he length. When it first
emerges it is yellowish, then becomes grayish brown and finally assumes a
black shade. It breeds on no other plant than cotton and feeds on the
boll. This little animal, at first attacked the cotton crop in Texas. It
was not thought that it would extend its work into the heart of the South
so as to become of national consequence, but it has, at the rate of forty
to one hundred sixty miles annually, invaded all of the cotton district
except that of the Carolinas and Virginia. The damage it does, varies
according to the rainfall and the harshness of the winter, increasing with
the former and decreasing with the latter. At times the damage has been to
the extent of a loss of 50 per cent. of the crop, estimated at 400,000
bales of cotton annually, about 4,500,000 bales since the invasion or
$250,000,000 worth of cotton.[6] The output of the South being thus cut
off, the planter has less income to provide supplies for his black tenants
and, the prospects for future production being dark, merchants accustomed
to give them credit have to refuse. This, of course, means financial
depression, for the South is a borrowing section and any limitation to
credit there blocks the wheels of industry. It was fortunate for the Negro
laborers in this district that there was then a demand for labor in the
North when this condition began to obtain.

This demand was made possible by the cutting off of European immigration
by the World War, which thereby rendered this hitherto uncongenial section
an inviting field for the Negro. The Negroes have made some progress in
the North during the last fifty years, but despite their achievements they
have been so handicapped by race prejudice and proscribed by trades unions
that the uplift of the race by economic methods has been impossible. The
European immigrants have hitherto excluded the Negroes even from the
menial positions. In the midst of the drudgery left for them, the blacks
have often heretofore been debased to the status of dependents and
paupers. Scattered through the North too in such small numbers, they have
been unable to unite for social betterment and mutual improvement and
naturally too weak to force the community to respect their wishes as could
be done by a large group with some political or economic power. At
present, however, Negro laborers, who once went from city to city, seeking
such employment as trades unions left to them, can work even as skilled
labo