St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1942-06-05

| II we do not tackle them ourselves.
It is true that we are held down.
1t is true that the white folks will
not give an inch-everything we
get has to be fought for, squeezed
out by pressure tactics. But even
so all the trouble does not come
from white folks. We make plenty
for ourselves.
One of my spies has sent in a
report from a war plant located
somewhere between Boston, Mass,
and Washington, D. c., where,
after much clamoring, the dark
brother has got a good many jobs
on both skilled and unskilled levels.
Work Is Picking Up
Not only is the colored brother
employed, but the colored sister as
well. They are doing all kinds of
work and making all kinds of
money. Even the women are get
ting as much as $45 weekly. The
men find as much as 800 a week in
their pay envelopes. One colored
man runs the largest and most ex-
pensive machine in the shop. One
colored woman won a prize in a
contest to determine who could
turn out the most work in a week.
Dozens of colored girls are doing
delicate and extremely important
inspection work. There are also
the laborers and helpers.
You would think from all this
that everything is all right. The
battle, you say, has been won in
this particular plant. The brother
is in there and pitching-and not
only as a porter with mop. He
is doing skilled work and getting
big money. Isn't that what we
are yelling for? Isn't that why
we have been shaking fists at the
white employers and labor unions
these many months? So what is
the matter?
The matter is the brother. He
gets paid on Saturday and he may
or may not show up on Monday
morning. A few will be on deck.
A few arc always o. K. But most
ly they are still spending on Mon
day. They will drift in on Tues
day. If they had a ''big" weekend
they may not come in until We'd
nesday. They say the Elks gave a
dance one Saturday night and half
the Negro workers did not come
back to the job until the next
Thursday.
Off on Pleasure Jaunts
It is nothing for some of them
to take week-ends in Washington,
Philadelphia, New York, Boston,
and points in between. We are a
great people for visiting, and what
is job compared to visiting a
cousin, an aunt, a boy or girl
friend, or just a guy named Joe?
The brother is determined to
have himself a time. War or no
war, hard times or good, he is go
ing to pleasure" himself. But in
this instance he is doing everybody
harm, including himself. In the
first place America is not getting
from him the kind of production
every workman should be giving.
Idle machines lose valuable hours
of production because someone is
recovering from a hangover, or be-
cause Sam cannot tear himself
away from a weekend visit with
Julia.
But the greatest harm is being
done to the race as a whole. Ten
years from now the students of
such matters will be turning out
surveys showing the percentages
of efficiency of Negro labor in in
dustry. The weekend visits, the
dances, the days absent, the days
tardy, will all be added up imper-
sonally on strictly statistical
basis. The figures will prove that
the brother is not such a good risk
as workman and that it is bet
ter to keep him in porter jobs
where the turnover will not affect
Even if it be argued that thi.