Questions which naturally suggest themselves for answer in connection with this great increase in the Negro working population in Chicago are: How did this large number of Negroes fit into the industrial life of the city? What were and are the opportunities open to them? Have they given satisfaction to employers? Are they discriminated against by employers or fellow-workers? Has racial friction developed because of competition between white and Negro workers? Were the riots of 1919 in any sense the result of labor troubles? What part have the Negroes taken in strikes? What is the relation of the Negro to organized labor? What is the outlook for the Negro in industry? These and other questions guided the inquiries and investigations of the Commission in the industrial field.
2. OPPORTUNITIES CREATED BY THE WAR
The Negro's position in the industrial life of Chicago is so intimately connected with the changes due to the war that a brief reference to certain facts of common knowledge in connection with the war will be helpful. With the beginning of the war in 1914 came an abnormally large demand by the belligerent countries for American munitions, food products, clothing, leather, iron and steel products, and other manufactured goods. Existing establishments were enlarged and new ones were erected in response to the demand for increased production. It was not uncommon for a plant to double or treble its labor force. A typical case was one of the large packing-plants in the Chicago "Yards" which increased its workers during the war from 8,000 to 17,000.
The war stimulated the demand for goods, and therefore for labor, and at the same time decreased the available labor supply. Immigration from the belligerent nations immediately ceased, and there was a marked decrease in immigration from other countries; aliens in large numbers departed to join the fighting forces of their native lands.
The labor shortage became acute soon after the United States entered the war in 1917, and enlistments withdrew hundreds of thousands of men from northern industries. An unprecedented demand for Negro workers was the result. The migration from the South was mainly a response to the call of larger opportunity and higher wages in the North.
3. INDUSTRIAL BACKGROUND OF NEGRO WORKERS
For the United States as a whole in 1910 the industrial condition of the gainfully occupied Negro population is shown in Table XVIII:
| Industry | Both Sexes | Percentage | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agriculture | 2,893,674 | 55.7 | 1,842,537 | 1,051,137 |
| Domestic and personal service | 1,074,543 | 20.7 | 234,063 | 840,480 |
| Manufacturing and hand trades | 657,130 | 12.6 | 575,845 | 81,285 |
| Transportation | 276,648 | 5.3 | 274,565 | 2,083 |
| Trade | 132,019 | 2.5 | 123,635 | 8,384 |
| Professional service | 69,471 | 1.3 | 39,400 | 30,071 |
| Public service | 26,295 | 0.5 | 25,838 | 457 |
| Others | 62,755 | 1.4 | 62,671 | 84 |
| Total United States[50] | 5,192,535 | 100.0 | 3,178,554 | 2,013,981 |
In 1910, more than three-fourths of the gainfully occupied Negroes in the United States were engaged in two forms of industry—agriculture and domestic and personal service. In the South at that time 78.8 per cent of the Negro population lived in rural communities[51] and 62 per cent of those employed were engaged in agriculture.[52] It is evident, therefore, that the northward migration involved a sudden transition of the southern Negro from farms or small towns to the highly specialized industries of northern cities, with marked changes in modes of living.
On many southern plantations the Negroes were required to buy food and clothing on credit at such high prices that their shares of the return were usually spent before the crops were harvested.[53] This system encouraged careless spending and did nothing to induce habits of thrift. Even the hardest-working Negroes frequently found themselves in debt to their landlords at the end of the year.[54] Incentive to sustained effort and regular work was lacking in the hand-to-mouth existence under this prevailing system of share rent and credit. It naturally produced habits such as drawing against wages and working irregularly under the spur of temporary need. Men handicapped by such habits joined the migration in great numbers. Though ill-fitted for the keen competition, business-like precision, and six-day-week routine of northern industry, the southern Negro, in spite of these handicaps, has succeeded in Chicago.