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Bes AL SS RE Sata RS MR Ol te - a _ r ry 5

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW ‘
| BBR Os: Neca Library rICAL SCIENCE OF

The negro at work in New York

UU ii [ernber 3

co NEGRO ie WORK IN
NEW YORK CITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

a

A Study in Economic Progress :

BY
GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES, Ph.D.

Sometime Fellow of the Bureau of Social Research,
/ New York School of Philanthropy ;
‘ Professor of Social Science in Fisk University

 

New Work
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO,, AGENTS

| & 5 LonpDON: P.S. KING & Son
>. 95

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THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY

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STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Volume XLIX] [Number 3
Whole Number 124

THE NEGRO AT WORK IN
NEW YORK CITY

A Study in Economic Progress

BY

GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES, Ph.D.

Sometime Fellow of the Baral yy Social Research,
New York School of Philanthropy ;
Professor of Social Science in Fisk University

 

New Dork
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS
Lonpon: P.S. Kinc & SoN

1012

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CopPpyYRIGHT, 1912
BY
GEORGE EDMUND HAYNES

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TO

THE CITY AND THE NEGRO

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PREFACE

THis study was begun as one of the several researches
of the Bureau of Social Research of the New York School
of Philanthropy, largely at the suggestion of Dr. Samuel
McCune Lindsay, the director, to whose interest, advice
and sympathy its completion is largely due. Sincere thanks
are due the Bureau for making the investigation possible.

The material was gathered between January, 1909, and
January, 1910, except about four weeks in August, 1909,
during the time that I was pursuing studies at the School
of Philanthropy and at Columbia University.

The investigation necessarily involved many questions
concerning the personal affairs of many Negroes of New
York and it is a pleasant duty to acknowledge the unvary-
ing cheerfulness with which they rendered assistance in se-
curing the facts.

I wish to acknowledge especially the help of Dr. William
L. Bulkley in making possible many of the interviews with
wage-earners, of Dr. Roswell C. McCrea for criticism and
encouragement in preparation of the monograph, and of
Dr. E. E. Pratt, sometime fellow of the Bureau of Social
Research; Miss Dora Sandowsky for her careful and pains-
taking tabulation of most of the figures. They should not
be charged, however, with responsibility for any of the
errors that may be detected by the trained eye.

The study as now published is incomplete. Part I, the
Negro as a Wage-earner and Part II, the Negro in Busi-
ness, were to be supplemented by Part III, the Negro in the
Professions. But the time absorbed in gathering the ma-

443] 7

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8 PREFACE [444

terial for the first two parts prevented the securing of a
sufficient amount of personally ascertained data for the
third; it seemed best to concentrate on the first two for the
sake of thoroughness.

The summaries following the data on the several points
and at the end of each chapter, and the conclusion at the
end of the volume contain some repetitions which may be
open to criticism, but they have been retained with the
hope of making the monograph useful to those who wish to
know the conclusions from the succession of figure upon
figure and percentage upon percentage, without necessarily
going through these details. At the same time, anyone who
may wish to weigh the inferences in the light of the facts
has the details before him.

Conditions among Negroes in Philadelphia have been
adequately studied in the work of Dr. W. E. B. DuBois.
and Dr. R: R. Wright, Jr. It is to be hoped that some time
soon the need of similar inquiries in other cities—East,
West, North and South—may, be realized and that provi-
sion may be made in this way for the guidance of the grow-
ing impulses of those who wish to better conditions in
urban centers.

I am aware that there are good reasons for criticism of
these pages. But what has been done was done in the
search for the truth, that the enthusiasm of reform may be
linked with the reliability of knowledge in the efforts to
better the future conditions of the city and the Negro.

Grorce Epmunp HAyNEs.

Fisk University, Nasnvitte, Tenn., ApRIL I, 1912.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I
PAGE
PREFACE. + eeeeeeeees slesaiasaapelaversertemnes ¥% icieh ess sae aes & Hives wwe 7-8
THE NEGRO AS A WAGE EARNER

CHAPTER I
THE CITY AND THE NEGRO—THE PROBLEM...+esee-eeeeeer cece cece seer 13

CHAPTER II
THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY. ++--+-eeeeeeeee scene eens 45

CHAPTER III

GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS

1. Sex and Age of Negro Wage-Earners .....-0++---++-00s See Gawatecars 54
2, Nativity of Negro Wage-Earners... s.sceeesceee ce cees caneeaee eevese 57
3. Marital Condition of Wage-Earners -.--...eeeeeeeee tecceseceaeee +. 60
4. Families and Lodgers..... oso asus che eeaspetmenneese Bee eatiabe gnciarer eiaraienets coinwer JOE

CHAPTER [IV

OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS

1. A Historical View of Occupations. ......seeseeeeevees wiwiveesa 66
2. Occupations in 1890 and 1900.......---+. e.eebisia'ad SS anayajars ainlespersts-ests 69
3. Occupations in 1905 «++. eeeeee cece cece cece tee cereceens Os eRe + 92

a

CHAPTER V

WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS

1. Wages in Domestic and Personal Service. .....-+seeeesseseseseeeceee 78
2. Wages in Other Occupations ......+.-++- ot Sees Sea Ree T ain cesses 82
3. Efficiency of Wage-Earners ......... sete ceeret cece eeeesecesseeee 83

445] 9

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10 CONTENTS [446

PART II

THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY
CHAPTER I

PAGE

THE CHARACTER OF NEGRO BusINESS ENTERPRISES
1. The Business Promise ........cccc cece cece censscccenseceresscsesss 93
2. A History of the Negro in Business ...... cecccccccccccccsorecseess 94
3. The Nature of the Establishments in 1909 ....-escecserecettserscess 98
4. Ownership of Establishments........sesee005 iestnaedeeseieeaese were LOO
5. Size of Business Enterprises....... see enceeeersceereo cv eevesrecescs 104

CHAPTER II

THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS
1, Valuation of Tools and Fixtures ....... oKGuwoReine wees see. estes: TOO
The Amount of Merchandise on Hand... .ssseecveccccccevcceceeees III
. Gross Receipts in 1907 and 1908 eseaccecccccenccrccecnceccece seeee 113

ws

CHAPTER III

DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY

1. Age of Establishments ..--.++ee2+eceeeeeeeee cena e ence cenee seeeee 117
2. Permanence of Location..-..... sehiciarevannens alia ip Draveavasasovarersareubiesasere valor LAS
3. Business Methods.........- alelelsiors <sarhiate Hwee PiWieaeNeieeisereegesenees EZO
4. Credit Relationships ....... dinsieteiecemialererate CUNEO Deeabiecioniveaeneaer 122
5. The Purchasing Public 10... oss seeeseeees ceceeereees eters eee 123
CHAPTER IV
SOME SAMPLE ENTERPRISES
1. Individuals and Partnerships .........- J Dude Shana OEM eenEDIES sees 127
2, The Negro Corporation.....+sccceseccsee recccsescctccccesseesens 137

CONCLUSION .oceccesec scene rcccecencssecnevcsveserscsvecseressee: 143
APPENDICES, A, B, C..0-- esec eee cncc ete necennscneccccsrsnesesesesse IAQ
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. «+++ sees cesece cesses ceeeceeneersereseecens 154

INDEX. 1c eae cece voce ew ener en ec cen es cene teers cesenneeseeceesess IE

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PART I

THE NEGRO AS A WAGE EARNER IN
NEW YORK CITY

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CHAPTER I
THE City* anp THE NeGRo—THE ProBLEM

THE city of to-day, the growth of the past century, is a
permanent development. Dr. Weber has effectively treated
the history, nature, causes and effects of the concentration.
He shows’ that the percentage of urban population has
varied in different countries; and that this is due mainly
to the varying density of population and to the diverse
physical features of the countries which have been differ-
ently affected by the Industrial Revolution and the era of
railroads. The causes of this concentration have been the
divorce of men from the soil, the growth of commercial
centers, the growth of industrial centers, and such second-
ary and individual causes as legislation, educational and
social advantages.

In the United States, city growth has been affected by all
of the several causes that have operated in other countries,
modified at times and in places by exceptional influences.®

In the discussions concerning the Negro and his move-
ment cityward, it is often assumed that his migration is
affected by causes of a different kind from those moving
other populations; or that it is not similar in respect to the
movement of the white population under similar conditions;
or that the concentration can result only in dire disaster

* The most comprehensive study of city growth is The Growth of
Cities in the roth Céntury, by A. F. Weber, vol. xi, Columbia Uni-
versity Studies in History, Economics and Public Law (New. York,
1899), pp. 1-478. The meaning of city and urban population is that
used by Weber: An agglomerated population of two thousand to ten
thousand for towns, more than ten thousand for cities, more than one
hundred thousand for great cities. Cf. p. 16.

2 See footnote at the end of this chapter. Weber, op. cit., pp. 146-154.

8 Weber, op. cit., pp. 167-68; 173-74; 201-207. See also footnote at
end of chapter.

449] Digitized by Microsoft® 13
14 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [450

both to himself and to the community into which he moves.
Such facts as are available suggest that these assumptions
are ill-founded. The efforts that are being put forth to im-
prove rural conditions and to advance agricultural arts
among Negroes are highly commendable and effective.
The thesis of this chapter is that, notwithstanding improve-
ments resulting from these efforts for rural districts, wher-
ever similar causes operate under similar conditions, the
Negro, along with the white population, is coming to the
city to stay; that the problems which grow out of his mal-
adjustment to the new urban environment are solvable by
methods similar to those that help other elements of the
population.

In the first place, so far as we know now, the general
movement of the Negroes, speaking for the South, does
not seem to have been very different from that of the
whites. Professor Wilcox says,*

It is sometimes alleged that the migration to cities, which has
characterized nearly all countries and all classes of popula-
tion during the last half century, has affected Southern whites
more than Southern negroes, and that the latter race is thus
being segregated in the rural districts. That such a movement
may have gone on, or may now be in progress, in parts of the
South can neither be affirmed nor denied on the basis of the
present figures, but it may be said with some confidence that,
as a general statement applied to the whole South, it is not
correct. To be sure the negroes constitute 32.6 per cent of
the population of the country districts in the entire South and
only 30.9 per cent of the city population, but an examination
of the figures (Census 1900) for the several divisions and
states will show that what is in some degree true of the South
as a whole is not true of most of its parts.

Therefore, it is of importance to note that the move-
ment of white and Negro populations toward cities tends to
be coincident. We may get some indication of these move-
ments of white and Negro populations cityward by compar-

1 Twelfth Census, Rigged RCL We united States, p. 20.
451] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 15

ing the growth of their numbers in the principal Northern
and Southern cities from 1860 to 1900.

The Negro population has shown a greater increase than
the white in each southern city taken separately for the
entire period, 1860 to 1900, but together the movement of
the white and Negro populations was similar except be-
tween 1860 and 1870. That fourteen of the southern
cities show an excessive proportional increase of Negro
population between 1860 and 1870 is probably due (1)
to the very small proportionate Negro population in each
of these cities in 1860, the Negroes being almost entirely
in the rural districts, and (2) to the exceptional influences
following the Civil War which uprooted the rural Negro
population that was proportionately larger than the white.
The truth of this is corroborated by the per cent of increase
by decades for these southern cities taken together. Com-
parisons with the white population in Northern cities were
not made because of the influence of foreign immigration
of whites. The per cent of increase of the populations in
Southern cities from 1860 to 1870 were white 16.7 per cent,
Negro 90.7 per cent; from 1870 to 1880, white 20.3 per
cent, Negro 25.5 per cent; from 1880 to 1890, white 35.7
per cent, Negro 38.7 per cent; from 1890 to 1900, white
20.8 per cent, Negro 20.6 per cent; from 1900 to I9I0,
white 27.7 per cent, Negro 20.6 per cent. That is, when the
proportion between the urban and rural populations of
blacks and whites becomes normal, and exceptional influ-
ences no longer bear upon the Negro, the two populations
show about the same rate of increase in their migrations to
these Southern cities. The percent of increase of the Negro
population for eight Northern cities (counting all the bor-
oughs of New York City as now constituted as one) was as
follows: 1860-1870, 51 per cent; 1870-1880, 36.4 per cent;
1880-1890, 32.3 per cent; 1890-1900, 59.2 per cent. The
larger liberty of Northern cities was coupled with the eco-

nomic call of better wages. d this probably may account
for the fact that Gaia by Mlergsars increase of whites
16 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [452

of 7.7 per cent more than of Negroes between 1900-1910.
The migration to both Southern and Northern cities is gra-
phically illustrated in the accompanying diagram.

Diagram ee

Per cent Pep CENT /NCREASE OF WHITES AND NEGROES
tAELEOSE 1/860 4870 o

 

   

90

8a

JO 50

go

401

30 30

40

oO

860 1870 4/080 1490 (900 He

The figures for Southern cities represented in the dia-
gram are given in Table I.

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453] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 17
TABLE I. NUMBER AND PER CENT. INCREASE OF WHITE AND NEGRO
POPULATIONS, PRINCIPAL SOUTHERN CITIES, 1860-1900 !

Population Increase Population Increase
14 cities. 1860-1870, 15 cities. 1870-1880,
| Per | | Per
1860, | 1870. | No. | cent || 1870. | 1880. | No. | cent
|
White ......-/610,015,712,015/102,000) 16.7 ana 145,081] 20.3
Negro .....-./141,709 270,212,128,503] 90.7 ||272,433)341,907| 69,474] 25.5
|
Population Increase” Population Increase:
15 cities. 1880-1890, 16 cities. 1890-1900.
1 {
Per | Per
1890. No. | sent | 1900. No. cent
}
White ....... 1,183,419 |307,542) 35.7 1,429,931 |246,512| 20.8
Negro ....-+. 485,477 132,316; 38.7 585,931  |100,054| 20.6
Population Increase
16 cities. Ig00-1910.

1910, No, Per cent

White ....... 1,817,155 387,224 27.7

Negro .-.+..- 706,352 120,821 20.6

 

 

 

Both the diagram and the table support the conclusion
that the movement of the white and Negro populations to
these cities have been similar under similar conditions and
influences.

1Table is based on figures compiled from Eighth Census, Pog., pp. 9, 19, 46,
74, 132, 195, 215, 452, 487, 519; Tenth Census, vol. i, Pop., pp. 416-425;
Eleventh Census, vol. i, Pog, pp. 451-485; Twelfth Census, vol. i, pt. 2, Pop.,
pp. cxix-cxxi and Bulletin 8, Negroes of the United States, pp. 230~232. For
1860, compare Hoffman, Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negros

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p. 10.
18 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [454

In like manner such statistics as are available show that
the causes that have concentrated the white population
in urban centres have operated likewise to send the Negro.
thither.

I. The Divorce of the Negro from the Soil—With
other rural populations improvements in agriculture have
made fewer workers necessary. In the case of the Negro,
the main moving force from the rural districts since 1860
has been the breaking down of the old régime. The de-
cades from 1840 to 1890, except 1870 to 1880, or the period
of the “ industrial paralysis’ after the panic of 1873, were
decades of remarkable urban growth in the United States.’
The first two decades of this time were the years of violent
slavery agitation. Then followed the Civil War and the
boon of freedom, which gave rise to an unusual mobility of
Negro labor. The inevitable Wanderlust which sudden
social upheaval entails was increased by Ku-Klux terror-
ism and the breaking down of the slave plantation system.’
Thousands of the wandering freedmen flocked to the Union
army posts which were located in towns and cities.

This was only the beginning. The landless freedman fur-
nished occasion for the creation of the share-tenant and
crop-lien systems. In many cases these handicaps often be-
came intolerable under dishonest merchants, unscrupulous
landlords, and ill-treatment by overseers.’ All this tended
to loosen the hold of the Negro tenant upon the soil.

Simultaneously with these dominant forces in agricul-
ture, another began to be felt. The one crop of cotton or

1 Weber, op. cit., pp. 24-27, 162.

?Coman, Industrial History of the United States, Revised edition,
(New York, 1910), pp. 308-9.

5 Kelsey, The Negro Farmer, (Chicago, 1903), pp. 5-103; vide pp,
24-28. Du Bois, The Negro Farmer in Bulletin 8, (Twelfth Census),
pp. 79-81. ,

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455] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 19

tobacco taxed the land in many sections year after year
until it was worn out. In 1899, 70.5 per cent of Negro
farmers reported cotton as the principal source of income.
Tobacco formed the principal source of income of 16 per
cent of Negro farmers in Virginia, of 30.1 per cent in
Kentucky and of 18.7 per cent in Maryland.*_ Compared
with the growing industrial pursuits, these old agricultural
lands no longer offer attractive returns.”

Again, where thrift, improvement in agricultural meth-
ods and knowledge develop, just as among other farmers,
there begins to be a surplus of hands to the cultivator, and
Negroes turn toward better paid employment in the urban
centres.

It is true that there are large uncultivated, virgin areas
of the Southwest, especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Louis-
iana, Arkansas, and Texas, that are calling loudly for
farm labor. The population these areas can support is very
considerable and the returns to labor are better than in
many of the older agricultural sections. Granting this,
the tendency of modern civilization and improvements in
facilities for transportation favors the urban centers. So
that migration is easier toward the city than away from
it or toward these untilled agricultural areas. The Negro is
in the population stream.

II. The Migration of the Negro to Industrial and Com-
mercial centers.—A study of the growth of the Southern
cities shows influences at work similar to those of other
sections. Statistics of manufactures of the United States
Censuses are not altogether conclusive or reliable, but they
measurably indicate conditions. We turn to these records
for light upon the Southern situation.

4 DuBois, op. cit., p. 77.
2 Kelsey, Some Causes of Negro Emigration: Charities, New York,
vol. xv, no. I, pp. 15-17; cf. DuBois, op. cit., pp. 73-74.

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20 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [456

A study of the value of manufactured products of six-
teen Southern cities shows that there was a marked increase
during the twenty-five years from 1880 to 1905. The in-
dustrial centers, Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Birmingham,
Alabama, have come into prominence in the decade, 1890-
1900, and show an increase in value of products of 17.8
per cent and 78.9 per cent respectively. The comparatively
small increase during 1890-1900 for Richmond, Va.;
Charleston, S. C.; Augusta and Savannah, Ga., and Mobile,
Ala., was probably due to unknown local causes and to a
reaction during the industrial crisis of 1892-1894 from the
excessive increases of the preceding decade. Yet these
cities along with nine of the others show remarkable in-
crease in the total value of products for the entire twenty
years from 1880 to 1900. Richmond, with an increase of
39 per cent and Savannah, with an increase of 90.3 per
cent, were the only cities which had an increase of less
than one hundred per cent in value of products during the
score of years from 1880 to 1900. The total increase in
value of products from 1880 to 1900 for 14 of the cities
(Chattanooga and Birmingham being omitted) was 143.3
per cent. The following comparative statement in Table II
shows the increase in the value of products of manufactures
in sixteen Southern cities from 1880 to 1905, and gives
the detailed figures which are the bases of the preceding
conclusion. (See p. 21.)

Along with the increase of production has gone the
growth in the average number of wage-earners in manufac-
turing establishments. Each city made a decided advance
in the average number of wage-earners in manufactures
during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900. In that period,
out of fourteen cities, two increased over 300 per cent in
the average number of wage-earners, two cities increased
over 240 per cent in the average number of wage-earners,

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457] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 21

five cities increased over 100 per cent and the remaining
five cities showed an increase of 76.3 per cent, 57 per cent,
39.8 per cent, 18.8 per cent, and 7.5 per cent respectively.
Chattanooga, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala., from 1890 to

TaBLE II. TOTAL VALUE oF PrRopucts, INCLUDING CustoM WorK AND RE-
PAIRING, OF MANUFACTURES IN SIXTEEN SOUTHERN CITIEs, 1880-1905 !

 

Total value of products.

 

| Per cent

I
'
as |
Cities. | |
| 1880. | 1890. 1900. | increase 1905.”
|
|= —|
| i

 

 

 

  

 

1880-1900,

" 1
g § — Tees
Wilmington -se-e+! 13,205,370 24,568, 125 34,05 3,324, 157.9 30,390,039
Baltimore .-...... 78,417,304 141,723,599 161,240, 1240: 105.6 (151,546,580
Washington 3..... j tt eae 3923311437 47,067,622; 301.2 18,359,159
Norfolk Hesse esi 1,455.98 4 5,100,408 943975355! 545.4 5,900,129
Richmond ....... | 20,790,106, 27,792,672 28,960,616: 39.0 28,202,607
Charleston .. +|  2,732,590' 9,005,421, 9,562,387, 2499 6,007,094
Atlanta ..+....e.e! 4,861,727, 13,074,037 16,707,027, 243.6 25,745,650
Augusta ........- + 3,139,029, 9,244,850 10,041,900, 219.9 8,829,305
Savannah ..--..-. | 35396,297°  6,310,c66 6,461,816" 90.3 6,340,004
Louisville ....-...! 352423203, 54,515,226 78, 746,390! 122.3 83,204,125
Chattanooga......see1 veees 10,216,109 12,033,780 17.8* | 15.193,909
Memphis ......- » 4,413,422) 13,244,538 17,923,058: 306.1 21,348,817
Nashville iyeseiacsebanise 8,597.278, 14,590,823. 18,460,823, 114.8 23,109,601
Birmingham...+-- «++ +eee0s 7:0345248 B25 81/000) 78.9 ' 7,592,958
Mobile ......- 1,335, 579, 3:826,399 4,451,062, 233.3 43942,331
New Orleans ..... 18,808,096, 48,295,449. 63,5 14,505} 237-7 84,604,c06

: | |

| “4

|

Total .....-- 208,458,304 427,882,907 531,760,971 143.3° [521,316,314

3 t

 

 

1Compiled from Census Reports: 1880, roth Census, Manufactures, pp.
xxiv, xxv; 1890-1900, 12th Census, vol. viii, Manufactures, Part it, pp. 7, 108,
115, 134, 279, 301, 335, 831, 848, 908; 1905, 12th Census, Manufactures, Part
Zi, pp. 20, 142, 152, 179, 339, 261, 403, 1025, 1056, 1127.

2Tn Tables ii and iii the figures of Manufactures from 1880 to 1900 are not ex-
actly comparable with those of 1905, because the census of 1905 was limited to
manufacturing establishments and excluded all neighborhood work and establish-
ments for custom work and repairing. Hence percentage of increase was not
worked out for this period.

3 Figures for Washington, D. C., apply to the District of Columbia and include
governmental establishments. * Increase 1890-1900,

5 Increase per cent for 14 cities from 1880 to 1900, exclusive of Chattanooga
and Birmingham.

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22 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [458

1900 increased 5.2 per cent and 105.6 per cent respectively.
Omitting these, the other fourteen cities taken together in-
creased in the number of wage-earners during the twenty
years from 1880 to 1900, 60.9 per cent. Table III, which
follows, brings into full view this large and constant in-
crease in the average number of wage-earners in manu-
facturing establishments, exclusive of proprietors, salaried
officers, clerks, etc.

TasLe II]. AVERAGE NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS! ENGAGED IN MANUFAC-
TURES IN SIXTEEN SOUTHERN CITIES, 1880-1905 *

 

 

 

Average Number of Wage-earners.

Per cent |
1880, | 1890, | 1900. | increase, , 1905.+

1880-1900. |

|
Wilmington, Del. .....--..--- 7,852) 13,370| 16,055 104.5 13,554
Baltimore, Md. ...--e-ee+ eee | 56,338) 76,489) 78,738 39.8 | 65,224
Washington, D.C.......-+-+++ | 7,146] 20,406] 24,693 245-5 17,281
Norfolk, Va.escsssenwssoseeces 752) 2,391) 4,334 476.3 3,063
Richmond, Va, ......2+++++++ | 14,047, 16,891] 16,692 18.8 12,883
Charleston, S.C. ..-+2-s+ee-6 | 2,146) 4,684] 5,027 134.2 3450
Atlanta, Ga. ...--eeeereeeeees | 3,680) 7,957] 9,356 154.2 | 11,891
Augusta, Ga. eeseeeeeeeceeeee | 4,518) 5,714] 7,092 57.0 4,839
Savannah, Ga, .-se-seceeeeese | 1,730) 2,419! 2,870 154.1 3,330
Louisville, Ky.......... veeee | 17,103) 24,159! 29,926 | 7.5 24,985
Chattanooga, Tenn.3........0+ | eeeeee 5:200. 5,472 5.2 6,984
Memphis, Tenn.......+.++.+-- 2,268) 5,497; 8,433 271.8 8,153
Nashville, Tenn, -.-.-.-.+++6-] 4,791] 75275] 8,447 76.3 8,435
Birmingham, Ala.3..... .--. 2+ | eeeeee 3,247) 6,075 105.6 3,987
Mobile, Ala....... weebes Haeee 704| 2,719) 2,827 301.5 2,496
New Orleans, La. ..-.-.++- see] 9,504] 22,342] 19,435° 104.5 | 17,631
Total ....... Sesdistaaneitear a 131,979|212,313|/233,925 60.9 ® |208,186

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 Does not include proprietors, salaried officers, clerks, etc.

21880, Tenth Census, A/anufactures, pp. xxiv, xxv; 1890 and 1900, 11th
Census, Afanufactures, Part ii, pp. 7, 108, 185, 134, 279, 300, 335, 831, 848,
908; 1905, 12th Census, vol. viii, Manufactures, Part ii, pp. 20, 142, 152, 179,
339, 361, 403, 1025, 1056, 1127. 5 No return for 1880,

‘Figures for 1905 are less and are not comparable with preceding figures, be-
cause in 1905 all neighborhood work and establishments for custom work and
repairing were excluded.

5 Does not include cotton compressing in 1900,

6 Fourteen cities; Chattanooga and Birmingham are omitted.

Digitized by Microsoft®
459] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 23

The industrial pull of Southern cities, then, is shown
both by the increase in the average number of wage-earn-
ers and in the total value of manufactured products.

There is no reason to doubt that commercial enterprise
has operated and kept pace with industrial activity in caus-
ing the growth of these urban centers. Figures for the
trade of these sixteen Southern cities are not available.
However, we have side lights upon the commercial life in
the amount of railroad building that has taken place in the
South since 1860. In 1860, there were only 8,317 miles of
railroad in the thirteen states from Maryland and Dela-
ware to Arkansas and Texas. In 1900, there were 46,-
735.86 miles in the same territory, an increase of 461.9
per cent. From 1900 to 1905 this increased to 55,239.22
miles or 18.2 per cent in the five years.* Likewise the
traffic operations, including total tonnage, and freight, pas-
senger, express and mail earnings of selected groups of
railways covering most of this territory, increased very
rapidly from 1890 to 1900. In the ten years, from 1890
to 1900, the tonnage increased from 63,597,120 tons to
121,180,317 tons or 90.5 per cent; and total earnings went
from $113,616,184.45 in 1890 to $168,606,233 in 1900, an
increase of 48.4 per cent in ten years.

As these industrial and commercial forces affect the
population, the Negro without doubt shares to a consid-
erable extent the influence. That the Negro has been a
large labor factor in the South is a patent fact. All the
data available indicate that he has been affected by eco-
nomic influences similar to those which have moved the
white population toward the urban centers.

The most decisive set of facts is the growth in the num-
ber of whites and Negroes in gainful occupations in South-

1 Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1909, table 143, p. 261.

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24 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [460

ern cities. The census returns of 1890 and 1900 for a
number of Southern cities were sufficient for an inference.
For some occupations figures for 1890 were not available,
and in other occupations some cities were not reported in
1890. So a selected list of occupations was taken.

The comparisons of those occupations selected are strik-
ing. Among the males, for domestic and personal service
occupations, from 1890 to 1900, the white wage-earners in-
creased 42.3 per cent and the Negro wage-earners increased
31.1 per cent. Here we see the influence of the growth of
wealthy ‘classes in the industrial and commercial centers,
who require increasing numbers to supply their developing
wants. In trade and transportation occupations, while the
number of white wage-earners increased 25.2 per cent from
1890 to 1900, the Negro wage-earners increased 39.1 per
cent during the same decade. For the same period, in
manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, the white workers
increased 6.1 per cent and the Negro workers increased
12.1 per cent. This indicates the dependence of the grow-
ing industry of the South upon its black male workers and
shows how strong upon them is the economic pull.

For the females, the increases are no less telling, es-
pecially for Negro workers. In ten selected occupations
for Southern cities, the white female workers decreased
29.1 per cent and the Negro female workers increased 36
per cent from 1890 to 1900. The decrease for the whites
was due to an excessive decrease among dressmakers, mil-
liners and seamstresses, which may be a discrepancy of the
census returns.

The full list of selected occupations in Southern cities
for 1890 and 1900 are given in full in Table IV, following:

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461] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO

25

TABLE IV. INCREASE OF WHITE AND NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS IN SELECTED
OccuPATIONS, SOUTHERN CITIES, 1890-1900 !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male.
Native white, Negro.
Occupation. g aH
7 ge gS
©] 1890. | 1900. | & S| 1890. | 1900. a 5
2 HB 4 A
4 Ay AY
Domestic and personal service..|--| 29,407' 41,854] 42.3} 54.179] 71,047] 31-1
Barbers, hairdressers........ IO} 1,436 2,208]... -| 1,946] 2,317|----
Bartenders ........ -| 8) 1,688 2,486]. ... 277 389|+--- +
Laborers (not specified) . 10} 19,843 27,759}++++ 35,868] 51,346]-----
Restaurant and saloon keepers 9) 15577, 21O7}-++++ 377 474) -+-
Servants and waiters ........ 10) 1,395: 1,128|----- 15,358} 16,071|.----
Watchmen, policemen, detec- |
LIVES, CfC.e ee ee ee eee eee 10; 3,441! 6,166)-.--- 353 450) +--+
Trade and transportation...... ++] 71,291) 89,294] 25.2] 18,305] 25,459] 39.3
Agents, collectors and com- \

mercial travelers .........! 10! 8,571, 13,031]----+ 287 A4ll|---+
Bankers, brokers and officials’ |

(bank) sswxeemieemsaeesis ' 8 2,309; 1,824]... 76) I3]-++--
Draymen, hackmen, teamsters 10' 6,385! 8,117)-++++ 11,246] 14,545|-----
? Messengers, packers, pOnteres |

CECre cere n cc nnn ccs earens : 3,302' 4,486).-..- 3,554] 6,225].----
Steam railway employees -... 11,033 11,532] «+ 2,213) 3,048)-----
Street railway employees ..-.. 8 1,987 3,366].---- 85 I7O|s-+e-
®Bookkeepers, accountants, etc. 10: 37,704 46,638]----+ 844] 1,057)-+---

Manufacturing and mechanical |

PUNSULES) ever seve cece sem i+-| 55,236. 64,288) 16.3} 11,548) 12,887] 11.6
Bakers and butchers........- "9 4,TIt! 4,512).-+-- 632 640}--+-
4 Blacksmiths ...)-.+eeeeees ‘IO 3,922) 4,003]----+ 852 935/e2+6%
Boot and shoemakers and re-!

PAIFETS ..-- ees cece eee ees ‘IO, 2,195) 1,816)----+ 1,184 O65\--+-
Carpenters and joiners ......'10' 12,947) 12,394|-----| 3,029) 2,762)--
Cotton and textile mill opera-;

LIV ES lo! sis erieietiesaiueraianeioneragoud | 2,648; 2,534|---+ 258 281|..
Engineers, firemen (not loco-'

MOLY!) rca niesin eran cere TO, 3,379) 5,15t|eeees 881) 1,224]---- +
Tron and steel workers Saosastinve | 9. 3,366; 4,808]... 779 75 2|er-e-
Machinists -..... ai igieiaeecneunss ‘10! 5,086; 8,088]....- 92 174] eeee-
Marble and stone cutters .. “| 5: 1,009 906].-..- 150 I4Q} +--+
Masons (brick and stone).-.-: 6 2,663) 2,362/----» 731; 1,264|-....
Painters, glaziers, varnishers-. 10 6,807! 7,372|+-++- 875 7B2|eeeas
Plasterers ..0+.-2eeccenvace ‘7 672 633 o-s5 886 BIL) +++.
Plumbers, gas and steam fitters! 7/ 1,925; 2,646 .--.- 1I3 I5Lj seers
Saw and planing mill em-) : |

ployees..c.ee ese cece enes 7| 2,543) 4,409 ----- 749| 1,062|..-..
Tailors. ..ccccascersccscnee 10} 2,163) 2,654:-.-.- 337 B07 esene

Total ..++ +++. sans *11155:934 195,436 25.3 | 84,032) 109,393) 30.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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26 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [462

TABLE IV.—Concluded.

 

 

 

 

 

Female.
et
Native white. Negro.
Occupation. 3 Se “¢ | ‘
% 1890. | 1900. | & a 1890. | 1900. : g
s g g
Housekeepers and stewardesses.|10} 1,475] 1,956 |----- 752 SIZ] +--+
Laborers (not specified)......./10 332| 712 jee « 676 QOT}...-.
Laundresses ...... a aecavereie SRE 10! 1,543! 2,409 |.---- 25,968) 41,386]....-
Nurses and midwives...... sees {LO 781| 2,472 +05 1,097} 3,091]..-..
SSQervants sx<zsa<<v alent 10] 10,176) 9,983 |+-+++| 47,198] 56,720]...
Saleswomen ......seeenen ‘eeeel 7) 2,633 4,808 | .---5 37 23) 6.
Dressmakers, milliners, seam-
SULESSES cece rece eevee cennee IO} 41,313'22,007 |....-} 6,528) 6,859|.---.
Tailoresses .......+-++-eeee-+| 6! 2,814) 2,950 |----> 164 I3I|..--.
Total .....ecee cece eeee -+| 61,067/47,297 §| 29.1 §| 81,027/110,238] 36.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The evidence, then, that the economic call of Southern
cities has received response from Negroes as from whites is
fairly conclusive. That the economic motive of the Negro
has had a large place in causing his migration to urban cen-
ters is further shown by the testimony of Negro wage-
earners in a Northern city.

In a personal canvass in New York City, 365 wage-
earners were asked their reasons for coming to New York

NOTES FOR TABLE Iv.

1 Figures for 1890 from Eleventh Census, Pop., Part ii, pp. 630-703; for 1900,

Twelfth Census, Occupations, Table 43. The cities are from the list in Tables
III and IV supra,

Includes office-boys, shippers, and helpers in stores in 1900, probably not

separated in 1890. 3 Includes clerks and copyists,

4 Includes some wheelwrights for all cities except one.

8 Includes waitresses in 1900, ® Decrease,

Digitized by Microsoft®
463] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 27

City. In reply to the question put in this direct manner.
210 out of the total 365 wage-earners gave replies; of these,
99 or 47.1 per cent gave answers that are easily classified
as economic. The other replies have been grouped under
“family ” reasons, 68 or 32.4 per cent, and “ individual ”
reasons, 43 or 20.5 per cent. Many cases in the last two
groupings, as appear below (pp. 31-32), would probably be
seen to have an underlying economic cause, if we knew
more of their history. The 99 answers classed as economic
were as follows:

Tas_eE V. Economic Reasons Given By 99 WaGE-EarNers For CoMING
To New Yorx Ciry, 1909.

To: “get: work” or “find work” csoscsacmaninntewtiwhewadioem ete 38
To secure “better wages” or “more money”...............0.005 19
With former employers: ..c.cccccce ace wun ssw nmednad we ueae 18
To: completé trade thaiMinge 0.0... css ceases acaramnaowaaaeamon 2
To engage in work previously assured...............00ccceceeeee 4
Dor DEER: tiny: COMAIOT in. sioe 0400 G gence qrerseuunavenadetideisardden ise seals 15
© Diisiness: low? wiihome” -Aacauijicewcis tetoeweaueunnemerneiamenees I
“Wanted to buy house at home by (with) money made here”.... 1
“Seeking: business?” ance monwacewn eer ns Resende d-awabednucuauans I

UES al seca Sistas eee baad aces Nc ln eons ac cs co

This evidence is further corroborated by a record of the
wages of 64 of the 365 wage-earners before and after their
coming to New York City. For 38 males and 26 females
statements of the wages received just previously to their
coming to New York City and of their present wages were
secured. These figures are presented because they suggest
that a wider survey of such facts would probably be in line
with the body of data given above. For instance, of 37
men, the median weekly wage before their coming to New
York City was in the wage-group $6.00 to $6.99, and after
coming, the median weekly wage increased so that it was
in the wage-group $10.00 to $10.99. Of the 26 women,
the median weekly wage was in the wage-group $4.00 to

Digitized by Microsoft®
28 | THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [464

$4.99 before their coming to New York City and advanced
so that it was in the group $6.00 to $6.99 after coming.
These facts indicate a decided response to the higher wage
attraction of New York City. It should be remarked that
the wage-earner in his migration to secure higher wages
seldom takes into consideration the higher cost of living
in New York City. Table VI, following, gives the details
of the comparison:

TABLE VI, WEEKLY Waces RECEIVED BY 64 INDIVIDUALS BEFORE AND AFTER
CoMING TO NEW YorK CITY, 1909.

 

Males. Females.

 

Wages.
Before. After. Before. After,

 

Less than $3.00 .....eec ee see cen
PROO-B309 wae aera cwemrweraeracras
$400 -$4.0 9s ara: i019 4 @ scavaywiatarnnaveterninie
$5100-$5 09s ess sese senmnsaee snes
$6.00-£6,.99 0+ 02 cess cess ces. nteee
$7.00-$7.99. 000. ceercceecrenvons
$8.00-$8.99. 000 cscccorscccrcacee
$9.00-$9,99 ++ ee cecccccceaceacece
$10.00- $10.99... sence cence neees
BIL00-BLT.Q9 i. oan vee aicnecieecesie
PI2ZOO-P12.9Q.-. ee rececceeecvcer
$13.00 and Over ....-.eeeeeveeeee

uo bas : .
NH AWWO

DP pr orwuow:

BPH HwW! RH DAW OO:
CO
2,

OnbhuUA:

Total ...- 0. esecee cere scene 37 38 26 26

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the economic movement to the Northern cities, the
activity of employment agencies (especially for female
domestic help) with drummers and agents in Southern
communities has served to spread tales of high wages and
to provide transportation for large numbers.? Again, many
who have been to the urban centers return for visits to

1 One individual replied “less than now in New York City.”
* Kellor, Out of Work, pp. 73, 83.

Digitized by Microsoft®
465] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 29

their more rural home communities with show of better
wages in dress, in cash and in conversation.?

The conclusion of the matter, therefore, is that the Negro
is responding to the call of commerce and industry and is
coming to the urban centers under economic influences
similar to those that move his fellows.

III. Secondary or Individual Causes of the Negro’s
Movement Cityward.—It requires only a brief survey of
the legislation in several of the Southern states to under-
stand that this has played a part in uprooting the popula-
tion from the soil and transplanting it in the urban centers.

The trend of legislation everywhere has been to make
the city attractive at the expense of the rural districts.
First among these measures have been the improved educa-
tional facilities provided by municipal authorities. In the
South, this has come since 1865. Parks and recreation
centers are rapidly being added. General regulation of
rights and privileges has been made with the city in the
foreground, and many another measure has favored the
urban centers.

Labor legislation in the South that affects the Negro
population has been of two kinds, aside from the laws to
regulate or prohibit the exodus of laborers through the
activity of labor agents or runners:* (1) that applying to

1Cf. Tucker, Negro Craftsmen in New York, in S outhern Workman,
September, 1907, p. 550.

2For statute provisions of state governments, see Twenty-second
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Labor Laws of the
United States, pp. 129, sec. 4165; 133-135, secs. 6345-6856; 146-147, secs.
3695-3606, 3005, 4057; 153, secs. 5357-58, 5383; 155-56; acts of I9oI, no.
IOI, secs. I-3; acts of 1905, no. 49, secs. I-3; 157-59, act no. 219, sec. I;
act no. 225, secs. 7-18; 278, secs. 2530, 2641-42; 281, sec. 3233-34;
201, sec. 4732; 495-501, secs. 1350, 2722-2739A; 706, sec. 2139; 1228-29,
secs. 2717-2720; 1231-32, secs. 338, 358; 1251-52, secs. 3704, 4339-42;
1339-40, sec. 3657D. Vide also, Digest and Summaries of Certain

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30 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [466

the industrial centers and serving to make conditions of
labor on railroads, in mines, and other places where Ne-
groes are employed more attractive and payment of wages
more certain and frequent than in the case of labor upon
the farm and plantation; (2) that dealing with the relations
of landlord and tenant which in practical operation often
makes the life of the tenant and farm-hand very hard.
Coupled with the ignorance of the usual Negro peasant,
these laws are sometimes tools of coercion.*

Another line of secondary or individual causes is shown
in the reasons for coming to New York City given by wage-
earners mentioned above (p. 27). The tabulation of an-
swers indicates that the influences drawing individuals to
New York City are, on the one hand, family relationships.
These cases, 68 or 32.4 per cent of the 210 replies noted
above, have been classified as those who came because of
parents, because of husband or wife, or because of other
relatives. On the other hand, there are the individual
inclinations. The latter, 43 or 20.5 per cent of the 210 re-

Classes of Laws Affecting Labor,—Mechanics’ Liens, pp. 37-38, 43, 44,
49, 50, 55, 61-62, 70-72, 74.

'The laws referred to are framed in terms of the regulation of
contracts of employment, violation of contract, and contracts of em-
ployment with intent to defraud. Breach of contract in either set of
cases is usually a misdemeanor (criminal act instead of a civil tort)
with a penalty of fines (or imprisonment in Florida). Often in prac-
tical operation, they place the tenant and farm laborer at the dis-
cretion or mercy of the landlord. The writer has made repeated
visits to many rural communities in Ala., Ga. Fla., Miss., and La. and
has observed how these legislative measures serve as barriers to
thrift among the landless Negro farmers. A number of the youths
have expressed their conviction that since their fathers and mothers
have accumulated nothing after years of labor on the land, they do not
intend to stay on the plantation to repeat the process. For pro-
visions of statutes: See Commissioner of Labor, op. cit., pp. 133-34,
secs. 6845-46; 147, sec. 5030; 284, chaps. 703-704, secs. 1146-1148.

Digitized by Microsoft®
467] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 31

plies, are grouped under restlessness, attraction of New
York City, unattractiveness of former residence, and mis-
cellaneous. These groupings and designations are given as
suggestive only to facilitate the understanding of the mental
attitude of the Negro wage-earner. Their more or less
economic tinge may be seen. The reasons classified as
“family ” and as “individual” are reported in detail in
Table VII, following:

TABLE VII, REASONS GIVEN IN 1909 BY WAGE-EARNERS SHOWING WHY THEY
CAME TO New York CIty, 1909.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family reasons (68 or 32.4 per cent. of 210).
On account of husband On account of other |S
On account of parents. otrwite. relatives, S
“ Brought here by “ Relatives of wife “Ason here” ...... 2
parents” ...... eee 12) here” sissccsasses + am tie
“To visit a brother
“ With mother” .... 6) Wife here” ....... | and remained”.... 5
“Came with mother “To follow husband” . - Had a sister here”- 9
who was here”..-. 4
“Came with husband” 7,‘My health was bad
“Father was here”.. 2 | and came to live
“My husband was | with sister”? ...... I
“On account of death working on a ship
of father”......-. 1] coming here”...... 1|/To live with other
relatives on account
“ Father transferred of deathof mother 4
in revenue service” 1 = em
rough influence
of other relatives . 10
Total ccsssccsss 26 Total wssceescooe Td Total sso civieecie 31/68

 

 

 

Digitized by Microsoft®
32

TABLE VII—Conecluded.

Individual reasons (43 or 20.5 per cent of 210).

 

Restlessness.—16

Attraction of New |
York City.—15 |

Former residence,
unattractive.—6

 

“Thought I would like
the place asa change;”
wanted “to be going
somewhere.”

“Was in Rhode Island
and wanted a change.”

“Thought I’d like to
make a change.”

“Wanted to make a
change.”

“To change cities and
see New York.”

“Thought I would like
change; to be going
somewhere.”

“Just for a change.”
“Just for a change.”

“Thought I’d make a
change; came North
to try it.”

“Just to be coming.”

(To New York)
“For recreation; to
change cities.”

‘“ Traveling and stopped.”

“Split the difference of
time.”

“ Felt like traveling.”

NY

“Had a roaming mind
—came here from Chi-
cago.”

Hf Felt like traveling.”

“T wanted to come out '

this way.” ;

“Wanted to come to a’
larger (place); to:
travel to see the,
world,”

“Passing through sev- |
eralsummers; stopped.”

“Came out with friends
who were coming;
been back and forth.”

“Was running on the
boat to New York;
and stopped for a
while.”

1
'
!
'
|
|
i
|
i

“Just to see New York;
was traveling and
stopped.”

|
|
|
1
|
|
i
1
i
|
|
“Took a notion to come; |
wanted to come North.” |
“Liked New York after
seeing it as a sailor
in the Navy.”

“Thought I would like
New York.”

“Thought I’d like New |
Vork.”

“Wanted to see

place.”

the

“To see the place and
be with sister.”

“To see the city; friend
wrote me of sights of
the great city.”

“Heard talk of enjoy-
able life here,”

“Came here from Cin-
cinnati; had read a
great deal of New
York City and wanted
to see 1t.” \

 

 

“To say I was leaving
home like everybody
else.” (From St. Mar-
tin’s Island.)

“Got tired of Boston and
came to New York.”

“Got tired of Virginia;
came to visit friend;
remained.”

: “ Got tired of Baltimore;

thought I’d see some
of New York.”

“Got tired of home, that’s
all.”

“To get away from home
for a change.”

Miscellaneous.—6

 

“Came to get married,”

“ Stopped on way to Bos-
ton, robbed in Jersey
City.”

“Came to America to go
to school.” (From S,
Hampton, Bermuda.)

“To learn architecture,”

“To visit friends; got
marnied,”

“To see and learn and
improve my ability,”

 

DIQHIZEG Dy WICTOSCRS

THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [468

Total—43.

 
469] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 33

Another individual cause operates especially upon the
more able and intelligent classes and sends them to North-
ern cities. The restriction by “ Jim Crow” legislation and
by custom of the rights and privileges of persons of color
in Southern communities leads some of them to migrate
North. They long for a larger liberty for themselves and
particularly for their children, which the hard conditions
of Southern communities do not give. They come North
to gain this and to escape the proscriptions.’ They settle in
the cities. A similar force probably operates in a few sec-
tions of the South to send Negro families to the security
of the urban centers.”

The final conclusion from these facts concerning the
causes operating upon the Negro population has been clearly
indicated in the above discussion. Such fundamental eco-
nomic and social causes do not cease to operate suddenly.
So far as the development of the South is concerned, the
agricultural, industrial and commercial movement is in its
infancy, and it will doubtless be of an indefinite growth.
The secondary and individual causes will continue to play
their part. The Negro will be affected in a manner similar
to that of the Southern white population. Any rural im-
provement or “ back-to-the-land ” movement should recog-
nize that along with the whites, Negroes will continue to
migrate to the urban centers and that they will come to the
cities in comparatively large numbers to stay. The problem
alike of statesman, race leader, and philanthropist is to un-
derstand the conditions of segregation and oppositions due
to race prejudices that are arising as a sequel to this urban
concentration and to co-operate with the Negro in his
effort to learn to live in the city as well as the country.

1 Economic Analysis of American Prejudice, by Dr. Wm. L. Bulkley,
in The Colored American Magazine, July, 1909, pp. 17, 19, 20-21.

2Cf. Darkest America, by Kelly Miller in New England Magazine,
April, 1904.

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34 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [470

Although it requires serious attention, the situation is a
hopeful one. Improvement in the living and working con-
ditions has its effect upon the health and morals of Negroes
just as it has in the case of other elements of the popula-
tion. Intelligence is essentially a matter of education and
training. Good housing, pure milk and water supply,
sufficient food and clothing, which adequate wages allow,
street and sewer sanitation, have their direct effect upon
health and physique. And municipal protection and free-
dom from the pressure of the less moral elements of the
environing group go a long way toward elevating standards
of morality. In spite of the limits which the neglect and
prejudice of a white public sets to opportunities for im-
provement, Negroes do show progress along these lines.

Speaking first of the health of Negroes in cities, an index
is given in the general death-rate.* In the period from
1871 to 1904, the death rate for the white and Negro popu-
lations of several Southern cities is summarized by Mr.
Hoffman.* Of the consolidated death-rate of the white
population, he says, s

For only two cities are the returns complete for the entire
period of thirty-four years. The tendency of the rate has
been persistently downward from 26.7 per 1,000 in 1871 to
20.6 in 1886 and 17.4 in 1904. Commencing with the rate
for the year 1871, the general death-rate of the white popula-

1 Vide Hoffman, The General Death Rate of Large American Cities,
1871-1904, in Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical As-
sociation, new series, vol. x, no. 73, March, 1906. Mr. Hoffman says:
“While the general death-rate is of very limited value for the purpose
of comparison in the case of different localities, it is, I am satisfied,
after a very careful investigation and much experience, of quite con-
siderable value in making local comparison of the present health
conditions with the past.”

2 Op. cit., pp. 5-8. The cities are Baltimore, 1871-1904; New Orleans,
1871-1904; District of Columbia, 1876-1904; Louisville, Ky., 1890-1904;
Memphis, Tenn., 1876-1904.

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471] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 35

tion of Southern cities shows an upward direction at different
times during twelve years, and a downward direction during
twenty-one years, following in this respect practically the same
course as the corresponding death-rate for Northern and
Western cities combined. The year of maximum mortality
was 1878, due to a yellow fever epidemic, while the year of
minimum mortality was, as in the case of the Northern and
Western cities, 1903.

In reference to the table for the Negro population he
says,”

Without exception, the death-rates are materially in excess
of the corresponding death-rates of the white population, but
there has also been in this case a persistent decline in the gen-
eral death-rate from 38.1 per 1,000 in 1871 to 32.9 in 1886
and 28.1 in 1904. Commencing with the rate for the year
1871, the general death-rate of the colored population of
Southern cities at different times assumed an upward direction
during fifteen years and a downward direction during eighteen
years, departing in this respect from the corresponding mor-
tality of the white population of Southern cities and the gen-
eral population of Northern and Western cities, the tendency
of which was more distinctly towards a definite improvement.
The year of maximum mortality for the colored population
was 1873, while the year of minimum mortality was 1903.

The general correspondence and few divergencies of the
two death-rates are more clearly seen from the following
diagram,? adapted from Hoffman’s study already cited:

1 Op. cit., pp. 7-8. (Italics are mine.)

2In the Biennial Report of the Board of Health of New Orleans,
La., 1906-1907, this diagram of Mr. Hoffman is reproduced with the
following comment: (p. 113) “The colored mortality has not only
been excessive, but has borne no relation whatever to the white
mortality curve, being on the ascending scale at times when the white
mortality was clearly on the decrease.” A comparison with Mr. Hoff-
man’s words about the two death-rates quoted above and a glance at
the curves supply sufficient commentary upon this biased view.

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36 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [472

loco
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fo

Other data* for two of the cities investigated by Mr.

* Mortality Among Negroes in Cities, Atlanta University Pubs., no. 1,
(Atlanta, Ga., 1896), p. 51; vide pp. 21-25; and and ed., 1903, pp. 11-15.

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473] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 37

Hoffman, and for three other cities (Atlanta, Ga., Charles-
ton, S. C., and Richmond, Va.) from 1882 to 1905 furnish
results similar to his and indicate likewise that while the
general death-rate for the Negro population is uniformly
in excess of that of the white, there is a tendency down-
ward. For example, in Atlanta, Ga., the death-rates from
1882 to 1885 were for the white population, 18.22 per
1,000, Negro, 37.96; from 1886 to 1890, white, 19.25,
Negro, 33.41; from 1891 to 1905, white, 18.03 per 1,000,
Negro, 32.76. Baltimore, Md., Charleston, S. C., Mem-
phis, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., show a similar decrease,
except that the white and Negro populations of Baltimore
show an increase in the third period, 1891 to 1905, and the
rate of the Negro population of Charleston increased in the
second period, 1886 to 1890,

We see, then, that while the death-rate of Negroes in
Southern cities has been considerably in excess of that of
the whites, there has been at the same time a similar ten-
dency toward improvement.

And where there is unprejudiced effort the death-rate
among Negroes is affected favorably by improved living
conditions. The chief health-officer of Richmond, Va.,
Dr, E. C. Levy, has sounded a note which is not mere
prophecy.* He said, in 1906, “ There is no doubt what-
soever but that the introduction of better sanitation among
the colored people would have great influence on their high
death-rate, but whether, after all, it can be brought down
as low as the white rate, is a matter which can not be fore-
told.” Again, in 1907, he says,

We must clearly face the issue that the first fruits of improved
sanitation in Richmond will most probably be seen in a lower-

t Annual Reports of the Health Department of the City of Richmond,
Va., 1906, p. 22; 1907, p. 34; 1908, pp. 39-40.

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38 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [474

ing of the death-rate among the colored people, as conditions
among them are so much worse at present, but this in turn
will gradually react on the white race.

And, in 1908, this significant paragraph occurs in his re-
port:

The white death-rate in Richmond during 1908 was 17.48 per
1000; the colored rate was 29.21 per 1000. Although the col-
ored rate was thus 67 per cent higher than the white rate, the
decrease in the colored rate from 1907 was greater than the
decrease in the white rate, the 1907 rates being 18.11 for
whites and 32.99 for Negroes.

Out of a total decrease of 166 in the number of deaths in
1908 compared with 1907, the white decrease was 27, while
the colored decrease was 139. From the time that I entered
office I have predicted that improved sanitation would benefit
the Colored race more quickly than the white, and the figures
above given justify this conclusion.

The statement of this health officer points to experience
rather than to prejudiced notions about the physical weak-
nesses of Negroes.

From both the statistician and the sanitarian, therefore,
comes the word that while the health of Negroes in cities
is worse than that of whites, it shows a tendency to improve
similar to that of the white population when a fairly im-
partial treatment is accorded.

As with health, so with other phases of the Negro’s
city life. There is no place for pessimism. Improvements
in intelligence and in moral conditions can not be counted
by case and set down in figures and tables.* But any one
at all familiar either by reading or recollection with the

1Cf. Ray Stannard Baker, in American Magazine, Feb. and March,
1908, and Following the Color Line, (New York, 1909), pp. 54-55.

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475] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO “9

condition of the Negro at the beginning of his freedom,
who now takes an impartial and unprejudiced view of his
intellectual and social life in urban communities, will come
to no other conclusion than that in the face of peculiar
whims and prejudices a large and increasing number in
the group is arising to the full consciousness of a freeman
and has assimilated the best that America affords in morals
and intelligence; and that they are vitally concerned for
the uplift of themselves and their people, persistently seek-
ing to partake of all that makes for progress.*

For the whole Negro population in cities some light is
thrown upon developments by the few facts at hand on
crime among Negroes.” Statistics of crime are, of course,
of limited worth in judging of moral conditions. Arrests
and prison commitments have many factors which figures
do not show and are quite as much a commentary upon the
white communities at large as upon the unfortunate Negro
law-breakers. Yet, along with other facts, these records
of crime are a part of the social barometer.

An analysis of three periods of crime (prior to 1866-
1867; 1867 to 1880, and 1880 to 1903) made by Mr.
Monroe N. Work gives indicative results. Speaking of

1 For a large body of facts and opinions on this point see Ailanta
University Pubs., no. 8, pp. 64-79; 108-110; 154-190. Personal ob-
servation during residence of the past twelve years in Louisville, Ky.,
Memphis and Nashville, Tenn., Atlanta, Ga. Chicago, and New York,
and during visits to Baltimore, Md., Washington, D. C., Norfolk and
Richmond, Va, Savannah and Augusta, Ga, Chattanooga, Tenn.,
Birmingham and Mobile, Ala, New Orleans, La. and smaller cities
has afforded the author of this essay considerable opportunity to
know at first-hand this phase of Negro city life.

2 Atlanta University Pubs., no. 9, Notes on Negro Crime: Crime in
Cities, by M. N. Work (Atlanta, Ga., 1904), pp. 18-32; cf. Dp. 49-54.
Vide also Kellor, Experimental Sociology, pp. 250 fF.

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Ba
.

40 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [476

arrests per thousand of the Negro population in nine cities,
he says,*

Taking the period from 1866 to 1882, it appears that at some
time during this period the arrest-rate, with the possible ex-
ception of St. Louis, for each of the cities decreased. From
1882 to 1892-1896 there was, with some exceptions, a marked
increase in the arrest-rates of the several cities. This was
especially true of Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington and St.
Louis. From 1892-1896 to 1902-1903 there appears to have
been a general tendency for the Negro arrest-rates of these
cities to decrease. It appears that, on the whole, we are war-
ranted in concluding that for the nine cities considered, the
rate of Negro arrests per thousand of the Negro population
is decreasing.

The rates of jail commitments for Baltimore, Charleston,

and St. Louis have increased slowly since the seventies until
the nineties, and now apparently are beginning to decrease
slightly.
The workhouse commitments for Philadelphia, Washing-
ton, Cincinnati, Louisville, Chicago and St. Louis “ show a
similar tendency to decrease.” Penitentiary commitments ?
for Baltimore and Chicago show, on the whole, a decreas-
ing trend. ‘“ The rate of annual commitments to the state
penitentiary of Illinois from the city of Chicago in 1873
was 4.4; in 1902 the rate was 1.6,” the highest rate being
in 1873. Mr. Work continues,

The rate of annual commitments to the penitentiary from
Baltimore in 1888 was 1.1; in 1902 the rate of annual peni-
tentiary commitments from this city was 1.3; the highest rate
of arinual penitentiary commitments from Baltimore was 2.0
in 1899. Since 1898-1899 there has been a decrease in the

1 Op. cit., p. 22. 2 Ibid., pp. 26-29 passim.

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477] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 41

annual Negro penitentiary commitments for both cities. The
rate per thousand of the Negro population for the number of
prisoners received in the Kansas penitentiary was available for
four years, as follows: in 1889 and 1890 the rate of annual
Negro commitments to the Kansas penitentiary was 1.5; in
1891 and 1892 the rate was 1.3. The rate per thousand of the
Negro population for the number of prisoners received an-
nually in the Indiana penitentiary was available for three years,
as follows: in 1900 the rate was 2.1; in 1901 the rate was
2.5; and in 1902 the rate was 2.0.

Mr. Work remarks finally,’

Summarizing our results, it is seen that police arrests, jail,
workhouse and penitentiary commitments appear to have in-
creased during the period from 1890 to 1892-1896. The high-
est rates of arrests and commitments were about 1893. Since
1894-1896 the tendency of both arrests and commitments to
decrease has been notable. The crime-rate for murder is also
probably decreasing. It appears, therefore, that the conclusion
that crime is probably decreasing among the Negroes of the
United States is warranted. The crime-rate of Negroes, North
and South, appears at present to be about the same, although
the rate of police arrests for some Southern cities is higher
than that for the Northern cities. The claim that there is
greater criminality among the Negroes of the North than those
of the South is probably not true. The fallacy on which this
claim was based was in comparing the criminal rate of the
Negroes of the North, who live almost entirely in cities, with
the criminal rate of the Negroes of the entire South, the
great majority of whom live in rural communities.

Besides, differences in age-grouping are usually ignored.
On the whole, therefore, there is firm ground for hope
as the Negro becomes adjusted to the urban environment.

1 Op. cit., D. 32.

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42 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [478

Since, then, these economic and social causes bid fair to
continue their influence for an indefinite time, the concen-
tration of Negroes in urban centers makes imperative the
need of knowledge and methods of dealing with the prob-
lems that face the Negro and the Nation in these growing
urban centers." These questions of how to live in the city
are problems of health, of intelligence and of morals. They
are economic, social, political, educational and religious.
The present essay is an attempt to study carefully the
economic problems arising out of the Negro’s adjust-
ment in his struggles to make a living and to live in the
city as seen in the commercial Metropolis of America; to
find out at what he is employed there; to inquire of his
efficiency and success, and of the attitude of employer and
fellow employee. As we find Negroes rising from the plane
of the employed to that of the employer, these questions
arise: How does he get into business and what lines does
he enter? With what success does he meet? What re-
sourcefulness does he show? What are the reasons for his
failures? We want to know what are his relations with
the business world with which he deals and the consuming
public to whom he caters. These and many other things
can be ascertained only by painstaking investigation.

This study aims to be a small contribution to the end that
efforts for betterment of urban conditions may be founded
upon facts. The material has been treated in two parts—
that relating to wage-earners and to business undertakings.
In the former the United States Census reports, a personal
canvass, and the unpublished schedules for 2,500 families
of the New York State Census of 1905, were used as

1 Philadelphia is the only city which has had adequate study. Vide
DuBois, W. E. B., The Philadelphia Negro, (Philadelphia, 1889) and
Wright, R. R., Jr., The Negro in Pennsylvania, a Study in Economic
History (Philadelphia, 1912).

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479] THE CITY AND THE NEGRO 43

sources; for the latter a block to block canvass was made
and records of the business enterprises were secured by
personal interviews.

FOOT-NOTE ON THE MANNER AND CAUSES OF CITY CONCEN-
TRATION OF POPULATION +

The manner of growth has been two-fold: (1) By na-
tural increase through the lowering of the death-rate due
partially to improved housing conditions, progress in per-
sonal hygiene of the poorer classes and in city sanitation
and inspection; (2) by migration: that is, short distance
movements by progressive stages from the more rural dis-
tricts toward the larger centers.? In the case of the great
cities this may mean increase in density of the most popu-
lated areas.®

The causes of concentration in cities are the following:

I. The Divorce of Men from the Soil.t The diminishing
relative importance of elementary wants, improvements in
scientific cultivation and in agricultural machinery, and the
opening of distant and virgin fields by better transportation
have reduced the relative number of workers needed on the
soil.

II. The Growth of Commercial Centers.” This went
hand in hand with the Agrarian Revolution. Trade has
been the basis of city founding. The prevailing influence
in determining location has been “a break in transporta-
tion.” Where goods are transferred and where, in addi-

1 Vide Weber, op. cit., passim.

2 Ibid., 232 f.; 241 ff.; 283 f.; 346-364, passim.

3A suggestive study on this phase of the city problem has been
published recently: Industrial Causes of Congestion of Population in
New York City, by E. E. Pratt, Ph. D., (New York, 1911), pp. 5-262.

4 Weber, op. cit., pp. 161-169; 223.
5 Ibid., pp. 171-173; 181-182; 223-224.

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44 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [480

tion, ownership changes hands, urban centers grow up.
Wealthy classes arise which require others to supply their
increasing and varied wants.

III. The Growth of Industrial Centers.* The passage
of industry from the household, handicrafts and domestic
systems to that of the factory, with the invention of power
machinery and modern methods of transportation and com-
munication, draws population away from the rural districts
to the industrial centers.

IV. Secondary or Individual Causes. (a) The shifting
demand for transfer of labor from agricultural to indus-
trial production was met by the economic motive of work-
ers. (b) Political action has influenced city growth;
legislation affecting trade and the migration of labor; cen-
tralization of governmental machinery in the cities; legal
forms of land tenure, etc. (c) Social advantages such as
better education, varied amusements, higher standard of
living, intellectual associations and pursuits, draw peo-
ple to urban centers, while desire for the contact of the
moving crowds, for the excitement and apparent ease of
city life, serve to make the rural districts distasteful.

1 Weber, of. cit., pp. 184-91.
2 Ibid., pp. 210, 213-222,

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CHAPTER II

THE Necro PopuLATION oF New York City

THE Negro population of New York City has had a
history similar to that of other Northern cities. Beginning
with a small body of slaves, it has since had its problems
growing out of the presence of an increasing number of
Negroes in the midst of the environing white group. In
1629, The Dutch West India Company pledged itself to
furnish slaves to the Colonists of New Amsterdam.* A
similar resolution was passed by the colony council in
1648? and by 1664 slavery had become of sufficient im-
portance to receive legislative regulation in the Duke of
York Code.* Both by further importations and by natural
increase the Negro population grew until in 1704 it num-
bered about 1,500; in 1741 it was estimated at about 2,000,
and in 1757 about 3,000. Beginning with the first Federal
Census of 1790 there was an increase shown by each census
except those of 1820 for Brooklyn and of 1850 and 1860
for other parts of New York City, mainly Manhattan.

The figures show a striking contrast in growth between
Brooklyn and the other parts of New York City as now
constituted, exclusive of Brooklyn. The former had a
comparatively small Negro population until after 1860,

1 New York Colonial Doc., i, 553.
2 O'Callaghan, Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, 1637-1674,
p. 81.
8 DuBois, Some Notes on Negroes of New York City, p. 5.
481] 45

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46 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [482

but from 1790 the Negro population although small in-
creased steadily, except the one decade between 1810 and
1820. This was a decrease of only 92 or 4.9 per cent of a
population less than 2,000. Only one increase, from 1800
to 1810, was less than 13 per cent. Beginning with 5,915
at the Federal census of 1790, the Negro population of the
other parts of New York City has shown a high per cent
of increase in numbers, above 15 per cent, at eight of the
twelve succeeding censuses, and 8.1 per cent and 5.5 per
cent at two others. The decreases from 1840 to 1850, 13.2
per cent, and from 1850 to 1860, 7.5 per cent, were prob-
ably due to the unfavorable sentiment against the Negroes
which arose during the abolition agitation of these periods
and which had its effect on the Negro’s movements to and
from the city. The small increase from 1860 to 1870, 5.5
per cent, was very probably the result of the same causes—
of the Civil War disturbances and the New York Draft
riots, which deterred Negroes from coming to New York
City and sent many Negro residents away.* The figures
for Manhattan show a similar trend at each census. How-
ever, except the periods noted above, there has been a gen-
eral trend toward increase in both Manhattan and Brook-
lyn. The Negro population has become a smaller and
smaller part of the total population from decade to decade
since 1810, but this is because the several streams of foreign
immigrants have been large and not because the increase
of the Negro population has been small.

Table VIII, which follows, shows the growth of the total
and the Negro populations, and brings the full figures to
view:

1 The writer has testimony of contemnorary witnesses of these dis-
turbances.

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483]

THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY

47

TABLE VIII.—ToTa AND NEGRO PopuLaTION oF New York CITY, AS AT

 

 

 

 

PRESENT CONSTITUTED, 1704-19101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New ee of Brooklyn,
Increase of Increase of
Year. Population.’ Negro Population. Negro
population, population.
i
Total. | Negro. ee ee Total. | Negro.? Dae i
1704 .. seers 1,500] ...- ie Seles des 2 te o
1741 --| «2-2 | 2,000 500] 33.3 shedyerate : aad
1757 -+| «+22 | 3,000] 1,000] 50.0 |' ...... oe
1790 +-| 44,906] 5,915] 2,915] 97.2 4:495| 1,478] -- .
1800 .. 73:476| 8,626] 2,711} 45.9 55740] 1,811 333.) 25.5
1810 ..| 111,431 | 12,116] 3,490] 40.4 8,303| 1,853 42 2.3
1820 ..| 140,869] 13,100] 984] 8.1 11,187] 1,761 92 4.98
1830 ..| 221,743] 16,082] 2,982} 22.8 20,535| 2,007 246 | 13.9
1840 -.| 343,501 | 18,595] 2573| 15-6 |, 47,613] 2,846| 839! 41.8
1850 --| 557,233] 16,131 | 2,464] 13.29}; 138,882] 4,065] 1,219 | 42.8
1860 -.| 895,657] 14,927| 1,204| 7.5% | 279,122| 4,999 934 | 22.9
1870 ..| 1,058,182 | 15,755 828) 5.5 : 419,921 | 5,653 654 | 13.1
1880 ../1,312,203 | 22,496] 6,741] 42.8 599,495| 9153] 3,500] 61.9
1890 ..| 1,668,867 | 26,330] 3,834] 17.0 838,547] 11,307] 2,154 | 23.5
. 1900 ..| 2,270,620} 42,299] 15,969| 60.6 || 1,166,582) 18,367| 7,060 | 62.5
IgI0.. 3,132,532 69,700 | 27,403} 64.8 || 1,634,351] 22,702] 4,335 | 23.6

 

1 Figures 1704-1757 from Du Bois, Motes, etc., p. I.

? Negro not reported separately 1790 to 1850; includes ‘slaves ” and all other
‘« Free Colored” which does not involve serious error in the earlier censuses,

Census figures 1790-1910 are from the latest revisions of the Bureau of the
Census. Figures for same area, outside of Manhattan and Brooklyn, are esti-
mates of censuses 1790-1890. Figures for 1900 and 1910 are exact.

5 Decrease,

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48 | THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [484

To summarize the point, while the Negro population has
become a smaller relative part of the total population each
decade since 1810, it has shown a decided trend toward a
large actual increase.

The distribution of the Negro population has varied with
its increase and with the growth of the city. But almost
from the beginning, probably the environing white group
has segregated the Negroes into separate neighborhoods.
The figures available for Brooklyn do not permit a positive
inference, but in Manhattan, while the areas populated by
Negroes have shifted somewhat from decade to decade,

_there have been distinctively Colored sections since 1800."

An idea of this segregation is shown in the fact that in
1900, 80.9 per cent of all the Negro population of Man-
hattan was contained within 12 out of 35 Assembly Dis-
tricts and that in 1890 seven wards of Manhattan contained
fully five-sixths of the Negro population of the Borough.
The largest number of Negroes, 13.8 per cent of the total
number, were living, in 1900, in the Nineteenth Assembly
District with numbers approximating this in the Eleventh,
which contained 10.4 per cent, the Twenty-seventh, which
had 9.2 per cent, and the Twenty-third, which had 8.7 per
cent of the Negro population. The Negro population for
Manhattan, 36,246, was distributed in 1900 by assembly
districts as is shown in Table IX (p. 49).

These figures give a clear idea of the segregated char-
acter of the Negro population and show something of its
present location. There has been a decided shifting from
the part of Manhattan between Twenty-fifth, Forty-second
streets, Sixth and Eighth avenues, and into Harlem be-
tween One Hundred and Thirtieth, One Hundred and For-
tieth streets, Fifth and Eighth avenues during the past

1 Vide DuBois, Notes, etc., p. 1.

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485] THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY 49

TaBLE IX. DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION BY ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS OF
MANHATTAN, 1900.

 

Assembly District. Negro | Pet cent.of

 

population. total.

sth Assembly District 1,378 3.8
gth Assembly District 1,673 4.6
1ith Assembly District 3,756 10.4,
13th Assembly District 2,584 7.1
17th Assembly District 1,214 3.4
1gth Assembly District 4,982 13.8
21st Assembly District 1,135 3.1
23rd Assembly District 3,169 8.7
25th Assembly District 2,950 8.1
27th Assembly District 39318 9.2
3ist Assembly District . 1,483 41

 

32nd Assembly District .
All other Districts ...-.cesceccecee sancece 6,924 19,1

~
a
do
°

+
a

Total pavccrevsicscneese dai oes e's eels siecle 36,246 100,

 

 

 

five years as business interests have been taking possession
of the zone around the new Pennsylvania Railway Station,
between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. But as
the Negroes have moved into blocks in Harlem, the whites
have moved out.

The exact character and extent of the segregation of the
Negro population may be clearly seen from diagrams of
this Harlem district, and of the “ San Juan Hill” district
in the West Sixties, based upon the latest figures of the
Census of 1910. This is given in Diagrams III and IV
(pp. 50-51).”

With such a distribution of the clearly segregated Negro
population, the representative character of the 2,500 fami-
lies chosen for closer study becomes evident. These fami-
lies, from figures based upon the original returns of the
New York State Census of 1905, were chosen from the

1 Diagrams It] and IV were made by Mr. Eugene K. Jones, Field
Secretary ofthe National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes.

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THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [486

50

 

 

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Eleventh, the Nineteenth, the Twenty-third, and the Thirty-

first districts.

The last district was taken in preference to

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DIAGRAM IV

487] THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY 51

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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several which contained larger numbers, because it included
certain streets that were typical of the Harlem section.

In all 2,639 families were tabulated. Of these 95 were
excluded because the heads of these families were of the

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52 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [488

professional or business classes, 37 because they were too
incompletely reported, and 7 because the heads were white.
This reduced the number to 2,500 families, which consisted
of 9,788 persons, exclusive of 17 white members of these
families. The data from the State Census schedules of
enumerators were tabulated in regular order as reported by
them for each block or part of block for the Negro families
that were designated as living in that street or block.

The families studied were from the following territory:
Within the Eleventh Assembly District, the area bounded
by Thirtieth and Thirty-eighth streets, Seventh and Tenth
avenues; within the Nineteenth Assembly District, Sixty-
first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third streets, between Am-
sterdam and Eleventh avenues, commonly called “San Juan
Hill; ” within the Twenty-third and Thirty-first Assembly
Districts, One Hundred and Thirtieth and One Hundred
and Thirty-third streets between Eighth and St. Nicholas
avenues, and One Hundred and Thirty-fourth and One
Hundred and Thirty-fifth streets between Fifth and Sev-
enth avenues. These three segregated neighborhoods in
1905 may be roughly characterized as follows: The first
was probably in the lowest grade of social condition; the
second did not show a decidedly predominant type, but
ranged from the middle grade toward the more advanced;
the third was the most advanced.

A comparison in detail of the distribution by assembly
districts of the total Negro population and of the 2,500
selected families shows also that the latter are represen-
tative of the several neighborhoods and of the total popula-
tion. Table X shows the distribution by Assembly Dis-
tricts of the 2,500 families for comparison with Table IX
above, which gave the total Negro population of Manhattan
and its distribution.

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489] THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY 53

TABLE X. DISTRIBUTION BY ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS OF 2,500 NEGRO FAMILIES,
STATE CENSUS, 1905.

 

Assembly District. No. of families. No. of persons.

 

 

 

 

Eleventh ......ececece cece seer veer 927 | 35329
Nineteenth ........ 0.0.2 ceeeseeseeee | 1,018 | 4,024
Twenty-third. .....eceeseeseeecereeee 326 1,581
Thirty-first.... ss eee ceceecceeeeeeeers 229 854

Total isis vecces seweesseeves 2,500 9,788

 

In addition to the data of the State Census of 1905, a
personal canvass was made in 1909 of 73 families in their
homes, having a total of 212 persons. To these were added
153 individuals at one of the evening schools of the city, a
total of 365 persons. The localities within which these 365
people lived corresponded in the main to the location of the
2,500 families taken from the State Census of 1905; that
is, between Twenty-fifth, Forty-fifth streets, Fifth and
Eighth Avenues; Fifty-third, Sixty-fifth streets, west of
Sixth Avenue and between One Hundred and Thirtieth and
One Hundred and Thirty-sixth streets, Fifth and Seventh
Avenues. '

To sum up: The assembly districts chosen and the num-
ber of families and individuals tabulated from each dis-
trict are such as to give a fairly accurate description of the
clearly segregated wage-earning Negro population of the
districts. The study, then, is representative of about one-
fourth of the Negro population of Manhattan in 1905,
and is so distributed as to be reasonably conclusive for the
wage-earning element of the whole Negro population.

The next question is the composition of this toiling
Negro population. The general condition of the wage-
earning element of this group will now, therefore, engage
our attention.

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CHAPTER III

GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS *

I. SEX AND AGE OF NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS

In the 2,500 families composed of 9,788 individuals, the
sex distribution and age grouping * throw some light upon
the life conditions of the wage-earning class. That city
life does not look with favor upon a large juvenile element
in the population is generally believed. That the city draws
mainly those of the working period of life is also generally
conceded. The number of children in this Negro group
under 15 years of age is 19 per cent, below normal for great
cities, and the upper age limit is also quite low, being
only 6.6 per cent between forty-five and fifty-four years,
and 3.2 per cent over fifty-five years. Thus the bulk of
the population, 70.8 per cent, both male and female, exclud-
ing 0.4 per cent doubtful and unknown, falls between fif-
teen and fifty-four years, or within the vigorous working
period of life. This is fully set forth in Table XI, which
gives the sex distribution and age grouping in assembly
districts of the 9,788 individuals in these 2,500 families
of the Census of 1905:

1 The term “ wage-earner ”, for want of a better, is used to designate
the group of persons belonging to families whose heads are actual
wage-workers. This includes children and some other family mem-
bers not in gainful occupations.

2Cf. Bailey, Modern Social Conditions, (New York, 1906), pp. 67-89.

54 [490

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491] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 55

TABLE XI. Sex DISTRIBUTION AND AGE GROUPING OF 9,758 NEGRO WaAGE-
EARNERS IN MANHATTAN, STATE CENSUS, 1905.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male. Female. Total.
Age group.

Per Per Per

nS cent No. cent ce cent
Less than 15 years ...... 949 19.6 gI1o 18.4 | 1859 19.0
WG-24 seeee vcceeeeeneee 983 20.4 | 1155 23.4 | 2143 21.9
QO—34 sioccicciem cacy ies se 1543 31.8 | 1546 31.2 | 3089 31.6
35-44. c seen ccsennrceces 889 18.4 809 16.4 | 1698 17.3
ASaGAoaeiweacivaececese| ° 333 69 3ur | 6.3) 644 6.6
55 and over .....--- eee 128 2.6 188 3.8 316 3.2
Doubtful and unknown... 14 0.3 25 0.5 39 0.4

Totals ....-.2-04 4844 | 100. 4944 | 100. 9788 | 100.

 

 

 

 

Figures obtained from the personal canvass made in
1909 bear comparison with those of the State Census of
1905. Substantial agreement is to be noted between the
two enumerations, except for the larger percentage of those
under 15 years of age in 1905 (19.6 per cent male, 18.4 per
cent female), and the smaller percentages in the grouping
thirty-five to forty-four years (18.4 per cent male, 16.4
per cent female). Doubtless this effect is produced because
so many of the cases in 1909 were individuals attending
evening school, who were required to be above 14 years
of age, and because few over forty-five years of age are
attracted to such a place. The other small difference in
percentages is due probably to the small number of indi-
viduals, 365, in the figures for 1909. The sex distribution
and age grouping in 1909 is shown in Table XII, which
follows:

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56 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [492

TABLE XII. SEX DIsTRIBUTION AND AGE GROUPING OF 365 NEGRO WAGE-
EARNERS IN MANHATTAN, 1909.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male, Female. Total,
Age group. ‘ P

er er Per

Wo. cent No: cent No. cent
Less than 15 years ...... 18 10.2 21 11.2 39 10.7
15-24. ecsececcees ences 35 19.8 37 19.7 72 19.7
25-34--e0e- a eeeeee oeeee 54 30.5 50 26.6 104 28.5
35-44 een ec er cnwe re aces 40 22.6 41 21.8 81 22.2
45-54-00eee vececeserecs iI 6.2 21 11.2 32 8.8
55 and over ...2s-eeeeee 10 5.6 4 2.1 14 3.8
Doubtful and unknown... 9 5.1 14 74 23 6.3

Totals ....eeeeee 177, | 100. 188 | 100. 365 | I00.

 

 

 

 

 

The results above correspond also with those of the
United States Census of 1900 for the entire City of New
York. Making allowance for some families of professional
and business classes, probably not excluded from the Cen-
sus figures for 1900, and for changes which five years inter-
val may have caused, the agreement with the two preceding
tables above confirms the representative character of the
data for 1905 and 1909. For the total per cent under fif-
teen years in 1900 was 19.8; in 1905, 19.0; from fifteeen
to twenty-four years, 24 per cent in 1900, 21.9 per cent in
1905; from twenty-five to thirty-four years, 25.9 per cent
in 1900, 31.6 per cent in 1905; from thirty-five to forty-
four years, 16.2 per cent in 1900, 17.3 per cent in 1905;
from forty-five to fifty-four years, 8.3 per cent in 1900,
6.6 per cent in 1905, and fifty-five years and over, 5.6 per
cent in 1900, 3.2 per cent in 1905.*

1Cf. Twelfth Census, Bulletin 8, Negroes in the United States,
Tatle 31.

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493] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 57

Here, then, is a wage-earning group made up of persons
in the younger and more vigorous working period. The
small number of children under 15 years of age calls atten-
tion to the fact that the growth of this population takes
place largely through recruits from other sections of the
Country. They must find industrial and social adjustment
to a new environment largely made up of the white popul-
lation. They are either killed off by the conditions under
which they work and live, or drift away from the city at a
premature old age.

2. NATIVITY OF NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS

If New York has a Negro population largely composed
of immigrants from other regions, the question naturally
arises, From what sections or regions do they come? The
State Census of 1905 gives nativity by countries only.
Consequently, those born within the United States are
not specified by State or territory of birth. That large
numbers of the Negro population of New York City come
from other sections of the United States, mainly from the
South, is beyond doubt.

We get the first impression of this fact from the Federal
Census of 1900. For the whole State of New York in
1900, out of a population of 100,000, 44.6 per cent were
natives, 24.1 per cent were from Virginia, 19 per cent were
from other Southern States, with a remaining 12.3 per cent
to be drawn from other parts of the United States and from
other countries.

These proportions are different from those for New
York City, because immigrants make up a larger part of
the City’s Negro population. The figures of the State Cen-
sus of 1905, as well as those from a personal canvass,

1 DuBois, Notes, etc., p. 2.

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58 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW 'YORK CITY [494

point in the same direction, and the evidence indicates
clearly the probable condition.

The West Indian element in the Negro aeniee on of
the City was noticed first. The British West Indies fur-
nish 5.8 per cent of these foreign Negro immigrants, while
the Danish West Indies, Cuba, and those islands not spe-
cified, together make up 3.6 per cent, a total of 9.4 per
cent West Indian.» Table XIII (p. 59) gives a survey of
this part of the population and shows its relation to the
native born.

We are unable to get from the figures of Table
XIII the sections or States of the United States from
which the 89.5 per cent of American-born Negroes came.
The few straws of evidence afforded by the personal can-
vass point to the main sources of the stream. The per-
centages have significance although the figures are few.
The Southern States, from which there are easy means of
transportation to New York, naturally furnish the larger
part. Virginia supplied 29.6 per cent of the 365 Man-
hattan residents; South Carolina, 11 per cent; Georgia, 6
per cent, and Maryland, 4.4 per cent. Taking the Southern
States by themselves, 67.5 per cent of the 365 wage-earners
were born in that section. Besides 5.7 per cent of the 365

1In a study of Negro Crartsmen in New York City made by Miss
Helen A. Tucker in 1907 (Vide, Southern Workman, 1907, 36: 9, D
550), she reported the most reliable estimate of the proportion of
West Indians in New Yorx City as about one-tenth of the total Negro
population. The figures above substantiate such an estimate. Of the
385 men in Miss Tucker’s study, 29.09 per cent were born in the West
Indies. Among the 94 who claimed to know a trade, 57 or 60.64
per cent were born in the West Indies. Cf. ibid., 37: 1, p. 45. This
wide variation of percentage from that given for 9,788 individuals in
1905, probably arises because (1) of the larger number of cases in
the latter instance, (2) the returns are from two other districts
of Manhattan besides “the Sixties” of Miss Tucker’s canvass, (3)
Miss Tucker canvassed male craftsmen only; the figures of this text
cover the whole population.

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495] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 59

TaBLe XIII. Nativity By Counrry or BIRTH OF 9,788 WAGE-EARNERS,
‘ MANHATTAN, 1905.

 

 

 

Country of birth. No. No. Per cent
The Bermudas .........eee scence oe
British West Lodies.......... 0005 a Pe 58
Antiqua ssccesceuccccencnccee 1 ar .
Bahama Islands ..........e000 .
Barhadoes...sseeeeeecscvecees 36 .
Jamaica seseeeeeneeecavece veer 19 aie .
Dt. CLOIK oo eee cece eee ere anee 46 o .
St. Christopher.....- e002 ceeeee 20 ae .-
St. Thomas ...sscecce ceescies 8 ss ws
Drip dad | is. siessisisicswie-dseieve ois’ 9'5'9. 008 I oe oe
Not specified. .----...seseeeeee 428 +e “
Danish West Indies......+..+.40- ze 62 0.6
CUDA cecececrcrercceree seeeceee ° 14 o.1
West Indics (not specified) ...... es 285 2.9
Ganads +. 22s csismasiviria bole 0e's . 16 0.2
United States ...eeeceeeseceence ae 8757 89.5
Miscellaneous '.....escecee recess oe 36 0.4
Unknown: oiiscicnes cowsees see seas ea 24 0.2
Total assswserweg hes cess 3e +. 9,788 100.

 

 

 

 

came from the British West Indies. The West Indies and
the Southern States probably furnished 73.4 per cent or
about three-fourths of these wage-earners in the Negro
population of New York City. Table XIV (p. 60) shows
in full the State and country of birth of the 365 wage-
earners.

Foreign and native immigrants predominate in the Negro
population of the City. With such a stream of immigrants
the question arises about their marriage and family rela-
tionships. Are they largely single people, or are there
large numbers of married, widowed, or divorced persons
among them? The discussion next centers upon this point.

1 The miscellaneous includes the following: Australia 3, England 7,
East Indies 1, France 1, Germany 1, Hayti 1, India 2, Ireland 1,

Mexico 2, Monrovia, Africa 1, Porto Rico 9, Sandwich Islands 1,
Santo Domingo 2, South America 4.

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60 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [496

TasLe XIV.-—NATIVITY BY STATE OR COUNTRY OF BIRTH OF 365 WAGE
EarNERS, MANHATTAN, I9CQ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

\
a a | | a a
Country. 8 8 Country. 3] . | 8
S| 519) 3 s/s || s
Zi Z| Aa | Z2\/a|4]o
Berniida «cvsesenwe ea 4) 3.1); United States ......].+.- [sara 307 84.2
Georgia, «++. .++6 22! 6.0 veselivee
British West Indies.-.|--|--/21] 5.7|| Maryland........ 16 Aifoes val ox vs
Antigua, .se+eeeeee Blee[eelecee|| New York. .eeee-| 40, 11.0 ceeepaees
Barbadoes, -.--++++ 8|..j--{----]] North eee 35! 9.6 guenlorss
Grenada ...+.++++. L | eve| laze svete South Carolina, ../ 40 11,0 Saeetlowa
Jamaica, ... tj--|--[eeee|| Virginia, «02.065 108 29.6 ....[..--
Nassau... wt LT) well oie] wares Other States!....| 46 12.6 --+. eees
St. Croix .... see. 3i-+[+-|--++|] Miscellaneous ?....- oalicees 4 Wt
St. Kitts ...... eee] Tleelecieeso|| Unknown ..-.+seeeleeesleoee | 29 7.9
Trinidad ....+..++. I|esfesjeses Se ee
Island Unknown ... ae eel owes Total sansc-gaes as 365 100
\ i |

 

3. MARITAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS

The State Census of 1905 did not ask about the marital
condition, but only stated relationships to the head of the
family, so that the conjugal condition of women reported
as heads of families, of lodgers, and of adult sons and
daughters or other relatives in the family could not be as-
certained. Therefore, no attempt was made to give state-
ments about conjugal condition based on these returns.
However, in the personal canvass of 326 individuals, fif-
teen years of age and over, the marital condition was ob-
tained. The small number of cases included in Table XV
makes the figures and percentages presented valuable for
pointing only to what a larger body of data would prob-
ably make certain. It is important, therefore, to note that
113 out of 159 males, or 71.1 per cent, and 106 out of 167
females, or 63.5 per cent, were single, excluding those un-

1The other states of the Union are: Alabama 2, Arkansas 2, Delaware 2, Dis-
trict of Columbia 7, Florida 7, Illinois 1, Kentucky 4, Massachusetts 4, Missouri 3,

Ohio 2, Pennsylvania 3, Tennessee 2, Texas 2, Michigan 1, New Jersey 1, Rhode
Island 1, Porto Rico 2.

2 Miscellaneous: St. Martin 1, Ontario 1, British Guiana 2.

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497] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 61

known. This suggests what the age grouping would lead
us to expect, viz., that the Negro group in New York City
has a large proportion of unmarried persons. Table XV,
which follows, indicates this conclusion:

TABLE XV. MariTAL CONDITION OF 326 NEGRO WAGE-FARNERS, FIFTEEN
YEARS OF AGE AND Over, MANHATTAN, 1909.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male. Female. Total.

Marital condition. a

Per Per Per

Ma cent aioe cent mle: cent
Married....-.seeeeeeeee 26 16.3 30 17.9 56 17.2
Single sinesinsiewewewieseec 113 TL. 106 63.5 219 67.2
Widowed .eccescesesees 9 5.7 27 16.2 36 11.0
Divorced ......- sieaisegs 3 1.9 | sees aoe 3 0.9
Unknown ......--ee see 8 5.0 4 2.4 I2 3-7

Total ...-.......- 159 | 100. 167 | 100. | 326 | 100,

 

 

 

 

 

Now that the marital condition of the individuals has
been indicated, we may profitably inquire into the composi-
tion of the families.

4. FAMILIES AND LODGERS

An illuminating sidelight is thrown upon the general
condition of wage-earners by a study of the sizes of fami-
lies and the relation of lodgers to those families. The
figures used are those of the State Census of 1905 only, as
the number of complete families secured in the personal
canvass was too small. The points of importance are the
size of the economic family, which includes lodgers and all
others living under one head, and size of the natural family
when lodgers are excluded. The census returns of 1905

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62 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [498

showed relationship of each dweller in the household to the
head of the family. It was thus easy to separate lodgers,
except in some cases when relatives may have been lodgers
but were not so designated. Taking the 2,500 families as
a whole, with 9,788 individuals, the average size of the
family was three and nine-tenths persons. Of these, 2,631
individuals, 26.9 per cent were lodgers, and 7,157, or 73.1
per cent, were natural members. But these aggregates do
not portray actual conditions. A true picture may be ob-
tained from a more detailed study of the figures which show
that 119, or 4.8 per cent, of the economic families (which
includes all persons living under one head) consisted of an
individual living alone; 576, 23 per cent, of two persons;
531, 21.2 per cent, of the families had three members, while
478, 19.1 per cent, were composed of four members. Above
four, the percentages of families rapidly declined; 13.4
per cent of economic families had five members; 8.3 per
cent, six members; 5 per cent, seven members, down to
2.2 per cent, eight members; 1.4 per cent, nine members,
and 1.6 per cent, ten or more members. But the composi-
tion of these economic families is even more striking. To
illustrate, of a total of 576 economic families with two
members, 488 had no lodgers, and this was 36.1 per cent of
all the families without lodgers; out of 531 families of
three members each, 173 had one lodger, or 37.7 per cent
of all families having one lodger, and 67 families had two
lodgers each, or 20.6 per cent of all the families having
two lodgers. Further, 478 families of four members each
contained 133 families with two lodgers, 40.9 per cent of
all families having two lodgers, and 48 families had three
lodgers, 27 per cent of all families having three lodgers,
while only 84 families had one lodger, and 213 families,
less than one-half, 44.6 per cent of all families of four
members each, had no lodgers. Taking the entire 2,500

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499] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 63

families, only 1,353 families, or 54.1 per cent, had no
lodgers; 459, or 18.4 per cent of the total families, had
one lodger only; 325 families, or 13 per cent of the total,
had two lodgers only, while 320 families, or 12.8 per cent
of the total, had from 3 to 5 lodgers. This left 45, or 1.7
per cent, with 6 to 9 lodgers. In a phrase, the increase in
the size of the family means, as a rule, an increase in the
number of lodgers, and the relative proportion of natural
members probably decreases as the size of the family in-
creases, the proportion of lodgers increasing with the size
of the economic family.

Now this showing is not the effect of lodging-houses run
as business enterprises, except probably in the families ten
members or more, which constitute only 1.6 per cent of the
total 2,500 families. This condition is most probably due
in part to the fact—which both Census returns and personal
observation indicated but could not fully determine—that
many of the lodgers consisted of married couples, some-
times with one or two children, and of parts of broken
families. Furthermore, the high rents* which Negroes
have to pay, the limited area in which the opposition of
whites allows them to live, together with the small income
power due to the occupational field being largely restricted
to domestic and personal service, play a large part in forc-
ing families and parts of families to live thus crowded
together. This last point about income will be referred to
again in Chapter IV on Occupations and in Chapter V on
Wages. It is a cause for serious concern that only 54.1
per cent of the families had no lodgers, and this percentage

1 Real estate agents, who have handled properties during the change
from white to Negro tenants, testified that Negro families upon
moving in pay from $2.00 to $5.00 more per apartment. Others cor-
roborated their statements. Vide also, Chapin, Standard. of Living

in New York City, pp. 76-77.

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64 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [500

here will probably hold for the entire Negro population of
the City. If we exclude the 119 individuals living alone,
the families having no lodgers fall to 51.8 per cent.

This last phase of the lodger condition is emphasized if
presented in another way which shows the number of fami-
lies having a specified number of members, exclusive of
lodgers. For the same 2,500 families, it brings out from
another point of view the relation of the family to the lod-
gers. There is presented both the number and percent of
families that had a specified number of lodgers, and also, the
number and percent of families that had a specified number
of members exclusive of lodgers. For example, 178 fami-
lies had three lodgers each, which was 7.1 per cent of the
total 2,500 families. And of these 48 families had only
one other member; 57 had two other members; 36 had
three other; 23 four other; 9 five other; 3 six other, and 1
seven other. Out of 1,353 families that did not accommo-
date lodgers, 898 families, 67.8 per cent, had three mem-
bers or less. Of 1,147 families that did accommodate lod-
gers, 606, 52.8 per cent, had more lodgers than natural
members. And if we take the totals, 392, 15.7 per cent, of
the families had besides lodgers only one natural member;
909, 36.4 per cent, of the families had in addition to lod-
gers two members only, and 508, 20.3 per cent, had besides
lodgers three members only; 329 families, 13.2 per cent of
the total, had four natural members; 325, 12.9 per cent,
had five to seven natural members, and 38, 1.5 per cent, had
eight or more natural members. This makes it clear that
1,809 of the 2,500 families had three natural members or
less, if lodgers are not counted. To take a statement in a
percentage that probably will be applicable to the whole
City, one may say that, even including relatives who may
have been lodgers, 72.6 per cent of Negro families had
three members or less, if the lodgers are excluded—a fact

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501] GENERAL CONDITION OF WAGE-EARNERS 65

of almost startling social significance. All this is a cause
for serious concern, and any constructive steps for social
betterment should give attention to the causes and remedies
for this condition as one of the first and most urgent prob-
lems.

To sum up the general condition of wage-earners: The
Negro population has increased decade by decade, except
from 1840 to 1850 and from 1850 to 1860, preceding and
during the Abolition and Civil War crisis. It is made up
of young persons and adults in the vigorous working
period, and has a small number of children under fifteen
years of age. The population is recruited largely by im-
migrants from the South and the West Indies, who
do not survive or remain in the City to a very old age.
Among the wage-earners probably single people predomi-
nate. Largely because of high rents and low incomes, lod-
gers made up of married couples, parts of broken fami-
lies and of individuals seriously interfere with normal
family life. The families are usually very small in size,
from two to four persons, and an increase in the size of the
family generally means an increase in the number of
lodgers.

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' CHAPTER IV
OccUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS

I. AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF OCCUPATIONS

In the New Amsterdam Colony as early as 1628, slaves
were sought as a source of labor. These slaves were em-
ployed mainly in farm labor. In that year the Dutch West
India Company agreed to furnish slaves to the colonists
and the Company’s largest farm was “cultivated by the
blacks.” * Individuals were at liberty to import slaves for
the same purpose.” Both slaves and freedmen were used as
stevedores and deckhands for the Company’s vessels. The
slaves were also used in building and repairing the public
highways and in the repairing of Fort Amsterdam.* In
1680, mention is made of Negroes being used in house-
building.* About the same time Negro slaves were carrying
hod for wages, and in 1699 it was said that about the only
servants (probably meaning domestic servants) in the
Province of New York were Negroes. Freed Negroes
were indentured or hired for similar service.®

Negroes were mustered into the Colonial army as early
as 1698, and in the battle of Lake George in 1755, the
“blacks behaved better than the whites.” °

1 Williams, History of the Negro Race in America, vol. i, p. 135.
2 Colonial Doc., i, 364.

5 Laws of New York, 1691-1773, pp. 83, 156; Doc. relating to Colonial
History of New York, vol. i, 499; ii, 474.

* Doc. relating to Colonial History of New Vork, iii, 307.
5 [bid., ix, 875; iv, 511; Burghermen and Freemen, collection of New
York Historical Society, 1885, p. 569.
8 Ibid., 377 (London Doc. xi); ibid., vi, 1005 (London Doc, xxxii.)
“Letter from a gunner to his cousin.”
66 [502

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503] OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS 67

Under the Dutch government enfranchised and slave
Negroes were allowed to acquire and hold land. Some
took advantage of this privilege. But with English pos-
session of the colony it was expressly prohibited." Some
few Negroes were seamen as shown by the records of the
so-called Negro plot of 1741, and one Negro doctor, Harry
by name, was among those executed during the time of
that insane public excitement.?

From about 1835 until 1841 a weekly newspaper, The
Colored American, owned and published by Charles B.
Ray, Philip A. Bell and others, was published in New York.
It had an extensive circulation from Boston to Cincinnati.
From this source a number of employments and business
enterprises of Negroes in the New York of that period
were ascertained. The occupations included three car-
penters and joiners, five boot and shoe-makers, five tailors,
two music teachers, four teachers of private and evening
schools, one newspaper agent, one engraver, one watch and
clock-maker, one sign-painter, two dress and cloak mak-
ers.®

In this period between 1830 and 1860, there were many
engaged in domestic and personal service. Most of the
smaller hotels of the times had colored waiters. The
Metropolitan had about 60 or 70; other hostelries like the
Stuyvesant House, the Earls, the Clifford, and a number of
restaurants employed colored waiters. Some cooks and
barbers, who also applied leeches, treated corns, and did
other minor surgical services, were among this class of
wage-earners.

Three dentists, P. H. White, John Burdell, and Joshua
Bishop, two physicians, James McCune Smith and W. M.

1 Williams, op. cit., pp. 137, 142.
° Horsmanden, History of the Negro Plot, passim.
3 For business enterprises, see chap. v, pp. 96-7.

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68 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [504

Lively, and three ministers, H. W. Garnet, Chas. B. Ray,
and Peter Williams, were prominent persons of the period.

But these facts should not give the impression of un-
alloyed opportunity in the trades and professions, for the
columns of this same Negro newspaper were filled with
articles, editorials and appeals which indicate the difficul-
ties in that direction. This is further borne out by the tes-
timony of Charles S. Andrews, the white principal of the
Manumission Society School for Negroes. He said his
graduates left with every avenue closed against them and
spoke of difficulties those who had trades encountered,
many being forced to become waiters, barbers, servants,
and laborers.* That domestic and personal service fur-

nished employment for a large number of Negroes is fur-

ther shown by the organization of the United Public
Waiters’ Mutual Beneficial Association. This effort was
first started by twelve Negro caterers as a corporation to
control and keep up the quality of service both by looking
after the efficiency of the many waiters they employed and
by preventing “irresponsible men attempting to cater at
weddings, balls, parties, and some hotels on special occa-
sions.” Originally their constitution, framed in 1869,
stated the objects of the organization to be “ to consolidate
the business interests of its members; to encourage and
promote industrial pursuits followed by them; to give pre-
ference in patronage to its members.” ?

Five of the original corporators, among whom were
George Morris, George E. Green, and Charles W. Hope-
well, owned imported silver, china, and other caterers’
“service” ranging in valuation from about $1,000 to
$4,000, and all of them had ability to manage large ban-

quets and other social functions, supplying waiters, cooks, ;

etc. First smaller caterers, then waiters, were taken into

1 Quoted in Ovington, Half a Man, pp. 27-28.

2Constitution and By-Laws of the United Public Waiters’ Mutual

Beneficial Association.

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505 | OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS 69

the organization until the membership increased to more
than a hundred. And in 1872 they added the mutual benefit
features, “to insure both medical and brotherly aid when
sick and to assist respectably interring its deceased mem-
bers.” One of the caterers of the early corporation, W. E.
Gross, is yet in the business at the Bowery Savings Bank
and still serves for special occasions, now mainly among
Colored people. The organization as a benefit association
continued with varying fortunes down to 1905, when it
was dissolved by its remaining 33 members.

That there were many other waiters and servants of the
time is certain. A head-waiter of that day estimated the
number of colored hotel and restaurant waiters at between
400 and 500 in 1870.

2. OCCUPATIONS IN 1890 AND IQOO

By the time of the Federal censuses of 1890 and 1900
the Negro population in New York had grown to consid-
erable proportions, and for this increased population we are
fortunate in having full occupational returns. Although
these figures included all persons ten years of age and over,
those under fourteen years probably formed a negligible
part of the totals because the Child Labor Laws of the
State of New York prohibited the employment of children
under fourteen years of age.

It appears, as was expected, that the large majority of
Negro wage-earners were engaged in domestic and per-
sonal service. But it is significant that in 1890 there were
among the male population 236 bookkeepers, accountants,
etc., 476 draymen, hackmen, and teamsters, and 427 were
engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
Among the females, there were 418 dressmakers, 103 seam-
stresses, and 67 nurses and midwives.

The figures for 1900 show a large percentage of increase
in domestic and personal service. In occupations classed
under trade and transportation, Negro wage-earners in-
creased 450.3 per cent compared with an increase of 177.2

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70 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [506

per cent among native whites. Nor is this increase due en-
tirely to semi-personal service occupations for the class of
clerks, bookkeepers, etc., had increased from 236 in 1890
to 456 in 1900; draymen, hackmen, and teamsters num-
bered 1,439 in 1900 as compared with 476 in 1890, an in-
crease of 202.3 per cent. In manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits the percentage of increase during the ten years,
1890 to 1900, was 140.3 per cent, larger than that of the
native whites, 137.3 per cent. Only one occupation in this
class had a smaller increase of Negro workers than 75 per
cent. Machinists increased from 7 to 47; brick and stone
masons from 20 to 94, or 370 per cent; stationary engineers
and firemen from 61 to 227, or 271.1 per cent. Other com-
parisons indicate clearly a similarly favorable advance in
many occupations other than domestic and personal ser-
vice. Large allowances, of course, must be made for the’
errors in gathering the figures of the two censuses; yet
this does not account for all of the decided increases shown.
It must be accounted for on the ground that slowly the
walls of inefficiency on one side and of prejudice on the
other which have confined Negroes to the more menial and
lower-paid employments are being broken down. This
progress has come in the face of the fact that the more
ambitious and efficient individual is “tied to his group.” *

In 1890 and 1900 a large number of occupations could
not be included in the table because the figures for 1890
were not available. The comparison of the two censuses
shows clearly that there is for Negro wage-earners a prob-
able enlargement of the scope of peu eons outside of
domestic and personal service.

Table XVI below gives in detail the number and percent
of increase of the native white and Negro wage-earners,
ten years of age and over, engaged in selected occupations
in New York City in 1890 and 1900:

1 Ovington, op. cit., pp. 93-95.

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507] OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS 71

TaBLE XVI. NATIVE WHITE AND NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS, TEN YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER, ENGAGED IN SELECTED Occupations, New York City,
1890 AND 1900,!

 

 

 

Male.
x : t
Native white. Negro.
Occupation. 3
g g
aS a3
v vo
1890. | 1900. | © & |1890| rg00.| 9 8
wi » 6
o oD
Ay Pa

 

Domestic and personal service. .) 16,887) 42,621) 152.4) 4,975 27986 461.9

Barbers and hairdressers -...| 1,017 1,936 60.9; III 215| «+e.
Bartenders .....+-..++5--+4] 25530] 5,776! 128.3] 29 84 .

Janitors and sextons ........ 712} 2,037} 186.2) 336 800} 118.6
Laborers (not classified) . 8,807, 26,669; 203.1) 882) 3,719] 352.4

? Servants and waiters ......| 3,821/ 6,473} 69.4' 3,647) 6,280| 72.2
Trade and transportation ..... | 69,162 170,350} 146.3' 1,520} 5,338] 450.3

  

Boatmen and sailors ..... e+e] 1,024) 3,675] 258.9) 106 145} 36.8
®Bookkeepers and accountants} 34,960| 16,526, ......| 236 BS|. «cian
Clerks and copyists »..-.s20e) eeeeee 62,921] --seceiesoee 423] «wee
Draymen, hackmen, teamsters,

CC. ssscasweeres seeeeee| £2,908! 31,695} 145.5] 476] 1,439] 202.3
SHostlers ..- . sees] ° 840] 1,659) -+--+-| 100] 633) «ee
4 spre

' tg reds 10,578 [ 355
Packers and shippers..-..... B71T) 4 aozs 17-4) 559 | 3 Pe 347-4
Porters and helpers (in stores) | * 57 1143
Salesmen........ ceceeeecse| 8,398} 29,889] 255.0) 15 94} 526.7
Steam railroad employees...-| 3,321 7,224) 121.1) 28 7O| 150.0

Manufacturing and mechanical
PUISUitS ©- +2 eee eeeeeees| 30,180) 71,613) 137-3) 427| 1,026] 140.3

Blacksmiths ...++ses++eeeee| 1,169] 2,490] 113.0) 9 29) «eee
Masons (brick and stone) .-./ 2,278) 5,032} 120.1; 20 94| 370.0
Painters, glaziers and varnishers.| 5,805) 12,947] 123.0! 99) 177; 78.8
Plasterers «22+... eee pe ater 7OI; 1,592} 127.1; 10 51) 410.0
Plumbers, gas and steam fitters} 5,225] 12,355/ 136.4) 11 31 aes

Carpenters and joiners -..-++) 43712) 11,471) 143.4] 33 94 184. 8
Tobacco and cigar factory

operatives »..++ee--eeeeee| 1,940 2,182] 12.0 146 189} 29.4
Tailors... sceeeesereeeeeee! 2,200 4,545| 106.6) 20 69) 245.0
Upholsterers .-----++sseee- 860 1,447) 68.2; IT 18] 63.3
Engineers and firemen (not I |

locomotive) -+-seesseere+) 2,622 8,129, 210.0, 61 227| 272.1
Machinists ..+.-+ssesseeee+| 2,368 9,423! 297.9 7 47| sees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I,
NA Total .. 0 eee eee ee eee (116, 204 284,584] 144.8] 6,922] 34,321; 395.8

 

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72 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [508
TABLE XVI.— Concluded.
Female.
Native white. Negro.
Occupation. = .
2% 8
eo go
1890. | 1900, ° 8 -| 1890.) Ig00, | ° 3
3 -_ & =
Au Ay
Musicians and teachers of music. 950| 2,581) 171.7} 24 73| 204.2:
Housekeepers and stewardesses. 797| 2,421! 203.8] 83 226! 172.3
Laundresses .....-+-000 eeeee| 1,416] 4,320) 205.7) 1,526) 3,224] 111.3
Nurses and midwives..........' 1,220] 4,416] 262.0] 67 290] 332.8
5 Servants and waitresses .....- 11,140] 22,616 103.0, 3,754} 10,297] 174.3
Cletks and copyists .......-+.+- 2,505! 7,811] 419.0 5 22] vane
Bookkeepers and accountants -., 1,492! 6,998) 360.0 2}. TO} cease
Stenographers and typewriters--| 1,356} 9,518] 601.9 3 Iq] wees
Saleswomen .......- seeeeeoee! 7,470) 18,315] 144.7 4 13) wae
Dressmakers ....--++ee0e sees] 13,106} 22,137, 68.9] 418 813} 94.5
Seamstresses .-.eeeee see eee -| 4,206} 7,855) 86.7) 103 249} 141.7
Total ...-+...ee2+++00! 45,664) 108,997, 138.5] 5,989] 15,231] 154.3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OCCUPATIONS IN I905

In the 2,500 families, composed of 9,788 persons, 1,859
were excluded because of their being under fifteen years of
age and 82 were excluded because, although members of
wage-earning families, they themselves were either in a
professional occupation, or were engaged in a business

NOTES FOR TABLE XVI.

' Eleventh Census, Part ii, Population, p. 704. Occupations for Negroes in
1890 are approximately accurate as Chinese, etc., made up less than 10 per cent.
of the total Colored population. Twelfth Census, Special Rep., Table 43, Occupa-

tions, pp. 634-640.

? In 1890 occupation marked only “ servants.”

5 Includes livery-stable keepers in 1890.

* Messengers, packers, and porters, etc., classed together in 1890,
5 1900, “servants and waitresses;” 1890, “ servants.”

© Includes clerks, etc., in 1890.

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509] OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS 73

enterprise on their own account. This left 7,847 individ-
ual wage-earners, 3,802 of whom were male and 4,045
were female. Both the male and the female wage-earners
show a very large percentage employed in domestic and
personal service, 40.2 per cent male and 89.3 per cent
female, a large percentage of whom doubtless were married
women and widows with children. But it is to be noted
as important that among the males, 20.6 per cent were en-
gaged in some occupation classified under Trade and 9.4
per cent under Transportation. While some of these occu-
pations may differ little in character from domestic and
personal service, yet the occupations that are entirely re-
moved from that classification are sufficient in number to
show, as did the figures for 1890 and 1900, the possibility
of Negroes in considerable numbers securing a scope of
employment which includes other occupations than those of
domestic and personal service.

The State Census figures are more detailed than those
of the Federal Census. For example, under domestic and
personal service, the Federal Census has grouped together
male waiters and servants, while the State Census figures
have been tabulated separately. It is also probable that the
classification in 1890 and 1900 included wage-earners who
were classified differently in 1905 and vice versa. And in
1905 professional occupations as well as all persons doing
business on their own account were excluded. Differences
in the figures may, therefore, be allowed.

Table XVII, which follows, shows the latest figures
available on the scope of employment of Negro wage-
earners :

1 Cf. Ovington, op. cit. pp. 56-57, 144-145.

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74 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [510

TABLE XVII. OccupATIONS OF NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS, FIFTEEN YEARS OF AGE
AND OVER, MANHATTAN, 1905.!

 

 

 

 

   

   

MALE
Occupation, Totals. | No, | Per cent
Public service .-----++e+++ sees See ee . 55 oe 1.4
Sailors and mariners (U.S.).-..eeeeeeeeeeeeee| vere 3 eines
Federal employees , custom house, immigration, etc.)} ---- 6) see
Post office (clerks) ..--.+--+-++ ine ee 13
Post office (carriers).....-+. eee 9 eee
Street cleaning department ..... see ates 23 sa06
Miscellaneous. ...00--+- ce eeeeeeeeoee I Bis
Domestic and personal service ......-- vey gres Siadoarie «+| 1,527 ae 40.2
Barbers ..+...-- Rie eek ps Rega e: Than)” wets 27 aan
Bartenders ..-.-.-seeeeseee shale pedesGieeee ssl. sek DAy | ava
Bellmen and doormen .....--- «+++ sees 154 4.0
Bootblacks ..-cseccseee scescecesnens 7 Pees 2 Haat
Butlers..... ea eaeeeeeee eee eens 41 .
Chauffeurs .-..+-+--006- sees z Qi sees
Cleaners (house, etc.) ...-.- 15 wets
Coachmen....... fi boas 1 be RA OR Re EROKeewCaR) 4 eee 68 1.8
COORD ccxe eed 45 bende dn vb baa 8 Sane aa wwe naw. 110 2.9
Cooks (dining car)....- ee cece eeeee ceceee| cease 7) sass
Chimney sweeps... ese reee eeeceer eee missioréicie Slt, Severe Zl] see
Domestic servants (not specified) eevee sencceee! sees 12 eves
Elevatormen....s-secesce cere seecere ee shesdlly | vaeeeeut 365 9.6
Hallmen (hotel, etc.)..-.++s-+- siaveoaice ally -sevovens go 2.4
Hotel i nAgE Ses aK SS sisegietosawes mn wees 3 sieiee
Housemen .-..-+ese00- ve ccee neces 3 29 ovaneye
Janitors and caretakers. esss2+ esses vereseese sists 83 2,2
Stewards - wane nn cee nscoe eens peeecarreres| sane 38 eaters
VAaletS cc ceaweuw cee ene snne aon ReneS Fees asin 18 wees
Waiters sccm seus so ce sis ate apesireetareiece el eeiwde oll Caspers 425 11.2
Miscellaneous...-...-+.+00+- erraiabetednelaye Case eee saris 5 aaiete
Manufacturers and mechanical pursuits......-.-+++; 300 oees 79
Asphalt layers ......-.+. eee ae menace en te rees wh: Jere 6 :
Blacksmiths ...-.---. saab s eset Rae eer ease) ena Bi rarete
Carpenters cece eeee cece ee cece e nen eee ness cece] tees 18 ee
Carnlechoners p< oss sien vent exeueseew os censaw rel, wane 3 .
Drill runners ..----s-ee-+- sdieelea tases ese wala 5 e

 

 

 

 

1In classifying these occupations, some departure has been made from the
Federal Census arrangement. Those engaged in Public Service have been sep-
arated from Domestic and Personal Service, while Trade and Transportation are
tabulated separately; a few occupations have been put in an unclassified list,
while one or two occupations are included that might possibly be regarded as
professional. This rearrangement, however, does not prevent comparison with
previous Federal Census classification, and it is hoped that it is in line with sub-
sequent classifications,

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51i] OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS

75

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TABLE XVII.— Continued
MALE
Occupation. Totals. | No, | Per cent
Manufacturers and mechanical pursuits— Continued.
Electricians. ..........4. aivaieiswiiein aes o's'e Gunde & all ayia 3 oe ate
Engineers (not locomotive)..... SGA sew ewecwmel sists 48 sais
Firemen ee ee eee sjaiete sree’ eyerare 19 eee
Factory employees (not specified) ......--s.eeee| sone 6 ones
Hodcarriers ...0.-eeeee eee Sioa Hoeceusls Muensesias 3 Ql sens
Harness and saddlemakers ee eee ties Ses eaieael eee 3 2 savers
Cigarmakers .......++. teen ne cee tec eens tenes ° 32 | asee
KalsOminets caw sves 06d s scsasiies commewsnowate ade 8 aah
Machinists ..........- errr reer ones oe 12 cane
Mechanics (automobile, ‘bicycle, CLC.) vane ee ee ene zee Q.|| sae
Masons (stume) ----++ sees eeeees ‘ee e@eeeareces! Gaee 2 oi
Masons (brick) -..e--cceecece successes veces ah aed 8 ie
Masons (not specified)-.-+.--sesses cee eres esac! caer 5 .
Painters and decorators «-.es-e0 seeeeeee ceenee ei 26 ees
Plasterers wclisa sess cea viiwerseueeweren eeeeadal esis lO
Plumbers, steam and gas fitterS...--eeseseeee ene | prea 5 ais
Printers and compositors .--.esseseeeeeceeeeese Base 14 Saat
Shoemakers and repairers «+--+ +s++ cess cece reeves 2 6 | wee.
Tailors... .+4. sisiacattandele: dia aieSieco ea Tate Sh Sis Sees oe - 20 aie
Miscellaneous......- diietier wiseeas eka SARA el aia 22 Tee
Trade .cccsccccccecenc en cecc cs senneenencns cone 783 os 20.6
Agents (real estate) ....00-.-- cece tees eeeeeeee ete 4 | sees
Bookkeepers ----+--++-+++ oeeiee-ec eisisuarerateieisusts aikia 3 eee
Clerks (office, banks, Bia) sca nere nto aioe hases sist II 5
Shipping clerks -...+--+--+e sees ce 9 eaten
Clerks and salesmen (in stores, etc.) - . be eae 63 1.7
Laundry employees....+- +20 se seeeee eens cece eae 13 saa
Messengers, errand boys and office boys ------++-|  -+-- 60 1.6
Watchmen ........-+-- aie: are geecs aie lbanemsarare will) <haes 10 stats
Porters (stores, €tc.)--+++-++ see we 587 15.4
Stenographers ...... one 4 tees
Miscellaneous .....--+-- °: 19 aides
Transportation ...-.+.+-- aycverea seeeteee eeeeeeeoe] 359 aie 9.4
Boatmen and seamen ..-- sees eeeeere ee Sieur Benes 17 nee
Expressmen, truckmen and drivers..... sac er eene] coos 119 3.1
Hostlers and stablemen .-- +++ e+eeeccececere o| aes 47 1.2
Longshoremen.....---+ satererive ee ae ae 3 3 75 2,0
Porters (railway) --+-++-+.+-- ee ee vt wees 83 2.2
Porters (street railway) +--+ ++ +esceeeereeecrece| sone 7 wale
Steamship company (not specified) «..-++ssseeee]  eoee 4 cae
Street railway (mot specified) «.-.-eessseseeeees| sees 3) sees
Telephone operators. ++ -ececsreeccceeceeteeee! sees 3 pate
Car Cleaner... ssescecccececcccscceccseceeeee|! cree I sees
Unclassified ..sscccccccccvcccecccncccesscssecee 778 an 20.5
Gatd Gatien acc ok cs cen ewan Leh Se RS ERE a 3 uaa
Laborers (not specified) .-++1+sseesesrecrecs one - 616 16.2
Musicians and musical performers ..-.--++-+- +++ j ae 55 1.4
Foremen (not specified) «+++ seeesecsesceeees| cece 4 || «wane
Theatrical (not specified) .. avaratie aitiaa a eterere ef Shia 6 ites
Unknown ....eccccecc veces coccererecesccens “Ree 94 | ;
Total for all occupations .--.++++++++ 3,802 ;

 

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76 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [512

TABLE XVII.— Concluded

 

 

 

 

 

FEMALE
Occupation. Totals. | No. | Per cent
Domestic and personal service. .....++-+++ cencecee| 35456 os 89.3
Chambermaids ......scccesenscceccsecccccrsne! cases 22 at
COOKS «eee eeeeceeecsene Bidets is erdiadie we aes Sete wie Se 149 one
Day workers Out -.eessseece se recc cence cece rece! sees 19 Sih
Domestic servants (not specified)..+-.sseeseeee+] cere 88 2.3:
Hairdressers ...-.+.eeeeeeees mia eee Seu anes sisi||| “sessiens 6 ees
Manicurists and masseurs...... +++ a) 0s cidcaietalcsoe gill) sears 18 sara
Housekeepers ..--+.----00- Piss ile WO Niele OSes aeinve 60 wees
HOuUsewives ccccsecssccnscccccccsevesesescees| soe 5t aise
General housework (Wages) ..-eseseeseceeeceee| cone 720 18.6
General housework (not specified) ........-- seee| cece 115572 | cove
Janitress and caretakers «20.25 cee eee scene ceees| cece 28 |...
Laundresses «2s. seceeecocerecscecncevcecccens| cans 543 14.0
Ladies’ maids......++.++- coerce nennes ears neem 23 ones
Maids (not specified) .......... se ececeeeeenees| caee 80 2.1
NUISéS. 6.05 5.4552 6 saees sarciowsee ee toes esev an oe ve 21 oes
Waitresses .seseseerecccceeecccocce sees teens sees 47 saree
Miscellaneous.......+++- sueaauteios sree ains,|| wieGte 4 was
Trade: ssc eects sac eceacaceuws 25 ais 0.6
Bookkeepers ..eseeseecee recs evees ean i a re
Clerks and saleswomen.....-.. site 6 ene.
Stenographers and typewriters.. eves 8 Swine
Miscellaneous......-. svoveterola ois ai 9 ewe
Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits....--++.++. 564 +. 55
Dressmakers.... sees eeeeceee s sees 164 4.2
Garment workers......-0+. oe ais 18 5
Milliners .....2 eevee ceens sii 5 ones
Seamstress@S: . + aeccee sees eng ace soau uw 16 Ks
Tailors’ assistants.....0+ seeceeserees wae 3 aie
Miscellaneous..... 4d ERIE ERR GREED LEAS 5 PERE, Cede 6 es
Unclassified) sie:é:s sa 'sie se catarate wisreistee save sieieie 6 6 06° sis er 176 ae 4.6
Telephone operators. ..sseeececescccerersesers| cove I ene
Unknow, «sissies cise easinasicsionsweeevsaw decal wars 175, | «vee
Total for all occupations. ......:.eeseeeeeee| 4,045 oe aes

 

 

 

 

Before leaving the subject of the restricted scope of oc-
cupations among Negroes, something should be said of the
far-reaching effects this restriction has upon the life of
the wage-earners. Negroes are crowded into these poorer-

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513] OCCUPATIONS OF WAGE-EARNERS 77

paid occupations because many of them are inefficient and
because of the color prejudice on the part of white work-
men and employers.* Both of these influences are severe
handicaps in the face of the competition in this advanced
industrial community.

Restricted thus to a few occupations, there is a larger
number of competitors within a limited field with a conse-
quent tendency to lower an already low wage scale. In this
way the limitations of occupational mobility react upon in-
come, producing a low standard of living, the lodger evil,
and social consequences pointed out below (pp. 80, 89,
144 ff).

To sum up the occupational condition of Negro wage-
earners: The large majority of Negroes are employed to-
day in occupations of domestic and personal service. This
is partly the result of the historical conditions of servitude,
of a prejudice on the part of white workmen and employ-
ers, which restricts them to this lower field, and of the in-
efficiency of Negro wage-earners for competition in occu-
pations requiring a higher order of training and skill. The
steady increase in 1890, 1900 and 1905 of numbers em-
ployed in occupations other than personal and domestic ser-
vice is prophetic of a probable widening scope of the field
of employment open to them.

‘In a canvass of business establishments 12 manufacturers, 1 archi-
tect, 3 plumbers and: steam-fitters, 2 printing firms, 10 contractors
and builders and 3 miscellaneous—37 total—1z2 were decidedly against
employing Negroes, 9 giving as a reason the objections of their
white workmen; 13 were non-committal, and 12, 10 of whom were
builders and contractors, offered or gave employment to Negroes
above the average competency; cf. Ovington, op. cit., pp. 91-98.

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CHAPTER V

WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS

THE question of wages and working efficiency are so
closely related that they can be better treated together than
separately. The material for this part of the monograph
has been gathered from three sources, namely: a personal
canvass, the records of employment agencies for personal
and domestic help, and the statement of union rates pub-
lished by the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics. It has
not been possible to calculate the time loss by the worker,
and therefore any estimate of annual income based upon
the figures given must be made on the assumption of a full
year of work. This, of course, is not the actual case, es-
pecially with many wage-earners in domestic and per-
sonal service.

I. WAGES IN DOMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE

The Employment Agencies’ Law of New York City re-
quires that each agency keep a careful and accurate record
of the wages of those for whom they secure situations, as
well as written references from former employers of each
applicant. Since inspectors from the Bureau of Licenses
have access to these records at any time, they are probably
carefully kept. The material on wages which has been
taken largely from these sources has been arranged to show
the number of individuals who receive a specified wage, be-
ginning at less than $4.00 and running by $1.00 groups up
to $9.00 and over. There follows (p. 80) a table covering
682 males in twenty-four occupations and 2,138 females in

78 (514

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315] WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 79

twenty-five occupations from 1906 to 1909. It will be
noted that in some cases two occupations are given under
one heading such as elevator and switchboard, or cook and
laundress. In these cases, the individual is paid the same
for the two branches of work; so far as the wage is con-
cerned it is one occupation. It is significant that out of a
total of 682 males, 513, or 75.2 per cent, received wages
under $6.00 per week and that 141, or 20.7 per cent, re-
ceived between $6.00 and $8.99 per week, while only 4.1
per cent received $9.00 or more per week. With the
females, the showing is even more unfavorable. Out of a
total of 2,138 females, 1,971, or 92.2 per cent, received less
than $6.00 per week, and of these 1,137, or 53.2 per cent,
received less than $5.00 per week. Of those receiving $6.00
or more per week, only 8 out of 2,138, or .04 per cent, re-
ceived as much as $9.00 or more per week.

Of course, many of these wage-earners are furnished
their meals in addition to wages; some have meals and
room. In some cases question may arise about the effect of
lodgings furnished by the employer upon the wages paid
his domestic help, but both from the testimony of the em-
ployment agent and from statements made in the records,
it does not appear that wages are different whether the ser-
vants “sleep in” or “sleep out.” There are no data to
show whether or not consideration of car-fare had any
effect on the wages.

An inspection of the list of occupations for which these
wages are given and the fact that they were employed in
private families (see Table XVIII below) show that com-
paratively few of these wage-earners had opportunity to
receive any considerable money from tips. This is especi-
ally true of the females. We may take, therefore, the fig-
ures of the table as probably giving an accurate statement
of the wages received in domestic service in New York
City during the four years, 1906 to 1909.

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80 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [516

When one considers the probable dependents on many of
these wage-earners, the high rents and high cost of food,
he is not surprised to find that about half of these fami-
lies take lodgers (see p. 64), and that a majority of
the women are bread-winners (see p. 73). He sees
the poorly-paid domestic service on the one side and on
the other the cost of living as high walls bounding a nar-
row, restricted road that leads to a low standard of living
and to social and economic disease. Table XVIII shows
the picture in full relief:

TABLE XVIII. WEEKLY WaGEs BY GROUPS OF WAGE-EARNERS FOR SELECTED
OCCUPATIONS IN DoMESTIC AND PERSONAL SERVICE, NEw York Clty,

 

  

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

1906-1909.!
MALE
Less | $4.00] $5.00] $6.00] $7.00 $8,001 $9.00
Occupations. than| to to to to , to | and Total.
$4.00. $4.99.'$5.99. $6.99.|$7.99. $8.99.' over.
Bartenders. ....2++e+esee0 vaneset li Gayeseres |) Sean |! asatetee 4 swcearar He ebauate I I
Bellmen .....2eeeeeecceses 3 I ane i 4
Blacksmiths...... eseesceee Bide eats, | aote" | Aree Fe I 2
Butlers..ccsee wisi sascees wie te 4,18 4; 4 Alesse | 41
Butler and cook ....-.-ee0. iT 1 T| acess I 3
Coachmen ..-.--eeeseeeeee eee fi Bit adiess Bl esas I 5
Cooks, sssceeceeeccevccnce meh 2) 3 I 5| 31 14] 8
Elevator....+seseeeeseeeee aoa 20, 141; 20 Zicece|ecee, 184
Elevator and switchboard ...| .... I 21 I] esne | eee | cece 23
Elevator and hallboy....... arhiein:'|/saieyeee DB) isin aces|| sererere {lh agiensver|| waate 2
Firemen, ...0e+ecsceecreee I I Io] .... 10 2 2| 26
Furnacemen oe = ave Tl cn-dieve 1. 2
Gardeners ....--++-+-+ 005 wee 2 2)... 1. . 5
Hallmen and doormen...... 5} 26 «5 2 |. 49
Housemen, .....ssseeeeees 2 7, I 3 4 I 1; 29
Janitors secceeeccceesecece sees 3 4 1 3! 2 1) 14
Kitchenmen. .....-++eseees 6) 2m; 4 Bi waes..| 4t
Errand and office boys...... I 8. By, sierace Tj sees | ones 13
Pantrymen....es secseesees sees | eeee Dense: [oeieseiecy wiayeies | aa 1
Porters. ....+. ts eesaceenes I 2 9 5} 14 10 6 47
Stablemen ....-..ceceeceee 4] cece [even | cree | eee | eee | weer 4
Switchboard vésnnissveanes ies 7 7 I Ss xq 4 wees 16
Usefulmen, .......... .- 5} 31; 31 5 ee . 74
Waiters 22, 31 7 6 1 1) 68
'
Total ...--++ssseeeeee/ 29, 160, 324) 53 64 24, 28 682
Per cent. ..ssseeceeeee 4-2, 23.5, 47.5] 7.8) 9.4 3.51 4.1] 100
1 1

 

 

 

1 Day’s work, 1 at $1.00 a day, 7 at $1.25 a day, and 15 at $1.50 a day.

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517] WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 81

TABLE XVIII.— Concluded.
FEMALE

 

, Less | $4.00) $ $5.00. ys 00] $7.00; $8.00] $9.00
Occupations. than| to | to | t to | to | and |Total.

$4.00. $4.99. $5.99. $69 99. $7.99./$8.99.| over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

al

Chambermaid ......sesee- 13 56 18) wes 2 We Sv yy 90
Chamb. and cook ........-. wince I 3] sees [wae | oes | cave 4
Chamb. and laundress ...... I 6 9 By cssteis: || 90:54>|| S00 te 18
Chamb. and seamstress ..... areoaies | eauele I x I
Chamb. and waitress ......- 32| 197| 8o].... 2 I|....| 310
Cleaner . seeccccaccsescnes wea. | werd Ilasee | wees 2 2D) aorse 4
LOOK o waeeenss waver ewusss a Oo} 131 8 12 26
Cook and general housework.) .... "A 3 ave : se iG Sisseiss | case A
Cook and laundress. ....... I 54! 104) 5 3 167

Cook and waitress ......... aris 5 | viscsusver | cointaces | veivaeues| 0 a7a8
Errand girl . ea Vs eee He By sate gees sneer | [toss lavati aeyaeasae t avelets I
General Teotisewark s2us's3 a0 82 472. 399] 22 Gl cess i eeee| 979
Laundress ...+-0+.-eee cece 3 28! 23 4 Bisse sven oreras 0
Laund. and general housework) .... Diss on. seataye estore se I
Laund. and waiiress.......- sient 4 I Bi) voceeses| he 6
Maid... 5.5. cece ceescceee 3 6 3 4 1. 17
Maid (house and parlor) .... I 4 2\. sta I 8
Maid (kitchen) ........+... 5 13: 5| - «|. 23
Maid and seamstress .....-+, »..- Ti seee | wens | caee | coco | ween I
Nurse ...- eee eee ce ee eee 13 9; Dl ween | eee] cone | ween 24
Pantry girl, ......eeeeeee oe saree 2i Z| sees'en |e wre | @usseier| eee 3
Switchboard sel gas 21 -stesieel|) Bans fase | eum | Ee 2
Waitress... sees seen recace Io) 78 46 2 Tenis l ance | 197
Dishwasher ...-----.eeeee0| see Tl seco | seen | one | coon | cece 1
PUCW DOSE saakwawe chase we ae repans rae) ae ead | omelet || nas I I
pee — = po ee
Wotal. wisasiwweesa ss sas 165) 972| 834) 78] 64, 17 8 2138
Per cent. s+ seeeeeeece 7-7 45:51 39.0) 3.6, 3.0; 0.8! 0.4] 100

 

 

 

 

 

 

The earnings in hotel service play such an important
part in the income of males of the Negro group, that some
special note was taken of wages for waiters and bellmen.
Records of 249 waiters in Manhattan and 46 waiters in
Brooklyn showed that they received $25.00 per month, not
including tips. Forty-nine bellmen received $15.00 to
$20.00 per month, exclusive of tips. Out of these wages
lodging and car-fares must usually be paid, and besides uni-
forms and laundry are not small items of expense.

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82 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [518

2. WAGES IN OTHER OCCUPATIONS

The wages of skilled trades do not affect the larger part
of the Negro population, because so small a percentage are
engaged in these occupations, as reference to the occupa-
tional tables in Chapter IV will show. But the numbers are
increasing, for there is a constant struggle of Negro wage-
earners to rise to these better-paid occupations. Colored
carpenters have a local branch of the Amalgamated Car-
penters and Joiners Union; there is a street-pavers union,
with about a third of the membership Colored men, and
the Mechanics Association is composed of Negro artisans
of all kinds who wish mutual help in securing and holding
work. Since Negroes who are union men are reported to
receive the same wages as white workmen, the approximate
union wages in 1909 for such skilled occupations as had a
considerable number of Negro males will be a good index.
The approximate number of Negro union members in 1910
and union wages in 1909 were about as follows:* Asphalt
pavers and helpers, Negro union members 350, rate of
wages, pavers $2.50 per day, helpers $1.75 per day; rock-
drillers and tool sharpeners, Negro members 240, em-
ployed by the hour, average daily earnings $2.77; cigar-
makers, Negro members 165, piece-workers, average daily
earnings $2.00; carpenters, Negro members 40, rate of
wages $4.50 per day; stationary engineers, Negro mem-
bers 35, rate of wages, $3.00-$3.50 per day, average
weekly earnings, $21.00; bricklayers, Negro members 21,
rate of wages $0.70 per hour, average daily earnings
$5.60; plasterers, Negro members 19, rate of wages $5.50

1 Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, Annual Report, 1909,
PP. 444-595. Figures for Negro members of unions are from Ovington,
op. cit., pp. 97-99. Miss Ovington’s table seems to show that in 16
occupations the number of Negro members of unions increased from
about 1,271 in 1906 to about 1,358 in 1910.

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519] WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 83

per day; printers (compositors), Negro members 8, aver-
age weekly earnings, $24.00; coopers, Negro members 2,
average daily earnings $2.50; lathers, Negro members 7,
average daily earnings $4.50; sheet-metal workers, Ne-
gro members I, rate of wages $4.50 per day. It is evident
that cmpared with the large number of Negro workers
few are engaged in the skilled trades, join the unions, and
thus enter into the more highly-paid occupations.

3. EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS

The efficiency of wage-earners attaches itself to the ques-
tion of wages. For domestic and personal service, a rich
deposit of first-hand material was available in the written
testimonials, secured by employment agencies, from the
former employers of each applicant seeking work. This
is a requirement of the Employment Agencies’ Law. The
investigator found two employment agencies which had
used a printed blank for securing, this testimony from
former employers of applicants. These blanks asked four
questions which are pertinent to the matter of efficiency,
and an additional space was left for further remarks. The
questions called for answers on the following points: (1)
length of time employed, whether applicant was (2) ca-
pable, (3) sober or temperate and (4) honest.

In all, 10,095 such blanks were sent out by the agencies
during 1906-1909. About 3,000 were returned. Of these
about 1,800 replies were excluded from this tabulation be-
cause they were received from employers outside of New
York, because they were not completely filled out, or were
not signed by the parties replying. For this study, 1,182
cases were used. Of these 139 were returned by the Post
Office Department as unclaimed, 21 were returned unan-
swered, while 20 replied that the parties were never in
their employ. So there were left 902 complete cases.

These give a fair indication of the whole. The first

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84 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [520

point of efficiency is the length of service to one’s employer
The records of 100 males do not furnish a sufficient num-
ber of cases for any sweeping generalization, yet consid-
erable light is given by the percentages. These show that
30 out of the 100 remained with one employer less than
five months; that 24 remained six to eleven months, and 17
from one year to one year and eleven months, while 25
were in one place for more than two years. Special men-
tion may be made of the five following cases: One of them
remained five years, one seven years, one six years, one
eight years, and one ten or eleven years, with the same em-
ployer.

For the females, the percentages will apply well to all
who are wage-earners in domestic and personal service.
Here, also, the largest percentage, 24.1 per cent, remained
in one place from six to eleven months; 21.3 per cent re-
mained three to five months; 16.7 per cent remained one
year to one year and eleven months, and fair percentages
obtain for the longer terms of service: namely, 5.2 per cent
two years to two years and eleven months, and 9 per cent
three years or more. Of those in one place of service for
three or more years, five remained four years; two, four
years and a half; nine, five years; three, six years; four,
seven years; two, eight years; one, twelve years; three,
fifteen years, and one, “ eighteen years off and on;” in all,
a total of thirty in 802 cases that were in one place of em-
ployment more than three years.

When the shifting life of such a great city and the mobile
character of modern wage-earners, especially in domestic
and personal service, are considered, and when it is remem-
bered that the Negro population because of unusual need
of adjustment to city life feels particularly this unstable
current of influence, this showing of lengthy service for
occupations which have weak tenures of service in all coun-

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521] WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 85

tries can be interpreted in no other way than favorable for
the reputation of Negro domestic help.
The table, next following, gives the detailed length of
service for the cases covered by the go2 testimonials:
TABLE XIX. SHOWING LENGTH OF SERVICE FOR 902 WAGE-EARNERS IN

SELECTED OCCUPATIONS OF PERSONAL AND DOMESTIC SERVICE,
New York City, 1906-1909.

 

 

 

 

Male. Female. Total.
Per Per Per
Nes cent Ne: : cent Ne, cent
Under 3 months ........ 19 19 149 | 18.6 168 18.6
From 3 to 5 months ..... II 12 17I | 21.3 182 20.2
From 6 to 1 months .... 24 24 193 24.1 217 24.1
Lyr. to I yr. 11 mos..... 17 17 134 16.7 151 16.7
2 yrs. to 2 yrs. II mos.... II Il 42 5.2 53 5-9
3 yrs. and over -...4..00- 14 14 72 9.0 86 9.5
Not stated......sseeseee 4 4 41 5.1 45 5.0
Total cs s.ciscc aes 100 100.0 802 | 100.0 go2 | 100.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

The above favorable conclusion, seemingly biased and
against the current opinion, is further borne out by the
other replies as to whether the employee had been capable,
sober or temperate, and honest.

Some allowances should be made in weighing employers
on these last points. Many when asked to speak of former
employees have either probably forgotten points of ineffi-
ciency, or do not wish to stand in the way of subsequent
employment, or desire to aid the party in securing such
employment. Sometimes also answers are strong commen-
taries onthe hard character of the employers. But when
these things are given due weight there still remains a de-
cided balance in favor of the Negro employee. For, of the
100 males, 27 were certified as very capable; 68 as capable,
4 as fairly so, and only one out of 100 received the con-

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86 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [522

demnation, “ decidedly no.” As to their sober or temperate
character, 9 were regarded as excellent, 78 employers said
“yes,” one replied “fairly so,” 11 returned the cau-
tious statement “so far as I know” or “I think so,” and
one did not answer. As to honesty, they received on the
whole good certificates; 12 of the 100 were considered very
honest, 81 honest, 4 were placed in the cautionary class,
while 3 employers gave no statement on this point.

The testimony for female help shows a tendency as fav-
orable. Taking the percentages which are more significant
than the crude numbers, 25.4 per cent were considered very
capable, 8.9 per cent very temperate, and 28.2 per cent very
honest. 59 per cent of the replies said “ Yes” as to their
capability, 81.9 per cent said “ Yes” as to temperateness
and 62.8 per cent gave an affirmative answer on honesty.
This makes the decidedly affirmative replies 84.4 out of
the hundred capable, 90.8 of the hundred temperate, and
QI out of the hundred honest. Of the employers’ testi-
mony, classified as “ fairly so,” there were 10.5 per cent
under capable, 0.1 per cent under “sober or temperate,”
and 0.4 per cent under honest. Those replying “so far as
I know” or “I think so,” 0.5 per cent were under capable,
6.5 per cent under sober or temperate, and 7.1 per cent
under honest. Those classed under ‘“ No” and “ Decidedly
no” show 2.4 per cent not capable, 0.5 per cent not sober
or temperate, and 0.7 per cent not honest. Considering
this mass of testimony in whatever light one may, coming
as it does entirely from the employers, and applying to
that part of the Negro group which probably has the lowest
standard of intelligence and economic efficiency and inde-
pendence, the conclusion is made decidedly trustworthy
that Negro wage-earners in domestic and personal service
in New York City are capable, sober and honest.

Table XX, following, gives in full the classified replies
of employers:

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WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 87

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88 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [524

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.* To this may be
added the increasing custom, indicating prejudice of well-
to-do Americans, of giving preference to European ser-
vants.?

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 work-
men 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.

1 On this point the writer has talked with a number of Negroes who
were serving or had served in domestic and personal service. Some of
them have gone so far as to enter small business enterprises for them-
selves, They often remarked: “I want to be my own boss.”

2 From several reliable sources has come testimony concerning em-
ployers who formerly had Negro servants, and gave them up for
reasons similar to that of one lady who said: “It is going out of
fashion to have Colored help any longer.” Cf. also, Ovington, op. cit.,
pp. 75-86.

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525] WAGES AND EFFICIENCY OF WAGE-EARNERS 89

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 employ-
ments 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, tes-
timonials 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 em-
ployer a reasonable time, considering the shifting condi-
tion of city life, the mobility of such wage-earners and the
weak tenure of domestic and personal service in a modern

city.

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PART II

THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS IN
NEW YORK CITY

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CHAPTER I

THE CHARACTER OF NeGRO Business ENTERPRISES

I. THE BUSINESS PROMISE

It is a far cry from satisfying an employer to pleasing
the public. The one requires the obeying of the orders of a
boss, the other calls for initiative and self-direction. Busi-
ness enterprise involves judgments of the whims, wishes
and wants of prospective customers and skill in buying
goods or supplying services to satisfy their demands. The
wage-earner needs his labor only. The business promoter
must secure capital and establish credit. The employee
has only the stake of a present place, and has little hin-
drance from going to another job in case of disappointment.
The business man risks name, time, labor and money in
the commercial current and has only his experience left, if
he loses his venture.

Therefore, the Negro two and a half centuries under the
complete control of a master could hardly be expected in
one generation to acquire the experience, develop the initia-
tive, accumulate the capital, establish the credit and secure
the good-will demanded to-day in carrying on great and
extensive business enterprises, such as find their headquar-
ters in New York City, the commercial heart of the conti-
nent. Besides, the handicaps of the social environment, due
to the prejudices and differences of the white group by
which he is surrounded, and to previous condition of servi-
tude, have had their commercial and industrial consequences.
Again, speaking for New York City, many of the Negroes

529] 93

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94 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [530

who were leaders in whatever business was carried on up
to about 1884 were the prominent workers in activities
for race liberation and manhood privileges, thus subtract-
ing energy and time from business pursuit. The move-
ment may be likened in a rough way to that of English
workingmen before and after about 1848; the first period
being a struggle for the liberty of labor and the second
period aiming to fill that liberty with manhood and eco-
nomic content.

This study, then, of what the Negro is doing along busi-
ness lines in New York City does not show a number of
large operations when compared with what goes on in
America’s greatest commercial Metropolis. But the find-
ings are highly significant for what they disclose of busi-
ness capacity and possibility. There has been a business
development among Negroes in such a competitive commu-
nity that is both substantial and prophetic.

2. A HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS

The economic propensity to higgle and barter appeared
early among the Negroes of the New Amsterdam Colony.
As early as 1684 the Colonial General Assembly passed a
law that “ no servant or slave, either male or female, shall
either give, sell or truck any commodity whatsoever during
the term of their service.” Any servant or slave who vio-
lated the law was to be given corporal punishment at the
discretion of two justices and any person trading with such
servant or slave should return the commodity and forfeit
five pounds for each offense.» And further action was
taken in 1702 which rendered all bargains or contracts with
slaves void and prevented any person from trading in any
way with a slave, without the consent of the owner of such
slave.” The penalty for violation was to forfeit treble the

1 New York Colonial Laws, p. 157. 2 Ibid., pp. 519-21.

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sar] NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 95

value of the commodity and payment of five pounds to the
owner of the slave. In 1712, probably after the terror of
the Negro riot of that year, it was decreed that no N egro,
Indian or mulatto who should be set free, should hold any
land or real estate, but it should be escheated.1_ The pro-
visions of the two acts of 1684 and 1702 about trading
with slaves were revised and re-enacted in 1726.?

The character of much of this trade is shown by city
regulations which forbade the sale of great quantities of
“boiled corn, peaches, pears, apples, and other kinds of
fruit.” These wares were bought and sold not only in
houses and outhouses but in the public streets. The Com-
mon Council in 1740 declared the same to be a nuisance
and prohibited it with a penalty of public whipping. The
Council gave as one of its reasons that it was productive
of “many dangerous fevers and other distempers and dis-
eases in the inhabitants in the same city,” but those coming
to market by order of their masters were excepted from
the prohibition. The effect of the latter traffic upon the
health of the city was purposely not discerned. The act of
1726 was again re-enacted in 1788.* From time to time
faithful slaves of the West India Company were set free.
These usually began tilling the soil for themselves and
probably marketed their products in the town.

Slaves, therefore, had little or no opportunity to share
in the trading operations of the Colony. State emancipa-
tion by the acts of 1799, 1817, and 1827, however, was
finally secured, and with the coming of this boon there was
liberty to engage in the traffic of the growing metropolis.

' Williams, op. cif., vol. i, p. 142.

2 New York Colonial Laws, vol. ii, p. 310.

* Minutes of the Common Council of New Vork, vol. iv, pp. 497-98
4 New York State Laws, Eleventh Session, p. 675.

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96 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEI YORK CITY [532

There is conclusive evidence that considerable numbers of
Negroes did embrace the opportunity.

The volumes of the Colored American from 1838 to
1841 contain a number of advertisements and references
to business enterprises run by Negroes. The newspaper
itself was a considerable undertaking and job printing
was also “ executed with dispatch.” In 1837, George Pell
and John Alexander opened a restaurant in the one-hun-
dred block in Church Street.

In 1838, there were two boarding houses in this same
block, and two boarding houses in Leonard Street and one
each in Spruce and Franklin and Lispenard Streets. The
next year two other boarding houses were started, one on
South Pearl Street and the other near the beginning of
Cross Street, and in 1840 two more entered the list, on Sul-
livan and Church Streets. The drug store of Dr. Samuel
McCune Smith and the cleaning and dyeing establishment
of Bennet Johnson, both in the one-hundred block on
Broadway, were well known and successful enterprises of
the day.

B. Bowen and James Green both had small stores for
dry goods and notions in 1838, the former on Walker
Street and the latter on Anthony. While the same year a
hair-dressing establishment on Leonard Street, a coal-yard
on Duane Street, a pleasure garden on Thomas Street and
three tailors, whose location could not be ascertained, were
enterprises of promise.

In 1839 and 1840, there were a pleasure garden and
saloon in Anthony Street and a similar establishment on
King Street, with an ‘“ Amusement House” on Spring
Street, and near it Brown and Wood ran a confec-
tionary and fruit store. Richard Carroll ran a bath-
ing establishment in Church Street. A coal-yard in Pearl
Street, a watch and cloak maker, three private schools, and

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533] NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 97

a “dry-goods store of the female Trading Association,”
complete the list of firms that was contained in the record
of the period.

A number of these enterprises are known to have con-
tinued for a number of years after 1840. Testimony of
witnesses * as late as the time of the Civil War shows
that a number of the above-named enterprises were in ex-
istence as late as 1860.

Also that second-hand clothing shops were frequently
tun by Negroes, and barber-shops and restaurants of ex-
cellent equipment were evidences of activity comparable
with the earlier period. Thomas Downing kept a restau-
rant at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets and from it
amassed considerable wealth bequeathed to his children.

In 1869, the Negro caterers had such a large share of this
business that the dozen leading ones came together and
formed the Corporation of Caterers which was a sort of
pool to control the conduct of the business and which was
so enlarged after three years under the name of the United
Public Waiters Mutual Beneficial Association, that the
original purpose was largely sidetracked.?

There is little direct evidence available for the period
from about 1875 to 1909. The census of 1900 gave a re-
turn of Negroes in occupations which may indicate pro-
prietors of establishments, but there is no way of ascer-
taining whether they owned, operated or were employed in
such lines of business. There were in all 488 distributed
as follows: Among the males, boarding and lodging-house
keepers 10, hotel-keepers 23, restaurant keepers 116, saloon
keepers 27, bankers and brokers 5, livery-stable keepers 9,
merchants and dealers 162 (retail 155, wholesale 7), un-

1S, R. Scottron in Colored American Magazine, Oct., 1907, and sev-
eral others interviewed by the writer.

2 Vide, pp. 68-69.

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98 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [534

dertakers 15, clock and watchmakers and repairers 2,
manufacturers and officials 36, and photographers 22. The
females included boarding and lodging-house keepers 50,
milliners 9, and photographers 2. A goodly number of
Negro enterprises are very probably represented in this
list. That this is true is evident from the large number of
enterprises in the various lines of business that were found
by the canvass of 1909. We may safely infer that the
period was one of considerable growth in both the number
and variety of business establishments. We shall, there-
fore, turn our attention to the result of the canvass of the
last-named year.

3- THE NATURE OF THE ESTABLISHMENTS IN IQOQ

The first question which naturally arises is how many
Negro business enterprises were in Manhattan in 1909.
At the meeting of the National Negro Business League in
New York City in 1908, a paper was read on “ The Negro
Business Interests of Greater New York and Vicinity.”
This paper gave a total of 565 enterprises. But as this
included 100 dressmaking and 14 stenography and type-
writing, this estimate doubtless included some cases that
upon closer analysis could not have been designated as
business establishments.

A Negro business directory of New York City in 1909
gave names and addresses of 567 establishments. Upon
investigation some of these could not be found at addresses
given. From his own canvass, the writer estimates the
number of bona-fide business enterprises in Manhattan to
have been about 475. Of this number, records of 332
were secured and the remainder were either visited or cer-
tified by reliable testimony. Of the 332 records, 15 have
been excluded either because the firm has ceased to do busi-
ness or the records were too incomplete for use in this

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535] NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 99

monograph; eight of the remainder were corporations and
will be treated below separately. This left 309 establish-
ments upon which to base conclusions. These establish-
ments were so distributed as to be fully representative of
the whole. According to the kind of service or goods of-
fered to the public, these 309 establishments were as fol-
lows:

Batbér: shops en 2x en cnadacdie nhaadsanayeedadey 50
Groceries ........ccececsecveeees Sees cee eaeatn 36
Restaurants and lunch rooms ................00- 26
Tailoring, pressing, etc. ....... 6c. cece cece cae eees 24
Coal, wood and ice ............ cece cece ences 19
Hotel and lodging houses ...............0.000008 17
, Employment agencies .............cccceceeeeeee 14
: Express and moving vans ...........0.ceeeeeee 12
i Undertakers and embalmers .................... Ir
Pool and billiard Rooms ................ee eee ee 10
Dressmaking and millinery .................0005 8
Hairdressers: ss veos'bacsaseeweduce ne edad sas veers 8
Printers) 22 os's0s cia entnaeeene ie ve oy esae ss weeny 5
Saloons and cafés ........... cece eee e cece eee 5
Miscellaneous! 2 sdsdcanaae doeneae d neawihdicodos aad 481
Total sicec2 attest bas vaawtetense (4 onc Goebes 300

Two facts are evident. The largest number of the en-
terprises are the outgrowth of the domestic and personal
service occupations and they are mainly enterprises that
call for small amounts of capital.

1The 48 miscellaneous establishments were distributed as follows:
boot and shoe repairing 6, hand laundries 6, cigar, tobacco and con-

, fectionery retailers 5, boot-blacking and hat-cleaning firms 5, fruit
and vegetable dealers 4, cigar manufacturers 3, house-cleaning firms
3, garages 2, upholstering and mattress-making establishments 2,
watch and jewelry dealers 2, bakeries 2, and bicycle repairer, photo-
grapher, hat-cleaner and repairer, hardware and notions, painter and
plasterer, tea, coffee and spices retailer, fish retailer and storage firm,

one each.

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100 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [536

4. OWNERSHIP OF ESTABLISH MENTS

The Negro goes into business mainly as an independent
dealer. In the large majority of cases he does not enter
into a partnership and even when he does, there are rarely
more than two partners. Out of the 309 enterprises in
1909, there were only 49 partnerships and 44 of these were
firms of two partners only. There were only three firms
with three partners each, one firm with four members and
one with five members. To these may be added the eight
corporations mentioned above.

Some light is thrown upon the Negro’s business enter-
prises by knowing the birth-place of proprietors, the length
of time they had resided in New York City and the occu-
pations in which the proprietors were engaged previously
to going into business.

The birth-place of proprietors should be considered in
connection with the length of their residence in New York
City, because the two facts point to the same conclusion
concerning the economic and other stimuli of the environ-
ment. So far as birth-place is concerned, the most strik-
ing fact is that out of 330 proprietors whose birth-places
were ascertained, 220, or 66.66 per cent, were born in
Southern states and the District of Columbia, and 65, or
19.7 per cent, in the West Indies. The following Southern
states furnished the specified 220 proprietors: Virginia 96,
South Carolina 31, Georgia 27, North Carolina 25, Mary-
land 15, Florida 12, the District of Columbia 5, Delaware
3, Kentucky 2, and Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and
Texas 1 each. Besides the Southern and West Indian-born
Negro business men, other sections were represented as
follows: South America 7, New Jersey 7, New York
State 7, Pennsylvania 5, New York City 8, Illinois 2, Ber-
muda 2, Canada 2, Africa, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, and
Massachusetts 1 each.

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537] NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES IOI

This proportion of Southern-born proprietors is 0.84
of one per cent less than the proportion of Southern-born
in the total Negro population... The 19.7 per cent West
Indian is about 10.3 per cent larger than the West Indian
proportion in the total Negro population. If the 7 natives
of South America be added, the proportion would be 12.4
per cent larger. This condition can hardly be explained
on the ground that West Indian Negroes reach New York
with more capital, nor is it because West Indians secure
employment that is better paid, for they, like the native-
born Negroes, are confined to domestic and personal service.
It is due both to the better general education of the aver-
age West Indian and to the fact that he has been reared
in an environment of larger liberty which has developed in
him an independence and initiative that respond more
readily to the new surroundings. Conversation with num-
bers of them elicited the information that they had come
to this country with the idea of saving money and entering
business for themselves.

Facts about the length of residence before January Ist,
1910, of 363 proprietors are no less illuminating than
their birth-places. Both show the influence of environ-
ment, for we do not find that the majority entered busi-
ness immediately after taking up their residence in the
Metropolis. Exclusive of 50 doubtful and unknown and
11 who were born in New York City, only 11 of the 363
had been in the city less than 2 years, 18 had resided in the
city between 2 years and 3 years 11 months, and 33 be-
tween 4 years and 5 years eleven months—in all, only 62
had entered business after a residence of less than six
years. Of course this is partly due to the time it took to
save or secure the necessary capital but that this is not

1Cf. Part I, Chapter III, pp. 58-59.

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102. THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [538

the only reason for long residence previous to entering
business is shown by the fact that of the 62 who began
after less than six years residence, 14 ran barber-shops
and 11 had grocery stores, enterprises which require at
least a small outlay of capital.

In harmony with this view of the matter the inquiry
showed further that 161 proprietors had lived in New
York City between 6 years and 9 years 11 months; 108
had been in the city between 10 years and 19 years II
months ; 43 had resided there between 20 years and 29 years
It months; while 28 had lived in the city 30 years or more.

Considerable weight must then be given to the opinion
that is in line with the showing of the West Indian—that
Negroes entering business in New York City need to live
some time in the atmosphere of such a progressive, liberal
community to catch the spirit of its initiative and enter-
prise.

In support of the conclusion the full table showing length
of residence of proprietors of the several classes of enter-
prises is given (p. 103).

Besides the birth-place of proprietors and the length of
their residence in New York City, their occupations pre-
viously to their entering upon their present lines of busi-
ness throw considerable light upon the character of owner-
ship. The natural expectation would be to find connection
between the previous occupation of the proprietor and the
present business in which he is engaged. In a number of
cases this cannot be clearly made out as is the case of 16
brokers and 11 undertakers. Very probably this expec-
tation would not be fulfilled in the cases of many Ne-
groes, because domestic and personal service has been
largely the opportunity of employment and the source of
savings through which the prospective business venture
could be launched. For example, 11 proprietors have been

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NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 103

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104 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [540

waiters or waitresses; of these one hotel and lodging-house
proprietor, and one restaurant keeper were in enterprises
closely connected with their previous occupations; there ~
were three grocers and one coal, wood and ice dealer: en-
terprises less closely connected. Two pool and billiard-
room proprietors, one conductor of a tailoring establish-
ment, one employment agent and one establishment in the
miscellaneous class completed the list of those formerly
employed as waiters and waitresses. This makes a strik-
ing comparison with three hotel and lodging-house keep-
ers and with five restaurant and lunch-room proprietors
who formerly were cooks. That many did follow such.a
natural line of advance from employee to employer is shown
in that 80 out of the 309 were previously connected with
the same line of business in which they were engaged in
1909 either on a smaller scale or as an employed promoter.
A few had tried one line of business before and had changed
to that in which they were found. Such was the case
with nine who had previously been restaurant keepers, and
six who had been in the grocery business. In no case did
a proprietor report that he had been an inheritor of inde-
pendent means or a gentleman of leisure, and had thus
found the road which had led him into business.

5. SIZE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

The size of business enterprises was measured in three
ways: (1) the number of employees besides proprietors;
(2) the floor space occupied and (3) the rental paid for the
place in which the business was carried on. Obviously all
the enterprises could not be measured by all three tests.
For example, the amount of floor space occupied and
monthly rental paid by a brokerage firm might not bear
so close a relation to size as the number of employees, nor
would rental alone be an index of size of a coal, wood and

Digitized by Microsoft®
541] NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 105

ice business, since cellars, which call for smaller rental
than other space, are used. But each enterprise was covered
by more than one of the measurements, so that a fair esti-
mate is given of its size.

In ascertaining the number of employees, the attempt
was made to include only those who had no part in the
ownership, but who gave a large part or all of their time
to some work connected with the enterprise. As far as
possible this was confined to paid employees, but in a few
cases the question of wages of those employed could not be
successfully ascertained on account of reticence of the em-
ployer. No record was made of whether or not the time of
the proprietor was also put into the business since in this
respect there was great variation among establishments.

Only a small proportion, 77 out of 309 establishments,
were without employees. Yet very few, 21 in all, employed
five or more persons. The largest number, 87, had only
one regular employee, 65 establishments had two employees,
29 had three and 16 had four persons regularly employed.
The number of employees of 14 firms was not ascertained.

Floor space occupied by many establishments is a good
index of size, especially in New York City. Of course, in
the case of such establishments as brokers, employment
agencies and express and moving-van firms that require an
office only, this is not a criterion. But for many other es-
tablishments in a city where square feet of floor space is
carefully figured upon in the cost of the product, such a
measure has considerable value in estimating business enter-
prises. In securing the measurement of floor space in the
different establishments it was not possible to make an
actual measurement in many instances. In some cases the
proprietors knew accurately the length and breadth of the
place they occupied; in other cases where measurements
could not be taken estimates of length and breadth were

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106 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [42

made, taking a rough view of the frontage and depth of the
building or apartment occupied.

A goodly number of enterprises, such as dressmakers,
milliners, shoemakers and tailoring “ bushelers” carried
on their business in the front room of a ground-floor flat
and lived, often with families, in the rear rooms. In those
cases, only the floor space of the room used for business
purposes was included in the estimate.

Establishments to the number of 17 were estimated as
having less than 150 square feet of floor space; six of these
were offices of brokers and express and moving-van firms.
The greatest number of establishments, 186 in all, were
estimated to occupy between 150 and 499 square feet of
floor space. Thirty-one establishments occupied between
500 and 999 square feet of floor space; 17 between 1,000
and 1,999 square feet; 4 between 2,000 and 2,999 square
feet; 10 between 3,000 and 4,999 square feet; 8 occupied
5,000 or more square feet; 36 were not known—a total of
309 establishments.

Thus, it is seen that the typical Negro business enterprise
occupies small floor space, since 234, or 75.7 per cent, of
the 309 establishments occupied 999 square feet or less.
Table XXII (p. 107) is included to show the details as to
floor space in square feet occupied by each class of estab-
lishment.

Monthly rental is also a fair indication of the size of a
business establishment. In a few cases in which the pro-
prietor said he was owner of the building, a rental was
estimated for the portion of the building used for the par-
ticular enterprise; in the cases, mentioned above, where the
proprietor lived in the rear rooms only a part of the whole
rental was estimated as a charge upon the business estab-
lishment. So that the figures here given are good meas-
urements of their kind. The facts about 86 establishments

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NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES 107

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108 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [544

could not be secured. With the remaining 223, we meet
again the evidence of small size of typical establishments,
for 180 establishments, or 80.7 per cent, had a monthly
rental of $39 or less, and 30 others had a monthly rental
between $40 and $79; 16 out of the 223 establishments had
a rental of $80 or more per month, and of these 7 paid
$150 or more per month.

Judging, then, by the number of employees, by the square
feet of floor space occupied and by the monthly rental paid,
the typical Negro enterprise is a small retail establishment.

To summarize this chapter: Negroes have had to begin
business on a small scale because large capital was lacking
and extended experience is yet to be gained. They have,
however, even from the days of the Colony, when they
were held as slaves, shown a decided propensity for trade,
and since state emancipation this has been increased by a
desire for economic independence and has expressed itself
in enterprises in several lines of business. The variety and
number of enterprises have increased with the years. In
1909, Southern born and West Indian Negroes comprised
nearly all who had entered business, the latter far in excess
of their proportion in the Negro population. This is prob-
ably due to initiative developed in an atmosphere freer than
that from which the Southern Negro comes. Although con-
fined largely to domestic and personal service occupations,
Negroes have had the thrift and initiative to enter many
lines of business into which neither the experience nor the
capital derived from such employment would be expected
to lead. In size, the typical Negro business enterprise has
from one to two paid employees, has a floor space of less
than one thousand square feet, and pays a rental of between
fifteen and forty dollars per month.

Digitized by Microsoft®
CHAPTER II

THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS

InpicaTions of the volume of business are in accord with
the conclusions from the size of Negro business enterprises.
Volume of business was measured (1) by the valuation of
tools, fixtures, efc., used in the conduct of the business, (2)
by the amount of merchandise kept on hand, if the business
was such as required a stock of goods, and (3) by the total
gross receipts of the business during the two years, 1907
and 1908.

I. VALUATION OF TOOLS AND FIXTURES

Wood and ice dealers need to invest very little in tools
and fixtures. Fourteen out of 19 coal, wood and ice dealers
had less than ten dollars so invested. They needed only
shovels, baskets and push-carts. The estimated valuation
of tools and fixtures of the largest number of establishments
fell between $50 and $399; 90 were estimated to be between
$50 and $199, and 63 were estimated to be between $200
and $399. Besides these, 37 establishments—1 broker, 5
employment agencies, 1 grocery, 5 hairdressers, 9 restau-
rants and lunch rooms, 2 “busheling” tailors and 14 miscel-
laneous had tools and fixtures estimated, with allowance
for depreciation, to be worth more than $10 and less than
$50. It is important to note, however, that while the num-
bers with estimated valuation of tools and fixtures between
$400 and $1,499 is only 50, those estimated at $1,500 and
over number 33.

Judged, then, from the valuation of tools and fixtures,

545] 109

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THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [546

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547] THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS III

the magnitude of Negro business enterprises is considerable
and falls into three classes: one of comparatively small
valuation, 184 estimated below $400; one class of medium
valuation, 50 estimated between $400 and $1,499; and one
of comparatively large valuation, 33 at $1,500 and over.

The details of these valuations of tools and fixtures are
given in full in Table XXIII (p. 110).

2. THE AMOUNT OF MERCHANDISE ON HAND

Next to valuation of tools and: fixtures, the amount of
merchandise kept in stock is a good index of the magnitude
of the business done by many enterprises. Of course, the
business of brokers, express and moving-van firms, employ-
ment agencies, and some miscellaneous enterprises could
not be measured by the amount of stock kept on hand. Also
barber shops and pool and billiard rooms sometimes keep a
small stock of cigars, tobacco, etc. So these firms can not
be so measured. The statements about merchandise on
hand were accurately estimated either from figures on the
books of the firm or from rough inventories of the stock
on hand made with the assistance of the proprietor.

Negro business enterprises for the most part are small
retail enterprises and do business on the scale of estab-
lishments of this type. They have not yet accumulated the
capital nor gained the credit to engage in wholesale trade
or to carry a stock of merchandise large in quantity or
variety such as an extensive patronage demands. But they
do handle a considerable amount of business with the small
capital they have to invest. When this is compared with
the gross receipts for 1907 and 1908 the showing is very
creditable.

For, of the 302 enterprises for which estimates of stock
on hand were obtained 159 firms, including 46 barber-
shops and 9 pool and billiard rooms that kept small stocks

Digitized by Microsoft®
THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [548

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549] THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS 113

of cigars and tobacco, had a stock of merchandise on hand
estimated at less than $50; 20 others ranged between $50
and $99; 38 others had stock on hand in amounts between
$100 and $299, while 23 fell between $300 and $599.
Thirteen enterprises kept a stock estimated between $600
and $1,000; six ran from $1,000 up, while seven were un-
known. In a word, classified by amount of merchandise
kept on hand, the firms fell into three classes, the largest
class was composed of those having a stock valued at less
than $50, the next class grouped those between $50 and
$600, and the third and smallest class contained those with
stock on hand valued at $600 and above. It will be of help
to see in detail how enterprises in each class were grouped
according to estimated valuation of merchandise on hand,
so Table XXIV showing this is given (p. 112).

3. GROSS RECEIPTS IN 1907 AND 1908

The final and concluding item in measuring the magni-
tude of Negro business enterprises is the amount of gross
receipts of the firms covering a given period of time. For
this purpose the years 1907 and 1908 were selected, the
first because the greater part of it was before the panic of
1907, the second instead of 1909 because a completed year
at the time this canvass was made. A close study of the
accompanying table shows that the panic had considerable
effect upon the gross receipts of these firms. For example,
in 1907, 32 firms had gross receipts less than $1,000; in
1908, 38 firms were in the same group; in 1907, 37 firms
did a business of between $1,000 and $1,999; in 1908, 38
firms had the same fortune. And even this does not always
show the falling off in gross receipts of the individual firm
unless the decrease was sufficient to carry it into a lower

group.
Of the total 309 Negro enterprises, 118 were estab-

Digitized by Microsoft®
114 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [550

lished too recently to have gross receipts in 1907 and 1908,
and 63 did not furnish sufficient evidence, so they are
classed as doubtful and unknown. This leaves, therefore,
128 enterprises about which sufficient statements of gross
receipts were secured to justify discussion. The figures
for these, however, were carefully ascertained. For 115
establishments the exact figures were taken from records
kept by the firms for the years 1907 and 1908, or the larger
part of those years, while the other 13 are estimates based
upon careful statements from proprietors and employees
of their receipts for months or weeks at different seasons
of the two years.

Compared with the general retail lines in New York City
the magnitude of Negro business is creditable when judged
by gross receipts. Of the 128 establishments, 87 in 1907
and 85 in 1908 handled a gross business of $2,999 or less;
32 firms in 1907 and 38 firms in 1908 had gross receipts
between $3,000 and $10,000; and 9 firms in 1907 and 5
firms in 1908 carried on business operations which ranged
in gross receipts above $10,000, four of these in 1907 and
two in 1908 being $15,000 or more. Considering the
amount of merchandise kept on hand and the valuation of
tools and fixtures, this business showing indicates that the
small amount of capital invested is handled with consid-
erable energy and ability to carry on such an amount of
gross business.

It should be noted also that out of 69 establishments
in 1907, which had gross receipts less than $2,000, 14
were barber shops, 8 were coal, wood and ice dealers, 4
were employment agencies, 3 were express and moving-
vans, 9 were tailors, pressers, efc., and 8 were miscella-
neous—a total of 46. And in 1908, out of 76 establish-
ments with gross receipts under $2,000, 18 were barber-
shops, 8 were ice, coal and wood dealers, 4 were employ-

Digitized by Microsoft®
115

THE VOLUME OF BUSINESS

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116 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [552

ment agencies, 3 were express and moving-vans, IO were
tailors and pressers, and 9 were miscellaneous—making a
total of 52. The majority of the more important classes
of business firms such as brokers, barber shops, grocers,
printers, hotel and lodging-house keepers, restaurant and
lunch-room proprietors, saloon and café firms and under-
takers have gross receipts from $2,000 a year and over.

The full showing of classified gross receipts of the 309
establishments is given in Table XXV (p. 115).

Measured, then, by valuation of tools, fixtures, etc., by
merchandise on hand, and by gross receipts in 1907 and
1908, Negro enterprises with a small command of capi-
tal and credit do a comparatively large gross amount of
retail business.

Digitized by Microsoft®
CHAPTER III
DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY

THE severest test of a business enterprise is its relation
to the community, both the commercial houses with which
it deals and the consuming public to whom it sells. With
the former a firm must establish credit, with the latter it
must build up confidence. Credit is established by the
prompt payment of bills, the length of time a firm has been
in operation allowing time to make a good reputation and
its business methods in dealing with its suppliers. The con-
fidence of customers is secured by the care and accuracy
with which orders are filled, the length of time the firm
has been in a certain locality and patrons have dealt with
it and by the whims and prejudices of the community or
locality.

It was out of the question to get data which would cover
all of these points, but sufficient material was gathered to
throw considerable light on (1) the length of time the
firms had been established, (2) the length of time they had
been situated at the particular address where they were
found, (3) the means used in keeping the accounts of sales,
expenditures, efc., (4) whether they gave credit to cus-
tomers and whether they received credit from suppliers,
and (5) what proportion of their customers were white
and what proportion were colored.

I, AGE OF ESTABLISHMENTS

Negroes are often said to be able to start but unable to
continue in undertakings which require determination, per-
553] 117

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118 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [554

sistence, tact, and which involve strenuous competition.
This opinion is certainly not bornd out by the age of their
business enterprises in New York. For, in the face of
conditions they had met in beginning business in New York
City, only 51 out of the known 309 enterprises had been
established less than one year; 67 between one and two
years; 114 between two years and six years, and 33 be-
tween six years and ten years. Twenty-two had been es-
tablished between ten and fifteen years, and twenty were
fifteen or more years old, nine of them having been estab-
lished twenty years or more; the age of two was unknown.
When it is remembered that during the first decades after
emancipation the larger number of the most energetic Ne-
groes was absorbed in professional occupations, princi-
pally teaching, because of the great need in race uplift, and
that business pursuits have had until within the last few
years minor consideration, to say nothing of trials and
failures in the effort to gain business experience, the age
of these enterprises must be counted a creditable showing.
And it is a good recommendation to the commercial world
that the Negro has not made a reputation for bankruptcy
assignments. When one reflects that nearly all of these
proprietors and promoters have migrated to New York
City from less progressive communities and that the
chances to get experience in a well-established business
before they attempt to start an enterprise for themselves
is, except in very rare cases, denied Negroes, the perman-
ency of the ventures in the commercial current deserve
commendation.

2. PERMANENCE OF LOCATION

No less interesting than the length of time a firm had
been established was the length of time it had been located
at the address where it was found by the canvasser in 1909.

Digitized by Microsoft®
DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY 119

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120 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [556

The exact causes which induce the Negro firms to change ad-
dresses could not be ascertained, but 81 out of 275 had been
at the address where they were found less than one year,
although, as shown above, only 51 were less than one year
old; 72 had been at their present address between one year
and two years, which leaves a smaller margin between that
number and the 67 shown to have been established that
length of time. There was a similar small margin of com-
parison in the groupings of two to four and four to six
years between the time the firms were established and the
length of time they had remained at the one address. This
shifting is due probably to the movements of the Negro
population upon which the firms depend for patronage, but
partly to inexperience.

The first of these facts would have effect on the question
of a firm’s getting credit on purchases of supplies and both
facts mean a great deal in securing and holding a retail
trade.

That a detailed comparison may be made, Table XXVI,
showing length of time firms had been at addresses where
they were found, is added (p. 119).

3. BUSINESS METHODS

The age and permanence of a firm does not influence its
success so much as its business methods. And an index of
its efficiency in this respect is its methods of accounting.
These are shown in the means used for keeping accounts.
Negro business men were asked whether or not they used
ledger, journal, cash-book, day-book, or other records.
Some enterprises such as grocery stores, would have need
of a mechanical register. If a firm had one, it was in-
spected. Facts about 49 establishments were not available.
Of these, 35 firms had no means of keeping accounts, other
than the memories of those running the place. These were,

Digitized by Microsoft®
DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY 121

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122 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [558

however, very small enterprises. Of the 260 remaining, 60,
or 23 per cent, kept a ledger, 122, or 46.9 per cent, kept a
cash-book, and 33.5 per cent had day-books. Thus show-
ing that 37 more firms kept day-books than kept ledgers,
and 62 more firms kept cash-books than ledgers. Of the
260, 28 had mechanical cash registers and 64 had some
form of record in addition to or other than those named.
In a phrase, the Negro business man is learning the methods
of the business world in keeping track of his business af-
fairs, though in most cases they are small. Table XXVII
gives the details on this point. (See p. 121.)

4. CREDIT RELATIONSHIPS

The manner and care with which a firm keeps record of
the business it transacts is closely connected with its credit
relations with the buying and selling community. And
both these determine to a large extent its business opera-
tions. Considerable light was thrown upon the credit rela-
tions of Negro enterprises by finding out, wherever pos-
sible, whether a firm gave credit occasionally or habitually
to customers and whether it received credit from suppliers.
Naturally, many proprietors would not give any reply to
such an inquiry, and especially about their credit standing
with wholesale firms. On such a delicate point, however,
information about the giving of credit was secured from
205 firms, and about the receiving of credit from 94 firms.
Of the 205 that furnished statements on the matter of
giving credit, 87, or 42.4 per cent, occasionally, and 69, or
33.6 per cent, habitually had given credit to customers,
while 49, or 23.9 per cent, did not allow credit. When
asked about their credit relations with suppliers, 47 replied
that they did receive credit, and 47 that they did not re-
ceive any; and 215 gave no reply on this point.

Digitized by Microsoft®
559] DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY 123

5. THE PURCHASING PUBLIC

Length of time established, length of location at an ad-
dress, methods of accounting and the credit relations play
no more important a part in the efforts of Negroes to build
up their business enterprises than do the subtle whims and
prejudices of the community. This is shown first by the
location of nearly all the enterprises in Negro neighbor-
hoods. Of all the 309 enterprises, 288 were located either
within or upon the border of the Negro districts. It may
be expected, of course, that Negroes will look to their own
people first for their patronage, but they should be allowed
to cater to the public at large, especially in a cosmopolitan
commercial center like New York. In the case of real
estate brokers, this is partly true and has grown partly
out of the Negro broker’s ability to handle more success-
fully than others properties tenanted by Negroes. It is
not generally the case in other lines of business, however,
as the testimony of many Negro business men shows.

It was difficult to get statements that would be a basis for
a percentage estimate of how liberally white people traded
with these Negro firms. Brokers gave no statements that
could be so used because nearly all of the 16 brokers had
many transaction which involved white owners and colored
tenants, white or colored sellers and white or colored buy-
ers. Employment agencies faced a similar situation. Of the
other 279 firms, 81, or 29.7 per cent, reported no white
customers; 92, or 33.3 per cent, reported that less than 10
per cent of their customers were white. Thus 63 per
cent of the Negro business firms have to depend upon the
small purchasing power of their own people for the trade
with which to build up their enterprises. This is partly
due to the feeling of the Negroes in business that they
are to cater mainly to Negroes and partly to their inexperi-
enced way of handling customers. But the main reasons

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124 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [560

are the difficulties they have in renting places in desirable
localities and in the refusal of white people to patronize
Negroes in many lines of trade.* Of the remaining firms
42, or I5 per cent, reported between 10 and 49 per cent
white customers. The numbers above were small and only
one firm, in the class of dressmaking and millinery, and
three in the miscellaneous class, reported an exclusive white
trade.

What a battle the Negro business man has to fight can
be surmised when to the fact of a narrow patronage from
his own people, who have the small purchasing power of
their low-paid occupations, is added the severe competition
of white firms with larger capital, with more extended credit
and larger business experience, that vie with him for even
this limited field. Table XXVIII (p. 125), which follows,
was compiled on the basis of proprietors’ statements of the
probable number of white and colored customers over a
given number of months. It is about as accurate as such
an estimate can be and is far more reliable and definite
than general impressions. The percentages of white cus-
tomers are given, it being understood that the remainder
were Negroes. This small amount of information is very
significant in showing how the attitude of the white public
affects the economic advancement of the Negroes.

In the foregoing chapter we have reviewed some very
definite facts concerning the Negro business man’s dealing
with the community. We have seen that his enterprises
are permanently established although againt great odds,

1 This conclusion is based upon the statements of Negroes that white
people have entered their stores apparently to buy, but beat a retreat
upon finding a Negro in charge. Two Negro proprietors employed
white workmen to call at residences, etc., in the operation of their
businesses while they kept in the background. The writer traced out
cases of refusals to rent places to Negro firms. Some of the incidents
would be amusing if they were not tragic.

Digitized by Microsoft®
125

DEALING WITH THE COMMUNITY

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126 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [562

but that permanence of address is not so well secured.
Nearly all, 260 out of 309, were known to have some of the
usual methods of keeping accounts, and of the 205 from
whom information on the matter was obtained about three-
fourths gave credit either occasionally or habitually ; while
of the 94 who answered as to their receiving credit, about
half did and the other half did not receive credit.

The attitude of the white purchasing public has had a
tremendous effect on Negro business, because it has failed
to forget color in its business dealings. In many lines of
business white people will not patronize Negroes at all and
about two-thirds of all enterprises depend upon the low
purchasing power of the Negro group. The idea that
white people will not trade with them to any considerable
extent and that they must depend upon their own people
is so steeped into the mind of the Negro that he often does
not perceive that he is catering to the whole public, white
and black.

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CHAPTER IV

SomE SAMPLE ENTERPRISES

In the first chapters on Negro business enterprises, the
several classes of establishments were described in order to
present a picture of business among Negroes as a whole.
A more concrete idea of the organization and operation of
these enterprises, as well as of the proprietors who own and
operate them, may be gained from detailed descriptions of
selected establishments of each kind. These have been
chosen as representing a fair type of the classes to which
they belong. On some points there may be wide variations,
but each class as a whole is fairly represented by those de-
tailed.

I. INDIVIDUALS AND PARTNERSHIPS

Establishment No. 1 was a barber shop started in 1898,
and moved once to the present address eleven years before.
The proprietor was born in Savannah, Georgia, had re-
sided in New York City for about twenty years, and was a
journeyman barber before starting his own shop. He em-

‘ployed four barbers besides himself, paying each barber
between forty and fifty per cent of his receipts. This shop
was about 12 feet by 40 feet, and the rental was $30.00
per month. The estimated value of his tools and fixtures
was about $700.00, and the estimated gross receipts of his
business were $3,500.00 in 1907 and $4,000.00 in 1908. The
proprietor kept a cash-book which he balanced once a week.
He started his enterprise with one chair, bought with sav-
ings from his earnings as a barber. He did a strictly cash

563] al

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128 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [564

business. His customers were Negroes only, although he
kept a first-class, cleanly place, was in a district where
there were a large number of small white business estab-
lishments and some white tenants, and bought his sup-
plies from a white firm.

No. 2. This was a barber shop established in 1890, had
moved twice, and had been located at the last address four
years. The proprietor called himself ‘“ the pioneer ” as he
visited New York City in 1856-7 and had been living here
32 years in 1909, coming from Calvert County, Maryland.
He had worked as a barber in a shop run for white cus-
tomers, and by this means saved money to set up for him-
self in Mott Haven some years before opening in New
York. He employed one additional barber, had a shop
about 12 feet by 28 feet, for which he was paying $35.00
rent. His tools and fixtures were worth about $200.00,
and his gross receipts amounted to about $900.00 in 1907
and about $850.00 in 1908. He used a cash-book and oc-
casionally credited customers, although he paid cash for
supplies from a white firm. His shop was located in a dis-
tinctly Negro neighborhood and all his customers were
Negroes.

No. 3. This establishment was a grocery store started
by a West Indian at the address where it was found, who
took a partner at the beginning of the second year. The
junior partner, a Virginian by birth, was brought to New
York by his mother 12 years previously, while the other
had resided here ten years. The senior partner had a very
small grocery business during one year in the West Indies
and worked as an elevator boy and saved capital after com-
ing to New York, as his change of residence had absorbed
his limited resources. The Virginian was peddling tea and
coffee before entering the firm. He had been a porter
in a department store, but preferred “to be independent,

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as it seemed too hard to work for another man.”” They em-
ployed one helper and both put in their time; they occupied
a floor space 20 feet by 40 feet, at a rental of $35.00 per
month. The tools and fixtures were estimated at $350.00;
these included a safe and a large national cash register.
The careful inventory of stock showed $450.00 worth on
hand, and the gross receipts from May, 1908, to May, 1909,
was estimated at $6,000.00. The large national cash regis-
ter and bank book were sufficient means of keeping ac-
counts for the strictly cash conduct of the business. Only
a few whites, about all of whom were Jews, live in the
blocks adjoining the Negro neighborhood. They found
this store most convenient and traded with the firm, but
more than five-sixths of its customers were Negroes. The
firm sent out hand-bills weekly, and used other forms of
advertisement.

No. 4 was a grocery, started in September, 1906, at the
same address where it was found by the investigator. The
proprietor came from the West Indies to New York City
about I2 years previously and engaged in hotel work by
means of which he saved his capital. He was still so em-
ployed, while his brother conducted the store. The store
room was about 14 feet by 40 feet, at a rental of $35.00
per month. The tools and fixtures were valued at $100.00,
and the merchandise on hand at about $300.00. The esti-
mated gross receipts were between $2,500 and $3,000 in
1907, and about $2,700 in 1908. Only a cash-book was
used in keeping accounts. This was balanced once a week,
and an inventory of the stock was taken once a quarter.
Credit was habitually allowed to customers, all of whom
‘ were Negroes. No whites lived in the neighborhood.

No. 5. This was a real-estate and insurance agent, who
began business in July, 1907, and had moved once since.
He was born in Virginia and’had been in New York City

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130 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [566.

twelve years. This man’s business career started as soon
as he left college, as his father had given him an education
and arranged affairs to that end. He entered his father’s
barber shop in Virginia and remained three years, then
came to New York and started a club and saloon business
with capital brought from his native home. This was car-
ried on four years and sold out. After several intervening
years, the present enterprise was started on some of the
capital derived from the sale of the previous establishment.
He employed two collectors, had an office space of about
12 by 40 feet in one of the tenements of which he had
charge. His gross receipts from commissions, efc., were
about $2,300.00 in 1908. Ledger, cash-book and day-book
were used in accounting. The landlords of the properties
he handled were all white, but all tenants were Negroes.
The real estate sales and exchanges he has handled have
been of a similar kind.

No. 6. This was a real estate broker who began business
in November, 1903, in Nassau street and moved to his pres-
ent address two years later. He was born in New York
and has always made his home there. Before he finished
his high school course, he worked during spare hours and
vacations for a real estate firm. After graduation from
high school, he started to work with the same firm on a
commission basis until he began business for himself as a
regular broker. He employed two assistants in his busi-
ness and had an office in one-of the large buildings in the
Wall Street district. His office was modestly but ade-
quately furnished, the fixtures, typewriter, efc., estimated
at $200.00. In 1907 his gross receipts from commissions,
fees, etc., were over $2,500, and in 1908 over $3,000, His
capital was accumulated from the business; he used led-
ger and cash-book in his accounting and both gave and
received credit in his transactions. He was a member of

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the New York Fire Insurance Exchange, and has done con-
siderable study in evening courses on insurance, banking,
etc. About 95 per cent of his business dealings were-with
white people.

No. 7. This enterprise in dressmaking and ladies tailor-
ing was started in August, 1906, at the address where
found. The proprietress came from her native city, Pitts-
burgh, Pa., to New York three years previously, and set
up her establishment with money she had saved from sew-
ing in Pittsburgh. She employed three helpers and used
for business purposes the front room of her apartment,
which rented for $25.00 per month. Her tools and fixtures
were valued at about $175.00, and she kept less than $100.00
worth of stock on hand, as all work was to order. Gross
receipts were about $2,300 in 1907, and about $3,000 in
1908. A cash-book only was used in keeping accounts.
About three-fourths of the customers were white.

No. 8. This is an employment agency started about
1889 by the proprietor who came from Delaware the year
preceding. In the flourishing days when Negro help was
in large demand he made money and formerly employed
two or three helpers. When seen, he alone did not find full
employment. His fixtures were worth less than $50. He
used two front rooms of his living apartment for business
purposes. His gross receipts in 1907 were $1,316, and in
1908, $1,076. He used a cash-book and the two record
books required by the employment license law. He sup-
plied colored help for white families almost entirely ; busi-
ness was running low because white help was “ displacing
the colored help of years past.”

No. 9. This was a restaurant, established in September,
1904, and moved to the present address two years later.
The proprietor was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and had
resided in New York six years when interviewed. He was

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132 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [568

a cook and head-waiter before beginning business for him-
self. He had two employees, his place occupied a 14 feet
by 40 feet basement, for which he paid about $18.00 rental.
His fixtures, efc., were valued at about $150, and his gross
receipts were about $3,500 in 1907, and $3,000 in 1908.
He had saved money for the enterprise while engaged in
hotel service in Jacksonville. All his customers were Ne-
groes, except one white regular customer. He admitted
occasionally giving credit to customers, although a sign
on the wall said, “ Positively, no trust.”

No. 10. This firm sold coal, wood and ice. It was estab-
lished in September, 1907, at the address where found, by a
native Virginian who had lived in New York seventeen
years, and had previously worked as a porter in a jewelry
house. No help was employed and the small amount of
stock on hand, between $40 and $50, was kept in a cellar
about 12 feet by 18 feet. For this a rental of about $8.00
per month was paid. The gross receipts amounted to about
$800 in 1908. The proprietor had saved some money from
his previous occupation on which to begin; he was located
in a Negro neighborhood, so depended entirely on their
patronage. He habitually gave credit to customers but
received none from his white suppliers.

No. 11. This tailoring establishment was started in
September, 1907, by a West Indian, who had lived in New
York eighteen years and had worked as journeyman tailor
in St. Christopher, W. I. He had moved five times since
the business was begun. He did mostly cutting and fitting,
but some “ busheling.” He did not employ any help, and
lived in two rooms in the rear of his business place, paying
$25 per month for all. The tools and fixtures were worth
about $150, and the stock on hand about $50, while gross
receipts had amounted to $1,200 in 1907 and about $1,100
in 1908. He kept a cash-book; gave credit occasionally,
but received none.

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569] SOME SAMPLE ENTERPRISES 133

This proprietor said he came to New York leaving pay-
ing work behind, because of tales of high wages in his
trade; that at first he answered advertisements for jour-
neymen but was turned away when they saw he was a
Negro. Finally, he worked as waiter to get money to start
for himself. His first “ stand” was in a white neighbor-
hood with white trade, but when a considerable number of
Negro customers began to frequent his place the neigh-
bors made objections to the landlord, who would no longer
rent him the place. At the time of the interview he was in
a Negro neighborhood and had only four or five white cus-
tomers.

No. 12. This also was a tailoring firm, started in 1907,
which did mainly cleaning, pressing and repairing (“bushel-
ing’). The proprietor was a Georgian by birth, came to New
York six years previously, and worked as a valet, and as ele-
vator man in an apartment. He employed one part-time
assistant, used for his business the front room, about 12
feet by 14 feet, of an apartment which rented for $25 per
month. His tools and fixtures were valued at $140, and
he carried about $75 worth of second-hand clothing in
stock. His gross receipts in 1908 were about $800. He
kept lists of work done for customers. He had been in the
same line of business for seven years in his native state,
and both times had saved wages to carry out his “ desire
from a lad up to do business.” About two-thirds of his
customers were white, and he gave credit habitually.

No. 13. This firm for express and moving service was
established in September, 1902, in the same block where
found, by a Virginian, who had lived in New York City
fifteen years and who worked as a Pullman porter before
beginning in this line of business. He usually employed
from five to seven men, according to the seasonal trade.
He had an express wagon and two vans, which with the

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134 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [570

horses were valued at $1,200. His gross receipts amounted
to about $3,100 in 1907, and about $3,600 in 1908. In
keeping accounts both ledger and day-book were used.
The proprietor had run a small grocery in Virginia before
coming to New York, and some of the capital from its sale
had been saved and put into this enterprise. He depended
upon white customers for about two-thirds of his patronage.

No. 14 was a manicurist and hair-dressing firm started
by the proprietress in May, 1903, who had been in New
York eleven years in 1909 and who worked at a pocket-
book factory before starting into this venture. She was a
native of Virginia. The enterprise was not large enough
for any employees; tools and fixtures were worth about
$60, and hair goods, etc., on hand were valued at $75; the
front room, about 12 by 14 feet, of the living apartment
was used for business purposes. In 1907 and 1908 the
gross receipts averaged about $1,000, which was mainly
fees for manicure and hair-dressing services. This enter-
prise was started that the proprietress might “ be at home,”
and a cash trade almost solely among white people was
being developed.

No. 15. This was an undertakers establishment started
in 1897 by a minister, who came to New York from Vir-
ginia about twenty-five years ago. The firm had been
located at the address where found about nine years, and
had a branch in another part of Manhattan. Two helpers
were employed, the floor space was about 20 by 40 feet,
for which a rental of $35 per month was paid. Tools and
fixtures, including dead-wagon, were valued at $1,200, and
about $300 of stock was kept on hand. The gross receipts
of the business were about $9,000 in 1907, and about
$8,000 in 1908. Ledger, cash-book, day-book, and fun-
eral register were used in keeping accounts. The proprietor
started on a small saving from. his salary as a minister,

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having to run the business a year before.he had the addi-
tional $200 in cash for deposit for registration in the Casket
Makers Association, thus securing credit on supplies. He
habitually allows credit to customers, all of whom, with
very rare exceptions, are Negroes.

-No. 16 was a hotel on the European plan, established in
1899 by a Georgian who had been in New York five years
previously and had saved his wages in several kinds of
hotel work to get his start. He usually employed six help-
ers; the place occupied a four-floor building about 25 by
60 feet, for which a rental of $1,800 per year is paid. Fix-
tures, furniture, etc., were valued at $2,000. The gross
receipts of the hotel were a little over $10,000 in 1907,
and between $9,000 and $10,000 in 1908. Both ledger and
cash-book were used in keeping accounts. Nearly all cus-
tomers were Negroes, and whites were not especially sought
because those who did come were usually looking for a
colored dive and did not act in an orderly way. Credit
was occasionally allowed customers and the firm had such
standing that it could get such amounts from suppliers as
it wished.

No. 17 was a pool-room with a club arrangement in con-
nection. It was started in 1901 by a native of Virginia,
who had been living in New York eleven years. The firm
had moved once since its establishment. The proprietor
was a waiter before beginning this enterprise; he em-
ployed two helpers, his place occupied three floors about 25
by 40 feet, and he paid a rental of $75 per month. His
fixtures, tables, efc., were valued at between $1,800 and
$2,000, and he said they were all paid for. In 1907 the
gross receipts were about $3,400, and in 1908 about $3,700,
the “best year.” A cash-book was kept and balanced twice
a year. Negroes “almost altogether ” were customers.
This proprietor had an ambition from boyhood to run a

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136 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [572

business and at one time had a second-hand furniture store
in Long Branch, N. J.

No. 18 was a job-printing house, started in June, 1908,
run since that time at the same place by two partners, one
of whom was born in Washington, D. C., the other in the
West Indies. The West Indian had been in New York fif-
teen years in 1909, and had been in the same business once
before; the other had been in New York twenty-five years;
both had saved money as they worked as journeymen
printers before entering business for themselves. At the
time of the interview they did not employ any helpers, but
their tools, fixtures, efc., were valued at about $900, and
the floor space occupied was about 14 by 25 feet. The
gross receipts during the six months of 1908 were about
$900, and the monthly average for the first month of 1909
was somewhat higher. A cash-book was used in keeping
accounts, and about one-third of their customers were white
people. They did a strictly cash business.

No. 19 was a saloon and café which was opened in No-
vember, 1908, at the place where found. The proprietor
came from Kentucky to New York about ten years pre-
viously and worked in a cigar store. He employed from
seven to nine helpers, and his place occupied about 20 by
60 feet floor space, with a rathskeller in the basement; he
paid $100 per month rental. Fixtures, etc., were valued at
about $2,200, and stock was kept on hand to the amount of
between $700 and $800. Sufficient data for an estimate of
gross receipts were not forthcoming. Ledger and cash-
book, with cash-register, kept record of business transacted.
Customers were “ Negroes, almost exclusively” with a
“ white person now and then.” At one time the proprietor
ran a cigar store, growing out of his work in such an estab-
lishment.

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573] SOME SAMPLE ENTERPRISES 137

2. THE NEGRO CORPORATION

As was pointed out in a previous chapter, the Negro
enters business either alone or with one or two partners.
Small enterprises can be so financed. But for undertakings
that require considerable capital those who enter them
must either have large means or a number must combine
their small funds.

The Negro is alert to business lines which offer chances
of profit. He is slowly learning the method of “ big busi-
ness.” The corporation, with its advantages of impersonal
responsibility, facility for taking in or releasing members,
and particularly its combined capital, has been adopted in a
few cases. These can be treated briefly for what variations
they show from the general type.

One of these was a corporation that ran a garage, fur-
nished storage and other care for machines and operated a
line of taxicabs, employing from nine to eleven men. Three
of the firm members had been employed chauffeurs and
thus got the idea and the money to start the firm. There
was storage space for about 50 cars. One of the pro-
prietors came from Georgia, another from North Carolina.
They had a book-keeper and the usual books for a business
house. Five Negro owners and about forty white owners
were storing cars with them. “

Another enterprise was a corporation of undertakers
with a board of eight directors, who held nearly all of the
stock. In size they had four employees, occupied a floor
space of about 1,200 square feet at a monthly rental of
$150. The investments represented about $1,500 in dead-
wagon and fixtures and a stock on hand of about $1,000.
The gross business was between $9,000 and $10,000 in
1907, the first year of the business; and over $20,000 in
“1908. At its organization there were ten corporators who
stibscribed about $300 each to float the enterprise. It is

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138 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [574

interesting to note that a hotel-keeper, a minister, three men
in other lines of business and the manager of the concern
were atnong these ten.

Two other corporations were printing establishments,
each with six original incorporators. One firm did job
printing. The other was a publisher of popular songs and
has produced several of New York’s most popular airs.
They had two and ten employees, occupied about 158 and
3,000 square feet of floor space, respectively. The larger
firm had a plant valued at between $4,000 and $5,000, kept
several hundred dollars worth of stock on hand and did a
gross business of about $15,000 in 1907, and about $17,000
in 1908. The smaller firm had been organized in 1909.
The larger had run more than four years. The corpor-
ators of the smaller concern included an editor, a mes-
senger, silk-factory employee, and laundry employee; those
of the larger, a liquor dealer, two actors and three com-
posers of popular songs.

The four other corporations were real estate firms, a line
of business requiring considerable capital and attracting
the higher grade of business ability. In these instances,
all except one firm was composed of the few original incor-
porators, making the arrangement only a little removed
froma partnership. The one exception was a large concern
with a capital stock of over $500,000. The previous oc-
cupations of the principal promoters of this company in-
cluded a lawyer, a pharmacist and two real estate brokers.

The stock of this concern was held by small investors in
many parts of the United States. The firm at one time em-
ployed over 200 people in and out of New York, and
claimed to have done an annual business of over $200,000.
At some period in its history it may have done so large a
business, but this was probably only for an exceptionally
prosperous year. This may have led to too sanguine at-

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575] SOME SAMPLE ENTERPRISES 139

tempts on the part of the promoters. Because of other
poor business methods and bad attempts at investment the
enterprise failed in the winter of 1910-11.

Three obvious points are shown by the facts concerning
these corporations: First, they were composed of only a
few members and therefore were not far removed from
large partnerships. This set a large limit to command of
capital for there were no large capitalists in New York
among Negroes. Second, this form of combining capital
and business ability has been tried in a few lines of business
only—three in all, if we exclude the garage. Third, as
seen in their previous occupations, the promoters were men
above the average in ability and of some experience.

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CONCLUSION

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CONCLUSION

THE significance of the foregoing facts is clearly indi-
cated by the summaries following each set of figures. The
road to the conclusions is straight. Turning to the preced-
ing chapters, let us see what conclusions are warranted.

The urban concentration of the Negro is taking place in
about the same way as that of the white population. In
proportions, it varies only to a small extent from the
movement of the whites, save where the conditions and in-
fluences are exceptional. The constant general causes influ-
encing the Negro population have been similar to those
moving other parts of the population to cities. The divorce
from the soil in the sudden breaking down of the plantation
régime just after the Civil War and the growth of indus-
trial centers in the South, and the call of higher wages in
the North, have been unusually strong influences to con-
centrate the Negro in the cities. It is with him largely as
with other wage-earners: the desire for higher wages and
the thought of larger liberty, especially in the North, to-
gether with a restlessness under hum-drum, hard rural
conditions and a response to the attractions of the city,
have had considerable force in bringing him to urban cen-
ters. Labor legislation in the South has played its part in
the movement.

The growth of the industrial and commercial centers of
the South, the larger wages in domestic and personal ser-
vice in the North, and social and individual causes of con-
centration bid fair to continue for an indefinite period.

579] a3

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144 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [580

The Negro responding to their influence will continue to
come in comparatively large numbers to town to stay.

But the Negro’s residence in the city offers problems of
maladjustment. Although these problems are similar to
those of other rural populations that become urban dwellers,
it is made more acute because he has greater handicaps due
to his previous condition of servitude and to the prejudiced
opposition of the white world that surrounds him. His
health, intelligence and morals respond to treatment
similar to that of other denizens of the city, if only
impartial treatment can be secured. Doubtless death-
rate and crime-rate have been and are greater than
the corresponding rates for the white populations of
the same localities, but both crime and disease are a reflec-
tion of the urban environment and are solvable by methods
similar to those used to remedy such conditions among
white people, if prejudiced presuppositions, which conclude
without experiment or inquiry that Negroes have innately
bad tendencies, give place to open-minded trial and un-
biased reason. Snap-shot opinions should be avoided in
such serious questions and statesmen, philanthropists and
race leaders should study the facts carefully and act accord-
ingly.

The study of the wage-earners among the Negroes of
New York City has disclosed conditions and led to con-
clusions in line with the foregoing inferences. The Negro
population was solidly segregated into a few assembly dis-
tricts, thereby confining the respectable to the same neigh-
borhoods with the disreputable. This population is made
up mainly of young persons and adults of the working
period of life, attracted to the city largely from the South
and the West Indies, principally by the thought of better
industrial and commercial advantages. Single persons pre-
dominate and the percentage of the aged is low. High rents

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and low incomes force lodgers into the families to disturb
normal home life.

From the early days of the Dutch Colony the Negro has
had a part in the laboring life of this community. While
most of the wage-earners have been engaged in domestic
and personal service occupations, figures that are available
warrant the inference that the Negro is slowly but surely
overcoming the handicaps of inefficiency and race prejudice,
and is widening the scope of employment year by year.
What the individual asks and should have from the white
community is a fair chance to work, and wages based upon
his efficiency and not upon the social whims and prejudices
of fellow-workmen, of employers, or of the community.

In domestic and personal service the Negro is poorly
paid compared with the cost of living. And even in skilled
occupations, where unions admit him and wages are offered
equal to those of white workmen, the Negro must be above
the average in speed, in quality of work done, and in re-
liability to secure and hold places.

In domestic and personal service, the verdict from a
large body of evidence is that, judged by the testimony of
employers as to the length of time employed, the capability,
sobriety and honesty of the workers, Negroes furnish a re-
liable supply of employees that need only to be properly
_ appraised to be appreciated. What is needed for the work-
ers in this class of occupations and for those in the skilled
trades, is that more attention be given to adequate training,
that more facilities be offered and that a more sympathetic
attitude be shown them in their efforts for better pay and
better positions.

In reviewing the Negro’s business operations judgment
should be tempered by consideration of his past and of the
tremendous odds of the present. There are handicaps due
to the denial of the chances of getting experience, to ineffi-

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146 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [582

ciency born of resulting inexperience, to the difficulty of
securing capital and building credit and to the low pur-
chasing power of the patronage to which a prejudiced
public limits him. He is not only denied experience, sorely
limited in capital and curtailed in credit, but his opportuni-
ties for securing either are very meagre. In spite of all
this, there has been progress which is prophetic of the
future.

From the days of slavery Negroes have tried the for-
tunes of the market place and under freedom their enter-
prises have increased in number and variety. At the pres-
ent time Southern-born and West Indian Negroes form the
bulk of the business men, the latter far in excess of their
proportion in the Negro population. This success of West
Indians is partly a result of training and initiative devel-
oped in a more favorable environment, as they had the
benefit of whatever opportunities their West Indian sur-
roundings offered.

Although they gained the meagre capital chiefly from
domestic and personal service occupations, Negroes have
entered and maintained a foothold in a number of lines of
business unrelated to these previous occupations. One of
the most important findings is that Negroes form few part-
nerships and that those formed are rarely of more than
two persons. Co-operative or corporate business enter-
prises are the exceptions. This fact has its most telling
effect in preventing accumulations of capital for large un-
dertakings. But co-operation in business is largely a matter
of ability born of experience and where can Negroes get
this experience in well-organized firms, under experienced.
supervision? For it is more than a matter of school in-
struction in book-keeping and the like. In practically the
entire metropolis, they rarely get beyond’ the position of
porter, or some similar job. Some fair-minded white peo-

Digitized by Microsoft®
583] CONCLUSION 147

ple who wish to help the Negro help himself could do great
service for the economic advancement of the Negro by
throwing open the doors of business positions to a number
of ambitious, capable Negro youths, who would thus enter
the avenues of economic independence. The writer knows
of three Negroes in New York City who proved themselves
so efficient in their respective lines that they were taken in
as members of large firms.

Another serious matter is connected with this point. All
309 firms were retail establishments, all of them bought
from wholesale suppliers who so far as could be ascertained
were white firms. In some lines, there were sufficient re-
tailers to support a wholesale house if their purchases were
combined. For example, the group of 50 barber shops or
of 36 grocers would each support a jobber if they pooled
their patronage. But this would demand an organizing
power, a business initiative, a fund of capital and a stretch
of credit, which only some men experienced in the method
of the modern business world could possess.

The small size and scope of Negro enterprises cannot
be attributed to lack of business capacity alone. For the
gross receipts of the selected years taken in connection with
the valuation of tools and fixtures, and with the stock of
merchandise on hand showed considerable diligence and
thrift in turning these small resources to active use.

The variety of the many small establishments indicates
also the initiative of the Negro in using every available
opportunity for economic independence. As we have seen,
some of the proprietors had early ambitions for business
careers, and others had worked hard and saved carefully
from small wages that they might rise from the class of the
employed to that of employers. The public to which the
Negro business man caters should accept his wares and his
services for their face value and not discount them because

Digitized by Microsoft®
148 THE NEGRO AT WORK IN NEW YORK CITY [584

of the complexion of his face. Then, too, Negroes must
learn that the purchasing public desires to be pleased and is
larger than the limits of their own people.

Negro wage-earners and business men have great diffi-
culty in scaling the walls of inefficiency and of race preju-
dice in order to escape the discomforts and dangers of a

low standard of living.

Digitized by Microsoft®
 

149

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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Hansall, Geo. H. Reminiscences of New York Baptists.

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PAGES
Assembly districts, Negroes in. 2. 2. 8... ....e, 52-53
Back-to-the-land movement . . ‘ 33
Business establishments, nature of 98
Classified. ; i 99
Floor space occupied by... 1... . 2... ws, ys 106
Gross receipts of. . 2... . ta: eS 113-114
Length of residence in New York of prusiclors: eis ey a fe 101
Number ofemployeesin. ... ..... iin tee 105
Ownershipof .......... SR! eee ihe 100
Permanence of locationef. .. .  . 1. ; 118-119
Table of floor space of. . . . : 107
Table of gross receipts of... 1... 2-2 ee < @%  @ 415
City growth, causesof. .......4. se ee eee 13
FOOtMOLeVON: aii te ey Gk RR ea SP a + 43-44
Colonial General Assembly, laws me by. Sides areain s » 94-95
Colored American (newspaper). ¢. “he Neck eos - 67, 96
Crime in cities. ©. ..... - 39-41
Death-rates of whites and Negroes . . . . . . 34-37
Changes in Richmond, Va. . . » 37-38
Diagrams:
I. Increase of whites and Negroes in cities . . 16
II. Death-rates in cities, 36
III. Distribution of Negro population’ in Hiaview . 50

IV. Distribution of Negro population in «San Juan Hill” dite 3 51

Freedmen, as shipbands .... ..... 66
Property escheated. . . ; 95
Health of Negroes in cities. . . 2. . cy a 34-38
Industrial centers, migration of Negroesto. . . 2... .. 5 19-25
Lake George, Negroes in battleof. . 6. - 6 1 et ee 66
Lodgers, natural members and. ‘ és
Gonsistiofy & «5. RS i a ae ee a eS 63
Natural members in families . Bh seeebyreectitae mth ohh die Ae om ii e as 62-63
Number of Jodgers in families. . 2. 6 ee ee ee 64
Migration to cities . 6 6 2 ee ee es eee eee 15-17
Secondary causesof. © 6 ee ee ee ee ee 29
593] 157

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158 es [594

PAGES

Nativity of Negroes, of New York State... 2. 6 6006 ee ee 57
Of New York City. 2. 2 6 2 2 ee ee ee - . 58 59

Of West Indians. . 2... 1. ee ee ad ay Wa OMe eel eo he 2 58
Of business proprietors... 1 2 2 ee we ee ee ee ee 100
Negro population of New York, table showing growth of... ... oe AZ
Distribution of 2,500 families in. 2. 1 1 we ee ee es 52-53
Segregationof Negro. . 1 6 2s eee ee et es 48-51
Negro, riotof 1712 ....... wh 2h: Gav GBS PO oe ee natn tant sen WEA adres Pala 95
So-called plot of 1741 . 2. 6 1 ww ee ee ee ee at eave xs 67
New Amsterdam Colony, slaves as laborersin. ....... we ee 66
Slaves owned land in... 2... 2 ee eee ee ie ee 67
Occupations, history of . ..... oT gt Maa gh Moot sy Fa hen ae se 66-69
In 1890 and 1900 . . ep satan ease ap Ue ace ek BTS Si Si Gee as th 69-71

In fg05.......- Boe ee ee | Oe RS a8, BET AGS
Proportion of malesand femalesin, . 2.00. . 7 ee ee eee 73
Tablesiofi : «ws 6 6s 6 a we ees 8 wee 8 7IR72, 74
Reasons for Negroes coming to New York. . ...... eo ee + 27-28
Tables of... . 2... eine) Ferdias abe Gero aa uate we + 6 « 27, 31-32
Slaves, as farm laborers and stevedores. .......-+.06- ss i = 766
Able tohold land. 2... 2. ee ee eee ee Sons Alot ah 67
Forbidden totrade....... ia 4 ‘ rae eke 94
Soil, divorce of Negro from... 10 1 wee eee es . . . 119
United Public Waiters. 2. 2. ....... ae aki se et a, 188
Becomes Beneficial Association... .. «1... ae ~. 69
United States, city groowthin . 2. 2 0 ww eee eee ee OB
Wages, in domestic and personal service. . . 2... 2 2 1 ee ees 78-79
Inhotel service. .... 2... Sak. Gy athe ase So er ey 81
Table of wg a a ek ee y tee ne A Rew OS we 6 BORE
WNIO Fates ga eS seine Ga ede ee eee a ‘ 82
Wage-earners, sex andage. . . .. 1. eee Bo Cal dee ecev ay ak 54-55
Efficiency of male. 20. ee ee et 83
Efficiency of female... .. . eS ewe ee 84
Efficiency of skilled . 2 2... 0 7 ee ee ee rre:!:)
Martial condition of. ..... . Rea nla ee a « <a Se .. + . 60-61
Tables of efficiency of. «2. 0. we th ee ee et ts 85, 87
Wilcox, Professor, quoted. . 2 2 2. ee ee ee eee in ee) ea AE
Work, M.N.,quoted. 2... 2. ee ee ee be is we ke ww GOHHGT

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STUDIES IN HISTORY
ECONOMICS AND
PUBLIC LAW

EDITED BY
THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

VOLUME FORTY-NINE

New Work

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS
Lonpon: P. S. Kine & Son

1912

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CONTENTS

PAGE

1. British RaDICcaLisM, 1791-1797— Walter Phelps Hall . . I
2. A CoMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE Law OF CORPORATIONS, WITH
PaRTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE PROTECTION OF CRED-

ITORS AND SHAREHOLDERS—Arthur K. Kuhn, Ph.D. . . 263
3. THE Necro aT Work In NEw York City—George Edmund
Flaynes, PRD. 6 6 eww we ee ee ee 437

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Columbia Giriversity
in the Wity of Rew Dork

The University includes the following:

Columbia College, founded in 1754, and Barnard College, founded in
5889, offering to men and women, respectively, programmes of study
which may be begun either in September or February and which lead
normally in from three to four years to the degrees of Bachelor of
Arts and Bachelor of Science. The programme of study in Columbia
College makes it possible for a well qualitied student to satisfy the re-
quirements for both the bachelor’s degree in arts or science and a pro-
fessional degree in law, medicine, technology or education in six, five
and a half or five years as the case may be.

The Faculties of Political Science, Philosophy and Pure Science,
offering advanced programmes of study and investigation leading to the
degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.

The professional schoois of

Law, established in 1858, offering courses of three years leading to the
degree of Bachelor of Laws,

Medicine. The College of Physicians and Surgeons, established in
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VOLUME XXXVI, 1910. 606 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50.

1. [97] Standards of Reasonableness in Local Freight Discriminations.
By Joun Maurice Crark, Ph.f), Price, $1.25.

2. [98] Legal Development in Colonial Massachusetts.
By Cuarcss J, Hirkery, Ph.D. Price, f1.25.

3. [99] *Social and Mental Traits of the Negro.
By Howarp W, Opum, Ph D. Price, f2.00.

VOLUME XXXVITI, 1910. 463 pp. Price, cloth. $3.50.

1. [100] The Public Domain and Democracy,
By Rosert Tunor Hitz, Ph.D. Price, $2.00.

2.(101) Organismic Theories of the State,
By Francis W. Coxar, Ph.D. Price, $1.50.

VOLUME XXXIX, 1910-1911. 651 pp. Price, cloth, $4 50

1. [102] The Making of the Balkan States,
* By Writiam Surry Murray, Ph D. Price, $1.57

2. [108] Political History of New York State during the Period of the ‘Civil
War. By Srpney Davin Brummer, Fh. D. Price, 3.co.

VOLUME XL, 1911. 633 pp. Price, cloth, $4 50.
1. [104] A Survey of Constitutional Development in China.

Hawkuine L. Yen, Ph D. Price, $1.00.

y
2. {105] Ohio Politics during the Civil War Period.
By Georecs H. Portsr, Ph.D Price, $1.75.

8. [106] The Territorial Basis of Government under the State Constitutions.
By Atprep ZANTZINGER RED, Ph.D. Price, 41.75.

VOLUME XLI, 1911. 514 pp. Price, cloth, $3.50; paper covers, $3.00.
(107/ New Jersey as a Royal Province. By Epcar Jacos Fisner, Ph. D

VOLUME XLII, 1911. 400 pp. Price,cloth, $3.00; paper covers, $2.50.

American Courts in Labor Cases.
[108] Attitude of By Grorcs Goruam Groat, Ph.D.

VOLUME XLIII, 1911. 633 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50.
1. [109] *Industrial Causes of Con gestion, or [Population in New York City.

By Bowany owe ERATE, eu . Price, $2.00,
" ' h. ' Price, cents
%. [110] Education and the Mores y F. STUART CHAPIN, 2 75

f n the Confederac
aft 10] Fhe British Consuls By Mitiapes L. Boxwam, JR., Ph.D. Price, $2.00,

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VOLUMES XLIV and XLV, 1911. 745 pp.
Price for the two volumes, cloth, $6.00; 3 paper covers, $5100.

[112 and 118] The Economic Principles ot Sonraeres & = pa Bis ouiee! Php -
; Ph.D,

VOLUME XLVI, 1911-1912. 623 pp. Price, cloth, $4. 50.

ae eet; The Ricardian Socialists. y Ester Lower aa, ‘Ph. D.
115] Ibrahim Pasha, Grand ‘Vizier opsuleiman, the Mamnitic
By Hi as Dee Emenee i

8. [116] *Th bor Movement in France, nh Ga
c 1 *Ehe Labor Moy - By ‘Louis Lavin, huD.«. Pride, ‘$x, 50."

4.'[117] A Hoosier Village. By Newnts, Leroy Sims. ‘Price, $1.50.

VOLUME XLVIT, 1912. 544 pp. Price, cloth, oe 00.

1. [118] The P tics: of Michigan, 1865-1878.
: i oe saa By Hareretre M, Duta, Ph. D. Price, 2.00.

2. [119] “The United States Beet-Sugar Industry and the Tariff.
[ ] & tye Roy G. Braxey, PhD. Price, fe.00

 
  
  

VvoLUAEE. XLVITI, 1912. 480 pp. Price, cloth, $4.00 «

1. [120] Isidor of Seville:.. By Enwast Brena, Ph D. Price, f2.08.-
2. [121] Progress eae. ‘Unitormity in Child-Labor Legislation,’ ;
By Wittiam Finipinc Ocpurn, Ph. D. Price, $r.95.

.,

VOLUME XLIX, 1912. 592 pp. Price, cloth, $4.50.

a [122] British Radicalism, Aigisite7 i By Warter Puerrs Hau. Price, $2.00. i

2. Aeaes A Comparative Btudy i of the Law of Corporationgy PhD, Prices
iH! A rice $1 50

    

3, [124 “The Negro at Work in New York City. . ‘
t ] = BY Gronax Havags, Ph

 

i Price, fas. ,
VOLUME L, 1912. . 7

1. [126] The Spirit of Chinese Philanthrophy. By Yax Yue Tsu, Ph, .D. Price, gx 1004?
2. lene The Alien in China. : By Vr Kyu Wacrrnaton Koo. ‘(7 presy

VOLUME LI, 1912. 4to. Atlas. Price; cloth, $1. 50; Paper covers, $1.00.%

1. (187) The Sale of Liquor in the South. wilt
By hedesan

 

VOLUME LIT, 1912.

1. [128] *Provincial and Local Taxation in Canada.
By Soromon Viwnasas, PhD, Price, Bt.50.

The price for each separate monograph fe for paper-covered coples; separate monagranha marked*, can |
be supplied bound in eloth, for 60c, additional, All: priega are nat,

The eet of forty-nine volumes, covering moriographs 1-124, is offered, bound, for $168: except that,’
Volume II can be supplied only in part, and in paper covers, 20. 1 of that volute being out of print,, ‘
Volumes 4 TI and IV can now be supplied only in connection with complete sets. at

-
fF

For further information, apply to

Prof. EDWIN R. A. SELIGMAN, Columbia University,
or to Messrs. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., New York.
London: P. 8. KING & SON, Orchard House, Westminster. .

*

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