The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-08-05
Anti-Semitism . Part
or Irish Problem

Inc answer Is mat dorchester y
anti-Semitic violence Is not really
a Jewish problem at all. but is part
and parcel OF the Irish problem
which has been with Boston all
through its recent history. To un-
derstand why Jewish boys land
sometimes grown mem get their
noses broken and their teeth knock
ed out in 1914. we must 60 back at
least hundred years The present
situation cannot be understood with
out some understanding Of the his
tory OF the Irish in Boston.
Probably no other large group Of
immigrants ever came TO America
with so little OF the worlds goods
as the Irish. They came literally TO
escape starvation, and after 1874
they came in streams For twenty
years the flood continued: and by
the tine il had begun TO dwindle.
the city, which had reached its
natural limit OF growth in the
eighteen-;wenties, had thousands Of
new residents.
Penn!less. without friends except
as poor as themselves. thew squatted
along the docks near the places
where thew worked. They had
come 10 Boston because that was
where the immigrant boats landed
they stayed because they didn't ever
have carfare TO the country. Be
tween 1920 and 1880 more than les.
600 landed from Ireland; uncountes
thousands more came indirectly b.
way Of England and Canada. Mos
| Of them stayed I'm the Greater Bos
ton area. whose population, though
shrinking in terms OF the Yankee
native-born. jumped from $4,000 Il
288. 900 in those forty years.
II is little wonder that the Yam.
KEGS disliked and feared the ;mmi.
grants even while they exploited
them. The miserable and driven
Irish found reason 10 hate Boston
ians as much as they hated the
British. Boston found Irishrer
useful as laborers. their wives and
daughters handy as domestic serv-
ants. Otherwise they were snuobed
bought and sold in TIE labor market
segregated. and disliked.
To see how unhappy was the
early history OF The Irish in Boston
one has only 10 follow the COO
survey by Oscar Handlin in Boston's
Immigrants. l790-lS65. a book which
ought 10 be required reading fol-
every Bostonian But there was
another side. as Mr.. Handlin point.
out, TO the difficulties they encount.
cred: other immigrant groups read.
lily adopted the institutions and
habits Of America; the Irish. with
a suspicion OF Protestarts that went
back 20 Cromwell. chose TO segre'
gate themselves ard 10 build their
own world within the American so.
ciety which they found hostile anc
foreign.
Catholicism Set Them Apart
II was their Catholicism that Sc
them apart. and il vas as Catholic.
that they suffered. They were the
target Of rumors and libels anc
whispering campaigns The storie!
OF dark rituals and abominstion!
that had been spread about III,
Masons in the 1905 and would soor
be spread about the Mormons wer,
whispered about the orders Of N,
Catholic Church. As early as l83.
a mob O, Yankee truckers burned
/ down the Crsuline Convent il
? Charlesttr Whine me Tiremen stoot
| by and PLAYED their hoses on tn
/ houses mex; door The poison per
did its worst IN such sensational
exposes as Six Months in Con
vent ls25 and The Awful Dis
closures ~ Maria Monk 1885,.
Only ore reSui; was conclusive
/ The Boston Irish. attacked on every
side. developed group conscious
ness hardly matched by any o;hei
group in the history Of America