The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-03-05

N apprenticeship OF 25O years in the school
u labor-as II trade learned by man was
| u any value to his son. who had not learned
't-and that, theoretically, what the negro
oeedeo most was education CT the head the
so-called higher education. While the Ne
gro academy was graphing with the most
| serious and complicated phase of the race
problem, the Federation of Labor was wrang-
ing over statement made by Mr. Booker
T. Washington that American trade union
ISM was antagonistic to the negro as Ia
| Dorer and was having a lot of trouble in
| adopting resolution declaring that the fed
| Grafton at least was not, and the textile
| operatives OF Atlanta, who were on strike.
were protesting with all the lung power and
vehemence at their command against the
| employment OF negroes to take their places.
| the spokesman of the white strikers taking
| the position that it would be degrading to
them to have to work with black men and
women or in competition with them and an
pealing to the race love and humanity Of the
mill owners to save them from such de-
| dation!
Black Workers Are Barred.
Not great while ago some rush work was
being done on a building on the institute
grounds here, and it was found that in order
TO complete the work in a given time it
YOU'D De necessary to employ additional tin
rcofers from the outside. number OF 1ner
were ordered from Montgomery When they
got mere they refused to work with the black
| student tin roofers, stating that they had no
oD3ectlon to doing so, but it was against the
rules OF their labor union. They lest day
and their passage money from and TO Mont
somery: 1t was on evidence like this which
IS obtainable all over the South, that MI.
washington based the opinion to which the
Federation OF Labor took exception at it's
aENashvtiier meeting. Such evidence is ac-
:esslble to and should be known by DR..
Crummell and the other members of the Ne
gro academy.
The doors Of the skilled trades and the mines
and the factories are all barred against the
negroes because they are black. They must
starve or steal. That many of them steal is
shown by the criminal records, by the vast
army who are In the penitentiaries and the
stockades and the chain gangs-boys and girls
VINO ought to be In school, and white haired
men and women who ought to be in old folks
homes or IN the county poorhouses and great.
nlg, strapp1ng men and women in the prime of
life, who should be adding to the productive
wealth OF the country in some occupation suit
cd to their capacity-nlcst OF them made
criminals by hunger aud the inability to sat-
lsfy 1t In honest ways. The manual labor &C.
equations OF the Southern states are go crowd
Cd that wages have reached point at which
the laborer cannot aup!.o-t himself lecantly:
more than that, he cannot do it with the add
ed assistance Of his wife and children. The
principal indueement to labor is thus de-
stroyed and the docv to Indulgence and crime
thrown open.
Evils OF Trades UMionisra :.
The prescribing spirit of trades unionsm
has destroyed the uerfect labor system wLic.,
the slave South bs1ueathed to the free South
The steveJore strikes at Galveston, New Or
leans, aIrd Savannah; the Gotten mill strikes
at Charleston, Atlanta and other points: the
| coal miners strikes in Alabama Tennessee
Virginia, and West Virginia during the past
dive. years, and the strikes in the building
trades, which are constantly in evidence in
some one Of the large Southern cities with
strikes anG threatened strikes on the rail-
roads, all indicate too plainly that the cid
labor system Of the South has passed away
and that the black laborer, who was the
backbone of it, and the employing class arc
alike In the grasp of the trades union con-
sPlracy and must fight for their existence with
all the cards stacked against the old labor
class. The Afro-American laborer is being
caught between the capitalistc Scylla and the
trades union Charybds. If there is life for
him 1t must come through the manual train
Ing schools, and there are SO few at the pres
ent time as to make no impression on the in
dustrial situation. They should be increased
al along the line.
1--WE can't work white and black skilled la
borers together, because the white laborers
Will not work with black laborers. Give US
enough skilled black laborers to do the work
and we will employ black laborers." This IL
the plea Of employers in nearly all branches
of industry. The cotton mill owners of
Charleston are experimenting with black Ia
Dor, with satisfactory results, and mill own
FRS ali over the South are watching the ex-
pertinent with great interest. They have .
great deal at stake upon the final result Of the
experiment.
Start Of the Conspiracy.
The conspiracy against the black man as >
leborer began in the Northern states long be.
fore the war. but it began in the Southern
states only after the war, and while, as .
matter OF fact. the conspiracy In the North
shows unmistAxahle signs Of weakening
In certain trades and in unskilled occupations,
IN the South the tendency has Get in strongly
IN the opposite direction, not only in the
skilled trades, but also III many of the un.
skilled ones. Indeed, white men and women
are invading all departments of labor in the
Southern states, and wherever they do so IL
any considerable numbers the prejudice, the
conspiracy against black labor, begins to show
itself and to be felt.
The action OF the Federation of Labor II
its Nashville meeting in resenting the state
ment of Booker T. Washington as to the OF
| titude Of the trades unions toward Afro.
, American laborers and the resolution adopted
inviting the cooperation OF such labor were
not only unexpected but also created the
greatest dissatisfaction among the white labor
organizations OF the Southern states, which
deny to Afro american laborers any sort al
sshiAAdtAoA. uey 1911 tHdL al act OF treason
had been committed against their well-de-
fined conspiracy against black labor, but II
) was hardly to have been anticipated that the
action would result in the secession of Thu
. Southern trades unions from the Northern
parent organizations.
It Is not too much to expect that the Afro
American laborers Of the South will lie
to meet this conspiracy. I mean the skilled
! laborers.
They have a great many organizations az
ready all over the sout.i-formed to protest.
8 CsntiI ned On End Page.