The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-02-14

M Monetary loesei ! from these wx..> pranks ere moi always great
 but confusion and iaefnciency inev- itably result. Fires, delays in wal goods and even death have been caused by these efforts to playa joke on fellow workmen. And though foreign-directed sabotage in U. 8 war plants has been inconsistent, thoughtless gag men have accom- pltshed the same result.
 At an East Pittsburgh, Pa., war plant. 6 steel motor frame wal 1 found welded to the floor in four places. Two supposedly adult ern- ployeS later admitted they had done 1t as Q practical joke on theil helper. The two men planned tc stand aside and watch the young mans reaction when he attempted to lift the frame with Q crane. UNFUNNY GAGS GALORE
 A regular epidemic of horseplay was recently reported In New York city war plant, disrupting its pro- ductton. A standard joke was putt ting gasoline in air blowers. WheI, the blower was used to remove dust from the delicate instruments being manufactured, gasoline would spray over the works, making 1t necessary an extensive cleaning job. Screws would be taken from work benches so that they'd fall apart when touched. A favor1te gag of one ern. ploye was to go to the window and announce that a submarine was coming up the river. The whole was stopped when 1t was discovered that a group of employees had been bringing hard liquor to work and drinking 1t from soft drink bottles in pauSeS that may have refreshed the workers but disrupted the work,
 One employer severely injured his hand on Shaper used to cut gears for searchlight mounts in Q Schen- ectady (N. Y) electric plant. Cause oS the accident was 6 practical joke. Two employees had reversed light 4AAxA AA~NbVy S00AAVCA WCAHAASo " $0A4o fuse the machine operator.
 The distorted sense of humor isn't always so mechanically original. Stink bombs shut down @ production line in another Schenectady plant Paper wadding was stuffed in pipes that carried liquid from basement to first floor in a. Detroit plant, and in the same establishment a favor ite trick wAs to solder lunch box lids so they had to be forced open.
 DANGEROUS FRANKS
 The real seriousness of this i'll. begotten wit is that the gag men who perpetrate these pranks are Sabotaging the Var effort every bit as much as though they were paid by Nad spies to do anything they could to interfere with American war production. This IS the same sort of prank which Is practiced by underground movements in Ger. man-occupied European countries in their untiring efforts to disrupt Naz morale and war production by every means possible. By any name, such pranks are sabotage.
 Tricks played on fellow workers are not always harmless, either. In Michigan war plant, one employe playfully placed e lamp shade on another workers head. Annoyed, the victim threw the lamp shade at his tormentor. It landed in the working parts of a drilling machine costing $20,000, which was thereby broken and put out of production.
 In a Buffalo plant, two 16-year- old boys amused themselves by writ ing their names and gag lines on airplane parts, using electric drills. They didn't realize that scratched aluminium, like scratched glass, of- ten breaks.
 In 8 Detroit plant, the day after New Years, one workman'S clothes, impregnated with an oily substance, were ignited by fellow employe who apparently thought they would just smoke. But the oily clothing broke into flame, the workma1l's body was horribly scared and he died from the burns. Hot seats" and ''hot foots" were favorite jokes at this plant. and the workman who lit the match in this case had re- ceived more "hot foots" than he had given. But it was costly exchange of wit, any way you look at 1t, and 1t removed one production soldier" from the industrial battle line just as effectively as If he had been shot by tho Germans or Japs.