Evening star., 1918-08-24
STACKING" LABORERS
IN D.C. ARE SCORED
Alleged Idlers Denounced by Sena-
tor McCumber, Defending Work
or-Fight Amendment.

Senator McCumber of North Da-
kota, defending the work k-or-fight
amendment in the man-power bill in
the Senate yesterday afternoon. de-
clared it should be extended so as to
cover the "slackers' who hold down
jobs in war industries. but fail to
do an honest days work. He at
tackled the workers on the new build
ings being erected to house govern
ment employees on the grounds lying
between the Capitol and the Union
station, declaring that they were
nearly all wasting time and drawing
big pay. He said:
Let me call attention to the real
danger. the real trouble. that is at
the heart of the United States today
in prosecuting this war. 1t is not
the number of men that are out of
employment so much as it is the
Stacking of those that are in employ
ment How does this bill reach
them?
Slackers Near Capitol.
Let me ask the senator to step
down here any time and look at these
squares under the shadow of the
SdpltOI. WHERE L nave WdtCneu THESE
men digging trenches. While for
thirty-five years l probably have not
lifted anything heavier than a lead
pencil, if / could not perform three
times the amount OF labor that is
being performed there would be
ashamed of myself. / would to God
that our soldiers over in the trenches,
digging in in the face of shot and
shell, working laboriously through
out the night after fighting through
out the day. could pass down at one
of these squares and watch the work
and asked other senators to look upon
it to see where the Stacking was be-
ing done. l know what 1 would see.
"A man would take a shovel of dirt
and throw it leisurely over and lay
the spade or shovel down or rest for
two minutes on the handle and then
take anoth- :, and by actual count
there were not one-f1fth of the men
there working at any one time-all
resting, all killing time. all robbing
the government. / do not know that
they are Americans; l think they are
not / think they are foreigners who
are here today taking the place of
our boys who are fighting for the
government. They are getting $6 and
IS a day. with pay on holidays for
overtime. and that is the character
of the work We are getting out of
them.
IF the senator has an amendment
that will say to these men, We will
pay you honest wages. but you shall
do an honest days work. it ought to
receive ninety-six votes in the Senate.
VIII his amendment do it? 1 think
not, because the same person under
the amendment who is killing time
down here. making 1t costS the gov
ernment three times as much as it
ought to cost to produce the results
il is producing, will continue in en-
ployment. and he will continue also to
slack in his work.
Not Members of Organized Labor.
These are not members of organ
lied labor at all because it is the
lowest class of labor that you find
here among the ordinary shovelers,
colored and white men working there
together. But it does seem to me
that we ought to have some kind of
an amendment that would compel
every American man and woman to
perform full and honest days work
six days ine the week while our SOL
diers are battling in France.
II wish the senator could SO word
his amendment that we could reach
the Stacker who is pretending to
work. and not merely the one who is
avoiding the doing Of any kind of
work"