The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-12-22
HOW THE NEGRO
RETROGRADES
IN THE SOUTH
CONTINUED from Page -

lCouLlnu6Q from rage ID
which is proclaimed the panacea for
all negro ills.
| But when we study the trades,
very different condition of affairs is
found. The negro's field of labor is
each day more cireumscribed. Slavery,
as is well known, is not conducive to
manufactures, and it was inimical to
mechanical work by the whites. 'fMe-
chanic" became a word of repOach to
white man in the South of old; in
addition to which he found himself
| placed at great disadvantage in com
peting with negro and perhaps with
slave labor. As a. consequence, nearly
all the mechanical work in the South
west in ante-bellum days was done by
negroes. The gas company imported
white mechanics from Philadelphia,
but discharged them and replaced them
with negro slaves, finding that the
raising Of pickaninnies paid 20 per
cent on the investment in addition to
getting the work done cheaper. Most of
the mechanical work, however, was
done by the free man and woman of
color. They were the mechanics, the
carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, tail
ors, dreSsmakers, etc, and originally
the policemen and firemen of New Or
leans. Their DESCENDANTS have been
crowded more and more out Of the
trades, until now their main source of
| income is shop work. for the clothing
factories. They have refrigerated i'm
mensely during the last 40 years in
health, education, labor and social
standing, and have drifted back almost
to the condition of the plantation
darkey. Those who believe that the
negro is advancing have but to wander
through the rear of the Second dis
trict of New Orleans, where probably
$4,000 mulattoes and quadroons, Gre
ole negroes" descendants of the free
people of color of ante-bellum days.
live today. He will see at once a ret
|!
these negroes, having ceased all inter
course with the whites and marrying
among the pure blacks, are growing
darker. Some of them were wealthy
in old days, nearly all had Independent
means. Scarcely any of them have
aything worth mentioning today.
During this period, as compared with
even the days of slavery, the negroes
have lost ground industrially. They
have ceased to be carpenters, painters,
engineers, tailors, cigar-makers. shoe
makers, except a few who work mainly
among their own people Their labor
has become more and more the rough
I est manual work, and even In the
fields they occupy they are each year
more and more circumscribed. In
only one trade have they maintained
their former standing bricklayer's.
Those who are not bricklayers and
outside of domestic service are team
sters and leaders, longshoremen who
lead and unload vessels. or section
hands on the railroads. The closing
OF city contract work to negroes aud
the division of the ship-loading bust
ness between the races has had the
effect of crowdlng number of negro
men out Of New Orleans. AS a c.n-
sequence there are more than three
negro women to each man, the former
supporting themselves by washing and
domestic labor. The census figures
will probably show fewer negro man
at work in New Orleaas than 10 years
ago, although the colored population
OF the city has increased.
The statistics read at negro meetings
OF the property accumulated by ne
groes in the South are utterly mislead-
ing. The negroes own less pronertv
II Louisiana than they did in slavery
time; the slight increase reported by
the auditor is Cue wholly to improves
ments in value from greater general
prosperity, and it does not keen race
with the general growth of the COM
munity, nor the percentage Of increase
among the negroes themselves. The
proportion of taxpayers among the
negroes is growing smaller, and 50 is |
the per capita wealth; and Il the as
SCISSORS tables be examined, it vii be |
found that the bulk of the propertv |
With which the negroes are credited is
II the hands OF few of the race, who,
although called negroes, are nearly |
white in color, and altogether white
Il their ideas character, AMI aspira-
tons one-fourth Of all the assessed |
wealth marked belonging to negroes |