kers of munitions--a chance to make millions. It was merely
a widening of a very narrow foothold on life, a slightly
better opportunity to make his way in the industrial world of
America.

In the beginning such a migration of negroes would increase
the present race friction in the North. Within certain limits
a racial minority is unpopular directly in proportion to its
numbers. Only as it increases to the point where political
and economic power makes it formidable, does it overcome
opposition. The negro's competition for jobs and homes will
probably exacerbate relations. As the negroes increased in
numbers they would not only seek menial and unskilled work,
but also strive to enter skilled trades where they would meet
with antagonism of white workers. Moreover, the negroes would
be forced to seek homes in what are now regarded as "white"
neighborhoods, and a clamor would be raised at each new
extension of their dwelling area.

The antidote to persecution, however, is power, and if the
northern negroes are more numerous and more urgently needed
in our industrial life, they could protect themselves from the
worst forms of discrimination. If by 1930 the negro population
of the North has become three millions, instead of the
fraction over one million which it is today, and if these
three millions live better and save and spend more per capita
than today, they will profit more than they will lose from
their greater numbers. Their custom will be more valuable,
their political power greater and, as wage earners, they will
be strong enough to strike. Once they have completely filled
a new neighborhood, opposition will cease. Moreover, the
industrial competition with white workmen, while severe at
certain crucial points, should not permanently be dangerous,
since the very conditions which bring the negro north also
make for higher wages for the white workers. What the white
wage earner desires is not an industrial exploitation of the
negro, but the maintenance of the white man's superiority of
position.

For the nation as a whole, such a gradual dissemination of
the negroes among all the States would ultimately be of real
advantage. If at the end of half a century, only 50 or 60 per
cent, instead of 89 per cent of the negroes, were congregated
in the southern State