The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-11
NORTHERN CITIES HAVING TROUBLE :. HANDLING NEGROES . FROM THE SOUTH Using Every Effort to Turn the Tide in Some Other
 Direction CINCINNATI ONE OF
 CHIEF SUFFERERS Hundreds Out of Work and Are Objects of Charity. Bessemer Now Head
 quarters

l Alabama's negro exodus problem is hav- 1 ing it's Bareback from it's influx in the 1 middle west.
 l It is causing social and economic prob lems Already cities in Ohio which are | receiving large allotcents and consign- ments of the negro unskilled labor are devising ways and means to curb the inn migration or divert it to other fields. 1 The labor situation in the Birmingham district has been acute for sometime. More than a year ago labor agents be- gan to invade the district They painted l glowing pictures of a land of milk and | honey; of short hours of work and easy money. And the exodus soon grew from groups of tens and twenties to the hum dreds. The city of Birmingham finally | took official notice of the situation and | made it unlawful to solicit labor for serv- ice outside of the state. Thereupon the labor agents moved upon Bessemer and established headquarters there. LEAVE IN LARGE NUMBERS Under the spell of the labor agents artistry, negroes have left and continue to leave Birmingham in alarming num- bers. Cooks and buffers and washerwom- en and nurses and chauffeurs are follow ing the trail of the common laborer. Tn Chicago, it is reported, more than 1500 negroes of recent southern importa- ton are out of employment and are charges upon the city and their condition is represented as deplorable. Tn Cincinnati the federal and state au- hor haen O la6 to e city health officer to stop the flood of negro immigration from the south to Cincinnati. Letters have been sent to Surgeon General Blue of the United States public health service calling at tention to the influx of southern negroes into Cincinnati and other northern cities, asking that the problem be treated as an interstate one and proper remedies applied.
 SITUATION IN OHIO
 In commenting on the situation in Ohio, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the fol- lowing to say:
 "A mighty exodus of negroes from the south is under way. Every southern state is yielding up it's thousands who are con- ing to the promised land in the north. "The current of travel Is bringing many thousands into Ohio each week. More than 1500 landed in Cincinnati Sunday morning Four times that number will reach the same city during the present week.
 ''The movement to bring the negro la bor from the south was started last year Railways needed labor, as did factories along their lines. Agents, sent to the south, have done their work so well that the greatest exodus of the country is ,,pda, uau If prop,ieas f0 reach prODOr- tions heretofore unheard of.
 ''One man in the movement says that by the end of the present year the or ganization will have brought from the south to the north more than million negroes in IS months. The employment forces that organized the exodus receive a dollar for each man they bring to em- ployers.
 NORTH LAND OF PROMISE
 "The glorious opportunities of the north have been spread by ingenious men through every state in the south. Four dollars day for common labor Is the story that gets attention No such wages were ever head of in the south. Accept ing the glowing story, men and women are hurrying to the land where such op- pcrtunities are waiting. Uninformed of other conditions, social, economic or climatic, they smilingly join the throng that seeks the promised land.
 'The movement last summer and Win ter was confined almost wholly to men. They were distributed through cities from St. Louis to Buffalo. Now the men have sent for their wives and children. A Sunday train from Cincinnati to Clevand brought one car loaded with women and children, to join their men folks in Cleve- land, Ashtabula. and Buffalo. The party was from Biloxi, Miss. They shivered in the raw wind that blew from the lake as they waited at the station.
 "Colored leaders in the state appre- ciate the grave situation that will come from the large increase in negro popula ton. Conditions in Cleveland are in U main the same as&in other cities. housing problem is the hardest. Clf 5 land negro boarding and rooming ho ses are packed. Few additional places q 2 9s found. Last summer and fall many1o ae men were housed in tents on cnieacf work near the city. So many as pt pneumonia developed that the 4fsnticr of Health Commissioner Bisa9p 98s| called to it. The city hospital yas loa 1eo with the cases. Negroes fro fhe isr south are unable to withstan lhs ig9rs fo the lake winds.
 PASSING THEN ON
 "Cincinnati has hurried puN " ail organization to help the traEeleas Mlss' J Jennie Porter, principal oi shS ARfr,9t Beecher Stowe school. C psipan& 10 'neet and direct the newcor aefs
 sThe great effort in -inelnnafi Is to see that the travellers continue 10 trsvsl.
 sThe negro sectior Of That csty is con- gested and newconaerH are exnosed to conditions worse tpar they pn@arstand Carloads of then @E Aeaded feF Detroit, a city with exc l-'y itlnitRa housing facilities for tha @t teNss is better, Chicago is big by ea5'trsss afe bad, To- ledo is getting r'9szs ds are go- ing to the mills pf4 snops 1 ne Youngs- town and Pittsl irg Sistrict
 
 MORE RE R { ITS FOR
 SER E TCEi IN ARMY