Negro Migration during the War
conditions. The bugaboo of cold weather is put before him to frighten him, of race antagonism and sundry other things, but not one word about better treatment is suggested to lighten the burden, no sane and reasonable remedy offered. The black labor is the best labor the South can get, no other would work long under the same conditions. It has been faithful and loyal, but that loyalty can be undermined, witness the exodus. A letter published in the Montgomery Advertiser truly says: "And the negro will not come back once he leaves the South. The World War is bringing many changes and a chance for the negro to enter broader fields. With the 'tempting bait' of higher wages, shorter hours, better schools and better treatment, all the preachments of the so-called race leaders will fall on deaf ears. It is probable that the 'well informed negro,' who told the Birmingham editor that it was good schools that were drawing the negro, could have given other and more potent reasons had he been so minded. He could have told how deep down in the negro's heart he has no love for proscription, segregation, lynchings, the petty persecutions and cruelties against him, nor for the arresting of 'fifty niggers for what three of 'em done,' even if it takes all of this to uphold the scheme of civilization. From Savannah alone, three thousand negroes went, from sixteen year old boys to men of sixty years. There must be something radically wrong when aged negroes are willing to make the change. There is greater unrest among negroes than those in high places are aware. Let the Advertiser speak out in the same masterful way, with the same punch and pep for a square deal for the negro, that it does for democracy and the right for local self-government. What was the attitude of the northern whites toward the migration? Although the North had been accustomed to the adding of a million foreigners annually to her population, these newcomers were white people and as such did not occasion the comment or create just the problems which a large influx of negroes created. The migration of the negro attracted a great deal of public attention. A wide and extended discussion of the movement was carried on through the press. The attitude which the white people assumed toward the migrants was expressed in this discussion. The New Republic of New York City pointed out that the movement gave the negro a chance and that he, the South and the nation, would in the end, all be gainers. "When Austria found the Serbian reply inadmissible, the American negro, who had never heard of Count Berchtold, and did not care whether Bosnia belonged to Austria or Siam, got his 'chance.' It was not the sort of chance that came to the makers of munitions--a chance to make millions. It was merely a widening of a 
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