The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-03-05
ITALIANS IN NEW YORK
BUYING REAL ESTATE
Tendency to Invest Their Earning:
in America Rather than IN
Old Country.
PRIDE IN OWNING LAND

NEW YORK, March 4-The public
has no appreciation of the extent TO
which the soil of Manhattan island
is passing into the hands OF recently-ar-
rived foreigners. The 1900 census shows
that only about Il per cent. Of Manhattan
population is of native stocls-in the sense
that the parentagc of family heads is ma
tive; and it is doU. al if a census of prop
erty owners would show a much greater
proportion. In his article on John Jacob
Astor. in the Pail Mall Magazine. William
Waldorf Astor rather exultingly pointed
out how few Of the descendants of the old
landed proprietors of Manhattan-the Bay
ards, the Rutgers, the Stuyvesants, the
Clintons, the De Lanceys, the Lispenards.
the Murrays. and the rest-have retained
their ancestral acres. They are all now di-
vided among a multitude of owners, to a
great extent foreign. 1t was the butcher s
son of Waldorf who began this absorption
of American soil by foreign stock; and he
has thousands of followers at the present
day. The phenomenon IS explained to a
great extent by the social distinction as
ISOLATED by foreigners with fee tenure of
real estate. Americans care no more for
real property than other forms of invest
ment-usually less; for. unaccustomed to
the agragrian system of Europe, and the
social discrimination between landlord and
tenant, they have no particular pride in
land ownership. This, however. is one of
the greatest privileges open 10 the immi-
grant 1t is especially priced by Russian
Jews, who, in their own country are actual
ly prohibited by law from holding land,
from one point of view, most interesting
reading. In nine cases out of ten the pur-
chaser is a Jew, the name of the seller not
infrequently being that or an old established
New York family.
RUSSIAN JEWS ACTIVE.
The extent TO which the Jews are becom-
ing the landlords of Manhattan, indeed, has
obscured another significant tendency-thC
increasing number of Italian purchasers
The greatest additions TO Manhattan's pop
ulation are Jewish and Italian; and theil
material progress is thus of considerable
interest and Importance. According TO G.
Tuoti, a leading Italian real-estate oper
| ator. up to 1856 there was not one Italian
| owner of real estate in the districts whert
| they now predominant. Mr.. TuOu has re
Gently completed q list of more than so
landowners, the aggregate holdings being
| In the neighbOrhoOd of $l5O0O,000 While
this is hardly comparable to the enormous
possessions of the Jewish, it sufficient.
| illustrates the thrift of the Italian pOpula
| ton. The chief criticism brought agains
| the Italian is the Discrimination, in man.
| cases, to establish himself permanently II
| this country. In the past the tendency ha
| been to stay long enough in this country &
| accumulate comfortable sum, and thel
| return 10 Italy. This practice is said TO b.
dying out; and the growing disposition o
1 Italians towards real-estate investment
| necessarily makes tor stability
The prevailing form of real-estate invest
| ment, of course, is the tenement houses
4 Italians are prompt payers on rent day; an
\ this habit has given an unquestioned earn
| ing power to the Italian tenement. Pur
| chasers are found practically in all classes
| Many labOrers ana factory hands succeed
| by dint of hard work and patient saving. Il
1 acquiring the $1,000 or $1,000 needed to pur
| chase an equity in a tenement house Eve
| a prosperous bootblack is pointed out, her
and there, as a tenement landlord; Will
4 Italian BARRIERS and grocerymen are not in
| frequently thus endowed. There are man.
| Italian merchants a large scale, eSpe
| cially fruitererS, who invest their earning
| in tencments in the Italian quarter.
| house in the Italian quarter brings from
| $4,000 to $4,000; OF which the larger amour
| usually remains on bond and mortgage
/ The humber purchaser always moves int
| the house. acts as janitor, rent collecto
| and repair man; pays off good part of tn
| mortgage every year. until he becomes tn
| unencumbered owner Another practice eS
| pecially popular with Italians is the leas
| ing or tenements for three, five and te
| years In this way many future purchaser
| are broken in. This leasing process, s
| popular in Mulberry and Mott streets /
| not regarded favorably by philanthropists
| 1t is complained that, inasmuch as FEY
| owners will lease an entire building 70
| much less than the rentals bring, the Jesse
| is Obliged to grind the tenants in order I
| recoup himself Tenement workers. indeed
| have occasionally met this leasing practic
/ in ugly FORM Italian real-estate men, how
| ever, asesrt that the evils are greatly ex
aggerated; that only in sporadic cases d
1 they exist at all