Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/399

 GREEKS IN CHICAGO 385

Considered from other standpoints, the Greek is a most de- sirable immigrant. With the political training he has had at home, he should be able to adapt himself quickly to our repub- lican institutions. Greece is a constitutional monarchy in which the people enjoy universal manhood suffrage and freedom of the press. There is no aristocracy and the "whole nation is more intensely and thoroughly democratic than any other in Europe," and the people "only tolerate a king, because they cannot endure one of themselves as their superior." ^

The patriotism of the Greek, is one of his most prominent characteristics and takes very often the exceedingly boastful form usually credited to "Yankees" in English novels. They are always ready to tell you of the superiority of the Greek soldier over any other and the men who have been to college in Greece speak of American schools and American scholarship with almost German contempt. A small Greek boy was sure that he won the affection of his Irish school-teacher by showing her pictures of "the Athens." Most of them feel it their duty to spread the fame of their noble race whenever possible. Approving of Hull House, they succeeded in convincing the Bulgarians, for a time at least, that it was intended for the Greeks alone, and the first Greek boy who went through the Juvenile Court felt that he had added to .the glory of the Greek name and dignified that worthy American institution as well. While somewhat exasperating at times, this enthusiastic devotion to their mother country is after all a most desirable characteristic and one which the Anglo- American should readily appreciate.

Industrially the Greek is a positive asset in the United States. There is peasant proprietorship of land in the Peloponnesus and most of those who emigrate have lived on small farms which they owned and worked for themselves. In the United States their occupations are quite different as the table on p. 386 shows.

But this does not tell the whole story of their employment. Because the colony is so largely masculine, large numbers of the men live together keeping house on some co-operative arrange- ment and form what may be called non-family groups to dis-

•James P. Mahaffy, Parables and Studies in Greece (London, 1892), p. 23.