ur national effort to speed up production of articles
essential to the conduct of the war as well as the production
of other goods, let us not lose sight of our duty to our
country in quantity production by an unreasonable prejudice
in many quarters against the use of negro labor. Negro workmen
are loyal and patriotic, cheerful and versatile. In some
sections there is an oversupply of such labor; in other
sections a shortage.

We would urge the appointment of one or two competent negroes
in the Department of Labor to serve as assistants in each of
the bureaus in distributing negro labor to meet war and peace
needs.

III. We would urge negro workmen to remain cheerful and
hopeful in work; to be persevering in their efforts to improve
in regularity, punctuality and efficiency, and to be quick to
grasp all opportunities for training both themselves and their
children. Success lies in these directions.

IV. We would impress upon employers the fact that the
efficiency of their employes during work hours depends very
largely on the use made of the non-working hours. Most of
the complaints against negro labor can be removed if proper
housing, decent amusement, fair wages and proper treatment are
provided.[154]

These resolutions were presented to the executive officers of the
American Federation of Labor on February 12, 1918, by a committee
composed of E.K. Jones, Director of National League on Urban
Conditions among Negroes, Robert R. Moton, Principal of Tuskegee
Institute, Archibald H. Grimke, Thomas Jesse Jones, specialist in the
United States Bureau of Education, J.R. Shillady, Secretary of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Fred R.
Moore, editor of the _New York Age_, George W. Harris, editor of
the _New York News_, and Emmett J. Scott, special assistant to the
Secretary of War. The committee requested of the Executive Council
that a committee be appointed by the American Federation of Labor to
confer with a committee representing the interests of the negroes.
This request was granted.

At the American Federation of Labor annual convention held at St.
Paul, Minnesota, in June, 1918, the problem of negro workers and
organized labor again received considerable attention. B.S. Lancaster,
a negro delegate to the convention from Mobile, Alabama, offered a
resolution asking for the appointment of a negro