hites to this city from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and
Mississippi.

As there are separate schools in St. Louis, the statistics of the St.
Louis system may serve as an index to the sources and the increase
of the negro population. The school population was known to increase
approximately 500 between 1916 and 1917.[103] The school registration
shows communities in which have settled numbers of families from the
same State and even the same town. For example, in the vicinity of the
Dessalines School in the 1700 block on 12th Street, North, Mississippi
colonists are in preponderant majority. The towns represented here are
located in the northeastern part of that State. In the vicinity of
the L'Overture School are distinct colonies from west Tennessee and
Alabama. On Lawton Avenue, another popular street, Mississippians also
are in majority. What makes migration to St. Louis from these
States easy is probably its convenient location and direct railway
communication with them. There has been no influx from Texas and
Florida.

How St. Louis secured her migrants makes an interesting story. The
difficulty of apprehending labor agents can be appreciated when it is
recalled that the most zealous efforts of authority in the majority
of cases failed to find more than a trace of where they had been
operating. It was asserted by many of the migrants to this city,
however, that they had been approached at some time by agents. Large
industrial plants located in the satellite city of St. Louis sent men
to Cairo, a junction point, to meet incoming trains and make offers.
There developed a competition for men. They were first induced to
accept jobs in smaller towns, but lack of recreational facilities
and amusements and the monotony of life attracted them to the bright
lights of St. Louis. The large alien population of this city at the
beginning of the war made some employers anxious about the safety
of their plants. The brick yards had been employing foreigners
exclusively. When war began so many left that it was felt that their
business was in danger. They advertised for 3,000 negroes, promising
them $2.35 per day. The railroad construction companies sent out
men to attract negroes to the city. They assert, however, that their
agents solicited men only after they had started for the North.[104]

The industries of St. Louis had much to do with the migration. In
this city there are more than twenty breweries. None of these employ
ne