The alien as a public charge : with particular reference to the insane. A paper read before the New York State Conference of Charities and Correction, Syracuse, N.Y., Nov. 20, 1912.

  • Waldman, Morris D. (Morris David), 1879-1963.
Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The alien as a public charge : with particular reference to the insane. A paper read before the New York State Conference of Charities and Correction, Syracuse, N.Y., Nov. 20, 1912. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    exaggerations, even on the part of such a careful student oi soci economy as Professor John E. Commons, who, in his Races an Immigrants in America, refers to this report in the following words: The United Hebrew Charities of New York have as- serted that one-fourth of the Jews of that city are applicants for charity, and the other charitable societies make similar esti- mates for the population at large. And those directly in touch with this class, the very officers of the organization, looked for- ward to an increase of Jewish dependency, at least, in proportion to the increase in immigration. It was not until two years ago that a simple but careful analysis of the figures during the pre- ceding decade disclosed the surprising and yet continuously patent fact that the number of dependents was growing smaller. with rare exception, year by year. Bearing in mind that the Jewish population in New York City has at least doubled in the past ten years, it is significant that the number of applicants to the United Hebrew Charities, which was 11,447 in 1901, steadily decreased to 7,140 in 1912. Not satisfied to draw this conclusion from the number of those who applied for relief (for these figures may have been gathered by different methods during the successive years) we analyzed the figures of those who actually received materia] aid, and found a similar situation. In 1901, 6.520 cases were aided; in 1910, 5,655. Since then, the numbers have decreased to 5,177 in 1911 and 4,589 in 1912 ; that is, since 1901, the number of Jewish dependents has diminished by 30 per cent. The growth in Jewish population, largely caused by immigration, as already stated, has been doubled during this period. If the number of cases had increased only in proportion to the increase in immigration, instead of 4,500, the society should have aided more than 13,000 cases — over three times the number. Only about 2 per cent, of the applicants of the United Hebrew Charities are native born. And be it remembered that the policv of the United Hebrew Charities in not permitting non-Jewish societies to care for its people, is no different to-day from what it was in 1901. Estimating the Jewish population of Manhattan and the Bronx at 800,000, the total number aided, together with the other members of the family, aggregating 23.000, represent not quite 3 per cent, of the Jewish population and not 25 per cent, as Professor Commons and others have been led to believe This, I believe, is the lowest proportion of dependency vet re- corded in any large city in the civilized world.