The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-27
GREEKS IN THE UNITED STATES.
Increasing Rapidly in Numbers and
Don,,jor NTifl, the Italians

Increasing Rapidly in Numbers and
Not Popular With the Italians.
BY the Federal census of 1890 there
were only 1887 natives of Greece in the
United States. There were fewer
Greeks than men of any other national
ity of which computation was made,
fewer even than Turks or Sandwich Is
landers OF the Greeks returned by the
Federal census, 413 were in New York,
$50 in California, 254 in illinois, las in
exas-insignificant figures when com
pared with the fact that in California
alone there We're by the same census.
1859 natives of Portugal, and there
were in one state, Iowa, 953 natives of
the little Duchy of Luxembourg. Under
these circumstances the proposed en-
uistment of $50 Greeks in Chicago to aid
their compatriots on the Mediterranean
in the warfare in Crete (Chicago which
had by the last census only 254 Greek
residents, men, women and childrenD
might appear to be, to say the least,
somewhat surprising evidence of fer
vent patriotism, to be explained per-
haps, by the tendency to verbal exag-
geration found by some disinterested
and unsympathetic tourists to be gene
raj in the countries of the Orient. In
Pittsburg, too, where six and a half
years ago there were twelve Greeks of
both sexes and of all ages. there were
$50 Greek volunteers for Crete.
The explanation of this is as follows:
There are now not 800 Greeks in the
United States, but $4,000. They have in
creased in numbers by immigration l.
900 per cent in less than seven years,
and there are now 1890 in New York
city alone, $500 in Chicago, 1000 in Bos-
ton, and so on Greece is territorially
Just two-thirds the size of Scotland.
The population of the country is about
the same as the present population Of
the city of New York 1000, 600 The
Greeks are farmers, fishermen and
fruit-raisers. and material prosperity is
not pervasive in the little kingdom of
King George. The Greeks are not, &C
cording to the American standard, in
telligent and progressive husbandmen
or fruit rasers. They have few local
manufa ctures. The debt of the country
is heavy, it's credit fair, and its re-
sources not abundant or increasing.
With the increase in the American fruit
business the enormous development of
the fruit products of California and
Florida and the relative decline in the
fruit importations from the West In
dies the Greeks have found a market
for their knowledge, skill and industry
in the United States, and they have
been coming across the ocean in great
numbers and establishing themselves in
the big cities of the country. They are
peddlers. fruit dealers and retail vend-
ers, and possess many advantages.
They are quickwitted. They learn
English readily. They have a natural
aptitude for trade, for negotiation and
for bargaining-so much so that the
Greeks have come to be known as "the
Jews of the Mediterranean" They are
the money-changers, bankers, factors
and traders of all Egypt. They are to
be found in all the large cities of Tur-
key, both in Europe and in Asia, and in
southern France, particularly in and
about the city of Marseilles, they are
very numerous and influential.
| But the Greeks and the Italians in the
big cities of the United States are al
ways quarrelirg. They are business ri
walls. They do not dwell together in
harmony. The ardent temperament of
the men and women of both nations,
neighbors abroad, but of different
races; the difference in religion and the
| jealousy of centuries-all these things
have the effect of fostering their lack
of friendliness for each other. More
than twenty centuries ago Greece and
Rome were rivals for the political mas
terry of the civilized world. To-day a
dozen Greeks and a dozen Italians, ii
residents of one house, will wrangle and
dispute with each other over anything
from a masquerade ball ticket to the To-
cation of fruit or a peanut stand.
Oddly enough, as has been observed,
the Greeks in New York and elsewhere
dwell in harmony with other foreign