This they cannot attain until they be permitted to enter
the higher pursuits of labor. Two reasons are given for failure to enter
these: first, that Negro labor is unstable and inefficient; and second,
that white men will protest. Organized labor, however, has done nothing to
help the blacks. Yet it is a fact that accustomed to the easy-going toil
of the plantation, the blacks have not shown the same efficiency as that
of the whites. Some employers report, however, that they are glad to have
them because they are more individualistic and do not like to group. But
it is not true that colored labor cannot be organized. The blacks have
merely been neglected by organized labor. Wherever they have had the
opportunity to do so, they have organized and stood for their rights like
men. The trouble is that the trades unions are generally antagonistic to
Negroes although they are now accepting the blacks in self-defense. The
policy of excluding Negroes from these bodies is made effective by an
evasive procedure, despite the fact that the constitutions of many of them
specifically provide that there shall be no discrimination on account of
race or color.
Because of this tendency some of the representatives of trades unions have
asked why Negroes do not organize unions of their own.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213