Because of this tendency some of the representatives of trades unions have asked why Negroes do not organize unions of their own.  This the Negroes have generally failed to do, thinking that they would not be recognized by the American Federation of Labor, and knowing too that what their union would have to contend with in the economic world would be diametrically opposed to the wishes of the men from whom they would have to seek recognition.  Organized labor, moreover, is opposed to the powerful capitalists, the only real friends the Negroes have in the North to furnish them food and shelter while their lives are often being sought by union members.  Steps toward organizing Negro labor have been made in various Northern cities during 1917 and 1918.[18] The objective of this movement for the present, however, is largely that of employment.

Eventually the Negro migrants will, no doubt, without much difficulty establish themselves among law-abiding and industrious people of the North where they will receive assistance.  Many persons now see in this shifting of the Negro population the dawn of a new day, not in making the Negro numerically dominant anywhere to obtain political power, but to secure for him freedom of movement from section to section as a competitor in the industrial world.  They also observe that while there may be an increase of race prejudice in the North the same will in that proportion decrease in the South, thus balancing the equation while giving the Negro his best chance in the economic world out of which he must emerge a real man with power to secure his rights as an American citizen.

[Footnote 1:  New York Times, Sept. 5, 9, 28, 1916.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., Oct. 18, 28; Nov. 5, 7, 12, 15; Dec. 4, 9, 1916.]

[Footnote 3:  The Crisis, July, 1917.]

[Footnote 4:  American Journal of Political Economy, XXX, p. 1040.]

[Footnote 5:  The World’s Work, XX, p. 271.]

[Footnote 6:  The World’s Work, XX, p. 272.]

[Footnote 7:  New York Times, March 29, April 7, 9, May 30 and 31, 1917.]

[Footnote 8:  Survey, XXXVII, pp. 569-571 and XXXVIII, pp. 27, 226, 331, 428; Forum, LVII, p. 181; The World’s Work, XXXIV, pp. 135, 314-319; Outlook, CXVI, pp. 520-521; Independent, XCI, pp. 53-54.]

[Footnote 9:  The Crisis, 1917.]

[Footnote 10:  The New Orleans Times Picayune, March 26, 1914.]

[Footnote 11:  American Journal of Social Science, XI, p. 4.]

[Footnote 12:  Epstein, The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh.]

[Footnote 13:  Epstein, The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh.]

BIBLIOGRAPHY