82 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



With the exception of the Jew all of these are laboring under 

 the most undesirable economic circumstances at home. Out- 

 of-date industrial organization together with the dense popula- 

 tion makes the United States seem the Isle of Bliss. The Jew, 

 on the other hand, although able through his innate shrewdness 

 to attain an independent economic status, is prevented from 

 doing so by the racial and religious prejudices of the people. 

 This is especially true of Russia and Rumania, from which we 

 obtain the mass of our Jewish immigrants. That such emigra- 

 tion is not due to economic hardships is perfectly clear in the 

 case of the latter country, from which practically only Jews emi- 

 grate while the Rumanians remain at home. 



That the Teutonic Americans would not look with as much 

 pleasure upon the Slavs, Latins, and Jews as they did upon the 

 entrance of the earlier immigrants who were of their own race 

 can be explained as being due to unconscious race prejudice. It 

 can not be said that the recent immigrant is very inferior 

 morally. It is true that petty thefts occur frequently in Italian 

 settlements and that the number of lawsuits in Polish settle- 

 ments is extraordinarily large. The latter fact is largely due to 

 the preference on the part of the Poles to settle personal differ- 

 ence involving trifling amounts in court rather than out of 

 court as Americans do. None of the excessive criminal tend- 

 encies which exist among these peoples in the cities extend to 

 the rural communities. In these communities the Italians and 

 Slavs utilize all their time and in the case of farm owners and 

 tenants every available inch of land. They are very frugal. 

 The opposition they meet from business men may be largely due 

 to their hesitation to spend. That they do not devote the land 

 around their houses to trees and flowers, which is often explained 

 as indicating a lack of the appreciation of beauty, may probably 

 be just as much due to this characteristic whether we call it 

 frugality or parsimony. The Jew, on the other hand, meets a 

 much heartier welcome from the business world on account of his 

 inclination to spend. He is not as industrious as the Slavs or 

 Italians. Even in the rural communities his trading propensity 

 often causes him to devote a part of his time to it. 



The decrease in the number of immigrants that engage in agri- 

 culture may not be entirely due to the change in the type of im- 



