The Tulsa star. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1913-1921, 1920-04-03
LABOR
AND NEGRO WORKERS
I rye Organized Action in Negro
Labor Circles.

isHb'' E''''''s
1hi, j, the day Of the workers,
the organized worker. In RuSsla,
Great Britain, France, Germany, IT.
ally, Japan and America, those who
IaOducc The wealth Of the world are
demanding and getting more than
ever before. The reason for this
i,, that labor is becoming class con
,rious, it is realizing its power when
organized, when intelligent. II IS
simple, it is elementary. that one
hundred reeds joined together are
harder to break than when separate.
So if is with labor. An individual
worker cannot fight organized cap
ijiI The concessions that labor
has already won from big business,
have been due only to labor's in
Crcasing intelligence and solidarity.
Before the modern trades and IL
duStrial unions existed, working
Iucn toilcd from sunrise 10 sunset.
sull swcatcd 10, -, fl, l6, lS and
20 hours day. The lumbcrjackS
ONhiic) in the West are no less mcr-
cilcSsly exploited. 1t is these in
dcScribablc industrial conditions
that gave birth to the Industrial
Workers of the World. PconaJe
pens and industrial hcllS of the
South will eventually force Negro
workers, too, into industrial unions.
with Slight knowledge of the
history of labor struggles, Negro
workers would recognize that no
advantage, no benefit, no improve
mcni ever came TO labor except
through organized action. It is true
that some white labor unions ig-
nOranlly discriminate against Ne
gro workers by refusing them ad
mittancc into their unions. Yet,
that is no valid point against the
value Of the labor union TO workers,
black or white. Negro workers
should form unions, in order to
fight organized capital, on the one
hand, and, to force organized while
labor to practice the principles Of
brotherhood, on the other.
The Messenger recognizes indus-
trial action as the most effective
weapons which the Negro can en-
10y, both in the interest Of him
Srlf as a worker, and as a Race. The
census report Of 1910 shows that
there are over six million Negroes
gaiufully employed in the United
States, or two million more work
ers than the American Federation
Of Labor has. Now, if the American
Federation, with only four million
workers, led by as incompetent and
rCactlOnary a leader as Samuel
Gompers, can force the President
and Congress TO recognize it, by
seeking its counsel upon practical
ly every important national and in
iCrnatiOnal question, i'm war and
peace, what will it not do under
the economic pressure of two mil
lion organized Negro workers? On
the cotton fields, Negro cotton work
er> produce nearly 60 per cent OF
the cotton of the entire world.
Great banks in New York, London,
Paris and Berlin depend for their
existence upon the sweat and toll
Of the Southern Negro cotton pick
crS, who are ShamclcSSly robbed of
tic product of their labOr-NegroeS
who are held in the chains Of ig-
nuranCe, superstition and avariCC
Of cotton spectators, North and
South. If Negroes formed a cotton
workers union, TO strike for more
wages, shorter hours, and better cor
GitionS under which TO work, i
would arouse and frighten South
can, Northern and, too, foreigr
capitalists, because it would meaI
that the profits of capital woulC
be smaller. For when wages ar,
high, profits are low. The product
Of labor is divided into two paris
- wages and profits. All above wage
represents profits or surplus wealth
= II worker produces fifty dollars
. d?y and receives only ten, in tn
p form of wages, the extra forty dol
I lars represents profits, which go l.
p the employer. Now, the employe
l would like to give the workers onl
70 live dollars, as wages, and TAX
I forty-iive as profits, and the onl
D, thing that prevents him is, eithe
, the shortage of labor or the powe
b of labor, through organization, .
p resist capital The worker, on Tn
I other hand, would like to get iiftec
: or twenty, or thirty or forty dol
lars as wages. But he can onl
! get what he has the power to tax
through organized action, a labo
J, union. The worker, in fact, woul
>, desire to receive the full produc
Of his toll, the fifty dollars. Bat h
will only get SO far in his demand
- as his intelligence and power vii
5 carry him. Now the Negro can
!. not get nor will he ppt any NOR