The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1905-08-12
DRIVING OUT THE NEGRO.

An Associated Press Dispatch. printed
in the morning papers of Thursday stat
ed that the Union Pacific Railway Com
MANY Is contemplating putting into tneir
dining car kitchens white chefs instead
of the co.ored men it now employs. nc
particular reason is assigned for the
change. except thai perhaps it will be
possible to obtain a higher grade of ser
vice from the whites, which is a mat
ter of opinion. or rather of taste, just
as the choice between French and Amer
lean cooking is a matter of taste. Some
people prefer the negro chef because ne
looks more becoming in the kitchen than
the white man. while his steaks and
cakes are usually not of an inferior
quality.
Rut the significance of this dispatch
is the fact that the negro is being driv-
en- from a p ace which has given thou
sands of his race lucrative employment
for a great many years. To him the
white peri is of infinitely greater mo-
ment at the present time than the yell
low peril is to us. Gradually he sees
out replacing 1t with some other means
of livelihood. The next change may re-
move the back porter from his pace,
an then the negro will. be pretty much
adrift with no prospects of permanent
compensation in any calling. The ques-
ton is really of more vital importance
imagine from an Indifferent reading Of
tina simple dispatch.
The truth is that al through the
Southern States the tendency to reject
the negro and employ cheap white labor
in his stead is becoming very marked
In the mill towns Of Virginia, where
the work of a few years ago was done
almost entire y by negroes, white labor
is now largely employed; while in the
Caro.inas the poorer casses of native
whites are gradually monopo.izing the
factory labor. One of the few employ
ments in which they have not yet been
seriously disturbed is in the tobacco
factories, but even there they are. by
nc means safe, for already In some
places the whites have shown a wi Ing
ness TO work side by side with them.
which perhaps means that one day the
whites will wholly monopo.ize that ass
of work. 1t viii astonish many doub.-
less to learn that the only cotton mill
in the South which employs negroes is
said to be one at Dal as. Texas, while
to meet the demands for MIL hands in
the Caro'inas alone from fifty to one
hundred thousand white people have
given up other employments."
An indication. too. that the white man
In the South is not as national as for
merry about the class of work he en-
cages in is seen in the gradual e.imina-
ton of the colored barber and the SUP
stitution Of the white. Not very ma,,v
years & a white barber in the small
towns and cities of the South was ex-
eeeding y rare. Now he may be fou II
everywhere. The co.ored chambermaia
too. has been Largely s%upplanted by the
white woman, and in many cases whl.e
and back are found working harmon,
ously side by side. In the corn ana
cotton fields: in the skilled trades: in
the public service; in the office blu dings
OF New Orleans and other Southern cit
les; everywhere. the tendency to drive
off the negro is apparent.
The reason for this state of AFFAIRS is
not far to seek. 1t is not race pre1u-
dice, as many might at first supposs.
1t is the result of the new spirit inject
ed into al branches OF Southern enter
prise by the Introduction of Northern
capital. The Cd sip-shod ways or
gathering the corn and rice and cotton.