over. Of this number 2,848,258 or 55.2 per cent were
farmers and 1,122,182 or 21.4 per cent were domestic servants. Out
of nearly five hundred occupations listed in the census of 1910
three-fourths of the negro working population were limited to two. In
the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits throughout the entire United
States there were employed scarcely a half million or 12.1 per cent of
the working population.

Statistics of labor conditions in certain northern cities support this
conclusion. In New York City in 1910, of the negroes ten years of
age and over gainfully occupied there were 33,110 males and 26,352
females. Of the males there were engaged in domestic and personal
service 16,724 or 47.6 per cent of the total number of males. Of the
26,352 females there were in domestic service 24,647 or 93.5 per cent
of the total number. In the occupations which require any degree of
skill and utilise the training of acquired trades, the percentage
was exceedingly low. For example, in the manufacturing and mechanical
pursuits where there were the benefits of labor organizations and
higher pay, there were but 4,504 negro males, or 13.6 per cent of the
total number gainfully employed. The per cent of colored women in this
line was considerably less. Taken together with the 1,993 dressmakers
working outside of factories it was but 8.3 per cent of the total
number of females. This line of work, however, as all who are familiar
with the manner in which it is done will recognize, is but another
form of domestic service. Exclusive of this number the per cent drops
to a figure a trifle over one per cent.

Chicago, as another typical northern city, shows practically the same
limitations on negro labor. In 1910 there were gainfully employed in
this city 27,317 negroes. Of this total 61.8 per cent were engaged
in domestic service. The negro women, of course, contributed a larger
share to this proportion, theirs being 83.8 per cent of the females
ten years of age and over gainfully employed. In the manufacturing and
mechanical pursuits there were engaged 3,466 males and 1,038 females,
or 18.7 and 1.1 per cent respectively.[55]

Detroit, viewed in the light of its tremendous increase, shows some
of the widest differences. In 1910 there were 3,310 negroes of working
age profitably employed. Of this number there were but 410 males
and 74 females engaged in the manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
Forty-six of the total female wo