The significance of these returns is disclosed by Table XXVI, in which the establishments are classified by industries, and the number of Negro employees in establishments reporting Negro labor satisfactory is shown to be 21,640 as contrasted with 697 Negro employees in the nineteen establishments reporting Negro labor unsatisfactory.
| Industry | Total Number Establishments | Total Negroes Employed | Establishments Reporting Negro Labor Satisfactory | Establishments Reporting Negro Labor Unsatisfactory | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Number of Negroes Employed in These Establishments | Number | Number of Negroes Employed in These Establishments | |||
| Manufacturing: | ||||||
| Clothing | 9 | 203 | 8 | 191 | 1 | 12 |
| Food products | 8 | 7,597 | 7 | 7,547 | 1 | 50 |
| Iron and steel | 27 | 3,879 | 22 | 3,750 | 5 | 129 |
| Tanneries | 7 | 462 | 6 | 421 | 1 | 41 |
| Miscellaneous[69] | 18 | 713 | 13 | 464 | 5[70] | 249 |
| Totals | 69 | 12,854 | 56 | 12,373 | 13 | 481 |
| Non-manufacturing: | ||||||
| Railroads | 16 | 5,408 | 16 | 5,408 | ||
| Hotels | 9 | 923 | 8 | 911 | 1 | 12 |
| Laundries | 20 | 764 | 16 | 587 | 4 | 177 |
| Mail order | 2 | 1,773 | 2 | 1,773 | ||
| Public service | 4 | 42 | 4 | 42 | ||
| Taxicab upkeep | 1 | 250 | 1 | 250 | ||
| Miscellaneous[70] | 16 | 323 | 15 | 296 | 1 | 27 |
| Totals | 68 | 9,483 | 62 | 9,267 | 6 | 216 |
| Totals, all industries | 137 | 22,337 | 118 | 21,640 | 19 | 697 |
3. NEGRO AND WHITE LABOR COMPARED
At a conference at which Negro and white workers were under discussion a large foundry representative suggested that such a comparison was unfair to the Negro because he was still a newcomer in manufacturing industries and could not be expected to be as efficient, reliable, and regular as the white worker who had been thus engaged much longer. Other employers felt that this point should be borne in mind.
Efficiency.—Comparing the efficiency of the Negro worker and the white worker, seventy-one employers interviewed (thirty-four manufacturing and thirty-seven non-manufacturing establishments) considered the Negro equally efficient, and twenty-two employers (thirteen manufacturing and nine non-manufacturing) considered the Negro less efficient.[71]
The seventy-one establishments which reported Negro labor as equally efficient as white labor included all of the large employers of Negro labor, with very few exceptions. Ability shown by Negro workers in widely dissimilar occupations and industries was commented upon. The following instances are of interest:
Foundries: "Our star molder in the foundry is a Negro who has been with us twenty years. Our best truck driver is a Negro who has been with us about eighteen years." "About the best grinder we have in one department is a colored man." The superintendent of a large foundry employing 125 Negroes said:
I covered thirty foundries, members of the National Association when I was serving on a certain Committee, and I know that in their departments Negroes have made very good. Out of the thirty foundries, there are half or more which have colored men in now which did not have colored men two years ago. One of the instances, a little foundry I know of, had four men in the grinding department; one colored man and his partner wanted to take the job of running the grinding room. The partner wanted to do it all himself, and is now doing what four men were doing formerly.
That the Negro is apt in learning new work is illustrated by an instance cited by the same superintendent:
I know of a Pullman porter who has been with the Pullman Company twenty years who turned out to be as good a helper as we had in the foundry. Take a man who has made beds for twenty years, put him to carrying melted iron in a ladle, which is a real man's job, and make good at it, and I think he's going some! We had one man who did that and did it well. He was a helper that the different foremen tried to get hold of, wanted to have him with them.