The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-18
LARGE NEGRO AUDIENCES

Hams spoke to POO negroes, and another
 1o0o were turned away because the hall was filed and at another meeting Re addressed SeO leaders of that race from all parts of the state. He said the ne- groes seemed very much impressed With
 what he said and promised to do their
 full duty by working every day in the
 week ''l am coming back here i'll few weeks
 to organize the negroes of this district, said MT. Williams at the Tutwifer ho-
 tel just before leaving for home, and
 after that I expect to organize the wom- en. When l have my district thorough iy organized there will be no negro wait CTS in hotels bat they will all be in some useful occupations. with women taking their places in the dining rooms.
 "I have held meetings in a great many places, beginning with Mobile June S, and continuing in Montgomery BrminS- ham. Decatur. Bessemer, Gadsden, Tns- ca oosa and then into Florida At Mo- bile several hundred attended the meet ing, and I understand there were nearly
 1000 at Capitol park when l spoke there, The attendance has been good at all of the meetings. and the self preservation loyalty leagues organized are getting their work well under way.
 DEVELOP MAN POWER
 
 1 to develop man power, and have found these self-preservation loyalty leagues, which we are organizing all over the district, and which we propose to organ l ize in each county of each of the five states, are great agents for good An executive committee is appointed in each case, consisting usually of five or six heads of industries, with like number of representative labor leaders and farm CTS This committee in turn appoints one from each beat in the county and with this committee as nucleus, the spreading of the gospel of six days shalt thou labor and that each physically , fit man do mans job, not woman O. child's, work is accomplished.
 President Wilson a few weeks ago called together about 15o officials of this department at Washington, and in a conference with us stated that this employment service was the most vital arm. of the government. Now, many peo- ple think War Savings Stamps sales and Liberty Bonds are the most important work that we who are not fighting in the trenches can do and of course 1t is tishly important, but does not compare to the development of man power The money and wealth is already here and the government can get it at any time, by taking it, but ships to be available ! have to be built. and munitions must be made. food crops cultivated and har- vested, so it is readily seen that develop ment of man power is, after all, second only to fighting in the trenches
 we are organizing now the whites in all the states of this district and will follow very shortly by organizing the negroes. In some places, the negroes have already been organized and have r,sronded to this movement as they have to all the demands of this war, most nobly. We are also coming right back and organize the ladies.
 l DELIGHTED WITH RESULTS q have just come. from. Jacksonville Fla. I have held six conferences on this 1 labor situation in each of these five states in may district, and am pleased cha rmed and delighted with the action 1 and results we have been getting.
 l 'The people everywhere are awaken | ing to the needs of strong sympathetic I cooperation and it is my opinion that | If we can keep up the good work, no allow our industries to slack. and make every effort. this war will be won il le1e-20. otherwise if our man power is al ! lowed to slack up. we may face a Is to lO-year war. Cooperation and co ordination of every interest, both kindred and divergent, must be brought abou | and we must not slack up. That is tn, mission of the employment service ant as already stated, we are everywher' getting splendid results.
 | "On August 1 this department takei over the handling of all labor for gov | err ment essentials and-all handling o labor for government contractors, ex 1 clusively. Many new offices are beini established and we now have the Situa ] tioH in this district pretty we'll in hant l for undertak king this big job of supplyn; tlabor for essential industries"