ng open the doors of business positions to a number
of ambitious, capable Negro youths, who would thus enter the avenues
of economic independence. The writer knows of three Negroes in New
York City who proved themselves so efficient in their respective lines
that they were taken in as members of large firms.

Another serious matter is connected with this point. All 309 firms
were retail establishments, all of them bought from wholesale
suppliers who so far as could be ascertained were white firms. In some
lines, there were sufficient retailers to support a wholesale house if
their purchases were combined. For example, the group of 50 barber
shops or of 36 grocers would each support a jobber if they pooled
their patronage. But this would demand an organizing power, a business
initiative, a fund of capital and a stretch of credit, which only some
men experienced in the method of the modern business world could
possess.

The small size and scope of Negro enterprises cannot be attributed to
lack of business capacity alone. For the gross receipts of the
selected years taken in connection with the valuation of tools and
fixtures, and with the stock of merchandise on hand showed
considerable diligence and thrift in turning these small resources to
active use.

The variety of the many small establishments indicates also the
initiative of the Negro in using every available opportunity for
economic independence. As we have seen, some of the proprietors had
early ambitions for business careers, and others had worked hard and
saved carefully from small wages that they might rise from the class
of the employed to that of employers. The public to which the Negro
business man caters should accept his wares and his services for their
face value and not discount them because of the complexion of his
face. Then, too, Negroes must learn that the purchasing public desires
to be pleased and is larger than the limits of their own people.

Negro wage-earners and business men have great difficulty in scaling
the walls of inefficiency and of race prejudice in order to escape the
discomforts and dangers of a low standard of living.

APPENDIX A

FAMILY SCHEDULE

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Serial | | FAMILY SCHEDULE |Surname:
No. |Investigator. |No. in family: |Address:
Date: |Source of |No. earning wages: |Floor: No. of