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Name Jane K. Leary Section #6
Informant John Holley Page 1
Subject The Shoeworker of Lynn
THE COMING OF MACHINES
"I always liked ta cut shoes by hand bettertn
by machine fur two reasons. First, we got one third more
pay fur hand cuttinte An' we wuz in it fur what we could
get outa it. Then anuther reason wuz that ya kin dis-
tinguish the stock better in hand cuttint than ya kin in
machine cuttint. When ya put the dye down in machine
cuttint ya Can't see the stock as well but when ya out by
hand, ya kin see jest what part a the shoe ta put the good
leather in, and where it won't matter if the leather ain't
up ta par.
"In hand cuttint„ ya put the pattern on the leather,
and cut around it with a knife.
-c-ilThe first machines fur cuttint uppers come in
about (40 years ago but they wuz only used fur the standard
nA
shoes--therhat dint change their styles fur a good many
years. The dyes cost too much ta buy jest fur a style a
o -t
shoes that changed every seasonytThatts why there's still
hand cuttin%tlae---4yea-44at---tee,i-Enteh---4a--buy---tent---fttr-etyles
that. chaj two, three times a season. alteA44---why-tilmme4e
katin-hanel-eutt-hrt-r-the-dyee-eostr-tee-inuelti-te-bu-g-Lem
n'L_Air_sty-Iee--that hang two, three7timmm-m-seerseemo: Then
too aa-1.-aaiii-iesteaa., la can't cut shoes as skillful by
machine as ya kin by hand.
-5./k4IThe machines ta dink out soles with, come in
before them I jest spoke of. That's because the soles are
more standard than the uppers ant ya kin use a dye longer.
The upper machines has had a lotta improvements since they
wuz first used too, same as the other machines in the
shops.
-“The-otherAnaehines-i-n-the---ahope-,43-eme-tint-before
_theLANA44114-mmmtrilate44 Time a the Ironclad strike in the
t708 there wuz the buff in' machine, the McKay stitchint
machine, the heelint machine, the beatint out machine, the
edgesettint machine and the machine that shined the shoes,
called the Tapley Burnisher.--..
Some a 'em wuz rented by the company and some
of 'em wuz bought outright. Taday all the machinery in
a factory is rented from the United Shoe Machinery Cor-
poration. They got a monopoly on it.
"The machines are a lot diffrunt from what they
wuz in the t70s. The buffint machine had a pipe outa a
windah so that the dust would go outside 'stead a droppint
in the shop. Never wuz a shop in them days but had that
big pipe comint auta a winda shootint the dirt all troun.
-\The scrap leather wuz most always throwed out
the winda in a big pile in them days too, tcept them
pieces that wuz big enough ta make babies' shoes from.
Some folktd come and get some of them scraps
from the pile and burn tern in the furnace. I knowed one
woman kept a house full a boarders warm all winter on
scraps a shoe leather.
"That wuz stopped though when the Jewish junk
dealers found they could make money on sorkp leather.
They started ta buy it and ta sell it ta concerns that
made diffrunt uses a it. Some usta bury it and get
chemicals outa it in that way.
CFore the machinery come in sa strong,*we dintt
get seoh high pay, but we wuz sure a our jobs. But after
1900 the machines wuz comint in moretn more. And during
the World War, when a lotta men went ta war, and the
demand fur shoes wuz sa great, the machines COMO in strong.
Then when the men come back ag4in, there wuz plenty a shoe
help and not enough jobs. Because the machinery kept right
on doint the work that the men done before and there wuz
no way a pushint the machines out and gettint the men back.
irtaii-eViiithing is set so as ta make it easy
fur a man ta make a lotta shoes glickertn they made 'em in
y day. Good machines and good light.
"We usta work by oil lamps. Weld start in the
morning before the light wuz good and offen weed work
'till after dark in the winter time. Weld have a lamp
setting at each end of our cutting table.
("There'd be oil lamps strapped ta the stitchint
machines too. After that they had gas jets ta work witha;::
And-taday---they--have-e-leotrie- lights en -literlers -malell they
dout_t gat, eaough-light-grent-izattMelekv-
IMPARTMENTS AND FAULTY WORK
"Each group that worked in a shop wuz aorta like
a part of one of them picture puzzles that are cut apart
and havta be fitted tagether. If one group din't stand
up, ya coun't make a shoe.
"Maybe the most important part a that puzzle
wuz the cutters. Fur not only did they decide, by the
kinda work they did, what kinda shoe it'd be, but after
they done their part a the work, the manufacturer'd know
jest how much the shoed cost. Before that bold wounit
know how much material it'd cost him. He could always
figger on the cost a labor ahead a time, but he coun't be
sure about the cost of material, still the cutter wuz
through his work. All the rest a makin a shoe is labor,
that is outside a the thread a stitcher uses ant glue ant
nails an' such. Them things are easy ta guess at. But
not leather.
wYa see, sometimes, a piece a leather would have
a bad spot in it. An sometimes the color would not all
be the same. Countt figure on them things.
"It wuz up ta the cutter, ta do the best he
could on the material he got. If he din't he soon lost
his job. If it cost me ten cents a day moreln it cost
the other fellas, I'd get fired.
"If there wuz a scratch on the leather, I wuz
usin, and I'd put that scratch on the shoe, that pairld
come back ta me, and I'd havta pay fur it. So ya see we
had ta know our business, if we wanted ta earn -a good week's
pay. If any other person'd make a mistake so as they
couldn't sell the shoe, they'd havta pay fur it too.
When I first started cuttint shoes, they wuzn't
sa strict about that unless ya wuz real careless !bout
your work. But later on, all the manufacturers made ya
pay fur a shoe if ya was anyways responsible fur spoilint
it so it woun't sell. Competition got sa strong they had
ta if they wuz ta make a profit and pay good wages.
"Sometimes we'd find a person could wear 'em,
an we'd sell 'em to them cheap. Then later on there'd
be an agent come arount buyin, em, at say about twenty-
five cents leggin we paid fur 'ea', an! so we'd not lose sa
much as if they wuz all loss. But we'd be pretty careful
not to spoil any more'n we could help.
"A course the manufacturer• counvt make ya pay
fur that shoe by law, cause if yald take it inta court,
the judge'd ask ya, 'Did ya ruin! that shoe wilful?' A
course ya din't, so that /udgeld dismiss the case.
"But ya coun't do that, 'cause yald lose your
job. It wuz much cheaper ta pay fur the shoe*
"But we cutters that knowed our business dint
cut many shoes that'd come back ta us ta pay fur. We'd
know the diffrunt kinds a skins ant jest how ta cut 'em
so as ta make 'em look right ant wear good. We could tell
the diffrunt kinds a leather from the feel a it, say
kangeroo, goat, cowhide ant all the other kinds.
"If any personld make a bad mistake so as ta
spoil a shoe in any other department, they'd have ta pay
fur it too.
"But ya take a tag girl now, if she taged a
whole case wrong, ya coun't make her pay fur all them
shoes. That'd be moreln she'd earn. She'd jest have ta
pay some a what the mistake cost, not the whole thing.