The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-07-12
LEDGER JOCKEYS
" ORST SLAVES,
SAYS
Correspondent Shows
Wall Street Chances

being locked out and black-hsted in
the Pressed Car Shops in Chicago
and drifting to this rosy" path of
white collar slavery.
A great many outside of this job
imagine the work of an office stiff
to be soft. On the contrary, it is the
most nerve-wrecking, as bad as any
other line to which the masters har-
ness US, especially, when one looks
at this stupid, miserably exploited
crowd without even the slightest
semblance Of an organization.
Grand Profession"
After an aspirant for an office
position graduates from a grammar
school, two or four years Of high
school, he is started at the lowest
Salary" which enables him to have
spending money, providing his papa
is furnishing the room and board. If
he studied that grand" profession
every Henry Dubb studies, book
keeping, after about five years he
receives the enormous sum of $50 to
| S35 per week,-in some cases. If he
is bounced by the good master for
asking for more pay, the next place
he may get, he must take a cut of
S. or more, because you do not
know our line of business" But the
only difference between one or the
other is their different system Of
files and routine which one is able
to learn in two weeks. If you can't
learn it, out you go.
One studying to be an accountant
after going through high school and
four years Of grilling at this subject,
gets 500 per, and after a year
one advances rapidly" to $50. But
what 1 really mean is by a season,
because only at su h seasons that
come on annually from about Oc-
tober to June when ''most," or all
Of the corporations turn in the in
come tax. After that one walks
around the ring as one of our car
toonists displayed some time ago
job, job, where? Finally one lands
: place; again, "you don't know the
method, so we'll have to start you
off at S25, and if you prove good
we'll raise YOU"
Out on the Street. --- -
By that time you're mainly
raised" out on the sidewalk. Only
through sheer luck some re o, in and
is to them that all the pra Tin in
structors in. school point. These
same poor slaves that <rsy all their
lives, teaching ny and night and
" ing when others sleep, after
all OF - is strain most j" them re-
ceive what q In n plumber or
bri &, Eyer earns.
l remember A1.rlv several poems
hum on the door ! of our class
room, POI ~, to t'L dollar as the
greatest I'm, m, ching to have, the
one goal. III )oiSon1d pupil goes
out with this poem hanging on his
nose. nat is all he knows of and
thinks. But it is like the straw that
was tied before the head of mule
that would not pull its load
Employment Agency Hoax.
The only place we white collar
slaves can apply for a job is at the
grating employment agency. They
charge US with a weeks wages for
merely furnishing us with an ad-
dress to look for job. The agency
cannot do a wiggle in helping us get
a position. An applicant must pos
sess the required qualifications and
many times many more than are ac-
tually necessary. The bosses usually
call for a mere bookkeeper, but in
many cases they require one to have
years of experience and some knowl-
edge of accounting and then offer
him a common bookkeeper's assist
ants wages.
Race Discrimination.
Last winter /, also, had a good
dose of Coolidge's prosperity. l
tramped around from one agency to
another with battalions of men seek
ing work. In my daily routine |
came in contact with great num-
Der of Jewish lads, and old American
democracy" showed her hideous
method of dealing. We are told of
fair and square treatment to all, but
the Anglo-Saxon masters that
squawk about equality on the 4th of
July, discriminate against the Jew
ish boys as they do against the
Negroes, To every office that l
accompanied with a Jewish lad, the
master would curtly answer moth
ing doing" but would hire the real"
Americans, all mainly of English
birth. Or whenever they hire a num-
Der of Jewish workers, then they
likewise hire a similar number of
Christians, in order to have them
naggipg at each other in order to
make them divided against each
other instead of against the boss.
The American Telegraph and Tele-
phone Company does not employ
Jewish workers and a great many
of the other Wall Str houses, as
they suspect them all of socialism,
laziness, and what not.
| During this mad profit-making
that is now going on in Wall Street
the miserable Henry Dubbs are
worked from morning to midnight
and even until two and three in the
morning. Whenever any Of you
readers Of The DAILY WORKER
happen to pass around that end Of