The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-16

of the government by the national body Of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor.
The United States government workers in Wash
ington cannot STRIKE they cannot vote, neither can
they petition congress thru the chief next higher
in power.
1t by the help of young radical some
three years ago. and the determination of the bureau
girls in their small union that twenty-five cents in
crease in wages per day for women beginning their
apprenticeship in the department. was wrung from
Superintendent Ralph. Ralph boasts of his power
to cut down expenses on behalf of the government
In 1910 he claimed that from the appropriations made
that year he turned back into the u s. treasury
S5O000O Today the union of the bureau girls is at
low ebb | am told that those girls who have a
married life IN view not friendly to the union
but there are good union women and good stuff
to make class conscious union women among the
5000 workers in the bureau
Girl Experts Get Pauper Wages
Boys over sixteen years are emploved az nr;n+or,,
assistants, but they clumsy compared with the
girls at work. To the well drilled girl, the work
has become an art and the printer who has become
accustomed to his assistants method of. work likes
TO retain her in his employ. Printers assistants re-
celVe Sl25 per day from the printer and 25 cents
from the U. S. government-the printers claim that
the raise IN wages must come from the government
Ihere are printers assistants who can handle 20OO
sheets of bills day, while little over 500 is bio
Gay work Tor boy. The printed sheets of money
from S100 to $4,000, the presses register the MN
Der OF sheets printed. A printers assistant takes
blank sheet of paper which has been wet with
water to make it pliabe and lays it on the press
made ready with chemicals by the printer: then bv
most laborious effort of his body and arms the
printer turns the revolving press once The as
sisCahC is at hand to take the stamped sheet from
tne engraved plates and to lay on another wet one
10 40 TINS she is compelled to step backward to a
table Tor the wet sheet and then forward to the
press mere are no seats for these girls and women
10 crop INTO even for moment. They are always
moving forward and backward. first with the wet
sheet then with the printed bill in confusing noise
OF machinery in the midst of dirt and grease
have been thru the notorious cotton mills of
North and South Carolina 1 have stood with the
workers at the machines in the great shoe shops of
Massachusetts. I know what it means to breath
and work, in the PHOSPHORUS laden air in the cor
poration match factories of New England but have
yet to find more congested, or foul workshop than
that of the great press room at the Government
Bureau of Printing and Engraving at Washington
An expert shoe-stitcher commands $25 to $50 a
week. The government bureau women are obliged
to pay for housing, food and clothes on SO week
wage.
Let those socialists who clamoring for govern
ment ownership study the work conditions and wages
OF those industries in Washington over which the
stars and stripes wave so proudly. Let them talk
with these government wage-slaves and hear from
their lips how fine thing it is to work for
the United States government.
Hand Presses Superseded.
A bank note is not finished i'll the press room but
it has to pass thru the hands of 81 men and women
and 20 machines before it becomes United States