The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-14

charged that they had been held by force in West Virginia; they were kept In stockades and given no money. The second movement, which he ad- l mus IS still on in full force, con- menced last April
 NIT. Davidson said a careful inquiry Into the situation rev ee7ed that many or the Southern negroes went to De- trolt, Akron and Chicago Agents, he explained, would deliver the negroes at one place one day and in the course or a snort while take them on to some olher state for another commission Ihere are two reasons for the suc- cess or the present movement" said MT. Davidson. First, the negroes everlasting desire for a free ride, and second, the gullibility of the negro" MT. Davidson said that the negro is misled by labor agents. who claim there IS no car shortage in the mining districts of the West and North and promise steady employment It has also been held out to negroes, he add eo' that they can vote and buy beer in the North
 Stories to Brighten Them. Some labor agents soliciting negroes started all sorts of stories to frighten them. In lower Alabama, where the agents were thickest, ignorant negroes were told that the white people had decided to "drive all the negroes out next year." and their friends of the North had sent for them to prevent their being killed or driven out LIT. Ulysses Grant Mason, a leading coIored physician of Birmingham talked with the correspondent about the migration of the negro. The average negro who has ac- cepted the offer of work in the North ana West at an increased wage," said UT. Mason, considers it, promotion Many negroes who have left Georgia ana Alabama went to Connecticut to work Tn the tobacco fields, to take the places of foreigners who returned to Europe to enlist for the war. or native white men who quit the farms to go into intuition plants For several years Connecticut tobacco growers have been experimenting with negro labor and have found it very satisfac- tory.
 The Northern and Western em- ployer has never, up to this time, given the negro of the South an op- portunity to show his ability to work
 
 was brought over for a busy season and then permitted to go back in dull times.
 Long Awaited Chance. '"The war has given the negro the chance he has 1onged for for years, and I believe he is going to make good. Negro laborers do not strike and they are first class workmen. In the North he will have more advan- tages and his children better schools. II have received a number of let ters from negroes who left Birming- ham for Detroit, Chicago and other points in the North and West, and most all of them indicate that those accepting work in the new localities are satisfied. One man in particular, who was making $2 day here, is now receiving $4 a day as section boss on a railroad in Illinois. There are many similar instances.
 "The negroes are still leaving Ala bama by the hundreds every day. The movement needs no advertising now, and if the labor, agent should drop out entirely laborers will find their way to positions in the north east and west. Those already establish ed there are sending money for their families and friends to join them.
 'The laws passed by southern states depriving the negro of the bal lot have caused great unrest in Ala bama and other states. The negro wants to exercise the franchise. He resents Jim Crow car laws, and other, restrictions peculiar to this sec- ton.
 "I haven't heard of single in- stance of a negro going north to vote in the last election, but I do be- Heve that as soon as the laws of the various states permit they will help to make more permanent Republican rule."
 Fear of Lynching.
 Ben Davis, a negro politician of Georgia, thinks that a number of ne- groes have left his state because of fear of lynching.
 When in Detroit recently" said Davis, ''I saw Georgia negro carpen- ters making 60 and 70 cents an hour I think the explanation of the pres ent migration. which is growing rap idly and will. by the middle of next April, be a great exodus, is to be found in the increased wage. Yet I feel that many negroes have left law less counties of Georgia because of the fear of being mobbed if charged with crime. Two women have been 1ynched in Georgia this year and the negroes are quitting the counties where mobs operate by the thous- ands
 There is no politics in the present movement. Negroes who left here months ago are writing back, telling in glowing terms about the money they are making and the treatment they are receiving. This information is stirring up the negroes throughout the south. Ten or twelve thousand have already left Georgia, three thousand departing from Savannah at one time.
 1T believe that the migration will prove helpful to the south and the