The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-16
WORKERS IN The
HOLE SLAVE IN
POOLS10F MUCK
Speed-up Accompanied
by Obscene Orders
lBy a Worker Correspondent

BOSTON. (By Mail) When I
left New Bedford last August my
money was practically gone and /
had to hitch-hike the sixty miles.
When I got to Boston it was four
o'clock in the morning so went to
the Commons to get some sleep. The
night had been very chilly for that
time of year and heavy dew was
on the grass. l had never spent
the night in city park before and
was unprepared for what l found
there. Every bench had sleeper
on it and there were as many lying
in the wet grass as on the benches.
Here they kept themselves as dry
as possible by spreading out some
newspapers. None had overcoats so
that they must have suffered a
great deal from the cold. 1t was
easy to see that they must be badly
exhausted before they could actually
sleep.
AS member Of the proletariat l
learned something from my effort
to get job that morning. l had
heard of the new Sears and Roe
buck store which was opening up so
l went there at six o'clock in the
morning. People soon began to ar
rive and the employment office
filled and a line extended down the
two flights of steps and down the
street. l estimated there must have
been over two thousand. The man
who did the employing started wav-
ing the line aside as they ap-
preached but I refused to pass and
after about five minutes of my talk
he decided to hire me. Later five
others were employed.
We soon found that altho Sears
and Roebuck has the best looking
building in town from the outside
the conditions of work were the
worst we had ever experienced. The
bosses were absolutely unrestrained
in their language. Orders such as
''hurry up you sons of bitches" and
''get hot you lazy bastards" were
the common ones. The suckers and
squealers got the easy jobs and the
sub-foremen who were the most
heartless in driving the workers,
even tho they had reached the point
Of desperation, got the promotions.
It was my hard luck to be put in
the basement, better known as the
.'hole." The light here was artifi-
cial, for the first two months there
was no water available for any pur-
pose, no toilets and~besides this it
was against the rules to leave the
job during working hours. Because
of all this and the fact that there
were dozens Of workers in the base
ment and no porter to clean up, the
stencil became Unbelievable and
large puddles of muck accumulated
in different places. For these rea-
sons most left and was almost the
only one who stayed more than two
or three weels.e ss
When the store finally got started
we found ourselves the objects OF
a thorough system of spies anG
stool-pigeons. Department 211 i:
the headquarters of the detective
force. 1 was unable to find the
exact number of detectives EN-.
ployed to watch the workers but
there must be at least 20 genuine
dicks. Besides this there is a stool.
pigeon on every floor who is un.
known to the workers. His duty is
to get the confidence of the rest
and squeal on them if they loaf O,
steal anything. Added to this the
bosses themselves are always ready
to stabilize their position by telling
anything they can find out. Be
sides all this the company has sue
ceeded in getting the finest collec
ton of suckers for workers l evel
saw.
The up-shot of my experience
there was that one morning missed
my breakfast and when / grabbed
something to eat "illegally" the MAJ
/ worked with who was very greedy
at helping me eat the food l tool
turned out to be the squealer fol
that department and / was brough
before the chief detective where
was informed that he would Civ
me soft job instead of prosecuting
me provided / would tell on the one
who had been stealing. When / sait
/ didn't know of any l was givei
kick in the pants and sent on m!
way.
JACKSON WALES.