red from participation,
fell under state Iegislation.f?
Those decisions created pervasive racial discrimination
in manufactur-
ingand public works, as in the mining industry. Poverty among Whites was
reduced at the expense of the black population,
by giving Whites sheltered
employment
at uncompetitive
wages in public works and in such state
enterprises as the railroads. In manufacturing
as in mining, moreover, the
gap between skilled and unskilled wages was higher than in other indus-
trializing countries,
and Whites monopolized
the skilled positions.
In
1939, white workers earned 5.3 times as much as African workers
in
manufacturing
and construction
in South Africa. so Government officials
knew of these disparities.
The secretary for labour wrote in his annual
report for 1938 that "the unskilled, and for the most part inarticulate
section of the employees did not secure that share of the increa~ed pros-
perity of industry to which they were in equity entitled.Y!
In addition
to attempting
to check the urbanization
of Africans, the
government tried to segregate Africans within the urban areas. By 1910,
there were laws in the Cape Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal authorizing
the colonial governments to create and control urban "locations" for Af-
ricans, but many townships,