"Now, Fred we're very glad to see that you've been made gang-boss. You
know the game all right, and we're sure that you're not likely to be a
piece-work hog. You come along with us, and every-thing will be all
right, but if you try breaking any of these rates you can be mighty sure
that we'll throw you over the fence."

The writer told them plainly that he was now working on the side of the
management, and that he proposed to do whatever he could to get a fair
day's work out of the lathes. This immediately started a war; in most
cases a friendly war, because the men who were under him were his
personal friends, but none the less a war, which as time went on grew
more and more bitter. The writer used every expedient to make them do a
fair day's work, such as discharging or lowering the wages of the more
stubborn men who refused to make any improvement, and such as lowering
the piece-work price, hiring green men, and personally teaching them bow
to do the work, with the promise from them that when they had learned
how, they would then do a fair day's work. While the men constantly
brought such pressure to bear (both inside and outside the works) upon
all those who started to increase their output that they were finally
compelled to do about as the rest did, or else quit. No one who has not
had this experience can have an idea of the bitterness which is
gradually developed in such a struggle. In a war of this kind the
workmen have one expedient which is usually effective. They use their
ingenuity to contrive various ways in which the machines which they are
running are broken or damaged--apparently by accident, or in the regular
course of work--and this they always lay at the door of the foreman, who
has forced them to drive the machine so hard that it is overstrained and
is being ruined. And there are few foremen indeed who are able to stand
up against the combined pressure of all of the men in the shop. In this
case the problem was complicated by the fact that the shop ran both day