The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-04-17
ONLY A STARTER
WORKERS TOLD
3Y STRAW BOSS
More Wage Cuts Seen
In Future
CBy a Worker Correspondent


PHILADELPHIA, (By Mail).-
S11 to SIC a week have been
hacked off the wages of workers in
some departments of the Oregon
Arsenal (Quartermaster's Depot),
: government sweatshop, employing
thousands of women operatives in
he manufacture Of army uniforms.
Stool-Pigeons.
The U. S. lingo department, in the
interests of efficiency" recently
switched overloads at this bull-pen.
On the day that he took up his
duties" Christie, the new super
intendent, was met in his private
office by a delegation of straw
bosses, foreladies and stool-pigeons
who presented him with wreaths Of
dollhouse flowers and kissed the seat
of his pants "on behalf of our Off
cial family"
According to the slobberings of
their spokesman, the floral offerings
were tokens of the affection" the
workers felt for their new task
master, who was not unknown to
them. The last phrase was true.
Many seamstresses knew "sourbalr"
Christie when he was a vicious
straw-boss at the Schuylkill Arsenal
wears ago. That is why the % work
ers in one particular department
contributed a total of two cents to
the lickspittle fund when the hat
was passed around by the commit
tee Of welcome"
So much for the affection" blah.
In the end the petty bosses them
selves had to fork over the jack for
ghe pretty parsley.
Latest Slave Driving Methods.
"Sourball," as he is affection
ately" called behind his back, is well
schooled in all the latest and most
brutal methods of slave-driving.
After he left the Schuylkill Arsenal
be was a boss in the notorious
Kirschbaum factory; then he COM
pleted his education in various New
York sweat-shops. His reputation
as a master blood-sucker reaching
the ears of Washington jingoists,
his appointment to the Oregon De-
pot followed as a matter of course.
Speed-Up Installed.
Fifteen minutes after he had told
the toady committee how much he
appreciated the floral gifts and dis
missed them, he began to show his
appreciation in a concrete way. The
speed-up was instituted; operatives
were ierked off machines they had
been running for years and placed
on entirely different work; the
amount of piece-work allowed" to
each seamstress was curtailed, no.
tably in the service overcoat depart
ment, where workers who had been
making 81 and more a day can now
barely exc out 81 or at the most 81.
Many of these operatives are the
widows of service men slaughtered
in the last imperialist war and have
children to support on such slave
wages. Thus "Uncle Sam" takes
care of his victims.
Beginning of Naturalization.
But Christie himself admits that
this is only a beginning to his
naturalization of the arsenal. The
other day when an elderly woman
worker who had shaved under "sour-
ball' before bumped into him and
remarked that she was "glad" to
see him back, ne replied sourly: 81
haven't had chance to get started
yet" That was his way of saying she
wouldn't have much cause to be
glad" very long.
Workers See Trick.
The feeling among the workers is
that the deliberate curtailment of
piece-work, in the face of huge or
ders for uniforms, fatigue clothes
overcoats and pup-tents, badly
needed for the impending war, is a
trick to prepare the slaves for wage
cuts all along the line. After starv-
ing the resistance out of them
Christie will once more permit" his
serfs to turn out all the work they
can-at slashed piece rates.