The life of the man who has come ahead has been made the subject of
special study from time to time,[2] especially with regard to the
housing conditions in which he lives--as a lodger or a member of a
nonfamily group of men. It has been shown in all these studies that
whatever the plan worked out, he adapts himself either to a life of
intimate familiarity with women and children not his own, or to a life
in which children and women have little part.
In connection with the present study, the living conditions of some of
the Mexicans and Russians in Chicago were studied. As in the past, the
men were found living in one of the following ways: as a lodger in the
family group, as a boarder paying a fixed sum for room and board, or
as a member of a group of men attempting to do their own housekeeping.
The Mexicans studied included 207 men, of whom 197, or 95 per cent,
are unmarried. The Russians included 112 men, of whom 65, or 58 per
cent, had wives in Russia. It is interesting to note that 136 of the
207 Mexican men were boarding, usually with a Mexican family, 37 were
lodgers, and 34 were doing co-operative housekeeping. Among the
Russians, on the other hand, there were 25 doing co-operative
housekeeping, and 85 living with family groups, of whom only a few
paid a fixed sum for room and board, while the others paid a fixed
rate for lodging and the food bill depended on the food that was
consumed.
[Illustration: EVEN A BOARDING HOUSE OF EIGHTEEN BOARDERS IN FIVE
ROOMS IS MORE CHEERFUL THAN A LABOR CAMP FOR MEN ALONE]
Four variations were found in the method of paying for food: (1) The
landlady buys all the food for the group and her family on one
account. The total bill is divided by the number of boarders plus the
head of the family, the wife and children getting their food as
partial compensation for her services. (2) Each lodger has his own
account book, in which is entered only the meat purchased for him. He
pays this account himself. The other food purchased is entered in the
landlady's book, and divided in the same manner as before. (3) Each
lodger has his own account and buys what he wants. Instead of paying
for what he has bought, he pays his share of the total food bought
during the week. (4) Each lodger has his own account, the family
has its own, and each pays his own.
Whatever expedient is adopted as a substitute for normal family life,
the result is unsatisfactory. The men studied almost without exception
preferred living as boarders with a family group, if possible. This
preference is easily understood, as it meant less work for the men,
who, in co-operative groups, had to do women's work as well as their
own, and it also seemed a closer approximation to normal living. For
the sake of these advantages they were willing to put up with housing
conditions that were worse than those of the men who tried
co-operative housekeeping. Thus 56 per cent of the Russian men in
co-operative groups had the four hundred cubic feet of air per man
that is required by law, and only 35 per cent of those living with
family groups had this requirement.
The presence of a lodger in the family, moreover, is attended with
great discomfort to the family. He is given the best accommodations
the house affords and the family crowds into what is left. Thus, in
the family groups with whom the Russians were living, only 18 per cent
of the adult members of the family had the four hundred cubic feet of
air required by the city ordinance for a person over twelve, as
compared with 35 per cent of the boarders or lodgers, and forty of the
fifty-three children in the groups were deprived of the two hundred
cubic feet of air space that is prescribed for them.
The people with whom we have conferred in this study have said again
and again that the lodger in a family meant restriction and
deprivation for the family, and especially for the children. One
Lithuanian woman who came to this country when she was two years old,
says she well remembers the "utter misery" of her childhood, due to
the lodgers. They were given all the beds and any other sleeping
arrangements that could be contrived, and the children slept on the
floor in any corner. Their sleep was often disturbed by people moving
about. Sometimes they were wakened and sent to the saloon to get beer
for a group of lodgers who sat up late playing cards and drinking. She
remembers, too, the constant quarreling over the food bill, and thinks
that is very common.
The complicated system by which the accounts are kept, to which
attention has already been called, makes suspicion on the part of the
lodger only too easy. Several people have spoken of the unsteady
character of the lodger and the practice of staying up late, drinking.
One of the women interviewed said that the family life was much
easier, now that it was no longer necessary to keep lodgers, for when
there were lodgers in the house they always had beer, and her husband
would drink with them. Other people have spoken of the women drinking
with the lodgers, and it was said that anyone who read the
foreign-language newspapers would see many such advertisements as: "I
am left alone with my three children; my wife has gone off with a
lodger. Anyone having information, please communicate with..."