The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-02-25
BY a P. o. CLERK"

The Yellow Socialist Party of the
ussted States is always fond of telling
~ t1at the post office is can example
Of Socialism Oh, yes, the Post Office
= Socialism in practice-ask us, who
-vssxk there, we know.
Ten see, I'm "clerk k'-leastways,
Shaf,s the way the government classes
ma I had to take an examination be-
fors I was appointed had to have at
fezss public school education to stand
u s&sst of a chance with that exam
and 50 / thought in my youthful IN
5 nseezee (this was back in the days be-
: lore the wary that I was to have an
hsnest- goodness white collar job. My
first clerical work was "killing slugs {,
whssA is standing next to pile Of
packages and making post marks with
rabber or steel hand stamp on post
age stamps hours day regularly
snd the rest called "overtime" but
jast Us regular--and not even allowed
/, to talk TO the fellow next to me, while
n that skilled work. Later they set
70 dragging ship" which is the
q Of clerical work in which steve
.= indulge. Dragging ship means
xSing mp on the reeeiveing platform and
dragging the heavy sacks of foregn
'mzz from the autos to the chutes and
thers giving them ride down into
1sthe hole"
by the way, while I'm at it, let me
tell you something about that "hole.
NYeg see, "the hole" is the name OF
the snb- basement of the "G. P. o. y,
the Park Row, New York, General Post
Office A fine looking building-ex. |
texnaIly, but Dante s Inferno has sea.
eely a shade on "the hole" when it
eszses to heat in summer and to ventila.
sign any time. Winter days it, colder
thSH a barn. Summer days, when the
side walks are baking and there's not
a whiff of air coming down there, it 5
hotter n hell and we "clerks" work in
nnr undershirts (or did till women in
va1ed our ranks) and reek with per
spiration. They didn't pay much atten
5ian to our discomfort until some of us
CLERKS were overcome with Cheat, II
'.5hieh was mostly bad air, and then
fhey decided to let US up 10 minutes
asut of each hour for air on the dog
Days, but its up to the super to decide
What END of day is dog day. At
wasting of 10 minutes five or
Gus year comes cheaper than
..lzarAfaa sde4mtc An this this
shining example of socialism, and
sssnnnmptives don t cost the post office
department anything, so the hole is
n the rally abode of all G. P. D.
vks handling 3rd and 4th class mail.
Nell, what with sweating in the hole
lzay undershirt, "shaking OUT dusty
mail sacks in the back Of the basement,
the dnstiest, dirties place have ever
, been in and haven't been living next
4, d0er to heaven most Of my life either,
: what with dragging ship" up on deck,
aud killing slugs, and singing things
aruund generally, and never doing any
nzre clerical work than writing the
,aarse of its destination on n full mail
sack, and afterwards taking turn at
the pneumatic tubes where I got my
fape grimed up and my one time nice
wkite collar blackened with grease and
OIL finally got the idea into my
er7ninm that I wasn't a white collar
clerk after all, but an ordinary worker
like the rest of my brothers and friends
We Try Union.
About the same time, lot Of other
..5.rfs were getting the same idea, and
SSro one Of them had the courage ia
ilk union, chimed in: "Me too.