The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-29
Colored Folks and Their Work.

Hartford (Conn.) Times.
 We publish, today, another letter from Pastor Smith of the colored Baptist Church in this city. which letter he ponaeiy calls upon us to answer. He re- marks that there are now 2,5O0 colored residents of Hartford, and he complains that they do not seem to be welcomed as employees in the department stores, or as policemen, or members of the Common council. or in the big insurance offices He wants to know why they do not re- ceive more recognition In business and in politics, and seems to think that the real dlfhculty Is that there are not enough colored folks here to demand and secure what belongs to them.
 We are quite sure that this clergyman who writes to us so candldly will not misunderstood us If we say to him that the question which his letter will sug- gest In the mind of almost any white per son reading 1t Is. Why do the colored people, who find so few things waiting for them to do in Hartford Gas he says) persist in Hooking here in such numbers?' as many of them here Is there were ten years ago. They evidently find Hartford a place very much to their liking in spite Of the fact that there are no vacant ing rooms of the great insurance com panies. and behind the counters of the pig department stores, waiting for them to come and occupy.
 What work do these increasing thou sands of colored men find waiting for them in Hartford. There Is a great deal of rough and hard work for which strong men are needed, but we do not ind the colored men fiocking in that direction. They might have ali the work which is done by the Italians and the hardy men from eastern Europe, If they desired 1t, but they do not seem to want It. Is 1t not fact, known to Pastor Smith, that most of his race seek em- ployment as walters. janitors, etc, in places where the work is not hard and also where little skill Is required? Is It not true that the dlslnclination to do hard, severe work, and the lack of skill required In the trades, are the real obstacles to the prosperity of the colored people in Hartford and everywhere else? Would 1t not be wiser for them to go to the farms and wherever there is a de- mand for the kind of work they can per form, rather than to crowd into the cities where there are so few kinds of employ ment open to them?
 It is stated by residents of the city of Washington, where there has always been a large proportion of colored people, that as the city grows 1t becomes less and less easy to find trustworthy. efficient eolored men and women who can be elm ployed in household service. Those who find 1t necessary to have a number of persons employed in their homes are compelled to use the service of white per sons, because there is little or no efficient and satisfactory service by black persons to be got. We think 1t is the same way everywhere, and that there are relatively a much smaller number of well-trained and acceptable house servants among the colored people than formerly. We have to send to the north of Europe for most of the girls who do housework in the homes of the American people. Yet, what an immense opportunity exists for that sort of work if colored women in large numbers were competent and will ing to do 1t.
 If Pastor Smith writes to us again We hope he will explain why the colored people come so consistently and numer- ously to Hartford and other places in the North, where there appear to be so few kinds of work that they are able and willing to perform.