Atlanta Daily World

REVIEWING
THE
NEWS
BY
WILLIAM
GORDON

Questions
Of Employment

Among our most
controversial
topics in America has been that of
employment on the basis of an individual's ability to do the
job well as against his racial
connections or national background.

These topics have been foremost among some of our most delicate legislative views and country-wide discussions.

Though we
are
not setting
foundation to enforce the employer
to hire an individual on the basis
of his ability and not on the basis
of his race, we are making
some
progress in the lines of obtaining
better employment for Negroes. This is becoming more and more evident,
even in the deep South. Such evidence is clearly being brought in the
report which shows the remarkable
increase in Negro purchasing power.

Such purchasing power does not
come from ordinary jobs or employment, but from the fact that Negroes are slowly but surely gaining
many fields of economic endeavor.

The manufacturer who announced
a few weeks ago that he has
learned of the importance of
giving decent employment to Negroes does not stand entirely alone
in the South as an employer. Others are definitely giving this important
human problem profound consideration. As a result, Negroes are
being employed in important capacities and naturally their salaries
are being increased.

In the event that we do finally
get a fair employment practices law
in the South, it should not require
an employer to hire anyone who is
unclean, or afflicted with contagious
disease. An employer should be free
to set any
cleanliness or health
standard he may wish. Social and
health studies, however, have demonstrated that uncleanliness and
disease are not peculiar to persons
of any one race or religion, but are
the unfortunate result of low economic and living standards.

It should be the legitimate concern of every community, however,
that industry within its environs
should employ all available labor
without regard to race, creed, color
or national origin. The short-sighted
employer who limits the materials he can produce and sell because
he refuses to hire minority-group
workers not only keeps down
his
own profits, but keeps down the income of the entire community. Raising the living standards of the most
depressed group in a community
automatically results in raising the
standards of all other groups.
The
corner grocer, the dry goods merchant