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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 30, 1916)
BRINGS UNPROPHESIED OPPORTUNITIES TO RACE (Continued From First Page) as a feliow human being and an American citizen.” The letter of a Florida Colored man to the Montgomery, Alabama, Adver tiser, contains these paragraphs: “Why should the South raise such objections to the jobless man seeking the manless job, especially when it has held that jobless man up to the ridicule of the world as trifling, shiit less and such a burden to the South ? “Now that the opportunity has come to the Negro to relieve the South of some of its burden, and at the same time advance his own inter est, a great hue and cry is started that it must not be allowed, and the usual and foolish method of repres sive legislation is brought into play. “The Macon Telegraph says of the Negro exodus: ‘If we lose it, we go bankrupt.’ Yet it is the same paper that only a few' months ago was ad vocating the sending of 100,000 Ne groes into Mexico to conquer the ‘mongrel breed,’ and at the same time rid the South of that many worthless Negroes. How different the song now. “The world war is bringing many changes and a chance for the Negro to enter broader fields. With the ‘tempting bait’ of higher wages, shorter hours, better schools and bet ter treatment, all the preachments of the so-called ‘race leaders’ will fall on deaf ears.” The most comprehensive expression of hope for the Negro raised by the direct and indirect efforts of the war appears in an article by Wilson Jef ferson contributed to the N. Y. Even ing Post. While the war lasts and in the following years of necessary reconstruction work in Europe, for eign workers will be kept over there. Consequently our source of unskilled labor supply must be the over-plenti ful Negro labor of the South, accord ing to Mr. Jefferson. The Southern wage has been low because Colored labor was plentiful. The migration will react on Southern conditions. “In the South the poorer whites will be forced to do some of the hard er tasks of the shop and field, and will be forced to do what they have never hitherto done: fit themselves for house work and other work calling for more or less personal service. And it will all work to the Negro’s gain. The employer will not be able to get along without the help of both, and i the white worker will not be willing to work for the Negro wage. “Some of the trades in the South offer an example of white and Negro co-operation. In them Negro and white unions atfiliate for their mutual protection. As a consequence, in the building trades, for example, the wage compares favorably with the scale in other parts of the country. Among unskilled workers there will be unions and affiliations of a similar nature, and a must higher wage scale will prevail as a result.” Nothing has hampered the Negro as a race more than the inability of its great body of workers to make a decent living, Mr. Jefferson insists. He believes most people do not real ize how indifferent the average South ern employer has been to the needs of his workmen. “The laws give these men absolutely no protection. The bulk of them are as capable and live as clean lives as do a corresponding class among any people. They are as ambitious. Given a fair chance they will no doubt prove more effi cient as all-around workers than any class of foreigners we might import.” While the white South has been will ing to feed and praise the Negroes “as servants,” says Mr. Jefferson, it has never been willing to pay them very much in wages. “The one and two-room hut has grown out of this state of affairs. If as it often happened, the black man rebelled, he was always taunted with the more or less truthful assertion that the North and West did not want him and his “ways.” What was not told him was that the black man’s ‘ways’ were largely a result of the white man’s ways. But more and more he is finding this out for himself. He is rapidly learning that forty dollars a month and regular habits are in finitely better than fifteen or twenty dollars a month and irregular habits. In short he is learning to be willing to cast off the loose methods of the South for ‘Yankee’ ways because of the difference it makes in his pay roll and in his condition of living. . . . “To get a glimpse of the possibil ities wrapped up in Negro labor one has only to investigate the more pro gressive of the manufacturing cities of the South. Birmingham, Ala., de pends almost wholly upon the Negro for its unskilled and semi-skilled la bor. Nashville, Atlanta, Memphis and Jacksonville do likewise. But in all of these towns, save in some in stances in Birmingham, wages are too low, housing conditions are poor, and the advantages for recreation and pleasure exceedingly limited.” Furthermore, Mr. Jefferson argues that American employers can trust Negro employees. “The Negro represents the sanest, safest group—too safe, we think, sometimes—in this country, and he has proved it on more than one occa sion. He can be trusted. Many of the employer class have had their eyes opened with respect to much of our foreign-born labor. A great deal of it is much too keen (to use our Ameri can expression) for ordinary, every day uses. Even with less effective results to begin with, the Negro in the end would prove more tractable and, what is more important, more genuinely interested in the advance ment and prosperity of his employer.” Unforeseen, the way is opening for the Negro to win a better place and hold it on industrial and economic grounds in this country. In Europe, too, the war has brought the blacks of British and French colonies to the front, not merely as fighters but “apt and tractable” industrial workers. From the shaking up of race relations the world over, Negroes, Mr. Jeffer son thinks, may reasonably expect an open and avowed policy of help and uplift long waited for. C. S. JOHNSON 18th and Izard Tel. Douglas 1702 ALL KINDS OF COAL and COKE at POPULAR PRICES. Best for the Money t-t a,9 9 t t | || 9. , ■ > ■ Established 1890 t C. I. CARLSON j Dealer in j Shoes and Gents’ Furnishings J 1514 No. 24th St. Omaha, Neb.J f—» • • ———■•■ # —— • — • a a a -a o a I Tel. Red 1424 Will L. Hetherington violinist f Instructor at Bellevue College t Asst, of Henry Cox | Studio Patterson Blk I We recommend the ! State Furniture Co. j Comer 14th and Dodge Sts. j as the most reliable, accommodat-I ing and economical furniture store! to buy from. \ | 0 t % %- f-f 9 9 t~ t"t' T“t ■f'T"*1 i YOUR BOY’S SHOES SHOULD BE BOUGHT OF US Heavy orders before the raise makes it possible to sell you the fines $2.50 and $3.00 boys’ shoes in Omaha. M. S. ATKISSON’S (“HOME OF THE NETTLETON”) Buy Yours Here. 503 South 16th Street Her Grand Building. Fadden&Bittner Men’s Finer —————■ Furnishings Onlj Store in Omaha Showing bolh Stetson and Dunlap Hats. 511 Snuth 16th Street TRUNKS! THE BETTER KIND j Made from good clear lumber, ! j covered with fibre; well bound l | on edges. Durable corners and T braces where necessary. Sturdy ! j locks and hinges, 2 trays nicely ♦ cloth lined. f Priced at $10.00, $12.00, $13.50 j and $15.00. j Freling & Steinle j “Omaha’s Best Baggage Build- } ers” j 1803 FARNAM STREET | C. H. MARQUARDT ’"*1 CASH MARKET Retail Dealer in Fresh and Salt Meats, Poultry, Oysters, etc. 2003 Cuming St. Doug. 3834 Home Rendered Lard. We Smoke and Cure our own Hams and Bacon. SMOKE Chancellor! CIGAR SMOKE J Te Be Ce , THE BEST 5c CIGAR PATTON HOTEL AND CAFE! N. A. Patton, Proprietor ! 1014-1016-1018 South 11th St. t Telephone Douglas 4445 62 MODERN AND NEATLY j FURNISHED ROOMS J I TAKE PLEASURE In thanking you for your patronage. I want your trade solely upon the merits of my goods. You will profit by trading here. H. E. YOUNG Webster 515 2114-16 N. 24th St. y a a a a •—-y i. A* Edholm E. W. Sherman Standard Laundry 24tti, Near Lake Street Phone Webster 130 Purchase the "NEW HOME" and you will have a life asset at the price you pay. The elimination of repair expense by superior workmanship and best quality of material insures life-long service at mini mum cost. In-i~t on having the "NEW HOME". WARRANTED FOR ALL TIME. Known the world over for superior sewing qualities. 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