William Prendergast for municipal aid. In the public interest, he argued, it
was wrong to classify Wald’s effective medical service in the home as out-
door relief and thereby deny it city assistance. During the last year of his
life he also secured a significant contribution for the nurses’ service from
John D. Rockefeller.^26
As in the case of Montefiore, benevolence was accompanied by a strain
of despotism. Schiff appreciated Wald’s hard work, but he demanded effi-
cient accounting and balanced budgets. At the very beginning she reported
to him daily about the individual cases she treated—the feverish Goldberg
baby, the consumptive Hattie Isaacs, Baby O’Brien’s whooping cough, and
frail Mrs. Gittelman, who worked as a peddler to support five children and
an old mother.^27 The banker carefully watched Wald’s expenditures. Cau-
tioning her against running up deficits, he even criticized a phone bill that
he thought was excessive (although he proceeded to pay it). Wald cleverly
and silently swallowed his criticisms, and her relationship with the Schiffs
blossomed into a warm friendship. They exchanged gifts, and she visited
them socially. The salutations remained formal—”Miss Wald” and “Mr.
Schiff”—but in a voluminous correspondence that lasted for the rest of his
life, the friends discussed family matters, travel, and books, as well as
Henry Street.^28
The friendship proved mutually rewarding. Under Schiff’s tutelage,
Wald grew more worldly, learning from his business acumen and adminis-
trative talents. He provided valuable contacts for her in business and
government circles; at her request he arranged for Jane Addams of
Chicago’s famous Hull House to meet with prominent men like Carnegie,
Hill, and Harriman. He encouraged many of her ideas—excursions for
children, plans for enlarged parks (a popular reform idea), a “respectable”
social hall for the Lower East Side—and where necessary he picked up the
tab. As she broadened her skills from nursing to social work, she profited
from his constant sympathy.^29
For his part, Schiff found in Wald a trusted sounding board for his views
on subjects like Russia, immigration, and social issues. He enjoyed his fre-
quent visits to Henry Street, which soon became an “old haunt,” where he
mingled comfortably with the Eastsiders. Labor matters, a favorite topic at
the settlement, engaged him, the archcapitalist, in spirited but friendly dis-
cussions with union sympathizers. The story goes that on one occasion the
banker and an Eastside labor leader traded biblical quotations in Hebrew.
Wald later recalled that his visits apprised Schiff of the appalling condi-
tions under which the immigrants worked. On one occasion he tried,
through the settlement, to bring together management and labor in the
garment industry. At times Wald’s pro-labor sympathies clashed with
Schiff’s views. However, she stood her ground and at least once succeeded
in changing his opinions. The house on Henry Street exposed a side of the
The New Immigrants 93