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134

The Crisis

gro Art, Its Influence on Modern Art." His conclusions are striking:

It is certain that before the introduction of the plastic principles of Negro art, abstract representations did not exist among Europeans. Negro art has re-awakened in us the feeling for abstract form, it has brought into our art the means to express our purely sensorial feelings in regard to form, or to find new form in our ideas. The abstract representations of modern art are unquestionably the offspring of the Negro Art which has made us conscious of a subjective state, obliterated by objective education.

It is unfortunate that after this true word he should go so far outside of his field as an artist to try and explain Negro achievement as the product of the lowest of human animals.

Charles F. Heartman has issued the second volume of his Bibliographica Americana. It is entitled, "A Bibliographical Checklist of American Negro Poetry," and was compiled by Arthur A. Schomburg. Mr. Schomburg has brought together over five hundred titles of volumes and pamphlets written by American Negro poets. 

The Hegira

The continued migration of colored laborers from the South to the North and the West has brought out much editorial comment. Just before the election, the Democratic party suddenly discovered that the cause of the migration was political. The Watertown, New York, Times said: 

Attorney General Gregory said immediately following election: "I have evidence that a large number of Negroes from the South moved into northern states within ninety days before the election. So far, I do not know whether this movement was industrial or political, although some of them attempted to register."

The American Federation of Labor's resolution will convey to Attorney General Gregory the information that the emigration was industrial. How horrible that some of these men should attempt to register. The Democrats of the South barred the men from voting in their own states, and it is a matter of marvel that, deprived of citizenship, they were inclined to emigrate and that they attempted to register when they got north?

The federation and all the South knows that the movement was industrial, and the South wants its cheap labor back home again. 

The Buffalo Express puts it thus: 

The administration at Washington is not the only power which is four-flushing on the question presented by the migration of Negro labor from the South to the North. The administration affects to believe that it is political in character. The American Federation of Labor, now in session at Baltimore, alleges that it has discovered that such importation of Negroes to Ohio had demonstrated to the satisfaction of labor leaders in that state that they were being brought North for the purpose of filling the places of union men demanding better conditions, as in the case of freight handlers. 

The Milwaukee Leader spoke boldly: 

The Negro laborer is becoming accustomed to being deprived of rights that constitutions and legislation have conferred upon him. But the peculiar efforts now being made to hold him in the South, where he has so long been condemned as a curse, must awaken some surprise. 

Three years ago the Federal Department of Labor established a free employment bureau. It was hailed as a long step toward solving the unemployed problem. At least, it would enable the worker to find the most desirable jobs.

Then came the war and for the first time in the history of capitalism, there was really no army of unemployed. But there was still a great difference in jobs. Manufacturers and munition workers were paying wages that looked like affluence to the Negro field worker. So these workers started North by hundreds of thousands. Many of them were assisted in doing so by the information furnished by the federal employment offices. 

Now come the legislatures of several Southern States and the city councils of many cities passing laws and ordinances prohibiting the operation of any employment offices. Some municipalities have even forbidden the emigration of Negroes. All make it a crime to "entice" workmen from their employment. 

Hereafter, all legislation pretending to confer any rights or liberties should avoid such difficulties by attaching a clause providing that it "shall not apply to Negroes." On second thought the cause might as well read "all workingmen excepted."

The resolutions adopted by the American Federation of Labor at its recent convention in Baltimore were as follows: 

"Whereas, The emigration of Southern Negroes to Northern labor centers, which has occasioned anxiety on the part of the United States Department of Labor, and has occasioned aniety [[anxiety]] on the part of the organized labor movement because of the danger such emigration will cause the workers in the Northern states; and 

"Whereas, The investigation of such emigration and importation of Negroes into the State of Ohio has demonstrated to the satisfaction of the labor leaders in that state that they are being brought North for the purpose of filling the places of union men demanding better conditions, as in the case of the freight handlers; and

"Whereas, The shortage of European la-