te them down, and tell them that they are to do so and
so. Childish, is it? Not at all. It is just human nature, the kind we
are working with.

The mere fact that the schoolhouse is there, inviting them in, is
something. When it comes to seek them out, to invite them to their own
hall for discussion, for play, it will be a good deal, particularly if
the women go along. And the enrolment of the schoolhouse could be
counted as being for decency.

It makes all the difference what the start is like. "Excellency," wrote
an Italian to his consul in New York, "I arrived from Italy last week.
As soon as I landed a policeman clubbed me. I am going to write to
Victor Emmanuel how things are done here. Viva l' Italia! Abbasso l'
America!" I should not be surprised to find that man plotting anarchy in
Paterson as soon as he got his bearings, and neither need you be.

There is still another alternative to either keeping them out or keeping
them in the city, namely, to ship them away after they have reached the
slum and been stranded there, individually or in squads. The latter way
was tried when the great Jewish immigration first poured in, in the
early eighties. Five colonies of refugee Jews were started in southern
New Jersey, but they failed. The soil was sandy and poor, and the work
unfamiliar. Thrown upon his own resources, in a strange and unfriendly
neighborhood, the man grew discouraged and gave up in despair. The
colonies were in a state of collapse when the New York managers of the
Baron de Hirsch Fund took them under the arms and gave them a start on a
new plan. They themselves had located a partly industrial, partly
farming, community in the neighborhood. They persuaded several large
clothing contractors to move their plants out to the villages, where
they would be assured of steady hands, with much less chance of
disturbing strikes; while on the other hand their workers would have
steadier work and could never starve in dull seasons, for they could
work their farms and gardens. And, indeed, a perfect frenzy for spading
and hoeing seized them when the crops appeared, with promise of
unlimited potatoes for the digging of them. The experiment is still in
progress. It is an experiment, because as yet the Hirsch Fund millions
back the colonies up, and there is no passing of reasonable judgment
upon them till they have stood alone awhile. To all appearances they are
prospering, Woodbine, the Hirsch colony, especially so, wi