in Harrisburg during this preceding decade as the increase
was only 721 or 15.9 per cent.

In Cleveland, Ohio, it was found that the Negro population of the jail
had increased from 13 per cent of the total jail population in
September, 1916, to 87 per cent in September, 1917. During the month
of August of the latter year the Negro population of the jail was 60
per cent of the total jail population. The superintendent of prisons,
however, expressed the belief that these Negroes were not of the
criminal type, and affirmed that they had been sent to jail for such
minor offenses as loafing on street corners, drunkenness, and as
suspicious characters. He declared, further, that in many instances,
because they were inadequately housed, deprived of opportunities for
decent recreation, poorly clad, and often hatless on the streets,
Negroes were summarily picked up by the police and sent to prison on
the mere charge of suspicion.[163] This accounts for much of the
so-called "Negro crime" in the United States.

Without further investigation, and relying solely on the facts
already presented concerning conditions among the migrants in the
North, one would, no doubt, at once suppose that a great many Negroes
at first failed in the struggle, fell by the wayside, and finally
became public charges. Strange as it may seem to relate, however, the
contrary was rather the case. Few, indeed, were those among the
migrants who became so overwhelmed by poverty as to necessitate their
calling for public aid. The only account of Negroes appealing for help
is that given by the Society for Organizing Charity in the city of
Philadelphia. In this statement we are informed that during one year,
ending early in 1917, this society received twenty-eight applications
from Negro families who had recently come from the South. This same
report states also that the Juvenile Court had received relatively few
applications; that the Children's Bureau had not removed any children
from newly arrived families; and that the House of Detention had
handled only twenty-eight children arrested on one charge or
another.[164]

This surprisingly small number of Negroes who became public charges
must not, however, convey the impression that the migrants were
altogether self-supporting. Numerous instances could be cited in which
it would be shown that many of the older Negro residents of the North
came to the rescue of stranded migrants from the South. Churches and
mis