groes. St. Louis also has a large shoe industry. In this line no
negroes are employed. A short while ago a large steel plant employing
foreigners in large numbers had a strike. The strike was settled but
the management took precautions against its repetition. For each
white person employed a negro was placed on a corresponding job. This
parallel extended from unskilled work to the highest skilled pursuits.
The assumption was that a strike, should it recur, could not cripple
their industry entirely. About 80 per cent of the employes of the
brick yards, 50 per cent of the employes of the packing houses, 50
per cent of the employes of the American Car and Foundry Company are
negroes. The terra cotta works, electrical plants, united railways and
a number of other foundries employ negroes in large numbers.[105]

The range of wages for unskilled work is $2.25 to $3.35 per day, with
an average wage of about $2.75. For some skilled work negroes receive
from 35 cents to 50 cents an hour. Wages differ even between St. Louis
and East St. Louis, because of a difference in the types of industries
in the two cities. Domestic service has been literally drained, and
wages here have been forced upwards to approximate in some measure the
increase in other lines.

The housing facilities for negroes, though not the best, are superior
to such accommodations in most southern cities. There are about six
communities in which the negroes are in the majority. Houses here are
as a rule old, having been occupied by whites before they were turned
over to negroes. Before the migration to the city, property owners
reported that they could not keep their houses rented half of the
year. According to the statements of real estate men, entire blocks
stood vacant, and many vacant houses, after windows had been broken
and plumbing stolen, were wrecked to avoid paying taxes on them. Up
to the period of the riot in East St. Louis, houses were easily
available. The only congestion experienced at all followed the
overnight increase of 7,000 negroes from East St. Louis, after the
riot. Rents then jumped 25 per cent, but normal conditions soon
prevailed. Sanitation is poor, but the women coming from the South, in
the opinion of a reputable physician of the city, are good housewives.
New blacks have been added to all of the negro residential blocks.
In the tenement district there have been no changes. The select negro
residential section is the abandoned residen