The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1942-10-21
NEGRO EMPLOYMENT
Is RISING FAST
IN WAR INDUSTRIES
CONTINUED on Page 3

the government has been trying
to convert industry to bi-racial
enjoyment, it has had to convert
itself.
When, in March. 1871. DR..
Weaver moved to the immense
and magnificent building occupied
by the w. P. B. and the War Man
Power Commission. he and one
other were the only Negro white
collar men in the place. Meeting in
corridor, they would click their
heels and one would say:
'Dr. Livingstone. I presume
Thousands in War Agencies
Now there are thousands of Ne
gro clerks and executives in this
single building. and other thous-
ands in other war agencies, hired
since the President sent depart
ment heads a letter. one year ago.
DR.. Weaver, who likes to be a
diplomat, has developed a formula
for his men to follow over the
country. A brand new plant should
be induced to do its hiring on a
straight competitive basis, with
colorer workers in skilled Jobs. A
plant which has long hired Ne
groes for inferior Jobs should be
led to ID announce new hiring
and promotion policy firmly, on
bulletin boards and communion
tions to foremen; (2) make prior
arrangements with the local un-
ion, If it is regularly consulted on
other matters: CD handle first
difficulties with dispatch, firing
DIRECTORS if necessary. An estab-
lished plant which has never hir-
ed Negroes should be induced to
hire them without restricting
them at first to custodian jobs.
DR.. Weaver argues that this
war is different from the last. War
production requires skill and
training. If Negroes are confined
to custodian duties and unskilled
labor, they won't have enough
work to do.
Upward Climb Noted
So official manpower policy is
an up elevator for the Negro race.
This war may give the dark skin
ned people something the Civil
War did not - assured economic
position.
The colored shareeropper may
vanish - at least as a forlorn fig
ure. Officials say southern agri-
I cultural labor may drift to south
ern cities, while urban Negroes go
to better paid jobs in the North.
AS an alternative, officials sug-
gest that untutored farm labor
might be recruited. trained, ship
ped north to prepared sites,
through government channels.
If the war is long, all this sort
of thing may amount to a social
revolution. A colored girl won't
cook or scrub unless she likes the
work and then only on favorable
financial terms.
This fact already is perfectly
obvious to a great many white
housewives. A U. s. employment
office in Connecticut, for instance,
has felt their pressure. Women
protested directly to the, office
against factory placements, work
ed indirectly through their hus-
bands.
In Mississippi the government
thinks it may lose a teapot battle
against a group of women who
don't want their help leaving for
war plant. The battle there re-
portedly proceeds more openly,
with the well-to-do white women
telling the working white women
they will get no jobs in the war
factory If the colored women do.
Enemy Agents Suspected
The F.BI. has investigated
very seriously a rumor spread
through many cities. to the effect
that colored women were forming
Eleanor clubs" to avoid house
work. The story has had various
twists. One had it that all help
would march out of the kitchens
on November 1. Unable to track
down the rumor sources, officials
say they believe enemy agents
were responsible.
Whether they were or not, it is
clear that rumor is more effective
propaganda than the constant
japanese radio appeals to the Ne
groes, broadcast almost daily.
Few Negroes have ever heard one
of these; few Negroes have short
wave receivers.
Federal policy has a long way
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