r to remain in
the environment to which he has become accustomed, even under most
adverse conditions, or to leave it only when he feels certain that
another environment offers him advantages superior to those afforded
him by his home surroundings.

According to this principle, then, there might occur repeated
instances in which conditions in the South may become very
distressing, but unattended by signs of better things in the North.
This would, no doubt, result in compelling the Negroes, for the most
part, to remain where they are. In a word, a migration, in the true
sense of the word, is not a phenomenon brought about by the mere whims
or fancies of the individuals or groups participating, but is rather
brought into being by a sort of rational response to certain economic
and social laws. A movement engendered otherwise is almost certain to
bring disaster to the migrants, as was the case in the Negro exodus to
Kansas in 1879.[183] The occasion for a Negro migration of sufficient
volume to affect the industries of the South, moreover, as did this
recent one, might require such a long time for its occurrence as to
render the force of the migration as a weapon almost nihil. On account
of the peculiar position in which the Negroes find themselves placed,
therefore, it might be well if they had in their possession some
economic instrument by which they might peaceably force concessions
from the South, and thereby remove many of the obstacles in the way of
their progress; for it is hardly possible that they will accomplish
this through the agency of migration.

Another thing in regard to this movement is that it has undoubtedly
taught the South a few lessons. First of all, it must have brought
home the fact that the Negroes, to a very large extent, are
dissatisfied with conditions in the South; that they resent the
economic and social injustices done to them; that they are not wholly
anchored to this section; and that large numbers are ready to leave
whenever there are signs of favorable opportunities for them in the
North and West. As never before, perhaps, moreover, the South has been
made to realize the economic value of the Negroes. It has been brought
to see the valuable asset it possesses in having at hand this almost
illimitable supply of labor so well adapted to its climate and
industries, and that there are possibilities of its losing it to such
an extent as to endanger very seriously its economic interests. The