The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-07-28
NEGROES LURED FROM SOUTH
BY HIGHER WAGES.
Take Foreign Labor's Jobs.

Daily Tribune in answer to the ques-
ti0n, "After the War-What?"
By Henry M. Hyde.
A long row of little one story w,od-
en-. shacks winds round the side Of a
mountain in West Virginia. Just be-
low the center of the row is the open
ing of great coal mine, which leads
on horizontal plane into the bowels
of the peak. u
Before the war in Europe every
shack was occupied by Italian and
Serbian miners. Most of them lived
in boarding houses, but some had
brought ever their families and lived
with wife and children in one of the
smaller shacks. - .
Today most of the shacks are va
cant. Practically all Of the miners
have gone back to Europe to fight.
The last report of the national bu-
reau Of s immigrant shows that the
number of Italians in the United
States now is 100000 less than it was
two years ago.
Money Lures Negro.
Their places in the coal mines have
been taken chiefly by Negroes from
the farms of Virginia and other
southern states. When a black farm
hand earning 81 or $1.25 day at
home is offered from So 10 81 a day
to work in a coal mine the call is al
most irresistible.
To this single coal mine in West
Virginia more than 400 Negroes have
gone in the last eighteen months.
They are beginning to take their
families with them and to settle in
the old wooden shacks deserted by the
Italians.
Much the same change has come to
other mines, construction camps, and
even factories, ell over the north. By
tens Of thousands the Negroes have
left the farms Of the south and have
gone north to take the place of Eu-
ropean laborers called home or kept
home by the great war. They go
north because northern industries can
offer to pay bigger wages than the
farmers of the south. And the move
n'ent has just begun. So long as the
war lasts, at least, it will continue
to increase in volume.
Already the African migration is
well under way. It means lot to
both the north and the south and to
all classes Of people in both sections.
100000 in South.
When the war in Europe began
there were few more than a million
Negroes living north of Mason and
Dixon's line. In the southern states
there were about 100000 Negroes.
In the north the Negro has been
permitted ordinary political and civil
liberties. He has been allowed to
cast his vote and to take a modest
part in the government. But his in
dustrial opportunities have been few.
The competition and opposition OF
immigrant and native white labor
have shut him out of the better paid
and more desirable lines of work. Al.
most all the labor unions have barred
him from membership. He has been
driven to take menial, poorly paid
and disagreeable employment. There
are 1000 or more Negro saloon por.
ters in Chicago, thousands Of boot
blacks, and other thousands working
as porters on Pullman cars. y.
During the recent period of bust
ness depression the lines against thu
Negro were drawn more tightly il
northern cities. He was shut out o.
many positions which We're formerl,
open to him. There has been, also
an increase in race prejudice. Som,
northern cities have passed segrega
tion laws compelling all Negroes t,
live in certain less desirable district.
Of the city.
Different in South,
In the south, on the other hand, tht
Negro llas besn deprived of pxacti:
icaliy All kiss poll i Tand evil libs
tiss. He hss no and III ~
earned tliats W III tin ~
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