Table XX, following, gives in full the classified replies of employers:
Table XX. Opinions of Former Employers of 902 Negro Wage-earners in Domestic and Personal Service, New York City, 1906-1909.
| Capable. | Sober or temperate. | Honest. | ||||||||||||||||
| Male. | Female. | Total. | Male. | Female. | Total. | Male. | Female. | Total. | ||||||||||
| No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | No. | Per cent | |
| Very | 27 | 27 | 204 | 25.4 | 231 | 25.6 | 9 | 9 | 71 | 8.8 | 80 | 8.9 | 12 | 12 | 226 | 28.2 | 238 | 26.4 |
| Yes | 68 | 68 | 473 | 59 | 541 | 60 | 78 | 78 | 657 | 82 | 735 | 81.5 | 81 | 81 | 504 | 62.9 | 585 | 64.9 |
| Fairly so | 4 | 4 | 84 | 10.5 | 88 | 9.8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.2 | — | — | 3 | 0.4 | 3 | 0.3 |
| "So far as I know," or "I think so." | — | — | 4 | 0.5 | 4 | 0.4 | 11 | 11 | 52 | 6.5 | 63 | 7.0 | 4 | 4 | 57 | 7.1 | 61 | 6.8 |
| No | — | — | 17 | 2.1 | 17 | 1.9 | — | — | 4 | 0.5 | 4 | 0.4 | — | — | 6 | 0.7 | 6 | 0.6 |
| Decidedly no | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.3 | 3 | 0.3 | — | - — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Not stated | — | — | 18 | 2.2 | 18 | 2.0 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 2.1 | 18 | 2.0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.7 | 9 | 1.0 |
| Total | 100 | 100 | 802 | 100 | 902 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 802 | 100 | 902 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 802 | 100 | 902 | 100 |
| Total percent | 11.1 | 88.9 | 100 | 11.1 | 88.9 | 100 | 11.1 | 88.9 | 100 | |||||||||
These testimonials furnish a body of evidence contrary to the current opinion of criticism and blame, and direct attention to other causes for whatever unsatisfactory part that Negroes are playing in this line of service in the City. These causes may be looked for in the increasing number of European immigrants; in the growing ambition and effort of Negro wage-earners, sharing the feeling of all native-born Americans, to get away from personal and domestic service and to enter fields of work with better wages, shorter hours, and more independence.[64] To this may be added the increasing custom, indicating prejudice of well-to-do Americans, of giving preference to European servants.[65]
The efficiency of Negro skilled workmen is indicated in the replies of 37 employers, summarized in Chapter IV. (See [p. 77], supra.) If they had ever employed Negroes, they were asked whether in comparison with white workmen Negro workmen were:
1. Faster, equal or slower in speed.
2. Better, equal or poorer in quality of work done.
3. More, equally or less reliable.
The consensus of opinion expressed was that the Negro workmen whom they had employed measured up to the white, and there was a general belief that Negroes usually had to be well above the average to secure and hold a place in the skilled trades.
To make a summary of the wages and efficiency: In comparison with the cost of living, Negro men receive very inadequate wages in domestic and personal service except three or four occupations that afford "tips." The small number of skilled artisans who are equal to or above the average white workman and can get into the unions, receive the union wages.
Women for the most part are in the poorly paid employments of domestic and personal service. The small wages of the men and the number of women engaged in gainful occupations (See Chapter IV) show that the women must help earn the daily bread for the family. Their low income power forces these families to the necessity of completing the rent by means of lodgers, deprives children of mothers' care, keeps the standard of living at a minimum, and thus makes the family unable to protect itself from both physical and moral disease.
Although popular opinion may be to the contrary, testimonials signed by former employers show that the large majority of Negroes in domestic and personal service are capable, temperate, and honest, and remain with one employer a reasonable time, considering the shifting condition of city life, the mobility of such wage-earners and the weak tenure of domestic and personal service in a modern city.