Free Stars and Stripes in Peril by Harry Harrison Page B

can labor only in the cotton fields, as they have in the past, they will not have the economic freedom that they are guaranteed as free men. They need the skills, the trades that they have been denied for so long. The South is now undergoing an industrial revolution. There are machine shops, factories and shipyards, as well as the trainyards, that are now being built in the new South. They will bring prosperity to the South—and independence to their workers. The Negro who brings home his weekly pay is dependent on no man. That is right and just. The freed Negro must be part of that process. That is the law! The Federal government paid out the funds that were needed to build this new dockyard. It is here not only to build the ships of war, but to follow the new policy of industrial development in the South. Skilled machinists and fitters have come here from shipyards in the North, to train apprentices in their skills. Do you know how many of these apprentices you have in your program?"
    Ericsson threw his hands into the air, exasperated beyond belief.
    "This has nothing to do with me, I tell you. I am an engineer and my job is to build machines. I have never heard of these new laws nor do I care about them in the slightest." He turned to his dockyard manager. "Davis—do you know anything about this?"
    "I do, sir. I have the figures here." He took a grubby piece of paper from his pocket. "As yet there are only forty-three men who have entered this program. But there will be one hundred and eighty apprentices in all when recruitment is finished."
    "And how many of them will be Negroes?" The question boomed out into the sudden silence. Davis mopped at his streaming face, looked around helplessly. "Tell me!" Douglass insisted.
    The dockyard manager looked at the piece of paper again, then crumpled it in his sweaty palm. Finally, almost in a whisper, he said, "I believe... that there are no Negroes enrolled at the present time. To the best of my knowledge, that is."
    "I thought so!" Douglass's words were like thunder. "When this dockyard agreed to accept Federal funding—it also agreed that one quarter of all apprentices were to be of the Negro race. That means you will enlist forty-five of them at once." He took a thick envelope from his inside jacket pocket and passed it over to the hapless manager. "Before coming here I took the precaution of stopping at the local office of the Freedmen's Bureau. Their address is on this envelope. Inside is a list of names of fit and able men who are available and desirous of work. Consult them. You have one week to get a list of these forty-five individuals to Mr. Litwack here. If they are not on his desk at that time all funding for this shipyard will be halted until that information is supplied."
    "Can he do this?" Ericsson shouted at the quavering Davis.
    "Y-yes..."
    "Then I see no problem. Do it at once. My building program shall not be delayed for a single instant."
    "But, Mr. Ericsson, there are... problems."
    "Problems? I don't want any problems. Hire the men as has been agreed."
    "But, sir, it is the other trainees. They refuse to work side by side with niggers."
    "That is not a problem," Ericsson said. "Make all of the apprentices black men. Surely the artificers of the North will be happy to train them."
    "I'll see... what I can do."
    "One week," Douglass said ominously. Then a sudden smile flickered briefly across his severe features. "I like your style, Mr. Ericsson. You are a man of uncommon good sense."
    "I am a man who builds ships, Mr. Douglass. I have never understood the American preoccupation with the color of a man's skin. If a workman does his job I don't care if he is even a..." He groped for an apt comparison. "Even a Norwegian—and I will still employ him."
    The wail of a steam whistle interrupted him. "Ahh, you must excuse me," he said. Turning and leaving abruptly, heading towards the puffing sound of a locomotive. He had insisted that a spur track of the