The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 16, 1927, Page 8

Uncle Sam’s Wage Slaves }N the dank, unwashed floors of the great press room of the government’s “bureau of printing and engraving” at Washington, there are deep depres- sions made by the foot-steps of the women wage- slaves as they move forward and backward in a 3 ; monotonous tread about the presses at their as printer’s assistants. The men and women in this room are employed by the U. S. government to make its paper money. There are a few windows on one side of the room, but the light is insufficient and over each printing press there are electric burners whose heat- vibrates the clese, depressing air in which ink, oil and foul dust mingle with the breaths and sweat from the bédies of seven hundred men and women at work. The clothing worn by the printers is caked with ink, while the dresses of the women drip with grease which flies from the presses in their revolutions. A girl’s dress is ruined by a day’s wear. Said one woman worker to me: “We went to Superintendent Ralph te ask if shields of zinc or some other sub- stance coal} not be placed around the presses to protect the &thes of the women.” With a satirical smile he replied, “Oh, yes, a bow of pink ribbon on every press if you say so.” Two years ago Alice Roosevelt and other society women declared that they “wanted to do some good.” They said that they wanted to help improve the sanitary conditions of the bureau. One day these women drove down. Mr. Ralph knew of their in- tended visit, and he was ready for them. In. the new wing of the building a dressing room was made clean and fine that these idle dames of society might see for themselves just how wel! the U. S. govern- ment at Washington took care of its workers. These ladies were not shown any of the work-rooms, nor did they see the dressing rooms in actual use. Last week, following a guide, I went thru the bureau. I stood upon an elevated platform in the press room, where, as the guide said, “You can get a better view of the place.’ What I saw was a long, low room having a dozen windows or less at one side. An open iron grating higher than the head of the tallest man in the room, encircled all sides. Within this grating I saw a mass of men and women and machines so huddled together that it would have been dangerous for a visitor to have at- tempted to move around among them. The noise of the presses drowned our speech, but a woman, from the open spaces of the far west, who stood beside me, shouted in my ears “How awful!” Then, apolo- getic for her government, she added, “But these men and women work only four hours a day.” “You are mistaken, madam,” I called back to the woman, “government workers here go on duty at eight in the morning, they have half an nour at noon for lunch, and they quit work at four-thirty at night.” There is a night force at work in this bureau at Washington, and on this force over 200 women are employed. One pale faced worker said to me: ig | prefer to work at night. Of course I get no evenings for recreation of any kind; but at night the bureau is less crowded, the air is better, and I am not so tired. I get home about one o’clock in the morning.” Alice Roosevelt has said that the Bureau of Print- ing and Engraving was no place for a woman to work. but she didn’t say by what means the de- pendent bureau girls were to make a living. We have all heard of the ingenious remark of the famous French queen, when told at the time of the great revolution that the people were starving for bread—“But why do they not eat cake,” said she. This is the logic of the idle rich. Unsanitary Conditions. Most of the workers in the bureau eat their lunches in the building. They bring them in the morning and put them in the lockers provided for their clothes. Every man and woman in the press room is compelled to make a complete change of clothing before they go home. One girl worker said to me: “The lockers are but eighteen inches long and into this go my soiled clothes, my dirty shoes and my lunch. When we shake our clothes at night red ants and mice run from them in all directions.” The dressing rooms of the bureau workers are taken care of by a charwoman, but they are never clean. If a girl wants her locker to be decent she must scrub it herself. Six towels a day are allowed for two hundred women. A. F. of L. Falls Down. The superintendent of the bureau claims that the women workers receive sufficient wages, but strange to say, the women think differently. Three years ago a handful of bureau girls came together to talk union. The men printers were willing to assist them in organizing. Mr. Dalph, the superintendent, said — he had no objection, but the idea seemed to worry him. Later some 300 women rallied to the organiza- tion under the A. F. of L. This union held meetings every two weeks. Frank Morrison, national secre- tary of the A. F. of L. spoke for the women and urged them to petition for a fifty-cent increase in wages. But his talk seemed half-hearted; scant was the help the bureau girls got from the national hody of the A. F. of L. and altho the headquarters of the A. F. of L. are located in Washington and Mr. Gompers and Mr. Morrison were well aware of the working conditions at the bureau, and the low wages of the women workers, nothing has been sub- stantially done in aid of these exploited wage-slaves Viniteiesety a of the government by the naticnal body 6i the Amer- ican Federation of Labor. The United States government workers in Wash- ington cannot strike, they cannot vote, neither can they petition congress save thru the chief next higher in power. It was by the help of a young radical some three years ago, and the determination of the bureau girls in their small union, that twenty-five cents in- crease in wages per day for women beginning their apprenticeship in the department, was wrung from Superintendent Ralph. Ralph boasts of his power to cut down expenses on behalf of the government. In 1910 he claimed that from the appropriations made that year he turned back into the U. S. treasury $500,000, Today the union of the bureau girls is at low ebb. I am told that those girls who have a married life in view are not friendly to the union. But there are good union women and good stuff to make class-conscious union women among the 3,000 workers in the bureau. Girl Experts Get Pauper Wages. Boys over sixteen years are employed as printers’ assistants, but they are clumsy compared with the girls at work. To the well drilled girl, the work has become an art, and the printer who has become accustomed to his assistant’s method of. work likes to retain her in his employ. Printer’s assistants re- ceive $1.25 per day from the printer, and 25 cents from the U. S. government—the printers claim that the raise in wages must come from the government. There are printer’s asisstants who can handle 2,000 sheets of bills a day, while a little over 500 is a big day’s work for a boy. The printed sheets of money usually contain eight bills ranging in denomination from $1.00 to $10,000, the presses register the num- ber of sheets printed. A printer’s assistant takes a blank sheet of paper which has been wet with water to make it pliable and lays it on the press made ready with chemicals by the printer; then by a most laborious effort of his body and arms the printer turns the revolving press once. The as- sistant is at hand to take the stamped sheet from the engraved plates and to lay on another wet one. To do this she is compelled to step backward to a table for the wet sheet and then forward to the press. There are no seats for these girls and women to drop into even for a moment. They are always moving forward and backward, first with the wet sheet then with the printed bill in a confusing noise of machinery in the midst of dirt and grease. I have been thru the notorious cotton mills of North and South Carolina; I have stood with the workers at the machines in the great shoe shops of Massachusetts. I know what it means to breath and work, in the phospherous laden air in the cor- poration match factories of New England, but I have yet to find a more congested, or foul workshop than that of the great press room at the Government Bureau of Printing and Engraving at Washington. An expert shoe-stitcher commands $25 to $30 a week. The government bureau women are obliged to pay for housing, food and clothes on a $9 a week wage. Let those socialists who are clamoring for govern- ment ownership study the work conditions and wages of those industries in Washington over which the stars and stripes wave so proudly. Let them talk with these government wage-slaves and hear from their own lips how fine a thing it is to work for the United States government. ‘Hand Presses Superseded. A bank note is not finished in the press room, but it has to pass thru the hands of 54 men and women and 20 machines before it becomes United States THE VICTIM The wheels, flying like fiery steeds, Stopped only for two minutes When his body crushed and breathless Fell down on the concrete floor From the top of the whirling belt. And now when two sturdy workingmen putting his bleeding body on a blue stretcher sadly take it out, The fat-headed boss brings in a new Ied Who since three days was waiting on the door of the factory for a job... H. YERVANDOUNI. ny wen By ELLEN WETHERELL money. A printer is allowed to spoil one sheet in every one hundred, but if the sheet is lost the printer is obliged to pay the face value of the note. Today most of the printing of bills is done by hand presses; the printers claim that the work done by the hand press is of superior finish over that done by the power press. Superintendent Ralph favors power presses. It is said that he is to receive a bonus on each press introduced into the bureau. We know that Ralph was urgent at the late hearing before the congressional committee to prove that the power press was an improvement in every way over the hand press. “And there is the economy to the govern- ment,” he pleaded. But Ralph said nothing about the money he could put into his own pocket by the introduction of power presses introduced into the bureau—and the discharge of a large number of printers and their assistants. Of course the printers are against the power presses. The Printers’ Union took action on the matter at the hearing, but, as the evolution of in- dustry takes no account of the individual, neither does the capitalist, nor the capitalist government. There was a compromise and a smal] number of power presses are to be installed in the bureau. The Glass Blowers’ Union claimed that never a ma- chine could be invented to displace their high-grade hand labor. They were kings of the craft. But, evolution, so careful of the type is she, so careless of the single man, produced a glass blowing-machine ° which enabled six men to do the work of 600. No man or woman wants the bread taken from their mouths—nor is willing to starve for the sake of scientifically developed machinery, and the plate printers and their assistants in the bureau of print- ing and engraving are no royal exception. Dangerous Work. I was taken into the room where postage stamps are made, and into the revenue stamp room. The latter contains a new power press invented hy Superintendent Ralph. This press does the work of five men at the old hand presses. Two girls run one press. The machine numbers, trims, places the seal, and separates the stamps. One million sheets were spoiled in testing the machine. There are revolving machine presses for printing postage stamps, 24 stamps on a sheet, The engraved plates are polished by the bare hand of the printer, each plate must be polished as it comes around, after the shect has been removed by the assistant. This is dangerous work; the bare hand of the printer is in constant contact with the chemically prepared metal. Only one sheet at a time can be laid on a postage stamp press, One press can print 10,000 sheets of stamps a day. There are over 50,000 postage stamps sent out of the bureau each day. The noise made by the presses is deafening. I passed on into the room where the stamps are examined and counted. A girl expert can count 15,- 000 stamps a day. About to leave the building I said to the guide: “There is one room we have not been into.” I had heard that this room was par- ticularly dangerous for visitors to enter because of its crowded spaces, and the fumes from the chem- icals. The guide’s answer came quickly. “You will not be allowed to go into that room.” Capitalism is stronger than craft unions. Craft Unionism Outgrown. Class unions are needed for government wage- slaves as well as for all wage-slaves. The evolution of the machine is driving the craft union to bay. The demand today is for the uniting of all unions into a class union, and also demanding for each worker the full equivalent of his or her special product. This must be the program of all govern- ment employes at Washington and elsewhere. In- dustrial unionism thruout the world. A Workers’ Government. Today the leaders of craft unions are of the “pure and simple” kind. Said one of the union men to me in Washington: “Politically I am a democrat—the democratic party first, last and always.” Washington’s streets and avenues are spacious and beautiful. Its trees and parks and sparkling fountains are a source of delight. Its marble build- ings command the admiration of the world, and, over and above these stately piles of marble, against the blue of the heavens, floats the stars and stripes, but beneath, liberty lies low and bleeding; and jus- tice is a thing of scorn.