“Let them alone today, permit them to be retired to over-crowded shacks and shanties where sanitation is an unuttered word, and tomorrow, contagions, arising from these congested, unsanitary shanties and shacks, will fly, like the black bat of night, over our fair city, and in its wake will stalk the gaunt form of Death, claiming thousands of our best white and Colored citizens as a debt paid for inaction.”

[9] August, 1917 Bulletin of the Department of Health, New York City.

CHAPTER IV.
Some Constructive Suggestions Looking Toward the Solution of a Race
Problem Through Race Co-Operation.

It would indeed be presumptuous on our part to attempt in this little study to solve the race problem. Our purpose was to present the facts as they actually exist and let the reader draw his own conclusions. However, a few suggestions looking to a constructive policy of meeting the need caused by the Negro migration in Pittsburgh may not be amiss.

The main problem of the Negro migrant in Pittsburgh, as the reader has already realized, is his social and industrial maladjustment, his lack of organization, and absence of intelligent guidance. The National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes is attempting to meet this need by acting as adjusting agency, guide, educator and organizer. This League is composed of white and colored men, whose aim is to secure co-operation among the races and to act as a social medium between the two peoples. Within the last year this League has established eighteen different branches in various cities. Each of these branches is headed by a trained Negro Social worker, who tries to get in touch with the migrants as soon as they arrive in the town, and through the co-operation of local social agencies and business officials, endeavors to put each man into the right place. The League acts as a socializing factor among the colored people with the aim of securing closer co-operation between the two races. The success of these branches is evidenced by the fact that in some cities the League’s staff had to be increased three and four times the original number within the last year, and in some instances these branches were established at the invitation of Chambers of Commerce.

A representative of the League who has spent some time in studying the situation in Pittsburgh thinks that it is comparatively easy for the League’s Secretary here to get in touch with the newcomers as soon as they arrive, and to endeavor to eliminate a great deal of the industrial maladjustment which is due to the ignorance of the newcomer. This can be done, he claims, through the co-operation of the more than forty colored newspapers in the South, through the various branches of the League, and through definite arrangements at the Railroad stations. By keeping in touch with the employers and industrial concerns, the local Secretary could also succeed in reducing the number of men who are misplaced and misfits in their present jobs.

Some suggestions as to the work the League could do in Pittsburgh, are thus outlined by the representative of the League.

“Besides the advertising in the newspapers, and the co-operation of the League’s branches some Traveler’s Aid work may be done as a result of the heavy Negro migration to Pittsburgh. Definite service might be arranged at the railroad stations for directing newcomers to reliable lodging houses, so as to protect them from unfavorable surroundings. Likewise aid from the police department can be sought to eliminate a large number of crooks and gamblers who thrive off the earnings of newly arrived migrants in the congested sections.

“The industrial work is an essential part of our program, including general employment, opening new opportunities and vocational guidance. An important part of this work will be with the industrial plants employing large numbers of Negro migrants. The Secretary will make an especial effort to reduce the large Negro labor turnover in the various industrial plants by noon-day and Sunday talks, by distributing literature among the men and by assisting corporations in getting the most reliable type of Negro labor and then seeing to it that this labor is properly treated and given opportunities for advancement. Vagrancy must not be tolerated in Pittsburgh especially when work is so plentiful.