New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-09
By Natalie McCloskey


,olored woman working in the cotton
colds and plantation burrows. But that
.sme sun, as the old globe rotates its
rsn,lar way, shines on the colored wo-
man north of the Mason and Dixon
line. plying trades to which she has
been newly admitted since the war.
From the fields the dusky mammie of
legend won her way into the kitchen,
the laundry and the backstairs of large
establishments by way of mop and pail.
Once emancipated she donned the
black dress and white apron of the
maid and proved her adaptabiiity in
hotels and clubs, restaurants and
homes. But she got little further.
Prejudice kept her in inferior posi-
tions and though she felt that, given
chance, she could handle tasks re-
curing skill and intelligence, she
could not get the chance.
Then war came. Industry found it
self depleted of men; found even white
women and girls at premium, and
the inevitable happened. Industry
must go on. Industry must have suf-
fcient workers to make continuation
possible, and anybody who could do
the work, irrespective of race or color
barring, Of course, aliens), was &C.
cepted. The colored woman had her
chance and proved her ability. There
is to-day scarcely a branch of work
done by women in which the colored
woman has not tried her hand. Fur
thermore, she is there to stay.
Two Years Made the Change
Rachel S. Gallagher, director Of the
City Free Labor Exchange, Cleveland,
writing to Miss Mary E. Jackson, of the
Industrial department of the National
Y. W. C. A., New York. says:
III you had asked me two years ago
about colored girls as wage earners in
Cleveland / would have told you that
they could be found in homework, as
laundresses and cleaning women; as
maids, in q few cases in banks and
Offices, and a few employed by a cigar
box manufacturing concern.
To-day, however, when I started to
list the firms where they were en-
ployed found that they had entered
nearly every field of women's work and
some work where women had not previ-
ously been mployed-perhaps in small
numbers, but they have made an en-
trance
1--WE find them on power sewing ma
chimes making caps, waists, bags and
nops; we find them doing pressing and
Tarlous hand operations in these same
shops. They are employed in knitting
factories as winders and in a number Of
laundries on mangles of every type,
and in sorting and marking. They are
in paper box factories doing both hand
and machine work. in button factories
on the button machines, in packing
houses packing meat, in railroad yards
wiplng and cleaning engines, and doing
sorting. in railway shops. They are
found in cigar factories stripping and
packing and in an electrical supply
manufacturing plant doing hard work
One of our workers recently found two
colored girls on knitting machine in
q bed spring factory putting knots in
the wire springs"
Particularly in large manufacturing
sections such as Philadelphia, Balti-
more, Cleveland, St Louis, Louisville,
Detroit and Chicago there is notable
alteration in labor conditions. Many
thousands Of negro laborers have come
from the South in the past two years,
bringing their families with them, and
the supply Of women laborers has
!nsrefore been considerably increased.
ihe demand for workers gave them an
opportunity TO break into fields hith-
srto barred to them and they put their
shoulders to the wheel and kept it
turning.
rom Picking Nuts to Scrapping Iron
In an industrial survey which Miss
Jackson prepared for the Y. W. C.. A.
abe stated that SAP women were en-
ployed in packing plants Of Kansas
City; in st. Louis nut factories, about
In most places" she said, ~they came
N slowly. In Philadelphia pants fac
ory mas two girls pulling hastings; a
pesucoat factory numbers three colored
women out Of twenty female employees;
oress factory, two out Of twelve; a
wa,ss maker, five out Of fifty; hosiery
niii' 1--WE out Of thirty-two. In Pitts
ourgh garment factory making rain
sosss for the government employed
aoout twenty colored girls.
They were careful to employ we'll
educated girls, putting them on a sep
eiass door, where they did not mingle
wiIa white girls prejudiced against
mem Wages and conditions, however,
sere exactly the same for both. In
many instances the war industries in
Nnieh these girls essayed their skill
sefe spectacular. They went into pot
y works in Virginia, into wood
srofnng plants and lumber yards in
iiseanessee, while in st. Louis they
1pped tile in roofing plants, shovelled
,ocs INTO wagons In clay yards, trucked
'1,sk and loaded scrap iron"
acre In New York 1t has been found
sss ina coiored worker is entering the
..otning and needlework trades in
ssater numbers than any other
ranch OF industry. They are, however,
LINING to the professions al we'll,
sao increasing numbers of them are
ssfAn nurses. Lincoln Hospital alone
80 over 200 colored nurses. They are
weserring social work also, with the Y
80, - a and other organizations. Last
rsA forty colored women went TO
s /. 70 take course opened there
= uaining women for War Camp Com
sssni.y Service. And in the public
,.yois tnere are about $50 colored
esimes Better Than White Girls
n,"nnerever they have gone they are
Zig satisfactory, it is said. The
eminent go is using them in city anc
40 apartments Of tho civil service
fsd. increasing their numbers in
isz ss1al service. Az yet. however, few
H.. inferred clerical positions.
s,sssA u the mechanical and skilled DO.
esss,ss.t 70 which they have turned It /,
! trisss.a. saey are making good in sur.
s az fashion. Several employer,
d.. nat they find them more efficient
d. white girls. This, they feel. /,
G Az X me fact that the coiored efr
b, s s. nsid down by prejudice agains,
ks.ls' 70 that she IN often obligec