Page:Chicago Race Riots (Sandburg, 1919).djvu/34

24 This was the first approach to heavy work he had tackled since he was mustered out. He keeled over, and was taken to a hospital, and it was four days before the doctors would let him go.

"Men who were gassed in France we find are sensitive to dust or fumes. We tried a number in the cement works at Buffington, Ind., but they all came back after a few days. At coal shoveling and at work in coke and coal at gas houses or around vats and retorts where there are fumes these men can't stand up to the work. They come back almost with tears, saying they tried to hold out, but couldn't.

"The Northwestern railroad dining car service has employed a number of ex-soldiers as waiters. Some restaurants and hotels have taken porters and pantrymen at $11 a week and board. We would have no trouble filling calls for more workers in this field. A call came today for a colored bookkeeper to go to a normal school at Elizabeth, N. C.

"Some of the returned men of the 8th infantry went to see about getting places as sleeping car porters. They found they would have to stand an initial fee of $35 for uniforms, and as they had no money they gave it up.

"Three of our applicants can fill positions as interpreters or secretaries who are required to know the chief South American and European languages. It is noticeable that some whose homes are in the south say they are going to stay in Chicago, and under no consideration will they go back to Mississippi, Georgia and other states that draw the color line hard and fast. We have five or six applicants a day, new ones, coming in and saying they have chosen the north to live in. They pound on my