110 PROCEEDINGS OP THE SIXTH NATIONAL CONFEEENCE OF JEWISH CHARITIES. Ill house had sufficient effect on him to impress him with a sense of causes a little more scientifically tabulated, and I would recom­ responsibility to his family, and he is willing to comply with any mend to the Conference, if it still believes that interest in the request that is made of him. All of our wife neglect cases are, subject ought to be continued, that these tables be submitted to a with some modifications, handled in a similar manner. special committee for approval and then distributed to all the Recently our Board has adopted a scheme whereby we are taking relief agencies in the city, so that a thorough study may be made care of such families whose bread-winner serves a sentence in the for at least one year, the results of such investigation to be em­ workhouse. The amount given each family depends entirely upon bodied in the forms I have prepared. the needs and requirements of that particular family. In that PRESIDENT HOLLANDEB : This concludes the morning session. way the wives and children do not suffer pending the prisoners' confinement in the workhouse. Wednesday, May 18. As I stated before, I feel that our scheme has had a very whole­ AFTERNOON SESSION. some effect and will in time check considerably the evil of wife PRESIDENT HOLLANDER: A single paper has been prepared abandonment. and circulated in printed form among those whose names appear ME. MOEEIS D. WALDMAN, New York: I did not expect to be on the program as "Open Discussion." Upon the completion of called upon to close this discussion. It may, however, be well the reading of this paper the discussion will be carried on by to summarize the essential points, so that you may take away a those whose names appear, after which it will be put before the clear notion from the haze and maze of statistics which have been Conference for less formal discussion. presented. The first thing we discovered is, that it is not a Jewish The principal paper will now be read by Mr. David M. Bressler, question alone, but is just as prevalent among the Gentiles, and of New York. from this fact we may take unction to our souls. Furthermore, The following paper on the subject, "Removal Work, Including desertion has not been on the increase. Proportionately it has Galveston," was then read by the reporter, Mr. David M. Bressler, been on the decrease. Furthermore, among the causes of desertion of New York: immorality does not seem to be quite as prevalent among Jews as among non-Jews. I was particularly gratified that among the THE REMOVAL WORK, INCLUDING GALVESTON. desertion cases I investigated in 1902 I found only three women BY DAVID M. BRESSLER, who had been guilty of sexual immorality. The present study, General Manager of the Industrial Bemoval Office, incomplete as it is, also shows that self-indulgence is the chief cause of family desertion, and that there is little relation between NEW YORK, N. Y. desertion and industrial conditions. It is now a little over nine years since the Industrial Removal I am sorry that Mr. Billikopf did not present to you more Office was instituted. Whatever the opinion may be as to the emphatically the plan which Kansas City has just about intro­ manner and efficiency with which it has handled the work for duced. I look forward with a great deal of anticipation to the which it was organized, there can hardly be any question in the results of the scheme that has been inaugurated in Kansas City mind of anyone familiar with the subject that it is beyond the for the treatment of desertion cases, as well as the treatment of experimental stage. It meets a definite need and helps to solve other minor offenses. Just another word: the causes as they a definite problem. That the need and problem exist, no one appear in my report of 1902 were crudely tabulated; in the supple­ longer questions. The solution or remedy attempted by the Re­ mentary tabular forms appearing in this report you will find the moval Office, namely, the distribution of Jewish immigrants 112 PROCEEDINGS OP THE SIXTH NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF JEWISH CHARITIES. 113 throughout the country, was given its initial impetus at the immigration to America becomes, to a considerable degree, im­ memorable Conference of Jewish Charities held in Detroit in migration to New York. Distribution aims to make immigra­ 1902, when the subject was presented to the Conference for the tion to America a fact by giving every State in the Union its first time. The remarkable, not to say enthusiastic, sympathy proportionate share. Distribution, however, is not only of bene­ and support which it evoked, is historical, and it is no exaggera­ fit to the country at large, in which respect it would be of purely tion to say that even the moderate success which has accom­ sociological or politico-economic value. It becomes philanthropic panied the efforts of the Removal Office since that time, can be as well when it touches the individual immigrant in his person attributed directly to the influence and co-operation of the cities and gives him the opportunity to be tested fairly under condi­ which were represented in that notable Conference. tions favorable to the working out of his economic salvation. How efficient the work of the Removal Office has been, can best Recognizing that his foreign tongue and his foreign culture are be gathered from a perusal of the annual reports covering the years in themselves sufficient handicaps, distribution vouchsafes him at of its existence. By reason of the fact that the high water mark least a favorable environment where he may the sooner over­ of its activities was reached during the year 1907, when thou­ come the obstacles in his path. In this manner it logically sands of Russian Jews were fleeing from Pogrom cities and from evolves classes of immigrants who may be reasonably expected to a country torn by revolutionary strife, it might be inferred in become economically independent. some quarters that the Removal Office is designed to meet spe­ The work of distribution has a dual aspect as has already been cial situations such as pogroms with their consequent heavy suggested. On the one hand there is the individual man of flesh stream of immigration to this country. It should be stated there­ and blood, the applicant who comes with a request to be removed fore at the outset that the Removal work has no such one-sided from New York. This applicant must be considered fully and aspect. In its origin that may have been the immediate cauie fairly to obtain a correct understanding of his problem. To for its creation, but in its basic aspect it is constructive. In its idealize him and to imagine him to be other than he is, would essence and principles it is intended to act as a clearing house of be fatal to every effort directed towards the successful handling Jewish immigration, to relieve, and to prevent, if possible, fur­ of his case. He is a strange mixture, this applicant. On the ther congestion at the port of entry. The systematic distribu­ one hand he is basically a product of Old World conditions with tion of the incoming masses of immigrants tends to make im­ all that this implies. In his old habitat he was often spiritually migration healthy and desirable. There is enough room in this and materially cramped. His development was hindered at every country for millions more inhabitants, provided they are fairly point. His latent and native ability was never allowed free and distributed and are not allowed to clog up any one particular full play. Projected into New York by the exigencies of fate, his point. By judicious distribution only the benefits of immigra­ stay in the metropolis, if it has done anything, has tended to con­ tion will be felt and at the same time conditions in the port of fuse him and to render him at odds with his environment. The entry will be greatly relieved. The immigrants who come to our transition from the simple and almost naive life in Russia to shores do not elect New York as a stopping place for the sole the complexities of New York has been too swift and sudden. reason that New York attracts them. But without discounting Add to this that the complex economic system of which he finds the importance of this influence in determining their destina­ himself an integral part, makes the pursuit of a livelihood more tion, it is also a fact that since New York is the point of dis­ strenuous than it was in his old home and that this makes him embarking for the vast majority of ocean liners sailing from the readily receptive of the gospel of unrest and dissatisfaction European ports, it is more convenient for them from the point preached to him at every turn, he is not the ideal material from of view of expense and comforts, and so what was intended as which to choose pioneers who are to blaze the trail of a new life. PROCEEDINGS OP THE SIXTH 114 NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF JEWISH CHARITIES. 115 Exercising the greatest care in selection, employing a systema­ sight of the character and make-up of the large mass of Jewish tized apparatus of organization, the Industrial Eemoval Office immigrants. We must not be afraid to admit that the Jewish has learned that even the best applicant is far from being a per­ immigrant is not unlike his fellowman, that he is an admixture fect specimen.