The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-26
PRICE OF A PENCIL
(BY O. M. GOETHE) Exclusive Service The Survey
 Press Bureau.1

~'-N7
 --------~---~----~~ ------->-->---~>>>-->' l Could a reporters pencil write a story of its own? It has one that
 ought to be told.
 | Running through the southern
 states is a belt of cedar. From l these trees were split the rails which last nearly a century. The rail fen
 ces are as much characteristic of the | South as are the log cabins, the
 beautiful colonial homes of the | young days of the republic, the fa-
 nous singing of the plantation ne- groes and their. banjo music. But | the rail fence is passing. It is be- 1 ing made into high grade lead pen cils. This conversion from fences to lead pencils unfortunately includes a story of exploited peopIe-recr cation hungry and easily imposed upon.
 There are perhaps a dozen pencil mills in the South. The owners buy the fences, paying part cash. and part in a wire fence. The product is ship ped abroad to Austria Germany Bel gium, where the graphite is pressed into the cedar strips and the finished pencils are made. Recently Japan has
 become a competitor of Europe and
 a customer of the Southern mills.
 Upon an upper floor of a pencil
 mill the jigsaw menAwork. The air
 is as ruddy as if rusty snow were
 falling "A generation ago we new
 CT had a death from consumption
 in our county. pRecently we have re- corded sixty odd deaths. We do not.
 know the cause" said a, betterm ent worker in one Of the pencil mill sec tions.
 The men are employed under the piece work system. They have no.
 labor unions. They work much of us believe is ideal But they also. work under conditions which seefh dangerous. The cedar rails are re- duced to pencil lengths. Then the jig-sawyers cut them into slabs the width of lead pencil. With un- holding fingers unccnfortably close. In answer to the question, how many men are cut, came: About one every other day.
 The strips drop from the circular saws to lower floor. Here girls sort and claSsify them Some of. these girls wear dresses only to their knees. They look as if they ought to be at school or playground. The atmosphere is little. if any less dus- ty than at the Jigsaw floor. The workers are red with the fine saw dust A new conner can hardly breathe in it. The hands are ..speeded up'' so that one is forcibly reminded Of Jurgis in the Jungle. One sees them in all stages-from EOSy-CnGGkeA beginner just in from the farm to the gaunt, stoop-shou1dered. hollow chested wo- man. a pale-faced. nervous wreck
 Going into the mill, one stumbles over cases of bottles of a certain ssoft drink stim ulant, manufactur ed in the South. Evidently much is consumed. It is carried up and down the rows of workers. A short con versation with a young fellow of the type known as ssthe cadet waiting at the mill door near the closing hour brought out this bit of philosophy graft in this were world, stranger. I've got mine and reckon you've got yourn- The foreman here's got the graft tnaming the above soft drink" His nephew totes the stuff to the girls and the man. They sign cards just like at your swell city clubs. He never los es a picayune-he takes it outer their pay. He says it's healthy, and it makes them work better, but I reckon all he worries about is the health of his bank account
 One of the floor bosses, when ask ed about labor unions. said: You bet we ain't got any here. We've got labor we can handle. We won't hire anybody raised in a. town We get 'em from the farms-back in the kind wot's hungry for a good time. That kind will stand for pretty near anything.' It was the old story of recreation hun ger
 But the saddest of all was to come Jane Addams once advised going to where the days work was ending if one wanted to understand where the real trial came sto the underpaid and overworked woman worker The weeks work was almost over at the pencil mill. At the time clock shed door stood several young fellows of the parasftical type As the girls streamed out one of these vlltures up and took the arm of a pretty brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked girl. They were starting off togeth- erswf1en another mill girl said to the fellow: fBilI, you gain't got no right to go off this way with Belle You've got a wife and baby.'' .'Oh, He'll, was Bills answer, .I don't care if you do tell her. Belle here looks | pretty good to me-
 Another chap stepped up to a. wan-looking, coughing girl, who ex- claimed with startled 1ook-ssWhat you here again! Aint I got enough to 1 rack me with the work in that mill all week without you coming to | hound me when I'm all tired out Please go away and leave me alone, There was a low conversation for a | They went off together.
 And this. because of our way of F doing things. is the price of a lead pencil!