TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY                   71

CHAPTER IX.
PHILANTROPHY AND SOCIAL WELFARE

INTRODUCTION—It has been found that there are
two periods when the immigrant is most in need of re¬
lief. The first occurs when he has landed and follows
from the fact that he has a slender store of savings upon
which to depend. Among the Jews in New York (!lity
the United tiebrew Charities Society office stated that
7% of the total Jewish immigration found it necessary
to apply for relief within one year. According to the
reports of the two chief agencies in New York City that
oft'er relief to Italian immigrants we find that the num¬
bers run into the thousands. The Italica Gens took care
of 27,861 cases during a period of eight years and the
San Raffaele almost a thousand every year.

In New York City during the year 1917 for the Italian
element 117 men and 23 women and no children under
16 years of age applied for relief; in 1916 (a year of in¬
dustrial depression) there were 10,035 men, 187 women
and no children. Roughly speaking the average for
persons of Italian blood was a little over 1% of the total
number of persons who applied to the Municipal Lodg¬
ing House for relief.* Private agencies of relief cor¬
roborate this low finding of approximately 1%.**

Relief of this sort however, is temporary, for unless
the immigrant becomes self-supporting soon, the law
makes him liable to deportation. The other occasion
when such a one is most liable to need assistance is after
he has spent some years in this country. He has then
exhausted his native fund of physical vigor and lost his
former elasticity of youth and so becomes unable to
struggle against those who are fit and who adapt them¬
selves into our industrial system.

Individuals of this  sort represent a chronic state of

♦From original data furnished by the Secretary of the De¬
partment of Charities.

♦♦Wm. L. Butcher, Supt. Brace Memorial Home, New York
City.