enced
such an urgent need that they were only too glad to draw freely from
the Negro population of the South to meet their demands. As the
economic interests here were paramount, racial prejudice was
apparently swept aside, and Negroes by the thousands were admitted
into industries hitherto closed to them. In these they worked beside
white men, and, where they measured up to the efficiency of the
latter, they received the same pay. Hence, it is to a great extent the
foreign labor element that has been a formidable barrier to the Negro
in the industrial field, for it was seen that on its removal from this
place Negro labor was employed in its stead, notwithstanding the force
of racial antipathy. Though this force is capable of accomplishing
much, the probability is that in the face of economic stress it would
have been rendered impotent by the action of employers just as it was
in the recent emergency, and Negroes would have been hired freely
according to the exigencies of industries, if foreigners had not been
available in such large numbers.

In view of the fact that Negro laborers have now been given a chance
in these industries from which they were formerly barred, and the fact
that the American Federation of Labor has consented to admit them into
the international unions, and is endeavoring to urge these bodies to
carry out this policy, the outlook for Negro labor begins to brighten;
for there is a possibility of its becoming a potent factor in
industrial affairs: but this outcome is conditioned by three things.
These are the volume of post-war immigration from Europe, the extent
to which Negroes are actually given effective membership in the
unions, and the ability of industrial establishments, operating under
normal conditions, to absorb fully the available supply of Negro
labor. Already, immigration has attained such a height as to cause
grave concern in that it threatens, if left unchecked, to surpass its
pre-war records even at a time when an almost unprecedented industrial
depression is in existence. So serious is the situation that Congress
has passed a bill, which has been approved by the President, and thus
will soon become a law, providing for a restriction of the number of
immigrants from Europe, for a period of one year, to less than half a
million. Judging from the past, one can hardly escape taking the view
that, if foreigners should come here in numbers sufficient to meet the
demands for labor as the