State.

TABLE 5.-Number of colored normal students and graduates in 1896–97.

TABLE 6.-Colored professional students and graduates in 1896-97.

Students.

Graduates.

TABLE 7.-Industrial training of colored students in 1896–97.

"SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL CONDITION OF NEGROES IN CITIES."

Under the above title the Atlanta University has recently published a valuable report of an investigation made under the direction of that institution by a number of its graduates. The introduction to that report and the three leading papers by the principal investigators are reprinted below:

INTRODUCTION.

The papers presented in this report were written exclusively by colored men and women, and are based upon statistical investigations made by them under the direction of Atlanta University.

Α

The investigation was begun by an inquiry on the part of three graduates of Atlanta University into the causes of the excessive mortality among negroes. conference was held on the subject at Atlanta University in May, 1896, and the facts brought out at that conference were so significant that the investigation was continued for another year along similar lines, but on a more extensive scale, and a second conference was held in May, this year. The cooperation of graduates of other institutions was invited. The present investigation, therefore, is the result of the joint efforts of graduates of Atlanta University, Fisk, Berea, Lincoln, Spelman, Howard, Meharry, and other institutions for the higher education of the negroes. The conclusions which these men and women have reached as a result of their investigations are, in some respects, most surprising; especially their conclusions as to the effect of environment and economic conditions upon the vital energies of the race. Their conclusions were, in substance, that the excessive mortality of their people can not be attributed in any large degree to unfavorable conditions of environment, but must be chiefly attributed to the ignorance of the masses of the people and their disregard of the laws of health and morality. The significance of this conclusion is versely expressed by one of the writers, who says:

"This last fact, that the excessive death rate of the colored people does not arise from diseases due to environment, is of vast importance. If poor houses, unhealthy localities, bad sewerage, and defective plumbing were responsible for their high death rate, there would be no hope of reducing the death rate until either the colored people became wealthy, or philanthropic persons erected sanitary houses, or municipalities made appropriations to remove those conditions. But since the excessive death rate is not due to these causes, there is reason for the belief that it may be reduced without regard to the present economic condition of the colored people."

The attention of the members of the conference seemed to be mainly directed to a consideration of the social questions affecting the progress of the race. The sentiment of the conference was voiced by one writer in these words:

"If we are to strike at the root of the matter, it will not be at sanitary regulation, but at social reconstruction and moral regeneration."

The solution of the problem will be found in the wise direction of the numerous charitable, religious, and educational organizations of colored people already established. As a means toward that end, the university will continue the city problem investigation along the lines upon which it was begun, and will hold a third conference at Atlanta next May. The subject of the next conference can not now be announced, but in accordance with the expressed wish of members of the last conference, it will be some subject dealing with the social conditions of the people.

The result of the present investigation has been, on the whole, distinctly encouraging. In the opinion of the committee having the investigation in charge, the negro has nothing to fear from a most rigid and searching investigation into his physical and social condition, but such an investigation can be made most helpful and valuable.

RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION.

[NOTE. The three following papers on the results of the investigation were written by the three members of the conference who individually collected the most data: Mr. Butler R. Wilson, a member of the committee, who gathered data relating to 100 families that had migrated from North Carolina to Cambridge, Mass.; Prof. Eugene Harris, of Fisk University, who made an extensive investigation in Nashville, and Mr. L. M. Hershaw, of Washington, D. C., who had in charge the very laborious work of analyzing the reports of the boards of health for the past fifteen years. ED.]

GENERAL SUMMARY,1

In making this investigation of the habits, morals, and environment of negroes living in cities, three things have been kept constantly in view, viz:

First. To obtain accurate information, without regard to cherished theories or race pride;

Second. To make the inquiry practical and helpful, and not merely for scientific results; and,

Third. To induce the people to apply the remedies which they have in their own hands for the evils which are found to exist and which retard their progress.

The results to be gained depended entirely upon the intelligence and fitness of the investigators, who were selected with great care from the ranks of well-known colored educators, ministers, physicians, lawyers, and business men living among the people covered by the investigation. All the data were gathered by this body of trained colored leaders, and they are believed to be perhaps more than usually accurate, because of the investigators' knowledge of the character, habits, and prejudices of the people, and because of the fact that they were not hindered by the suspicions which confront the white investigator, and which seriously affect the accuracy of the answers to his questions.

The work of the investigators was entirely voluntary and was done with a willingness and industry highly gratifying.

The cities embraced in the investigation, with a single exception, are located in regions of heaviest negro population, and are fairly representative of other cities containing large numbers of negroes.

The data obtained were published in the May Bulletin of the United States Department of Labor, and cover so wide a range of useful information that only a few things can be pointed out here.

Referring to the tables of this Bulletin, we find one noticeable fact in Table 3, namely, that the size of colored families is much smaller than is commonly supposed, the average being 4.17 persons.

Tables 5 and 6, giving household conditions by families-the average persons per sleeping room and the number of rooms per family-show that the general belief that the tenements and houses occupied by colored people are greatly overcrowded is not founded on facts. These tables do not show that any great overcrowding exists, on the whole, although for certain individual families and groups the averages are somewhat larger. It also appears that the average number of living rooms is much larger than has been thought to be the case. An average of 2.22 persons to a sleeping room in Atlanta, 2.44 persons in Nashville, and 1.96 persons in Cambridge, and 2.05 persons in all the other cities covered by the investigation, is an unexpected and important showing, and reverses the idea that the number of families having but one room each for all purposes was very large and was the rule instead of the exception. Out of a total of 1,137 families investigated only 117, or 10.29 per cent, had but one room each for their use for all purposes.

Table 7, giving number of families and means of support, shows a large proportion of females who either support families unaided or who contribute to the support of

families.

Of the male heads only 26.7 per cent were able to support their families withont assistance from other members. Of the 1,137 families 650, or 57.17 per cent, were supported wholly or in part by female heads.

In comparison with white female heads of families and those contributing to family support there is quite a large excess on the part of colored women.

This table calls attention to the enforced absence of mothers from their homes and the daily abandonment, by these mothers who are compelled to aid in earning the family support, of their young children to the evil associations, the temptations, and vicious liberty of the alleys, courts, and slums.

To attempt to prove from the showing of this table that negro men are unwilling to support their families and that they are lazy and shiftless would be unfair. Careful inquiry by a number of the investigators indicates very strongly that the comparatively small support given by these men to their families is not due to unwillingness, but to their inability to get work as readily and constantly as the women. At the South white men refuse to work at the bench, in the mill, and at other employments with colored men, who for this reason are denied work, and therefore unable to earn means with which to support their families.

This fact was found to exist in the city of Cambridge, where a large per cent of the men in the hundred families investigated, in reply to an inquiry, said that they had been refused work because they were colored, and a number of them said that they were unable to follow their trades, but had to "job around" with unsteady employment for the same reason.

By Mr. Butler R. Wilson (1881), Boston, Mass.

The women in these families find steady employment as domestic servants and laundresses, and at the South find but little competition from white women.

The investigation gives a great many data on this industrial side of the question, which want of space will not now allow us to consider.

Tables 8 and 9, giving the number and per cent of persons sick during the year and the number and per cent of deaths during the past five years by causes, show that the diseases most fatal to the colored people are consumption and pneumonia. While the average length of time of sickness from it is short, malarial fever is shown to be one of the most prevalent diseases. Rheumatism is also shown to be quite prevalent. Both of these diseases, as well as typhoid fever and pneumonia, may to a great extent be kept in abeyance by the observance of hygienic rules and a proper care of the health.

In the 100 Cambridge families it was found that many of the men work in the water department, and after the day's work eat the evening meal without changing their damp clothing, often going to sleep in their chairs for an hour or more and then going to a lodge or "society meeting," remaining not infrequently until 11 and 12 o'clock.

These tables also show that the difference between the death rate of the white and colored people from diarrhea, diphtheria, scarlet fever, malarial fever, and typhoid fever, all diseases chiefly affected by environment, is very slight.

Table 10, giving sickness by sanitary condition of houses, shows that while saniary conditions have a very important bearing, they are not important enough to account for the difference of per cent in the death rate between the white and colored people.

Great caution must be observed in making deductions from this table. While it is intended to show the bearing of sanitary conditions on the health of the community, the results obtained are not conclusive. It would be erroneous, for instance, to attribute to bad sanitary conditions the increased amount of sickness in families, and leave out of consideration such factors as irregular habits, indifference to healthy living quarters, and the intimate relation between poverty and ill health.

By reference to the table it will be seen that the number of persons sick in Atlanta was 163 out of a total of 577, or 28.25 per cent, where the light and air were good; and that out of 367 persons living where the light and air were bad, 120, or 32.70 per cent, were sick, a difference of only 15 per cent between houses with good and bad conditions as to light and air.

One hundred and twenty-eight persons living in houses with good light and air lost 5,819 days by sickness, or an average of 45.46 days each; while 102, or 26 persons less, lost, under bad conditions of light and air, only 4,361 days, or an average of 42.75 days each, a difference of 6 per cent, the average days of sickness being more in houses with good light and air than in those where the light and air were bad. This table further shows that out of 537 persons living in Atlanta in houses with good ventilation 153, or 28.49 per cent, were sick during the year, losing, for the 124 reporting, 5,927 days, or an average of 47.80 days each; while out of 427 persons living in houses with bad ventilation 154, or 36 per cent, were sick during the year, 133 of whom lost 6,050 days, or an average of 45.49 days each, a difference of only 26 per cent between the per cent of persons sick where ventilation was good and where it was bad, the average number of days again being greater for those under good conditions than for those under bad.

Table 15, giving general description of houses, shows that a large proportion of the houses occupied by the 1,137 families were wooden structures, detached and located in neighborhoods of fair character. Of the 1,031 houses but 43 had bathrooms, and 183 had water-closets, 95 of which were in the Cambridge houses. In Atlanta and Cambridge the houses with bad outside sanitary conditions predominated. In all the other cities the houses with good outside sanitary conditions predominated, the latter being greatly in excess for the entire territory covered. This paper may be summarized as follows:

First. All the data in the investigation have been gathered by intelligent colored men and women living in the communities covered. These investigators were not hindered by obstacles which make it difficult for a white man to get accurate information of the family life, habits, and character of the colored people. These colored investigators can not be charged with prejudice and designs against the interests of the colored people. For these reasons their work is thought to be more than usually accurate and reliable.

Second. Overcrowding in tenements and honses occupied by colored people does not exist to any great extent, and is less than was supposed.

Third. In comparison with white women, an excess of colored women support their families entirely, or contribute to the family support, by occupations which take them much of their time from home, to the neglect of their children.

Fourth. Environment and the sanitary condition of houses are not chiefly responsible for the excessive mortality among colored people.