The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-21
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL TICKET.
FOR PRESID->
WILLIAM ]. BRYAN,
FOR VICE PRESIDENT.
ADlAl E. STEVENSON.
A LEADING NORTHERN DAILY ON
NEGRO LABOR cup THERE"

1t is plain enough that the negro
exodus from North Carolina has been
to some extent an educator in the
northern states. In Washington City,
in Philadelphia wen. and particularly
in New York it has served to create
new impressions of the negro, and to
awaken an interest in the question that
presses upon the people up there is
he a desirable acquisition and do We
want or seek any increase or present
numbers. We heard an intelligent
gentleman from Richmond, Va, re-
mark within a few days that he pro-
phesied that before six months there
would be the greatest race collision in
Washington that would surpass any
that ever occurred and would be very
bloody. There are $4,000 negroes. says
the Post, in that national city. They
are described as insolent, o~verbearing,
intolerable.
But in the greatest city the influx Of
negro raw labor from the SOUTH as
the New York Times calls it aptly, is
discussed and with disapproval. 1t
seems that the fresh exodus is not be-
lieved to originate really iii any dis
approval of the recent decision in the
state (of North Carolina) to disfran-
chiSe the negroes as the Times states
and for the very good reason that
before the proposition to restrict the
use of the ballot in North Carolina had
taken definite shape a considerable
movement of the black population to-
ward the north mad set in n had
been kept up for several years. Much
of this North Carolina emigration has
found it's way to New York and New
Jersey. In a sense it has been pro
noted immigration. The negro "a
or woman, particularly the woman,
who had been able Is reach New Jer-
sey city Oh town where domestic labor
was in demand, was soon able, without
other capital than a Willingness to take
service at $12 a month land found" to
send q message of goo6 tidings to other
negroes to come NORTH wnere pay
was good and where very few ques-
lions about qualifications We're asked"
The Times displays penetration and
Judgment. The exact cause for so
much of negro rush nOrthwarG IS based
upon the very rosy, encouraging re-
ports that have been sent back by ne
groes who had gone before. We know
that a great many here have been en-
couraged to go because of the golden
promises held out. Then. there is an
other cause; certain people in the north
" MI Ta-n1inn aud no
doubt in other states, who make prom
ises as to pay, and even furnish all or
a part of the money to take them to
the middle and eastern states.
Negroes going north and getting
ready employment at high wages do
not write as to the real conditions OF
negro labor in the north-that no me-
chanic can work with whites, or in the
mines and factories and innumerable
shops. Their limitations stop at bar
Der shops, hotels as walters. restau-
rants, whiskey saloons. and private
houses
But what is the alluring pay offered?
The Times answers by saying that
while these negroes from the south
soon learn to demand So q month to
begin with, and speedily threaten to
leave if their wages be not advanced
to SIS or $40, they are expensive at any
price. They are not domestic servants
at all. They canine build fires. but
they understand the advantages and
disregard the dangers of kerosene oil
as a fuel. They permit kitchens to be-
come as dirty as pig sites. Their un'
accustomed hands carnot be trusted
with crockery or glass ware. The3
cannot cook. They work when they
choose; they quit without consulting
the convenience of the employer"
Please read that again. Are they
not learning fast up there?' Really
that reads like a leaf from southern
experience generally, and fits to a T tn
outlook and experience in this Yer!
quiet little city. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard his spot
was asked some thousands of year'
ago. All h veneering possible cal
not so change the negro as TO bring t
him new characteristics, principles am
notions.
a'You may break, you may shat.eI tn
vase If you will,
But the scent Of the roses will ham
round it still"
The Times is philosophical, not t
say resigned, to the fate of the NORTH
1t is clearly not anxious for a continu
ance of the negro invasion. 1t say
plainly that IF there was a great dea
more of this sort Of labor available i
this section we should not be material
ly better of. An excess OF suppl
might depress the rate of wage5 10
his unskilled labor, and enable EN-
-oyers to hold on to servants a httl
niger. AS it is, most of the house