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 S 2 CO < § o o (M o O ;5 -g -5 o ■ -H ^ :S ^ : ^ 0CO : 11 "o o O CO H w 00 CO . S ti +^ -^ 5 «s '^ -H "p ,^_, Mo lusci Cont 1 02 CO ^ ■ -* CM a; >■ _^ c3 ~ U^ ?D o *^ 1 bo r^ 00 t^ *o 1— ( o CO >o CO « ■^ rt CO '"' o .-4 G, Q CO O 00 Orf 10 02 a> "o Q _^ bJO ^ (M iM o cc ■-* •S 3 CO ^ ^ « s: s &H -t^ i^ >^ Ch ^ c -^ CO "!± !-i ■^^ to .2 to i t»r g v CO to b o3 a> O Pi 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