Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1917-06-01
INDUSTRIAL PREJU-
DICE AGAINST THE NEGRO.

land other Middle Western commun
Titles. By reading between the lines
of the East Eft. Louis mayors telegram
Southern negroes can find food foi
solemn reflection. This is what th'
Illinois mayor wired the Governor o.
Georgia:
Race riot in East st. Louis
caused by heavy influx of negroes
from the South during past month.
Kindly advise negroes to remain
away from East ST. Louis"
Human nature is pretty much the
same North and South The white peo-
pie of this section have seen a good
deal more of the negro than have
Northern whites, and as result he is
better understood here than there.
Outbreaks against negroes have been
confined to no section. Atlanta's riot
has been matched by Springfield. Ill.
Niger hunting" in Florida has had
its counterpart in the crowded districts
of New York City.
There is one notable difference,
however, between anti-negro demon
strations in the North and in the
South.
Negroes in this section have never
been denied the right to work, to ac-
quire property and to better their con-
dition. Labor unions have never by
solemn resolution told negroes in
Southern communities to move on"
Outbreaks against negroes in the
South have almost invariably been in
spired by the criminal acts of mem
bers of that race. Mob violence can
not be successfully defended White
men who take the law into their own
hands and hang negro criminals from
the limbs of trees without having the
question of guilt or innocence of the
accused passed upon by twelve men
sitting in a court of justice strike at
the very vitals of our civilization.
But the colored citizen of a South
ern state has always enjoyed the priv
ilege of earning his bread by the
sweat of his brow. He has ever been
encouraged to become property own
er-to buy a farm, live on it and inn
prove it, or own his home in town or
city. Negro merchants, mechanics
masons, carpenters, railway employees
doctors, dentists and nurses have un.
limited and unrestricted opportunities
in the South. The weekly wage of tn;
negro worker in the South is steadil,
increasing, and will be larger in the
immediate future than it has ever been
But events in Northern communities
growing out of the recent movemen
of thousands of Southern negroes t,
points above the Mason and Dixon lin,
show very clearly that the prejudice o
the North against black skins is no
only a racial prejudice, but an indus
trial prejudice as well. Southern ne
groes who have gone North within re
cent months went with the expectation
of lettering their material condition
They expected to find employment il
mills, factories, on construction enter
prises, in stores and as domestics a
much higher wages than they had beel
receiving in the South. A few hav
not been disappointed, simply becaus
individual merit gained recognition
which the immigrant masses coul
no. hope for.
But whenever negroes from tn
South have gone into a Northern com
munity in sufficient numbers t
threaten competition with white work
ers, the newcomers have found to thei
sorrow that not only was there n
welcome for them, but that they coul
remain only on peril of their lives
Going into a section of the countr
where they had been led to believ
were unparalleled opportunities TO
lettering their material condition. the
have been greeted, instead, with a sen
,timent that would be fittingly express