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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 1963)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY. DECEMBER 12, 1963 D . 5 The Revolution of 1963 ---Part IV Negro Continues To Seek Jobs on Lower Rung of ladder EDITOR'S NOTE: The Ne. gro in America wants many things but his list almost al ways is dominated by the word jobs. The following dis patch, fourth of five, is an as sessment of how far he has come, where he wants to go and what his problems are. By AL KUETTNER United Press International The Negro's poeketbook was very close to his freedom cry of 1963. His reasoning went like this: Give him a better job and he would get a better house, have a better car, be a better citi zen. Without higher wages, the Negro said in thousands of voices across the land, he sim ply was being prepared to take a hamburger purse into a plank steak restaurant. Despite the advances made by the American Negro in the past ten years, he still scram bles for jobs on the lower rung of the economic ladder. His pay is oneialf that of white workers. He finds it difficult to advance, once he finds employ ment. And, once on the job, he is often aggressive and super sensitive, according to his own people. In street demonstrations, con gressional lobbies and in the August "March on Washing ton," the Negro during 1963 de manded as never before that the barriers against job oppor tunities be removed. Not Informed "The Negro is out of the mainstream of job gossip and this keeps him even from knowing about jobs the way white people do," says the Na tional Urban League in Mon tana. Mrs. Novella Boyd, a Negro in High Point, N.C., puts it an other way: "I pay the same as you for groceries, but I don't make the same amount of money." In a nationwide examination of the job situation. United Press International reporters in 50 states spent days interview ing Negroes, business and in dustry executives and govern ment experts. The consensus was over whelming that: Negroes, except for a slim minority, are not in position to compete for the bulk of the job openings today. Trade schools and union apprenticeship programs still are inadequate to provide train ing for Negroes who have the incentive to improve their chances. Most of the jobs held by Negroes are menial, lower class blue collar or in fields in which they serve the Negro populace. THE NATION'S MEDIAN ANNUAL INCOME BY SEX AND RACE 1952 1958 1962 NON-WMIT-MALE $5000 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 7777X WM'TS HSSS3 NON-WHIT- VA KS53 "male V ' 1952 158 1?62 SOURCE' V S 1952 1958 1962 oim. Of COMSRCE are appearing as clerks, check ers and office employes of de partment, grocery and other business firms. One of the most popular clerks in the Sears Roebuck toy department in At lanta is a Negro. In Delaware, the Dupont Company hires Negro girls for four hours a day, paying full salaries provided they attend secretarial school the other four hours. They get office jobs at the end of the course. When Appalachian Power Company at Roanoke, Va au tomated elevators, the Negro operators were given clerical jobs. Passive interest in the Negro job problem turned into active work toward aleviating It in California where many employ ers now advertise for Negro workers. Two of the three San Francisco newspapers have Ne gro staff members. It is becom ing a sort of status symbol to have Negroes in sight in jobs in California. Breaking Into TV From Madison Avenue to Hol lywood, Negroes are breaking into slick paper advertisements and high budget television. Marion L. Sellers, a spokes man at Lockheed Aircraft Com pany in California, said "we would like to hire more Ne groes but not enough who are qualified show up at the em ployment window, u s disap pointing." After demonstrations and ne gotiations, Cambridge, Md., agreed to hire a Negro in the state employment office: jacK son, Miss., added five Negroes to the police force; Greensboro, N.C., added a number of Ne groes to downtown department stores: the larees department store in Dayton,. Ohio, agreed JNITfB Pt$ inTMNATiqnaw.INC. AU RiKTt Mtatvg&. . . INCOMES COMPARED This n e w s c a h r t from the Department of Commerce shows U.S. median annual income by race and sex for 1952, 1958 and 1962. In 1962, the figure for while males was $4,660; for white femaios $1,415: for Negro males $2,291; and Negro females $930. (UPI) The Negro has done best in federal government civil serv ice jobs and in plants that hold federal contracts containing non-discriminatory hiring pro visions. National Problem Job discrimination is more of a national problem than just about any phase of the racial conflict. "I don't like the way people react in the South but it's not as different here as I thought it would be," said Prince Myles Jr., a Negro who migrated to Omaha, Neb., from Mississippi. "The jobs available to Negroes Migratory Fowl On Coast Flyway To Be Conserved are the jobs the whites wouldn't take." Warren Cochrane, an Atlanta Negro who has worked on job placement for 30 years, speaks candidly of the problem: "The Negro does not exist in this country as an industrial worker., Negroes cannot com pete with white job applicants. We have said to employers, business must have people who produce. Negroes do produce but it takes time and effort to train them." Negroes, representing 1 out of 10 of the 190 million inhabi- to hire Negroes for Christmas work and to offer some perma nent employment, and in Phila delphia the city decided to let out no more municipal con tracts wherein discrimination is practiced. So-called "equal opportunity" firms report that more than 2,000 of the 31,000 job openings have gone to Negroes in recent months. But so far it's a drop in the bucket. For the nation, fewer than 5 out of every 100 persons in the non-white labor force have professional or tech nical jobs. "Afraid To Be First" Some of the reasons why pro vide a look at the major prob lems for leaders who are at tempting to get the Negro into the mainstream of American life. Some firms are "afraid lo be Ihe first" lo hire Negroes, says Floyd E. Lubert, personnel di rector of Western Electric at Kansas City, Mo., and a mem ber of the Chamber of Com merce Equal Employment Commitlce. Marion Woods, Negro consul tant to the state Department of Employment in California, con tends there are more Negro PHDs than plumbers in that state. His statement pointed up an other big complaint by Ne groes: That they are blocked out of union appreniicosnip pro era ins. "You can get a PHD if you stay in school long enough but you need to get approval as an apprentice to be a plumber and we can't get that," Woods said. Negroes Losing Out Some of the best job openings for Negroes are turning up in the South, but Negroes by the hundreds are losing out be cause of inability to pass intel ligence and character tests. others, once hired, fail to stick the Urban League, wants a de al the job. One employer said mcstic "Marshall Plan" that ers" in America, a number of. Technical and trade schools plans are in the works. I are viewed as another mainr Employers report that manyl Whitney Young, president of i step. So are bi-racial commit. tecs, but Ihcy need to bo status. "Many communities have made them ineffectual by giv ing them no power and in some instances not even the power of suggestion," said a white ad vertising executive in Ashe ville, N.C. several Negroes quit shortly after being hired, explaining they had merely been "testing" their chances to get. into the firm. To bridge the gap facing what an Illinois report terms "the most disadvantaged work- would finance the training of large numbers of Negroes and compensate industry for in-job training during the time they are less than fully productive. The league also is opening clearing houses to find more jobs for Negroes. &r" i " w 'V si k 3 VT?. MARIJUANA BURNED Customs inspectors arc shown as they burned $500,000 worth of marijuana seized during the past few months at Hie international border near San Diego, Calif. (UPI) WASHINGTON (UPI) - The House Interior Committee today approved legislation to help con serve migratory waterfowl using the Pacific Coast Flyway. The committee cleared Senate passed legislation to give con servation priority over agricul ture in the Tulelake, Lower Kla math, Upper Klamath and Clear Lake national wildlife refuges in Oregon and California. The measure, designed to end a lona disDUte between sports men and farmors, would protect existina aerici"'.iiral use of land In the refuges but would bar its extension. The measure, designed to end a long dispute between sports men and farmers, would protect existing agricultural use of land in the refuges but would bar its extension. The measure would dedicate some 133.000 acres of land in Ihe area for the major purpose of waterfowl management. How ever, it would permit farming in continue so far as it does not hurt use of the land as a wild fowl refuge. The legislation would permit inosinn nf lands to private farm ers who would be required to plant a large portion of the land in grants to help provide feed for migratory birds. Under the legislation, revenue mm lpasins would be shared bv the government and the lo cal counties after deduction of r.,.miti duo the Tulelake Ir rigation District and the Kla math Drainage District for con struction of irrigation facilities. The Upper Klamath basin is a stopover area for more than 7 million ducks and geese in their annual migrations along Daifir FlvWflV. Fears have been expressed that if the refuges were nor available to provide feed and rest for the birds they would not only decrease in numbers but destroy rice and other crops m the central valleys of California. Amendments by the House committee included a provision for review by the California and Oregon State Legislatures. The legislation would be tempor arily in effect for three yearj, after which it would become fi nal unless the states decided it did not provide for "best use of the land." Bonneville To Let Construction Pacts PORTLAND (UPI) -Bonne ville Power Administration said today it would let construction contracts totaling $5,744,000 in Oregon and Washington next year. The construction contracts arc part of an overall BPA 1964 construction budget of about $:i0 1 million, administrator thanes Luce reported. The exact sum awaits final congressional deter-, initiation. Most of the money will go for purchases of heavy electrical equipment ana materials. tanls of the United States, are far from battering down the " " "fa- barriers leading to good jobs. Sale Ends Dec 21 i But progress is being made. , . ll Fort Motor Company aNcgro LOWCSt PWCCS EVCV Oil HclpflU GlftS fOT tJlC HOJUe holds a key job at the end of x n the assembly line, putting the It engine on the chassis. J The chief U. 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The bullet, shown by an arrow in the X-ray, pierced the pericardium, the right chamber of the heart, and went through the right lung, Jodging in the spine. (UPI) -9 East 4th Street ' . i
