The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-04-05
WALTER Y. WOEHLkE VIOLATES
ESPIONAGE ACT AND Is PROUD OF IT
This Hyphenated Travels Up and Down the Coast Spread
ING Sedtion and Formenting Industrial Strife and Is AL
lowed Run at Large

and particularly those in the San
Francisco district, are slackers.
Woehlke's Table of Exceptions.
Woehlke complies table of rs
gangs of riveters and shows that
they drove from Ia to 78 rivets each
in day of eight hours, for which
each gang was paid $11.10 (Which is
the total wage Of the gang of three
mem This looks pretty bad for the
men on the simple face of his state
ment, providing that the reader knows
nothing of the conditions under
which the men work. 1t would not,
however, be surprising if among all
the thousands of men working in
these big plants you should find rs
slackers! He does not say, how
ever, that those who have been slack
ers have always been continued in
employment by the management-or
that they were able to "slack" for
more tha none day. Neither does he
say anything for the thousands of
men who were doing the big days
work that enable mighty merchant
men to go into the water 80 days
ahead of schedule.
Nor does Mr.. Woehlke say any
thing about the conditions under
which men work where it is not pos
sible to drive more than ~ or Is
rivets a day, even though they were
the most honest and energetic work
men in the world. Yet, l can say
from the experience of seeing these
men at their work, that there are
such instances. Away down in the
narrow places, where men have to
work in a cramped position, or even
where some special tool must be
made for the purpose of driving a
rivet, it is plain to any practical,
thinking person that gang would
not be able to drive any great num-
Der of rivets in day. Then again,
where special staging has to be
built, perhaps to drive one lone
rivet on pickup work, is another in
stance in which, to any reasonable
person, it is quite clear riveting
gang would not succeed in driving
any very large number of rivets on
shift. But this kind of work must
be done. Also, would any practical
minded person expect that men doing
their necessary work should be ex-
pected to do it at the ordinary piece
rate and draw down a wage of, say
rs cents, or about 25 cents each!
1t is easy, you see, to pick out
these exceptional cases, which when
honestly explained, become quite clear
and reasonable, yet using them as
Mr.. Woehlke has, make it appear
that these men are slackers. All
will be agreeable to singing out the
slackers, and we will all agree, too,
that there is place where all that
gentry should be put. But to use
these exceptional cases, as Mr.. Woeh-
Ike has done, to blacken the thou
sands of good, loyal workmen, who
are honestly working to give the
government the best possible support,
is heinous pro-German outrage. 1t
is an outrage to the men and to the
nation, for such things as these dis
courage the men and create a rest
less, bad feeling.
Woehlke Facing Two Ways.
This is the purpose of Mr.. Woehlke
in all of his agitation of this sub
ject, for he is, by his own writings,
confessedly pro-German. Only last
April he said, in the Sunset maga-
zine, that in the event of war be-
tween this country and Germany,
that "my presence Tin this country
+ will not strengthen the military pow
er of the United States" Now he
tells us that he is trying to support
the ship-building program-and he is
doing it by writing articles libeling
the men whose work is putting boats
into the water $50 days ahead of
schedule" Now, that is a likely
claim, is it not, in the light of the
above facts?
Indutrial Strife His Purpose
In my judgment, his articles on
the labor situation on the Pacific
Coast, were written for the purpose
of stirring up strife and ill-feeling
between employer and employee in
the ship yards, in the hope that
this strife and i'll feeling would
hamper ship production-and thus
aid the Kaiser. The false state
ments of this man make the men
very angry, and some harm has
been done by way of creating dis