Note 28 — WILLIAM BENJAMIN SMITH (continued 3)

Hear the testimony of the ablest of Negroids, Professor W. E. B. Dubois, in his admirable sociologic study, "The Philadelphia Negro":

"How now has this exclusion been maintained? In some cases by the actual inclusion of the word 'white' among qualifications for entrance into certain trade unions. More often, however, by leaving the matter of color entirely to local bodies, who make no general rule, but invariably fail to admit a colored applicant except under pressing circumstances. This is the most workable system and is adopted by nearly all trade unions" (p. 128). "To repeat, then, the real motives back of this exclusion are plain: A large part is simple race prejudice, always strong in working classes and intensified by the peculiar history of the Negro in this country. Another part, and possibly a more potent part, is the natural spirit of monopoly and the desire to keep up wages ... Moreover, in this there is one thoroughly justifiable consideration that plays a great part: namely, the Negroes are used to low wages—can live on them, and consequently would fight less fiercely than most whites against reduction" (p. 129).... "The Negroes of the city who have trades either give them up and hire out as waiters and laborers, or they become job workmen and floating hands, catching a bit of carpentering here or a little brickwork or plastering there at reduced wages" (p. 130). It is needless to accumulate such depositions.