He is commonly cleaner
morally when he lands than after six months of the life here. Why should
he not be? What has American Christianity done to safeguard or help him?
[Sidenote: Immigrants Not Responsible]
The existence of the tenement-house evils, it must be borne in mind, is
chargeable primarily to the owner and landlord, not to the foreign
occupant. The landlords are especially to blame for the ill
consequences. The immigrant cannot dictate terms or conditions. He has
to go where he can. The prices charged for rent are exorbitant, and
should secure decency and healthful quarters. No property is so
remunerative. This rent money is literally blood money in thousands of
instances, and yet every effort to improve things is bitterly fought.
Why should not socialism and anarchism grow in such environment? Of
course many of the immigrants are familiar with poor surroundings and do
not apparently object to dirt and crowding. But that does not make these
conditions less perilous to American life. Self-respect has a hard
struggle for survival in these sections, and if the immigrant does not
possess or loses that, he is of the undesirable class. Mr. Robert Hunter
makes the statement that no other city in the world has so many dark and
windowless rooms, or so many persons crowded on the acre, or so many
families deprived of light and air as New York.
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