In previous chapters I have spoken of the "Bureau," and how they procure
"help" in time of trouble. The employment department of the charities
procure help in time of peace, industrial peace, also. When a man or
woman has applied for charity and the investigator judges the applicant
fit for work, he is immediately sent upstairs to the Manager of the
Bureau, who is telephonically notified about the "customer" and his
peculiarities.
"Mr. Gordon--Hello--give him a squeeze about his relations and how long
he is out of work--also don't forget to ask him again about his oldest
son. He told me that the boy is in the army--of course he is lying.
Lazy? Sure."
Thus he is introduced to the Manager of the Bureau. Once upstairs the
applicant is taken in hand by this gentleman and "given a squeeze" to
see whether all he says tallies with what he had previously told the
investigator.
The language used, the insults heaped upon him would stir the blood of
any man--prompt him to violence, perhaps, but the applicants have no
blood. Overwork, illness, hunger and lastly, the investigator, have
turned it into water. Humbly, meekly, the man or woman stands it all;
then he is told to come to-morrow at 8 A. M. The office only opens to
the public at 10. "Why do you have them wait two hours?" I asked the
Manager. "Just to get them trained to get up early," he answered. "You
know the proverb 'Early to bed and early to rise.'"
Meanwhile they crowd the waiting room and the "real" visitors, the
committee, think the Manager very, very busy. The employers that apply
for "help" from the charities are the worst ones. Long hours, low wages
and the meanest working conditions imaginable.
To learn the situation exactly, I myself applied for a job at a
"charity" office. I passed the examination of the Manager and was given
a slip with name and address of the employer, a cut glass manufacturer
in West 116th Street, and a postal card stamped and addressed to the
office. I was to put the missive in a letter box if I were accepted.
The next morning at 7, as per instructions from the Manager, I knocked
at the door and gave the office boy the piece of paper from the
charities. I had waited a half hour when the foreman, a big, strong
brute, measured me up from head to toe, then shook his head,
dissatisfied as to my physical condition probably, and I was ushered
into the office. Another wait, hat in hand. Then the employer wheeled
around on his chair, and a new examination started. He was especially
anxious to know the time of my arrival in New York. I pretended to be a
newcomer, because I knew that he would not employ me were he to know
that I was longer than three months in New York. They only want
"greenhorns." They hunt for them around "Castle Garden" and in the
charities. I satisfied him, and he announced to me the glad news that I
was to receive twenty francs a week. He did not say four dollars--he
said twenty francs because I told him I was a Frenchman.
The foreman was instructed to put me in the galvanising room. When I
entered the shop the fumes of vitriol, ammonia, sulphur and other
chemical stuff almost choked me. The foreman had a good laugh at my
face, then he placed me in a corner where lay a box of saw-dust. From
another corner strips of galvanised metal were thrown to me and I had to
dry them up with the saw-dust and pile them in another box which was
taken away every time it was full. The fumes and the smoke were so dense
that I could not see any of my co-workers until noontime. Then I saw
them all, about forty men and women, all "greenhorns," Jews, Italians,
Poles, pale, hungry, dirty, ragged, worn out, and all of them
coughing--coughing so that the whole street echoed with the thunder of
the musketry of the soldiers of modern industry. A half hour for lunch
and back to the shop. We worked until 6.30 P. M.
I was discharged because I was reported to have spoken English to the
caretaker, who pushed me roughly away with his broom when cleaning.
Paying me 63 cents for my day's labour the boss called me liar and
tramp. I had committed a crime. I spoke English. I was longer than three
months in America.
That the working conditions were worse in that factory than elsewhere,
where "regular" workingmen are employed, goes without saying.
Sixty-three hours a week for pay ranging from three dollars to seven
dollars and fifty cents for men and two dollars to four dollars for
women. The people working there dare not look at one another, dare not
speak, dare not question. They know they are spied upon and reported to
the charity office from where they are all helped. And this employer is
mentioned very flatteringly for his cooperation with the employment
office to "redeem" the sunken poor. In reality, he is plying his
murderous trade under the protection of charity. His work would cost him
three times as much if he performed it with "regular" men under usual
conditions. As a matter of fact, the man started out with nothing and
amassed a fortune in a few years. When a man has reached the top, seven
dollars and fifty cents per week, he is discharged as "lazy," and
another one at four dollars is started in.
This is not the only factory of the kind. Scores of them grow and thrive
under the kind protection of organised charity, to the glory of God and
the humane century we live in.
"Dear Sir--You employ a number of men and women in your factory.
Labour is very floating nowadays and we know the difficulty
employers have to secure the right sort of help. When in need of
help, why not ring us up? We always have a number of men and women
who would not only be willing to accept any work at all, but who
would feel extremely thankful to the one giving them a chance.
"When you get help from us you know you get the right kind. In
addition to that, you assist us in our work of redeeming the poor.
"Respectfully yours, "----, "Manager of Employment Bureau.
"P. S.--Right now we have some excellent help for your line."
This is a copy of a circular letter sent by the employment bureau of an
organised charity to the manufacturers. Just think of this fact. One of
these little sweatshop owners receiving such a letter when Samuel
Gordon, who was getting six dollars a week, takes heart and demands a
raise in his wages. Read that letter twice and carefully and see what it
means. The employer is actually committing a good deed when he fires one
of these men getting seven dollars or eight dollars a week and takes on
one sent by the charities. Think of the P. S. "Right now we have a
number of excellent help for your line." Tempting! is it not? "And be
sure the men we send you are not going to make any trouble--an hour or
so more every day and a dollar or so less every week does not stand in
the way of the one _willing to work_."--This over the phone.