Congressman Vare of Philadelphia Condemns Restrictive Immigration

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Congressman William S. Vare, candidate for the Republican nomination for United States Senator, and leader of the Republican Party in Philadelphia, condemned restrictive immigration at the first annual dinner of the Charles B. Hall Lodge, No. 775, Independent Order of B’rith Abraham.

The Congressman said he felt the restrictive immigration laws were depriving the nation of a desirable element, and the laws should be so amended as to permit this element to enter.

The Charles B. Hall lodge is named after a non-Jew who at present is president of the Philadelphia City Council, which corresponds to the New York Board of Aldermen. Some of the most prominent Jews in the city are members of it. Others who followed Congressman Vare on the speaker’s platform were Jules E. Mastbaum, Judge Gustave Hartman, of New York; Harry A. Mackey, political leader here; Richard Weglein, former head of the police force in this city; State Senator Samuel Salus and Municipal Court Justice Leopold C. Glass.

THE IMMIGRANT POPULATION AND CRIME STATISTICS

Sir:

I was very much interested in an item in your issue of the 18th, with regard to the relative preponderance of the native and foreign populations in crime. This subject has received considerable study recently and there is little doubt now that the foreign-born population has less than its proportionate share of crime or that the native-born population contributes more than its share to crime.

I quote below from the most recent and most scientific work on the subject, Professor Sutherland’s book on Criminology, published by Lippincott & Company, in which he says the following:

“The Census Report of 1910 on prisoners shows that for the entire United States the number of foreign-born white persons committed to institutions as prisoners or juvenile delinquents was exactly twice as large in proportion to their entire population as for the native-born whites. This is very misleading, however, if taken as it stands. For, in the first place, almost all of the immigrants are adults: in 1910 only 5.7 per cent of the foreign-born were under fifteen years of age, as contrasted with 36.6 per cent of the native-born whites. It the adult offenders alone are compared in proportion to the population in each group fifteen years of age and over, the foreign-born whites had only 1.3 times (instead of 2.0 times) as many commitments as native-born whites. In the second place, almost all immigrants settle in the cities and as has been shown, cities have higher rates than the rural districts for arrests, convictions and commitments. It is possible, therefore, that the immigrants have higher rates because they live in cities rather than because they are immigrants. . . . Several investigations of particular localities justify the conclusion that the foreign-born in cities have lower rates than the native-born for arrests, convictions and commitments.

“The Immigration Commission of 1910 came to that conclusion from a study of the statistics of several cities, and Edith Abbott proved it for Chicago in 1913. Table XIL shows for selected cities and for all parts of the states of New York and Massachusetts that in proportion to the population fifteen years of age and over the foreign-born whites have lower rates than the native-born whites.

“It is evident that the native-born generally have higher rates, varying from almost the same to almost twice as high as the foreign-born.” (pp. 97-8).

Table XII referred to. is to be found on page 98 and shows that in Chicago the ratio of the arrests of the native-born whites to foreign-born whites was 1.88, and that the ratio for convictions in the same city for the same groups was 1.66; in Washington there were 1.21 times as many arrests among the native whites as among the foreign whites; in Boston the ratio was 1.32; in Newark the ratio was 1.20; and in New York City the commitments of native whites were 1.23 times as high as for the foreign whites. I think that your readers will be interested in the foregoing.

Sincerely,

M. J. KARPF, Director.

The Training School for Jewish Social Work.

New York, Mar. 25, 1926.

Three hundred Jewish young men at a dinner in the Congress Hotel, Chicago, in honor of Federal Judge Julian W. Mack subscribed $15,000 to the United Palestine appeal drive for half a million dollars in this city. They pledged to raise $25,000 more.

Samuel Philipson. A. Z. Halperin and Milton Callner each dropped checks for $2,000 when the big basket carried by two men was passed about the dining room.

D. J. Schift, local banker, and S. J. Rosenblatt both dropped in checks for $1,000.