The Omaha guide., 1946-04-06
OUR
GUEST
Column
Edited by Verna p. Harris
N~EGRO-LABOR
(by Alfred Baker Lewis,
Member of the Board.
NAACP, Union for Demo-
cratic ActiOn)
Edited by Verna p. Harris

IOTk on Denai OF the FEfC
illustrates very well the SORT
of alliance between Negro o.
CARNATIONS and organized la
Dor which will help to give us
a much more progressive
Congress in future elections
if it can be extended through
out the country. Official
Representatives of the AL.
and the Clio as well as indiv-
idual progressive unions Join
ed with representatives OF
Negro organizations in pledg-
ing continued active work Oh
behalf of the bill for a perm
anent FEPC.
Negroes form one-tenth of
the population. But they do
not furnish one-tenth of the
members of professions like
engineering, medicine, or law
which r most highly paid,
or One-tenth of the United
States Senators, Represent.
atives, or State Governors. A
very large part of this is due
of course TO racial prejudice.
But much of it is due to the
economic handicaps from
which Negroes as a group suf
fer. They do not have the
money to go to college in the
same proportion as do whit
es, for they are most heavily
concentrated in the lowest
paid jobs, including domestic
service and agricultural labor
Being concentrated in the
South, they do not have the
same educational opportunrl-
les even in the lower grades.
incidentally, Southern states
spend fO the education of
white childen less than the
national average, because as
one down-te-earth sociologist
put it, "The kids RI where
the cash amt" (This maids
tribution of income is the big
gest argument for the propOe
ed Federal Aid to Education
bilD.
While Negroes suffer from
racial as well as economic dis
elimination in the present
state of American democracy,
workers too are economically
under-privileged. The child
rem of miners, textile workers
white sharecrOppers, or long
shoremen, do not furnish
any such proportionate mum.
Der of leaders in education
and medicine as do the child
rem of lawyers, professors,
doctors, insurance men, or
bankers. Those who get their
income from work or service
lose their pay when they are
sick, injured, unemployed, or
old, or if they die premature
ly; while those who get their
income from rent, interest,
dividends and profits find
that their money keeps on
rolling in even after they are
dead.
Since the wealthy class who
get property income do not
get their money from their
own efforts, it is clear that
they get it by exploiting the
efforts of others. Organic
ed labor is numerically the
largest force that is trying 10
reduce this exploitation.
Since Negroes suffer from
economic exploitation intens-
flied by color prejudice,
there is and should be a nat
ural alliance between Negro
es and labor, for they have a
strong identity of interest.
Both alike are interested In
opposing labor baiters, Ne
gro haters, anti-Semites, and
reactionaries. The progress
sive wing of organized labor
best exemplifies that alliance.
Organized labor was the
strongest supporter of our
social security system, from
which Negroes benefit sub
st%antially. just now both
organized labor and the Ne
gro community are backing
the Wagner-Murray- Dingeli
Bill to raise the rates of benc
fits for old-age pensions and
unemployment insurance.
This bill would also extend
our social security system to
domestic servants and agric-
ultural workers, a proposal
which would greatly help
Negroes; and it would set up
a system of compensation for
sickness and non-indusvrial
accidents, with free medical