The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1942-12-21
By JOHN GROVER


Wide World Features Writer
EN- ROUTE TO OREGON, Dec.
2l.-On board k-6, 4te sgeqiat
train carrying 465 New Workers.
west to work I'M the Kaisers ship
yards, is a cross-section of the
metropolis. These WorHefS fol-.
lowing the new Oregon trail,
come from all walks of life.
Most are native NeWq Workers.
Less, than 20 per cent had ever
travelled west before.
Ray Weller, experimentation
trimmer, Jack Hinklein, life
guard-prize fighter and Benja-
min Brown, colored lifeguard-
realtor-social worker, were typ
ical of the men in the big con-
tingent. Druggists, tree surgeons,
mechanics, clerks, laborers and
professional men were also in
Guided.
The crew travelled in day
coaches two men to a double
seats Meals were served en-
route in relays in three diners.
Heaped-up plates of roast turkey
and trimmings started the ball
rolling the first night out.
Offices On Train
Ne attempt was made to clas-
sify 1.-The recruits until the train
reached Chicago. Then trained
Kaiser personnel operatives got
aboard. They set up offices" at
each end of the train and ran
the men through the mill.
Each recruit had to fill out an
exhaustive QUESTIONABLE, with
personal history and job expert
ence data. A second crew of
Kaiser police again fingerprint-
ed each new jobholder for COM
pany records. Then housing ex-
perts assigned the men to quar-
ters~ in company dormitories at
the Vancouver yards, across the
river from the two big Kaiser
plants at St. Johns and Swan Is
land in Portland.
When the men reached Port
land four days after leaving,
they knew where they were 60
ing ~te work, where they would
stay and their starting wages. It
was a snappy demonstration of
efficient processing and classifi
cation.
The personnel crews, after a
night of studying the question
naires, assigned the men to diff
ferenf jobs in keeping With their
work records, 'We1lerJ bhJ gthe
basis of his carpentry, was clas-
sifisdS as a shipfitter's helper.
Brown, with no work expert
ence useful as a shipbuilder, was
put-on as a scaler's helper in the
paint shop. Hinklein, with
smattering of mechanical train,
ings drew a berth as a machin-
lists helper.
All will draw 95 cents an hour.
Kaiser recruits are signed origi-
nalH- as laborers at SO cents an
hour and reclassified upward if
fitted for better-paid work.
These emigrants on the new
Oregon trail can't be much diff
ferent than the men of 1849 who
stogged across the endless plains.
Both groups were impelled by
the. same motive-better econom-
ic opportunity, a chance to raise
their children in better sur
roundings, and, perhaps, the
dream of a better world. "5llr1t
: Malcontents Included \
Thfs group and the men of a
cerfulry ago contained a sprink-
linz sof young, devil-may- care
youngsters out for adventure. At
the other extreme are the small
gropp of malcontents, the weak
lings~and grouserS. Already a
few who arrived on the earlier
trains couldn't take it, away
from familiar security in New
York, and have returned.
Phe great majority, however,
are solid family men. most of
Them skilled. who weren't anx-
ious TO uproot their lives in New
York.
It's men like these, just aver
age guys-in-the-street, no better
and no worse than any average
American, that the Kaiser COM
parry is depending on to help set
new records in shipbuilding that
our war goods may be moved
overseas to the fighting fronts.