The Colorado statesman., 1919-02-01

DENVER, CULUNADU, SA
next highest were the 1aundries, 49,,
or IL per cent of which hired them
as ironers, etc.
Next come the garment factories,
70, or 4 per cent of which put on col
ored girls. This was the only direc-
tion in which colored girls could be
truthfully said to have made an in
dustrial advance And now they are
being released wholesale from this
one occupation which might be said
to- give them some claim as real
women in industry"
The next group are laborers and
mattresses, of which there wereNS
firms hiring, or about per cent.
Stock girls come next, with stores,
or 2 per cent hiring them.
To sum up, we find Al per cent or
almost half of the 10 industries that
employed Negroes for the first time
during the war were restaurants,
hotels and laundries, but the work
was not new to colored people. Only
SO out of the ITO We're new occupa-
tions for colored women. There were
in the order of their numerical i'm
portance 8 auto cab companies which
employed them as cleaners, and in no
other cases were there more than 2
of kind.
Colored women of Chicago were
also engaged during the war as pic
ture trainers, capsule makers, candy
Wrappers window-shade cleaners, to-
bacco strippers, noodle makers, arti-
ficial flower makers, nut shelters, fur
niture sandpaperers, corset repairers,
paper-boX makers, ice cream cone
strippers, poultry dressers and bucket
makers.
The packing houses constitute the
only Chicago industry employing
many colored women which is not re-
leasing them. This fact has not much
significance, because so far as the
packing industry is concerned the
war is not over. The packers have
to supply just~as much food to the
soldiers now as when they were fight
ing, and the greatly increased number
of civilians and. released prisoners
who must be- fed are keeping this in
dustry running to 100 per cent pro-
duction.' Jus now the packing
houses cannot afford to make any
changes in help.
Detroit, perhaps, stands foremost
among the cities of the country in the
industrial opportunities offered col
ored women during the war. Here
they We're found working on ma
chimes in many of the big auto plants.
They were engaged in making Liberty
motors. IT is in Detroit that the Ban
ner Garment Company has been con-
Quoting a factory for two years with
a working force of colored women
from machine operators to clerical
employees. Colored women in Detroit
earned as high as 60 and 20 cents an
hour in some plants.
At the Detroit Steel Products Com
pany 60 colored women have worked
at one time on drill presses and sim
liar machines. Others did furnace
work. Some of the colored girls were
paid $50 per week. So anxious were
these women to work that during the
street car strike which lasted two,
days they walked four miles to the
factory The time-worn charge of
shiftlessness vanishes when Negro
is offered salary worth working for.
Colored women were also employed,
in Detroit as assemblers, inspectors
and shippers in auto plants, as core
makers and clippers in foundries, as
shell makers in munition factories, as
plate makers in dental laboratories,
as garment makers and as armature
winders in insulated wire factories.
There was practically no difference
in pay for colored girls and white
girls in the same occupation or pro-
cess. In some cases the colored girls