The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-23


caused a tremendous depreciation in
real wages); but the newly enamel
pated Negro worker was not yet con-
sciously interested in the problem.
Another, and the basic, divergency
followed from the fact that the great
mass of Negro labor was agricultural,
and the workers represented in the
National Labor Union, industrial. AZ
ter generations Of sowing that other
men might reap, the Negro agricul-
turaI laborers naturally felt deep
longing to possess land of their own,
and like the Russian peasantry, linked
together "land and freedom" Even
the viewpoint of the industrial Negro
worker was influenced by this great
need of the mass of his race, and
thus the demand for liberal home
stead policy became his central le-
gislative demand. This question could
not possess any such interest for the
members of the National Labor Union,
the great majority of whom were
skilled industrial workers, though
they did carry on a campaign against
the wholesale grabbing Of public
lands, upon which so many Of the
vast fortunes of our "best families"
were founded.
In July, 1869, the first state conven-
ton of Negro workers met in Balti-
more. The convention report en-
phasized the discrimination against
Negro labor, and recommended that a
nationwide organization campaign be
carried on among the Negro workers.
This convention issued the call for a
national congress, to be held in Wash
ington, d. C. on December 9th on the
same year. The seperate Negro Ma
tional Labor Union was planned, the
parent body assisting in its organiza-
ton.
The convention-call, endorsed, a.
mong others, by the union of the
Negro employees Of the Chesapeake
railroad stated among other things
that the purpose Of the congress, was:
ITO consolidate the scolored working
men of the several states to act in
cooperation with our white fellow
workingmen in every state and terri
tory in the union who are opposed to
distinction in the apprenticeship laws
on account of color, and to act so CO
operatively until the necessity for
separate organization shall be deemed
unnecessary" The tone of the call,
as we'll as the fact that the state con-
vention publishing the call sent FIVE
delegates to the National Labor I'm
ion convention held in August at
Philadelphia, shows the existence of
definite will toward cooperation with
the general workers movement. And
in the course of an organizing trip
through the south in the spring Of the
same year, William Sylvis several
times remarks the sympathetic atti-
tude of the more advanced elements
among the Negro workers toward the
National Labor Union.
This tendency toward cooperation
was opposed, however, by bourgeois
politicians, intent upon using the
workers of their race for their person
al advancement and upon delivering
their vote intact to the republican
party. A pre-convention editorial ap-
pearing in the Workers Advocate
issued an urgent warning to the Ne.
gro workers to steer clear of this
type Of counsellor:
ION the 9th of December, 1869, the
first national labor convention Of the
colored laboring men of the United
States under the auspices of the Ma
tional Labor Union will be held in
the city Of Washington, ID. c. We
earnestly trust that it will frown
down any attempt to transform it into
politico-partizan assemblage. The
colored people have too much at stake
at the present juncture to allow any
of the political charlatans, who are
so profuse with their sympathy and
advice, and who are eyer-ready to ride
upon any hobby upon which a little
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