[120] Jones, E. K., The Negro in Industry, pp. 2-3.
[121] Hoxie, R. F., Trade Unionism in the U. S., pp. 112-135.
[122] Woofter, T. J., Jr., "The Negro and Industrial Peace," Survey, 45: 491, Dec. 18, 1920.
[123] New York Times, June 16, 1919, 12: 5.
Chapter VII
THE EFFECTS OF THE MIGRATION UPON THE MIGRANTS THEMSELVES
We pass on now to the study of the effects of the movement upon the migrants themselves, or to a consideration of the behavior of the Negroes under the existing economic and social conditions in the new environment. This obviously involves an examination into the results of the efforts exerted by the newcomers in order to become adjusted to their new surroundings. In this regard the thing that was primal and most fundamental was the economic interest, or the interest of self-maintenance, which, as has been shown, was the most powerful force operating to draw the Negroes to the North. This interest was satisfied by the admittance of the Negroes in large numbers into lines of work hitherto closed to them; but these were for the most part unskilled occupations. It is estimated that of the thousands of Negroes who moved North about 90 per cent of them were engaged in unskilled work and that the other 10 per cent performed either semi-skilled or skilled labor.[124] This was especially true of the Negro workers who were employed in the large steel plants in the State of Pennsylvania. In the larger establishments of this sort almost fully 100 per cent of them did common labor, while in some of the smaller plants a few were sometimes found doing labor which required some skill. When employers were asked why this was the case they generally replied in a two-fold manner: first, the Negro migrants were inefficient and unstable; and secondly, the opposition on the part of white laborers to work with Negroes prohibited their employment of them to do skilled work.[125]