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Indiana University Studies 



little higher than that paid by the Old Immigration and about 

 three times that paid by the Colored and the New Immigration. 31 



The American families average 4.92 rooms to a family, the 

 Colored 2 rooms, the Old Immigration 5.6 rooms, and the New 

 Immigration 3.54 rooms. That is, the American families hav? 

 more than one room to a family more than the New Immigration 

 and almost 3 rooms to a family more than the Colored. The 

 Old Immigration have almost one room to a family more than the 

 Americans. Yet the average number of persons in the New 

 Immigration families is greater than in any of the other groups, 

 a fact which shows crowded conditions in the homes of the New 

 Immigration to be much worse than in the other racial groups. 



The American families pay an average rental per room of 

 $5.62, the Colored $4.25, the Old Immigration $3.68, and the 

 New Immigration $3.31. An examination of the differences in 

 comforts received in exchange for these rentals makes the differ- 

 ence in amounts of rentals seem far too small. 



Many of the families keep boarders. The keeping of boarders 

 in the home affects the child both physically and morally. Out- 

 siders taken into the home not only increase its crowded con- 

 ditions but destroy its privacy. The keeping of boarders, how- 

 ever, is often an economic necsssity, as without this source of 

 income many families could not keep above the dependency level. 



Of the 86 families of juvenile delinquents in Gary in 1912 to 

 1914, 14, or about 16.3 per cent, keep boarders. The practice 

 was confined almost entirely to the New Immigration families. 

 In many cases the juvenile record shows that the "home con- 

 dition is made worse by the crowd of rough boarders", or "the 

 gan# of beer-drinking boarders make conditions very bad." 32 



15. Home Conditions — Family Life 



In the materials used in this study information is given in 

 regard to certain conditions affecting the spiritual care of the 

 delinquents included here — the provision of training, discipline, 

 and guidance — in the family life of these delinquents. Informa- 

 tion is given as to such facts as broken homes, the presence of 

 a stepmother or stepfather in the home, foster parents, physical, 

 mental, or moral incompetency of one or both parents, lack of 

 sympathy or open dissension between the parents, mothers who 



31 Travis, p. 38. 



S2 Breckenridge and Abbott, p. 118. 



