The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-03-26

is an oppressed race, and goot
ways exists between the Negro
and white laborers.
There is a mistaken notion
current among those who have
had few dealings with working
people that race prejudice
plays an important part in the
relations between white and
colored workers." Mary Nc
Dowell puts it.
The antagonism that has some
times arisen is due to the fact that
Negroes have so often been inn
ported as strike-breakers, usually
with little knowledge Of the condi-
tions to which they came or the sig
nificance Of the strike. This feel
ing has nothing in common with
race prejudice. The trade unions.
are increasing in hospitality toward
colorcd workers and the Negroes
themselves are now awakening to
the need of putting an end to their
use as strike-breakers The labor
union leaders of the stockyards have
taken a determined stand against
race prejudice"
Negroes and Whites Combine.
We are further told by the De-
partment of Labor, that "Union
workers in the stockyards charge
that the packers have used Negro
leaders to prevent unionizing Of the
Negroes. The Negroes Of Chicago
have become almost as putty in the
hands of the employers and politi-
clans" This statement means that
the recent competition, between the
Southern and White employers--the
one trying to induce the Negro mi
grant back to the South by offering
him fair treatment, the other trying
to keep him here by playing up
Southern lynchings-is not a change
of heart on the part of the en-
ployers toward the black race. The
employers controlling the Negroes
job, and hence his way Of living,
regards the Negro, not as a prob
lem, but as supply of cheap labor
with which to keep wages down.
Between Two Fires.
James Weldon johnson, of the As
ISOLATION for the Advancement Of
Colored People, tells us that the
Negro is badly off, whether in the
North or the South. Heretofore
the Negro has had two choices"
Mr.. Johnson says. "That of living
in the South where most of his
manhood and civil rights were de-
MED him, but where economically his
CONDITION was secure; or that Of liv-
ing in the North where his rights
were guaranteed him, but where his
economic condition was always pre-
carious. In this attitude towards
the Negro the North has been al
most as cruel as the South; for al
tho the South denied him life it
offered him bread; While the North
offered him life, but refused that
whereby he might live.'
1t is always to the interests Of
the powerful employers to divide the
workers up into opposing factions.
If groups of workers can be pre-
vailed on to fight each other, they
will not have the energy to fight
the employers for better working
conditions and higher wages. Hence
instead of telling the truth in the
daily papers which they control, the
bosses make it appear that the white
workers object to admitting Negroes
to their unions. They try to play
upon race prejudice to divide the
workers so that they will not COM
bine to better their economic con-
ditions.
Job Competition Harmful.
Sometimes, altho rarely, it hap
pens that a white unionist is taken
in by this attempt of the bosses to
split the workers up, and it is this
exceptional person who advocates
barring the Negroes from his union,
thereby unwittingly helping his en-
ployer to keep wages down. It is
then up to the Negro to show his
white brother that competition be-
tween classes or groups of workers
for the same Jobs keeps down the
standard of the workers living.
Organization of all groups Of work
ers in the same unions gives them
the power to raise the workers
standard of living. The bosses know
that. organization is power. That
is why they combine into trusts
and monopolies, and Chambers Of
Commerce-to keep down wages and
increase the price of the goods
which they sell and which the work
ers largely buy.
They Stood Together.
On the whole, the workers have
learned this lesson. "The relation