How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New YorkRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
History
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
Poor -- New York (State) -- New York; Tenement houses -- New York (State) -- New York
These are the economical conditions that enable my manufacturing friend
to boast that New York can "beat the world" on cheap clothing. In
support of his claim he told me that a single Bowery firm last year
sold fifteen thousand suits at $1.95 that averaged in cost $1.12½.
With the material at fifteen cents a yard, he said, children's suits
of assorted sizes can be sold at wholesale for seventy-five cents, and
boys' cape overcoats at the same price. They are the same conditions
that have perplexed the committee of benevolent Hebrews in charge of
Baron de Hirsch's munificent gift of ten thousand dollars a month for
the relief of the Jewish poor in New York. To find proper channels
through which to pour this money so that it shall effect its purpose
without pauperizing, and without perpetuating the problem it is sought
to solve, by attracting still greater swarms, is indeed no easy task.
Colonization has not in the past been a success with these people.
The great mass of them are too gregarious to take kindly to farming,
and their strong commercial instinct hampers the experiment. To herd
them in model tenements, though it relieve the physical suffering in a
measure, would be to treat a symptom of the disease rather than strike
at its root, even if land could be got cheap enough where they gather
to build on a sufficiently large scale to make the plan a success.
Trade schools for manual training could hardly be made to reach the
adults, who in addition would have to be supported for months while
learning. For the young this device has proved most excellent under the
wise management of the United Hebrew Charities, an organization that
gathers to its work the best thought and effort of many of our most
public-spirited citizens. One, or all, of these plans may be tried,
probably will. I state but the misgivings as to the result of some
of the practical minds that have busied themselves with the problem.
Its keynote evidently is the ignorance of the immigrants. They must
be taught the language of the country they have chosen as their home,
as the first and most necessary step. Whatever may follow, that is
essential, absolutely vital. That done, it may well be that the case in
its new aspect will not be nearly so hard to deal with.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account