en into poverty raises the question as to whether their
unemployment is due to a general policy of employers to deprive
Negroes of work simply because of their color. It is known that during
this industrial depression production is exceedingly small and that
correspondingly there is an infinitely small demand for the very large
available supply of labor. The result is that there is an almost
universal state of unemployment which presumably affects all groups
alike. However, Mr. Charles C. Cooper, head of the Kingsley House in
Pittsburgh, does not think that this is the case, for he is of the
opinion that discrimination has been made against Negro workers. He
holds that unskilled Negroes, the latest to be employed in industrial
plants, have been among the first to be discharged and that only in
exceptional instances is this untrue. These exceptions exist where the
percentage of Negroes discharged is no larger than that of white
workers because of the efforts of Negro social workers who were
employed to act as spokesmen for the Negro laborers.[168] Opposed to
this is the view of the Executive Secretary of the National Urban
League. He does not believe that the percentage of Negroes discharged
from work is larger than that of whites. In many plants, where Negroes
have made good, when the necessity of cutting down the labor force
arose, the proportion of Negroes who were dropped was no greater than
that of any other group. In fact, in a few cases, employers have
actually retained, proportionally, more Negro than white laborers. Be
that as it may, the fact, nevertheless, is that unemployment is
largely responsible for the distressed conditions of many of the Negro
migrants; and the hope is that when this industrial crisis is passed
and they are again given the opportunity to work, they will lift
themselves once more to the level of self-help and independence.

In any migration of peoples in modern times there are usually those
who either intend to remain in the new locality temporarily or who,
because of the least dissatisfaction with conditions, are willing to
return home at the earliest possible time. This gives rise to an
outflow as well as an inflow of migrants. Perhaps the immigration from
Europe to this country may illustrate this. For several years previous
to the Great War, while thousands of immigrants arrived in this
country, on the one hand, on the other, thousands departed for their
respective native lands.[170]