Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/539

Rh slums, it would at least ensure that the reduced number of additions were of a physique rugged enough to withstand the influences of such an existence. It would not materially reduce the number of agricultural and industrial unskilled laborers and would permit the admittance of plenty of men physically able to do a fair day's work for their employers.

In the matter of distributing aliens over a wider area, two distinct classes must be considered, the aliens already established in colonies in our cities, and aliens in general who, through ignorance of opportunities offered in different sections of the country, in many instances go to the congested areas rather than to the places where their labor is needed. No plan for the relief of tenement congestion, by better distribution of aliens already established there, can be successful without a reduction of the number of yearly steerage arrivals, particularly Gf those classes which tend to congest the cities. Many schemes for the distribution of the aliens congregated in cities have been proposed; some are chimerical, others more practical, but the consensus of opinion among philanthropic individuals and representatives of charitable societies is that the process of distribution is necessarily a slow one. The city-dwelling immigrant must be here some three or four years before he knows enough of our language and customs to enable him to be self-supporting away from his own race. It seems also that distribution must be effected individually rather than by colonies. The experience of the great Hebrew charitable societies at least bears out this view. Their efforts at wholesale rural colonization have almost in every instance failed, and the colonies established with few exceptions required the paternal aid of the society constantly. On the other hand, the same organizations have distributed several thousand Jews, who have been here some time and have learned something of American ways, in various parts of the country, and these have been almost uniformly successful. As has been said, some of the Hebrew colonies, which were failures as farming communities solely, were made self-supporting by the introduction of clothing factories. The establishment of such industrial colonies is of distinct service in relieving the congestion in the cities, and should be encouraged in spite of the claim made by some that the competition from the rural shop is ruinous to the clothing trade. From all that can be learned the clothing industry in New York can sustain its own low standard in competition with any number of rural shops.

When one considers how slowly the work of distributing the excess alien population of the tenement districts goes on in spite of the best effort of societies, individuals or municipal officers, the necessity is at once apparent either to stop altogether the annual reenforcement of this tenement population, or, at least, 'so reduce the number of