The report says:
“It is clear that migrant Negroes are not returning South. On the contrary there is a small but continuous stream of migration to the industrial centres of the North. No great numbers of Negroes returned to the South even during the trying unemployment period in the early part of 1921.”[396]
Sustaining the country’s stand against the unrestricted immigration of the ante bellum period, just about this time, the New Republic asserted:
“If we can hold the gates closed for another decade, these abuses are bound to go. Not everybody in America would like this. Nor would everybody in America be pleased with another natural consequence of restriction, that it will draw more and more Negroes out of the rural South, especially the lynching belt for common labor in the industries.”[397]
In his FOREWORD to the Chicago report, Governor Lowden places himself in absolute opposition to Lincoln. He says:
“Our race problem must be solved in harmony with the fundamental law of the nation and with its free institutions. These prevent any deportation of the Negro as well as any restriction of his freedom of movement within the United States.”[398]
But the report of the Chicago riot contains much more than an expression of the views of the committee as to the cause of that outburst of savagery. In its 667 pages are the views of many Negroes on the greatest variety of subjects. The first article of the belief of the members of the Negro Urban League of Chicago is—
“I realize that our soldiers have learned new habits of self-respect and cleanliness.”[399]
That is a short sentence, but it contains much.
Here is another which indicates that the Negro will not only learn much from the Northern and Western white man; but also teach him a bit. It is not very sweetly expressed, but it is well worth pondering for all that: