at surplus of labor throughout those
sections affected by the boll-weevil, floods, and shortage of cars,
which was ready to respond to this demand. This demand was made known
to the migrants by Northern labor agents who played the part of
middlemen in this exodus. The migration, through them, was made easy
by the furnishing of free transportation and by the making of glowing
promises to the Negro migrants.

Another potent influence was that of the persuasion of friends and
relatives already in the North. In 1917, when an investigation of the
movement was made, it was found that this was the principal influence
operating to move the Negroes to the North. Former residents of some
of the rural districts of the South who had gone North and secured a
foothold wrote letters back to their friends and relatives telling
them of their success in the new environment. They depicted in these
missives wages which seemed fabulous sums when compared with those
received in the South, told of the good conditions of their
surroundings, and of numerous advantages and opportunities which they
were enjoying, but which had been impossible for them to enjoy while
in the South. Negro men, moreover, frequently sent large sums of money
to transport their families to the North, and frequently sons in the
North sent neat sums back to their parents in the South. These letters
containing glowing reports concerning Northern conditions, and the
large remittances to relatives and friends, played no small part in
inducing thousands to move to try their fortunes in the new
environment.

In Georgia[64] we find that the migration was due to a complex of
economic and social causes in the form of low wages, poor conditions
of labor, lynching, minor injustices in the courts and dissatisfaction
with educational facilities. In regard to the first cause, it is known
that at the time of the migration wages in this State were extremely
low. In 1916 some counties paid only $10 and $12 a month for farm
labor; others paid $13 and $15 a month for the same kind of labor.
After the movement got well started, however, there was a tendency on
the part of most of the farmers to advance wages a little, so that
some counties showed an average of $14, others $17, and not a few
others as much as $20 a month. It should be added that these wages
were in most cases supplemented by free housing and sometimes by food.

In another instance it was found that many Negroes left the f