h
GREEKS IN CHICAGO 387
people as can be found in the world, and fit for any mental work whatever. This they have proved, not only by getting into their hands all the trade of the eastern Mediterranean, but by holding their own perfectly among English merchants in England." "^
That they will become great business and professional men in the United States there can be little doubt. They come will- ing to do any kind of hard physical work, but thriftily take advantage of every opportunity for advancement. There is com- pulsory education in Greece, so that even in the country districts of the Peloponnesus the Greeks are receiving some education. Out of 1,469 men, women, and children counted on the schedules, 891 could read and write Greek and of these 348 were able to read and write English in addition. The testimony of those experienced in teaching immigrants is always favorable to the Greeks. The teacher of the "adult room" of the Jones School, which is just outside of the loop in the downtown district, has had 81 Greeks enrolled during the past year out of a total of 252. She says of all the different nationalities represented in the room, "I think I have found the Greeks the brightest and quick- est to learn." At Hull House they have been eager and intelli- gent members of the regular classes and- the men have shown ability in the organization and management of large clubs and classes for themselves.
In Greece the women are kept in almost oriental seclusion. In the past the number of men has been considerably larger than the number of women,^ and matrimony was regarded as the inevitable career of every woman.
The Greek boy has been taught to believe that he must sup- port his sister, provide her with a liberal marriage portion, and
Op. cit.
- The Economic Journal, 1908, commenting on a lecture on the Greek cen-
sus of 1907 given by Professor A. M. Andreades, of the University of Athens, quotes that in that year the proportion of men to women was 100 to 92 (p. 309). This was much larger formerly, the proportion having been reduced because, as Professor Andreades pointed out in "A Review of the Greek Census" in the Economic Journal, March, 1909, 97 per cent, of the immigrants were men, and "this deprived Greece of the privilege of being the country that main- tained the largest proportion of men" (p. 152).
