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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Appendices - 6. Pre-War Conditions of the Negro Wage Earner in Selected Industries and Occupations - 9. Railroad Workers
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iro6 An American Dilemma
South, but technical developments soon made it more attractive.® The removal of racial
wage differentials in 1918 made the employers lose their interest in having Negro fire-
men, which, of course, hastened the elimination of Negroes.*^ Few, if any, Negroes are
getting into such occupations at the present time. It is possible, however, that the present
war boom has brought about a temporary change in this situation. Some Negroes are
even being driven out, and the probability is that the Negro, before long, will have but
a handful of representatives in these groups. This process of elimination has been
accompanied by physical intimidation and even murder. Charles S. Johnson has found
trustworthy accounts and records of no less than 2 1 shootings and murders of firemen
and brakemen during the short period 1931-1934.*^
The Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and
Station Employees (A.F. of L.), which formerly excluded Negroes, changed its policy
in 1940 by accepting segregated Negro “auxiliaries,” directed by white officers.^ Even
more unfavorable to Negroes is the fact that a similar policy is followed by the Brother-
hood of Maintenance of Way Employees (A.F. of L.), which represents the occupation
including the bulk of the Negro railroad workers. This union was orginally started by
the foremen who are still dominating it. Since the foremen are always white, the Negro
workers feel that the organization serves the purpose of keeping them subjugated under
their white bosses.® This condition is the more deplorable since maintenance-of-
way workers are the largest low wage group in the railway industry.* In 1935
thirds of them earned 35 cents per hour or less in the South and almost one-fifth
received 20 cents or less.® Thanks to the Wages and Hours Act, there have been
improvements since then, at least for those lowest down on the wage scale. The average
in 1939 for 15 Southern states was 33 cents, as against 47 cents in the “Eastern
district,” **
The application of the Wages and Hours Law has been delayed, in some
cases, because of evasion. At least one great Southern road used the device of charging
their workers undue amounts for rent and other expenses, but was forced, through
court action, to refrain from such practices.* The wage increases, on the other hand, are
encouraging mechanization, particularly in the South where, so far, there has been
comparatively little mechanization and where the rise in wage cost counts most.^ After
the present war boom the Negro railroad worker, more likely than not, will have even
less employment than he had before this emergency.
* Charlet S. Johnson, “Negroes in the Railway Industry, Part 2,” Phylon (Second Quarter,
1942), p. 204.
Northrop, of, «V., pp. 34^*349®
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