hire 200 or more per month in order to
keep up a force of 600 men.[140] They would not stay in one place any
length of time, but continued to move in search of better wages and
accommodations. They could not be persuaded in many cases to wait
until pay-day for their earnings, but would not be content if they
could not get some of it in advance according to their custom in this
regard in the South. In behalf of this they offered the most flimsy
pretexts, and often spent this money for very unwholesome things.[141]

Thus, in 1917, it was concluded that the Negroes were not as yet
adapted to the heavy and pace-set work in the steel mills, that they
were accustomed to the easy-going plantation and farm work of the
South, and that it would take them some time to become adjusted. It
seemed that the roar and clangor of the mills made the Negroes a
little dazed and confused.

In the city of Detroit the actions of the Negroes in the industries
were highly pleasing to some of the employers, whereas to others they
were just the reverse. The employers held two lines of adverse
criticism against the Negro as a workman. In the first place, they
complained that the Negro was too slow; that he did not have the speed
which the routine of efficient industry demands; and that he lacked
that regularity demanded by the routine of industry day by day. In the
second place, the Negro was disinclined to work out-of-doors when the
cold weather set in; and, in this respect, he was considered
unsatisfactory, because his labor could be depended upon only at
certain seasons of the year.[142]

Reports from Newark, New Jersey, likewise showed that the Negroes were
having trouble in adjusting themselves to the new conditions. The
female migrants manifested an unadaptability to housework, being
accustomed to outdoor work on the farms. In factories and
freight-yards men and boys when overheated would throw off their outer
clothing just as they would in the mild South, with the consequence
that they were often attacked by grip and pneumonia. The unaccustomed
roads and pavements and long hours of toil caused the migrants to lose
many days' work. In fact, outdoor work was attended with so many
hardships that the Negroes began to apply only for indoor work. Again,
it is said that the fumes in munition factories made many of them
temporarily ill, thus necessitating their seeking other work even at
lower wages. Explosions in ammunition plants, moreover, th