Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-11
AS ONE WOMAN SEES lT
How a Slip Of Girl.Woman Set
tied the Problems Of Labor and
Got Her Force Working
Smoothly
BY SARAH ID, LOWRIE

| ShelVes ana put up the partition YOU always
meant to bull and that being the case
| you'd better have the furnaces overhaued
| aud the plumbing modcrnizcd. Something
holds YOU back from having the roof in
| spected and the cellar cemented not so
| much the thought of the bill as sheer over.
exertion. The bill for the roof and cellar
| is no more impossible or possible than for
! all the floors between.
| We made ont neat schedule way back
In june that had the most plausible series
| of causes and effects II read like the tale
| OF the house that Jack built.
This is the plumber that enters ono ,oeek
To look at the pines 10 sec if they leak.
| This is tho carpenter foI'ooin1 soon
| To build a partition I" one afternoon.
| When he has finished the papercr enters
Foilotccd in turn BY the paint decorators.
| Then rhcn the house is finished complete
Hark TO the sound of the cleaners Stoitt feet!
| livery ONE was engaged. contracted
II for and told how important it was
| on time, Every one gladly promised to be
| and to do all VIC could ask or think.
| WHEN the day dawncd for the caretakcr
w to hand over the keys to the electrician,
| who was to work all through the schedule
| leaving each room. as he flushed it, to be
| taken up bv tho next wOrlimen In turn. we
! workers and cheerful sor,s beginning in the
| hot. dusty town to make our winter home
| bright and cheerful for us. We set our
return from our summer rest n day or two
earlier than usual 50. we could inspect the
work before the very last touches.
Back, very far back. in our minds there
was dim. hcsitant suspicion that there
might he delays here and there but we
shrank from putting it into words. We left
it. like the. roof and the cellar, to take
care of itself.
Our last prophetic act before checking
our trunks for the journey to town was
to telegraph the cleaning women to begin.
They will all be out of the house by Mon
day, | said. was right; They were,
because they. meaning the painters, papcrers
and carpenters, had not begun!
CINCE then there have been wild doings.
~ Ten mon aud three cleaning women and
n boy 'twccny have been doing their worst
up and down this house. They all came at
once and, regardless Of the schedule. regard
less of the fnrt that the paper we chose was
out of stock and the paint could not get
dried in time for the electricians to tear up
the floor and begin again. that the plumber
was the one to take away the chandeliers
and the carpenter should not be used to
help the twreny mend the cleaners ladder,
and, regardless of the fact that every one
threw everything out of the windows into
the yard. 80 there was no place to saw
wood or weld pipe or solder wires but the
Kitchen. we. the owners, are now living
there!
Before we tried that desperate cxpedient
wc came and saw chow things were getting
on as many times day as we could drag
our feet over the pnvements from the club.
We could SOC for ourselves everything was
getting on but the work.
THE plumber, who was Irish, got on the
l. carpenters nerves, who was Iith-
uanian and insults flew. so that the colorcd
cook and cleaner hid in the cellarway
The bosses of both were summoned and
passed ''wordS' to each othcr-'Deutchcr
and Sim Fcincr'' being the most descriptive
and relieving. Th" electricians bored their
bee like wnv thrOuPh floors. walls. ceilings
and roofs and left large. square holes and
long gullicS in dusky corners into which
the 'twCcny fell when he was bearing furn-
ture to and fro.
The paperhanger came and did parts Of
rooms and then disappeared for several
days at n time. TIL" painters appeared in
swarms and then-didn't come!
But after came and lived in the
house every one returned, every one got
along with every one else. we passed from
one inspiring scene of labor TO another and
gave ourselves over to the social joys of
praise and appreciation until dusk
descended.
There were even those who. rs a lark and
on the g. T.. worked as favor overtime.
We knew them by name, and the youngest
we call by his first name.
H7IIF Numbers were the first to 60. and we
l. parted like pals: the electricians, like
tie poor which they assurcdN are not. are
always with us. but the papcrhangcrs and
the CarpCntCrS have gone. The three
cleaners and the 'twceny have cleaned Ger
tain rooms for the last time. There will
cleaning cloths no more. and the ladder
that has become enfcebled from their weight
VIII vest f"or' its 'ahors, Th" Stran"" gar
mcntS and fapping shoes in which the
'twccny has dCcked himself will surely go
the way Of all rags, ana the painters will
cease to mix their plaster in the guest
room bath.
We shall miss them pleasantly. and yet
rcmcrbcr them pleasantly. They have done
a good thing for us--hcIpcd make our
homeland we have done a good thing for
them: helped make their jobs pleasant so
we are pleased with one another and with
ourselves.
Between their employers and ourselves
there will be some bills to settle that will
crowd MS n hit and some out of the con
tract jobs to haggle over that may give us
a bad quarter of an hour, but the fact re-
mains that. in spite of all the Cassandr0
vai', about the "ohstr"pHrousn"ss of labor"
the "mcnacc of socialism" and the "unrc-
huDi!ity Of the working classes. we have
had pleasant, human time with Labor,
aud rs pleasant an exchange Of civilitlcs as
one could ask on n basis purely social.
If this is socialism we have nothing to
fear.
H1EN skilled workncn, three cleaning
J. women, tweeny, six employers and
ourselves have united to rcn0vate IN old
house, and. in questions Of taste, pract-
cality. utility, safety and economy, have
been able to speak one anothcr's language
during two weeks of constant business re
latOnShip.
We are all Americans, but some of rls
smoke with German or Lithuanian or
Irish or Swedish or Greek or African ac-
cent. which was why, before our real boss
came aud lived in her house Il mere slip of
a girl woman, we did not understand one
another or our job
Rut when she put an interest and
,oogop into the whole affair we cOuld nil