rs to which the greatest number of negroes went.
Before the migration, a considerable number of negroes were employed
there. In 1900, the negro population of Allegheny county, in which
Pittsburgh is situated, was 27,753. In 1910 it was 34,217. When the
migration began, the county had about 38,000 negroes. Investigations
and estimates indicate that, at the end of 1917, the negro population
of the county had increased to almost 66,000. Epstein in his survey of
_The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh_ said:[127]

From a canvass of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh
district, it was found that there were 2,550 negroes employed
in 1915, and 8,325 in 1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227 per
cent. It was impossible to obtain labor data from more than
approximately sixty per cent of the negro employing concerns,
but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds
true of the remaining forty per cent. On this basis the number
of negroes now employed in the district may be placed at
14,000. This means that there are about 9,750 more negroes
working in the district today than there were in 1915, an
addition due to the migration from the South.

According to Epstein, the migration had been going on for little
longer than one year. Ninety-three per cent of those who gave the time
of residence in Pittsburgh had been there less than one year. More
than eighty per cent of the single men interviewed had been there
less than six months. In the number who had been there for the longest
period, married men predominated, showing the tendency of this class
to become permanent residents. This fact becoming evident, some
industrial concerns bringing men from the South, having learned from
bitter experience that the mere delivery of negroes from a southern
city did not guarantee a sufficient supply of labor, made an effort to
secure married men only, and even to investigate them prior to their
coming. Differences in recruiting methods may also explain why some
employers and labor agents hold a very optimistic view of the negro as
a worker, while others despair of him. The reason why Pittsburgh has
been unable to secure a stable labor force is doubtless realized by
the local manufacturers. Married negroes come to the North to stay.
They desire to have their families with them, and if they are not
accompanied North by their wives and children they plan to have them
follow at the earliest pos