ack man drawing $114 in his last two weeks' pay. This claim
was supported by a very intelligent negro who was stopped a few blocks
away from the plant and questioned as to the conditions there. While
admitting everything that the superintendent said, and stating that
there is now absolute free opportunity for negroes in that plant,
the man asserted that these conditions have obtained within the last
year.[129]

It was found that in the Pittsburgh district the great mass of workers
get higher wages than in the places from which they come. Fifty-six
per cent received less than $2 a day in the South, while only five per
cent received such wages in Pittsburgh. However, the number of those
who said they received high wages in the South is greater than the
number of those receiving them there. Fifteen per cent said they
received more than $3.60 a day at home, while only five per cent
said they received more than that rate for twelve hours' work there.
Sixty-seven per cent of the 453 persons stating their earnings here,
earn less than $3 a day. Twenty-eight per cent earn from $3 to $3.60 a
day, while only five per cent earn more than $3.60 a day. The average
working day for both Pittsburgh and the South is ten and four-tenths
hours. The average wage is $2.85 here; in the South it amounted to
$2.15. It may be interesting to point out that the number of married
men who work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately
greater than that of the single men, who have not "given hostage to
fortune."

Judging from what has been said about the habits of living among the
negro migrants in Pittsburgh, they are of the best class of their
race. Chief among those to be mentioned is their tendency to abstain
from the use of intoxicants although it has often been said that the
cause of the migration from the South was due to the desire of negroes
in prohibition States to go where they may make free use of whisky.
In this city it was observed that out of 470 persons who answered
questions with reference to whether or not they imbibed only 210 of
them said that they drank, while 267 made no use of intoxicants at
all. It was also observed that among those who have families, the
percentage of those addicted to drink is much smaller than that of
others who are single or left their families in the South. This,
no doubt, accounts for the orderly conduct of these negroes who,
according to statistics, have not experienced a wave of crime.