groups, such as the Finns, the language const.i.tutes a permanent barrier for the adult members of the group, and with a skillful and intelligent leadership the co-operative undertakings may be expected to prosper for a very considerable period of time. The immigrants have probably twice as many successful co-operative stores as the native born.

In a community like a mining town, that is almost or altogether an industrial community, with no leisure cla.s.s, the pecuniary resources of all are fairly well known to all, and the temptation to spend conspicuously is therefore lacking. It will be recalled that these are the communities in which the employers have specially abused their power by forcing the employees to buy at company stores. In such communities there are always considerable numbers of competent, efficient, intelligent persons. Under a specially able leadership, a special hardship through high prices, or a condition of special exploitation, the co-operative store may be expected to develop. Then, too, a sense of ident.i.ty of interest may find its basis in trade-union membership or in membership in a special trade, as was the case with the miners in a store at Staunton, Illinois, where the union managed the store for years at a profit.

With the exception of these few bonds, however, there are lacking in most communities several elements present in the foreign experience that have undoubtedly contributed materially to the success of co-operative enterprises. There is, in the first place, the lack of stability caused by the rapid movement from group to group. The older people do not speak English; the children learn English and often do not want to speak the language of their parents. They want to be American and to buy as Americans buy. They therefore resent any organization that tends to emphasize their foreign origin.

Also no sense of cla.s.s consciousness among customers arouses antagonism against retailers. In the cities, particularly where there are large foreign colonies, the retail trade in those colonies, especially the trade in foodstuffs, is largely in the hands of fellow countrymen whose background is much the same as that of their customers. Most of the stores are small, and the proprietors, who are not skilled in modern business methods, do not make much more than a living from their stores, so that there is no great contrast in prosperity to arouse a feeling of antagonism.

On the contrary, the proprietor and his family usually live in the district--often over the store--in much the same condition as the rest of the group. They are friends of all, and by their knowledge of the group can meet certain needs and appear to serve as a connecting link between the separate group and the general community. How far the desire of the more ambitious group members to open up a shop of their own acts as a deterrent to interest in co-operation would be difficult to estimate, but it seems probable that this has some weight.

On the other hand, attention may be called to the fact that the retail trade, and especially the marketing of food, has been so slightly reduced to an art, it is still so empirically and wastefully carried on, that there are many possibilities of reasonable success of co-operatives. For a time, at least, this will be true if the undertaking is on a modest scale and does not seem worthy of attack by a relatively powerful group.

Among the obvious wastes are those connected with the transportation (cross freights), the display and salesmanship, the marketing of novelties, and the use of the indefinite measures. Besides these there are the bad debts resulting from careless credit transactions, the waste involved in deliveries of packages, the waste of the repeated purchase of articles known to be regularly needed. Wherever any group can be led to consider the wastes involved in these methods of doing business, their good sense will make them perceive easily the folly of persisting in those ways, and the practice of this minimum of self-restraint will serve as a basis for a considerable balance, out of which dividends may acc.u.mulate.

The use of the co-operative idea has, therefore, great possibilities as the basis for discussing the wastes of the present system and for deliberation as to the best or as to any possible way out. In other words, experimenting in democratic organization in obtaining the necessities of life is an important next step. As in the matter of copartnership in relation to housing, co-operative distribution may serve as a point of departure, an object lesson worthy of closer study and experimental imitation. Especially would the experience of the Women's Co-operative Guild be helpful in bringing the idea to the attention of the influential women among the various groups.

The importance of doing this cannot be overestimated. For, as has been so often suggested, the wastes of retail dealing, while probably not so great here as in some other countries, are so enormous that great economies are possible from even a slight rationalizing process.[43]

The development of a general consciousness of the nature and extent of these wastes would in itself serve as a corrective. Moreover, the experience of the co-operative enterprise may often be carried over into legislative policy, and in this way give to the community the benefit of the experiment tried by a group. Co-operators in England have both initiated and backed such social legislation as the Trade Boards Act, the provision for general maternity care under the Ministry of Health, and other measures.

FOOTNOTES:

[32] See Freund, _Police Power, Public Policy and Const.i.tutional Rights_, secs. 319-321.

[33] _Report of the United States Immigration Commission_, vol. vi, pp. 318, 319.

[34] _United States Immigration Commission Reports_, vol. vi, p. 95, "General Survey of the Bituminous Coal Mining Industry." See also pp.