s wrought by this migration were unusually startling.
Homes found themselves without servants, factories could not operate
because of the lack of labor, farmers were unable to secure laborers
to harvest their crops. Streets in towns and cities once crowded
assumed the aspect of deserted thoroughfares, houses in congested
districts became empty, churches, lodges and societies suffered such
a large loss of membership that they had to close up or undergo
reorganization.

Probably the most striking change was the unusual increase in wages.
The wages for common labor in Thomasville, Georgia, increased almost
certainly 100 per cent. In Valdosta there was a general increase in
the town and county of about 50 per cent, in Brunswick and Savannah
the same condition obtained. The common laborer who had formerly
received 80 cents a day earned thereafter $1.50 to $1.75. Farm hands
working for from $10 to $15 per month were advanced to $20 or $35
per month. Brick masons who had received 50 cents per hour thereafter
earned 62-1/2 cents and 70 cents per hour. In Savannah common laborers
paid as high as $2 per day were advanced to $3. At the sugar refinery
the rates were for women, 15 to 22 cents per hour, men, 22 to 30
cents per hour. In the more skilled lines of work, the wages were
for carpenters, $4 to $6 per day, painters, $2.50 to $4 per day, and
bricklayers $4 to $5 per day.

The increase in the Birmingham district may be studied as a type
of the changes effected in the industrial centers of the South, as
Birmingham is a great coal mining center and, with the exception of
Pittsburgh, is the greatest iron ore district in the United States.
On November 6, 1917, the average daily wage earnings of forty-five men
was $5.49. On November 10, 1917, the average for seventy-five men was
$5.30. One man was earning $10 a day, two $9 to $10 a day, five $8 to
$9, six $7 to $8, ten $6 to $7, fourteen $5 to $6, thirty-two $4 to
$5, nine $3 to $4, and six under $3. In the other coal and iron ore
sections the earnings had been similarly increased.[96]

In Mississippi, largely a farming section, wages did not increase to
the extent that they did in Alabama, but some increase was necessary
to induce the negroes to remain on the plantations and towns to keep
the industries going. In Greenville wages increased at first about ten
per cent but this did not suffice to stop the migration, for, because
of the scarcity of labor, factories and stores had