furnished by the white race. The reconstruction period in the south created a wide division between the races. Masters who might conscientiously care for beings wholly dependent on them did not feel the same sense of responsibility toward freed men. New problems confronted the Negroes on every hand. One of the greatest was to train and equip members of their own race to meet the health, religious, legal, and educational problems of free men. This they have succeeded in doing to a remarkable extent. To-day, the race has competent men in every profession. Much still remains to be done before the Negro professionals as a group can be compared with white professionals, but they have come a long way. There were in 1910, 146 persons to every professional for the Negro race and 51 for the white race. The ministry was the only profession in which the Negroes had relatively more representatives.

NEGRO MIGRATION DURING WORLD WAR

The Negro professional is strictly limited to a Negro clientele, but he meets with less competition than the industrial worker. In such non-manufacturing pursuits as domestic service, hotel and laundry work, the Negro worker is always in demand particularly in the south, and large numbers of Negroes are employed in these occupations. There are many more in other unskilled or semiskilled work both within and without the manufacturing field. But there is less chance for the Negro worker in the skilled trades. The great opportunity for the Negro came during the World War. At this time there was a general exodus of southern Negroes to the north. The war gave a new impetus to industry. It demanded a large force of workers to fill war needs and to occupy the places left vacant by enlisted men. Foreign immigration had practically ceased. It seemed as if an opportunity long desired had come. To the unfortunate, the restless, dissatisfied, and ambitious, a chance to leave the south was offered. The movement was part of a general flow from south to north which had gone on for years, increasing in volume at different periods. The period of the World War, creating a demand for Negro labor, naturally meant a swelling of the stream. It is estimated that in the decade 1910-1920 approximately 400,000 Negroes went north. While some Negroes born in the north and west went south, the number was comparatively small.

As the demand for Negroes was largely industrial, the natural course of the migration was toward the cities. New York, with

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133

152,467 Negroes in 1920, an increase of 66.3 per cent, became the colored metropolis of America. Philadelphia with 134,229 had the second largest Negro population. Chicago, Detroit, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Omaha, and other cities asked and received their quota of Negro laborers and showed in 1920 a big growth in their Negro population. The reasons for the migration were both economic and social.

The cotton boll weevil, a destructive pest, seriously damaged the cotton crop in the south over a large area in the summers of 1915 and 1916. The floods of 1915 added to the destruction. This state of affairs threatened to unsettle farming conditions in 1917. Many farmers were ruined. Credit to tide them over the catastrophe was refused when no cotton was forthcoming as security. Farm tenants were even advised to leave by planters in some of those regions particularly affected. The result was unemployment among Negro farmers and farm laborers and low wages, which did not keep pace with the advancing cost of living, for those able to secure work.

The north was offering high wages. Negro women receiving $2.50 a week in domestic service in the south could earn from $2.10 to $2.50 a day in the north. Men, making less than $1.00 to $1.25 a day, might expect to receive from $2.50 to $3.75.1 The bad economic condition was aggravated by the resentment of many Negroes to the treatment they felt was accorded them in the south. They complained of the low wages, segregation, poor educational facilities, the denial of the franchise, bad living conditions, arrest and imprisonment for minor causes, prejudiced treatment in court trials, lynching, and peonage. They looked upon the north as the promised land where racial discriminations would be softened or swept away. Many of them met with disappointment, chagrin, and discouragement when they reached the land of hope. Others felt their situation improved. The color line, though still in evidence, was less pronounced. They were often able to secure a better livelihood, a better education, and improved living conditions for their children. Racial jealousy and hatred were evidenced in the ill-feeling displayed against Negroes moving into white districts or patronizing white resorts, restaurants, and places of entertainment. It was seen in the attitude of some of the white workers toward those Negroes employed in "their" industry. It was reflected in trade union opposition. 1 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, "Negro Migration During the War," p. 17.

These conditions were not new, but they were aggravated in those cities where there was a mushroom growth in the Negro population.

THE NEGRO AND THE TRADE UNION

Though the American Federation of Labor has consistently expressed its creed of no racial discrimination, the separate unions with their autonomous governments, have often failed to put it into practice. The federation cannot compel an adoption of its policy; but it can organize Negroes into federal locals affiliated directly with the American Federation of Labor. In 1920 out of 900 such locals, there were 169 composed exclusively of Negroes.2

3

Of the 110 national and international unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, eight expressly barred Negroes. Of these all but one were connected in some way with transportation. Several of the remaining 102, while they did not expressly exclude Negroes, had no Negro members. Twenty-eight of these stated that there were "no Negroes in the trade" or no applications had ever been received. Others, having a small Negro membership, said that employers did not want Negro workers if they had to pay the union scale; that the periods of apprenticeship were long and for this reason Negroes failed to join. Some of the unions which might have admitted Negroes were they employed in the trade covered by the union, claimed that their nonemployment was due to the employer. The employer in turn blamed the public for his conduct. His action in refusing to hire Negro workers is often based on the attitude of the people whom he serves. It is customary to employ only whites in those occupations mainly serving whites. Conductors, motormen on street cars, chauffeurs of taxi-cab companies, telephone operators, sales clerks in department stores are employments usually reserved to whites. Naturally the unions covering such occupations have no Negro members. Yet the dearth of Negro employees in certain industries is no reason for refusing them membership in those industries.

Even when the national or international unions freely admit Negroes, it is no criterion that the local chapters will follow their example. They may exercise their local option and deny Negroes admission. An investigation of the local unions in Chicago showed that in general local unions pursued one of four policies:

2 Chicago Commission on Race Relations, "The Negro in Chicago," p. 405. 3 Ibid., pp. 407-408.

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a. Admit Negroes into full membership in white locals. b. Admit them to full membership but maintain separate Negro locals.

C. Place them in subordinate or auxiliary locals under the jurisdiction of white workers.

d. Exclude them from any form of membership.*

Of the unions not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, the most important are the four railroad brotherhoods, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the Industrial Workers of the World. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the I. W. W. admit Negroes and make particular efforts to secure their membership. The railroad brotherhoods exclude Negroes by constitutional provision."

The attitude of many unions in the past and of those which still exclude Negroes has aroused ill-feeling in the Negro worker who feels his chances in industry curtailed. Sometimes he has secured his first foothold in a desirable employment by acting as a "scab" in a strike. His reaction is to take the part of the employer who gave him his chance in opposition to the workers whose objections kept him from being hired until industrial friction occurred. Possibly the employer would not have engaged colored help had he not been forced to do so because of the strike. This is not the side of the situation which the Negro sees. He only realizes that through the white owner he has gained an opportunity to earn a better living for himself and family. Colored leaders, seeing their race discriminated against, believing the Negro's chances to be increased through his willingness to act as a scab, have sometimes urged him to remain out of the union even after the white worker is ready and anxious to have him join. For these reasons, the white trade unionist is often prejudiced against the Negro. He forgets that much of the Negro's attitude is determined by the white worker's action in the past and by the efforts still made to keep Negroes out of certain industries, to keep them in unskilled work and in undesirable employments. A majority of labor leaders to-day are opposed to the policy of denying Negroes union membership. The sentiment is rather generally in favor of admitting them to the unions, not only for their own sake but for the sake of all workers.

“The Negro in Chicago," pp. 411-420. The great majority of the local unions included in the investigation were affiliated with the A. F. of L.

Ibid., p. 408.

THE NEGRO IN INDUSTRY

The World War created new reasons for admitting Negroes to trade unions. During the war, Negroes were given increased industrial opportunities and were employed in a wider variety of occupations than ever before. The discontented southern Negro seized his chance to obtain remunerative work in the north. The northern Negro was free to enter occupations hitherto denied him because of the color line. An interesting report made by the division of Negro economics in the United States Department of Labor, entitled "The Negro at Work during the World War and during Reconstruction," covers Negro workers distributed through 26 states and the District of Columbia. Data is given for 292 establishments where 129,708 whites and 62,340 Negroes were employed. One hundred and fifty-one of these plants were engaged wholly in war work and from 50 to 99 per cent of the activities of 99 more were war work. Thus the material largely concerns Negro war workers. These workers were in many instances employed in establishments and in work which would ordinarily have been given white men.

The evidence shows that the Negro was an increasingly important factor in northern industries as the war progressed and white men were called into service. It indicates that while the majority of Negroes were engaged in unskilled work, there was a fair-sized minority doing skilled work. In the ship building industry, the proportion of skilled workers retained after the armistice was considerably greater than the proportion of unskilled. Evidently the skilled workers in this industry did well, for when a general reduction was made in the laboring forces, comparatively few were dismissed.

Hours and Wages of White and Negro Workers in Twentythree Establishments. A comparison was made of the hours and wages of Negro and white workers in twenty-three establishments covering six basic industries-foundries, slaughtering and meat packing, automobiles, coke ovens, glass, iron and steel and their products. Eighty-five different occupations in which five or more Negroes and five or more whites were engaged, were taken as the standard of comparison. Of these, eight were classified as skilled, twenty-five semi-skilled, and fifty-two unskilled. The conclusions drawn from this material are based on the fact that colored and white workers were employed in the same industries, at the same work, under supposedly equal conditions. The number of hours worked per week may be taken to indicate the regularity, the