Negroes in
domestic and personal service are capable, temperate, and honest, and
remain with one employer a reasonable time, considering the shifting
condition of city life, the mobility of such wage-earners and the weak
tenure of domestic and personal service in a modern city.

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York, _Annual Report_, 1909,
pp. 444-595. Figures for Negro members of unions are from Ovington,
_op. cit._, pp. 97-99. Miss Ovington's table seems to show that in 16
occupations the number of Negro members of unions increased from about
1,271 in 1906 to about 1,358 in 1910.

[64] On this point the writer has talked with a number of Negroes who
were serving or had served in domestic and personal service. Some of
them have gone so far as to enter small business enterprises for
themselves. They often remarked: "I want to be my own boss."

[65] From several reliable sources has come testimony concerning
employers who formerly had Negro servants, and gave them up for
reasons similar to that of one lady who said: "It is going out of
fashion to have Colored help any longer." _Cf._ also, Ovington, _op.
cit._, pp. 75-86.

PART II

THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY

CHAPTER I

THE CHARACTER OF NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

1. THE BUSINESS PROMISE

It is a far cry from satisfying an employer to pleasing the public.
The one requires the obeying of the orders of a boss, the other calls
for initiative and self-direction. Business enterprise involves
judgments of the whims, wishes and wants of prospective customers and
skill in buying goods or supplying services to satisfy their demands.
The wage-earner needs his labor only. The business promoter must
secure capital and establish credit. The employee has only the stake
of a present place, and has little hindrance from going to another job
in case of disappointment. The business man risks name, time, labor
and money in the commercial current and has only his experience left,
if he loses his venture.

Therefore, the Negro two and a half centuries under the complete
control of a master could hardly be expected in one generation to
acquire the experience, develop the initiative, accumulate the
capital, establish the credit and secure the good-will demanded to-day
in carrying on great and extensive business enterprises, such as find
their headquarters in New York City, the commercial heart of the
continent. Besides, the handicaps