Apbil 20, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



607 



cheap labor and the cheapest effective labor 

 the south can get; and the whole country- 

 is calling for labor. If it were not for 

 European emigration, the United States 

 would be at a great economic disadvantage. 

 But immigration may not continue always 

 and in the keener competition of the future 

 between the commercial nations, the labor 

 of the negroes may be very useful. 



As to the relation of training for negroes 

 to the race problem, that is to the problem 

 of how best to maintain normal and helpful 

 relations between the whites and the blacks, 

 it can be said that industrial training will 

 help to better relations by making negro 

 labor useful to the white employer of labor 

 and hence more necessary to the successful 

 conduct of the business and industrial op- 

 erations of the soiith. The chief complaint 

 made against negro labor has been that it 

 is not prompt and not regular, faults which 

 training will remedy. 



By way of summary, the applicability of 

 industrial training to a race in the condi- 

 tion of the negro; the industrial capacity 

 of the race as shown by the African tribes 

 and ex- African slaves ; the testimony of the 

 existing poorly equipped negro industrial 

 schools; the present distribution of negro 

 laborers among American industries and 

 their relative success in them; the extent 

 to which the south uses negro labor in 

 domestic, industrial and agricultural lines; 

 the large acreage of southern farm lands 

 worked by negro farm labor; the large per 

 cent, of negroes engaged in the useful in- 

 dustrial pursuits in all parts of the Union ; 

 the eagerness of the negro youths to secure 

 industrial training; the sentimental and 

 historic obligation of the American people 

 to the blacks in view of their responsibility 

 for their presence in America ; the economic 

 debt the nation still owes them for genera- 

 tions of unrequited labor and for tremen- 

 dous present values accruing from that 

 labor— these and other considerations point 



to industrial training as the need of the 

 hour for the negro people, and as the solu- 

 tion of the race problem, as well as to the 

 duty of the nation through federal agency 

 to make provision for the establishment of 

 a chain of schools to accomplish this great 

 and beneficent purpose. 



Social Work of the General Federation of 

 Women's Clubs: Mrs. A. 0. Granger, 

 Chairman Child Labor Committee, Car- 

 tersville, Ga. 



The General Federation was organized 

 by Sorosis in New York City in March, 

 1889, and now includes working clubs in 

 Alaska, England, India, China, Hawaii, 

 Mexico, Porto Rico, Chili and Western 

 Australia. The central point toward which 

 all its work tends is the child. The men 

 and women of to-morrow are the children 

 of to-day, and everything that tends to 

 make the conditions of child-life better is 

 of importance. As a federation it seeks to 

 coordinate the great variety of women's 

 clubs upon this central aim, and its policy 

 is best expressed by its motto— unity in 

 diversity. It seeks to enable the less for- 

 tunate to share the enjoyment of the better 

 things in our civilization. It avoids fields 

 already covered by social effort and trains 

 its members to fill the gaps and to do the 

 work neglected by others. 



Among its most active committees are 

 one to develop true art in school work; 

 another to further the use of good litera- 

 ture, working with the committee on library 

 extension among our schools; a third on 

 household economics for the better conduct 

 of home affairs from the business stand- 

 point. The pure food committee quickens 

 the public conscience against adulteration. 

 The civic committee occupies itself with 

 several lines of work— sanitation, training 

 for citizenship, municipal morality and the 

 beautification of the city. Its committee 

 on civil service reform helps to mold the 



