Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1919-01-14
NEGROES HELPED BYWAR
GAVE GOOD SERVICE
Value of Colored Mems Labor
Never Before Appreciated,
Says Economic Expert.

| Since Lincoln's Emancipation Proc
| lamation 1T is probable that no other
one event has aided the Negro as the
| great war. This assertion was made
| by DR. George f. HAYNES. Director
| OF Negro economics Of the Labor De
| partment, after an extensive Study OF
the Negro labor situation all over the
| country
Wherever there has been intelli
! gent guidance for the Negro worker.
/ ! have found that Northern employ
crs are well satisfied with the performance
of his duties" Or Haynes saiR. "But
without such intelligent instruction, en-
ployers have been compelled to give
up the trial rs a hopeless experiment.
After the Negroes had migrated North
in great numbers, there was a consider
able increase IN war demands for the
building Of cantonments and munitlon
plants In the South, and consequently
there was n serious labor shortage IN
that section From this scarcity OF men
arose a revelation of the value OF Negro
help never before fully appreciated in
the South
The war has brought To the rank
and file Of Negro labor the feeling that
freedom means, among other things,
liberty for one to move from place TO
place at Will and to change his job when
II is TO his advantage To do SO. Another
effect Of the war has been to open up
q much wid u field of occupation for the
Negro, especially in the North For
instance. in Detroit in 1914 there were
probably not u thousand Negroes in
All the factories IN all that great auto
mobile centre Two months ago there
were from sixteen 10 seventeen thousand
Il,
industry alone III Detroit
During the past two years | have
visited many States both \ orth and
south and have talked with all classes
Of Negro workers, both in industry ard
agriculture This canvass has been among
Negroes working on railroads. in mines,
in factories, hotel porters, tradesmen,
hackmrn, farmers, porters, business
men lawycrs. doctors mir isters and
housewives Tho main object OF such
a canvass has been to learn from these
pcoplc what they consider tho essential
things due hem out of the results Of
the war ! learned that FIRST, they de
sire 3 fair chance To secure work. and
10 hold 1t on tho same conditions and with
tho Same pay as oth,r workers Secondly
there Is 4 great desire for education Of
all sorts In the third place there is
united desire for the removal of race
discrimination from the public courts,
and IN public conveyances, and wish
to have provision made in city aud
country for the same facilities of com
munitv Improvement for them as for
other folks The fourth thing SO gen
orally desired by Negro workers can
probably be best expressed in the words
Of an unlettcrcd Negro farmer in a South
crn State who said. Sir, we wants 10
help say who governs us
The efforts, DIR HAYNES said 'of
the Department of Labor to adjust re-
lations between white employers and
Negro wage carners in the South dur
ing the unusual war conditions while
they have been largely experimental.
have proved successful beyond the most
sangllne expectation. The experiment
has established beyond question the
practicability. in North and South, of
the plan hy which representative Ne
gro wage carncrs meet the representa-
tIves OF white employers in cooperative
conferences 1t has demonstrated that
such meetings can achieve substantial
results in adjusting local labor problems
which changing conditions and regu-
lations have produced.
Paris, Jan 11-For extraordinary
heroism under fire III American Ne
groes. members Of the 371st and 372d
Infantry Regiments. have been decor
ated by the French authorities. Four
Of them received the Medaille Militaire
and the others the War Cross
The two regiments were brigaded
with the French, under the command
of Gen. Goybet of the 157th Division.
The Negroes TO receive the much-coveted
Mcdaillc AIiIitaire were Sergt Depew
Preyor. Corp. Clifton Morrison, Privates
Clarence Van Allen and Kenneth Lewis
All were from Massachusetts and be-
longed to the same company
TorE World