New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-01-14
SUFFRAG|STS HEAR OF
IMMIGRATION EVILS
New York Does Nothing 10
Turn Aliens Into Good CltI-
zens, Woman Says.
EXPLOlTERS ALWAYS BUSY
Miss Parker Describes Work OF
Education Carried On by
Civic League on Ellis
Island and in Homes.

ISIdHQ dlu III 11OAhSS'
What is the State OF New York doing
On turn the millions Of immigrants who
royr into this port every year into citi-
ems Nothing at all. The United States
t.r5s them out naturalization papers,
and New York state lets it go at that.
A. N any effort to teach them even the
simplest rudiments Of English, or the
duties az citizenship, II is like snakes ih
ireland saws Miss Grace E. j. Parker,
General secretary Of the North American
civic League for Immigrants SUCH ell
fort has never been made. Neglected by
the government exploited by employment
agencies. notaries public and the small
banking institutions. overworked and
underpaid by railroad and other big COM
NAMES, and herded like swine in labor
camps. the unlettered immigrants are,
Miss Parker thinks. in urgent need of
cuidsnce-not only for their own sakes.
but for that Of the country in which they
soon acquire vote.
Pictures Show Conditions.
Miss Parker told the members Of the
about the leagues work at meeting
Yesterday afternoon at the. headquarters
Of the New York State Suffrage Asso'
ciatlon. No. $50 Madison avenue Mrs.
RAYMOND Brown presided. She also
showed some magic lantern pictures,
which the audience might have thought
we're pictures Of neglected piggeries or
ragpickers dens. If she hadn't explained
that they were the bunking quarters
which agents charge immigrant laborers
good sizsd rental for in railway con-
structon camps and like places
DO YOU know" she said. 1T is only
within the last week that the Board OF
Education Of the City OF New York has
made any attempt 10 teach the immi-
grants anything at all? There is abso-
lutely no national organization for train
ing them in the duties Of citizenship.
And Yet directly they have taken out
their second naturalization papers the
Law saws they can vote. and I'm nine states
that I know OF immigrants who have not
taken out their second papers are voting
in defiance Of the law.
Some states make an effort TO compel
their education, In Massachusetts the
law SAYS they must attend night school.
IN New York the law says nothing Of the
sort When the time comes the political
bosses attend to their vote. The chill
dren. II is true. are taught in the schools.
But the urgent need is for separate class.
O. for Immigrant children. In a very few
schools there are separate classes; they
should he made general. AS II goes at
present, with perhaps four or five newly
arrived immigrant children in class of
native born the little foreigners don't get
tho training in English they ought TO
have. while their ignorance of the Ian
euaga keeps the others back"
Work at Ellis Island.
The New York-New Jersey committee Of
the league for immigrants, of which John
Hals Hammond is chairman, takes UP
ifs work right AZ Ellis Island. II has alert
Young AGENTS, who meet the newly arrived
there
we ray the agents 81 day Miss Par
ker SAID and they frequently work from
o'clock a. m. until the next morning.
And there isn't a more loyal set Of men
going Most Of them were immigrants
themselves not so long ago. These agents
lteer the immigrants past the sharks who
are waiting to exploit them. and deliver
Them safely at the places for which they
IRE bound In the last year we have de-
hvered forty thousand immigrants the
year before we delivered thirty thousand.
md I think we must do it satisfactorily,
for we receive many letters from those
whom We have delivered asking us TO
meet relatives who are coming from the
ether side.
I'VE cover only two STATESMEN York
and New jersey. Delivering immigrants
is really national problem, which will,
hope, Oe taken up in time"
In the educational part Of its work, OF
which Miss Anne Morgan is chairman,
the league maintains seven domestic ed
ucators," young women who 90 into the
immigrants homes.
What Educators Do.
All we ask OF these educators" Miss
Parker said, is that they shall be trained
nurses. have social experience and be
able TO teach English, housekeeping and
a few things like that. Not much TO ask
Of one person, is It? They must be able
to teach the mothers, because the mothers
won't go TO the public schools; we must
take the public schools 70 the mothers.
The first thing a domestic educator
teaches these women is ventilation. After
she labors about two weeks she may get
woman TO the point where she will open
a window without q protest Then the
lessons pass on TO sanitation. personal
and sex hygiene. household economics and
the care Of babies. You will believe that
last is needed when l tell you that 1t is
not unusual for one OF our educators 10
find six-months-Old baby eating bologna
sausage and dill pickles and drinking
beer During the household training the
immigrant mother IS. of course. absorbing
English and more or less Of the knowi-
edge which will enable her to use the
yOte-when she gets IT,"
COURT "PENSlONS" MOTHER
Ovdare G OF IT, Do pai1 UoaE