ustry to be harshly treated
either by the foreigners or their employers.[117]

In Beloit, Wisconsin, as in other cities, it was impossible to find
out with any degree of accuracy the approximate number of negroes.
Estimates of the number ranged from 700 to 2,000, whereas, before the
influx, the black population was as low as 200. The total population
of Beloit is about 20,000. There are now two negro churches, a Baptist
and an African Methodist Episcopal. The Baptist church was said to be
made up entirely of new people. Beloit did not have a negro Baptist
preacher until the migration, and had no negro physicians. Prior to
the influx there was little discrimination, except in some of the
restaurants and occasionally in the theaters. One negro was working
at the post office, and another at the railroad station. Aside from
these, the negro men were practically all laborers and porters.

As is true in most small cities, one company took the initiative in
sending for men from the South. The Fairbanks Morse Company was the
pioneer corporation in this respect in Beloit. This company hires at
present 200 men. Most of these came from Mississippi. In fact, Albany
and Pontotoc, small towns in Mississippi, are said to have dumped
their entire population in Beloit. A few from Memphis, Tennessee,
were employed there but the company preferred Mississippians, and had
agents at work in that State getting men for its plant. It was said
to be fair in its treatment of negroes and to pay the standard
wages.[118]

Milwaukee was one of the ready recipients of negro migrants from other
points in the North. Following the outbreak of the war, the consequent
cessation of foreign immigration and the withdrawal of a number of
aliens from the labor market to follow their national colors, a large
demand for negro labor was for the first time created. Milwaukee
apparently could not attract voluntary migration, and the larger
plants were forced to import some 1,200 southern negroes to man their
industries. In 1910, the city had a negro population of 980. There are
now in Milwaukee about 2,700 negroes of whom 1,500 are newcomers, not
only from the South, but from the adjacent States of Illinois, Iowa,
Michigan and Minnesota.[119]

This migration to Milwaukee caused a number of difficulties. The first
difficulty to arise was in the relationship of the migrant to the old
residents of the city. Like the newly arrived foreigners they lived
rather "clos