The Colorado statesman., 1916-12-16

method of repressive legislation

method of repressive legislation is
brought into play.
THE Macon Telegraph says of the
Negro exodus: If we lose it, we go
bankrupt Yet it is the same paper
that only few months ago was ad-
vocating the sending of 100000 Ne
groes into Mexico to conquer the mon
grel breed and at the same time rid
the South of that many worthless Ne
groes. How different the song now.
THE world war is bringing many
changes and a chance for the Negro
to enter broader fields. With the
tempting bait of higher wages, short
er hours, better schools and better
treatment, all the preachments of the
so-called 'race-leaders' will fall on deaf
ears"
The most comprehensive expression
of hope for the Negro raised by the
direct and indirect effects of the war
appears in an article by Wilson JEFF
ferson contributed to the N. Y. Even
ing Post. While the war lasts and in
the following years of necessary re-
construction work in Europe, foreign
workers will be kept over there. Con-
sequently our source of unskilled Ia
Dor supply must be the over-plentiful
Negro labor of the South, according to
Mr. Jefferson. The Southern wage
has been low because colored labor
was so plentiful. The migration will
react on Southern conditions.
''In the South the poorer whites will
be forced to do some of the harder
tasks of the shop and field, and will
be forced to do what they have never
hitherto done: fit themselves for
house work and other work calling for
more or less personal service. And it
will all work to the Negroes gain. The
employer will not be able to get along
without the help of both, and the
white worker will not be willing to
work for the Negro wage.
Some of the trades in the South
offer an example of white and Negro
cooperation. In them Negro and white
unions affiliate for their mutual pro
lection. AS consequence, in the
building trades, for example, the wage
compares favorably with the scale in
| other parts of the country. Among
unskilled workers there will be unions
and affiliations of a similar nature,
and a much higher wage scale will
prevail as a result"
Nothing has hampered the Negro as
race more than the inability of its
great body of workers to make a de-
cent living, Mr.. Jefferson insists. He
believes that most people do not real
ize how Indifferent the average South
ern employer has been to the needs of
his workmen. "The laws give these
men absolutely no protection. The
bulk of them are as capable and live
as clean lives as do a corresponding
class among any people. They are as
ambitious. Given a fair chance they
will no doubt prove more efficient as
all-around workers than any class of
foreigners we might import While
the white South has been willing to
feed and praise the Negroes, "as SER
wants. says Mr.. Jefferson, it has
never been willing to pay them very
much in wages.
"The one and two-room hut has
grown out of this state of affairs. If,
as it often happened, the black man
rebelled, he was always taunted with
the more or less truthful assertion
that the North and West did not want
him and his ways What was not
told him was that the black mans
ways were largely a result of the
white mans ways. But more and more
he is finding this out for himself. He
is rapidly learning that $40 a month
and regular habits are infinitely bet
ter than SIS or $40 month and irreg-
ular habits. In short he is learning
to be willing to cast off the loose