The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-11-03

! he says, and damn me II they
| didn't every one of 'em run out into
the woods, and there a gang OF
union men was waitin' ready to SAP
'em over the head. Lord, but il
| must "a been funny!"
| could listen to this jest of as
sault and battery with some com
posture because in that place ! was
| working in a maintenancc-of- way
| storeroom which was not on strike
and so / was not scabbing. But
even at that it gave me a start
when, little later, another friend
described how "the company bull
(guard), We see, was insultin' one
o. the women here in town. When
he run, our town dick policeman
told him to stop, and when he kept
goin', he let him have fright
through here (pointing to his stom-
ach). Don't know when they bury
him-nor care"
All this kind of thing, of course,
| hasn't been on the strikers side
not by any means.
"a colored scab was passing right
over by that pole, when picket
called to him: Come over min
uten" station man explained at
junction point on the way to my
! second job. "When the picket called
him again-friendly like, he was,
you understandable scab pulls out
an automatic and shoots the picket
five times; right through the heart
like this. Probably scared to death,
he was"
Cast week two guards killed a
striker here-just for trespassin', y
said the marshal in another railway
center. eve got the guards under
arrest-tough guys they are, I'll
breaker comes up town we arrest
him for carrying a gat--if he has
one, or for anything else, if we can"
| Became a Scab
At various other centers no job
was to be had as second fireman
or in any Of the departments a little
removed from the too active fight
ing line. Because of the shortage
of good engines, numerous trains
We're being cut off with their crews
"W'y. man alive. we got regular
men furloughed all over the place.
You wouldn't expect to get on ahead
of them, would you? No, there's no
job, not even workin' on the see
ton"
SO at a great terminal l had to
pack my ordinary workers clothes
plus my scruples and my fears
put my overalls into a rough-looking
9S-cent paper suitcase, and walk as
casually as possible down past the
strikers pickets. to present myself
to tough-looking guard as guy
that just had to have a job and
wanted to see the master mechanic.
I am willing to say it took all the
nerve l had.
After my week in a roundhouse
back in 10, l should have asked for
machinist's and not helpers job,
if | had learned as quickly as did
the chap with whom I fixed the
leaking valve stem just above the
steam box of a handsome big en-
CINE.
Primrose Path to Money
"About three weeks ago." he NUT
tered confidentially after we got
acquainted, II was gettin' AZ cents
an hour, like you, but after seem
my buddy mend a few things like
this. I bowed. A little farther down
the line | got on as car knocker
| (repairer)-that's 60 cents. See ?
And when | made my stake there
after fifteen days come here at
That was his primrose path to easy
| money
81 think I'd know what to do for
this machine" one lad exclaimed
after he had climbed the locomo-
tive's front end, opened up to let
the workers into the smoke box, ''if
the klinkety- blank thing only needed
shave!"
Three of my fellow machinists are
merely taking on a piece Of jack
during vacation from their own work
of photographing blue prints in a
railroad office.
"Carpenterin' is my line" said my
new boss after | was changed to
the night shift, "but slack work in
my town made me think right smart
of this easy money If you don't
take it too easy, they may make you
foreman, like they did me Last
night my two helpers hid them
/ selves after midnight and slept till
mornin'. Sometimes I've worked a
Lplumb twenty hours-and got
paid for thirty-two. That's S2240.
At that rate III clean up around
$500 in six weeks-and no place to
spend it so long as were wattin'
| free board and room at the camp
and takin' no chances on gettin' a
cracked nut by tryin' to get up
town past these here piekets out
side"
With our torches. hammers, and
wrenches we would sit at the en-
trance of the roundhouse stalls and
wait until the turntable delivered a
returned engine into our hands. Then
we inspected every bolt and tight
ened every loose nut we could find
on the wheel trucks or the journal
boxes that held the bearings for the
| great steel aXles of the engines
tender or tank. 1t is remarkable how
much you can tell about the tight
ness of a nut by the sound it makes
when you hit it with a good ham
mer. One trouble was to find the
good hammer. or torch or wrench
! because the tools We're lying in con
fusion among the litter of dirt and
waste and ashes all over the house
Amateur Car Knockers
While we hammered or frightened
others were making sure that the
boxes were properly filled with oil
and waste, while up ahead a hall
dozen different groups were in the
caz or down beneath in the pit. OF
alongside the steam box or the
drivers, attending to water, steam
fire. air or grease.
Most of these men were as fal
- 1 L,