Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-15
Plate Printers Object to a Sudden
Cut in Wages.
TO INTERVIEW MR. JOHNSON
The Reduction at Bureau Engrav-
ing and Printing.
OTHER EXPLAIN NATIONS


afternoon to protest against reduction of
their wages to the extent of 10 per cent.
The notice of this reduction was served on
the men working on what is known as the
stamp presses yesterday afternoon, and a
meeting at typographical Temple followed
In the evening, with the result that a COM
mittee was appointed to argue with the
chief today to secure. IL possible, restora-
ton Of the rates.
Mr.. Johnson explained the causes that
led up to his order to Star reporter this
morning. The men affected" he said,
"are engaged in printing the internal rev.
enue stamps, which require much less care
and attention, and indeed much less skill,
than the vignettes or bank notes. good
man can turl out many more sheets of
stamps than Of notes, for this reason, and
30 at the same rates of pay he can make
far more money, with less skill and labor.
This fact was brought to my attention
some time ago. and have been considering
1t since. with the view to evening up the
two classes of pay in some way. So de-
cided that the best way was to take 10 per
cent from the stamp men. That is a saw
ing to the government. No, 1t will not
be applied to the wages of the bill men,
whose wages are now high enough. There
IL. as far as / can learn, no complaint
among these men. 1 do not of course,
know what they may do In the light of the
recent order"
1T seemed to me that the government
was practically paying premium for
easy work by allowing the high rates for
stamps to continue. Even at the reduced
rates the swift men can make upwards of
81 day, and the average will make over
$3.50. That is very high wages for even
skilled artisans. 1t Is not to be duplicated
anywhere else, either in or out of govern
ment service. Now, as to the protest that
the men have to make, i am perfectly will
ing to hear them, and to listen to their
arguments. / am not prepared to say what
] shall do. / am open to argument, and il
they can convince me that 1 have been
wrong in this matter l will do what can
to rescind the order. At present 1 think
/ am right, and it may take a good deal
of argument to change my views"
One of the peculiar features of the in
equality in the rates was that the expert
men, allured by the chance to make such
good stakes on the stamps, were getting
of the bill presses as fast as they could
and taking stamp presses, so that the best
men were leaving the fine work. The chief
says that this would soon have brought
the quality of the work down consider
ably.
Overtime Work.
There has been considerable complaint
ceme to The Star through various chan
nels OF late that the girls in the postage
stamp division are being worked over time,
and, in one branch Of the work, under very
unwholesome conditions. 1t may be re-
membered that when the work of print
ing the stamps was given to the bureau
1t was decided that 1t would be necessary
to work over the legal limit of eight hours,
and so the regular force that was en-
ployed on this kind of work was given
work from in the morning to in the
evening. For the extra four hours addi-
tional pay was granted.
The eight-hour law does not contemplate
any question of payment for overtime,
but Is very strict In stipulating that no
government work of any kind shall last
more than eight hours per day per man
or woman. But there is a clause that per-
mits overtime work In cases OF emersen-
cies. The necessity for getting large
stock of stamps on hand at once was con-
strued to constitute an emergency, and
hence the extra hours and pay.
1t has been thought by some that time
enough had elapsed to permit the bureau
to catch up with the Post Office Depart
ments needs, and complaint has been
made that there is no longer any need of
violating the law. Then, too, 1t was rep
resented that the girls working in the gum
ming room were compelled to endure ex-
tremely high temperatures, ranging even
as high as 10 and 100 degrees at times.
Some of the girls there have as a duty the
task of picking from the floor the sheets
OF stamps tndI come. from lne cumming
machine not perfectly Ary which are torn
OF by a girl who stands by the endless
chain delivering them, to test them with
her finger. In the hurry of the work she
the work of picking up these sheets that
Is so laborious, for 1t must be done stoop-
ing over. .s..
Want to Exchange.
The reporter mentioned this complaint
to Mr.. Johnson this morning, and he re-
piled frankly that there were some dis
agreeable features about the work that,
however, could not be avoided.
''AI can say he continued. as that
have heard no complaint, and 1 know that
everything has been done to make the
work just as light as possible. 1 have evil
dence to convince me that though the gum
ming room is not a very pleasant place in
which to work. there is the greatest eager
ness on the part of the girls in the other
sections of the bureau to get on this
p branch, in order to earn the extra pay.
We give the extra people proportional
rates for overtime from fifteen cents an
hour upward, according to their regular
day rates. II there is any girl in the pos
tage stamp division who is not willing to
work the extra time she can secure an ex-
change at any hour with some other girl
in the general press room, or any other
branch. for there are dozens and scores
there who are applying daily for the
chance to make extra money. L know the
hours are long, but they appear to be
necessary now.
I'VE have not yet caught up with the de-
mands of the department for an extra sup
ply of stamps The daily requisition from
the post office amounts to about S.OOO,OO0
stamps. You can judge of our output
from the fact that in the past three days
we aggregated about 5O,UOO,OO0 This, you
see, is little more than twice the actual
consumption, giving a gain of some
thing over S,65O.0OO a day. believe that in
about thirty days more shall have got
sufficiently ahead to be perfectly safe I'm
going back to the regular hours once
more. i shall be very glad of it, too.
Relieving the Work.
"But, in order to relieve the working peo-
pie as much as we can from this extra
pressure, have just organized night gangs
to work In the press room and perforating
machines of the postage stamp division
They will go to work Monday next and will
work from o'clock in the evening until
midnight, which will just give time to catch
the last car. I have not organized such a