Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-05-24
TWELVE PAGES
THURSDAY, MAY "a. 1900.
THE NEGRO AND ORGANIZED
LABOR.

The refusal of the Virginia Fedora
ton of Labor, in session at Richmond,
to admit negro delegate, is a vastly
more significant incident than it might
appear to be at the first glance In
deed, there turks behind IL q problem
that In Importance altogether dwarfs
the problem of eliminating the negro
as a political factor;-the problem in
volving the future status OF the negro
as an industrial factor.
II is admitted on all sides that the
South is entering upon period of un-
paralleled industrial development that
is bound to produce important and far
reaching changes In our population as
now classified. Hitherto we have had
In the South much more simple or
ganiZation of society than has obtained
In the Northern and in many Of the
Western States. Labor has found en-
ployment mainly in agriculture and has
presented no problem more serious than
that of securing negroes enough to cul-
tivate and gather the COTTON crop. The
poorer whites have been mostly tenant
farmers, or. when day laborers, have
worked side by side with the negroes
In the fields, without complaint, and
without feeling that this relation com
PEELED any social equality of the races.
When the South has become a manu-
featuring section, as it is destined to
do in very few years, the complexion
of things will be changed. We shall
then Fave, to certainty, organized
labor. but the conditions presented will
not be the same as in the North. What
will be the attitude OF organized labor
toward the negro? Will he still be wei
coined as Il co-laborer, or will the
unions decide TO exclude him from the
ranks of the skilled laborcrs? Without
Generalizing from the single instance
cited above, the indications are that the
negro Will not be admitted to the labor
unions and will therefore be excluded
from those lines OF industry controlled
by union labor.
This will give the South labor sit
uation infinitely more complex and, dan
gerous than has had to be met else
where There will be in the South n
large element of laborers excluded from
the more remunerative lines of employ
ment, and. therefore, a constant mem
ace to those employed in those lines.
Suppose that. when n strike occurs.
employers should seek to replace white
union laborers with negroes? We shall
then have the usual labor trouble with
the fierce element of race hatred added.
III the employer succeeds In resuming
operations with negro labor, it will be
merely question OF time until skilled
negro laborers will be in competition
with skilled white laiborers. with the
superior efficiency of the latter offset
by the ability OF the former to live
more frugally.
On the other hand. should the negro
secure his share OF the opportunities
open to skilled labor from the frs, and
organize unions of his own. will cffec-
tive cooperation with white unions N.
possible? Experiments are already
being made to test the efficiency of the
negro as a cotton mill employee. Should
the experiment succeed. other mills will
be established. and operated by colored
labor. This will be vastly easier than
replacing white labor with colored labor
In mills now operated by the former.
but will mean competition none the
less.
There are those who do not believe
that the negro will be'successfui as a
skilled laborer. and hold that the solu-
ton OF this problem will be found in
the gradual absorption OF the white
population in the arts. professions,
manufactures. and the relegation of the
negro 70 the production OF raw mate