Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1917-07-28

10 ~ duO CulHludIcU Iuc lcAdS-OKldnOma
rush in 19OO-191O. Lack of capital and I'M
familiar crops kept most Negroes out of
Kansas and the North while savage lynch
ing and unprecedented "Jim- Grow" legis-
1ation discouraged them in Texas and Okla
homa.
The effort of Negroes to migrate to Africa
and elsewhere is one Of the most disreput-
able chapters Of American pseudo philan-
thropy and need not take time or space
here. This left the North as the one haven
Of refuge and into the North the Negro has
gradually filtered.
Between 1860 and 1910 the Northern Ne
gro population increased from $4,000 to
1,075,OO0, indicating migration of at least
100000 persons in addition to the natural
increase. This is a considerable migration
but small when one considers all the cir
cumstances. Why did not the black work.
ing man rush North faster? Three factors
hindered:
l. European immigration.
g Northern prejudice.
g. Fear on the part of Northern Negroes
The European migration was the really
active competitive factor and it reached
over 100000 year, 19OO-191O, bringing in
men and women who bid for precisely the
jobs that the average Southern Negro
wanted
Secondly, the Northern racial attitude
was sufficiently uncertain to make the Ne
gro immigrants hesitate and this uncer-
tainty was increased by persistent South
ern industrial propaganda in the North de-
crying Negro labor, and in the South by
alleging that the Negro could not get work
in the North. Northern labor unions quick
ly seized this opportunity to close their
doors to Southern competition and receiv-
ed here public sanction which they could
not get in the case of immigrants
Finally, the Northern Negroes were bid
ding for higher places in the industrial ma
chinery and gradually getting them. They
feared that wholesale Southern migration
would arouse prejudice and dispossess them
This was the situation when foreign i'm
migration of over one million year in
1914 suddenly fell to 100000 in 1916, and
was balanced in that year by at least $780,
900 persons returning to Europe. A sharp,
new demand for common labor arose and
railroads, builders, and various industries
turned to the South
curious industrial war ensued Every
effort was made by the South to keep
knowledge of new opportunities from the
Negroes and to prevent them, even by force,
from leaving; wholesale arrests were made
and "emigrant agents" were taxed as high
as SzoOO Tor the right to operate. Despite
this, great corporations like the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad imported Negroes by the
thousands and estimates of the total mi
grafton run into the hundred thousands.
What does this portend for the future?
The present movement is largely ten
tative. Perhaps 100000 permanent Negro
immigrants have located in the North dur
ing 1916. The future movement depends
on the European war, the industrial acumen
OF Northern business men, and the organic
ing ability Of Negroes.
We often preen ourselves on the keen
ness Of American industrial leaders and our
industrial history proves that in many
cases we have right to do this, but GER
tainly in the treatment Of Negro labor
Americans are peculiarly obtuse. They
have today at hand not simply mass Of
good-natured laborers who, because Of the
past, are unusually appreciative of reason
ably decent laboring conditions and fair
wages, but they also have a growing class