The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-10-27

the recognized heroes Of society. Thou
sands-yes, millions-of laborers there
are who face foes rar more subtle than
that which beset the soldier and the
sailor. These heroes battle for their
daily bread and for the daily bread of
Others They battle that out of the
bowels Of the earth may come the coal to
keep alive shivering thousands In the
months of winter; they battle that the
world may have light and heat and COM
fort; they battle that their children may
not starve and that the children Of the
rich may have luxuries. They expose
themselves to the deadly fumes Of aw-
full poisons In many a branch of manu-
facture: they expose themselves to the
dangers OF flredamp in the mines, to
the dangers of disease In many forms, to
perils unsupported by the users of their
products in order that the world may
progress. Perhaps it does not occur to
the reader that the printer who set the
story now being read did his work at
machine from which arises constantly
the fumes Of deadly gas used to heat
the metal from which the type Is cast,
and from which, in cases Of disorder, has
squirted molten metal sufficient to cause
death. And the Illustrate which
adorn this page-what Of them? The
photographer who got the photographs
OF the structural ironworkers was him.
self perched upon IN iron beam 10 stories
from the ground when he took the pic
ture. In order to get the photo of the
fire horses In action he had % wait un-
til the team of plunging eQuines was
almost upon him, snap the shutter and
jump. One false move and he would
have been trampled under the feet Of the
excited beasts.
The taking Of the pictures was not sufn-
Gent to insure their production. From
the photographer they went to the photo
engravers. Here again men are Drawing
death that newspaper readers may be
amused. The process of making a half
tone cut can be simply described as a
process of taking photograph through a
screen and printing it on metal instead Of
the ordinary Photographic paper. The
men, In developing the negative, use for
purposes of cutting out and more sharply
defining the figures on the film a solution
Of potassium cyanide, or, to be more ex-
plicit, Prussic acid, one Of the most dead
POASoNS
of this, SO small as to be hardly discern
ible to the naked eye, will kill dog In
stantly, while a particle smaller than a
little green pea will kill a man before he
can walk five steps or utter 10 words.
Its action Is upon the heart.
Recently In Chicago several photo-en.
gravers were eating their lunch in one of
the large newspaper engraving plants
One of the men suddenly spit out his
food and said:
MY God. boys, there's cyanide in my
pie"
He started for the sink but fell. When
his fellow -workmen reached his side he
was dead.
Each cut, after it is printed from the
negative upon the metal-in most cases
zink-is etched away with another deadly
poison, nitric acid. The effect of nitric
acid is upon the lungs, and half-tone
etchers who remain In the business long
usually die Of Tuberculosis, as the result
of constantly inhaling the fumes Of the
acid with which they work.
Every occupation that involves the hand
ling of heated metal or the operating of
machinery is fraught with a certain spe-
ciflc danger to life and limb. and the news
paper plant is no exception, SO that not
only the photographers and the cutmakers,
but the sterotypers, the pressmen and all
other mechanics employed IL the plant Of
an up-to-date newspaper like this take
their life IN their hands daily that you
may have your news served hot with your
coffee.
Another KIND Of Hero.
In even 30 prosaic an occupation as the
canning Of meat or the making Of sau-
sage heroes move daily in 2 solid phaIanx,
never pausing or showing fear Of the dan
gers that beset them. The fearful sx s: