CORNELL UNIVERSrry LIBRARIES ITHACA, N.Y. 14»53 -' JOHN M. OLIN LIBRARY Digitized by Microsoft® Cornell University Library JV6824.F16 Greek immigration to the United States. 3 1924 021 182 922 Digitized by Microsoft® This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Corneii University Libraries, 2007. You may use and print this copy in iimited quantity for your personai purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partiai versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commerciai purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924021182922 ' Digitize by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® A FUTURE AMERICAN Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES BY HENRY PRATT FAIRCHILD NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS MCMXI ^1 Digitized by Microsoft® Copyright, 1911, BY Yale University Press First printed February, 1911, 1000 copies Digitized by Microsoft® TO MY WIFE Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE rry his work was prepared as a part of the requirements -'- for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in connection with the Department of Anthropology in Yale University. The effort was made to secure for it the merit which attaches to a scientific production, and in so far as this effort has been successful it is in large measure due to the scholarly atmosphere in which the work was done. It was also carried on under the auspices of the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington. To it I am deeply indebted for financial assistance, without which the work must have been much more limited in scope. Inasmuch as the book is based almost wholly on per- sonal investigation, I am aware that it is open to the inaccuracies which beset that kind of a study. I have selected my sources of information with the greatest care, and have taken pains to avoid making any positive state- ments unless I was myself convinced of the truth of them ; yet there are undoubtedly errors due to faulty judgment. My hope is that on the whole my opinions and conclusions are not too widely at variance with those which a complete knowledge of all the facts would justify. The same causes have necessitated the frequent use of the first personal pronoun, which is undesirable but unavoidable. In some cases I have felt compelled to suppress the exact identity of my informants, as their position and the nature of the information furnished by them have been such as to lead them to request expressly that their names should not be mentioned. Digitized by Microsoft® PREFACE The meagerness of the bibliography is due to the fact that practically nothing has been written directly on the subject, outside of a few magazine articles, and it can serve for little else than incidental reference. In an undertaking of this kind, I have put myself under obligation to a very large number of people. Men and women from every station of life, both Americans and Greeks, on both sides of the Atlantic, have put their time and their information freely at my disposal. To try to acknowledge even a few of these debts individually is out of the question. Let me briefly, but sincerely, express my deep gratitude to every one of the many by whose kind consideration the prosecution of the work was made possible. I cannot forbear, however, to mention the names of a small number whose connection with the work has been such as to render my obligation to them quite distinct. Foremost among these is Professor Albert G. Keller, under whose personal guidance the work was carried on. In ways too numerous to mention, he has shown his interest in the undertaking, and his advice and inspiration have been invaluable. To Professor Walter F. Willcox, of the Carnegie Institution, I also feel a personal obligation for kindly interest, advice and encouragement. Three friends in Greece to whom I feel sincerely grateful for valuable assistance, and many kindnesses, are Consul-General George W. Horton in Athens (now of Saloniki), and Consul Edward Nathan (now of Mersine), and Vice- Consul H. J. Woodley in Patras. New Haven, January, 1911. Digitized by Microsoft® CONTENTS Part I. The Conditions^ Causes and Sources op Emigration. Chapter I. The Physical Environment ... S Chapter II. National Character 12 Chapter III. Religion and Language .... 42 Chapter IV. The Direct Causes of Emigration . 58 Chapter V. The Sources and Means of Emigration 83 Part II. The Greeks in the United States. Chapter VI. Statistical Review 109 Chapter VII. Greek Colonies in the United States 119 Chapter VIII. Economic Conditions 165 ^Chapter IX. Social Conditions 191 Part III. Effects op Immigration. -■Chapter X. EiFects on the Immigrants . . . 215 Chapter XI. Effects on Greece 220 Chapter XII. Effects on the United States . . . 236 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A Future American Frontispiece. Corfu Opposite page 6 Typical Dwellings 36 Monk and Acolyte 48 Peasant Plowing with Wooden Plow 61 Plant of the Societe Hellenique de Vins et Spiritueux, Eleusis 67 Harbor of Patras by Night 81 Tsipiana 90 A Scene on Board Ship 102 Immigrants on Board 113 Greek Orthodox Church, LoweU 141 Bootblack Shop and Two of the Boys, New Haven . . 179 Immigrants Embarking for the United States at Patras 210 Women Washing at the Fountain, Tsipiana . . . . 218 Public Square, Tripolis 229 Peasant Types, Megalopolis 243 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTION TT^rVE centuries ago there lay before the European races ■'- a third of the entire land surface of the world, newly opened. But few obstacles, and those easily superable, opposed the occupation of the temperate portions of this new earth. Thus the whole equation between men and land underwent a momentous alteration, and one which can scarcely be repeated on this planet. The conjuncture, as Professor Sumner was wont to say, now came to be in favor of men. Under the freer conditions of life there resulted, of necessity, a thorough modification of the mode of society — of human customs, institutions, and philoso- phies. Before the race, now exempt from checks inherent in narrower and more exacting environmental conditions, and loosed from the social system developed under neces- sity of adaptation to them, there lay the possibility of an indefinite growth and expansion. In a very real sense humanity had a new chance ; the most advanced and adaptable of human races could pick and choose from out of its past, and, so far as it was conscious of its situation, it could strive to make of its future something more rational, something at least partially disentangled from world-old drags upon progress. Of the double continent then thrown open, the most con- siderable portion, suitable for permanent occupation, was the zone now included within the boundaries of our own country. Here it was that the men were wanted; there could not be too many of them. Quality was somewhat looked to, it is true, but quantity was the great desidera- Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTION turn. As time went on, and the nation grew and yet managed to keep its unity and to reduce the incoming aUens to its type, there arose a deep-seated conviction as to the incomparable and inexhaustible assimilating power of the nation. The crude ores dumped into the crucible might be what they might — the fusion would be thorough, the mold compellingly formative, the result sound and dependable. But there are signs in the present days that this con- viction is being shaken. As the country is filling up and as conditions are coming not so distantly to resemble those of older lands, the tendency is to think less of quantity and more of quality than heretofore. The strain to which the national power of assimilation is being subjected causes many to harbor concern as to the outcome. Some would limit immigration irrespective even of its quality ; few wish to see it as unrestricted as it used to be; and any citizen of sense realizes that we must know the facts about it. Any student of human society can see that as the popula- tion grows and presses ever more insistently upon the land, the issues surrounding the contact of races are bound to be vital and perhaps determinative of the destiny of the nation. The reader of this book will learn much about one of the new and characteristic groups of our fellow citizens. Their number is small, it is true, but the impression they yield is the more clear and definite. It is often impossible to analyze the large and complex cases with much success, until one has learned to know and to estimate the value of factors which remain somewhat isolated in the more re- stricted fields of observation. Further, it is peculiarly needful in investigation of immigration that the observer Digitized by Microsoft® INTRODUCTION shall not be hampered in any avoidable way in getting at the circumstances and motives of the immigrant ; he should know the language, and the disposition, customs, and habitudes of the people he wishes to study; and he should be able through sympathy to gain insight. As respects these considerations the following study has been carried out under the most favorable of auspices. A. G. Kellee. New Haven, January 21, 1911. Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® PART I THE CONDITIONS, CAUSES AND SOURCES OF EMIGRATION Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER I The Physical Environment TT^OR the study of any group of people the fundamental ■'- basis is a survey of the nature of the country in which they are placed. The influence of physical environ- ment on the history and character of the races of men is a matter which is just beginning to be adequately com- prehended. The general idea is not new. It has long been vaguely understood that an elevated habitat tends to breed a hardy and independent race, that extreme heat and luxuriance of natural production are conducive to enerva- tion and indolence, that the temperate zone is best fitted to develop a progressive people. But the influence of man's natural surroundings is much more definite, funda- mental and far-reaching than this. Trade routes, political organizations and afliliations, the development of industry and agriculture, even national character and rehgion are intimately dependent on the physical surroundings in which a race is placed. In no phase of human activity is this more true than in the matter of the movement of peoples — ^in short, migration. Whether people shall move or not, where they shall go, what shall be their relation with the country of departure, are matters which depend 3 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION very largely on the topography of the region in which they find themselves placed. Accordingly, in undertaking a study of modern Greek emigration it is essential first of all to get a concise yet comprehensive view of the natural character of the region in which this remarkable race has developed. When the word "Greece" is heard, it is natural first of all to think of the small and broken peninsula, stretching down from eastern Europe into the Mediterranean, which bears that name. This is indeed Greece proper, the cradle of the Hellenic race, the center of the ancient life and culture which have commanded the admiration of all civilized peoples for so many centuries. Yet a second consideration will reveal, perhaps to a surprising degree, how large and important a part of the truest Greek Kfe was developed outside the bounds of the peninsula. Many of the most typical representatives of the ancient Greek race, such as Herodotus, Archimedes and Aristotle, were born and Hved outside of the limits of this district. What is perhaps the finest type of classical architecture, the Ionic, took its name from the coast of Asia Minor. Ancient Greece, broadly but truly speaking, included not only the peninsula but the Ionian Islands, the Archipelago, Crete, Cyprus, the coast of Asia Minor, the shores of the Bosphorus and the Black Sea, and even the borders of Italy and northern Africa. And so at the present time, if we wish to under- stand the modern Greek people, or, as in the present instance, to get at the sources of Greek emigration, we must bear in mind more than the European mainland, more even than the territory included in the Greek king- dom. A large proportion of the modern race, represent- ing a very important part of Greek life, is situated in 4 Digitized by Microsoft® THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT other Mediterranean countries, especially in lands ruled over by the Turkish Sultan. Smyrna contains about the same number of Greeks as Athens, and Constantinople many more, probably more than Athens and the Piraeus together. But today, as of old, the peninsula is the heart of Greek life and the center of the phenomena of emigra- tion in which we are particularly interested. Let us glance hurriedly at the main features of this district, the general nature of which is so familiar that the briefest review will sufBce to fix them in our minds. Greece proper is a very mountainous and deeply indented peninsula, almost severed by the Gulf of Corinth and the Gulf of ^gina, the two parts being joined by the narrow Isthmus of Corinth. In spite of the precipitous nature of much of the coast there are a number of excellent harbors. The most striking feature of the topography, next to the broken coast line, is the way in which the mountains break it up into a number of small and more or less isolated districts. The most important of these are the following. Beginning with the Macedonian border, there is the large plain of Thessaly, bounded by Mount Pindos and Mount Othrys. To the west is the large and very mountainous district of Epiros, with the small regions of Acharnania and ^EtoHa to the south. Moving toward the Isthmus, there is Boeotia and Attica, separated from each other by Mounts Cithaeron and Parnes. Crossing into the Peloponnesus, there is the broken region of Achaia on the north, with the plain of Elis to the southwest and Argolis to the southeast. The central district is Arcadia, and the southern end of the peninsula is made up of Laconia and Messenia, separated by the towering Tay- getos range. These are only the main divisions. There 5 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION are scores of smaller ones, all more or less separated from each other. The rest of the modern Greek world is made up for the most part of a large number of islands, and the coastal regions of Egypt, and European and Asiatic Turkey. Generally speaking, then, the home of the Greek race consists of a host of small habitation-districts, separated from each other by more or less impassable barriers of sea or land. Some of these are coastal regions along the eastern waters of the Mediterranean; some are islands; some are fertile districts on the European mainland, sepa- rated from each other by great chains of precipitous mountains. This is particularly true in the Peloponnesus. This half of the peninsula is composed of a series of tiny, fertile valleys or plains, marked off from each other by enormous walls of barren and rocky mountains, almost or wholly impassable, except for a few narrow passes, in themselves sufficiently difficult. Perhaps nothing impresses the traveler through the Morea more than the roughness of the country and the difiiculty of access from one region to another. The Knes of railroad are one long succession of windings and twistings, of ascents and descents, with only occasional stretches of comparatively level track as one or another of the plains is reached. From Tripolis to Bilali (the branch station for Megalopolis) is 41.2 kilo- meters, or 25.6 miles, mostly down grade. The schedule time for passenger trains is one hour and fifty minutes. The little districts lying between these mighty barriers are often very alluring and of great fertility, but the great areas of the kingdom which are comprised in the barriers themselves are barren and inhospitable in the extreme. The effects of this peculiar environment on the Greek 6 Digitized by Microsoft® Q Z < J D m a: H s o < X Ed > b o u Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT race, which are of especial importance in the present inves- tigation, are in the main twofold — the effect on the occu- pations of the people, and the effect on the national char- acter. First, as regards occupations. Greece is of necessity primarily an agricultural country. There are a few mineral resources (see page 67), but they have never attained any great importance. Mining and manu- factures have never enjoyed a large development. The difficulties of communication, above noted, have had the effect of limiting the market, and this, as Adam Smith pointed out,* is one of the greatest hindrances to division of labor and hence to the development of industry. On the other hand, however, in the sheltered valleys and on the fertile uplands agricultural pursuits find a suitable field, and the vine, the olive tree, and the wheat plant have always flourished, furnishing an easy subsistence for a not too dense population. On the mountain slopes flocks of sheep and goats browse, furnishing materials for clothing as well as the comparative luxuries of milk, butter and cheese, and occasionally meat. It is comparatively easy to secure the bare necessities of life in Greece. But a strictly agricultural country is always threatened with over-population. By the law of Malthus, unless there is a steady improvement in the arts of living the population will always be pressing on the limits of subsistence. And in Greece, in the absence of industry, there has not been a sufficient improvement in the arts of agriculture to provide for the natural increase of the population. By the natural configuration of the country each small habitation-district is closely confined within itself. Any gradual extension of the territorial limits by a process of * Wealth of Nations, Book I., Chapter 3. 7 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION slow individual migration by short stages is absolutely- prohibited. But the Greeks are a prolific race and there has consequently always been a surplus population, which has been forced to find an outlet for its activities in some new region apart from its native soil. On account of the very broken coast hne of the peninsula, a great proportion of the habitation-districts of the mainland, as well as of the islands, border on the sea. The result is that this surplus population has very largely taken to navigation and commercial pursuits, so that from time immemorial the Greeks have been a maritime people, the traders and carriers of the Levant. But many of the habitation-districts are in the interior and do not touch the sea, and from these too the surplus inhabitants have been forced to wander from their home fields, and either follow their low-country brothers out on the wide seas, or find a home on the shores of some distant land. Consequently in ancient times we find colonies set- ting out from Greece for widely scattered regions, and like- wise more recently, individually and in groups, Greeks have established themselves in sections of the Mediterra- nean lands, and in many more distant parts of the world's surface. But though coming from agricultural regions and pur- suits, the Greek does not usually follow that line of occupa- tion in his adopted home. Especially in the Levant, the Greek is much superior in energy and business ability to the native peoples among whom he finds himself placed, and he has consequently found it to his advantage to devote himself to commercial rather than agricultural activities, with the result that he succeeds in building up a much greater fortune in his new home than he could ever have Digitized by Microsoft® THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT hoped to acquire in the fatherland. Today, the most prosperous business men of Alexandria, Cairo, Smyrna and Constantinople are largely Greeks, and even as far as Persia they are found in control of all important business. More isolated cases of successful Greek merchants are to be found in cities almost all over the world. Stated suc- cinctly, Greece has always been a splendid place to g o away from to make a fortune, and the very to p ographica l peculiarities which have forced the Greeks to wander, hav e produced a race admirably fitted to secure the desired end in new fiel ds. Emigration from Greece is no new thing. But in times past the Greek emigrant always looked forward to eventual return, if possible, to his home land, where he might settle down in peace and quietude and spend the declining years of his life in the restful enjoy- ment of his acquired wealth. The ancient Greek colony was an aTroiKux and the colonist was an oirotKos — one who was away from home.* The tie with the mother city was a very close one and the highest aim of the ancient colony was to glorify and enrich the community from which it came. If in many cases the oifspi;ing outgrew and some- times rebelled against the parent, it was a later and some- what exceptional development. , The attitude of the Greek emigrant toward his ho mi^ land baa rpTnaiTipd v ery sim ilar up to very recent times. How much of change the last few yea;rs have witnessed will appear later. The second eiFect of the physical environment which is of special importance in the present discussion is the effect on the national character of the Greeks. It would be overstraining a good point to claim that all the intri- cacies of the Hellenic character are due to the natural * Keller, Colonization, p. Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION surrounding. There are doubtless many other influences in the racial composition of the Greeks themselves and in their contact with other races which have tended to mold their character. Yet it cannot be doubted that the topog- raphy of the country has had a profound influence in shaping the moral and intellectual features of the people. The same barriers which prevented or impeded commercial and industrial development, also forbade social communi- cation and interrelation between the different groups of the population. Those rugged mountain chains and stretches of stormy sea made impossible any free and con- tinuous play of social forces and interchange of social ideals. Just as there could be no gradual and impercep- tible mingling of the blood of the various groups, so there could be no common participation in friendly inter- course. Consequently, instead of an amalgamated Greek race spread over the various parts of the kingdom, there was a congeries of small kin-groups, having each its inde- pendent existence, meeting oftener for war than for other more peaceful intercourse. This of necessity fostered differences, jealousies, and misunderstandings. What other forces tending in the same direction there may have been in the misty ancestry of the race, it is impossible to say. But however caused, today, as well as in ancient times, one of the most pronounced features of the Greek character is a factiousness, a sectionalism, a clannishness, an inability to take the point of view of one's neighbor, which has extended beyond the tribal hmits to the domain of personal relations and individual character, making it very difficult for Greeks to unite in any common enter- prise. The traveler whose boyhood study of ancient Greek 10 Digitized by Microsoft® THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT history has impressed him with the importance of the frequent wars between Lacedemonians, Spartans, Arca- dians, et al., is astonished to learn by personal visitation how limited is the actual territory of the several diminutive "kingdoms" with the names of which he is so familiar. When one reflects that the whole lot of them are included in a territory of about the same area as the state of West Virginia, he realizes that no one of them can be very large. The tribal wars are a thing of the past ; roads, railroads, and steamboats are beginning to make communication between different parts of the kingdom much easier, but the old factionalism remains a prominent feature of the Greek character, and has an intimate bearing on the subject of the present investigation. The foregoing facts, not at all unfamiliar as they are, and thus so briefly stated, are yet of fundamental importance to a thorough understanding of Greek emigration, and serve as a basis for the present study. Various illustrations and applica- tions will develop from time to time. 11 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER II National Character IN trying to form an estimate of modern Greek life and character from the writings of recent travelers one is very quickly impressed with the discouraging lack of unanimity in the opinions expressed by different observers of apparently equal trustworthiness. It would be hard to find a subject on which such absolutely contradictory opinions are expressed with a greater degree of positive- ness than that of the modern Greeks. Following are a few typical sentences : "When it is of importance to know the exact truth the Greek can be trusted quite as much as the average Ameri- can." The Greek priest is "poor always, superstitious usually, ignorant often, he is without exception sincere."* "Taken as a whole the Greeks are a moral and orderly people."t "Cowards, bearers of false witness and liars are common national types." "The Greek race is unworthy of the sympathy of honest and brave men."$ "There may be great piety in Greek homes but the visitor sees none of it."§ "From all that I have been able to learn, I cannot have the least hesitation in asserting that family life, the comer stone of social morality, has maintained itself in a much *The Modern Greek, W. A. Elliott, Chautauquan, 43: 144. ■j-Life and Travel in Modern Greece, T. D. Seymour, Scribner's, 4:46. J Greece and Its People, Saturday Review, 84:456. § Monasteries and Religion in Greece, J. P. Mahaffy, Ohwutvmgwm, 9:1. 13 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER purer state in Greece than in the other countries of southern Europe."* Lord Byron himself said, "The Greeks are perhaps the most depraved and degraded people under the sun, uniting to their original vices both those of their oppressors and those inherent in slaves."t "No motive appeals more strongly to the modern Greek than the desire to be worthy of those he believes to be his ancestors All the traditions of a glorious past are moulded into the fabric of his little state The new Hfe and its language, as well as the new state, is a reem- bodiment of the old."t "Now to the modern Greek himself this feeling (of senti- mentally linking the new Greece with the old) is utterly unnatural, and indeed hardly intelligible The Hellenic past beyond that (the historical Greek church) is infinitely more remote and unreal to him than it is to ourselves The whole play is largely a farce in his eyes. The enthusiastic Philhellene is a benevolent mad- man to him, but a madman whom it is worth while to humor. "§ As the former of these last two quotations was written in 1897 and the latter in 1885 we perhaps ought to make allowance for a slight change in the attitude of the Greek on this matter, due to twelve years of tutelage under the benevolently mad Philhellene. * Character, Condition and Prospects of the Greek People, Western Review, 63:345. t Quoted in The Spoilt Child of Europe, R. W. Hanbury, Nine- teenth Century, 6 : 928. }The Modem Greek as a Fighting Man, Benj. Ide Wheeler, North American Review, 164:609. § Ancient and Modern Greek, W. C. Lawton, A tlantic, 56 : 399. 18 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION This variety of opinions is undoubtedly due in part to this same ardent Philhellenism which inspires so many travelers to classic lands. In the mind of the typical pil- grim, especially of a generation or two ago, anything Greek was shrouded in a romantic mist of glory. The words, actions and avocations of the modern peasant were regarded through the rainbow glasses of a glorious tradi- tion, and the effusions of the ever present guide ranked for historical accuracy with the writings of Herodotus. Set side by side with a description written from this point of view, an unbiased statement of the cold, bare facts must of necessity seem sadly inharmonious. But there is a more fundamental reason than this for the discrepancy. The very diversity of life and interest which has been noted above, has produced a diversity of character. As are the Greeks of one region, so are they not of another. It is almost impossible to make any general statements in regard to the Greek character against which a host of exceptions will not rise in protest. And this is true, not only of the race as a whole, but of individuals. One finds the strangest mixture of contra- dictory qualities manifesting themselves under different circumstances in the same person. At one moment one feels his heart sweUing with admiration for the modern Greek as one of the finest types in the world. The next, seeing him from a different angle, he feels that he is abso- lutely despicable. Accordingly, in the ensuing considera- tion of modern Greek character, it must be borne in mind that the effort is made to picture the people as a whole. Anyone familiar with a number of Greeks will be able to find individuals whose lives and character will gainsay almost every statement that shall be made. U Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER This diversity of character has undoubtedly been aug- mented by the checkered career of the Greek race in the last twenty centuries and the various admixtures of foreign blood to which the racial stock has been submitted. This brings us to a matter about which there has been endless discussion of a more or less passionate nature — the ques- tion of the physical descent of the modern from the ancient Greeks. To a clear understanding of this subject a brief survey of the history of the race from the time of the Roman conquest is essential. A hundred years before the beginning of the Christian era, under Roman domination, the population of Greece, already largely composed of slaves, was undergoing a further degradation. Alien invaders came in and the old stock was dispersed. This process continued until about the middle of the third century A. D., when the invasions of the Goths marked the beginning of a long series of inundations from the north. The Goths were followed by the Vandals, the Avars, and the Slavs, and finally by the great flood of Albanians, whose influence on the racial stock was the most lasting of any. For centuries Greece was the shuttlecock of foreign conquerors. The Romans and the barbarians were followed by the French and the Venetians. Finally, about 1460, the Turks got complete possession of the land, and then began three and a half centuries of oppression more grinding and terrible than anything that had gone before. Every imaginable indig- nity was heaped upon the miserable denizens of the once glorious land. The crowning insult was the child tax, by which one fifth of all the male Christian children in Greece were taken away to Constantinople, to become servants, clerks and janissaries for the Turk. The 15 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION strongest, healthiest and most intelligent children were always chosen, and the tax was so oppressive that it caused many to become Mohammedans, while others reached a pitch of degradation where they welcomed the tax as a means of saving their children from starvation. During all this period the Greeks in Egypt, Asia Minor and Syria were suffering like misfortunes under the Arabs and the various successive masters of these lands. At last, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, the spirit of independence awoke, and in 1821 began the long struggle which seven years later culminated in the freedom of Greece from the Turkish yoke. The task of recon- struction was a difficult one. Athens was in ruins, scarcely any of the houses even having roofs. A new state had to be created from nothing but ashes. As there was no royal family in existence, a ruler had to be chosen. Capo d' Istria was first made president, but he proved unequal to the position and was assassinated in 1831. Next a Bavarian boy of seventeen was called to become king, and ruled as King Otho until 1862, when he too was deposed. Then George of Denmark, a brother of the dowager queen, Alexandra of England, was called to the throne, and has managed to hold his position up to the present time. His cool, even nature proved a valuable counter- poise to the excitability of his subjects. But his task was a difficult one, and progress was so slow that in 1888 the historian Cox wrote:* "That man must be sanguine indeed who can bring himself to think that during the years that have passed (since the deposition of Otho) the evils which affect Greek society have been attacked at their roots The old * Cox, General History of Greece, p. 670. 16 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER faults of the Greek character still produce their evil fruit of personal corruption, of reckless place-hunting, of selfishness, faction, jealousy and slander. The memory of a great past still leads to talking rather than action ; and the close of half a century of independence leaves the Greeks much where they were when the first years of freedom seemed to give promise of better things." The very considerable progress, both intellectual and material, which has been made since that time reflects a great deal of credit upon both sovereign and subjects. With these facts in view there have yet been plenty of writers to take both sides of the race controversy. Out of the voluminous literature on the subject the following opinions may be quoted: "I am unable, for one, to accept the theory that the modern Greeks are in any real sense either the true repre- sentatives of the ancient Greek race or the repository of its traditions."* "Living in the midst of the same surroundings, with the same climate, the same needs, and the same occupa- tions, the Greeks have retained many of the peculiarities of their ancestors. The foreign blood which runs in their veins has been thoroughly assimilated."t Perhaps the strongest advocate of the unity of the modern with the ancient race is an Itahan, Dr. G. Nico- lucci, whose work is reviewed by J. B. D. in the Anthropo- logical Remew (6:154). He concludes that in physical and moral characteristics the Greeks of today are not *The Thessalian War of 1897, Charles Williams, Fortnightly Review, 67:959. f Life and Travel in Modern Greece, T. D. Seymour, Scribner's, 4:46. 17 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION degraded from the happiest days of the ancients. "An- thropology .... proclaims the Greeks of today legitimate descendants of that people who fiUed the world with its name and glory." But the bulk of authority, including such names as Cox, Professor Fallmerayer, A. L. Koeppen, Dr. Hyde Clark, Benjamin Ide Wheeler and W. A. Elliott, is on the other side. Professor Fallmerayer went so far as to claim that the Hellenic blood was completely annihilated. Perhaps the most trustworthy summary is that given by Prof. William Z. Ripley in his Races of Europe, Chapter XV. "The modern Greeks are a very mixed people. There can be no doubt of this from a review of their history. In despite of this, they still remain distinctly true to their original Mediterranean ancestry. This has been most convincingly proved in respect of their head form. .... There can be no doubt that in Asia Minor, at least, the word Greek is devoid of any racial significance. It merely denotes a man who speaks Greek, or else one who is a Greek Catholic, converted from Mohammedanism." The unbiased traveler in modern Greece can hardly fail to be converted to the belief in a serious admixture. Albanian settlements are frequent in many districts of Greece. Eleusis, the home of the ancient Mysteries, is now an Albanian town. Within two hours' walk of Athens, I stroUed into the little village of Kamatero. I entered the coffee-house and sat down for a little conversation with the host. Noticing that he spoke in a strange tongue to his wife, I asked him what it was. He repUed: "Albanian. But not true Albanian. We in the village here are all 'half-tongues.' " In Messenia there is a large 18 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER Albanian population. When the railroad was put through between Zevgalatio and Kalonero, there was a discussion between a Greek village and an Albanian one as to the name of a station which lay midway between the two, ydth the result that the present station building bears on one end the name "^tos," and on the other "Soulima." It is almost inconceivable in the face of such evidence, and in remembrance of the frequent invasions to which Greece was subjected for so many centuries, that there should not have been a very profound admixture of foreign blood. While most modern Greeks deny this vehemently, it is nevertheless no uncommon thing to find a Greek who admits that the race is a badly mixed lot, though he usually excepts his own locality. It is certainly hard to find any great number of modern Greeks who in physical characteristics suggest the classic type. There are a number of fairly distinct types to be observed today. One of the commonest is of a fleshy habit, with rather broad and heavy features, and a nose large and almost bulbous. As regards anthropology, the modern Greek is more broad headed than the ancient, whom both Nicolucci and Ripley agree to have been dolichocephalic, with an index of about 75.7. According to the latter, "The cephalic index of modern living Greeks ranges with great constancy about 81." Dolichocephaly is especially prevalent in Thessaly and Attica, while brachycephaly is more abundant to the north, particularly in Epirus. About Corinth, where there is Albanian mix- ture, the index rises above 83. On the whole the Pelo- ponnesus is said to have best preserved the early dohcho- cephaly. Modem Greeks are decidedly brunet, perhaps more so than the ancients, though we can not go as far 19 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION as one author who has attempted to prove that the ancient Greeks were blonds on the basis of the fact that the gods were usually represented as of fair complexion. He argues that the gods would undoubtedly represent the type of the race and that therefore the majority of the population must have been blond. The absurdity of such a course of reasoning appears when we remember that the modern Greek has a profound admiration for blondness, because it is so rare, and it is very probable that the ancients represented their gods in this way for the same reason. In regard to the pigmentation of the eyes, the brunet type of the modern Greek is frequently varied with blue or gray. In stature the modem Greek is intermediate between the Turks, and the Albanians and Dalmatians, about 1.65 meters or 5 feet and 5 inches. The character- istic face is orthognathous, oval, rather narrow and high, though as observed above, in regard to features there is great variation. But whatever may be said in regard to the physical descent, there can be no doubt that spiritually the modern Greeks are the direct inheritors of the ancients. A familiarity with the modern people brings countless illustrations of the similarity of thought and character between the old and the new, and clarifies many a dim passage in ancient history. This spiritual identity has been taken by some writers as a proof of physical unity. It should rather serve as an illustration of the permanency of custom, language, and habit of thought, which enables national character to survive, while the physical basis on which it rests is slowly but profoundly changing. The modern Greek is still a wanderer, adventurous, devoted 20 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER to a sea-faring life. He has "that peculiar mingling of caution and daring supplemented with resourcefulness and enterprise, that make the ideal sailor."* He is still very inquisitive, a great talker, as eager as ever to "tell or to hear some new thing." He will make a long story, illus- trated with emphatic gestures, out of the very simplest occurrence, and two Greeks are never at a loss for some- thing to talk about. Greece, particularly Athens, is flooded with newspapers. It is said that Athens publishes more daily newspapers than New York. They contain a good deal of news, but they also contain a considerable amount of scurrilous abuse of each other and of various public personages, which is highly pleasing to the Greek palate. The Greeks share many characteristics with other south European races. They are passionate, quick-tempered and excitable, though their impetuosity does not so often lead to serious crimes as in the case of the Italians. They are voluble and very fond of noise. To see a crowd of men gathered round a card table one would think that they were on the very point of a bloody hand-to-hand encounter. The cards are slammed down on the table with the greatest violence, fists are shaken in faces, and such epithets as "thief," "liar," and "scoundrel" circulate freely. But in point of fact the players are on just as friendly terms as a couple of northerners calmly discussing the prospect of rain the next day. This fondness of the Greek for noise is of course greatest if he makes it himself. It may be mere vociferation. It takes more shouting for a couple of boatmen to bring their bark to the gangway of a steamer than an Anglo-Saxon would require to * The Modern Greek, W. A. Elliott, Chautauquan, 43: 144. 21 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION manoeuver a fleet, while on an occasion like the arrival of a big steamer in the Pirseus, when there are fifty boats struggling for the patronage, the efiFect is like a very Babel let loose. But it may also be music. The Greeks are beyond doubt a very musical people. The cabman on his box, the bootblack at his stand, the clerk behind the counter, and the shepherd on the hillside are alike liable at any moment to burst forth into song. The visitor to the prison on the hill back of Patras is pathetically impressed with this fact as he sees a group of prisoners seated around a table, singing away the afternoon to the accompaniment of a guitar. The real native music is of a strictly Oriental type, weird, minor melodies, pitched in a high key and sung in a nasal voice, with various grunts and groans, all quite meaningless and often ludicrous to a western ear. Here, too, volume is an essential. One of the printed rules in one of the hotels in Tripolis is, "Guests are not allowed to sing in their rooms." But when trained in Occidental music the Greeks produce very fine effects, both vocally and instrumentally. The military bands that one hears so frequently in Athens are well worth listening to. The native songs are almost all passionate love songs, quite out of accord with the national marriage customs. To hear some dark-haired dandy, "his eyes in a fine frenzy rolling," sing in an impassioned voice. By fate men wander far, some east, some west, The eyes see other places, new and strange; In some new tree the doves rebuild their nest ; The heart alone of all things knows no change,* ' Freely translated from a popular song. 22 Digitized by Microsoft® NATIONAL CHARACTER one would never suspect that at that very minute the singer might be carrying on negotiations with two or three different fathers to see which would pay him the highest price to take his daughter off his hands. The Greeks are also very fond of dancing. The folk dances are generally performed by men individually, though sometimes two or even more will unite, and occa- sionally a man will lead one or more women through the dance, the man and the woman next him holding the oppo- site ends of a handkerchief. The movements differ in various localities, but in general consist of a series of attitudes, poses and slow gyrations, accompanied at times with snapping the fingers or shouts. In the cities the society circles have taken up mixed dances, waltzes, two- steps, etc., which under the existing social conditions is a change not wholly desirable or beneficial. The Greeks are by nature courteous, polite and hos- pitable. Strangers are regarded with frank curiosity and are subjected to all sorts of personal inquiries, in regard to age, business, destination, marital condition and a host of other topics. But they are welcomed, and kindly treated. A Greek will gladly give up a whole day to the entertainment of a stranger in whom he is interested. The Greek language contains many graceful salutations and greetings. One of them, "&pt apTOi vSiop KaBwfUj, iriXos HTiros OUTCOS KVUtV TldlffU ivvolo) KaToXafj^pdvtD fpyov, epyaaux These words have been chosen with care that there should not be the slightest difference in significance beween the terms. It will be observed that some of the low words are corruptions of high words, but more come from an entirely different root, and show no connection. This list might be extended almost indefinitely, but the examples will suffice. This reduphcation of words nat- urally applies mainly to words expressing some common, everyday idea. In the case of the more unusual, abstruse or refined conceptions, which are used exclusively by people of some education or culture, the same distinction does not exist. These two grades, of course, frequently overlap both in writing and conversation. There are extensions in both directions. In looking up words in the dictionary one finds 53 Low Gkeek Exqush EauivALEST iK)(a.v understand cyydpL moon SovXeid work Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION some of a highly classical flavor, which he might search long to find in daily use, though their more vulgar equiva- lents may be of very frequent occuri-ence. On the other hand, the very uncultured and ignorant use a degraded language sufficiently distinct as almost to be classed as a third grade. But in this respect, Greek is not wholly different from other languages. Perhaps no word better illustrates the variety of elegance in the expression of a common idea than the word for donkey. The good word is "ovos," the vulgar word is "yaSepos" or "yatScpos." But in common use this is changed to "yaCSovpi," and as like as not the peasant will hitch on his favorite diminutive ending and call it "yaiSovpaKi." Another good example is the word for steamboat. The high word is " ar/xoTrXoDv " or more commonly " dT/*oirX£tov. " But the word almost universally used in conversation, so low that it frequently is not given in the dictionaries, comes from the French "vapeur" or Italian "vapore," and is " Pairopi." In many sections this is further corrupted and becomes "iro/xirdpt." In conversation with an intelligent Greek this matter came up, and he took a piece of paper from his pocket and, with only a moment's reflection, wrote down ten equivalents for the word "stone," and seven for the phrase "he went." In this case, however, there would probably be some slight distinction in meaning between some of the words. Even to so common a word as the indefinite article "a" or "an," this distinction extends. This in Greek is the word "one" and is properly declined, "eis, ftot, iv," and so one finds it in the books and news- papers. But no one ever thinks of using it so in conver- sation; there it is declined, "Ivasor evds, /M.ia, tva." But this is really a matter of grammar, and brings us to the con- sideration of that topic. 54 Digitized by Microsoft® RELIGION AND LANGUAGE The grammar of the modern Greek language is theo- retically very similar to the ancient, though some super- fluities such as the dual number have been dropped, and the genitive case very largely takes the place of the dative. In writing, the rules of grammar are adhered to with considerable fidelity, but in conversation Greek suffers the changes that every highly inflected language is liable to. There is a constant tendency to reduce the inflection of both verbs and nouns. Unnecessary inflectional termina- tions are dropped. Every possible noun is put into the neuter and is made to end in "o" or "i." Only three cases, the nominative, genitive and accusative, are used, and in the neuter the first and last of these are the same. Agreement between an adjective and a noun, and other fine points of grammar are carelessly treated, and the constant tendency is to reduce the language to a less cumbersome, more convenient means of expression. In some ways the efforts of the scholars to force the language back into its classical form are commendable. Yet it is very questionable whether it is wise to try to stem the current of natural development, and it seems highly prob- able that the result will be, instead of purifying the every- day language of the people, merely to make the resources of modern Greek literature comparatively unavailable to the lower classes. The pronunciation of modem Greek differs considerably from the Erasmian pronunciation which is taught in the American schools, and which arouses the extreme ridicule of modem Greeks. The greatest variation is in the vowel sounds. "a" has but one sound, corresponding to the English "a."* "c" and "oi"' are pronounced "e. ^ "17, ((„ " * As in "father." 55 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION "i," "u," and the dipthongs "a" and "ot" all have the same sound, the English long "e," the commonest vowel sound in the Greek language. "o" and " X z o H Ei. O O & a z o a; < oa O O n Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS the father for the use of his boy for a fixed term of years. Sometimes he agrees to pay the boy's transportation, and give him a certain yearly salary as long as he works for him. These contracts are almost always oral, to evade the contract labor law. As soon as the boys arrive in this country, they are taken to the rooms of the padrone, which from this time on are to be their "home," and are at once put to work in the shop. Thus begins a period of practical slavery. The hours of work are very long — ^usually from six or seven o'clock in the morning until ten or eleven at night, or even longer.* In the large cities it is said that some of the padrones, to save rent, have the sleeping quarters of the boys at long distances from their pilace of business, so that the boys have to walk nearly an hour to their work in the morning and back again in the evening. This time is taken from their sleep. As a rule the boys have to work every day in the year, though some padrones give their boys half a day, or even a day, off per week, and some close the shops on Greek holidays. Mr. Seraphic says that when he has won the confidence of the boys, they often plead with tears in their eyes for him to have the "King" or President close the shops on Sundays. The sleeping quarters are usually sadly overcrowded. Three or four boys are kept in a small room, and some- times made to sleep in one bed. One little boy told me that in the house where he was kept there were fifty men, and they had to sleep five in a bed. The rooms are kept in a filthy condition, and there is no ventilation, so that the air becomes extremely vile. The boys usually do their own cooking and take turns at it, two by two. The two * Omaha Daily Bee, June 10, 1908. 179 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION boys who are appointed to do the cooking for the next day have to stay up the night before and wash the cloths from the shop. The breakfast is a very light one. The two boys who are left at home prepare a quantity of food in the morning. Half of it is taken to the shop for lunch, where the boys are compelled to eat hurriedly in the inter- vals of trade, in a rear or basement room. The other half of the food is warmed up for supper. This food is probably preferable to what the boys would get at home, at least in variety, but falls far short of the American idea of adequate nutriment. The charge is sometimes made that the bosses purposely refuse to allow the boys to attend the night schools in order to prevent their learning enough to become dissatisfied. Others say that the boys simply cannot be spared from the business. In either case the result is the same — the boys are prevented from coming in touch with American life, and learning American ways of doing things. The restricted Hfe of these boys, and their close confinement to the shop and the rooms are appalling. Many of the boys endeavor to improve their minds, and one often sees those who are not working read- ing a Greek newspaper, or even spelhng out the words in some simple English book. As a rule they are a patient, uncomplaining lot, though when one talks to them of their parents and their home country, the deep homesickness down in their hearts finds plain expression in their faces in many instances. The long hours, poor food, bad air and stooping posture of their work drive many of them into consumption and other pulmonary troubles. The wages of these boys are variously stated. Mr. Seraphic places the average yearly wage at from $120 to $175. Others put it considerably higher. (See pages 180 Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 151 and 160.) Probably taking the whole country into consideration the average wage of all boys employed in these shops would be in the neighborhood of $200, not including board and lodging, which are also furnished by the padrone.* Probably the bulk of these earnings is sent home to relatives in Greece. If the boys were allowed to keep the tips which they receive their earnings would be much greater. But in the great majority of cases this is not done.f Sometimes the original agreement with the boy or his parents provides that the boss shall keep the tips; sometimes he merely takes them. In some padrone houses the boys are searched when they come back from work, and any money they may have in their clothes is taken from them. So that the generous-hearted patron, who thinks that his extra nickel is helping along the in- dustrious Kttle boy who has shined his shoes so well, in the majority of cases is merely contributing to the already large profits of the boss, and enabling him to extend his questionable business. The total amount of these tips is considerable. Mr. Seraphic states that they run from 40 cents per day per boy in small places, to $1 or $2 per day per boy in the large cities. This is often enough to pay the salary of the boy and go a good ways towards covering his expenses also. The bosses are said to derive a clear profit of from $300 to $500 per year on each boy. The tipping system, combined with the abundant supply of cheap labor, is the key note of the success of the boot- blacking business in this country as conducted by the Greeks. Summing up this industry among the Greeks, Mr. * Omaha Daily Bee, June 9 and 10, 1908. fDo. 181 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Seraphic says, "The conditions now, although an improve- ment over what they were four years ago, are still so bad as to deserve unquaUfied condemnation." The question naturally arises. Why do the boys stand it? The answer has already been hinted at, and may be summed up in one word — Ignorance. These boys have no understanding of laboring conditions or rates of wages in this country, and with their lack of contact with Americans, are unable to get any. In general their condition, except in the matter of length of hours, is as good as they would expect on the other side. To be sure, the indoor work in this country is much worse for them than the outdoor life which similar occupations involve in Greece, but they do not know enough to know it. Their clothing is much better here than there, and their wages seem munificent. In fact they excuse the bosses for keeping their tips on the ground that the wages are high and expenses heavy. The padrones intimidate them by telling them that they are all violators of the law, and that if they say anything the officials will get track of them, and put them in prison or send them home. So thoroughly are they imbued with this idea of silence that it is almost impossible to get them to make any complaints against their employers, and time after time attempts to get at the true condition of affairs and secure the boys justice, in various parts of the country, have been foiled by the absolute impossibiHty of getting any evidence from the only available source — the boys them- selves. When put on the stand, the boys flatly refuse to answer questions, and say that though their right hands were cut off they would not talk. This reticence is partly due to the suspicion of the motives of the investigators which the bosses have instilled into their minds, and partly 183 Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS to a peculiar loyalty to the padrone and faithfulness to the terms of the agreement that characterize the whole class. And when a boy does get a command of the English lan- guage and a familiarity with the ways of the land, instead of turning traitor to the system, he simply goes into busi- ness on his own account, and puts the experience of his past years to profit. The statements of the padrones to the boys, that they are all law breakers, are well founded. Mr. Seraphic says that nine out of ten of these boys are in the country in violation of law. The two clauses of the law, which are particularly involved, are the. provision regarding con- tract laborers and the clause refusing admission to alien children under sixteen years of age unless accompanied by one or both of their parents. In evading both these laws the Greeks display their characteristic cunning and unscrupulousness. As stated above, agreements between padrones and parents are almost always verbal. Any writing that has to be done is generally entrusted to a third person. The fact of the agreement is so carefully concealed that it is almost impossible to get any evidence of it. The boys are thoroughly coached before landing, and testify positively that they have no promise of work of any kind, but will take the first honest j ob they can find. The age law is evaded usually in two ways — ^by fraudu- lent relationships or by false afiidavits of age. Both are extremely difficult to detect. A crowd of Greeks starting from some interior village can easily arrange a scheme of relationship which will baffle the inspectors and answer every purpose. Oftentimes a boy will state that he is going to join a father, uncle or brother in some city of the United States, giving the full name and address. 183 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Correspondence sent to the address given is promptly answered, and the statements of the boy are substantiated in full. There is nothing to do but to let the boy in. One of the veteran inspectors told me of such a case, where the boy claimed that a certain man in St. Louis was his father. Authorities on Ellis Island at once telegraphed to the St. Louis man, asking whether the boy's statement was true, and received an affirmative answer. The boy was allowed to go on. But the suspicions of the authori- ties remained active, and my informant eventually made a trip to St. Louis to investigate the case. It was dis- covered that the presumptive father was no relation at all, but a padrone who was importing boys for his shop. The matter of the age of Greek boys has caused a great deal of trouble to the authorities in this country, not only on account of the immigration laws, but also on account of the child labor laws of various states. The boys them- selves will swear to whatever age is necessary to secure their admission or to make their employment legal in the place they are living in. If the minimum age of employ- ment is fourteen years, it is amazing how many Greek boys there will be just fifteen years of age. The expe- rience of officials in these cases has been such as to cause most of them to regard the affidavit of a Greek, in matters of this sort, as of absolutely no value whatever. Recourse has been had to the birth certificates sent from the officials in Greece, but these too have come to be regarded as wholly worthless. There is no official record of births kept in Greece, and the only source of authority as to the age of a child, is the baptismal certificate. But these are not kept with any degree of accuracy or uniformity. When the United States government wishes to ascertain 184 Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS the age of any Greek boy, the mayor of his village is asked to send a certificate. But this mayor is probably a personal friend of the family, or at any rate is anxious to please his constituency, and if he receives an intimation that the boy in question is supposed to be at least seven- teen years old, in a majority of cases he is ready to make the certificate out accordingly. One of the best-known Greeks in Lowell, a young man of high aims who is called on to do a great deal of interpreting, pulled out from his desk a big stack of yellow papers, all of which he said were false age certificates, and represented only a small part of what had come to him. Even a true certificate adds a year to a boy's age, for the Greeks in reckoning ages count the year upon which one has entered, instead of the one which he has completed. For these causes it is a very difficult matter to secure convictions on these counts. Nevertheless the strenuous efforts of the govern- ment to check this practice have not been wholly fruitless, and a number of convictions have been secured. For instance, Mr. Seraphic in his report mentions eighteen indictments in Chicago, on the grounds of conspiracy and violation of section 8 of the Act of March 3, 1903 (con- cerning those who bring in aliens not lawfully entitled to admission). Of these, eight cases resulted in convictions with fines of from $25 to $500 and from thirty to sixty days in jail. Nine cases were still pending. Many would-be violators of the law have also been detected at the ports of arrival and refused admission. (See page 116.) The report of the Commissioner-General of Immi- gration for 1904 (page 38) contains the following paragraph : [Violators of the contract labor law] "are divided into 185 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION two classes. There are those who are brought to do work in this country for less than similar laborers here would charge for the same work, and there are those who are brought in pursuance of what is popularly known as the 'padrone system' — ^in fact a system of peonage or slavery. A familiar instance of the latter class is found in the Greek bootblacking establishments scattered through our large cities, operated usually by Greek lads ranging from ten to eighteen years of age During the last four months of the year there arrived at the port of Boston alone 898 of these youths, 127 of whom were returned. .... The greatest care is exercised to stop these aliens and return them, both because of the inconsistency of the padrone system with those principles of freedom upon which our form of government is based, and because the importation of contract labor is forbidden." Our final judgment in regard to the padrone system can only be that it is a standing reproach to the Greek population of the United States, and a menace to the free labor principles of our country. Allied to the padrone system is the contract labor system as applied to the railroad laborers in the Middle West. Mr. Seraphic says that the majority of these laborers in Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas are imported in violation of the contract labor law. The system of procedure is somewhat as follows: A semi- Americanized Greek goes to a railroad company, and agrees to furnish a certain number of laborers. He then goes over to his own country and persuades fifty or one hundred men to accompany him back to America. He supplies them with prepaid tickets, and takes a mortgage on their property to the amount of two, three or four times the value of the 186 Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ticket. He then brings them with him back to America, and makes them work for him seven or eight months for nothing, to repay him for an outlay of probably not over $100 or $125 each. In some cases an importer, who has taken mortgages far in excess of the amount he has expended, will arbitrarily discharge a crowd of men two or three weeks after he has brought them over, to make room for another similar set. Those whom he has dis- charged must find work for themselves somewhere to pay off their mortgages. The Greeks display a strange faith- fulness in paying off debts of this kind, no matter how badly they have been treated, even if the agreement was simply oral. Other agents or "interpreters" pick up their men in this country, particularly in Chicago. The railroad company agrees to pay the interpreter a certain sum per man for a gang of forty or so men, and the inter- preter pays the men whatever he can get them for, usually sufficiently less to leave him a handsome margin of profit. Systems similar to the ones above described are in vogue in the fruit-peddling business in Illinois, and even in the factory industries of Lowell and the neighboring towns. In fact, one of the greatest indictments against the Greeks in this country — ^perhaps the greatest — is their habit of exploiting each other. When a Greek gets a certain mastery of American ways, the chances are that he will at once begin to put his acquirements to use in making money out of his less experienced countrymen. As has been seen, this may be done in a variety of ways. One of the immigration ofiicials in Omaha told me that the Greeks never missed an opportunity to press any advan- tage of this sort. If a Greek who knows a little English sees a policeman engaged in some altercation with a Greek 187 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION peddler or push-cart man, the former immediately encour- ages the officer to arrest the latter, and then oiFers to act as interpreter in order that he may get the fee. /This is of course an unimportant case, but it well illustrates the attitude of mind. In evading the laws which prohibit these nefarious prac- tices, the Greek shows himself a master of every trick and artifice. False affidavits, assumed names, and plain lying are all used with the greatest effect. There is a little book pubhshed in Greek in Patras which contains full instructions as to the proper answers to make to the in- quiries of the immigration authorities, in order to best secure admission. When it comes to the question in regard to any promise of employment, it informs the immi- grant that here is the place to be firm, and whatever the facts may be to put on a bold front, and answer that he has no idea of what he is going to do, but will take the first honest job he can find. A significant paragraph warns the immigrant to destroy the book before reaching the shores of America. It must not be assumed, however, because these prac- tices are characteristic of the race, that they are univer- sal. It is only justice to say that a large number of the more enlightened Greeks in this country are just as much opposed as anybody to these abuses, and are willing to do all in their power to stop them. The industries which have been described in the pre- ceding pages employ the great bulk of the Greeks in the United States. The class of occupations which ranks next in importance is that which we have seen exemplified in the case of Lowell, employment in factories. In these occupations the Greeks may be said to rank about on a 188 Digitized by Microsoft® ECONOMIC CONDITIONS level with the other nationalities among whom they work. Employers as a rule speak well of them as factory hands, though some of the factories in Maine have found them too excitable and unsteady to be good workers, and are turning them oflF. As far as the Greeks themselves are concerned, however, it would appear that factory employ- ment is the most disadvantageous of any of the charac- teristic occupations into which they enter in this country. It tends to crowd them together in unhealthy tenements, which they do not know how, or do not care, to keep in the most sanitary condition possible. It leads to the employ- ment of young girls in unhygienic factories. The close and dust-laden air proves disastrous to both old and young, accustomed as they are to the open air of their native fields and hillsides. In such employment there is not the same opportunity for advancement and material progress as there is when the Greek can employ his native talents in the prosecution of some independent business. In all these avocations, the Greeks display that remark- able adaptability and versatility which is so characteristic of the race. When it is remembered that practically all of them come from a purely pastoral or agricultural life, perhaps never having been in a city of 10,000 inhabitants, nor ever having engaged in any larger mercantile transac- tion than the sale of a few dollars' worth of farm produce, it is decidedly surprising to see them succeeding so well in the highly developed commercial life of our nation. Scattered over the country are small groups of Greeks engaged in a variety of miscellaneous occupations. On the shores of the Atlantic near Newport, and of the Pacific around San Francisco, are little settlements of Greek fishers. In Florida, with their headquarters at 189 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Tarpon Springs, is quite a colony of Greek sponge fishers, said to be the superiors in their line of any people in the world. The railroad workers who have already been mentioned in connection with the contract labor problem are a numerous body, and are considered very good work- men. In Utah there are a number of miners, while still further west, in California, the Greeks have become well established in the fruit-raising business. The steamships sailing to and from American ports carry a number of Greek firemen, and they are also employed in some sta- tionary plants on shore, where they are said to render excellent service. The number of Greek farmers in this country is sur- prisingly small, when their origin is considered. There are a few farmers around Boston, and very probably in other parts of the country, but they are so few as to attract no attention. The reasons for this state of affairs are probably that farming in this country as a rule re- quires a considerable amount of capital, and that no Greek has so far made a conspicuous success in this de- partment. One reason suggested by a thoughtful Greek seems to have a good deal of weight — namely, that igno- rance of the language makes it very difficult for a Greek to get a start in this direction, far away from others of his race. If a little farming colony of Greeks could once be well started there is every probability that it would succeed, and prosper, and increase. One enterprising Greek of Lowell, who has already been referred to, cherishes the idea of sometime securing a tract of land, say in Texas, and organizing such a colony. For the sake of the Greeks, as well as of our own country, it is to be hoped that this commendable plan will materialize. 190 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER IX Social Conditions TN whatever occupations the Greeks enter, the majority -'■ of them are successful, at least from a pecuniary point of view. This is due both to their native business ability and to their thrifty, and more than thrifty, abste- mious, habits of life. The earnings of the laboring class are not large. As we have seen, factory hands earn on the average about $9 per week; boys in the shoe-shining parlors, about $200 per year and their keep ; railroad laborers receive about $1.45 per day. The profits of men engaged in independent business of course vary, and any estimated average would have httle significance. But however small the yearly receipts may be, the Greek almost invariably manages to save part of them, usually about half. Part of this money is laid away, but a goodly share is sent home. Various attempts have been made to estimate the amount of money that passes in this way from America to Greece each year. This is a difficult thing to accom- plish owing to the fact that the remittances are made in many different forms, postal money orders, checks, drafts and American paper money. Statistics of these matters are not carefully kept in Greece. Mr. Horton states that a conservative estimate places the amount of money sent from America to Greece in 1903 at about $4,000,000 ; in 1904, about $3,000,000. The postmaster-general of Greece, about 1906, estimated this flow of money at about $8,000,000, but as his only certain basis of judgment was the amount of the single item of postal money orders, 191 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION which he reckoned as one-eighth of the total, his figure is hardly more than a shrewd guess. The director of the Tripolis branch of the Ionian Bank told me that the annual amount of money sent from America to Greece averaged in ordinary years about $4!,000,000, though in 1908 on account of the crisis it fell off considerably. The post ofiice in Tripolis received the following amounts in money orders from America in the years named; the approximate equivalent in American money is given : 1905 $18,383.00 1906 66,330.00 1907 54,453.00 1908 39,412.00 Mr. Charles E. Speare in an article in the North Ameri- can Review estimates the total amount of money sent from the United States to Greece in this way at $5,000,000, or an average of $50 per capita. This is the highest average remittance of any of the nationalities mentioned in the article, the figures given for the other races being as follows: Germans, $4.05; English and Irish, $7.14; Italians, $30.00 ; Slavs, $28.10 ; Russians, $14.80.* The career of many of the Greeks in this country is an interesting story of very rapid progress from penury to comparative affluence. The New York Times of December 16. 1907, gives an account of a Greek who came to St. Louis penniless, and started business as a push-cart man. In ten years he had amassed over $100,000 and left for his native land to start a bank. The individual story may or may not be authentic, but as a type it is true. Thirteen years ago a Greek immigrant landed in New York City * Quoted in the Report of the Ministry-at-Large, Lowell, Mass., 1907, page 8. 193 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS with one franc in his pocket. At that time there were only about 300 persons of his nationality in the city. For the first few months he worked in a laundry, and then went into the cigarette business for a few months more. By that time he had managed to save enough money to start a little importing business on his own account. His first shipment was a little oil, a case of cheese, and one or two other small items of like nature. He now has a flourishing importing and grocery business, with two stores on Madison Street, and was president of the Greek Orthodox Community when the Greeks of the city were united. Not all Greeks of course have as prosperous a career as this ; some do better, many worse. There are a few Greek firms in the country whose capital mounts well up into the millions, and there are many Greeks who are making the barest living. But practically every Greek in the country is self-supporting — either by his own labors or by the labors of others whom he controls. We have seen that in Chicago, Lowell, New York and Lincoln the Greeks are a negligible factor in the work of the various charitable organizations in these cities. The same condi- tions are found wherever inquiries are made. Even in the cities where there are the largest Greek colonies, applica- tions for relief from people of this race are almost un- known. Turning to the national aspect of this question we find the evidence the same. The publication of the Census Bureau on Paupers in Almshouses includes Greeks in the category "Other Nationalities," so that no information for our purposes can be secured from this volume. Through the courtesy of the officials of the Census Bureau, however, the complete set of the original schedules 193 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION on which this report is based, were placed at my disposal. The figures given are for paupers in almshouses on Decem- ber SI, 1903, when according to our estimate (see page 111) there were about 35,000 Greeks in the country. On examination of these schedules it very soon became evi- dent that it was a waste of time to look over the reports for states where the Greek population was small. But a careful examination was made of the reports of a number of states, particularly those in which the great part of the Greek population was known to be gathered. The results of this inquiry are as follows : Number of State Greek Paupers Alabama ..... None Arizona ...... None Arkansas ..... None California ..... 8 Illinois ...... None Colorado ..... None Connecticut ..... None Delaware ..... None Massachusetts ..... 2 Missouri ...... None New York ..... 1 The report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year 1905 (pages 60-62) gives a series of tables showing the nationality of aliens detained in the penal, reformatory and charitable institutions of the United States. The total number of inmates was 4!4!,985, of whom 103, or 0.2 per cent were Greeks. Of the Greeks twenty-one were in institutions for the insane, and forty- four in penal institutions. As according to our estimate there were in 1905 about 57,000 Greeks in the United States, this is a very creditable showing. 194 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS In discussing the question of dependence, however, it is essential to bear in mind the sex and age distribution of the immigrants. This has been considered on pages 112 and 118, where it was remarked that about 96 per cent of the Greek immigrants are males, and that nearly 90 per cent are between the ages of fourteen and forty-five. Add to this the fact that most of the remaining 10 per cent are boys under fourteen, brought over to do some form of productive labor, and it becomes evident that the body of Greek immigrants is an army of workers in the prime of life, with all the patently incapable indi- viduals weeded out by the severe selective processes of the immigration regulations. In such a body we should hardly expect to find a large proportion of dependents. Another circumstance tending to produce the same result is found in the fact that the great bulk of Greek immi- grants have been in this country less than five years. They have not had time to exhaust their youthful strength and energy, or to fall, in any large numbers, into disease or other misfortune. It is a well-known fact that the foreign-bom paupers in this country are almost wholly individuals who have been here a number of years. Of the foreign-born paupers in the United States in 1900 whose length of residence in the country was known, 96 per cent had been here ten years or more.* In fact, this point is so fundamental that Mr. William S. Rossiter, the chief clerk of the Census Bureau, in discussing the favor- able showing made by the Greeks in this respect, expressed the opinion that statistics in regard to the dependence of so recently immigrating a group of aliens as the Greeks ' Census Publications, Paupers in Almshouses, page 101. 195 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION were of practically no signilScance. That this is over- stating the case is shown by the fact that in a recent year 7 per cent of the Jewish immigrants to the entire United States applied for relief at the office of the United Hebrew Charities within a few months after their arrival. Yet there is no doubt that length of residence is of vital im- portance in determining the liability of aliens to fall into dependence in this country. In this connection it is in- structive to examine the individual records of the eleven Greek paupers who are reported in the census schedules. Eight of these eleven paupers were in Cahfornia insti- tutions. Here is a brief abstract of their record : C. S.J age 62, years in U. S. 30, fisherman, crippled, bed- ridden, paralytic. J. M., age 57, years in U. S. 10, fisherman, blind, bedridden, rheumatic. G. D., age 74, years in U. S. 53, miner, able-bodied. S. J., age 75, years in U. S. 44, sailor and odd-jobber, old and infirm, paralytic. C. D. B., age 73, years in U. S. 43, sailor and miner, crippled, old and infirm, rheumatic. A. M., age 64, years in U. S. 27, fisherman, incapacitated for labor. A. G., age 65, years in U. S. 7, fisherman, feeble-minded, crippled, bedridden. G. M., age 66, years in U. S. 30, laborer, crippled, old and infirm. The two Greek paupers in Massachusetts were in the State Hospital at Tewksbury. Following is their record : P. L., age 23, years in U. S. 1, laborer, crippled, maimed or deformed. N. R., age 40, years in U. S. 2, laborer, rheumatic. 196 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS The one pauper in New York was an able-bodied youth of seventeen, a confectioner, who had been in the United States two years. This is too small a body of data from which to draw any definite conclusions with safety. But as far as the evidence of these records goes, it all leads us to expect that when the Greeks have been in this country a generation or so, there will be a much larger proportion of them de- pendent upon public charity. Another striking fact about these paupers is that they were all males. This might be expected when we consider how large a proportion of the Greek population of this country is made up of males, but it suggests that if the time ever comes when the Greeks begin to emigrate by families so that a man must support a wife and several children in addition to himself, there will probably be an increase in the dependence of this race. 'An interesting bit of contributory evidence is fur- nished by the cases of the Irish and Germans, both of which races are popularly considered superior to the "newer immigrants," but both of which have been in the United States much longer than the Greeks, Italians, Slavs, etc. The report on Paupers in Almshouses, already referred to, gives (Table 7) a total of 32,136 foreign-born paupers in the almshouses of the United States. Of these 7,4!77 were of German origin, and 14!,923 were Irish. Anyone looking over the census schedules is forcibly struck by the continual recurrence of names be- longing to these two nationalities. These facts admit of two interpretations: first, that perhaps these races are not so much superior, at least in a financial way, to the southern races as we are inclined to think; second, that their much longer average period of residence has largely 197 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION increased their liability to dependence. There is probably a good deal of truth in both these explanations, but the latter is much the more important. To what extent the Greeks will follow in the footsteps of the older immigrants in the matter of dependence during the next thirty or forty years can only be conjectured. Whether they will have the ability, foresight and determination to lay up, in the years of prosperity, sufficient property to maintain themselves and their families during the period of old age which is bound to come, or the temporary exigencies of sickness and misfortune, is something which time alone can tell. It seems probable that the great majority of them will, unless the money sent home is allowed to cut too heavily into their savings. For the present, at any rate, we can say that the Greeks in America are distinctly a self-supporting race. This is due in part to the conditions of age, sex and length of residence which we have just been considering, in part to their business ability and thrift, and in part to their in- born scorn of public assistance. Unfortunately it is also due in part to the extremely abstemious habits of life of a large proportion of them. The living conditions of the Greeks have been briefly considered in the cases of Chicago, New York and Lincoln, and described in detail in the case of Lowell. These cities may be taken as typical in this respect, as they are in others, of the other Greek colonies in the United States. The almost entire absence of family life among the Greeks in this country has already been commented on. There are less than five per cent Greek women in this country, and while a few of the men have married American women, their number is inconsiderable. The habitual custom of life for people of this race is for a 198 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS group of men — four, five, six or more — to hire a room or a suite of rooms and use them as their common apartments. Part of the meals are frequently cooked in these rooms, and the rest — often all — of the food is secured outside at restaurants. Coming from the outdoor, village life of Greece these men have no understanding of the funda- mental rules of hygiene, and either do not know how, or do not care, to keep their rooms in decent condition. There is very little ventilation either by day or by night. The food is often meager and lacking in nourishment. As a result of these conditions there is a great deal of disease, particularly tuberculosis, among the Greeks. It is a very common thing to meet in Greece men who have been in America a few years and have had to return on account of ill health. These living conditions in America are well understood in Greece, and deter some from coming. In many cases, however, America gets more blame than it deserves. Tuberculosis is becoming a very serious disease in Greece, and many of the men who return from the United States in a tubercular condition, already had the disease, or a tendency towards it, when they left their native villages. These conditions are, of course, found at their worst in the crowded sections of the large cities, particularly in the factory colonies. As the Greeks become Americanized, or scatter out into the smaller places, their living condi- tions improve. One of the Orthodox priests received me in a home which was as neat and attractive as could be desired. The life of the laborers on the railroads of the West is decidedly preferable to, and more hygienic than, that of the city dwellers. On the whole, it is safe to say that in the matter of living conditions the Greeks are 199 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION more cleanly and in general more respectable than the Italians. In endeavoring to ascertain the criminal record of the Greeks from a national point of view I had similar advan- tages to those which were accorded me in the investigation of pauperism; the original census schedules for penal in- stitutions were put at my disposal. The four states, Cali- fornia, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York were chosen for examination as they contain the bulk of the Greek population. The figures are for the admissions to the various penal institutions for the year ending December 31, 1904, when, according to our estimate, the total Greek population of the United States was about 45,500. Dur- ing that year there were two Greeks admitted to the penal institutions of California, one for infamous felony, sentence four years ; one for counterfeiting, sentence one year. Three Greeks were admitted to the Illinois insti- tutions. One of these was for manslaughter, sentence in- determinate ; the second for receiving stolen property, sentence sixty days; the third for mayhem, sentence six months. The Massachusetts institutions received only one Greek, charge, indecent exposure, sentence two years. The New York institutions received thirteen Greeks during the year in question, with charges as follows: Assault, six months ; false citizenship papers, thirty days ; vagrancy, six months ; two cases counterfeit money, one month and $100 each; disorderly conduct, one month; liquor law, twenty days; carrying weapons, four cases, two days each ; petit larceny, thirty-six days ; violation penal code, six months. This makes a total of nineteen admissions to the penal institutions of these four states, in which in the year in 200 Digitized by Microsoft® s I o > z CD B S > fa E z o 1] o H a w c z H H D Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS question there were, according to the Thermopylae Ahna- nac, 29,796 Greeks altogether. This is a very insignifi- cant number of criminals, and it should be noted further that the majority of the offenses were of a minor nature. The report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1905 in the tables already referred to (see page 194) records forty-four Greek criminals in the penal institutions of the United States, of whom nineteen were committed for grave offenses and twenty-five for minor ofi'enses. It thus becomes plain that grave ofi'enses, leading to peni- tentiary sentences and other heavy punishments, are rare among the Greeks. We have already seen from the ex- amples of Chicago, LoweU and New York that minor offenses are extremely common. The evidence from New Haven is the same. Out of a very small Greek population in this city there were fifteen arrests between January 1, 1907, and October 31, 1908, but the heaviest punishment in any case was a fine of $10 and costs. The police records of Boston furnish a very interesting commentary on the nature of Greek criminality. The following table gives the number of arrests of Greeks in that city for the years 1902-1907 inclusive: Year 1903 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 Arrests 387 313 384 348 330 378 As the number of arrests remained nearly constant while the total Greek population of the city was increasing from a few hundred to 2,000 or more, there is evidence of a decided decrease in criminal tendencies among these people. This corresponds with what we have found to be true in the other cities which we have examined. A further evi- dence, along with a suggested explanation, is furnished by 301 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Mr. Bushee in his work on the "Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston." On page 98 he gives a table showing the average percentage of arrests to the total population of each nationality for the years 1894, 1895 and 1896. This is reproduced here for purposes of comparison. Per cent City (total) Portugal . Germany . Russia Poland . 8.9 . 3.7 . 4.2 7.3 f United States 7.1 British America 8.1 France 11.6 England Sweden 11.8 11.8 Italy . Scotland 13.1 14.0 Ireland 16.3 Norway China 30.1 65.1 Greece 3S3.2 The total Greek population at this time was about 107. Mr. Bushee goes on to say (page 103) : "On the average every Greek in the city is arrested over three times in a year Neither nationality (Greeks or Chinese) is made up of such abandoned criminals as the figures would seem to indicate, as the criminal records of both cease almost entirely at the police courts. The explanation is simple : the Greeks are nearly all peddlers, and many among them take the risk of peddling without a license, with the result that a wholesale arrest of peddlers takes place until all have obtained their 202 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS licenses. In the case of the Chinese the explanation is to be found in their love of gambhng The Italians are responsible for a larger amount of serious crime than any other nationaUty excepting the negroes." In regard to the Greeks in this country we may say in general that while they very seldom commit serious crimes, they appear to have no particular respect for law as such, and the number of minor offenses committed by people of this race is probably greater, in proportion to their total population, than that of any other foreign nationality in the country, and very much greater than that of the native-bom. As we consider the nature of these offenses, and the marked decrease in criminality among the Greeks which the statistics uniformly indicate, we are led to the conclusion that crime among the Greeks is largely a matter of economic position. When the immigrant first comes to this country his one thought is to save money. He enters some trade which brings him into conflict with the city ordinances. Perhaps he is a push-cart man and takes the chance that the fines that he may have to pay for selling without a license will not, in a year, amount to so much in the aggregate as the original cost of a license. Or he may be a mere peddler of flowers or other goods and be arrested for making a stand in the street. Or again his offense may be for violation of the sanitary code in the care of the miserable room which he has chosen to live in. As he progresses financially, and becomes established in a permanent busi- ness, and improves his quarters, these temptations dis- appear, and his face is no longer seen in the police court. To be sure, there is a host of newcomers every year to take the place of those who have moved up, but the general 203 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION average length of residence of the Greeks in the United States is increasing year by year, and with it the average of business prosperity is also increasing. There is reason to hope that with the passage of the years the criminal record of the Greeks will come to compare more favorably with that of our other foreign populations. A class of offenses which perhaps ranks second among the Greeks to violations of the corporation ordinances, and in some cases is included under corporation ordi- nances, is that designated as disorderly conduct. In this case, too, an extenuating circumstance is found in the extreme natural excitability of the Greeks. A noisy altercation which disturbs a whole block, and seems to the poHce officer to threaten a fatal culmination, may be the friendliest kind of an argument. The poHce officer of course cannot get at the true nature of the case and the whole lot are taken off to the police station. As the Greeks become more Americanized this class of offense may also diminish. Juvenile dehnquency is very rare among the Greeks, as might be expected from the fact that the number of chil- dren among them is very smaU and that most of these are employed all day and part of the night under strict super- vision. In the census schedules for institutions for dehn- quent children in the states of California, Illinois, Massa- chusetts and New York, taken December 31, 1904, there .appear the names of only two Greek children, one a boy of eighteen who had been in this country seven years, arrested for burglary, the other a lad of fourteen, in this country four years, arrested as a disorderly child. Gen- erally speaking, juvenile delinquents among the foreign- born are a minor element. On the other hand, there are 204 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS a very large number of this class of offenders among the native-born of foreign parents. This fact should give us food for thought, when we reflect on how enormous this class of our population is becoming. The statistics of pauperism, crime, etc., for Greeks are given a slight element of uncertainty, or inaccuracy, by the difficulty of determining certainly the race of many of the offenders. Ordinarily, the reports give the nativity, not the race, of the individuals concerned, and as many of our Greek immigrants are born in Turkey and in other countries outside of Greece, it is not always possible to determine the race of a small number of those concerned. Foreigners will frequently prevaricate in regard to their race, for purposes of their own. In the midst of the Italian colony of Jersey City and in Inwood, L. I., there are colonies of people who call themselves, and are called by their neighbors, "Greeks," though they come from Central Italy, and are apparently of Albanian origin. But these uncertainties are in no case probably of suffi- cient weight to affect our general conclusions, as the great body of Greek immigrants still come from Greece proper. In respect to the vices of drinking and gambUng the Greeks maintain much the same character in this country as in their home land. Gambling is very prevalent among them and many of the arrests, which we have seen to be so frequent, are connected with this practice. In the matter of drink, their habits suffer a slight deterioration. In the place of the light wines of their native land, some of them substitute beer, and occasionally whiskey. But for the most part, Greeks in this country exercise an admirable degree of control in the use of intoxicants, and intemperance is far from being a prevalent evil among 205 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION them. The coffee-house fills the place of the saloon as a social center, and coiFee prepared in the Turkish style is still the favorite beverage of the Greeks. Tobacco is used very generally in this country, as in the home land. When we turn to sexual immorality, however, it appears that the effect of American life upon the immigrants is injurious, rather than the reverse. This is in part due, no doubt, to the fact that the Greek colonies are largely composed of young men, freed from the restraints of family ties and the surroundings of home, where the close watch kept upon the women prevents active immorality to a large extent. Through the scarcity of women of their own race these young men in America are prevented from contracting marriages in a normal way. Further- more, the liberty of American life in regard to the rela- tions of young people is construed by the Greeks as license. The innocent, friendly comradeship of young people of opposite sexes is something so foreign to their experience that they do not understand it. The keeper of a hotel in Tripolis, commenting on the undesirable conditions in America, included among them the freedom with which young boys and girls were allowed by their parents to go out together. Unfortunately, the women with whom the average Greek in this country has the opportunity to become familiarly acquainted, are not usually such as to raise his standard of morality or his opinion of womankind. It goes without saying that those Greeks whose circumstances throw them into contact with the better classes of American society are profited thereby. As was remarked in the discussion of the aspect of this matter in Greece, it is almost impossible to get data which 206 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS will furnish absolute proof of the state of affairs. It must be said, however, that indications point to the con- clusion that the sex morality of the Greeks in this country stands in need of much improvement. Among these indi- cations the two following may be cited. In many of the coffee-houses of the Madison Street settlement in New York there are openly displayed advertisements of a Greek clinic, claiming explicitly to cure the most virulent of venereal diseases. Out of 1,337 square inches of adver- tising space in two ordinary issues of the Atlantis (see Table 16), ninety-three square inches, or about one fourteenth, were devoted wholly or in part to the cure of private diseases. The physical condition of a large number of the young men returning from this country to Athens and Patras is said to be deplorable in the extreme. As we have already seen in so many instances, the old factiousness still asserts itself in this country in affairs between Greeks, and sadly interferes with the harmony which the wide interests of the race in this country demand. There must, however, be a marked improve- ment in the matter of commercial honesty, for no people could continue doing business in America so successfully as do the Greeks, and keep up the underhanded practices which characterize commercial operations in their native land. On the whole, the Greeks are more industrious and painstaking in this country than at home. Aside from their conmiercial enterprises the Greeks as yet have not entered largely into the social organization of this country. As already remarked the number of Greek men who have married American women is insignifi- cant. Greeks do not enter to any extent into the activi- 207 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION ties of the social settlements in our cities, and only slightly into the work of the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation. In religion, they keep themselves almost whoUy separate. As soon as a Greek colony reaches 400 or 500 in number it sets about making arrangements for an Orthodox church. A building is rented or built and a priest secured from the home land. There are at present about thirty-six of these churches in the United States, located as follows : Atlanta, Ga. ; Baltimore, Md. ; Bir- mingham, Ala. ; Boston, Mass. ; Buffalo, N. Y. ; Chicago, lU. ; Cincinnati, Ohio ; Detroit, Mich. ; Galveston, Texas ; HaverhiU, Mass. ; Indianapolis, Ind. ; Los Angeles, Cal. ; Lowell, Mass. ; Lynn, Mass. ; Manchester, N. H. ; Mil- waukee, Wis. ; Minneapolis, Minn. ; Nashua, N. H. ; Newark, N. J.; New York, N. Y. (two); Omaha, Neb.; Philadelphia, Pa. ; Pittsburg, Pa. ; Portland, Ore. ; Provi- dence, R. I. ; Pueblo, Colo. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco, Cal. ; Savannah, Ga. ; Seattle, Wash. ; Sheboygan, Wis. ; Springfield, Mass. ; Washing- ton, D. C* About fifteen of these own their buildings. The priests are supported by the contributions of the congregations and receive from $60 to $100 per month salary, and various perquisites which sometimes amount to more than the salary. The decorations and fittings of these churches are made to resemble as closely as possible those of the churches at home, and as a rule the priests keep up the old habit of wearing the hair and beard long, and dress in the orthodox style. Occasionally a priest, or a part of a congregation, becomes progressive and liberal, and then there is trouble. Many of the bitterest dissensions which mar the life of the Greeks in this country * Greek-American Guide, 1909. 208 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS arise over religious matters.* Protestant Greeks in the United States are a negligible quantity. Along with his church the Greek demands his news- paper. It is doubtful if there is another foreign nation- ality in the United States that pubhshes so many news- papers in its own language, in proportion to its total pop- ulation, as the Greeks. There are at present about six- teen of these newspapers, two daily and the rest for the most part weekly, published as follows: New York, four, Boston, two, Lowell, one, Pittsburg, one, Chicago, four, San Francisco, two. Salt Lake City, one, Lynn, one. There is also a commercial review and a monthly magazine published in New York.f Outside of the cofFee-house the Greek has few amuse- ments. The customary recreation centers are little pat- ronized by him, and athletics receive slight attention. No large proportion of the Greeks have as yet become citizens of the United States. One prominent Greek said that possibly one fourth of the total number were natural- ized citizens, but this is probably an over-estimate. There are said to be about 2,000 naturalized citizens in New York City, 284 in Lowell, and from 100 to 200 in Boston. Almost all of them adhere to the Republican party, believing that its pohcies are most favorable to the com- mercial advancement of the nation. Socialism finds no followers among the people of this race in the United States, though it is beginning to get a slight foothold in Greece. Greeks are apparently not inchned to join trade unions, partly because there are comparatively few of them who are laborers in unionized trades, partly because *See the Weekly News and Courier, Charleston, S. C, July 11, 1908. •)■ Greek- American Guide, 1909. Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION they prefer their own organizations, and partly because they are not wanted by the unions. The slight interest of the Greeks in political affairs in this country is rather surprising when it is compared with the keen interest taken in such matters in Greece. It was explained by a well-informed Greek in this country, on the ground that the Greek came to this country imbued with the idea that too much politics was one of the causes of the difficulties of his own land. More than this, the Greek has a profound respect for the abiHty of the Ameri- can citizen, and regards him as much more capable of running the country wisely than he himself is. Aside from the inclinations of the Greeks, one patent reason why there are so few naturalized citizens among them, is that the majority of them have not been in the country long enough to become citizens. The very general inten- tion to return eventually to their native land probably has much to do with it also. (See page 211.) The Greek is very proud of his native citizenship and is not anxious to give it up. For many years it has been the practice of Greeks living in Turkey to come to the United States with the express purpose of taking out citizenship papers and returning to their old home, there to carry on business under the greater protection which their American citizen- ship gave them. I knew personally of one young man of a wealthy family who came to this country and entered one of our leading scientific schools. He frankly admitted that his main object was to secure American citizenship, and the advantages which it would bring him in the man- agement of his estate. Another instance which was brought to my notice was that of a young man from one 210 Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL CONDITIONS of the islands, to whom a business opportunity presented itself in Turkey. He came to this country and worked as a servant in a private family and in a club, with the avowed purpose of securing citizenship, so that he could take up this opportunity under better conditions. An eifective check to this practice was put by the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1907, which stipulate that any naturalized citizen who resides in the country from which he came for two years, or in any other foreign country for five years, thereby forfeits his citizenship. A few years ago it could be said with truth that prac- tically every Greek who came to the United States had the intention of returning after five or ten years to his native land. They came in order to earn and save enough money so that they could go back home, and either estab- lish themselves in some easy business, or else, if they were especially fortunate, settle down to a life of indolence and ease. But this is changed now. The Greeks who went home after a few years' residence in the United States were not content. Having tasted the keen hfe of this country, they could not be satisfied elsewhere. So the majority returned to America again, this time with the intention of settKng down permanently. Their example, along with the increased knowledge of American conditions in Greece, inspired many of , their fellow countrymen to look to America as the place where they wished to cast their lot permanently. Today, a very large proportion of the Greek immigrants to America, those who cross the ocean for the first time as well as those who have been here before, come with the idea of making this their home as long as life shall last. Instead of speaking of their native land with proud patriotism, they all too often char- 311 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION acterize it as a poor and miserable place, and many a profane Americanism is ostentatiously displayed to show the scorn they feel for it. As we have seen, a small number of Greeks have attained a position of eminence in the financial life of this country. Very few, however, have achieved any wide influence in the reahn of literature, the arts, or the learned professions. Probably the most illustrious Greek citizen this country has ever known was Mr. Michael Anagnostopoulos, or Anagnos as he was commonly known. He was for many years director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, and it was under his supervision that Helen Keller was educated. He died about three years ago in Europe. 212 Digitized by Microsoft® PART III EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER X Effects on the Immigrants THE discussion of the effects of Greek immigration falls of its own accord into three parts — the effect on the immigrants, the effect on the land from which they come, and the effect on the land to which they go. The consideration of the first of these can be little more than a summary of much that has gone before. We have already followed the immigrant into his business, into his home, into his social and religious life, and have seen how he fared in all these departments of his life. All that we can do now is to gather together our conclusions in a few words. Financially, practically every Greek finds his life in America an improvement over the one he left. He earns more money and is able to save more. He has much greater opportunities of establishing himself in a perma- nent and lucrative business. Many Greeks who would never have escaped from the hoe or the shepherd's crook in Greece, become prosperous business men in America. A few save enough in a few years to assure them a com- fortable living and a position of influence and respect if they return to their native land, as a small number do. The number who fail to make a living in the new country is exceedingly small. As far as the actual comforts of life are concerned, how- ever, the situation of a large body of the Greeks in this country is decidedly inferior to that from which they come. Instead of the clear, pure, invigorating atmosphere of their native hills, they breathe the vitiated air of a store, 215 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION shop or factory. Instead of a day of leisurely and inter- mittent toil, with an hour or two of siesta after the noon lunch, there is a long stretch of eight, ten, or, in the case of the bootblacks, fourteen or fifteen hours of steady labor. The food in the new home is perhaps more varied, but in many cases it is not so fresh nor so well suited to the Greek palate, as that to which the immigrant was accustomed at home. The living and sleeping rooms in the old home were bare and perhaps dirt-floored, but they were at least clean and well cared for, whereas the new quarters are unkempt and filthy. The social relaxation of the coffee- house is still available, but it lacks the picturesque out- door features that add so much of charm in the old coun- try. Very many Greeks have separated themselves from wives and children. Either they lack the means to bring them over, or they are unwilling to call them to this coun- try until they can assure them a well-appointed and com- fortable home. In any case they do not even see them for five or ten years, and are deprived of all the comforts and pleasures of family life. The unmarried young men do not have the opportunity to meet girls of their own race, or in most cases, worthy women of other races, and so are denied the opportunity of securing wives. As a result of these conditions the health of the Greeks in many cases suffers a decline. This may be due either to undesirable food and living conditions, to the un- hygienic conditions of their daily toil, to change of climate, or to vicious practices. In many cases the morals also suffer, on account of the unwonted freedom of Ameri- can hfe, and the customary use in this country of strong intoxicants in the place of light wines. Religious observ- ances are as a rule well kept up, and any relaxation in the 316 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE IMMIGRANTS direction of greater freedom is just as likely to be for the better as for the worse. To the question that naturally arises, If all this be so, why do the Greeks continue to come and stay in such greats numbers ? the one great answer is, Money. Money making is a ruling passion among the Greeks, and the opportu- nities of gratifying it are much greater in the United States than in Greece. There is scarcely a Greek in the United States who does not earn more money than he did, or could reasonably hope to, in Greece. The unfortunate conditions which we have been discussing are not due to lack of money, so much as to the extreme privations which a Greek is wiUing to undergo in order to send money home for the purpose of buying land, building a house for his parents, providing dowries for his daughters or sisters, putting up a bell tower on the village church, or paying off the debts of himself or his family. The gratification that comes from so doing outweighs a multitude of hard- ships. A minor reason for the willingness of Greeks to enjoy fewer comforts in this country than in the home land is that the rushing, varied, active hfe of the United State's is peculiarly attractive to the Greek spirit. As some one said, "As soon as they hear that there are trolley cars oter here, they aU come." In the districts in Greece from which emigration has taken place for a number of years, the evil conditions of the Greeks in the United States are very well understood, and undoubtedly deter many from coming. But in the mind of the average peasant the stream of gold, which he can see so plainly, outweighs the disadvantages which he has only heard of, and each one hopes that he will be one of the ones who win success in the new home. 217 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION It hardly need be said that these unfortunate conditions are by no means universal among the Greeks in this coun- try. They exist most fully in the consolidated Greek colonies, where the dwellers have little opportunity of coming into any social relations, or even business rela- tions, with American people. How complete is this isola- tion may be inferred from the fact that, though the Greeks are supposed to be quick at languages, it is the exception to find a Greek who has been in the United States five or even ten years who can speak Enghsh even tolerably well. The Greeks who prosper most, financially, socially, morally, and intellectually — -those to whom the change of residence is a real advantage — are those whose circumstances lead them away from the settlement, and throw them into contact with the better classes of Ameri- can citizens. And there is a goodly number of these. It is to be hoped that as Greeks more and more come here with the intention of remaining permanently, and those that are here give up their idea of returning, there will be an increase of family immigration, which will alle- viate many of the evils that now exist. In regard to the general prosperity of the Greeks in this country the Greek- American Guide for 1909 contains the following pessimistic and somewhat exaggerated paragraph : * "What Do the Emigrants Gain.? Do the Greek emi- grants in America gain anything? How much do they gain, and how? We think that in regard to both of these questions their compatriots in Greece and elsewhere have * Page 38. The word "gain" as used in this paragraph should be taken in the sense of earning or getting, rather than that of securing an advantage. 318 Digitized by Microsoft® z < Z a o Ed H O z o Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE IMMIGRANTS a decidedly mistaken idea. Of course there are, as we have said above, a number of the older emigrants, who after many years of toil and labor have established and maintained certain profitable businesses or enterprises and now make a comfortable living, although not as much as they seem to in Greece. But these are few, and the whole must not be judged by a small part. The newer emi- grants, with a few exceptions, gain nothing at aU, or at least gain very little, and that by the strictest economy and excessive labor." (Translated.) 319 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XI Effects on Greece EARLY in the twentieth century when emigration from Greece to America began to assume considerable proportions it aroused universal consternation in the minds of the Greek authorities. The country was alarmed as it saw its working force drawn off to serve the needs of a foreign land, and the government began to consider measures to check the movement. As the years went by, however, and the stream of remittances began to flow in, opinion gradually changed, and people began to feel that, as long as the money was spent in Greece, it did not much matter where it was earned. This state of mind has generally continued down to the present time, and even the intelligent members of the Greek populace regard the depopulation of their country with an amazing degree of complacency. Within the last two or three years, however, especially since the crisis in America cut down the remittances, there has grown up a party of opposition which controls a large part of the Greek press. Even so late as the winter of 1908-09 the newspapers of Athens contained frequent paragraphs such as the following: * "THE CRISIS IN CHICAGO 120,000 Unemployed " According to recent statistics there are in Chicago about 120,000 laborers unemployed. Of these 6,000 are drivers, 8,000 carpenters, 25,000 bricklayers, 7,000 iron workers, 12,000 waiters in restaurants and hotels', 3,000 mechanics and * Translated from the "Kairoi," Athens, January 8, 1909. 330 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE firemen, 50,000 to 60,000 unskilled laborers ; 50,000 of these un- employed laborers have families and their wives and children suffer -with them. " The economic crisis of the working classes, on account of these conditions, has reached the extreme limit." American officials in Greece express the opinion that there is government influence back of these utterances. In fact, late in the fall of 1907, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a circular to the provincial authorities call- ing attention to the depressed state of affairs in America, and ordering them to use every means to check the current of emigration. The crisis was generally exaggerated in Greece, and it was said that America had "gone bank- rupt." The effects of emigration upon Greece are in the main connected with two phenomena — the influx of money from America, and the withdrawal of the laboring force from the country. In regard to the former of these, it may at first seem surprising to an American that the small sum which, as we have seen, covers the amount of the annual remittances (see page 191), should exercise such a profound influence on the economic situation in Greece. But a moment's consideration will make this plain. Suppose we set the figure for the average annual amount of money sent from the United States to Greece at $5,000,000. The general imports into Greece in 1905 amounted to $27,170,533, and the exports to $16,095,184. In 1906 the imports were $27,800,868 and the exports $22,783,161. It thus appears that the amount of money flowing into Greece each year, without any corresponding outgo, is in the neighborhood of one quarter of the total amount which the country receives for its exports, and is 321 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION enough to pay for nearly one fifth of its imports. This makes it plain why the money from America exercises so great an influence on the progress of affairs in Greece. The effects of this inflow of money have been already touched upon in our preliminary survey of the economic conditions in Greece. (See Chapter IV.) Perhaps the foremost among them is the remarkable fall in exchange. This has had the undesirable effect of temporarily increas- ing to a large extent the cost of living for the average citizen of Greece, but if it ultimately results in putting the currency of the country on a sound basis, it will serve a very useful purpose. Another beneficial result which has followed this inflow of money has been the paying off of a large number of real estate mortgages. The Secre- tary of the Interior told me that large sections of Greece had been wholly freed from incumbrances through this agency. The rate of interest has also fallen decidedly, until now, in some sections, private individuals lend money at lower rates than the banks. Turning now to the injurious results of American money in Greece, we note first of all that it has had, and has, a very demoraHzing effect upon the industry of the country. The Greek loves both the appearance and the fact of leisure, and is all too ready at best to give up labor and spend his days in the coffee-houses and on the promenades, smoking and talking politics, as soon as the opportunity to do so presents itself. The abundant sup- plies of money which are coming into the country without labor, encourage this tendency and help to make possible its fulfillment. The Greeks who come back from America with their fortunes made increase this idle class and help to inculcate the love of indolence in the youth of the land. 222 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE These factors have contributed to that peculiar stagna- tion, mentioned in the quotation on page 70. As a result, Athens and the Piraeus are the only cities in the kingdom, with the exception of Volo, which have grown appreciably in recent years. The others have remained nearly sta- tionary, and Syra is said to have gone down sadly. If this money were applied to the development of productive industry, the results would be more favorable. But unfor- tunately it is not. Aside from what is spent in freeing the land, and paying debts, the majority of it is used in furnishing dowries for the girls, in building fine houses, in erecting bell towers and clocks on the churches and monasteries or putting up new church buildings, occa- sionally in some public project like building a road, and often in making possible a life of luxury as mentioned above. The Greek newspapers in America like to under- take a subscription for some pubUc purpose. For in- stance, the Atlantis is conducting a campaign among the Greeks in America to raise money for the purchase of a man-of-war for the Greek navy. The amount contributed for this purpose up to April 20, 1909, was $30,500.44<. Probably the greatest injury wrought by American money in Greece is in augmenting the fever for emigration. In 1906 Mr. Horton wrote in his annual report, "It is almost impossible to find a young man or boy in the vil- lages or on the farms who does not live in hopes of getting away to America as soon as possible." There is no factor which contributes more powerfully to this result than the constant stream of gold from America. The following sentence, translated from the Greek-American Guide for 1909 (page 39), is taken from the paragraph on "The Causes of Emigration," and expresses the idea forcibly: 323 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION " 'Such a one from such and such a village sent home so many dollars within a year,' is heard in a certain village or city, and the report, flashed from village to village and from city to city and growing from mouth to mouth, causes the farmer to desert his plow, the shepherd to sell his sheep, the artisan to throw away his tools, the small grocer to break up his store, the teacher to forsake his rostrum, and all to set aside the passage money so that they can take the first possible ship for America and gather up the dollars in the streets before they are all gone." An examination of the statistics of population of Greece reveals the extent to which the withdrawal of young men has gone. Greece is one of the few countries of Europe where the male population is considerably in excess of the female. The following table shows the relation of these two groups at the time of the last two censuses: Excess Census Total Population Males Females of Males 1896 2,443,506* 1,366,000 1,166,990 99,010 1907 2,631,952 1,324,942 1,307,010 17,932 The first thing that attracts the attention on looking at these figures is the small increase in the total popula- tion, only 188,446 in eleven years as compared with an increase of 266,298 in the seven-year period from 1889 (when the total population was 2,187,208) to 1896. The next important fact is the decided decrease in the excess of males, showing the sex from which the bulk of the emi- grants have been recruited. We have already seen that about 85 per cent of the Greeks in America are males between the ages of fourteen and forty-five. This would * The slight discrepancy between the total and the sum of the two items is characteristic of Greek statistics. Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE be about 127,500 individuals. Now in a normal popu- lation in such a country as Greece about 400 out of 1,000 of the total population are in this age group.* That is to say, that out of the 1,324,942 males in Greece in 1907, about 529,776 should be between the ages of fourteen and forty-five. Comparing this with the number in America, and allowing for a slight increase in the population of Greece between 1907 and 1909, we see that between one fourth and one fifth of the working force of Greece are in America. This is merely the roughest kind of an esti- mate, but it wiU serve to show how deeply the population of Greece has been affected by emigration. The surprising thing is, that the results on the agriculture and industry of Greece have not been more disastrous than they have. As yet, the withdrawal of so large a body of the young men has not caused any appreciable decline in the culti- vation of the soil. It is true that the currant industry is in a depressed condition, but there are other causes for this (see page 76), and while at present the removal of the working class undoubtedly contributes to this re- sult, it was originally a cause and not a result of emigration. The explanation hes in the fact that the women have taken hold of the work. The peasant women of Greece are strong, sturdy, healthy and accustomed to hard work, and they have gone into the fields and taken up the hoe and the plow, and are carrying on the agricul- ture of the country, perhaps not quite so well as the men, but well enough to save the crops from ruin. They have also entered many other departments of manual labor. Mr. Nathan saw girls of fourteen and fifteen breaking stone by the roadside near Sparta, and I saw some not * See Bailey, Modern Social Conditions, page 76. 235 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION much older carrying mortar and stones for a new build- ing in Megalopolis. In a large limestone quarry in the environs of Athens, I saw a number of women engaged in filling baskets with the broken rock and emptying the heavy loads into carts. I asked one of them how much she earned a day and she replied, "One drachma." To my next query as to the number of hours she worked per day, her reply was, "From sunrise to sundown." Recently, also, large numbers of Albanians and others from the countries to the north have been brought in to do the field labor, and in the vineyards around Patras one frequently sees large gangs of these motley nationalities working under the direction of a Greek boss. The scarcity of laborers has produced a slight rise in wages which, of course, benefits a small number of those who remain. Within a year or two there has appeared to be a spread of the white slave traflBc in Greece, and the large number of girls who are left unmarried by the exodus of the young men is held partly accountable for this unfortunate con- dition. One rather amusing effect of emigration, bene- ficial at least from the point of view of Greece, was men- tioned to me by Mr. Nathan. On a recent trip to Sparta he entered into conversation with the chief of police of the district, and the officer remarked that since emigration had been so large Sparta had changed from a very turbu- lent locality to one of the quietest places imaginable. In fact, he said that not only his own district, but Greece in general, seemed to be pretty well rid of her more vicious criminals. One other effect which has alarmed the authorities to a considerable extent is the marked decrease in the number 226 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE of recruits for the army. This is something which comes close to the heart of the nation, and it, probably more than any other one factor, contributed to the appointment by the legislative chamber of a committee to investigate the whole matter of emigration, and recommend any changes in the laws which seemed desirable. This com- mittee reported on July 12, 1906. The report begins with a statement of the difficulty of obtaining data on which to base conclusions, owing to the inadequate manner in which statistics of this kind are kept in Greece. Then follows a review of emigration in general. The statistics contain so many manifest inaccuracies as to be wholly un- trustworthy, and the discussion is on the whole rather puerile. An idea of its nature may be gained from the fact that one of the principal grounds, on which is based the estimate of the amount of money sent home from America, is the lamentable fact that in 1905 in the space of three months 120,000 francs in checks were stolen from the mail in the district of Lacedemonia! Little is to be gained for our purposes from the study of this part of the report. Twenty pages of the report are devoted to the text of an emigration law proposed and recommended by the com- mittee. Only a few sections of it are of especial interest to us. Emigration is proclaimed to be free under the prescribed limitations. The principal ones of these are as follows: Males from the age of nineteen years to the completion of the age of active military service are required to secure permission from their nomarch before leaving. Those belonging to the reserve force are free to depart but must give notice in writing to the authori- ties. Children under the age of sixteen, of both sexes, are 237 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION forbidden to emigrate unless accompanied by their father, or having permission from their father or guardian. Provisions are made to prevent the enslavement of boys, or the deportation of girls for immoral purposes. Pro- vision is also made for the protection of emigrants from the devices of unscrupulous agents, and for their safety and comfort on the voyage. This law was not passed and since that time httle has been done toward regulating emigration. Perhaps there is no better way to gain a concise idea of the effects of emigration upon Greece than to take a brief trip to one or two of the districts from which emi- gration has been the heaviest and of the longest duration. Let us imagine that we are just starting out on such a trip, and that we have chosen as our destination Tripolis and the region round about. We leave Athens a little before seven o'clock in the morning, and for the sake of the local color travel in the third class. In our com- partment are a couple of men whose clothes have a dis- tinctly American character. They recognize us at once as Americans, and engage us in conversation in broken English. When they learn that our destination is Trip- oHs they at once become interested and from that time on take charge of us, offering to share their food with us, and giving us many suggestions as to where to go and what to do. One of them lives in Steno, a little village near Trip- olis. He has been for nine years in Chicago, where he had a fruit store. He has made his small fortune and is coming back to Greece to spend the rest of his days with his family, whom he has not seen since he left. The other man has spent fifteen years in Chicago, where he still owns a grocery store on the corner of Polk Street and Blue 228 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® ►J o Oh 5 H H o t/1 O J oa 3 0. Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE Island Avenue. He is now enjoying a life of repose and ease in the capital. The train jogs along, following the coast line closely, over a well-built road bed. We pass through Eleusis, now a poor Albanian village, from which very few have gone to America. A little later we go through Megara, one of the largest cities in this part of Greece, typically old-fashioned in the architecture of its buildings, and the character of its people. Out of a popu- lation of about 7,000 it is said to have sent 1,000 to America. On both sides of the track there is a succession of olive orchards, vineyards and rocky pastures where flocks of sheep and goats are feeding. Soon we come to the Isthmus and cross the Corinth Canal on an elevated bridge. After a brief stop at Corinth we begin our incur- sion into the Peloponnesus. The road climbs up through wild but beautiful scenery. We soon begin to see signs of emigration in the frequency with which women appear working in the fields. The barren and precipitous moun- tains all around us, and the immense windings which the railroad makes in traversing them impress us forcibly with the tremendous difficulties of communication in this part of Greece. Ere long the road begins to descend once more and we find ourselves in the fertile plain of Argohs. But our climbing is not done. The rest of the journey to Tripolis, which we reach about the middle of the after- noon, is one long ascent. Tripolis, lying at the edge of a high, fertile table-land, is an attractive, thriving city. The business and social life of its people centers around the public square, on one side of which stands a fine church, the other sides being enclosed with arcades. In the streets which run out from it the trades and businesses of the citizens are more or 229 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION less centralized. One street is given up to iron-workers' shops, another to dry goods stores, there is an open fruit market, and a semi-open meat market. The streets are for the most part narrow, and the houses, though built of stone, are old-fashioned, but the city is well lighted with electricity. The population of the city and the sur- rounding villages is of a fine type. The men are hardy, vigorous and active, and the women especially are sturdy and weU-built, with strong, handsome, square faces. As we talk with the hotel keepers, the business men, the carriage drivers, etc., we find that "America" is a house- hold word, familiar to every tongue. On every hand we meet men who have been in America. The storekeepers call out to us, "Come on, boy," and as we sit in the hotel office in the evening we have numerous callers. One is a baker in Springfield, Mass., one has several sons in Ogden, Utah, and one young man, whose fine face and pleasant bearing testify to a beneficial experience, says he has left a job in a mill in Pittsburg to come home and serve in the army. Economic conditions in America, and particu- larly the situation of the Greeks, are well understood by these men. They talk intelligently of the crisis in the United States — and well they may, for on the outskirts of the city stand the foundations of a fine large church, upon which work has had to be stopped until the remit- tances from America begin to come in again. But to see the effects of emigration at their best we must take one or two small trips out into the neighboring villages. On one of these excursions we stroll through the villages of Tegea, Achouria and Piali. Everywhere there is a scarcity of men, especially young men. Occasionally a grizzled old peasant will be seen watching a flock of 330 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE sheep, or driving his donkey to mill. But the young men are not to be seen. Everywhere there is the impression of desertion. The houses are closed and the streets vacant. In the fields women and young children are dig- ging wild bulbs with heavy iron hoes, perhaps watching some sheep or goats as they dig. These bulbs they will sell to the restaurant keeper in the city for a trifling sum. We approach one or two of these groups of women to speak with them, but they flee from us like wild things. Near the village we pass an unusually fine-looldng house. We accost the woman seated at the door, and she tells us with pride that the house was built with money which her sons have sent her from America. From here we go on to Tsipiana, a compact little vil- lage nestling in a valley between two towering, rocky mountains. We enter the coffee-house for a moment of rest, and are followed by a crowd of forty or fifty curious observers. As we take in the composition of the group, we realize that they are all old men and boys, with perhaps a soldier and schoolmaster of middle age. We ask them what is the population of the village, and one of them replies, "Twenty-five hundred or three thousand, but seven or eight hundred of them — all the young men — are in America." Every boy has a brother or cousin in the far- away land, where he himself intends and expects to go just as soon as he gets old enough. They are a curious, good-natured crowd, and follow us in our explorations of the village, exhibiting shyly the text-books from which they are learning English, and the watches and fountain pens — ^neither of them in running order — ^which they have received from America. They point with pride to the $2,000 clock in the tower of the monastery on the hill, 231 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION paid for with American money. If we get into conver- sation with any of the young women, which is difficult to do, we must avoid the mention of sweethearts unless we wish to tread on tender ground, for it is a standing joke with a rather bitter flavor around here that there are no men to marry the girls. On our way to the coast we stop for a few hours at Megalopolis, the great supply center for the bootblacks of the Greek world, as well as for America. It is an un- prepossessing little town, which has the misfortune to possess the ruins of an old theater. This attracts numbers of tourists, and the people of the town have as a, result lost the frank and courteous curiosity which was so pleasing in Tsipiana, and have become covetous, im- portunate, and impertinent. We can detect somewhat of a difference between the appearance of this town and that of those we have just left. Here the great dearth appears to be in boys between the ages of ten and twenty. There are plenty of smaU boys, many of them with their boot- black kits. There are also men of middle age, sitting idly in front of the coffee-houses, doubtless supported by the labors of hard-working little lads in Athens, Patras or the United States. There are evidences of considerable prosperity in the town, for pretentious new buildings are going up on every street and, as we are informed, they are planning to put a marble curbing around the entire square. Along the country roads women and small boys are driving horses and donkeys to and from town, and in the fields tiny maidens watch the flocks of sheep, or carry bundles of brushwood on their backs. The American traveler in Greece can hardly escape the conviction that the enormous emigration movement is 232 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE threatening the very life of the nation. That there are no more pronounced effects observable as yet, is due to the fact that the movement is still not half a generation old. There are still women left to till the fields, and old men and infants to tend the flocks. But with the girls remain- ing unmarried, the old men dying off, and the boys all leaving for America, the future looks very dark. The unborn generation seems already doomed. At present there are no signs of an amelioration of circumstances. It is true that the crisis in the United States checked the movement for a time, but with the resumption of business in America, the spring of 1909 has witnessed a greater madness for emigration in Greece than ever before. The extreme conditions which we have observed in the villages around Tripohs, and which exist in much the same degree around Sparta, are becoming more and more common and widespread in every part of the Greek world. It is no exaggeration to say that if emigration keeps on at its present rate of increase, as it promises to do, within twenty years Greece will be completely drained of its natural working force, and the population will consist of a few old men and a host of old women and middle-aged spinsters. It is possible- — and from the point of view of America desirable — that as the years go by, the immi- grants wiU begin to bring their women with them, or send for them a few years after arrival. But this promises no relief for Greece. The shocking indifference to the whole matter which is displayed by the average Greek is based mainly on one fact and two theories. The fact is the narcotic influence of the stream of American gold. The theories, in the truth of which the Greek firmly believes, are, first, that 233 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION the great body of emigrant Greeks will sooner or later return to their native home, and second that when they do come they will be "educated," and will become centers of enlightenment, uplifting influences, teaching their countrymen progressive methods of business and agricul- ture, and putting the industry of the country on its feet. The falsity of the former of these assumptions we have already seen. The second is perhaps even more mis- taken. Far from settling down to Hft up their feUow citizens, the few Greeks who do return are on the whole a restless and discontented lot, and before long the ma- jority of them break loose once more and go back to America for ever. Of those who remain, very few accom- plish anything in the way of productive labor themselves, not to speak of educating their neighbors. If they have made their small fortune in America they are content to spend it in the way that will entail the least exertion. If not, they can always find some one among their relatives who is glad to support the eminent traveler from America. Stop at random one of the young fellows who call out to you as you go by, "Hullo, boy! Whu yu go'n, ChoUy.'"' and ask him what he is doing now, and the chances are that his reply will be: "Oh, nothing now. I was in America four years, but my health was not very good there, and so I came home, and just at present I am not doing anything." The Greeks in America are on the whole an industrious lot, but when they go back they seem all too often to be even more indolent, vain and im- pertinent than they were before they left. They seem to catch the spirit of whichever country they are in. We do not wish to be too harsh in this condemnation. There is a reverse side to the shield, but it must be con- 234 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON GREECE fessed that it appears to be a very small one. A shining example of the admirable application of American ad- vantages is furnished by the httle village of Tsipa down on the Laconian coast. Its brief history is as follows : One of the most picturesque figures in modern Athens is that of old Dr. Kalopothakes, a Protestant missionary and pastor, of long and noble service. When his son reached college age, he was sent to America and entered Harvard College, from which he graduated with a fine record. He returned to Greece, and a few years ago went down into Laconia, his father's native home, and in a sheltered little bay near Limeni erected an up-to-date olive press. He installed a fine steam plant, built a com- fortable and weU-appointed house for his own use and altogether put up a very complete and efficient establish- ment for the production of ohve oil. When he went there his house was the only one there. Now there is a very flourishing little village. The peasants have learned the advantage of having him press their olives for them, and the enterprise is of benefit and profit both to him and them. Mr. Kalopothakes has taught the peasants the value of Sunday observance and honest dealing, as well as of up- to-date business methods. All up and down the coast his name is spoken with respect. If such an example as this were only followed more universally, the whole aspect of Greek emigration would be different. 235 Digitized by Microsoft® CHAPTER XII Effects on the United States THE discussion of the effects of Greek immigration upon the United States must of necessity be merely a forecast, and a rather unsatisfactory one at that. The annual Greek immigration as yet bears such a small pro- portion to the great current of the total immigration, and the total Greek population of the United States is such an infinitesimal part of the whole, that it is not to be expected that these people should have made a very definite impress on the life of our great nation. More than this, the movement from Greece to the United States is of altogether too recent origin for its ultimate eflFects even to have begun to be apparent. One of the com- monest errors of writers on sociological topics is to allow too little time for the action of social forces. We are inclined to think that the effects of a certain social phe- nomenon, which we are able to detect in our lifetime, are the permanent and final effects. We forget that these matters may require many generations to work themselves out. No better illustration of this could be asked for than that furnished by the case of the negroes in the United States. The importation of these people began many generations ago. To our ancestors it undoubtedly seemed a perfectly natural thing to do, and for centuries it did not occur to anybody to even question its rightful- ness or its expediency. When objections began to be raised they were feeble and easily put aside. But at last, the presence of this peculiar class of people in the country 236 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE UNITED STATES involved the nation in a terrible and bloody conflict, which worked irreparable injury to the American stock by the annihilation of the flower of southern manhood, and left us a problem which is probably the greatest one before the American people today — one which we have hardly begun to solve. There is much of similarity between the case of the negroes and that of the modern immigrants. To be sure, the newcomers of today are for the most part white-skinned instead of colored, which gives a diflFerent aspect to the matter. Yet in the mind of the average American, the modern immigrants are generally regarded as inferior peoples — races which he looks down on, and with which he does not wish to associate on terms of social equality. Like the negroes, they are brought in for economic reasons, to do the hard and menial work to which an American does not care to stoop. The business of the alien is to go into the mines, the foundries, the sewers, the stifling air of factories and work shops, out on the roads and railroads in the burning sun of summer, or the driving sleet and snow. If he proves himself a man, and rises above his station, and acquires wealth, and cleans himself up — ^very weU, we receive him after a generation or two. But at present he is far beneath us, and the burden of proof rests with him. The parallel need not be carried further. But is it too much to say, that the problem of the immigrant is as yet in the very embryo, and it may well be a hundred years before the nation begins to pay the penalty for the mis- takes that we are making today, in the regulation and treatment of our alien population.? In its broadest aspect the discussion of the effects of Greek immigration upon this country would be but a part 337 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION of the consideration of the general effects of all immi- gration. It is far beyond the scope of this work to even touch the border of this tremendously important, perplex- ing and many-sided problem. As for the Greeks them- selves, the most we can do is to review the considerations which have gone before, and seek to determine the prob- able outcome of the tendencies which we have discerned. For this purpose, the reader who has in mind the discus- sions included in the preceding pages, has practically the same data as the writer. If the supposition so prevalent in Greece, that all the Greeks in the United States will return to their native land in the course of a few years, were true, our problem would be merely the discussion of the value to our nation of a temporary laboring force, imported for a few years from a foreign country, and returning thither again after their prime was past. This is a matter for indi- vidual judgment, though there would be many patent advantages about such a system. But as we have seen, we are not dealing today with such a class in the case of the Greeks. They are coming here to stay — to estabhsh themselves in business, and make this their home. In regard to their economic avocations, as we have seen, the prospects are that within a generation or less the Greeks will practically control the candy, ice cream, fruit and bootblacking businesses in the United States, and will have a strong hold on the restaurant business. To this, in itself, there will hardly be objections, so long as they carry the business on honestly and respectably, and render good service, as they seem to. But the padrone system and contract labor system, which are at present bound up with some of these industries, are a menace to some of our 338 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE UNITED STATES most cherished ideals, and unless our Greek population can and will rid itself of this reproach, it would be better if every one of them, who has any connection with these practices, were driven from our shores. As factory workers, it can hardly be said that the Greeks have as yet had any effect upon the country, except to add a rather troublesome element to the population of some of the cities in which they settle. In the railroad work, and in miscellaneous occupations, the Greeks are merely a handful among our great laboring class, doing their work with average ability and faithfulness. As a factor in the charitable work of the country, the Greeks cut no figure. Practically every one of them has his own means of support, and they are no burden to the community. Whether this state of affairs wiU change as time goes on, time alone can tell, though the indications are that it will not to any great extent. The criminal record of the Greeks is less favorable. While there are few major criminals among them, they are probably a greater tax on the police courts of the country, in proportion to their total number, than any other class of our population. But their record for the past decade gives us ground for hope that the years will bring an improvement in this direction. But it seems likely that the presence of this race in the country will add to, rather than diminish, the growing indifference to law as such, which is one of the most threatening signs of the times. This lack of reverence for law, and every form of authority, seems to be characteristic of the chil- dren of immigrants of every race. But the Greeks appear to have it when they come. What the character of their children will be in this respect we can only conjecture. 338 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION The sums of money sent home each year are relatively too insignificant to be of any importance to this country. Politically, the only effects the Greeks have had is to add a slight increment to the Republican party. In Omaha, not long ago, this party was accused of making use of the Greeks fraudulently to increase their voting list.* In the wider and higher social and intellectual life of the country, as we have seen, the Greeks as yet have taken little part. Table 17 gives the figures for the international com- merce between Greece and the United States for the decade 1898 to 1907. There is a considerable increase in the imports from Greece, particularly in the last two years. The exports to Greece show little change until the last year of the period when there is a very sudden rise. The increased immigration undoubtedly accounts largely for the increase in imports, as it creates a greater demand for Greek products. The rise in exports may be explained by the establishment of the Austro-American steamship line. The great question Which, in the case of the Greeks, as well as of every other class of our alien population, is of vital importance and interest to the country, is. Will they make good citizens? The answer to this depends prima- rily upon one's individual opinion of what is a good Amer- ican citizen. Some writers go so far as to intimate that there is no such thing as a distinctive American citizen. A large proportion of our population seems to look upon the ideal American citizen as the man who tends strictly to business, makes money, lets other people severely alone and expects them to do the same. If we adopt this point of view, we can have little hesitation in saying that the * Morning World-Herald, Omaha, October 29, 1908. 240 Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE UNITED STATES Greeks answer the requirements, for as we have seen, they are distinctly a money-making class in this country, and if some of the methods by which they do it will not bear investigation — that is nobody's business, according to the hypothesis. But if we look at the matter more broadly, and think of the ideal American citizen as one who has the higher and better interests of himself, his neighbor and his coun- try at heart, and who believes that he ought to contribute to the general betterment of his community during his lifetime, g,nd give at least as much as he gets — from this point of view the answer to the question is much less cer- tain. In this respect, the effect of the immigrant upon the country is the effect of the country upon the immi- grant, viewed from a different angle. If the immigrant finds his change of residence an advantage, if he prospers morally and socially as well as financially, the chances are that he will give back to the country something in return for what he gets. But if the conditions in which he finds himself placed in his new home are such as to cause him to preserve, or even increase, any low ideals, vicious habits or degenerate propensities that he may have, he is, by so much, a hindrance to the country of his adoption. As far as the Greeks are concerned, at least, it seems undeniable that the determination of the question, into which of these two categories the immigrant shall go, is largely a matter of distribution. It has been frequently remarked in the course of the preceding discussion, that the evil tendencies of Greek life in this country manifest themselves most fully when the immigrants are collected into compact, isolated, distinctively Greek colonies, and that when the Greek is separated from the group and 241 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION thrown into relations with Americans of the better class, he develops and displays many admirable qualities. Our system and machinery for regulating the admission of aliens is very complete and well-organized. But we do practically nothing for them, after they are once inside the border. We talk with smug complacency of the mar- velous assimilative power of America. We are, in fact, by no means sure that these great hordes of foreign nation- alities are in any true sense assimilated, even after many years of residence in this country. It is assuming alto- gether too much to think that mere residence within the confines of the United States will make true Americans out of uncultured aliens, when, as we have seen in the case of the Greeks, a large proportion of them do not even learn the English language. It is a great question whether the United States is in any sense ready or fit, in its attitude toward the immigrant, or in its facilities for giving him the advantages of American hfe, to undertake the tremen- dous responsibility of receiving the immense hordes of foreigners who are flocking to our shores each year.* * A striking illustration of the truth of this statement occurred in the winter of 1908-09 in South Omaha, Nebraska. On Friday, February 19, a Greek in that city shot and killed a police officer who had arrested him for keeping company with a girl under suspicious circmnstances. The following Simday afternoon a mass meeting was held at the city hall, at which addresses were made by two of the members of the state legislature, and a former city attorney. The passions of the crowd became inflamed and they proceeded to the Greek quarter in a spirit of mad lawlessness, and "cleaned it out," burning buildings, smashing glass, and driving the denizens out of the city. No lives were lost but the total damage was estimated at not less than $25,000. An interesting sidelight on the event is thrown by the fact that many of those concerned in the riots, and probably the officer himself, were Irishmen. 243 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® J o b o J < Digitized by Microsoft® EFFECTS ON THE UNITED STATES We have seen that many of the evils which attach to Greek life in this country are due to the fact that the pop- ulation is almost wholly male. How long this will con- tinue to be the case, there is no way of telling. It may be that within a few years Greek emigration will begin to have more of a family nature. In that case the future of the race in this country will be brighter. It will help to draw the Greeks away from the consolidated colonies, tend to throw them into closer relations with American fami- lies, and perhaps lead more of them to take up agricul- tural pursuits, which would be an undoubted improve- ment.* There is much about Greek life, as seen in Greece, that is very attractive, in the way of hospitality, courtesy, music, love of outdoors, and the tempering of business activity with a certain amount of leisure and social inter- course. If the immigrant Greek could add some of these elements, even in a very small measure, to the life of America, his presence would be a benefit to the country. On the other hand, America has much to give the Greek, in respect of commercial honesty, unselfishness, truthful- ness, harmony, stability, regard for women and children, and social virtue. But to accomplish these ends, the Greek and the American must know each other. Only as the conditions become such that the old inhabitants and the newcomer are thrown into close touch and personal relations with each other, can this mutual interchange of ideals and customs take place, and the fact of Greek immi- gration into the United States be made of advantage both to them and to us. * Gortzis, America and Americans, pages 71 and 73. 343 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 1. Peincepax Manufactures in Operation in the Leading Cities of Greece. Number of Establishments.* 190S. Cities; Athens, Piraeus, Patras, Volo, Syra, Corfu. Steam flour mills 28 Cotton miUs 13 Macaroni factories ......... 44 Machine shops and fovmdries . 39 Tanneries 91 Carriage factories . 31 Soap factories 30 Steam currant-cleaning factories ...... 14 Olive oil factories 11 Straw hat factories ......... 43 Saddle and harness factories . 36 Chair factories 50 Picture frame factories ........ 28 Roofing and tile factories ........ 34 Marble yards . 76 Shoemakers' shops . 564 * Reports of Consul-General George W. Horton, 1905. 247 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 3. Customs Taeiffs iir Gbeece.* Reckoned in Gold Drachmas. 1906. Bicycles ........ 30 each. Boots and shoes ...... 15 per oke.f Coffee . . 180 per 100 okes. Flour 17.50 per 100 okes. Lumber (pine or fir, in boards 20 millimeters thick) 20 per cubic meter. Rice (cleaned) ....... 17 per 100 okes. Saccharine Prohibited. Soap ISO per 100 okes. * Reports of Consul-General George W. Horton, 1906. f The oke is a little less than three poimds. TABLE 3. Waoes per Dat in Geeece.J 1908. Brick and stone layers ..... 5-7 drachmas. Laborers ....... 3.50-4 drachmas. Carpenters 6-7 drachmas. Painters 4-7 drachmas. Plumbers 6.50-7 drachmas. Clothing (mostly piece work; girls finishing suits by hand) 40-.50 drachmas. Compositors ....... 3.50-4 drachmas. Farm laborers (male) ..... 3-3.76 drachmas.. Farm laborers (female) .... 3 drachmas. Machinists 8 drachmas. Iron moulders 8 drachmas. In some occupations wages vary with the season. J Reports of Cousul-General George W. Horton, 1908. 348 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 4. Prices in Geebce.* Bread (common) $ .035 pound. Bread (white) .06 pound. Butter (cooking) .33 pound. Butter (fresh) 1.30 pound. Cheese (macaroni) .36 pound. Coffee 23-36 pound. Salmon (canned) ...... .54 pound. Fish (fresh) lS-38 pound. Flour .056 pound. Apples (fresh) .13 pound. Oranges .22 dozen. Ham (boiled) 1.04 pound. Lemons .12 dozen. Beef (sirloin) .17 poimd. Beef (fillet) 38 pound. Lamb ........ .32 pound. Lamb (yearling) . .19 pound. Pork (fresh) .15 pound. Milk (fresh cow's) .54 gallon. Milk (goat's) .43 gallon. Oatmeal (Quaker Oats) .50 pound. Sugar .10 pound. Salt .02 pound. Tea (Ceylon) 1.30 pound. Petroleum .75 gallon. Wood (fuel) 10.00 ton. Coke 10.00 ton. Charcoal 30.00 ton. ' Reports of Consul-Gieneral George W. Horton, 1906. 249 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 5. Prices ix Greece.* 1908. Sugar $ 0.13 pound. Coffee .476 pound. Tea (medium quality) ...... .815 pound. Flour .047 pound. Soap (washing) ....... .096 pound. Corn meal ........ .068 pound. Lamb .204 pound. Potatoes ........ .034 pound. Salt . 037 pound. Beans . . ...... .095 pound. Bread . ...... .04 pound. Butter ......... 1.37 pound. Oil 136 pound. Coke .004 pound. Wood 0047 pound. Rice 095 pound. Kerosene (.3513 gaUon) ...... .08 Eggs 63 dozen. Shoes 3.11-6.73 Ordinary woolen suit . . . . . .38.80 Cheap cotton suit ....... 4.80 ■ Reports of Consul-General George W. Horton, 1908. 350 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 6.* Immigeaut Gbeeks Aheivhtg in the United States, Fiscal Years Ended June 30. Year 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1893 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1903 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 Male Female Total 58 IS 73 34 3 37 154 18 172 95 9 104 305 8 313 768 14 783 149 9 158 464 60 534 1,040 65 1,105 604 56 660 1,072 1,356 597 2,175 546 25 571 3,339 2,263 133 2,395 3,655 118 3,773 5,754 165 6,919 7,854 261 8,115 13,885 491 14,376 12,106 519 13,625 11,586 558 12,144 22,366 861 23,127 44,647 1,636 46,283 36,972 1.836 28,808 18,738 1,624 20,362 Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. 251 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 7.* DlSTEIBmON OF THE POPUI^TION OF THE UlflTED STATES BoEIT IN Greece Amoxq tke Different States^ Btc, 1900. Alabama, 189 Montana, 20 Alaska, 36 Nebraska, 33 Arizona, 10 Nevada, 4 Arkansas, 6 New Hampshire, 44 California, 373 New Jersey, lis Colorado, 37 New Mexico, 1 Connecticut, 121 New York, 1,573 Delaware, 13 North Carolina, 14 District of Columbia, 34 North Dakota, Florida, 98 Ohio, 313 Georgia, 191 Oklahoma, 3 Hawaii, 55 Oregon, 95 Idaho, 9 Pennsylvania, 465 Illinois, 1,570 Rhode Island, 84 Indiana, 82 South Carolina, 63 Indian Territory, 3 South Dakota, 3 Iowa, 18 Tennessee, 38 Kansas, 17 Texas, 169 Kentucky, 24 Utah, 3 Louisiana, 84 Vermont, 3 Maine, 7 Virginia, 59 Maryland, 95 Washington, 65 Massachusetts, 1,843 West Virginia, 108 Michigan, 134 Wisconsin, 63 Minnesota, 75 Wyoming, 330 Mississippi, 22 Missouri, 66 Total, 8,655 * United States Census, Volume I., Table 33. 252 , Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 8.* Dl8TRIB0TIOK OF THE GbEEE PoPULAmON OF THE UsTTED STATES HT THE Specified Ntimbek of Cities iir the Varioits States in 1904. State Alabama Arkansas Arizona Connecticut California Colorado Delaware Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Indian Territory Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Minnesota . Mississippi . Montana Nebraska Michigan Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York . North Carolina North Dakota No. o£ Cities No. of Greeks 3 457 2 78 1 27 9 614 13 4,472 5 778 1 38 6 182 6 773 3 368 13 8,313 9 308 1 30 S 156 S 224 3 58 1 250 4 119 2 418 30 8,667 3 241 3 131 1 73 1 19 8 334 1 12 7 406 6 446 35 8,344 1 28 1 10 *Thermopylae Almanac, 1904, pages 395 seq. 353 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION state Ohio . Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah . Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin . Wyoming District of Columbia Alaska Territory Total, Workers on railroads tories. Grand total. and No. of Cities No. of Greeks 31 795 2 110 26 2,148 5 253 7 157 1 14 3 406 6 344 3 573 3 39 4 155 3 324 1 58 6 831 1 40 1 389 3 38 43,607 in fac- 34,000 67,607 254 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 9.* Sex, Age and Illiteracy of Greeks AdmitteDj Fiscal Years Ended June 30. Year Sex Male Female Total 0-14 years if 45 45 and years over 1900 .... 3,655 118 3,773 388 3,296 89 1901 5,754 165 5,919 506 5,238 175 1902 7,854 261 8,115 687 7,327 201 1903 13,885 491 14,376 1,185 12,951 240 1904 13,106 519 12,625 605 11,883 137 190S 11,586 558 13,144 446 11,623 175 1906 32,266 861 23,127 718 22,174 235 1907 44,647 1,636 46,283 819 45,169 395 1908 36,972 1,836 28,808 868 27,617 323 Illfteract of those 14 Years Old and Over. Read but not write Neither read nor write —Percentages— Per cent Per cent Illiterate Males 1900 .... 2 578 15.3 96.6 1901 3 1,398 23.6 97.2 1903 5 2,224 27.4 96.8 1903 5 3,653 25.4 95.9 1904 16 2,821 22.4 95.4 1905 10 2,665 21.9 96.3 1906 12 5,256 22.7 96.4 1907 19 13,883 30.0 93.6 1908 3 7,951 37.6 93.7 *Reports Commissioner-General of Immigration. 255 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 10.* Monet Shown bt Gb£ees Admitted to the United States, Fiscal Yeabs Ended June SO.f Year Total Money Shown t Less Total $30.00 or than Money Over $30.00 Shown Average Money per Capita 1900 .... 3,773 346 3,971 $108,592 $38.78 1901 5,919 509 4,935 92,145 15.57 1903 8,115 849 6,520 141,581 17.45 1903 14,376 1,814 10,860 369,912 18.77 1904 13,625 1,000 10,911 349,876 37.71 1905 13,144 1,153 10,310 331,871 37.33 1906 33,137 1,571 20,013 545,611 23.59 1907 46,383 3,365 38,946 967,973 30.91 1908 38,808 1,688 34,476 577,879 30.06 Geeees Admitted into the United States Who Have Been Hebe Before — Fiscai. Yeabs Ended June 30. 1900 335 1901 306 1903 390 1903 451 1904 593 1906 1,031 1906 1,303 1907 1,041 1908 1,021 *Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. ■fThese figures are not exact, as the total of the two classes given in the table does not coincide with the total immigration. ^Beginning with 1904 the classification is on the basis of those who show $50 more or less, instead of $30. 356 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 11.* Greeks Debabbed, Defoeted akd Relieved ix Hospital, Fiscal Yeabs ExDED Juke 30. Debarred 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 Feeble minded 3 Insane persons . . 4 1 1 Paupers, or likely to become pubUc charges . . . 63 70 67 474 429 193 365 393 317 Loathsome or dangerous con- tagious diseases . . 9 10 13 39 45 100 31 107 115 Convicts . . . 1 5 Surgeon's certificate of defect 57 Under sixteen years unac- companied . . 11 Assisted aliens . . 1 Criminals . . . 3 Accompanying aliens . 34 15 7 Contract laborers . . . 4 3 1 111 53 60 432 63 44 Total debarred . . . 76 82 80 614 527 353 857 584 459 Returned after 1, 2 or 3 years 2 2 2 3 21 10 10 31 67 ReUeved ui hospital . . 41 31 51 121 100 70 189 357 .. Per cent debarred . . 2.0 1.3 1.0 4.3 4.2 2.9 3.7 1.3 1.6 General per cent of total im- migration debarred . 0.95 0.72 0.75 1.03 0.98 1.15 1.12 1.02 1.39 * Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. 357 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 12/ Occupations or Gkeeks Admitted, Fiscal Years Ended Juke 30. Year Profes- sional Skilled Miscellaneous Farm Laborers Laborers Per cent Total Unskilledt 1900 . 14 595 1,100 1,166 2,478 66 1901 . 17 787 2,579 1,502 4,370 74 1902 . 16 922 3,818 1,641 5,913 73 1903 44 1,662 3,680 6,048 10,583 73 1904 . 89 1,808 3,225 5,357 9,697 77 1905 . 72 1,524 2,639 5,818 9,679 79 1906 . 98 2,021 4,615 12,975 19,496 84 1907 . 87 2,165 6,924 33,444 42,086 91 1908 . 92 1,082 2,876 21,004 25,107 87 •Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. fApproximate. TABLE 13.* GbEEK POPUIATION' OF SOME OF THE LEADING CiTIES OF THE UNITED States. 1908. (Approximate.) Albany, N. Y., 400 Brockton, Mass., 100 Allegheny, Pa., 100 Bridgeport, Conn., 400 Altoona, Pa., 80 Buffalo, N. Y., 400 Atlanta, Ga., 500 Butler, Pa., 160 Augusta, Ga., 80 Canton, Ohio, 100 Aurora, 111., 200 Central Falls, R. I., 150 Baltimore, Md., 400 Charlotte, N. C, 100 Berkeley, Calif., 100 Cheyenne, Wyo., 300 Biddeford, Me., 450 Chicago, 111., 15,000 Birmingham, Ala., 500 Chicopee, Mass., 100 Boise, Idaho, 300 Cincinnati, Ohio, 500 Boston, Mass., 1,600 Clinton, Mass., 160 *Greek-American Guide, 1909, pages 369, 361. 258 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX Cleveland, Ohio, 250 Lynn, Mass., 1,500 Colorado Springs, Colo., ISO Madison, lU., 120 Cohimbus, Ohio, ISO McKeesport, Pa., 200 Concord, N. H., ISO Manchester, N. H., 3,000 Cripple Creek, Colo., 100 Marlboro, Mass., 100 Danbury, Conn., 100 Marysville, Calif., 100 Dayton, Ohio, 150 Memphis, Tenn., 300 Denver, Colo., 600 Milwaukee, Wis., 600 Des Moines, la., 150 Minneapolis, Minn., 300 Detroit, Mich., 400 Mobile, Ala., 350 Dover, N. H. ISO MoUne, 111., 250 Duluth, Minn., 100 Montgomery, Ala., 150 Ely, Nev., 400 NashviUe, Tenn., 200 Elsey, Ala., 300 Nashua, N. H., 1,500 Eureka, Nev., 120 Newark, N. J., 500 Fall River, Mass., 3S0 New Bedford, Mass., 450 Fitchburg, Mass., 200 Newcastle, Pa., 140 Fond du Lac, Wis., 130 New Haven, Conn., 300 Fort Wayne, Ind., ISO New Orleans, La., 300 Fresno, Calif., 150 Newport News, Va., 200 Galveston, Tex., 300 Newport, R. I., 350 Garsten, Ala., 150 N. Y. City (Greater), 20,000 Grand Rapids, Mich., ISO Norwich, Conn., 200 Garfield, Utah, 400 Oakland, CaUf., 450 Harrisburg, Pa., 100 Ogden, Utah, 400 Hartford, Conn., ISO Omaha, Neb., 1,500 HaverhiU, Mass., 700 Orange, N. J., 400 Holyoke, Mass., 150 Oroville, Calif., 80 Indianapolis, Ind., 400 Oneida, Idaho, 200 Jacksonville, Fla., 150 Pawtucket, R. I., 250 Kansas City, Kan., 100 Peabody, Mass., 300 Kansas City, Mo., 450 Pensacola, Fla., 250 Kirmara, Idaho, 150 Philadelphia, Pa., 1,800 I^ancaster, Pa., 100 Pittsburg, Pa., 3,500 LaCrosse, Wis., 100 Pocatello, Idaho, 300 Laramie, Wye, 250 Portland, Ore., 1,500 Lawrence, Mass., 300 Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 200 Levrfston, Me., 300 Providence, R. I., 500 Lincoln, Neb., 100 Pueblo, Colo., 900 Los Angeles, Calif., 600 Reading, Pa., 350 Lowell, Mass., 7,000 Reno, Nev., ISO 359 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Roanoke, Va., 100 Rochester, N. Y., 2S0 Rock Island, 111., 350 Sacramento, Calif., 250 St. Louis, Mo., 3,000 St. Paul, Minn., 300 Salem, Mass., ISO SaUda, Colo., 80 Salt Lake City, Utah, 3,000 Santa Barbara, Calif., 80 San Francisco, Calif., 3,000 Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., 350 Savannah, Ga., 500 Schenectady, N. Y., 3S0 Seattle, Wash., 500 Sheboygan, Wis., 450 Sioux Falls, S. C, 100 Somersworth, N. H., 200 South Omaha, Neb., 400 Springfield, Mass., 300 Stamford, Conn., 300 Stockton, Calif., 100 Syracuse, N. Y., 375 Tampa, Fla., 130 Thompsonville, Conn., 175 Taunton, Mass., 150 Terre Haute, Ind., 160 Tarpon Springs, Fla., 1,000 Topeka, Kan., 160 Troy, N. Y., 100 Utica, N. Y., 100 Washington, D. C, 400 WheeUng, W. Va., 300 Wilkesbarre, Pa., 160 Wilmington, Del., 300 Woburn, Mass., 260 Worcester, Mass., 450 Youngstown, Ohio, 100 York, Pa., 100 TABLE 14.* Destinatiok of Greeks Admitted to the United States, Fiscal Yeaks ExDED Juke 30. State 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 California, 16 36 59 165 142 116 338 1,608 726 Illinois, 1,000 3,136 3,663 4,318 2,879 1,604 3,817 5,070 2,514 M'sachusetts, 865 943 1,173 2,538 2,119 3,108 3,879 7,293 4,116 New Hamp., 4 11 42 284 298 586 1,274 2,377 916 New York, 1,429 3,137 3,935 4,182 3,579 3,164 6,160 14,373 10,937 Pennsylvania, 105 141 436 1,092 906 693 1,520 3,681 1,788 Wisconsin, 3 9 67 177 394 343 664 1,306 694 Missouri, 67 774 1,671 3,326 3,121 1,856 New Jersey, •• 169 336 1,100 430 •Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration. 260 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 16. DlSTEIBUTIOlT OF GbEEE IxDUSTRIES AmOKG THE CiTIES OF THE UlflTED States. [From the Thermopylae Almanac, 1904.] Number of cities in the different states having at least one store of the type specified: Candy Stores Fruit Stores 1 1 3 Alabama, 3 Arkansas, 1 California, 4 Colorado, 1 Connecticut, 4, Delaware, 1 District of Columbia, 1 Florida, 2 Georgia, 4 lUinois, 3 Indiana, 8 Iowa, 4 Louisiana, 1 Kansas, 3 Massachusetts, 8 Maryland, 3 Michigan, 6 Minnesota, 3 Mississippi, 1 New Hampshire, 2 New Jersey, 7 New York, 37 North Carolina, 1 Ohio, 13 Oklahoma, 1 Pennsylvania, 24 Rhode Island, 2 South Carolina, 3 Tennessee, 3 Texas, 6 Vermont, 1 West Virginia, 2 Wisconsin, 3 361 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION TABLE 16. CLASsinCATioN OF Adveetisemekts in Two Copies of the "Atlantis," OF AvEKAGE Character. (Issue of November 25, 1908.) Total advertising space (not want ads.) 735 square inches Steamsliip lines . 179 sq. in. Confectioners, confectioners' supplies and furniture 114 sq. in. Doctors, medical institutes, etc. 69 sq. in. General 26 Private diseases 43 Slioe polish 45 sq. in. Importers 45 sq. in. Tobacco and tobacco stores 34 sq. in. Banks .... 33 sq. in. Jewelry .... 31 sq. in. General stores (groceries) . 30 sq. in. Dentists 17 sq. in. Miscellaneous 128 sq. in. Total, 725 square inches (Issue of November 11, 1908.) Total advertising space (not want ads.) 613 square inches Steamship lines ..... 166 sq. in. Confectioners, confectioners' supplies and furniture luiiiiLurc .... Doctors, medical institutes. etc. ±uu »4. ill. 80 sq. in. General 30 Private diseases . 50 Shoe polish 50 sq. in. Miscellaneous . 216 sq. in. Total, 613 square inches Note. — The figures in this table do not include book advertise- ments inserted by the Atlantis Company, of which there are a large number. 363 Digitized by Microsoft® APPENDIX TABLE 17.* IjfiERNATioifAi. Commerce Between Greece and the United States. Imports from Greece Exports from the United States to Greece Year into the United States 1898 ... $ 910,390 $ 137,569 1899 944,531 213,507 1900 1,132,855 290,709 1901 1,134,775 391,638 1902 1,563,142 305,960 1903 1,336,935 330,844 1904 1,588,946 242,239 1905 1,270,793 181,970 1906 3,032,408 339,726 1907 3,086,417 1,634,431 'Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1907, page 292. 363 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® BIBLIOGRAPHY Books. Baedeker, Karl .... Greece. Bailey, William B. . . . Modem Social Conditions. Booras, John Thermopylae Almanac, 1904 (Greek). Bushee Ethnic Factors in the Population of Boston. Brandenburg, B Imported Americans. Canoutas, S. G Greek-American Guide, 1909 (Greek). Commissioner - General of Immigration .... Annual Reports. Commons, John R. . . . Races and Immigrants in America. Cox, G. W General History of Greece. Edgar, W. C The Story of a. Grain of Wheat. Gortzis, N America and Americans (Greek). Hall, P. F Immigration. HuU House Maps tod Papers. Keller, A. G Colonization. Kenngott, George F. . . . Housing Conditions in Lowell (Unpublished). Lascarato, Andrew . . . The Mysteries of Cephalonia (Greek). Malthus, Thomas R. . . . Essay on Population. Perdicaris, G. A Greece of the Greeks. Ripley, William Z. . . . The Races of Europe. Smith, Adam Wealth of Nations. Steiner, E. A On the Trail of the Immigrant. United States Census Publications. Magazine Articles. Anthropological Review . . 4:xcix., Quotation from Hyde Clarke, Anthropological Investigations in Smyrna. 6:154, J. B. D., Greek Anthropol- ogy, Review of Nicolucci. 267 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Bent, J. Theodore . . . . In a Greek Family To-day, Llttell's Living Age, 162:110. Greek Peasant Life, Littell's Living Age, 170:630. Blackie, John Stuart . . . Christian Greece, Blackwood's, 153: 136. Modern Greece, Forum, 33:113. Blackwood's Magazine . . 43:469, 620, Modern Greece. 67:526, Modern Greece. 76:403, King Otho and His Classic Kingdom. 79:304, Greek Church. Chautauquan 14:573, Modern Greece and the Bal- kan States. d'Estournelles, P Superstitions of Modern Greece, Century, 11:586. Eastman, G The Greco-Turkish War, Chautau- quan, 35:348. Elliott, W. A The Modem Greek, Chautauquan, 43:144. Fairchild, H. P Distribution of Immigrants, Yale Review, November, 1907. Felton, Eimice W Industries of Modern Greece, Lip- pincott's, 34:388. Galloway, M. A. A. . . . Free Greece, Nineteenth Century, 33:893. Gladstone, W. E Greece and the Treaty of Berlin, Nineteenth Century, 5 : 1121. Hanbury, R. W The SpoUt Child of Europe, Nine- teenth Century, 6:928. Harris, Walter B The Conduct and Present Condition of Greece, Blackwood's, 162:268. Koeppen, A. L Sketches of a Traveler from Greece, Mercersburg Review, 9 ; 402. Lascaris The Threatened Depopulation of Greece, Chambers' Journal, 83:40. Lawrence, Eugene .... The Greek Church, Harper's Month- ly, 45:405. Lawton, W. C Greek Language, Ancient and Mod- ern, Atlantic, 56:399. Digitized by Microsoft® BIBLIOGRAPHY Lloyd, Charles E. Lynch, Hannah Mahaffy, J. P. . Manatt, J. Irving . New York Quarterly Norman, Henry Penny Magazine Eipley, William Z. Saturday Review Seymour, T. D. . Speare, Charles F. Westminster Review Wheeler, Benjamin Ide . Modern Greece, Cosmopolitan, 23: 587. . Greece of To-day, Westminster Re- view, 139:156. . Monasteries and Religion in Greece, Chautauquan, 9:1. The Present Condition and Pros- pects of Greece, Chautauquan, 9:383. . The Living Greek, Review of Re- views (American), 11:398. . 4:259, Greece, Past, Present and Future. . The Wreck of Greece, Scribner's, 23:399. . 3:239,247, Emigration to Greece. . Races in the United States, Atlan- tic, December, 1908. . 58 : 733, Finance in Greece. 84:333,456, Greece and Its People. . Life and Travel in Modern Greece, Scribner's, 4:46. Life in Modern Greece, New Eng- lander, 46:359. . What America Pays Europe for Immigrant Labor, North Ameri- can Review, January, 1908. . 30:74, Modern Greece. 62:345, Character, Condition and Prospects of the Greek People. 67:228, Review of "The Mysteries of Cephalonia," Lascarato. 79 : 183, Modern Greece and the Greeks. . The Modern Greek as a Fighting Man, North American Review, 164:609. The Royal Family of Greece, Cen- tury, 32:139. 369 Digitized by Microsoft® GREEK IMMIGRATION Willcox, Walter F. . . . The Distribution of Immigrants in the United States, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1906. Williams, Charles .... The Thessalian War of 189T, Fort- nightly Review, 67:959. 270 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Age of immigrants 113, 184 Agents 79, 88, 91 Agriculture 7, 61, 67, 81, 225 Albanian influence 15, 18 Ambassador to the United States 131 Ancient language 50, 56 Anthropology 19 Assimilation 177, 306, 218, 240 Athens 18, 31, 33, 36, 39, 49, 63, 64, 70, 174, 175, 323 Athletics 36, 134, 135, 209 Atlantis 153, 223 Berths on shipboard 101 ,-Birth certificates 184 Bootblacks in Greece 173 Bootblack shops 93, 137, 151, 160, 171 Boston 167, 169, 186, 301 Bulgaria 74 Calamata 63, 67 Candy 169 Candy stores 93, 127, 159, 165 Chain letter 87, 119 Character, national 9, 13 Chicago 118, 133 Child labor (See also padrone system) 131, 145, 151, 184 Cities in Greece 61, 323 Coffee-houses 29, 36, 133, 135, 149, 206, 209 Colonies, ancient 9 Colonies in the United States 120 Commercialism 24 Commerce 240 Committee, Greek, on emigration 237 Consul, American 100 Contract labor 89, 163, 177, 186 Corinth Canal 65 Courtesy 33 273 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Crete 31 Criminality in Chicago 128, 226 Criminality in Lowell 142 Criminality in New York 156 Criminality in the United States 200, 239 Crisis of 1907 84, 109, 112, 192, 220 Cruelty to animals 27 Currants 61, 64, 65, 76, 81 Dancing 23, 49, 102 Debarred immigrants 116 Dependence in Chicago 132 Dependence in Lincoln 164 Dependence in Lowell 144 Dependence in New York 151 Dependence in the United States 193, 239 Depopulation 232 Deported immigrants 116 Dishonesty 24, 65, 69, 147, 207 Disinfection 95 Distribution 117, 218, 241 Diversity of character 14 Dowry 39, 93 Drinking 37, 48, 139, 205 Early emigration 8 Easter 49 Economic conditions in Greece 60 Education in Greece 40, 176 Education in the United States 142, 146, 158, 172 Eikons 45 EUis Island 105, 184 Embarkation 99 EngUsh language 145, 218 Environmental influence 6, 9 Exchange, fall in 71, 222 Exploitation 140, 146, 187 Exports 61, 64, 221 Extent of Greek world 4, 11 FactionaUsm 10, 65, 69, 139, 153, 155, 207 Factory laborers 188 374 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Family Ufe 135, 138, 14,8, 198, 318 Farmers 190 Fasts 44, 73 Female labor 93, 335 Festivals 48 Fishers i 189 Flower selling 137, 151, 167 Food, in Greece 63, 73 Food, on shipboard 99, 103 Food, in the United States 164, 180 France 39, 76 Fruit stores 137, 165 Gambling 38, 95, 143, 305 Germans 197 Grammar 55 Godfather 178 Habitation-districts 6, 60 Health 133, 145, 180, 199, 307, 316 History 15, 31 HoUdays 47, 68, 163, 179 Hospital on shipboard 104 Hotels and restaurants 127, 151, 152, 171 ( HuU House 132, 153 Humor 37 Ice cream parlors 137 .'Illiteracy of immigrants 114 Imports 68, 331 Induced emigration 88, 91 Industry 62, 67, 72, 222 Inspection, in Greece 95, 97 Inspection, in America 105 Interest 71, 232 x-Intermarriage 136, 138, 148, 198 Irish 143, 197, 242 Italians 122, 123, 125, 149, 151, 157, 159, 163, 166, 173, 173, 200, 203 Jews 157, 196 Juvenile delinquency 131, 158, 204 375' Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Kings 16 Laconia 133, 235 Laws on immigration, of the United States 89 Laws on immigration, proposed Greek 227 Laws on immigration, violations of 183, 188 Lincoln 159 Living conditions 125, 135, 148, 163, 164, 179, 198, 215 Lowell 122, 133 Macedonia 121, 134, 146 Malthusian theory 7 Marriage 39, 93 Megalopolis 174, 175, 232 Military service 59, 70, 227 Mineral resources 67 Miners 190 Monasteries 48 Money 69, 70, 71, 85, 217 Money, amount shown 115 Money sent "home" 73, 78, 92, 161, 181, 191, 220, 221, 240 Music 22 Naturalization 209, 210 Negro slaves 236 New Haven 170, 201 Newspapers, in Greece 21, 52, 64 Newspapers, in Chicago 128 Newspapers, in New York 153 Newspapers, in the United States 209 New York 132, 147 Occupations, in Greece 7, 60, 64 ' Occupations of inunigrants 117 Occupations in Chicago 124, 127 Occupations in Lowell 135, 138- Occupations in New York 150 Occupations in the United States 165, 189, 238 Orthodox church 42, 45, 59 Orthodox church in Chicago 126 Orthodox church in Lowell 141 276 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Orthodox church in New York 156 Orthodox church in the United States 208 Orthodox community 130 Orthodox community of Chicago 126, 132 Orthodox community of Lowell 141 Orthodox community of New York 155 Padrone system 113, 127, 160, 172 Panhellenic 153 Panhellenic Union 121 Patras 39, 63, 65, 79, 80, 94, 174 Patriotism 35, 46, 164, 211 Peddlers 138, 168, 202 Peloponnesus 6, 174, 229 Phylloxera 76 .. Physical characteristics 19 Political conditions 59 Politics 34, 209, 310, 340 Population, of Greece 60, 61, 334 Population, Greek, of the United States 110 Population, Greek, of Chicago 123 Population, Greek, of Lowell 133 Population, Greek, of New York 148 Postal service 63 Prices, in Greece 70, 81 Priests 47, 48, 49, 79, 133, 136, 308 Pronunciation 55 Prosperity 192, 212, 215, 218 Protestants 38, 56, 59, 209 Quality of immigrants 86 'Racial stock IS, 17, 50 Railroads 6, 63 Railroad laborers 163, 186 Recreations 135, 153, 209 Rents 70 Restaurants (see hotels and restaurants). Returning emigrants 110, 116, 217, 238 Roman Catholic Church 42 Roumania 74 377 Digitized by Microsoft® INDEX Sex of immigrants 112, 224i Sexual morality 38, 131, 206 Shipping 65, 72, 81 Smyrna 5, 9, 39 Social classes 60, 152 Socialism 209 Societies 126, 156 Sources of emigration 85 Sparta 63, 83, 84, 226 Steerage conditions 99 Taxation 67 Tenements 136, 149 Tips 181 Topography 5 Trachoma 98 Trade unions 209 Transportation 63 Transvaal, emigration to 70, 78 Tripolis 63, 83, 91, 174, 192, 228 Tsipiana 90, 231 Tuberculosis 145, 199 Turkey 5, IS, 32, 35, 39, 56, 78, 80, 88, 174, 210 Volume of immigration 109 Voyage 100 Wages in Greece 70, 226 Wages in the United States 139, 151, 164, 180 War of 1897 26, 31 War of Independence 16 Wealth in Greece 69 Wealth in the United States 151, 193 White slave trade 226 278 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft®