[1] 13th U. S. Census, Penna. Bulletin, Table I, page 12; 1910.
[2] This average was obtained by dividing the total number of women and children of the families investigated, by the number of families.
[3] The Pittsburgh Graded Tax Law has, apparently, not been in operation long enough to produce the results desired by its sponsors.
[4] Pittsburgh Sanitary Code of 1913, Sections 132, 133 and 134, pages 75, 76 and 77.
[5] The differences in the totals in this table as well as in a few others, are due to the fact that many have given answers to one question and not to the other.
[6] The cause for many of these migrants not contributing to the support of their families may be explained by the fact that they have not been here long enough to get established.
CHAPTER II.
The Negro’s Own Problem
The Negro migration is neither an isolated nor a temporary phenomenon, but the logical result of a long series of linked causes beginning with the landing of the first slave ship and extending to the present day. The slavery which was ended by the Emancipation Proclamation and the Fourteenth Amendment of the National Constitution has been succeeded by less sinister, but still significant social and economic problems, which are full of subtle menace for the welfare of America.
The intelligent Negro has long believed that his only escape from the measure of suppression which still exists is to go to the North, and he has seized the opportunity whenever it was presented to him. The present unprecedented influx of black workers from the South is merely the result of a sudden expansion of opportunity due to a war-depleted labor market in the North. The causes for his migration are basically inherent in the social and economic system which has kept him down for these long years in the South. The Negro is beginning to appreciate his own value and duties, and is proceeding to the North where he knows he can at least enjoy a measure of justice. This naturally means a tremendous problem for the North. The race question is no longer confined to the states below the Mason and Dixon Line, but becomes the concern of the whole nation. It may be presumed that the European immigration after this war will not be as great as it was before it. The Negro is taking the place of the foreign worker, and he is certain to become an increasingly important factor in our national political and industrial life. He is already an important political factor in some municipalities; he is soon to be a basic factor in our industries. The Negro who has lived in the North has taken advantage of the industrial opportunities which were open to him, and is continuing to do so more and more.