Page:Chicago Race Riots (Sandburg, 1919).djvu/29

Rh Many aliens told investigators they had not heard from their families in four years; that they had sent money home, but had no means of knowing whether it was received or not. Another cause is a desire to ascertain and settle estates of relatives killed during the war.

"Unemployment is still severe in some sections and there is also a desire on the part of many foreigners to return to the land just freed from German or Austrian domination in the belief that opportunities will be better in the new democracies than in the United States.

"In many cities investigation shows that fully 50 per cent of the aliens intend to go back to Europe. A large number of these expect eventually to return to the United States, but many say they will not come back. The clergyman of one foreign church with 1,600 parishioners expects not more than 100 will remain in this country. In an Indiana city with a large Roumanian population, from 40 to 50 per cent want to return to their homeland, Transylvania. Few Poles in the same city expect to return, but 150 of the 600 Serbians wish to go, and it was said that if unemployment became more serious, this number would be increased.

"An investigation by a steel plant showed that 66 per cent of its alien help were married and 64 per cent of them had dependents in the old country. In this plant 61 per cent of all the aliens declared their intention to return to Europe, and of this number 91 per cent said they were going to stay, while only 9 per cent were planning to return to America after their European visit.

"A prominent Hungarian of Chicago estimated that 30,000 unnaturalized Austro-Hungarlans live in this city and that 50 per cent would go back to Europe. Out of a Polish population of 15,000, there were 6,000 expected