Chapter XI

During the summer the packing-houses were in full
activity again, and Jurgis made more money. He did
not make so much, however, as he had the previous sum~
mer, for the packers took on more hands. There were new
men every week, it seemed -- it was a regular system; and
this number they would keep over to the next slack season,
so that everyone would have less than ever. Sooner or
later, by this plan, they would have all the floating labor
of Chicago trained to do their work. And how very cun~
ning a trick was that! The men were to teach new hands,
who would some day come and break their strike; and
meantime they were kept so poor that they could not
prepare for the trial!

But let no one suppose that this superfluity of employees
meant easier work for any one! On the contrary, the
speeding-up seemed to be growing more savage all the
time; they were continually inventing new devices to
crowd the work on -- it was for all the world like the
thumb-screw of the medieval torture-chamber. They
would get new pace-makers and pay them more; they
would drive the men on with new machinery -- it was
said that in the hog-killing rooms the speed at which
the hogs moved was determined by clock-work, and that it
was increased a little every day. In piece-work they would
reduce the time, requiring the same work in a shorter time,
and paying the same wages; and then, after the workers
had accustomed themselves to this new speed, they would
reduce the rate of payment to correspond with the reduc~
tion in time! They had done this so often in the canning
establishments that the girls were fairly desperate; their
wages had gone down by a full third in the past two years,

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v?