George Edmund Haynes

“ When it is remembered that during the first decades after emancipation the larger number of the most energetic Negroes was absorbed in professional occupations, principally teaching, because of the great need in race uplift, and that business pursuits have had until within the last few years minor consideration, to say nothing of trials and failures in the effort to gain business experience, the age of these enterprises must be counted a creditable showing. And it is a good recommendation to the commercial world that the Negro has not made a reputation for bankruptcy assignments. ”

“ NATIVITY OF NEGRO WAGE-EARNERS
If New York has a Negro population largely composed of immigrants from other regions, the question naturally arises, From what sections or regions do they come? The State Census of 1905 gives nativity by countries only. Consequently, those born within the United States are not specified by State or territory of birth. That large numbers of the Negro population of New York City come from other sections of the United States, mainly from the South, is beyond doubt. ”

“ The attitude of the white purchasing public has had a tremendous effect on Negro business, because it has failed to forget color in its business dealings. In many lines of business white people will not patronize Negroes at all and about two-thirds of all enterprises depend upon the low purchasing power of the Negro group. The idea that white people will not trade with them to any considerable extent and that they must depend upon their own people is so steeped into the mind of the Negro that he often does not perceive that he is catering to the whole public, white and black. ”

“ Some light is thrown upon the Negro's business enterprises by knowing the birth-place of proprietors, the length of time they had resided in New York City and the occupations in which the proprietors were engaged previously to going into business. ”

“ The manner and care with which a firm keeps record of the business it transacts is closely connected with its credit relations with the buying and selling community. And both these determine to a large extent its business operations. Considerable light was thrown upon the credit relations of Negro enterprises by finding out, wherever possible, whether a firm gave credit occasionally or habitually to customers and whether it received credit from suppliers. Naturally, many proprietors would not give any reply to such an inquiry, and especially about their credit standing with wholesale firms. ”

“ Any rural improvement or "back-to-the-land" movement should recognize that along with the whites, Negroes will continue to migrate to the urban centers and that they will come to the cities in comparatively large numbers to stay. The problem alike of statesman, race leader, and philanthropist is to understand the conditions of segregation and oppositions due to race prejudices that are arising as a sequel to this urban concentration and to co-operate with the Negro in his effort to learn to live in the city as well as the country. ”

“ Therefore, the Negro two and a half centuries under the complete control of a master could hardly be expected in one generation to acquire the experience, develop the initiative, accumulate the capital, establish the credit and secure the good-will demanded to-day in carrying on great and extensive business enterprises, such as find their headquarters in New York City, the commercial heart of the continent. ”

“ He sees the poorly-paid domestic service on the one side and on the other the cost of living as high walls bounding a narrow, restricted road that leads to a low standard of living and to social and economic disease. ”

“ The efforts that are being put forth to improve rural conditions and to advance agricultural arts among Negroes are highly commendable and effective. The thesis of this chapter is that, notwithstanding improvements resulting from these efforts for rural districts, wherever similar causes operate under similar conditions, the Negro, along with the white population, is coming to the city to stay; that the problems which grow out of his maladjustment to the new urban environment are solvable by methods similar to those that help other elements of the population. ”

“ As was pointed out in a previous chapter, the Negro enters business either alone or with one or two partners. Small enterprises can be so financed. But for undertakings that require considerable capital those who enter them must either have large means or a number must combine their small funds.
The Negro is alert to business lines which offer chances of profit. He is slowly learning the method of "big business." The corporation, with its advantages of impersonal responsibility, facility for taking in or releasing members, and particularly its combined capital, has been adopted in a few cases. ”

“ Business enterprise involves judgments of the whims, wishes and wants of prospective customers and skill in buying goods or supplying services to satisfy their demands. The wage-earner needs his labor only. The business promoter must secure capital and establish credit. The employee has only the stake of a present place, and has little hindrance from going to another job in case of disappointment. The business man risks name, time, labor and money in the commercial current and has only his experience left, if he loses his venture. ”

“ That the city draws mainly those of the working period of life is also generally conceded. The number of children in this Negro group under 15 years of age is 19 per cent, below normal for great cities, and the upper age limit is also quite low, being only 6.6 per cent between forty-five and fifty-four years, and 3.2 per cent over fifty-five years. Thus the bulk of the population, 70.8 per cent, both male and female, excluding 0.4 per cent doubtful and unknown, falls between fifteen and fifty-four years, or within the vigorous working period of life. ”

“ From the days of slavery Negroes have tried the fortunes of the market place and under freedom their enterprises have increased in number and variety. At the present time Southern-born and West Indian Negroes form the bulk of the business men, the latter far in excess of their proportion in the Negro population. This success of West Indians is partly a result of training and initiative developed in a more favorable environment, as they had the benefit of whatever opportunities their West Indian surroundings offered. ”

“ The final conclusion from these facts concerning the causes operating upon the Negro population has been clearly indicated in the above discussion. Such fundamental economic and social causes do not cease to operate suddenly. So far as the development of the South is concerned, the agricultural, industrial and commercial movement is in its infancy, and it will doubtless be of an indefinite growth. The secondary and individual causes will continue to play their part. The Negro will be affected in a manner similar to that of the Southern white population. ”

“ When one reflects that nearly all of these proprietors and promoters have migrated to New York City from less progressive communities and that the chances to get experience in a well-established business before they attempt to start an enterprise for themselves is, except in very rare cases, denied Negroes, the permanency of the ventures in the commercial current deserve commendation. ”

“ Considerable weight must then be given to the opinion that is in line with the showing of the West Indian—that Negroes entering business in New York City need to live some time in the atmosphere of such a progressive, liberal community to catch the spirit of its initiative and enterprise. ”

“ The urban concentration of the Negro is taking place in about the same way as that of the white population. In proportions, it varies only to a small extent from the movement of the whites, save where the conditions and influences are exceptional. The constant general causes influencing the Negro population have been similar to those moving other parts of the population to cities. ”

“ Social advantages such as better education, varied amusements, higher standard of living, intellectual associations and pursuits, draw people to urban centers, while desire for the contact of the moving crowds, for the excitement and apparent ease of city life, serve to make the rural districts distasteful. ”

“ The variety of the many small establishments indicates also the initiative of the Negro in using every available opportunity for economic independence. As we have seen, some of the proprietors had early ambitions for business careers, and others had worked hard and saved carefully from small wages that they might rise from the class of the employed to that of employers. The public to which the Negro business man caters should accept his wares and his services for their face value and not discount them because [148] of the complexion of his face. ”

“ It may be expected, of course, that Negroes will look to their own people first for their patronage, but they should be allowed to cater to the public at large, especially in a cosmopolitan commercial center like New York. In the case of real estate brokers, this is partly true and has grown partly out of the Negro broker's ability to handle more successfully than others properties tenanted by Negroes. It is not generally the case in other lines of business, however, as the testimony of many Negro business men shows. ”

“ For the whole Negro population in cities some light is thrown upon developments by the few facts at hand on crime among Negroes. [25] Statistics of crime are, of course, of limited worth in judging of moral conditions. Arrests and prison commitments have many factors which figures do not show and are quite as much a commentary upon the white communities at large as upon the unfortunate Negro law-breakers. ”

“ There is no reason to doubt that commercial enterprise has operated and kept pace with industrial activity in causing the growth of these urban centers. Figures for the trade of these sixteen Southern cities are not available. However, we have side lights upon the commercial life in the amount of railroad building that has taken place in the South since 1860. In 1860, there were only 8,317 miles of railroad in the thirteen states from Maryland and Delaware to Arkansas and Texas. In 1900, there were 46,735.86 miles in the same territory, an increase of 461.9 per cent. ”

“ Since 1894-1896 the tendency of both arrests and commitments to decrease has been notable. The crime-rate for murder is also probably decreasing. It appears, therefore, that the conclusion that crime is probably decreasing among the Negroes of the United States is warranted. The crime-rate of Negroes, North and South, appears at present to be about the same, although the rate of police arrests for some Southern cities is higher than that for the Northern cities. The claim that there is greater criminality among the Negroes of the North than those of the South is probably not true. ”

“ Negro business enterprises for the most part are small retail enterprises and do business on the scale of establishments of this type. They have not yet accumulated the capital nor gained the credit to engage in wholesale trade or to carry a stock of merchandise large in quantity or variety such as an extensive patronage demands. But they do handle a considerable amount of business with the small capital they have to invest. When this is compared with the gross receipts for 1907 and 1908 the showing is very creditable. ”

“ They have, however, even from the days of the Colony, when they were held as slaves, shown a decided propensity for trade, and since state emancipation this has been increased by a desire for economic independence and has expressed itself in enterprises in several lines of business. ”

“ The Negro goes into business mainly as an independent dealer. In the large majority of cases he does not enter into a partnership and even when he does, there are rarely more than two partners. Out of the 309 enterprises in 1909, there were only 49 partnerships and 44 of these were firms of two partners only. There were only three firms with three partners each, one firm with four members and one with five members. ”

“ Again, where thrift, improvement in agricultural methods and knowledge develop, just as among other farmers, there begins to be a surplus of hands to the cultivator, and Negroes turn toward better paid employment in the urban centres.
It is true that there are large uncultivated, virgin areas of the Southwest, especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, that are calling loudly for farm labor. The population these areas can support is very considerable and the returns to labor are better than in many of the older agricultural sections. ”

“ By the time of the Federal censuses of 1890 and 1900 the Negro population in New York had grown to considerable proportions, and for this increased population we are fortunate in having full occupational returns. Although these figures included all persons ten years of age and over, those under fourteen years probably formed a negligible part of the totals because the Child Labor Laws of the State of New York prohibited the employment of children under fourteen years of age. ”