The Women’s Municipal League of New York formed in 1906 a Research Committee which made an intensive study of a group of immigrants and reported the need of better public protection. As a result of the pressure exerted by this Committee, the League itself, and the Association of Neighborhood Workers, a state immigration bill was passed in 1908 creating a non-salaried commission of nine members. Miss Frances Kellor, who had directed the research work among immigrants, was made a member of this commission and later became head of the State Bureau of Immigration. Massachusetts followed with a Commission of Immigration on the lines of the New York commission, for a study of internal assimilation. Grace Abbott, director of the Immigrants’ Protective League of Chicago, was appointed executive secretary. Governor Johnson recently appointed a similar commission in California and Mrs. Mary E. Gibson is an active member. FUNDAMENTALS Of the work of Jane Addams of Chicago in the foreign colonies the very best tribute is that paid her by one of her alien neighbors: “It was that word _with_ from Jane Addams,” said a working woman, “that took the bitterness out of my life. For if she wanted to work with me and I could work with her, it gave my life new meaning and hope.” Starting in with a simple desire for service to our new citizens, sometimes enlivened by real missionary fervor and again by a semi-religious and philanthropic sentiment, women social workers are now realizing to a gratifying extent that the real basis of assimilation is economic, because the immigrant comes here as a worker. To prevent exploitation thus becomes the main endeavor of a large group of workers in the foreign colonies, and their emphasis on good wages as a basis for housing reform and other standards of living as well as for social opportunity and culture proves the capacity of women for intellectual growth and keenness of penetration. Sometimes in their anxiety to make good citizens of foreigners, women workers among them, or for them, lay emphasis on governmental action and are paternalistic in that they work for legislation more than education among the workers themselves. Others, while not underestimating the value of legislation, feel that exploitation will be more permanently removed or prevented by educating the immigrant to demand those conditions of life and labor for himself or herself which will make exploitation impossible. CHAPTER VI HOUSING