Of the more than four hundred men who stated their reasons for coming
North, three hundred and twenty-five said that the higher wages and
economic opportunities here had attracted them. Two hundred and
eighty-eight of these also included better treatment as one of the
factors in their migration. As one of them expressed it, “If I were
half as well treated home as here, I would rather stay there, as I had
my family there and had a better home and better health.” Eighty-five
had no special reason for their coming, and were “jes travelin’ to see
the country”, or the like. Twenty-five were either tired of their work
or wanted to change it. This was the case particularly with the miners
from West Virginia and Alabama. Twenty-seven had either lost their
jobs, were out of work, or had various other reasons for coming. These
figures seem to indicate that the prime causes of the migration are
rather fundamental, and not merely temporary.
The Negro migration is similar to the previous European immigration
because, while dominantly economic, it is also due to social and
political maladjustments; but it is more largely a family migration.
For the number of Negroes who brought women and children with them
is greater in proportion to the total than was the case with the
foreigners. The European usually came alone and sent for his family
after a considerable lapse of time. The Negro either brings his
family with him or sends for it within the first three or four months
following his arrival. The complication of our housing problem is
obvious under these circumstances, for Pittsburgh until the present
time has attempted to meet the housing requirements of only single men
workers of the new labor group.
The short-sightedness of our failure to provide decent homes in the
city, in order to retain the labor which is so essential for the
expansion of Pittsburgh and the growth of its industries, is again
exposed by the figures in our study. Of the three hundred and thirty
single men, or men without families here, answering the question as
to whether they will remain here, return South or move elsewhere,
only ninety-two or twenty-eight percent said they would remain here.
A hundred and thirty-seven or forty-two percent were going back or
somewhere else, while one hundred and one or thirty percent were still
undecided.
As for the reasons why these men would not remain in the city,
seventy-nine or fifty-seven percent were leaving because they could not
get a better room because the rents paid by them were too excessive for
the wages received; thirty-seven or twenty-seven percent, gave family
connections as their reason, and the remaining sixteen percent either
had no reasons or were leaving because of ill health, bad climate or
other unfavorable conditions. The difficulty of securing an adequate
labor supply for Pittsburgh is thus, in part, explained by the very
nature of the economic problems involved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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