The American Scene; City Living - Human Relations

Good morning! A lot has been said lately about the explosion of population. Well, on the American scene this morning, we are not going to talk about that specific problem, but we are going to talk about something which will inevitably result from an exploding population. And that is an increased population in cities. As more people move into cities, problems are going to arise. And it is this area of city living and human relations that we would like to talk about this morning. And with us, we have an exceptional guest this morning, Mr. L .A. M. Aaron, who is a lawyer and a partner in the law firm of Aaron, Aaron, Schimberg, and Hess. He is Vice Chairman of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations,

Chairman of the Mayors Committee on New Residence, and a National Vice President of the American Jewish Committee. Mr. Aaron, welcome this morning. Perhaps we can begin with talking about some of the advantages and disadvantages of city living. Why do people want to come to cities? People principally want to come to cities because of the opportunity to make a living. It's much easier than making it in a small town. And of course, if you live in the suburbs, you've got to principally live in the city in order to go back to the suburbs for more comfortable living there. Employment is the principal cause or the principal inducement to coming to Chicago or to a city generally to make a living. Other people, of course, who are in the educational field, come to cities because of the fact that the largest education institutions are there. Are they people who are interested in the arts, come to cities because the schools are here? But the principal factor in bringing people to cities generally is the opportunity to get a job and to work at it. Well, not specifically, let's say in Chicago, either enough jobs for all of the people who have come here to get there.

That's hard to say, it depends on the times. I know that prior, for example, to 1900 and old, approximately 1956 in this question of expanding the economy of Chicago due to the fact that we were going to have the full force of the great of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project, the opportunity of Chicago to become an international port. The Chamber of Commerce sent out word around the country that industry needed jobs, industry needed people. And so you had a great influx of people from all parts of the country, which exaggerated the natural flow of the population to Chicago. Most of these people that came were intrigued. And when you got in 1957, we had a slight recession. There was some unemployment. Of course, the last to be hired were the first to be fired. And there was some trouble. But on the whole, I would say that employment has risen from that particular low point and is on the increase. What's going to happen in 1960, I leave to economists and businessmen. So that at times there may not be

enough jobs, but in general, people who come here looking for work can find it, you can find some work usual. So problems must arise in other areas, and not just in the employment area. Well, the question of employment often is the question of skilled employment. The people who are unemployed in the main are people who are unskilled. And the question of people who come here are unskilled, are the people rather who come here who are unskilled, are faced with all of the problems of living in a city, which do not hostile. Doesn't present all the opportunities that the city can give them. In the need of finding proper housing, the need of accommodating themselves to the city. We are faced these days with the great influxes of population from the south, southern Negroes, southern whites. We also have an increase in our Puerto Rican population and our Latin American population. And in time, of course, these people will accommodate themselves to the conditions in the city. But it takes time. Our principal

problems and the ones we've been concerning, I say we because of the Commission on Human Relations and the Mayor's Committee on New Residents have been concerning ourselves, is trying to make these people a part of the city just as fast as they possibly can. Trying to tell them that the city is a good place to live, the city welcomes them, that Chicago police means something to them, that the government after all isn't hostile, and that all of these factors are such as to break on their orientation into city living as soon as they can. Coming from rural areas, it's rather difficult for a lot of them. Well, let's take a specific group and find out what kind of problems they would face in coming here. Well, our civilization has been built, and our cities have been built, principally by immigrants. And the waves of immigrants that came from Europe in the 40s and the 50s, 100 years ago, in the 70s and the 80s, brought with them a lot of non -english speaking people, people who had difficulties in language. They were exploited, they worked 70, 80, 90 hours a week, but their children today are

parts of the communities of the country, they're part of the economic, high economic level of the country generally. Today we're receiving in our cities three different streams, which are also at a low economic level, similar to those who came from abroad. These streams come from three different cultures. The first is your southern Negro, who because of the fact that down south, the cotton, the automatic cotton picker, has taken over a lot of the labor, the manual labor of the south, closing down of coal mines, has brought these people to face -to -face with the need of getting job opportunities. And the result is they have friends in the big cities and they come here. We also are faced with a large group of southern whites. Now these southern whites have lived in their country, they and their forebears for over 300 years. They're proud people.

The Negroes come up by train, southern whites come up by automobile. Then we're also faced with the influx of the Puerto Ricans. There's a Puerto Rican labor office here, which is placed hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans throughout the country. They're verifying people, all of these people. It's a question of getting them to know the city, to accommodate this rural culture to their own, making you sure that there's an necessity for not for obeying city rules, making sure that they're not exploited by different people who want to exploit them, making sure that their living conditions are proper, that their kids get to school and stay there. And this is a job that the city has realized and is doing something about. But it's an opportunity to them, to change from this rural culture to a city culture, to an urban culture. Well, I can see that in, let's say, the Puerto Rican group would have problems differing from the southern whites for the southern Negroes, primarily a language problem. That's right. Are there other specific problems that they would face that the other groups don't? Well, the Puerto

Rican group are a family group. They believe in living together just like other ethnic groups used to do. And some of them have the color problem just as much. But in the main, it's a question of language and the question of accommodating themselves to particular jobs. Incidentally, they're doing a great deal of the jobs in the hotels and restaurants in Chicago. I think there was some testimony given some time ago by the manager of the Wal -Norf Astoria Hotel in New York that practically 70 % or 80 % of the bus boys, not so much the waiters, but the people in working at the unskilled trades in the hotels were Puerto Ricans. They're good people, but they have to be told that they have to be made to realize that the city is a different sort of community than their community, and they're learning it. I can only say to you that

if you will talk to some of the banks in the Puerto Rican communities, they'll tell you, specifically, what a hard -working, hard -saving group this is. Do these people generally tend to move into areas where people like them are, where their family is? Yes, they do, and it's perfectly natural they do. They can't pay high rentals outside of these areas. Some places they're not wanted. But in the main, these areas are what we call the old ports of entry. In Chicago specifically, they're around 63rd and Woodlawn. They're around down the west side, the lower west side, around Hellhouse. They're on the north side, it's part of the lower north side, west of Avila Sal Street, and La Sal Street, some instances. They're also up in, around in Uptown. These are the old ports of entry of Chicago. These are where the old, original Chicago and immigrants all came, and then spread out from that into the city and became and merged part of the city. So they do meet with their own groups, and that's valuable as well,

because they have, this is also part of an American culture. After all, we have diverse cultures in this country, and it all came from other sources. We're all immigrants at the source. But until these people move out into all of the other areas of the city, they're not going to solve their problems necessarily, are they? Well, I think we can help solve their problems ourselves. I mean, we, I mean the government, the schools, the attitude of the people in Chicago generally toward being receptive to them, instead of being antagonistic. We have our own city problems that are difficult. We have problems of proper housing, problems of trying to clear slums. We have problems of using to it that there's fair educational processes, and that these people receive all the education, fair employment processes, I mean, and that these people be a prize of the educational processes, which are also available to them. The adult education process throughout the town. Well, tell us a little bit about the Chicago commission on human relations. How did this get started?

Chicago commission on human relations was started because of a danger to Chicago. In the early 20s, this city was faced with a race ride, which resulted in the death of a number of people, because of the fact that the Southside Negro community was bursting the bounds of the ghetto to which it had been confined. And right after the war, Mayor Kelly determined that this sort of a problem could arise because of the fact that it would be similar to the problem with your roles after the First World War. It was a post -war problem. And he was conscious of the fact that the city of Detroit had had some bad racial warfare. So he organized a Chicago commission on human relations purely as a commission for working with the representatives of the Niro's in Chicago, and also with the law of enforcement agencies for maintaining peace and order in Chicago. And for the purpose of

attempting to educate the people of Chicago to avoid racial tensions, you know? It has been successful in some ways. It's been successful in great ways. We haven't had any real race riots in Chicago despite the story of Crumble Park or maybe Cadillette Park. We haven't had any real racial problems, or real racial troubles in Chicago for a number of years. But the basis of all of these troubles is the fact that people refuse to treat other people just as individuals. It's as simple as all that. If the people, if the people of our various communities will recognize inequality in the human beings, I don't mean to preach, but that's the essence of it. Why we won't have any trouble. We have today's segregation in various parts of the community, which are simply due to the fact of the accumulation of housing conditions which result and the failure to permit other people to move. We have discrimination. Discrimination applies not only to non -whites, it applies also to Jews.

It applies in some instances to Catholics. And it's just that sense of refusal of treating people as people. And the Board of the Commission on Human Relations has been working in the communities to educate the various sections of the community for decently living with one another. Excuse me. Well, basically, the commission started for one specific problem then, didn't it? Yes. But it has now branched out into all areas of the city, hasn't it? Well, human relations after all, just a question of relationships with one another and it covers all fields of human activity. As a result, we have established employment committees we have established an educational committee, a law and order committee, of course, which was our first basis, a housing committee. All of these various committees

to function, a community efforts committee, which controls the various aspects of these community relations. We have worked with opening up the doors of hospitals so there shouldn't be any segregation in them. We were trying to work with doctors so as to see whether there can't be free these bonds of segregation or rather prejudiced against inclusion of certain doctors on staffs, field comprises working for legislation and the field comprises education. Not only for new residents, not only for new residents, but for old residents and for all people. Now, what is the committee on new residents as you're? In 1956, Mayor Daly recognized and realized that we were getting this great influx of population, of new population that was coming in. And that the Puerto Ricans and the Southern whites and the Southern Negroes were coming in great quantities. He recognized also that this problem of orienting these people into Chicago,

and who are here to answer the needs of Chicago's industry, had to be met. He organized a committee called together a committee of about 200 people. And that committee composed of educators, people in the social service field, the social work field, members of the commission, and originally we, and also the various people in the foreign language field, we worked out manuals for the purpose of treaty, of training, the social workers generally, and the educators generally, in the kinds of people, kinds of people, these new newcomers are, and how they should best be best integrated into Chicago life. This committee later was placed under the Aegis of the Commission on Human Relations, and a separate committee was set up of which I am chairman, an executive committee, and the members of that committee are

composed of Mrs. Green, a great walker and myself from the Commission on Human Relations, and Bob McRae of the Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, Fred Hailer, who is now running the county jail, but who has been assisted the mayor, and Edith Sampson, and Frantz, Maurice F. X. Donahue, those, there are two or three other people who have been honored to have been so active. Oh yes, and Robert Hillard, who is the county director of the welfare. And this committee has been functioning for two or three years. If you want a few minutes, I'll tell you what they do, finally, they have done. The first thing we did was to work out complete Spanish English translations of where people could get help. We established a Spanish -speaking office on the west side with a Spanish -speaking person in charge. We've worked with the various schools, with disc jockeys, with all means of communication for the purpose of putting through the polio program, appointing people with what that polio program is. I say we've worked with it. We haven't done it entirely, because the

budget of the mayor's committee on new residence, only about $40 ,000 or $50 ,000. But we've brought these people, brought all these various organizations, and other people into force, into working on these problems. We went to the schools, but the principal persons we found who could contact people more than anyone else, were the ward committeemen and the precinct committee. And we gave the precinct committeemen and the ward committeemen, pamphlets and English and Spanish and other languages on the need for taking polio shots. You remember we had a vicious polioke epidemic here several years ago. But through the efforts of Dr. Bunsen, the health department, and through the dissemination of this information, we've been able to go after the newcomers, especially the city of Chicago, to get these polio shots. Excuse me, it sounds as though your committee is not concerned primarily, or I should say directly with the new residence, but you're concerned with those agencies in the city which come in contact with it, isn't it? Yes, because we're a coordinating

one. We're concerned directly with them in the fact that we try to handle, especially for the Spanish -speaking people, as many people as we possibly can. We've tried to set up courses as well for the new residents from the south, both of the southern whites. And we have a staff worker operating in other communities on the south side with the Negroes and on the north side and west side as well, getting sections of that community to working. And we have set up an adult education program in schools with the aid of the retired teachers. We have worked with the Illinois State Employment Service, and with the Board of Education, setting up schools out in Anglewood and also setting up one at Wells, which are training women, who have no skills whatsoever in housework, who come to the city and want jobs. We get them, we've trained a couple of hundred of them this past six months. We have through training them, they know what a modern kitchen looks like, they know how to work in it, they know what a pressure cooker is, they know how to turn on the gas, they know exactly how to act, they know what services are needed, and they also have

acquired these particular techniques. When they get through, we give them a certificate. And as a result, these few hundred women, and we hope more in the future, who have no certificate of either good moral character or certificate of qualification, can use the certificate we give them from the schools to get jobs that have all been placed. I merely wanna show that this utilization isn't the utilization of the services that are open to the entire community. The adult education program is the board of education generally. Well, isn't necessary to consider this such a massive problem, new residents alone. Couldn't the city without all of this help assimilate these people or have these people fit into it without causing a great deal of trouble? Well, your answer is you wanna avoid trouble number one. And number two, most people are not familiar with the advantages of a city. They don't realize what a city offers. They come here, they're strangers. Their friends have lived in small Cubicils, small

communities in Chicago. Well, I remember what the story told about, one woman who lived on a south street a block away from Lincoln Park and lived there for three years was scared to go out of the houseboy that a block that had never taken her kids to Lincoln Park in the summertime. The need for advising people, what they can get at virtually no cost is something that's prime. But in proportion to the total population of the city, new residents don't make up that much of the city, do they? Well, after all, in numbers, they make up a fair amount. I would say the figures have run that in the last few years, our population has increased three or four hundred thousand beyond what the normal increase. By virtue of the fact of these new residents and it's growing all the time because there are other parts of the country that are suffering. Well, the new residents coming into a city who are unfamiliar with the city way of life can create

tensions. Not only create tensions, but you'll find tensions as trouble for themselves and because of that they don't know how to act as trouble for the city and for other people. Well, what would you say were the major areas of trouble today in the city because of new residents? I don't think the major areas of trouble. I view it differently. I say I don't say there are major areas of trouble. I think that the schools and the other agencies and the community, private agencies and public agencies prevent trouble. I think when the knowledge is broadcast that these things are here and available to them, these tensions will be avoided. The causes of tensions, most time or ignorance. So that's our major problem today? It's your major problem in the entire country. An educational problem. An educational problem in the long run and providing facilities otherwise. And also it's a recognition by the, shall we say, the old residents of the fact that these are human beings, they're American citizens, they have a right to be here, they should be treated as human beings. How successful has the commission

been so far? It's hard to measure it. I think that we have inculcated into the community a feeling of treatment of the individual. We have worked with the police department, which at first, 10 years ago, didn't know what this job was and had the prejudices of the entire community to do away with a lot of prejudice against these new people who are here. And against the community segments of the community, which we're foreign to. You know, the foreigners, the one thing that you resent. You may, you start out, we had one race situation that arose as it was a threat about 10, 8 years or 9 years ago that arose first because someone suspected of Negroes going to move into an area. Then they thought it was a communist. Then because the man who had invited these guests in his home was Jewish, it became an anti -Semitic situation. Then from that, it turned to just an anti -foreign situation. Nobody who lived in that, anyone who lived, who didn't live in that parish was just no good. And as far as they were concerned, they wanted no part of them. This desire to go after people

because they're different. And the need for recognizing that these differences don't mean anything. Well, how would you evaluate the situation in the city today? Are there fewer tensions? Because of fewer direct tensions. But there are, it seems to me, there are potential tensions all the time. In new areas? In new areas, in old areas the same way. What might some of the new areas be where tensions can grow and might grow in the future? I wouldn't pinpoint. I mean, after all, who would have ever thought there would be tension or as much, well, what shall we call it? It took place in Derfield a couple of weeks ago. Well, I don't mean specifically in physical areas of the city, but in areas of living, in areas of relationships. Well, I think they're always present that these differences between people is all. How are we doing? Are we making people realize that these differences aren't that great, aren't they?

Well, I think we're having an impact on it. How great that impact is depends upon how people are taking it and how much they're involved and how much their ancient prejudices are involved. You know, Chicago is a great place and cities generally are. I think it's a wonderful place for adults. It's a wonderful place for kids. As far as the opportunities are present. At the same time, of course, it has all the troubles in the big city. It has downtrodden areas that are, and the people who are the underprivileged people have it rather tough and will continue to have it tough until they pull themselves out. We've got to replace housing with decent housing and yet when we do a certain job of slum clearances, we sometimes create slums by moving these people into the periphery. It's a question of educating the people. It's a continuous job. It never stops. And the more people you can educate to a point where there's a realization of doing something for people, better off you'll be. You know, a lot has been said recently about rebuilding the cities, renewing them. Can this, in any way,

aid the problems of relationships within the city? Ultimately, I think it does. It takes away cancer sores. It takes, I mean, cancer spots. After all, slums are costly in every way. But temporarily, the removal of people, sometimes it creates a lot more problems. But ultimately, I think the only way to do is to keep rebuilding the city. But you've got to find a way where people can live on a level, and an economic, live decently on an economic level for which their income brings them to. You would say then that it's a if urban redevelopment or renewal is the removal of slum areas that this is the necessary first step. I think it's a necessary step, yes. But is it enough? Will people live together well in a new house? Will they live better together in a new building than in an old building? I think that depends. That question, I think, has been answered. I think that depends on the people themselves. We know that in New York, for example, a lot of these high -rise buildings have resulted in creating

slums of the high -rise buildings. It's the last analysis, it's the education of the people that comes, and giving them a chance to live and work decently. Do you think that cities, in general, are going to continue to grow? Do you think that the city way of life is the future way of life, if you may put it that way? I think cities are beginning to realize that there's a need for possibly making a garden out of the city. I think that maybe that's the Chicago model, I'm not sure. It isn't enough to neglect the city. It isn't enough just to go ahead and create new apartments in the outlying fringes of the city or in your front door. I think there must become a recognition that somewhere along the line, proper housing and proper education and proper job opportunities are presented to people who are on the low economic levels. And in the medium levels as well. Because eventually, cities are going to grow even

larger. And if we don't take care of the problems now, they'll get worse. Well, I think you have to take care of the problems. I think it's an ongoing job. But cities are great places. I've lived one in all my life, although I lived 12 years in the country in the country in the suburbs, and moved back into town for what reason. Well, I think principally, I don't take credit for it. I think my wife is the one who takes credit for that. City Living was more enjoyable. City Living's more enjoyable. Thank you very much, Mr. L .A. M. Aaron, Vice Chairman of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, Chairman of the Mayors Committee on New Residence, and a partner in the law firm of Aaron Aaron Schimberg and Hess. My discussion this morning was about the importance of maintaining decent and adequate human relations in the city. Good morning for the American scene.