The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-06-07

now, and he didn't expect TO be an
elevator operator after thirty years Of
faithful service in the Western Elec-
trio. He's pretty charitable old man
at that. Joe says the bosses are right
after all. That something must have
been wrong with himself and not the
company or the system.
Joe still believes that his loyalty will
be rewarded in the end. He says
these damn reds who talk about the
millions in profits the bosses take in
without doing any work, while he and
his fellow-workers make all this
money for the bosses, is a lot Of rot
Joe says he's never joined union
and he's not going to do it now.
"They Also Server
Joe has had lot Of satisfaction out
of his six years Of operating the pas
senger elevator in building 40. All
the employees know him now and even
some Of the head officials say Hello"
to him every morning. He brags how
one day President Dubois himself
used the elevator and asked Joe how
he was making out, and told Joe to
stick to 1t, that a man always gets his
reward for faithful service in the
Western Electric company if he only
sticks to it long enough and does his
job well.
Joe has run his elevator up and
down so much he knows every erevice,
every chalk mark, every slight IT.
regularity in the sides of the elevator
shaft. He knows his job all right. Joe
says the lights are bad. He has been
having trouble with his eyes lately.
It's hard standing in one position all
day, having to say "hello' to every
body and using a cheerful tone of
voice, even If you're wondering how
the folks at home are going to get
those new clothes and even when
you're stir and sore and your brain is
dulled by the monotonous shifting of
people in and out and by the clanking
of cold metal doors.
Only Prisoner.
Joe's mind wanders a little some
times. He imagines himself in a
prison sometime that it's impossible
to escape from. If he walks out he
knows that only starvation awaits
him, and he feels doomed to stand
stiffly in the straight jacket for all
the rest of his days. 1t is those times
that Joe thinks of the green fields of
the farm where he was brought up,
and sort Of wishes he had never left
it.
He remembers, while he automat-
Iically lets 'em out" some strange
conversations he has had with some
mighty strange people. He remem-
bers the poor fish who looked at
everything from the standpoint
Of the pay envelope. This 10y
atty business is all bunk. II you form
a strong union, you get more pay. The
Ionly one I'm loyal to is myself and my
family and the little old pay envelope.
You rise in the world, all right, but
iyou come down every time you rise, 3"
this queer guy had said to Joe.
Communist Told Him.
Then there was the Communist"
who had shocked Joe so that he took
a passenger past his floor for the first
time in seven months. This fellow had
said right out. "This company is run
by lot Of robbers and hot air artists
who don't care about anything but a
nice fat interest on the money they
inherited, and a good dividend every
year. The men who work here are a
lot of docile slaves, but some day they
will wake up, and run the factory to
suit themselves, and form a Soviet
of the Western Electric, which will
run to give people service and not to
give few bosses profits"
But in spite of the fact that Joe
has not been getting good salary he
is satisfied. He brushes all thought Of
these bad men from his mind. He
knows he'll get his reward in heaven,
unless the man up there in charge of
giving out the jobs is a former West
ern Electric official In that case, poor
old Joe McClair will be met with an
oily smile. and a well done, thou
good and faithful servant" Then "in
the interest of efficiency" he VIM be
given the job of running st. Peters
elevator, which will be promotion in
deed.
Joe has just been given nice, new,
sidney, four-star service button, de-
noting the passing of his Both year
with the Western Electric company.
He's mighty proud of that button, and
it almost makes up, he says, for his
dreams of the luxury and education
he was going to give his children on
the fat pay envelope which he had ex-
pected to earn, but which somehow
never materialized.