The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-10
FILTH IN KODAK
PLANT IS HARD
EVEN TO RELATE
Gelatine Plant Rivals
Stockyards
az a WORKER correspondent.

ficials Of the Eastman Kodak Co. to
show him thru the gelatine depart
ment of the Kodak Park plant, COM
monty referred to by the workers as
the gut factory" l have concluded,
after reading his description of the
filthy conditions under which the
slaves of the packing industry toll,
especially during the strike, in his
1.-THE Jungle" that no other person
could describe the plight Of these gela-
tine workers in the same realistic
manner as could Sinclair.
Until such a time, however, as Sin
clair finds it convenient to visit this
city l shall offer my insufficient de-
scription of the plight of these work
ers.
Rotten Hides.
To begin with, all gelatine, edible
as we'll as industrial, is derived from
hides, principally cowhides These
the Eastman Kodak Co. buys in car
load lots from various sources. While
some Of these hides are dry when re-
ceived, goodly portion of them are
green" excepting in the summertime,
when they are white with maggots.
One good feature OF this is that in the
process Of unloading the car some Of
these hides crawl into the wheelbar-
row, thus saving the worker the job of
shoveling them in. On the whole, tho,
this job is not the kind to stimulate
good appetite.
The Vat Gang.
The next step in the manufacture
of gelatine is the soaking of these
hides in lime and water to loosen the
hair. When they have been in the
watts sufficiently long time the wat
gang" crawls into the watts and pro-
ceeds to shovel the hides into truck
After about ten minutes work in one
of these watts the men appear eligible
for membership in the X. X. K, plas-
tered with lime from head to foot.
Next, these hides go into The washer
to clean them of, the loose hair being
washed into the sewer. These hairs
and stray hides quite often plug the
sewer up and it becomes necessary
for the sewer gang to force the OBJ
struction thru with the help of fire
hose. Occasionally the fire hose
bursts, drenching the sewer rats"
with this lime, hair and rotten hides
mixture.
stockyards Smell Mild.
"But that's not the half of it," After
| the jell is cooked from these hides
there remains an indescribable sub
stance, compared with which the worst
smell around slaughterhouse is mild.
speak from experience, for l have
worked around both. This substance
is saved in open cans for several
weeks, sometimes months, until it is
taken away by some farmer to be
used as fertilizer. During the time
that 1t stands around the flies swarm
on 1t as thick as bees on a hive and
from this they fly into the room where
the men eat their lunch. / sometimes
lose faith in the germ theory of dis
ease, for certainly II flies carry dis
ease germs most of these men should
be stricken with horrible diseases.
Get Low Pay.
For working under these conditions
these workers receive from 500 to $35
per week, depending upon Their agility,
for they, too, are afflicted with BE
daux-itis.'
The writer knows of one case, that
OF sewer rat, where the worker was
rewarded" with cents for two
weeks efforts, in the form of bonus.
The following week he received no
tice from the payroll department that
there had been an error in his pay and
he was compelled to return the 3
cents. About two weeks after that the
workers in this same department, as
we'll as many others, were inundated
into giving ten hours wages to char
ity thru capitalist channels.
This is typical of how the company
which takes such serious interest in
the welfare of its workers uses these
workers. It seems TO the writer that
aside from this protested interest, the
workers would "have nothing to lose
but their chains and the whole world
to gain" were they to organize them
selves into union.
Oct = oopv OF the American Worker