THE ITALIANS
IN MILWAUKEE
WISCONSIN
GENERAL SURVEY
BY
G. LA PIANA
I9!5
THE ITALIANS
IN MILWAUKEE
WISCONSIN
GENERAL SURVEY
PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE
ASSOCIATED CHARITIES
BY
G. LA PIANA
1915
SRLF
YRL
oc/(755S5g^
INDEX
I. THE ITALIAN COLONY IN MILWAUKEE:
1. The Italian Population,
2. Occupation and Salaries, .
3. Woman and Cliild Labor, .
4. Housing,
5. Boarders,
6. Food and Household Expenses,
7. Health Conditions, ....
8. Diseases of the Children, .
9. Hospital Care, . . ; . .
10. Education,
IL Delinquency,
page 5
page 7
page 11
page 14
page 16
page 19
page 26
page 30
page 36
page 38
page 44
II. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARITIES:
12. Public Charities, ....
a. The ItaUans in Almshouses,
b. The County Poor Department,
c. Mothers' Pension,
13. Private Charities,
a. Italian Mutual Benefit Societies,
14. The Milwaukee Associated Charities in Relation to
Italians,
a. General Information, .
b. General Statistics,
c. Nativity and Province,
d. Causes of Need,
e. Aid Given,
f. Type of Cases,
g. General Occupation,
h. Years of Residence in the United States,
i. Ability to Speak English and Citizenship,
15. Appendix — The Italians on Farming,
, page 59
page 59
page 60
page 62
page 64
page 64
page 67
page 67
page 69
page 71
page 72
page 74
page 76
page 79
page 80
page 81
page 83
I.
THE ITALIAN COLONY IN MILWAUKEE
I.
THE ITALIAN POPULATION
ACCORDING to the last U. S. census for the year 1910,
the Italian population of Milwaukee numbered at that
time 4,685, of which 3,554 were born in Italy and 1,131
were born in America. The increase of the colony has been
constant in these last five years, therefore, including the large
floating element of single men, the present population of the
colony can be estimated at about 9,000.
The majority of the Italians live in the Third Ward, in
the district enclosed by Michigan Street, Broadway, the river
and the lake. Most of them originally came from Sicily. Some
of them (nearly all Sicilians), have recently moved northward,
to the point where Milwaukee, Jefferson, Jackson and Van
Buren Streets open into North Water Street, bordering the
river. Another little settlement is on the South Side, in Bay
View, composed principally of Italians from Central and South-
ern Italy. Many others are scattered through the city, and
most of them are from Tuscany or from other northern provinces
of the Italian Kingdom. The first of the settlement came over
about twenty years ago, the nucleus being a group of Sicilians
from the province of Palermo, who came here from the colony
of Chicago, and settled among the Irish in the Third Ward. Lit-
tle by little the Italians took the place of the Irish who left this
part of the district, which is now almost entirely Italian.
Among the Sicilians there are three distinct groups; the
first, which is oldest and largest, is formed by natives of the
Province of Palermo, the greater part from the villages and
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
towns scattered along the coast from Palermo to Termini, as
Porticello, Santa Flavia, Sant'Elia, Aspra, Bagheria and so on.
A second group comparatively large, comes from the
Province of Messina, especially from the towns and villages
along the coast from Tusa to Milazzo; as Santo Stefano di
Camastra, Sant'Agata di Militello, Naso, ('.apo d'Orlando, and
Milazzo.
A third group is composed of natives from the Province
of Trapani and from the little island of Marettimo. There are
a few from the Province of Girgenti, and a very small number
from the Province of Siracusa.
The Italians from the provinces of Southern and Central
Italy, came chiefly from the Puglie (Provinces of Bari, Foggia)
Abbruzzi, (Prov. Chieti and Aquila), and Campania (Prov.
Naples, Salerno and Avelline). The group of Tuscans came
almost entirely from the country between Florence and Pisa.
According to their places of origin, the Italian population of
Milwaukee would be divided as follows:
Sicilians — 65 per cent.
From South Italy — 20 per cent.
From Central and North Italy — 15 per cent.
II.
OCCUPATIONS AND SALARIES
THE majority of Italians of Milwaukee worked in the fields
in Italy, either on their own land or that which they
rented, and some worked out by the day. Those who
came from the villages and towns on the seacoast of Sicily,
were used to work in fruit gardens or vineyards, and many of
them were expert pruners, cultivators of fruit trees, or excel-
lent horticulturists. Others who came from districts of the
interior of Sicily, or from the provinces of South Italy, were
ordinarily trained to the cultivation of grain and various cereals.
They had a knowledge of sheep raising and were skilled in the
care of animals, also were good horticulturists. A great num-
ber of those coming from the towns of Sicily were fishermen,
owning a small boat or working as help in another boat, or
finally renting a boat from an owner who ordinarily had several.
They were paid by the day, regardless of profit. Still others
bought fish from the fishermen and sold it in the markets at
Palermo, Messina or neighboring districts.
A considerable number of people coming from every town
and province, and almost all from Tuscany and North Italy,
were in their own country tradesmen, as butchers, bakers,
barbers, tailors, masons, shoemakers, carpenters and drivers.
A very small percentage were professional men and the remnants,
about 10 per cent of the total, were without a definite occu-
pation.
Therefore the general affirmation that the majority of
the Italian immigrants in Milwaukee were without a definite
occupation in Italy, is untrue. The truth is that arriving in
America, many in hopes of improving their condition, or because
work along their line is difficult to find, accept the first work
that comes their way, and are generally reduced to laboring
with shovel and pick in the streets or on the railroad.
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Almost all of those who were farmers or farmworkers in
Italy, become common laborers in America and are forced to
do the hardest work in the foundries, coal yards, docks, tracks
and so on. Also many who had trades, as shoemakers, masons,
and tailors, are reduced to the same conditions; because of ig-
norance of the English language, because of the difficulty of
belonging to the Unions, and finally because of the difference
in American methods and machinery, they must begin anew
their education and meantime they work wherever they can,
to earn their bread. Therefore, in the Italian colony in Mil-
waukee, we find almost 75 per cent of socalled "common labor-
ers," and only 15 per cent are in trades or professions, while
the remaining 10 per cent is formed by those engaged as saloon
keepers, grocers, or collectors of garbage, etc. The comparison
between the occupations of the same people first in Italy and
now in America, is very interesting, and therefore we will con-
sider them in the following table:
Occupations: In Italy
Farmers or farmworkers, . . . 50. per cent
Fishermen or fishtrademen, . 25 . "
Various trades (shoemakers, masons, etc.), 20. "
Saloonkeepers, grocers, etc., . . 0.50 "
Professional men, . 02 "
Without definite occupation, . . 4.48 "
In Amei
ica
5.
pel
cent
0.05
"
10.
a
10.
«
0.02
'•
74.93
"
100. 100.
Many of these men without a definite occupation work in
foundries or steel works, especially with the AUis-Chalmers
Co., Falk Manufacturing Co., The Rolling Mills of Bay View;
some in tanneries, especially with the Pfister & Vogel Co., and
others with the electric car lines and Gas Light Company of the
city. Many work for contractors in repairing and maintaining
public roads, and a greater number on the railroads or in the
coal docks; few do special work in factories, and a small num-
ber are employed in restaurants and hotels.
The wages of all these workers amount to a maximum of
S2.00 and a minimum of SI. 50 per day; the maximum earned
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
by laborers in foundries and tanneries, who ordinarily do piece
work, and the minimum by those who labor on the streets or
railroads. Some who are employed by the city to collect
garbage, are paid S3. 00 a day, which includes the maintenance
of a horse and a wagon.
On this basis an Italian laborer would earn an average of
$600 a year; but the Italian laborer rarely works all the year;
he may calculate on not more than nine months of work under
the most favorable circumstances, and only four or five months
in hard times, therefore, the average earning of this class of
laborers is from S300 to 55400 a year. The fact that Italian
laborers do not work all the year is not an Italian peculiarity;
it is not a habit or an effect of laziness as is generally believed
in America. Laborers worked steadily all the year in Italy,
and they will do the same in America when they find work to
be done. But they do not find steady work for many rea-
sons, principally because of the kind of work they do. Italian
farmers, who do not go to work in the country, look for work
in the big industrial cities like Milwaukee. With the approach
of the winter the demand ceases in certain branches of industry
and the number of laborers is reduced. Work in the streets
and on railroads is stopped almost entirely and the first to be
sacrificed are the Italians. In the same way when work begins
again, they are the last to benefit by it. Besides this class of
workmen, which forms the bulk of the Italian colony, there is
the numerous class of other Italians, who as tradesmen or pro-
fessionals deal with those in the colony. These people are
generally in better condition than the laborers, sometimes even
prosperous, but now there are more tradesmen than the colony
requires, and even groceries and saloons do not give remarkable
profits to their owners.
There are in Milwaukee 45 groceries owned by Italians,
and 38 of them crowded into three or four streets of the Third
Ward. Many of them have one small, unsanitary room with a
few boxes of macaroni and a quantity of cans of tomatoes,
which form all their stock, besides oranges or bananas displayed
in the window. Generally women attend to the light business,
9
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
while iheir husbands are at work on the tracks or in the foun-
dries. Only three or four groceries have a large stock, and do
a good amount of business, but the system of giving large credit
to their customers, especially during periods of idleness, makes
development of their trade on a large scale impossible. Better
conditions we find among saloonkeepers, who give no credit.
In the Third Ward there are 29 Italian saloons, 12 of
which are in 4 blocks on Huron Street, and 14 are in the other
wards of the city. People engaged in other business are less
numerous, although almost every line is represented. Italian
bakeries, meat markets, shoe repairing shops, barber shops,
are operated among the Italians in the Third Ward. Very few
Italians are in business out of the colony. The only line in
which the Italian is well represented is the wholesale fruit
commission houses.
10
III.
WOMAN AND CHILD LABOR
WITH regard to this question, the conditions of the Italian
colony of Milwaukee are far better than those of many
other Italian colonies in the United States.
The greater part of the Italian women of the colony at-
tend to household duties in the home, and do not go to factories.
This is also in accord with the customs of Italian families.
A certain number take outside work into the home, gen-
erally sewing and hand embroidering for factories, but, either
because the work is scarce, or because it is poorly remunerated,
the number of women who work in this manner is very limited.
Of the 149 cases investigated, in only five families were there
women who thus contributed to the family funds, and of these
women the most highly paid, a woman who did beautiful hand
embroidery, received only $5^ per week, and the most poorly
paid was a mother with two daughters, who, for mending sacks
at 2 cents each, could not make more than $3.00 per week.
If work were more steady and better paid, a larger number of
Italian women might devote more hours per day to sewing and
embroidering, and so assist the family, especially when the
husband is out of work.
In the larger cities of Italy there are to be found clubs of
wealthy women, whose sole object is to find work of this kind
for able and needy women, with great advantage to the person
who orders the work and the one who executes it, because, by
eliminating the middleman, on one hand the buyer pays lower
prices than those in the shops, and these women workers receive
a greater compensation than that which would be paid by the
merchant. One organization of such a nature was started in
Milwaukee, but was not successful.
Most of the widows who have no small children, and most
of the girls who are over 15 years of age, work. The former
generally do hard work at general cleaning; the latter, who for
T}IE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
i the most part have attended American schools, and have thereby
become more or less Americanized, prefer working in tailor shops,
dressmaking establishments, department stores, or factories.
But here also the number is relatively limited, either because
many Sicilian families do not wish to have their daughters work
among strangers, exposed to danger, and prefer to keep them at
home, or because, as a rule, Sicilian girls marry early and at
the age of 16 or 17 have families of their ovk'n. in the factories
the girls earn from S4 to $5 a week. There are very few Italian
girls employed as servants in American homes, and these few
are without parents in iWilwaukee and are completely Ameri-
canized, so much so that they hardly speak Italian.
The law that compels children under 14 to attend school
is religiously observed here in the Italian colony, and the Tru-
ancy Department and the Juvenile Protective Association have
very little to do in the Italian colony with regard to this matter.
The only work the Italian children do is selling newspapers after
school hours, and odd jobs around the house.
The condition of the boys above 14 years of age is some-
^ what different. On quitting school they are sent to work. Al-
though in Milwaukee there are no canneries as in the East, nor
glass factories as in Pittsburgh and Sharpsburgh, which employ
children to do horrible work, still here the boys work quite hard.
/^Fortunately many of the boys, unlike their fathers, speak
/ English, and are apprenticed at some trade or specialize along
\ some other line of work. The Italian lads prefer to work as
(tailors, barbers, and the more intelligent as mechanics in the
j different factories. Of course there are cases in which, either
] through parental neglect or extreme necessity, promising
, youths are forced to do manual labor in the streets, and so be-
' come common laborers, as their fathers. Just recently a lad
of 14 was made to quit school before the close of the school year
and sent to work on the railroad tracks as water boy. The boy
is an orphan and the brother who has charge of him has a large
family to support.
At the Continuation School, so useful to teach a trade to
boys, up to now tliere have t3eeiT~no Italians, and the knowledge
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
concerning the school is negHgible in the colony. In the 149
families mentioned above, there were 52 boys or girls over 14
years of age not married, distributed among 33 families. Out
of that number only 7 girls and 16 boys were working in factories
or elsewhere. The others, mostly girls, remained at home
with their mothers.
One of the most frequent occupations of Italian boys is
to clean stables, the horses and wagons belonging to their
fathers; some go out in the morning selling fruits and vegetables
from house to house, others are employed as messenger boys
either for private individuals or stores. The earnings of these
children amount to SI and sometimes S2 per week.
i{
IV.
HOUSING
THE Third Ward in its lower part is almost on a level with
the river and the lake. Formerly it was marshland,
and even today the subsoil is a watery mass solidified
by a base of pile work. The district is near the harbor and bor-
ders the river and railway station, and is more adapted for
business houses than for dwellings. In fact, day after day
houses are disappearing to give way to big iron and concrete
factories. In ten years this section will be a distinctly business
district, and the Italians will be forced to move away. In the
meantime the owners, anticipating this change, naturally have
no desire to improve the houses, which are old, dilapidated and
insanitary, but they demand a rent according to the location,
wherein lies the value of the property.
That district should be given scientific attention by the
municipal authorities. If the housing laws were lived up to
and modified, the desired change would undoubtedly be hastened.
I The stables are numerous, often adjoining the houses, and,
especially in summer, breeding swarms of flies and insects.
Four times as many people as should be permitted, are often
crowded into a given space. Considering this, the fact is clear
that the unhygienic condition of the district, populated almost
exclusively by the Italians, is brought about not entirely through
faults of their own. The streets being the center of the traffic,
are muddy in winter and dusty in summer; here the children
play. The air is heavy and unhealthy with vapors from the
lake and river, smoke from chimneys and trains, gas from the
tanks, odors and insects from the stables, and the crowding to-
gether of a population of workmen who often have no conveni-
ences for cleanliness.
This may not excuse the lack of cleanliness, but explains
it in a measure. The majority of these Italians come from rural
14
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
districts of Sicily, where the conditions and cHmate permit
them to live in the open air and sunshine, and then being trans-
planted into quite different conditions, they find difficulty in
adapting themselves to the requirements of the life of a great
industrial center. The mistake the Italians make is crowding
together in this one district, where healthy conditions are im-
possible. However, the present statistics are not altogether
discouraging. A diligent investigation of 149 Italian families
which have appealed to the Associated Charities, and, of course,
among the poorest of the colony, reveals the following:
87 houses found in good condition of cleanliness;
19 houses found in fair condition;
28 houses found in bad condition.
In 15 cases uncleanliness v^as temporary and visitors'
work brought improvement, and only 13 are found to be habitu-
ally dirty and disorderly. The fact that 60 per cent are very
clean and only 10 per cent habitually dirty, is a commendable
record for the peasants of any nationality, especially so when
constrained to live in the execrable conditions of the Third
Ward. The rent that the Italians pay is exorbitant, consider-
ing the condition of the houses. For the above-mentioned 149
families we find the following figures:
Average
S12,00
For a laborer who earns from S45 to S50 per month in
normal times, and is without work for three or four months every
year, $12 is an exorbitant rent. On a wage of S400 a year
under the most favorable circumstances $144, a third of the
whole, is a heavy rent, for a man who must support a large fam-
ily and sometimes provide for old parents left in Italy. There-
fore, to earn more, most of the Italians adopt the plan of keeping
boarders.
15
From
More
Monthly Rent Less Than
$10 to
than
Un-
$10.00:
$15
$15
known
No. of
Families, 71
51
14
3
V.
BOARDERS
IT is necessary to consider that in the rural districts of Sicily
and Southern Italy, the custom of keeping boarders is un-
known. Generally strangers are not admitted into the fam-
ily circle; in exceptional cases hospitality is for a short period
and many precautions are taken against slander. The fact of
having boarders (which means other men in the house besides
husband, father or brothers), is something new for the Italian
women who come to America, just as it is a new experience for
men to live under the same roof with women not of their family.
This new arrangement has a strong influence on their daily life.
Finding boarders is an easy matter, as a great part of the Italian
emigration is formed of unmarried men, or those who have
left wives and children in Italy, and therefore are boarding in
other families. Considering the relative difference in size, Mil-
waukee probably has the same unhygienic, immoral, deplorable
conditions resulting from overcrowding, as found in New York
and Chicago. In the same 149 families we have found the fol-
lowing conditions:
Number of
Boarders :
With 1 or
2 Boarders
With 3
or 4
With 5
or More
Without
Boarders
Average of
149 Families
Number of
Families:
33
20
7
89
40
per cent
This is an average of the families who for various reasons
have appealed to the Associated Charities, who have small
houses and are keeping boarders not as a business, but as a help
towards paying the rent. The families with a great number
of boarders are the most prosperous among laborers and never
16
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
need assistance. Therefore, the percentage of ItaHan famihes
who keep boarders is much more than 40 per cent.
The average rent is from S2.50 to S3. 50 a month for a bed,
two or three in a room, washing (one pair of drawers a week
and a pair of sheets a month), Hght, heat and often the use of
the kitchen. The food they provide themselves, cooking and
eating it at home. There are some boarding houses in which
they pay less, even $1.50 a month, but the crowding together of
the people under most unhygienic conditions, calls for a strict
intervention of the health department.
The custom of three or four men joining together to rent
and furnish a house, as frequently the Slavs do, does not exist
among Italians in Milwaukee, nor should this plan be recom-
mended, as sanitary conditions found in such cases are deplor-
able. From this point of view a boarding house with one re--
sponsible housekeeper is better, though it may have serious
moral consequences.
The boarders may be divided into two classes:
(1) Young and unmarried —
(2) Mature age and married, but who have left wives and
children in Italy.
In a house where there is a woman and girls of twelve
years or more, boarders are always dangerous, but more so in
the second class than in the first. The reason is evident.
Young men generally adapt themselves more readily to Amer-
ican customs, learning English quickly, and becoming acquainted
with girls of other nationalities, so find outside diversion.
They rarely pay attention to the housekeeper, who is often not
very attractive, because prematurely aged with hard work and
too many children, but if there are marriageable daughters in
the house, the situation changes, and a love affair often hap-
pens which generally culminates in a marriage. But with older
and especially married men the situation has a different aspect;
usually they never learn English, or only a few words for their
work, and so never become acquainted with people of other
17
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
nationalities. This forces them to seek the companionship of
their own race, and naturally they turn to those within reach,
the wife and daughters of the man who gives them lodging.
In Sicily it is dangerous and sometimes almost impossible
for a stranger to become very intimate in any household, be-
cause jealousy and suspicion are so common among the Sicilians.
But in American cities, the necessity of life in common, their
restricted social pleasures and continual contact, make such
intimacy comparatively easy for the boarder. Men accustomed
to family life who have no outside diversion, find the temptation
difficult to resist, and there is rarely a case of a boarder whose
wife is still in Italy and who is living in a house with young
women, that has not had serious consequences; families have
been ruined and faithful wives in Italy have been abandoned.
Most of these facts remain buried in the secrecy of the
family or perhaps known to only a few friends, in order to
prevent scandal or acts of vengeance. In the Italian colony
of Milwaukee the most noteworthy case of this kind is that of
a boarder 35 years old, who had sexual relation with a girl
thought to be twelve, who became a mother. It was taken to
court, but the girl was found to be fourteen, and so they were
married. The occurrences that tend toward the breaking up
of families and the perversion of coming generations are many
more numerous than one believes, and they should claim
the attention of the associations which aim to raise the level of
social and moral conditions among the Italians of the poorest
classes, by readjusting their mode of living in America. From
this point of view that of boarders is one of the most important
and complicated problems.
18
VI.
FOOD AND HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES
IN normal times, the food of the Italian immigrants in Mil-
waukee is apparently better than that to which they were
accustomed in their country. They have meat and potatoes
more frequently, but less fruit, vegetables and cereals, which,
with macaroni and wheat bread, form the ordinary diet in the
rural districts of Sicily. Generally the families of workmen in
Sicily have meat only on Sunday, but they use eggs largely,
because almost every family in the villages has chickens. Fruit
of every kind grows abundantly in Sicily and even arid moun-
tains are cultivated by the industrious Sicilian countrymen,
with large plantations of cactus, the fruit of which ripens in
the early fall and is very delicious and nutritious. Fruit is
cheap, especially in villages far from the cities, and in the country
a bunch of ten big cactus fruit costs only a cent. Besides,
almost every family owns a little piece of land on which fruit
trees and greens are cultivated for family use. This simple
diet, accompanied by life in the open air and the vigorous work
in the fields, which is done almost entirely by hand, makes the
Sicilian peasants healthy and strong.
In Milwaukee, instead of having fruit and greens, which
are too expensive, they learn to substitute meat; but as this
also is high, they use largely potatoes, which are more satisfying
than nutritious. Macaroni, preferred to any other dish, costs
too much when seasoned with tomatoes and oil, which are
luxuries in Milwaukee for the laboring people, and they have to
be educated to cheaper methods of preparation of this material
food.
According to the diagram compiled by the Associated
Charities of Buffalo, and adapted by the Milwaukee Associated
Charities, a normal family of a wage-earner, consisting of mother,
father and six children is not able to live in reasonably decent
condition for less than S71.33 a month, as in the following table:
19
THH ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
House Rent, ....
. S 9.50
Food,
37.40
Heating,
3.50
Household Expenses,
3.13
Insurance,
1.60
Car Fare,
1 . 20
Clothing,
15.00
$71.33
Italian families spend much less than that. According
to the given table (Rent — Page 15), it would seem that they
paid more than S9.50 for average rent, but as we have observed,
those families who pay more, keep boarders, which reduces the
expense. In regard to heating, the Italians save something on
the given figure. During hard times of no work, they collect a
winter supply of wood from the old houses which are continu-
ally being torn down in the Third Ward. They make very little
use of ordinary insurance, as almost all belong to the Italian
Mutual Benefit Societies, paying fees from $12 to $15 a year.
In the last year it has been found that American Insurance
Companies have insured some Italians and their children.
Carfare is generally wanted, because of the distance to
their work, which makes that unavoidable. The cost of clothes
is also less than the figure given.
The food expenditure for a family of 8 persons, regardless
of nationality, in the above list of the Milwaukee Charities, is di-
vided as follows:
Man — Weekly Expense, .
$1.75
Woman — Weekly Expense,
1.38
Boy from 14 to 16, .
1.38
Girl from 14 to 16, .
1.21
Boy from 10 to 13, .
1.04
Boy from 6 to 8, .
.86
Boy from 2 to 5, .
.52
Nursing Child, .
.49
$8.63
weekly, and figuring a month as four weeks and two days, the
total per month is $37.40.
20
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
The "Report of the Commissioner of Labor" of 1897,
"The Italians in Chicago" gives important information and
figures on the food of the Italians in that city. Inquiries were
made in 782 families of 3,711 persons, and the estimated cost
of food for family of same size of above in that city was §7.45.
(We must remember that since this report was made, prices
have become much higher.)
The Report observed that the Italians in Chicago spent
enough for food, but either from the selection or manner of
preparation, they did not receive the nourishment necessary to
keep them well and strong. For example, they preferred pork
to beef, and often had greens in bad condition, that had been
refused by the markets. They used very little milk and butter,
but much fat, and they prepared eggs in such a way that they
lost their nutritive value, and they spent too much for beer.
"Reports were secured from 726 families as to the amount
expended for beer per day. Of this number of families 533, or
73.42 per cent, reported that they used beer and that the average
cost of beer per day per family was 11.1 cents. The average cost
of milk per day per family was but 2.7 cents."
In the Italian colony of Milwaukee, limiting our inquiry
to a hundred families of workmen who earn an average of SI. 80
a day, the evidence shows that a family of 8 persons, that is,
father, mother and six children, from 13 years down, during
normal times, spends not less than one dollar a day for food
and drink.
The following is the list of expenses for food of one typical
Italian laborer's family in Milwaukee of 8 persons:
Carried over, . . . $4 . 66
Potatoes, .... .25
Tomatoes, cheese, oil & lard, .50
Greens and Fruit, . . .30
Eggs, 22
Others, . . * . . . .15
$4.66 $6.08
Drink — Beer — Average 15 cents every day, . ... . . . 1.05
Total Weekly Expenditure, $7.13
21
Milk, weekly,
$0 . 77
Bread, weekly.
1.75
Coffee, weekly,
.20
Macaroni, weekly,
.70
Sugar, weekly,
.24
Meat, weekly.
1.00
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
This would make a daily average of SI. 02, to which must
be added a reasonable rent of 35 cents a day, items for clothing,
household utensils, etc., reaching a total expense of SI. 90 or
S2.00 daily. The supporter of that family is a garbage collector,
who earns from S3. 00 to S3. 50 daily, of which about 75 cents
daily is spent for the horse. But in many cases the average
earning, as was said above, is no more than S2.00 daily.
The 149 families on records of the Associated Charities
gave the following figures:
Families wth 1 or 2 children, .... 41
Families with 3 or 4 children, .... 65
Families with more than 5 children, ... 38
Total nimiber of children, 582; Average per family, 3.25 cliildren
each.
For families of this size the daily expense for food is from
75 cents to 80 cents, and the total expenditure from SI. 15 to
SI. 25. This explains how some families of w^orkmen in Mil-
waukee, earning from S45 to S55 monthly, not only live, but
save from SIO to 820, when there are debts to be paid that were
contracted during the months of no work. In the last years
the suffering has unfortunately been more constant because of
the long months of no work and frequent sickness, generally
caused by insufficient nourishment during these periods of
idleness. It is impossible to give any figures on the feeding of
families in these cases, because it depends upon the circumstances
and it is generally reduced to an almost unbelievable minimum.
It is impossible to give figures on the expenses for food of the
single men who are boarded in families. Generally they spend
only a few cents a day for eating", and their average of total ex-
penditure may be considered from SIO to S15 monthly, includ-
ing S3. 00 for lodging.
Food given .by the County Poor Department of Milwaukee
during the winter has been of great help to the poor Italian fam-
ilies, but some of the food is not palatable to them, especially to
the families which came from South Italy. With the flour they
make macaroni and bread, but as the flour is not a fine quality,
22
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
the bread is dark and sour, and is unwillingly eaten, especially
by children. When they can afford it, the women mix in a little
flour of better quality, making the bread softer. Oatmeal and
cornmeal are also eaten unwillingly because they have not used
these foods in their country. Visitors and housekeepers from
institutions of social welfare, always have difficulty in persuad-
ing the mothers of Sicilian families to use such food for their
children. In Sicily corn is scarcely cultivated. The soil is
better adapted to wheat growing and generally people believe
that corn contains no nourishment and is good only for poultry.
It is hard to convince these mothers of the contrary, and chil-
dren really do not like it, perhaps because it is not well prepared.
The use of corn is largely spread among the provinces of
North and Central Italy. They make with corn flour a special
dish called "polenta" — corn flour boiled in water and seasoned
with olive oil or lard, and with different kinds of sauce or meat.
In Sicilian provinces, beer is an unknown drink among
workmen. Instead they use the good strong wine of Sicilian
vineyards, which is rather cheap and very abundant. In the
same way, strong alcoholic liquors, as gin, rum, and so on, are
completely unknown in Sicily. Such drinks are used by work-
men of North Italy and especially in the big cities like Milan
and Turin. That explains the fact that Sicilian workmen in
Milwaukee do not use liquor and seldom get drunk. They
drink enough beer with their meals as a substitute for the wine
which they can not afford here. A bottle of wine is a luxury
for special occasions like christening or other feasts.
A few Italians who become intoxicated can be found
among saloonkeepers and among young people who have been
accustomed from boyhood to American life and live almost
entirely with workmen of other nationalities. In fact, among
thousands of cases of drunkenness brought to the courts, there
are very few Italians, as we will show better in the following
chapter on "Delinquency."
Tea is also a drink to which the Sicilians are not ac-
customed, and it is almost useless to give it to them, as they
do not care for it and prefer coft'ee, of which they are fond. In
23
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
hard times a little bread soaked in coffee makes the breakfast
of the family, but in normal times more or less milk is added.
Generally it is believed that Italian mothers furnish too little
milk to their children. The said Report, "The Italians in Chi-
cago," observes: "Milk is used in very small quantities. The
question, do you give your children milk is usually answered
in the affirmative by the Italian mother, but further inquiries
bring out the information that she buys only about 3 cents
worth per day and gives it to the children with coffee."
90 per cent of the poor families who call at the Associated
Charities ask for milk for the children.
Families have their most important meal in the evening
on returning from work. It consists of macaroni with tomatoes,
or soup with vegetables, a little meat two or three times a week,
potatoes, and from time to time greens cooked in various ways,
preferably seasoned with olive oil, or raw with oil and vinegar.
The use of peppers is general among the Italians of the Central
Provinces, but rare among the Sicilians. The children soon
become accustomed to the food of the family and drink beer at
an early age. Eggs are rarely used by the poor families in Mil-
waukee, as the majority in Sicily kept their own chickens and
had eggs exceptionally fresh. In Milwaukee the price is higher
and rather than have them not fresh, they do not use them.
The use of butter and cream is very rare and this may be the
reason that the Sicilian women are considered deficient cooks
by the Americans. This may be true in regard to American
dishes, but generally their native dishes are excellently prepared.
In normal times, the food of the Italians in Milwaukee is whole-
some, although not always suited to the climate and conditions
of life.
However, there are some cases in which the nourishment
of the Italian families becomes deficient in quality. This comes
from an obvious reason. Families of the Italian workmen buy
their provisions from Italian groceries, because the women who
purchase, seldom know any language but their own dialect,
and also at the Italian groceries they are given credit when they
are unable to pay cash. Some of the groceries in the Third
24
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Ward are fairly well supplied, but some have a limited stock of
goods and are not run in a very favorable, sanitary way. The
customers of these stores have little to choose from and must
be satisfied with that which they fmd, and even if they can af-
ford to pay cash, they would not go elsewhere, either out of grati-
tude for the credit given in the past or because of the possibility
of a need in the future. They are therefore obliged to accept
the goods, in whatever condition they fmd them.
Vll.
HEALTH CONDITIONS
JUDGING from the ofHcial report of the Health Department
of the city, the health conditions of the Italian colony seems
to be good, even better than those of some other districts.
The Bulletin of the Health Department of April, 1915, gave
2,032 cases of tuberculosis in the city, which is about 5 per
thousand of the whole population.
Of this number, in the records of the tuberculosis depart-
ment, can be found only 13 cases among Italians, which gives a
percentage of about lyi per thousand of the whole. Italian
population calculated at 9,000.
However, tuberculosis is more widely spread in the Third
Ward than is shown in official reports. This is due to the fact
that in the majority of cases, as soon as the doctor shows that
he suspects tuberculosis, and even before the diagnosis is cer-
tain, the sick ones hurry to leave the city. Some of them fear
to be listed at the T. B. Department, feeling certain unreason-
able shame, as though tuberculosis might disgrace the whole
family. They believe that in returning to Italy they can re-
cover their health more easily, and this is quite true. Some
others go to Galifornia where the climate is more temperate
and more like that of Sicily. In many cases those who have
not the money to pay the expenses of the trip to Italy, take up
a collection among friends, or in the colony; or they resort to
the Consular Agent, to take advantage of the help which the
Italian Government allows the emigrants, who need to be taken
home, so that they may not be an expense to public charity.
The cases that figure in the statistics of the Health Depart-
ment are the few whose condition is too serious to enable them
to travel, or those who have no relatives in Italy and are defi-
nitely settled in America. This custom of returning to Italy
explains also the fact that the mortality among the Italians
26
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
is much lower than among those of other nationaHties. It is
also to be noted that 75% of the cases of tuberculosis among
Italians are children or young people born or grown up in
America. The others are adult people with five or four years
residence, and the larger number are women. The most com-
mon fatal disease among Italians is pneumonia, but the most
frequent complaint is rheumatism.
In the 149 families examined we have found 86 cases of
diseases distributed as in the fol!o\\'ino; table:
Tuberculosis or suspected,
Rheumatism,
Stomach Trouble,
Typhoid Fever,
Heart Trouble, .
Insanity,
Venereal Diseases,
Pneumonia,
Various,
18
12
7
6
2
3
5
5
28
Of these 86 cases, 81 were acquired in America and only 5
imported from Italy, which were 3 cases of syphilis, which de-
veloped into cerebral paralysis, and 2 cases of malarial fever.
The causes of diseases in the Italian colony of Milwaukee are
principally:
a) The difference in climate from that of Sicily.
b) Occupations involving exposure to irritating dusts, poison-
ous fumes and vapors, excessive humidity, intense heat,
and so on.
c) The frequent periods of idleness which necessitate defi-
cient nourishment.
d) The unhygienic conditions of the district and the excessive
overcrowding of the houses.
e) The lack of prophylaxis in contagious diseases.
(a) Climate: In Southern Italy stoves are not used,
and in the mountain countries only during the coldest days of
27
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
winter, when fires are lighted in movable braziers to heat the
houses. Therefore the women of the colony have no experience
in methods of heating common to America. In the majority
of cases of the Italian workmen in Milwaukee, a wood or coal
stove in the kitchen is the only source of warmth; the other
rooms are heated only at night before going to bed. During
the day the family life centers in the kitchen, which is often too
small and in bad hygienic condition. The men too often un-
employed during the winter, gather in groups of three or four
and sometimes more, to chat and play cards around the stove.
The Italians are not accustomed to staying indoors, and go in
and out continually to the nearby saloons or houses of friends,
from the warmth of the house to the cold of the streets without
putting on heavy wraps. Pneumonia, rheumatism and tuber-
culosis are developed.
(b) Work: In the foundries the Italians cannot en-
dure long; rarely can they work more than nine or ten years
under the best conditions, without completely ruining their
health. Those who work at furnaces are exhausted more
easily. Work in tanneries is relatively less tiresome, where some
are employed to fix skins on frames for drying, but the poison-
ous vapors which emanate from the materials are very bad for
their lungs. It is to be considered once more that most of them
were country men and used to work in open air and sunshine.
Their present life in shops and factories, being entirely in oppo-
sition to the surroundings in which they grew up and developed
in their native land, they are more exposed to diseases from
unhealthy work, than others who come from families of genera-
tions of shop workmen.
(c) Malnutrition: This is the cause generally given
by Americans for the diseases and bad physical conditions of
the Italians, but it is usual only during their long periods of
unemployment.
(d) Overcrowding: Another important cause of dis-
ease is the unhygienic condition of the houses and the excessive
crowding of which we have already spoken, and which, in addi-
tion to the lack of prophylaxis, helps to spread infectious dis-
28
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
eases. Undoubtedly the lack of such proper precautions is due
to ignorance and it must not be forgotten that a large number
of the Italians in the colony come of the peasant class of the
poorest villages of Sicily, in which schools have been established
only a few years. Many of these people have no idea what
infection is and cannot believe that diseases are brought by germs.
Among old women there are those who believe that diseases are
produced by the evil influence of some person of extraordinary
power. Such beliefs often cause unfortunate consequences, as
such superstitious persons think that one glance or one touch of
the hand of one who wishes to harm you is sufficient to produce
a sickness which no doctor nor medicine can cure. In these
cases another person is called in, who possesses superior power
and who is stronger than the one who did the harm. Naturally
there are always people who speculate on these superstitions of
the old people, and make them believe they possess such power,
thereby acquiring not only a good trade, but also complete con-
trol over the simple.
In Italy such mystification is severely punished by law,
and these superstitious practices survive only in the villages far
away from the cities, and only among older people who did not
go to school.
29
Vlll.
DISEASES OF THE CHILDREN
THE Report of Italians in Chicago said that rickets, a dis-
ease due to malnutrition, is exceedingly prevalent among
the children of Italian working people. And the same
belief is widely spread in Milwaukee about the Italian children.
Our inquiry on this point gave us the following facts:
The disease most prevalent among the Italian children
of the Third Ward is enteritis in its various forms and compli-
cations. The Italian doctor who offered his services in the dis-
pensary for children placed in the Detroit Street School, calcu-
lated that 75% of the nursing babies examined by him were
sick with enteritis and that the fact was due to careless feeding.
In Sicily in the country districts, artificial feeding of babies is
rarely used, only in cases of absolute necessity; but the Italian
women in Milwaukee frequently substitute the bottle for the
natural nourishment. Sometimes they do this because they
themselves are undernourished, during the several months of
the year when their husbands are idle. Unfortunately, most
of the mothers have not learned how to prepare the artificial
food properly, and give the babies solids, earlier than is wise.
It is a fact that the Italian children of many families that were
born and brought up in America, have not the fine physical
development of their parents, who still bear traces of beauty in
spite of a life full of hard toil and privation. However, in com-
parison with the children of other nationalities, Italian children
are found in good condition. The table published by the "Re-
port of the Medical Department of the Schools" of Milwaukee,
for the year ending June, 1913, offers us valuable material on
the health and hygiene of the Italian children who attend the
school. The majority of those children are found in the Detroit
Street School, which is in the center of the Italian district. In
the Jefferson Street School there are several classes of Italian
30
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
children, because the Detroit Street School had no place for
them.
In the Detroit Street School there is a total of 1,025
scholars, of which 1,002 were Italians, 98% of the total; there-
fore we may consider the school as composed entirely of Italians.
The total number of schools in Milwaukee in the said year was
63, with 49,205 pupils. From the Report we have the follow-
ing figures on contagious diseases:
31
THF ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
o
3G
1253
128
31st
St. School
12th
Con-
tagious
Contact
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^ o § .= ^ O •= 2
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THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
From these figures one sees there are in Milwaukee, dis-
tricts in which infectious diseases are more prevalent than among
the Italians, and evidently there are people in worse condition
than those in the Third Ward, even though the Detroit Street
School is one of the oldest in the city and not constructed with
the improvements demanded by new methods. Not less im-
portant is the comparison between the Detroit Street School
and the others on eye and skin diseases.
33
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
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34
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
The condition presented by the ItaHan children of the
Detroit Street School is much better in regard to physical de-
fects and non-contaeious diseases.
Detroit
Other
Street
Schools
Italian
Diseases:
School
Total
of All
Percentage
Hyper. Tonsils, ....
12
3,604
0.33 per 100
Adenoids, .
6
322
1.75
Defect. Nasal Breathing,
426
0.00
Defect. Palate, .
37
0.00
Defective Teeth,
9
11,798
0.08
Myopia,
3
1,798
0.16
Hypermotropia, .
19
0.00
Other Eye Defects,
1
134
0.75
Defective Hearing,
1
64
1.56
Orthopedic Spine,
49 1
31 1*
Orthopedic Trvuik,
1
0.90
Orthopedic Extremities,
33J
Enlarged Lymph. Nodes,
2
1,857
0.11
Pulmonary Diseases,
39
0.00
Cardiac Diseases,
95
0.00
Nervous,
89
0.00
Chorea,
14
0.00
Epilepsy,
Goiter,
6
33
0.00
0.00
Stammer,
17
0.00
Totals, ....
35
20,465
0.17
It seems from this table that Italian children resist disease
very well, perhaps better than children of other nationalities.
35
IX.
HOSPITAL CARE
IT is generally found that Italians are very unwilling to be
taken to American hospitals. Many times they prefer to
suffer and die in their own homes without means for being
properly treated and putting themselves to great expense, even
refusing free treatment at the hospitals. Apropos of this aver-
sion, the Report, "The Italians in Chicago," states that the
cause of this is that the Italians cannot adapt themselves to
the radical change of food to which they are subjected in going
from their homes to the hospitals.
However, there are other reasons equally or perhaps
more strong and more interesting that combine to create this
antipathy to hospitals and sanatoriums managed by Ameri-
cans. The hospitals in Italy are very ancient, the oldest that
history records, and have always been of a charitable character,
caring only for those people who are miserable and destitute.
In the minds of the people, at least in many regions of Italy,
they still exist for this purpose. In the towns and villages the
medical service is the responsibility and at the expense of the
municipality, which maintains one or more doctors who are
obliged to visit the sick, poor people in their homes without any
obligatory fee. From this it may be seen that only the poorest
people, those who are not even able to buy medicines and neces-
sary food, are taken to hospitals. To go to a hospital for such
a reason is regarded as a disgrace, being a confession of com-
plete destitution. To go to the hospital for operations or
treatments which would be impossible at home, is common in
Italy but only among the poorest classes. (Also, it is common
in large cities among the rich, but for them there are, as every-
where, private rooms.) When these facts are known, it is easy
to understand that Italian laborers in Milwaukee, who come from
rural villages of Sicily, have a prejudice against hospitals in
36
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
general, but their aversion is stronger against American hos-
pitals in particular, because it often happens that these working-
men do not know one word of the English language with which
to explain their needs; the encouragement of the doctor and
nurses is a great help and comfort, and often more valuable
than the medicine. All of this is lacking to the poor Italian
laborer in an American hospital. At times the effort to make
other people understand makes the sick one nervous and he suffers
physically and mentally. It is this feeling of dismay and spirit-
ual isolation that frightens the Italian. No wonder he prefers
to stay home where his wife and children are always near to
encourage him and keep his spirits up. Those who observe
case after case, notice in fact that those who refuse to go to the
hospitals are precisely those who cannot speak English or those
who have had one experience there.
In the 149 families studied we found 9 cases of sickness
in which hospital care was absolutely refused, and of them in
3 cases the sick person knew little English, and in 6 cases they
had been taken to the hospital before.
In a total of 86 cases of diseases, 25 accepted the hospitals'
free treatment; 14 were in the pay section; 12 were treated at
the free dispensaries; 35 at home.
To overcome the aversion to the American hospitals among
the Italian workingmen, a certain modification in the diet would
be necessary as suggested by Wight, and also an Italian nurse,
and possibly an Italian doctor to deal with the Italian cases.
X.
EDUCATION
WE have said that Italian children attend the School at
Detroit Street, where the 98 per cent of all the pupils
are Italians. In the report of the School Board
of Milwaukee, for the year ending June 31, 1913, we find the
following figures of the enrollment in the said school:
Number of
Number of
Grade :
Pupils
Grade:
Pupils
Enrolled
Enrolled
Eighth Grade,
22
Seventh Grade, .
22
Sixth Grade,
556
Fifth Grade,
87
Fourth Grade,
128
Third Grade, .
115
Second Grade, .
105
First Grade,
144
Ungraded, .
26
Kindergarten,
114
The total of enrolled pupils was 1,091. This number
increased in the following two years and as the school building
at Detroit Street was too small for such numbers of children,
four classes of the highest grades were removed to the school
building on Jefferson Street. Besides, many Italian children
were scattered in the other schools of the city near the residences
of their parents. Their number can be calculated at about 200.
In all, we have about 1,450 Italian children attending the city
public schools in grammar and primary grades, classes and
kindergartens. In regard to the attendance the Report gives
us the following figures:
Total Pupils Enrolled,
Average Daily Membership,
Average Daily Attendance,
Cases of Truancy,
1,091
939
984
29
38
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
In the cases of truancy, the most common reason for the
non-attendance of the children was poverty, and especially in
winter time the need of shoes and clothing; in a few cases the
fault was the parents' and especially the mothers', who, being
extraordinarily busy, or for some other reason forced their
children (in these cases little girls) to stay home and take care
of the family babies.
Only in two or three cases the Truancy office had to deal
with children whose non-attendance was caused by parents'
negligence. In comparison with schools of other districts, the
Detroit Street School does not present an excessive number of
truancy cases, as the Report shows:
School :
Number of
Pupils
Enrolled
Daily
Attendance
Truancy
Cases
1.
Ninth Street School,
1237
953
74
2.
Eighth Street School, .
859
533
64
3.
Fifth Avenue School,
1079
750
43
4.
Hanover Street School, .
1391
1127
36
5.
North Pierce Street School, .
946
694
33
6.
Fourth Street School, .
987
703
29
7.
Detroit Street School, .
1091
894
29
The other schools give a number of cases less than 29 each.
It is to be noted that the Italian children frequent only the
public schools. Though almost all Italian families are Catholic,
they do not send their children to the Catholic Parochial Schools,
as Catholic Irish and Germans do. Some attempts to have
them send their children to the private sectarian schools failed.
In Italy there are neither Parochial Schools, nor Sectarian
education for children of the lower classes; therefore, the
Italian families in Milwaukee trust public schools more fully
than the others, and prefer to have their children educated
under the control of the city rather than the church. This
39
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
explains the fact that the Italian children are Americanized
more rapidly than children of other nationalities, for example,
Polish children who attend the Parochial Polish schools, where
not only they learn the Polish language, but they breathe Polish
spirit and ideas through the Polish environment.
Another reason which makes Italian families in Milwaukee
prefer public to private schools is the opportunity given to De-
troit Street pupils to learn the Italian language. This wise
provision of the Milwaukee School Board makes the public
schools more useful and sympathetic to the Italian families.
It is very frequently the case that Italian parents speaking
nothing but their native dialect and living always in close con-
nection with Italian speaking neighborhoods, never learn the
English language. On the other hand the Italian children at-
tending school, most of the day, and after school playing on the
streets or selling papers on the city corners, do not have any
practice in the Italian language and easily forget the few words
they knew, and the time arrives when the parents and children
are unable to understand each other. Such a state of affairs
could be only a serious menace to the cohesion and the normal
development of those families. Teaching the Italian language
in the public school is therefore an efficacious measure against
this danger and at the same time secures the attendance of the
Italian children at the said school, hastening their Americaniza-
tion and through them the Americanization of their parents.
The number of Italian children attending the high schools
is very small now; it will increase as soon as economic condi-
tions improve and Italians are not obliged to send their children
to work as soon as they reach the legal age, in order to support
themselves or to help the family.
Various are the judgments of teachers concerning the
average development of mind of Italian children and their
attitude toward learning. Those given by several Mil-
waukee teachers who have had long experience with
Italian children would indicate that they are generally intelli-
gent and quite proficient in their school work. However,
several teachers observed that most Italian children are very
40
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
thorough in the mechanical part of their work, while they are
rather slow at those things which require continued thought.
The same teachers believed that the cause of such slowness in
thinking lies in the fact that they have no generations of trained
minds back of them.
Other teachers disagree and emphasize the promptness
of these children in grasping ideas which are suggested by teach-
ers and in putting them together in their composition work.
During fourteen years of my teaching in Italy, among
children of South Italy, I found such slowness an exception.
Furthermore, Italian teachers who have had experience in teach-
ing both children of North and South Italy, constantly remark
that South Italian children are generally quicker mentally than
their brothers of the North. Therefore, if Italian children of
Milwaukee, who are usually from the South Italian families,
show that characteristic of slowness of mind, there must be some
peculiar reason which produces it.
The one given, the lack of generations of trained minds
back of them, is not conclusive. Besides, the fact that the
general scientific value and importance of that theory today is
very small, we must observe that it is hard to apply such a theory
to the Sicilian people, even to peasants, considering the his-
torical background of people and their coming from a mixture
of diflferent races.*
The childrens' slowness of perception is frequently due to
the difficulty with language. Many Italian pupils are deficient
in English. This means that while they know practical English
and speak as fluently as other children, they are deficient in
grammar and syntax. This deficiency less apparent in the lower
*NOTE: Apropos of tho.-5e racial mixtures, one of the interviewed teachers
pointed out that some peculiar characteristics of the Sicilian children
are to be attributed to tlie negro blood they are supposed to have in
their veins. The ignorance of Sicilian history may make many Amer-
icans hold those convictions, confounding the Arabs and Saracens who
ruled Sicil}' for more than two centuries, with the negro races of Africa;
Arabs, far from being negroes, were the purest representatives of the
Semitic race. Sicilians and South Italians as a race have no negro blood
in their veins, and to say the contrary is a great mistake.
41
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
grades, becomes the great handicap of these children in high
grades when they begin composition work.
For a teacher who does not realize the efforts of these
children during the period of transforming their mental habits,
their thoughts, their language, to which the American schools
submit them, it is easy to misunderstand.
(Concerning the attitude of Italian children toward learn-
ing one of the Milwaukee teachers expressed herself in the fol-
lowing words:
"Italian children do not resist teaching any more than all
children do. In the majority of cases the children seem to lack
the desire to stick to school. 1 was about to say that they seem
too well content with their condition, but that is the fault of
the parents; and if these parents have hundreds of years of
people back of them who have lived in a hot country, as doubt-
less they have, I should say that the children are doing well.
As to their discipline I should say that they are suspicious of
any one who tries to govern them by reasoning with them.
I believe that they are not accustomed to it. From what they
tell me, they get 'hit' at home for any offense or misdemeanor.
I feel certain that if they were reasoned with at home and at
school from the Kindergarten on, they would be easy to man-
age."
Just how much influence the climate of America may have
upon children whose forefathers lived for hundreds of years in
the hot climate of Sicily, is of course problematical. The lack
of desire to improve their condition, cannot be given as a general
or even as a very frequent feeling among Italian children in the
colony. If you ask as I did, a hundred Italian children if they
would prefer to be Americans rather than Italians, ninety-five
per cent will answer that they would prefer to be Americans.
It is natural for them to do so, because they do not know any-
thing about Italy, but the poverty and hard work of their par-
ents and of the other families in the colony, in comparison with
the comfortable life of y\merican well-to-do people. In their
unconscious shame in being Italian, there is a strong desire to
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
improve themselves and to climb to a higher grade in their
social life.
The fact that there are some children who (though eager
to improve upon the position of their fathers), dislike the school,
is a problem more of methods and teachers, than a physiological
one.
Furthermore, this question is closely connected with the
discipline in the school. Italian children, especially Sicilians,
are very sensible to kindness and love, but they become at once
diffident and suspicious if they feel that people dealing with
them are unemotional and contemptuous.
Their intuition is very keen in regard to this, and being
also very impulsive, they cannot be mastered by fear. They
are easy to manage if people understand them and show a true
interest in them.
43
XI
DELINQUENCY
THE principal charge against the ItaHans of Milwaukee,
which is also the principal charge brought against all the
Italians in America, is that of contributing largely to
the delinquent and criminal element. Maybe in this regard
there is exaggeration. The available statistics from the Annual
Reports of the Chief of Police and others that we have been
able to gather, give us an idea of the situation. We shall limit
ourselves to the years 1910-1913, which period is suificient to
establish a basis.
ITALIANS ARRESTED
Years.
Total No. of
Persons
Arrested
Italians
Arrested
Percentage
Italians
Arrested
Total
Number
Discharged
Percentage
of
Discharged
1910..
1911..
1912..
1913..
8,827
9,145
8,972
9,892
119
134
174
193
1.35%
1.47%
1.94%
1.95%
828
759
849
762
9.40%
8.30%
9.50%
7.70%
Total.
36,836
620
1.67%
3,198
8.68%
In order to form an idea of the value of these percentages,
as compared with those given of citizens of other nationalities,
we transcribe herewith the entire statistics given in the Report
of the Chief of Police for the vear 1913.
44
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
NATIVITY OF PERSONS ARRESTED.
YEAR 1913
REPORT FOR THE
Number
Nationality :
Arrested
Percentage
Discharged
United States, ....
5,809
58.72
f Figures by
German,
1,079
10.91
< Nationalities
Austria-Hungary, ....
842
8.51
[not given.
Poland,
686
6.93
Average
Russia,
595
6.02
8.68 per
Italy,
193
1.95
cent in
Greece,
144
1.46
1910-1913
Ireland,
131
1.32
fand 7.70
England-Scotland,
111
1.12
i per cent in
Canada,
57
0.58
[1913
Norway,
57
0.58
All other countries,
188
1.90
Totals,
9,892
100.
From this table one would deduce that the percentage
number of arrests contributed by the Italians is not very high,
either considered alone or considered in relation to that of other
nationalities, and that the percentage of deliquency to the
Italian population is not dis-proportionate.
One must keep in mind that the number of arrests does
not represent the number of crimes committed, nor the viola-
tions of ordinances and laws. The Italians enjoy the well de-
served reputation of hiding their crimes with great skill, man-
aging to elude the police. This, of course, leads one to conclude
that the percentage of offences given ought to be greater, in
order to have the figures near the truth. The Police Reports
do not show the number of crimes of which the perpetrators
remain unknown, and therefore no approximate number can be
given. But, whenever the perpetrator of a crime was unknown,
one or more persons were arrested on suspicion, and these ar-
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
rests are counted in the statistics. Tiie importance of these
crimes is not due to the number, but to their nature, as we shall
see.
Unfortunately the said Reports of the Police Department,
speaking of the causes of the arrests, do not mention the nation-
ality of the offenders, but, after careful search, we have been
able to gather the following approximate figures:
Per-
Classification of Arrests
1910
1911
1912
1913
Total
Ital-
ians
cent-
age
Abandoning familj',
Assault and battery,
320
257
342
245
1164
730
768
711
795
1 ....
Assault with intent to do
great bodily harm,
19
37
32
22
[ 3183
18
0.59
Assault with intent to kill,
19
20
14
16
Burglary ....
99
144
112
108
463
4
0.64
Carrj'ing concealed weap-
ons, ....
76
112
64
103
355
165
48.50
Common drunkard,
137
110
108
142
497
Contributing to delin-
quency of child, .
Cruelty to animals,
28
17
45
1
2.22
38
18
23
14
93
1
1.07
Disorderly conduct,
1966
1940
1635
1926
7467
109
1.19
Drunkenness, .
1021
999
1047
1000
4067
3
0.07
Drunk and disorder!}-, .
1948
1821
1789
1982
7540
21
0.027
Embezzlement,
66
58
59
45
228
Forgery and fraudulent
bank checks,
49
96
50
92
58
90
78
109
235
Fugitive, ....
Indecent exposure,
387
36
35
31
27
129
2
1 .55
Inmates or keeping dis-
orderly houses, .
113
132
99
357
701
6
0.85
Larceny, ....
375
329
361
333
1398
15
1.07
Murder, ....
14
11
8
10
43
12
27.95
Threatening to kill,
32
27
28
19
106
12
11.33
Vagrancy,
480
566
626
705
2377
36
1.09
Violating city ordinances.
602
731
626
913
2872
174
6.89
Wilful destruction of
property,
34
38
30
2S
130
2
1.53
Al! other cases, . .
551
875
1106
913
3445
39
1.10
Totals,
8,821
9,170
9,027
9,907
36,925
620
1.68
46
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
From this table we can draw many interesting conclusions.
The largest percentage of arrested Italians is on charges of
murder, threatening to kill, and carrying concealed weapons.
With some very peculiar exceptions all the acts of violence were
prepetrated by Italians on persons of their own nationality,
and all the 11 persons murdered presumably by Italians in Mil-
waukee from 1910 to 1913, were also Italians. Only a few cases
of assault are to be found, which were perpetrated by Italians
on people of other nationalities.
These are the statistics of Italian murders in Milwaukee
from 1910 to 1913:
ITALIAN iMURDERS
Murdered
— Slayer —
Year:
Men
Women
Unknown
Sentenced
Discharged
1910,
2
1
1
1911,
1
1
1912,
3
2
1
1913,
4
1
2
2
Totals, .
10
1
6
2
2
Only two of these murders can be characterized as "pas-
sional crimes" for love affairs. One was committed in assault
for robbery. We do not know the cause of the others, because
the slayers remained unknown, but probably they were acts of
vengeance for real or fancied wrongs. One receives the im-
pression that several of them may be linked together as differ-
ent acts in the same drama, it is not easy to form a fair judg-
ment of such acts, but it seems evident that the colony has had
to pass through an internal crisis which manifested itself extern-
ally and ended in a sanguinary manner. This would also ex-
plain why a great part of these crimes (those which are linked
together), remain wrapped in mystery.
it is also to be noted that several of the murdered persons
did not enjoy a very good reputation among Italians, and that
47
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
their disappearance from life was not at all regretted in the
colony. This kind of Italian crime generally is not dangerous
to people of other nationalities.
CONCEALED WEAPONS
Carrying concealed weapons is the cause of most Italian
arrests. This is a relic of the brigandage in South Italy, when
every citizen was obliged to carry weapons for his protection.
The brigandage has almost entirely disappeared in those pro-
vinces, but the habit of carrying weapons is even now one of
the most frequent causes of crime in Sicily. Very often young
men carry weapons without any reason and only to feel strong
and proud.
CITY ORDINANCES
A great number of Italian laborers have been arrested
for violating city ordinances. Most of them for ignorance,
not for disregard of the lav/s, and in this regard it is to be noted
that frequently proceedings of the policemen in such cases are
very deplorable and produce complications and serious dis-
orders.
A Case: Two Italians with two wagons were moving
furniture. The house was in the middle of the block, and the
Italians did not drive to the corner and back, keeping to the
right as is required, but stopped directly at the door. A police-
man from the next corner asked the names of both and went
away. When the wagons were half unloaded, he came back
with four other policemen and arrested the Italians, leaving
wagons, horses and furniture on the street without a watchman.
In the evening a friend of the men paid bail of S30.00 and they
were released. They found their wagons, horses and furniture
still on the street. The men were terribly angry at the police-
man, and while recognizing their mistake, they could not under-
stand, as nobody could, the manner and method of the officers.
Matters of this kind which happen very frequently do not tend
to make Italian laborers sympathetic with policemen; on the
48
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
contrary, they make stronger the feeling of suspicion toward
the agents of the law, and corroborate the belief that law is not
for the good, but for the oppression of the poor. Many wrongs,
and perhaps many crimes, could be avoided if American police-
men were willing to adopt more reasonable and intelligent
methods with Italian laborers, especially when violations of
law are due to ignorance, rather than to deliberate ill will.
ABANDONA1ENT
Not an Italian case of abandonment has been brought to
the court in four years, and only a few cases are known in the
colony of men who have abandoned wives living in Italy, it
is comfortable to realize from this fact that Italians have a strong
sense of duty towards their families.
DRUNKENNESS
The number of arrests for "drunkenness" or "drunk and
disorderly" is very small, and many of these were young people
grown up in America, and some born here of Italian families.
Among Italians of the second generation, there is to be found a
larger number of drunkards than among their fathers, though
the standard of their living is higher and their education more
advanced.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
With regard to juvenile delinquency, the Italians contri-
bute very little; in fact, during one year, out of more than two
thousand delinquent children brought before the Juvenile Court,
only twelve boys and one girl were Italians. Ten boys whose
ages ranged from 9 to 18, were guilty of having stolen a little
coal from the tracks; they were given a good lecture and were
put on probation; one of the other two delinquent boys soon
showed that he had mended his ways; the other continued to
commit thefts of all kinds, and was repeatedly brought into
court, and put under very rigorous surveillance.
In four years only one girl was brought into court on the
charge of disorderly conduct, and she was more a victim of the
brutality of a boarder than guilty of immorality.
49
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
FEMALE CRIMES
Crimes among the females in the colony were found in
two important cases; the case of a wife, who strangled her
husband, and was sentenced to life imprisonment; and the case
of a girl of 20, who shot and slightly wounded a man, who was
really a bad character, and, according to her contention, had
tried to extort money from her family with threats of violence.
She was found guilty of assault and was sentenced to serve 90
days in the County Jail.
PROSTITUTION
The Report of the Wisconsin Vice Commission of 1914,
contains a table of 60 cases of prostitution, which are given as
typical and which have been verified by an investigation com-
mittee whose work included not only Milwaukee, but all the larger
cities of Wisconsin. In this table of 60 cases there were only
2 Italians, against 14 Irish, 11 Germans, 10 colored, 4 Amer-
icans, 4 Polish, 3 French, 3 Jewish, 1 English, 1 Scotch, and 7
others. This table does not purport to give statistics, but taking
into consideration the accuracy with which it is compiled, and
the fact of its cases being typical, it may serve as an approximate
basis for statistics. Taking these figures then as an average for
Wisconsin, one can be very certain that the Italian feminine
element contributes much less to prostitution than does that
of any other nationality.
EXPLOITATION
Besides the offenses which fall under the purview of the
penal code, there exists a kind of abuse which escapes the law,
but which is none the less pernicious to the moral and economic
life of the colony, namely that of exploitation. One of the most
common sources of this exploitation lies in the distribution of
jobs. There are a number of persons making a comfortable
living from this industry, and they have succeeded in monopoliz-
ing the granting of a certain kind of job among the Italians.
50
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Another kind of exploitation is that practiced against one
who has violated in any way the penal code, and is brought into
court. An illiterate Italian, who did not know a single word
of English, was arrested not long ago, for violating one of the
city ordinances. During the night, a cousin who came to know
of the arrest, went to the police station and bailed the man out.
In the meantime someone without even notifying or consutling
the prisoner, had ordered a lawyer, to appear for him. The
day after, when the case was called in court, this lawyer ap-
peared for the prisoner, who did not understand what was going
on, and did not know that he had a lawyer. The poor Italian
went to a friend to obtain advice, and was referred to a lawyer
who was willing to lend his services free of charge. This lawyer
went to court, only to be informed that the poor Italian was
represented by counsel. Of course the lawyer sent by the
friend withdrew. The Italian was fined $15.00 and costs,
amounting in all to $22.00, and the lawyer who was not retained
by him, demanded and received $10 for his services. The vic-
tim, either through ignorance or fear, generally bows to such
exploitation, resigning himself to pay the not indifferent amount
asked.
A third form of exploitation is that of contract work.
We do not mean those contracts where the contractor invests
capital, but those for the performance of which he furnishes
workingmen and nothing else. The following is a typical case
of this kind: An Italian laborer, with a large family to support,
is engaged in unloading coal for an Italian contractor. This
man receives $1.50 per day, and must perform a definite amount
of work, for which the contractor gets $3.00 from the railroad
company. Thus one-half of what the company pays for unload-
ing coal goes into the pockets of the contractor, who does not
invest anything of his own, and who, without labor, by this
method of exploitation, makes from $200 to $500 per month.
While the poor laborers have to work in the coal dust, risk their
lives, and on that small sum support themselves and their fam-
ilies, the contractor lives like a prince, and has for his victims
no more consideration than he would have for a dog in the street.
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
It is impossible to give statistics of what is called "the
black hand" organization, that is, extortion of money and favors
through anonymous letters. There is probably not a person
of any importance in the colony who has not received now and
then such letters, threatening and demanding a more or less
large sum of money. Generally these letters are not brought
to the attention of the police, the matter being settled in a friendly
way, as the person who received such letters is almost always
anxious to buy his peace. At times the receiver of such a black-
hand letter does not comply with the demands, and the matter
is dropped right there and then; at other times, particularly
when the blackhand letter falls into the hands of the police,
a bomb is exploded or other violence is done.
To sum up, one may say that although offences in
the Italian colony in Milwaukee are worthy the serious atten-
tion of those interested in its development and betterment,
still we are far removed from the condition depicted last year
in one of the city dailies, which likened the Italian colony of
Milwaukee to the slums of New York and Chicago. A great
deal has been written about the delinquency of the Italians in
America, containing often serious errors. This results either
from lack of sufficient knowledge, or because of judgments
based upon observations limited to the exceptional individuals
and their environments. It is indeed a vast problem and ought
to be studied in its entirety if one is to arrive at concrete con-
clusions; this is not possible within the limits of our modest
paper, but we are bound to say a few words on this subject
concerning the Italian colony of Milwaukee.
The citizens of Milwaukee and other communities are
convinced that there exists a powerful association of malefactors,
and that in it the greater part of the Italians, if not indeed the
whole Italian population is involved. The existence of such a
society would explain quite satisfactorily that bloody crimes
were acts of vengeance against suspected or faithless members;
that the extortions were means of replenishing their exchequers;
and that the prevailing stubborn silence was due to vows and
to fear for their own lives. But those who are well acquainted
52
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
with conditions in the colony know quite well that such an
organization exists only in the fancy of the newspaper reporter
and romancer. In reality, there are only a few individuals
who, having run the whole gamut of crimes, find it convenient
to live in peace and even with honor at the expense of those
ignorant people, who allow themselves to be intimidated by
threats and bombs. The so-called Black Handers are often
individuals who were forced to leave Italy, because the police
were seeking them; since coming to America they have lived
in five or six different states of the Union, migrating whenever
they found themselves in a compromising position. Three or
four of these individuals with a few inexperienced and deluded
youths to execute their plans, are enough for the work of the
group to run smoothly. In America the conditions are gener-
ally favorable, because of: —
1. The facility with which one can pass from one city
or state to another, making it easy to elude the vigilance of the
police, especially on account of the fact that here (unlike Italy)
the police organization of each city works almost independently
of that of every other city, which renders discovery of the
criminal a difficult and complicated matter. Furthermore,
the autonomy of each city police department leaves the appre-
hension of the criminals who have committed their crimes in
other cities to the judgment and honesty of each Chief of Police;
and it has very often been the case that in certain cities of the
United States, (thanks to the bought complicity of the chief
or some other influential police officer), there is organized im-
munity for criminals of all kinds. Such cities are a temporary
but safe refuge, while time is effacing remembrance of the
criminal in his own community;
2. The readiness with which one can change one's name-
nationality and residence, without positive discovery, on ac-
count of the great mixture of nationalities in this country;
3. Political influence which often interferes with justice;
4. The ease with which one can be bailed out, for almost
any crime. It has been impossible to get statistics of accused
53
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
persons, who, having been bailed out, have preferred to lose
their bail money to standing trial and the police lose all trace
of them. Such statistics would be very eloquent.
Besides these causes due to the methods of justice in the
United States, there are others which have their origin in the
peculiar conditions of the Italian colonies. The truly educated
people of Italy do not yet emigrate to the United States, for
the reason that there is a large field of endeavour for them in
the new Italy, and they leave emigration to the laborers and
to persons incapable of serious intellectual work, and yet un-
accustomed to hard physical labor. These latter, who are
neither laborers nor yet of a class much above the laborers,
lend themselves easily to a life of crime or to some form of ex-
ploitation of the uneducated. This does not mean that among
the Italian immigrants there are not to be found some intel-
lectually strong and cultured people; of such men there are
quite a number, especially in large cities. These aid in develop-
ing the energies of the Italian laborers, and fitly represent Italy;
but their influence on Italian colonies is very small, because the
field is strongly held by the noisy crowd of the pseudo-educated,
who as politicians, as bankers, as newspapermen, form the
class prominent in business, as prominent in delinquency. The
colonies are made up chiefly of laborers ignorant and frequently
illiterate. Oiminals, therefore, find here an easy field.
The submissiveness of the victims and their ignorance of
the law and customs of this new country render it impossible
for them to avail themselves of the organization which society
offers them, to protect themselves from exploitation and criminal
imposition. It is also easy to find followers and to initiate a
large number of persons into a life of crime.
We observe that the so-called blackhand letters are re-
ceived only by the Italians themselves. There is no record
of attempted extortion of money from Americans or people
of other nationalities. Why do so few of these letters ever fall
into the hands of the police? And why is it so difficult to ob-
tain testimony in dealing with these Italians?
54
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Miss Ida Hull, in the "Charity Organization Bulletin,"
of the Russell Sage Foundation, of December, 1904, says:
"The South Italian's distrust of the machinery of govern-
ment is another trait which is made more comprehensible to
social workers by a knowledge of the centuries of misrule and
social oppression from which he has suffered deeply. Deep
down in his heart tradition, and perhaps experience, have im-
planted a distrust of the law and the courts, and of all connected
with them. Americans soon learn how difficult it is to get
South Italians to go to court as witnesses in cases of non-support
and cruelty to children. Many factors enter into this problem,
one of which is undoubtedly the feeling that courts are instru-
ments of oppression, with which honest people will not choose
to have any connection. Many Sicilians feel that only the cow-
ards seek redress in the courts for personal wrongs. It would
be absurd to suppose that all South Italians arrive with this
attitude towards the court, or that all retain it after a few years
residence. It is a tradition which must needs give way in Amer-
ica and in Italy and in any country with democratic institutions.
But it is well for Americans to bear in mind, if the law and its
administrators are to be subjects of conversation, what a train
of antagonistic associations, the very words are likely to arouse
in the minds of the South Italians."
There is a great deal of truth in these observations, although
somewhat exaggerated, but the problem is studied from only
one side, namely, from the point of view of the predisposition
of a certain element among the Italians to seek justice outside
of the courts. The problem, however, has another aspect,
much more interesting and practical, viz: the local conditions
that make it possible and even easy to develop such tendencies.
Miss Hull says that it would be absurd to suppose that all
Italians who arrive with this attitude maintain the same after
several years' residence; yet we are witnessing a very painful
fact: Crimes which remain wrapped in mystery, committed
by Italians in America, are more numerous here proportion-
ately than in Italy.
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
According to the most recent Italian statistics the un-
punished crimes are shown to be about 20%; in America the
percentage is larger. In Milwaukee, for instance, of 13 crimes
committed in four years, in only five were the perpetrators
discovered, the other eight remaining unfound. There must be
a cause for this aversion of the Italians to act as witnesses and
complainants in the courts, and the cause is that mentioned
above; the facility with which the criminals can assure them-
selves immunity. The Italians do not like to act as witnesses
or complainants, not because they fear the courts will not mete
out justice, but because the police and the courts do not give
any guarantee of protection and defense against the vengeance
of those whom they would readily accuse if such a guaranty
existed. The unpunished criminal, who knows that he has
been denounced by a compatriot of his, will find a hundred
ways to avenge himself; he would perhaps be more ready to
forgive an American or one of any other nationality, but an
Italian, Never! And the police do not give assurance of an
efficacious protection. In Italy the severe law allowing arrests
without warrant and the fact that bail is not accepted, make
it possible for the court to obtain the witnesses it needs to con-
vict a criminal, and make it more difficult for the criminal to
escape punishment. Rather than being a question of principle
or mentality, it is a question of the organization of the courts
and police system, which do not perfectly answer certain needs.
I do not mean by this that the American courts and police sys-
tem are defective in themselves; I merely wish to observe that
these organizations, although in perfect accord with the funda-
mental English traditions of democratic principles and per-
sonal respect, are not always adapted to the needs, traditions,
or tendencies of colonies within our cities, composed of elements
from all parts of the earth. During the period of the Ameri-
canization of all these various elements, it is but logical and
natural that certain social phenomena should manifest them-
selves in various and often new ways. It is the social pathology
of an organism in the process of formation. In such a period
it seems also that often the good qualities of a race are lost sight
56
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
of. For example: the Italians' contribution to cases of aban-
donment is very small, while this crime is frequent among
people of other nationalities; but almost all cases of abandon-
ment among the Italians are found among Americanized Italians,
rather than among the newly arrived Italians. Furthermore,
the majority of families and individuals who have received
help from public or private charities, are those who have had
many years of residence in America, rather than those recently
arrived. Can we say then that the race is deteriorating and that
the descendants of the Italians will not become as good Amer-
icans as the others? Certainly not; the upheavals pertaining
to the process of adjustment are incidents, and are peculiar to
all peoples under .similar circumstances.
It is undeniable that Italian immigrants are notable in
penal records for offenses of personal violence, and stand out
prominently as having a large percentage of homicides among
their crimes; but what Prof. E. A. Steiner says in his book
"On the Trail of the Immigrant," is none the less true:
"Though the prisons contain many Italians who trans-
gressed out of ignorance as well as from passion, numbers
suffer because they do not know the language of the court,
and do not have coin of the realm." (Page 273.)
The statement given by the Report of the Immigration
Commission of 1911, "Immigration and Crime," (Senate Docu-
ments — vol. 18), is also worthy of quotation:
"No satisfactory evidence has yet been produced to show
that immigration has resulted in an increase in crime dispro-
portionate to the increase in adult population. Immigrants are
less prone to commit crime than are native Americans. The
statistics do indicate that the American born children of immi-
grants exceed the children of natives in relative amount of
crime." (Page 1.)
57
II.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARITIES
Xli.
PUBLIC CHARITIES
IT is well known to American people interested in social topics,
that Italian immigrants are not a serious burden to public
institutions in this country. All the statistics of such in-
stitutions show that the percentage of Italian inmates of alms-
houses, hospitals, homes for children, and so on, is less than of
people of other nationalities; whether in the large Italian
colonies like New York, or in the smaller ones like Milwaukee.
The last report of the Bureau of Census, "Paupers in
Almshouses," (Depart, of Commerce — 1915), gives the follow-
ing figures for the year 1910.
At January first of the said year there were in all the
almshouses of the United States, 77,734 persons, distributed
as follows:
Paupers of native parentage, .
Paupers of foreign or mixed parentage,
Paupers of unknown parentage,
Paupers foreign born, . . . .
Paupers of unknown nativity,
32,458
10,077
1,719
33,125
355
Total, 77,734
The foreign born were distributed by race as in the follow-
ing table:
Austria-Hungary, 1,259
Canada-English, 1,300
Canada-French, 528
England-Wales, 2,922
France, '^^^
59
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Germany, .
7,510
Ireland,
14,177
Italy, .
427
Scandinavia,
1,891
Russia,
700
Scotland,
817
Switzerland,
513
Other,
623
Total,
33,125
Italian laborers working hard and living with sobriety
are always able to save some money, and if they are single men,
they go back to Italy to live in their native villages, if they
have families and are established permanently in America,
when unable to work and without an income of their own, they
are supported by their sons.
Furthermore, the same reasons which make Italians
dislike American hospitals, apply to almshouses and all other
institutions for indoor relief, among inmates of which are only
a few Italians.
The annual report of the County Hospital, County Farm
and Almshouse of Milwaukee County for the year ending Sept.
30, 1913, gives the following figures:
Inmates of
Children's
Nationalities :
County Hospital
Almshouse
Free Hospital
America .
814
85
Germany,
444
243
All Other
Austria-Hungary, .
277
24
Nationalities
England, .
40
10
582
Russia,
89
3
Poland, .
81
58
Ireland, .
33
19
Italy,
18
2
6
Various, .
88
18
Totals,
1884
462
588
60
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Percentage of Italians in the County Hospitals, 1%
Percentage of Italians in Milwaukee Almshouse, 0.43%
Percentage of Italians in the Children's Free Hospital, . . . 1.02%
While Italians are unwilling to ask for indoor relief, they
appeal more easily for outdoor relief.
The said report, in the Department of Outdoor Relief,
gives the following figures for Milwaukee County:
STATISTICAL REPORT OF DEPENDENT FAMILIES AIDED
DURING THE YEAR 1913
Nationality :
No. of
Families
Number of Persons
America,
Austria-Hungary, .
Germany,
Poland — Germany,
Poland — Russia, .
Hebrew, .
Italy,
Other Nationalities,
410
88
273
229
49
36
62
38
Number of Men,
Number of Women,
Number of children.
Total, ....
406
1,167
4,107
5,680
Recurrent cases, .
New cases,
Non-resident,
802
370
13
Totals, .
1,185
1,185
The amount of expenses for that year was $51,785.88.
Italian percentage 5.23 per cent.
The number of families aided by this department has been
increasing every year since 1913. During the last winter,
because of the lack of work, more than double the amount
expended in 1913, was spent for outdoor relief.
The poor list showing names, addresses and number of
families drawing relief from the County of Milwaukee during
the month of January, 1915, contains 3,464 families. Among
them 215 were Italians, 6.20 per cent of the total.
The report does not give any figures of the causes of de-
pendency of families by nationality, therefore, it is impossible
61
THE ITALIAN'S IN MILWAUKEE
to have further details of the work of the Department among
the Italians. It is true, on the other hand, that last winter
was very hard both from cold and from abnormal conditions
of business. The rush of daily applications to the office during
those months made an accurate investigation of all cases almost
impossible.
The relief consists in food, shoes, and coal. The quan-
tity given is in relation to the size of the family. A family of
6 persons, man, woman and four children, receives per
month the following:
Flour,
Soap,
Syrup,
Fresh Meat,
Salt Meat,
Lard,
Coffee, .
Tea,
Sugar,
Rice,
Beans,
Cornmeal,
Peas,
Oatmeal,
Prunes,
Peaches,
40 pounds
3 bars
4 pounds
12 pounds
4 pounds
2 pounds
2 pounds
1 pound
5 pounds
3 pounds
4 pounds
2 pounds
2 pounds
3 pounds
3 pounds
1 pound
The amount is valued at SI 1.97.
The flour, soap, and fresh meat was given twice a month,
the other food once a month. About the quality of food and
the tastes of Italians we have spoken heretofore. Shoes were
given largely to children attending schools. One-half ton of
coal a month, either hard or soft, was given in many cases.
mothers' pension
The "Mothers' Pension," or "State Aid to Dependent
Children," as it is called in Wisconsin, was approved July,
1913, and in Milwaukee County was put into effect August 1st,
1913. The statement of money expended from August 1st,
62
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
1913, to August 1st, 1914, as ordered by the Judge of the Juvenile
Court of Milwaukee, presents the following figures:
No.
No.of
Nationality :
of
Aban-
Di-
Jail
Sick-
^\■id-
Or-
Chil-
Cases
don' d
vorc'd
ness
ow
phans
dren
American, .
9
4
1
4
26
Austro-Hungar'n,
25
8
2
2
2
9
2
75
German,
146
37
3
13
8
83
2
467
English,
8
2
1
1
1
3
24
Irish, .
12
1
2
1
2
6
38
Polish,
101
25
1
13
16
41
5
335
Jewish,
12
3
9
41
Italian,
12
4
8
50
Other Nationalt's,
10
1
2
2
5
22
Totals,
335
81
11
31
35
168
9
1,078
The total amount paid to the 335 families was $28,475.58
— of which $1,211.25 went to Italian families; 3.50 per cent of
the families aided, and 4.25 per cent of the expense for aid.
These figures are eloquent of themselves, and do not
need any comment; therefore we go on, to the most important
chapter of our survey, Private Charities, and the Italians.
XIll.
PRIVATE CHARITIES
MUTUAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES AMONG ITALIANS
WE have secured information from fifteen Mutual Benefit
Societies organized among the Italians of the Mil-
waukee colony, which help their members in case of
sickness and their families in case of death of the breadwinner.
There are no church societies in the colony organized for the
purpose of looking after the poor, and all the 15 societies are of
laical character, though several of them are called after the
names of Saints of the Catholic Church. The following is the
list of these societies:
1. Liberta' Siciliana. 9. Garibaldi.
2. Vespri Siciliani. 10. Naso-Capo d' Orlando.
3. Cristoforo Colombo. 11. Trinacria.
4. Galileo Galilei. 12. Duca degli Abbruzzi.
5. Vittorio Emanuele 111. 13. Tripoli Italiana.
6. San Giuseppe. 14. Fratellanza Toscana.
7. Madonna del Lume. 15. Madonna di Custonaci.
8. Santa Croce.
Generally the members of each of these societies are
natives of the same Italian province, and in several cases of the
same village or town, as is the case with "Santa Croce," whose
members are from the Santo Stefano Camastra in Sicily. The
number of members enrolled in each society runs from 50 to
150; therefore they do not give as large relief as they could
if they had more members, or if all these societies were united
in one federation. All of them are organized on the same plan,
with a few differences in details. The staff consists of a large
number of officials (12 or 14), who are in charge for one year,
64
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
and without salary, except the financial secretary, to whom is
granted a small compensation for extraordinary services.
Relief is given by all these societies after the following
manner:
1. Sickness of the Member: This relief begins after three
days of sickness and after previous examination and cer-
tificate from a doctor trusted by the same society. The
relief is given in cash at the rate of $1.00 per day for no
longer time than three months. After that time, the
relief is reduced one-half, to 50 cents daily for two or
three months. After which, the relief is cut off entirely.
In these cases almost all the Italian societies give to the
sick member some money ($20.00 or $25.00), as an extra-
ordinary contribution, and generally this money is not
drawn from the treasury, but paid by members as a per-
sonal gift.
2. Death of the Member: In such case the society pays all
funeral expenses (from $50 to $90), and every member
makes an extraordinary contribution of $2.00 to the family
of the dead member.
Furthermore, during the sickness of the member, all other
members of the society are obliged to pay a visit to him and to
give him assistance if there is no family to take care of him.
In case of death all members are obliged to attend the funeral,
under penalty for absence.
relief is refused
1. When disease was the consequence of crime or of wounds
received in wrongful fighting;
2. In cases of venereal disease;
3. When the sick member did not pay his fees for three months
regularly.
Fees paid by members are very small; they run from 30
cents to 60 cents monthly. Extraordinary contributions are
65
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
required in case of death or in case of exhaustion of the society's
treasury. The average cost of the membership in these Italian
societies in Milwaukee is from $12.00 to S15.00 a year.
Generally these societies have neither political nor religious
character, though some of them celebrate every year a religious
feast, like the Societies of Santa Croce and San Guiseppe. These
feasts are very expensive for small societies, therefore, they
collect money for such a purpose from the colony, to relieve
the burden on the society's treasury. Other societies hold
annual picnics or dancing parties, the expenses covered mostly
by the receipts.
Besides the relief given by these organized societies,
there are many other forms of relief for distressed families
among Italians themselves. The most common is the col-
lection of money among families of the neighborhood on behalf
of some one in urgent distress, either from poverty or sickness.
When the case is of one who does not belong to any society,
a collection is made for the purpose of medical treatment or
transportation to Italy. In many cases the sick one who
benefits by the money has refused to go to a hospital and is
in a sad condition in consequence. Money is quickly raised
in prosperous times by a committee of three or four, but even
in times of general poverty a contribution of a few cents is
rarely refused.
Usually the spirit of mutual charity is well developed
among poor Italians of the colony, and several visitors of chari-
table associations have found families dependent upon relief
from such associations, giving help to some other family more
destitute.
f'O
XIV.
AMERICAN PRIVATE CHARITIES AMONG ITALIANS
A — "general information from the report of the
IMMIGRANT COMMISSION"
THE Report of the Immigration Commission for the year
1910 published an investigation on "Immigrants as
Charity Seekers." This study made by the Commission
included the work done by charity organization societies in
43 big cities of the United States, during the six months from
December, 1908, to May, 1909. It is very interesting to quote
the figures given by that report concerning the ItaHans of the
colony of Milwaukee, keeping them for comparison with the
present status in the same colony.
The following is the general table of cases of all nationalities
assisted in Milwaukee during the said period:
Native Born
Percentage
Nationality :
of Foreign
i oreign
Totals
of I'oreign
Father
Born
Nationalities
American native
born of native
father, . 48
48
English, .
35
14
49
7.75
German, .
78
212
290
45.64
Irish,
17
IS
35
5.15
Polish,
16
107
123
19.42
Italian, .
29
29
4.55
Others, .
16
46
62
9.93
Totals,
162
426
636
Among the 43 cities investigated, Milwaukee showed the
highest proportion of foreign born cases (67%), and also the
67
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
highest proportion of cases among immigrants of the second
generation (25.5%).
No case of this latter class (the second generation) was
found among Italians, while they contributed 6% to the 426
cases of foreign born, and 4.55% of all the cases assisted by
charities. The report, referring to the tables by nationalities
of cases assisted, concludes as follows:
"It is seen that among the races where the head of the
case was foreign born or native born of foreign father, the races
ranking first, second and third, in the proportion of cases as-
sisted within each geographical division, were as follows:
North Atlantic Division, . .1. Irish — Foreign born.
2. Polish — Foreign born.
3. German — Foreign bom.
North Central Division, . .1. German — Foreign born.
2. Polish — Foreign born.
3. German — Native born of German Father.
Southern Division, . .1. German— Foreign born.
2. German — Native born of German Father.
3. Polish — Foreign bom.
Western Division, . . .1. German — Foreign born.
2. English — Foreign born.
3. Irish — Native born of Irish Father."
Italians are not to be found in that table, in general, in
the investigated cities they rank after the German, Polish,
English, Irish, and Slav nationalities, in the proportion of
cases.
1913 — 1,197,892, of which 265,542 were Italians.
1914 — 1,218,480, of which 283,738 were Italians.
The predominant racial element is now the same as in
1910, namely, of people of South Europe, with a large propor-
tion of Slavs and Italians. On the other hand, the economic
condition of the United States up to the close of 1914 was not
unlike that of 1910; therefore, it seems reasonable to assume
that even the general condition of the immigrants as charity
68
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
seekers, must not be very different from what is shown in the
report of 1910.
B — GENERAL STATISTICS
This investigation includes the work done with Italians
in Milwaukee, by the Associated Charities during the four years
and three months from January 1, 1911, to March 31, 1915.
The annual reports of the Association give the following figures,
showing its activity in dealing with poor families of different
races in Milwaukee:
Year:
New Cases
Old Cases
Total
1911,
1912,
1913,
1914,
1915 — January-March, .
1,036
871
616
1,194
941
535
854
699
779
1,030
1,571
1,725
1,315
1,973
1,971
Totals,
4,658
3,897
8,555
Among the 4658 new records of Milwaukee families, we
find 184 Italian families, distributed as follows:
1911
1912
1913
1914
1915
Jan.-Mch.
Total
Percentage
59
20
28
46
31
184
3.95
Of these 184 records, 44 are of no interest, because the
Association did not work with the families, either in giving re-
lief or in making an investigation. As these records do not
give any data about the families, besides the name and address,
and after a single interview at the office by the Registrar, or at
the residence by a Visitor, no conclusion can be reached.
69
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
The Italian families really assisted therefore, by the
Associated C'.harities in the said period, are 140, to which 9 other
cases reported from the year 1910 must be added, giving a total
of 149 cases.
The Italian percentage is as follows:
Total Number of Cases:
Italian
Cases
Italian
Percentage
New Cases,
Old Cases,
. 4,658
. 3,897
184
92
3.95
2.37
Totals,
. 8,555
276
3.22
The present percentage is lower than that of 1910.
70
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
C NATIVITY AND PROVINCE
The total number of cases in which information of the
birthplace was secured is 149. The head of the family was
foreign born in 147 cases, and only in two cases was native
born, of Italian father (immigrant of the second generation).
The table which follows shows the cases assisted and the
number of persons involved, by nativity and province of Italy
in which they were born:
Italian
Division:
Italian
Province
Number
of Cases
No. of Per-
sons Involved
Percen
Cases
tage of
Persons
Sicily, . .
Palermo
Messina
Girgenti
Unknown
59
47
3
7
367
285
15
25
39.60
31.54
1 6.71
42.62
33.10
4.65
South-Italy, .
a
u
Bari
Foggia
Napoli
Salerno
Unknown
2
2
6
1
5
10
12
33
8
20
[ 10.74
9.64
Central-Italy,
Chieti
Aquila
Firenze
Unknown
6
2
1
1
28
9
5
5
1
1 6.71
J
5.46
North Italy, .
Venezia
Geneva
2
3
7
26
1 3.36
3.83
Native Born of
Italian Father
2
6
1.34
0.70
Totals, .
149
861
100
100
The average number of persons in each family by geo-
graphical division is, in Sicily, 6; South Italy, 5.19; Central
Italy, 4.70; North Italy, 6.60; American born, of Italian
father, 3. It is to be noted that though generally families of
North Italy have fewer children than families from South
Italy, in this table North Italians rank first.
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
D — CAUSES OF NEED
The classification of the apparent cause of need has been
made under fourteen headings and the following table presents
for each class of apparent causes of need the number of cases
involved:
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Death of l)read\vinner, 14
Chronic disease of breadwinner, ... 3
Death or illness of another member of family, 42
Illness of bread\vinner, 43
Continuous unemployment, .... 98
Partial unemploj^Tnent, 33
Insufficient earning for the large size of the
family, 13
Incarceration of breadwinner, ... 4
Desertion by husband, 3
Neglect by breadwinner, .... 2
Poor housekeeping, 18
Bad habits of breadwinner (laziness), . 2
Other, 1
In several cases there are two or three related causes;
the most common is the coincidence of unemployment and
disease, either of the breadwinner or of another member of the
family. That occurs in 72 cases.
The cause reported in the largest proportion of cases and
involving the largest number of persons is Lack of Employment,
total, or partial, with insufficient earnings.
The following table shows some details of this item:
Unemploy-
ment
For 1 or 2
Months
For 3 or 4
Months
For 5 Mos.
and over
Total
Percentage
on All Cases
Continuous
Unemploym't,
Partial
Unemploym't,
12
4
58
23
28
3
98
33
66.66
22.15
Total, .
16
94
31
121
81.21
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Further interesting figures on Unemployment as a cause
of distress are the following:
UNEMPLOYMENT
As the Single Cause of Distress
In Concurrence with Other Causes
Continuous
Partial
Continuous
Partial
36
13
62
20
In the 1910 report on "Immigrants as Charity Seekers"
quoted above, the lack of employment as a cause of need is found
in largest proportion among Syrian, English and Italian races,
with the following percentage:
Syrian — Foreign born, 75 . 4%
English — Native born of English Father, . 68 . 1 %
ItaUan — Foreign born, 67.9%
The percentage of Milwaukee Italian cases is a little lower,
but it is very high if we add all cases in which unemployment,
either continuous or partial, is either a single or concurrent
cause of need; such percentage being 81.21 per cent; namely,
121 cases of the total of 149.
The cause of need in the two families of native born of
Italian father, in Milwaukee, is:
1. Neglect of the husband to provide for family needs;
2. Sickness of the wife.
It is worthy to be noted that no case is to be found in
all these Italian records in which the distressing condition of
the family is due to drunkenness or intemperance of the bread-
winner, or to old age.
In the "Report of Immigrants as Charity Seekers," the
races showing the largest proportion of cases, reporting the
73
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
bad habits and intemperance of the breadwinner as the cause
of distress, are:
Polish — Native of foreign father, 34%.
Swedish — Native born of foreign father, 29.9%.
The Italians give the lowest figure of all races, their per-
centage being 0.7.
Old Age is to be found more often among the races ranking
as follows:
1. French. 4. Irish.
2. Canadian. 5. German.
3. Welsh.
AID GIVEN
The specific aid furnished by the Associated Charities in
Milwaukee to the Italian families is shown in the following
table, giving the proportion of cases assisted. Many cases were
furnished with more than one kind of assistance and therefore
appear under more than one heading.
1. Cash,
2. Clothing,
3. Eniplo;yTnent or work secured, .
4. Food or meals, ....
5. Fuel,
G. Lodging,
7. Medicine or medical assistance,
S. Rent,
9. Housekeeping (help or teaching),
10. Moral assistance,
11. Other,
12
125
8
95
26
7
52
8
44
12
14
The amount of material relief given, generally was small
in each case, with the exception of 13 cases which needed greater
assistance.
Among the families only three required steady assistance
for three years or more, on account of chronic disease of the
breadwinner of those families. In these cases the Associated
(Charities worked in co-operation with the Juvenile Court of
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Milwaukee County, securing State Aid and supervising the
budget of the families, giving further relief in food or cash as
circumstances required.
In all other cases reported more than once, relief was given
intermittently, as new distressing conditions obliged the families
to call again for further aid. Very small is the number of cases
in which work was secured, and almost all consisted in sewing
or embroidery work for women, to be done at home.
In every case an employment card was given to the idle
man, in co-operation with the Free Employment Bureau of
the State, but very seldom with good results in the 1914 and
1915 period of unemployment. The giving of such cards, and
obliging those men to go every day to the Bureau, to have their
cards signed, was valuable only as a means of discovering whether
men really wished to work.
Clothing is the larger part of the relief given, especially
for children in winter time. The percentage of this form of
aid is 62.7% of the total. About 60% of the clothes given
were second hand, and in 4 cases was refused by the families.
Food ranks second in importance and amount of the general
relief, especially milk for babies or other members of families
during sickness.
The Associated Charities works in co-operation with the
County Department of Outdoor Relief, and generally sends
those who need food to the County Department; but food
also has been supplied directly by the Associated Charities in
all urgent cases, and when the food given by the County De-
partment was insufficient, on account of the size of the family,
or because of illness of some of its members.
Very considerable is the work done in securing medical
assistance, in co-operation with the hospitals, and free dis-
pensaries, and other institutions of the city, like the Tubercu-
losis Department, Maternity Hospital, Visiting Nurses' Asso-
ciation, etc. The table which follows shows the number of
Italians assisted:
1. Hospital care secured, free, .... 15
2. Sent to Free Dispensaries, . . . . 33
75
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
3. Assisted in co-operation with Tuberculosis
Department, 9
4. Assisted in co-operation with Maternity
Hospital, 16
5. Assisted in co-operation with Child Welfare
Department, 12
6. Medicine given, 22
Only in a few exceptional cases was rent paid by the
Associated Charities in behalf of Italian families, though most
of them made application for it. In dealing with the Italians
the Associated Charities office believes that rent, like other
cash relief, ought to be avoided if possible, because this form
of aid will result in pauperizing and in creating a very trouble-
some burden for the Association.
A very valuable work was done by the Visiting House-
keeper among Italians. In several cases the Housekeeper was
sent to substitute for the mother of the family, especially in
cases of confinement; in other cases she was sent to teach house-
keeping to the families in which there was uncleanliness and
disorder, and to assist steadily until a sufficient standard of
cleanliness was reached in the house. The housekeeper has
been very useful also in teaching the cooking of American
meals, and giving good suggestions for marketing, shopping,
sewing, etc.
The Housekeeper visited 28 families, with an average of
6 visits to each family, and her work was very efficient in 15
cases, less efficient in 13.
Other relief in several cases was the furnishing of beds,
ice boxes, and other small household utensils.
F — TYPE OF CASES. PERSONS, AGE, CONJUGAL CONDITION
The number of persons involved in all Italian cases is
shown in the table which follows:
76
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
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77
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
All these Italian cases can be classified under four groups
and each can be termed a "type". The groups are:
1. Cases consisting of husband and wife with or without
children;
2. Cases consisting of widow with or without children;
3. Cases consisting of widower with or without children;
4. Cases consisting of divorced or separated husbands or wives
with or without children.
The number of cases of each type and the size of each
family involved, is shown in the following table:
Type:
No
Children
1 or 2
Children
3, 4 or 5
Children
6 or more
Children
Total
First Group,
Second Group, .
Third Group,
Fourth Group, .
Both Parents
Dead,
3
1
36
3
1
1
57
4
1
3
30
7
1
1
126
14
2
5
1
Totals, .
4
41
65
39
149
The table which follows, shows all persons involved in
the cases of Italians assisted, with the age grouping:
AGE OF CHILDREN
Under 14
14 and over. Unmarried
14 and over, Married
502
52
28
AGE OF PARENTS
20 and Under
From 21 to 39
From 40 to 59
60 and over
UnknowTi
Men
Worn.
Men Worn.
Men
Wom.
Men
Wom .
Men
Worn.
7
80
111
48
23
6
4
78
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
The 861 persons involved, are distributed as follows:
Children, 582
Women, 145
Men, 134
G — GENERAL OCCUPATION
The following table shows the occupation of the head of
each family, in Italy first, and in America now:
Agriculturists,
Fishermen,
Laborers,
Peddlers,
Garbage Collectors
Saloonkeepers,
Grocers,
Shoemakers, .
Carpenters,
Tailors, .
Blacksmith, .
Sculptor in Plaster
Marble Cutter,
Physically unfit,
UnknowTi,
Totals, .
In Italy
98
18
6
134
In America
114
4
2
1
1
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
134
The persons involved in all 149 cases investigated, are
classified in three groups, as follows:
At Work
At School
At Home
Totals
Children,
Women, .
Men,
23
9
132
321
238
136
2
582
145
134
Totals,
1G4
321
376
861
79
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
H — YEARS IN THE UNITED STATES
Among these Italian families assisted by charities, not
one case is to be found with less than two years of residence
in the United States. The table shows the specified number
of years of residence of each family, both in the United States
and in the City of Milwaukee:
IN THE UNITED STATES
From 2 to
3 Years
From 4 to
5 Years
From 5 to
10 Years
From 11 to
15 Years
More Than
15 Years
4
18
41
45
34
IN MILWAUKEE
Less Than 5 Years
5 Years and More
Unknown
47
95
7
The largest proportion of Italian cases is from those
families who have lived in the United States 10 to 15 years.
Among those who have lived here more than 15 years, the pro-
portion of cases is also very considerable. In general it is evi-
dent that for the Italian families, the coming of distressing con-
ditions does not immediately follow their arrival in America,
but follows after 3 or 4 years of residence. In explanation of
this, most of the Italian immigrants come to America alone;
being single, they live upon a few cents daily, and though with-
out work for months, they never fall to the charge of public
charity; even if they do not find work as soon as they arrive,
they do not starve, because they generally bring some money
on which they live for several months. During the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1914, the Italian immigrants had at their
arrival, money amounting to S7,887.78 (figure given by the
80
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
"Report of Immigrant Commission Labor Dept., 1914); but
as the same report observes, the true amount of money brought
by Italians is really much more, because generally the Italian
immigrants, suspicious as they are, do not show all the money
they have with them.
After two or three years of hard v^ork, those Italians who
left wife and children in their native country, call them, and
spend for that purpose all their savings. Afterwards, the care
of wife and children makes living more expensive, and their
savings are small accordingly. During long periods of no work,
or of disease, they are obliged to call on charitable institutions,
especially if, as very usually happens, the size of the family in-
creases every year. In many cases of this kind the family's
condition changes only after 14 or 15 years, when sons and
daughters come to working age and help their parents. In
other cases, when the size of the family is not too large, after
several years of useless struggle, they become tired and go back
to Italy. That explains the fact that among families with more
than IS years of residence in America, the percentage of charity
cases decreases, also that among persons involved in such cases,
very rarely is to be found any one over 55 or 60 years of age.
ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH AND CITIZENSHIP
When we know that the percentage of illiteracy is about
45% in the last statistics, and when we consider that the Sicilian
immigrants in Milwaukee belong to the lower classes, we may
suppose that the average of illiteracy will be about 50%. It is
interesting to notice that illiteracy is prevalent among immi-
grants, older than 25 years, and among men more than among
women. Compulsory education in South Italy is becoming
efficacious and in a few years illiteracy will disappear entirely
from Sicily as it did from North Italy.
Detailed references are found in the Associated Charities
records about the ability to speak English in investigated fam-
ilies. The table which follows, shows the proportion of families
in which one or both parents born in Italy were speaking English.
81
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
Under the heading "Speaking English" are grouped those who
have a knowledge of the English language limited to their prac-
tical needs, hut enough to permit investigation, without an in-
terpreter. Under "Little English" are grouped those who
know some English words, but where an interpreter was neces-
sary to deal with them:
Speak English, 29
Little EngUsh, 32
No English, 86
Native born, 2
Total, 149
Data relative to Citizenship is found only in a few cases,
and their number is very small in comparison with the total
number of families dealt with. Only in 14 cases is it noted
that the head of the family had both papers of naturalization;
in 12 cases only the first papers were obtained, in all other cases
no information is given.
It is remarkable that in three cases the head of the family
who had obtained his naturalization paper and full citizenship
of the United States, confessed himself to be entirely illiterate.
82
APPENDIX
ITALIANS ON FARMS
FARM HAND IN THE OLD COUNTRY
FARMING in Sicily is conducted on a very different basis
than in America. There the large land owner (feudi or
tenuta) or renter, gives out his land to the poor people to
be cultivated on shares. Usually he pays the taxes, furnishes
seeds and stock, and sometimes groceries and wine to the work-
men and takes as his share half of the crops and all the by-pro-
ducts. The dairying and poultry department is operated by
special employes for the profit of the owner. Varying according
to the size of the tract, many hundred people are employed on
each "feudo or tenuta," each one of them working on a tract
of land set aside for him and his family. Generally there is
only a large building or aggregation of buildings on these lands.
There the land owner or renter has his office, there are the crop
stores, the stables and the dairy and poultry departments.
The workingmen sleep in these buildings during the winter
time, when the work is going on, as the village where they have
their families and homes usually is too far away to permit them
to come and go every day. In this case they return to the
town every Saturday night, and Monday morning they go back
to their work. During the harvesting and summer time they
take their wives and children along and often sleep under tent
on the piece of land they have been working.
On the other hand, the small land owner, whose land is
always within walking distance from towns and villages, culti-
vates the land himself and lives in the town, or if he is a well-to-do
citizen, he gets his help by day or by week, and pays for it by
day or by week. There is not such a thing in the interior of
83
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
South Italy and Sicily as a farm hand living with the farmer's
family, sharing his home and meals; and, as my personal knowl-
edge and experience has taught me, the few Italians employed
by American farmers appreciate this difl'erence in treatment
and in consequence are greatly affected by it, to their moral
and physical betterment. The only thing they object to, es-
pecially on starting, are the American meals, but I have yet to
encounter one who left his place for this reason alone.
ITALIAN AND AMERICAN FARMING
A large number of young Italians are willing to take up
farm work, especially in hard times, when there is very little
work in factories. Last year in a few weeks campaign 1 had
many hundreds of applications for farm work from Milwaukee
and nearby colonies. I placed many of them and from the
letters received from the farmers, 1 have concluded that the
results could not be better. I placed them on a contract of
three months, but many of them are working up to today in
the same places and they write that they do not wish to come
back.
I had an advertisement running for four v/eeks in the
"Wisconsin Agriculturist," and received hundreds of applica-
tions from farmers.
The number of applications received, shows plainly that
the prejudice against Italians on the part of American farmers
is exaggerated. They were glad to get Italian help and in many
cases treat them as members of the family.
I think the best result can be obtained from married couples
with children; the only objection being the number of children.
Usually when a farmer wants a married couple, he wants them
without children, or with not more than one or two children.
The average Italian families have five or six children.
COLONIZATION
The unimproved land of North Wisconsin should be a very
good region in which to place settlers. The Cumberland colony
84
THE ITALIANS IN MILWAUKEE
is an example of a successful Italian settlement. The South
Italians are especially adapted to country life and they would
be willing to start their life in this country on farms if the way
were made clear for them. Small farms or truck gardens near
good markets are their specialty.
There are many things necessary to bring about a proper
colonization of Italian farmers. First of all is financial aid,
and then an appreciation and thorough understanding of the
merits and the faults of this people.
A practical scheme is the following:
1. Set aside 1,000 acres of land near a good market; divide
the land in 40 acre tracts; build on each a small house
and a small barn (a log house would do), place one family
in each house, furnishing them with two horses, two or
more cows, a few pigs, and chickens. Receive from each
family SlOO or more, if they have it, as a cash payment,
and give them credit for groceries in a nearby general
store.
2. In subsequent years half of the crops would go to pay for
the land and stock furnished; the other half to be left to
the farmers, to dispose of for their needs, and so on, until
the price of the land and interest are paid.
85
V