XIV
AN OFFICIAL OF THE PACKERS
Among the employers, executives and superintendents of the packing houses, the clashes between white and colored people in the stockyards and adjacent districts are not a race question so much as a labor union question, according to a prominent official of one of the packing companies.
This official sat in various conferences of yards officials and state, city and militia officers during the days of riot. He is familiar with the views of the officials of the large packing companies and believes that the following expressions represent the general viewpoint of the packers.
"In the yards it is not a race question at all. It is a labor union question. We have no objections to the negroes joining the union. We are running an open shop. The unions want us to run a closed shop. That would mean we could hire only union men. The unions have done everything to get the negro into their membership, but they haven't got him. That is the trouble. At one time, we heard, they had about 90 per cent of all the negroes in the yards in the unions. But they don't stay.
"The trouble is that the negro is not naturally a good union man. He doesn't like to pay union dues.
"We are going to take back into our employ all the negroes who are now away on account of the riots. Just now it is a good thing for those who have gone too far to cool off. If we should close down our plants for two weeks many would realize more clearly what is needed in this hour.
"There has never been any organized effort on our part to bring the negro here. The packers' percentage of increase of negro employes is not greater than that of any other industry during the war. The steel plants, the railroads and others increased about the same percentage we did. High wages was the inducement that drew them north. We expect that the negro will continue to be the chief source of surplus labor. In all our experience there have been no race clashes, no strictly racial trouble, inside of the yards while the men are working. Their work requires skill in the handling of axes, cleavers and knives and if there were any real and lasting race hatred, it would show itself in violence inside the yards where they work.
"At the present time 21 per cent of the workers in one large plant are colored. During the war at the time of highest pressure they numbered from 24 to 25 per cent. Before the war they numbered 18 per cent.
"With the negroes away as at present we are able to operate the plants at only 60 per cent capacity. This lowered production and lessened amount of commodities for the market will have a measurable reflection in prices of food. It also affects the producers of our raw material. The farmer who had a bad experience marketing hogs last week when the shutdown was on because of the riots, may say to himself that hogs are not the best things to raise for market.
"Our plant superintendents say that the white men want the colored workers back on some kinds of work. Take the beef luggers. They carry on their shoulders the quarters of beefs. Negroes have always been best at this."
The following figures represent the distribution of nationalities and race among the employes of Armour & Co.: 2,052 Poles, 2,000 negroes, 1,372 Lithuanians, 5,167 Americans, 141 Bohemians, 118 Jews, 669 Irish, 41 Greeks, 300 Germans, 150 Slovaks, 56 Mexicans, 205 Russians, 23 Scots, 55 Italians.
The employes of the other plants are said to be divided in about the same proportions.