The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 91

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

91

conditions most any one would grow lazy and irre-
sponsible. This was a condition which in slavery
was not improved. The Negro’s business in slavery
was to do work, but not to obtain the fruits of his
labor, only perhaps in exceptional cases. The con-
ditions to which the African was subjected in
American slavery involved compulsion and guid-
ance. And when all his wants were met with noth-
ing to gain or lose, whether he put forth lesser or
greater effort, he only worked when he had to and
evaded working when possible. It all taught him
to despise, and look down upon, labor rather than
to consider it honorable. It is therefore not sur-

industry is being rewarded by a full supply of life’s
necessities and the accumulation of property.

Prior to 1914 the Negro was an agricultural
laborer. To-day, while, as a matter of fact, 920,000
more farms are being operated by Negroes than in
1860, the Negro is a big factor in the industrial
life of America.

Influence of the World War on the Economic
Condition of the Negro. :
The World War virtually stopped foreign immi-
gration to the United States. Hundreds of thou-
sands of Europeans living in this country were

A Class in Domestic Science, Immanuel Lutheran College.

prising to find that it took some time until he
realized that he must work if he desires to have
the necessary means of subsistence.

Economic Condition of the Negro since the
Emancipation.

And the emancipation did not, as we might be
led to believe, immediately help this condition.
Dubois, in his exhaustive study entitled The Negro
Artisan, tells us that “after emancipation came
suddenly, in the midst of war and social upheaval,
the first real economic question: the self-protection
of freed workingmen.”

With patient, ceaseless toil and many hardships,
as well as discouragements, present industrial con-
ditions present a host of faithful laborers, whose

called to their native colors. Under the stimulus of
war conditions, industries in the North greatly ex-
panded. These three factors caused a labor short-
age, which forced the Northern industries to scour
the country for available workers. The greatest
supply of such labor was found among the Negroes
of the South, and this was drawn upon. The result
was the beginning of the largest migration of
Negroes in the history of America, a migration
that is still in progress.

The migration has been marked by two phases,
that of 1916—20 and the one which set in again
in 1922. The first really began in 1915, reached -
its maximum in 1917, and continued at a slower ©
rate up to 1920, when the economic depression
brought it to a halt.