John Smith

John was born in Trenton in 1920. His grandfather worked at the company and retired in 1924. John worked for ten years, first in the aircraft wire department, and later in the yard gang.

On starting work at Roebling: I started working in Roebling in 1939. As a mater of fact , it was October 23rd, I'll never forget the date. I worked there until around October, 1949, about ten years I was in Roebling's. It was very difficult getting work then. I put my application in, went to different people who worked there and tried to use them. Finally, I was interviewed and I was accepted. When I went home, I told my mother. She said: "Now, you're set for life." She believed it. At that time , I believed it. Because nobody quit Roebling's. You either died, or you were fired. Nobody walked out and quit because they were dissatisfied there. I was going to spend my life working at Roebling's. Off course, it didn't work out that way, things change.

On working during the war: They had a lot of aircraft orders, for war planes and stuff like that. So, in 1940, I think it was May, I started on the third floor, over there in Department 75F [the aircraft wire department]. The man who took me there was a foreman. He said: "You're going to have a lot of noise. You better use cotton in your ears." When they opened that door , it was as if one thousand machine guns were going off. Couldn't hear, just noise, noise. The noise just overwhelmed you. He gave me some cotton. I put it in my ears, and they broke me in on the machine. They had about 65, 75 machines in there. The thing about the noise was, one day I forgot to put the cotton in. When I went home, I couldn't hear. I went home at four o'clock, I couldn't hear until about eight o'clock. It really frightened me. I thought I lost my hearing, but it came back. That's how bad the noise was. You could stand ten feet from a person and scream at the top of your lungs, and he wouldn't hear you. He wouldn't hear anything.

The first week of work, I was getting nineteen dollars a week. And then President Roosevelt said everybody has to get five dollars a day. So, we got twenty five dollars a week. That went on for a long while. That went on until the war really got going. They started piece work in the rope shop around then. Then, it really picked up. They gave you piece work rates. But for all of us, for the first four years, I was making twenty five dollars a week. I'd take the check home. My mother would take twenty and give me five and that was it. So, the wages weren't that great, but it seemed like they went a lot further.

The mills were going seven days a week, twenty four hours a day and they didn't stop. I don't even think they stopped on the Fourth of July; they just kept right on going.

On the factory whistle: I think one of the unusual things was the whistle. The fellows in the yard gang were like me, they were born and raised in Chambersburg and they heard the whistle all of their life. I lived on South Clinton Avenue. I remember laying in bed and hearing Roebling's whistle. I heard the men go to work. At that time, they were starting work at six o'clock and I'd hear them going by. You'd hear the crunching of the snow and the men talking and laughing about their job. At six o'clock at night, they'd be coming home. Endless pairs of men going by. The union changed all that. The hours were long before the union.

The foreman had the power to fire you. He could say: " You're fired. Clean your locker out and go!" And that was it. There was no recourse. You were done. After the union came in, that was no longer so. We had shop stewards who were on your side. They just couldn't do that any more. Everybody had to get a fair shake, and a lot of seniority came into play, as far as the machines went.

And of course, the shifts. Everybody had to work three shifts. Before, the old timers had the day shift locked up. You never went on the day shift, never. These guys were working the day shift for forty years and you're not going to crack that. The union came in, that was gone. So these were some of the changes the union made. It was good for the workers. We were guaranteed two weeks vacation. We were guaranteed a raise in salary. Safety conditions were improved. The foreman being God was taken away. The foreman no longer had the power to fire you, if you looked at him cross-eyed.

On the Rope Shop and the 80 Ton Rope Machine: Oh, there'd always be fellows hollering and yelling. And you'd hear the noise from the machines in there. You'd hear the big rope machine - the swishing going around, that swishing all the time. Incidentally, it didn't make the noise you would think it made. A huge machine like that, they built a building for it. Swoosh as it went around, swoooosshh, swooossshhhh, swoossshhh. In a rhythm. Swoosshh, swoosshh as the reels went around like that, the big reels went around, much quieter than you would imagine for a gigantic machine like that. It didn't make a lot of noise. In fact those little machines up there in Department 75F made a heck of a lot more noise.

Overall I enjoyed going to work. I never felt that way about any other job I ever had. When I look back on it now, I don't know whether it was because I was young or what. It never bothered me to go to work. You know, you get up to go to work in the morning, even if you had to go to work on a Saturday, it never bothered me.

On the neighborhood: Roebling was everywhere in Chambersburg. It was in your church; it was in your schools; it was in your festivals. Roebling would have a float in the parade, things like that. The Roebling trucks drove by South Clinton Avenue every day. You saw their trucks every couple hours, and the men walking by. It was always visible. Everybody that grew up in the Burg knew about Roebling's. It was a part of their life, really.

On Roebling's workers: Roebling workers were really looked up to, as sort of the cream of the crop on the Golden Gate Bridge. They stressed that. They had a very high reputation. People really thought Roebling was the best, out there on the bridge. The thing that impressed me was their knowledge of the statistics of the bridge, the velocity of the winds and the sway of the bridge, how much wire was used. They remembered that.

On working the midnight shift: I remember when I was working midnights, I had to sleep in the day time. I lived on South Clinton Avenue. It use to get very hot in the summer time upstairs. I'd be laying there and I'd wake up, just like I got out of a shower, soaking wet . I'd have my hand like I was holding onto the wire from the stranding machine. I'd wake up, there was no machine there; there was no wire there. From just doing it all the time, every night. You know, I'd be soaking wet. The other thing about working midnights was, when you came home from work everybody was eating breakfast and you were ready to eat ham and eggs, or something, steak. It was supper time. And when you got up, everybody was eating meat and potatoes and you were eating cereal or something. It turned your life around.

Four o'clock in the morning you'd feel the breeze come from down the river. It would drop the temperature in the mill about ten degrees. Whereas on the four to twelve shift, when you walked in there at four o'clock in the afternoon, it was hot! It stayed hot right on through to midnight. I didn't want any part of that four-to-twelve shift. The midnight shift had its advantages. You never saw anybody. You saw your foreman up until about twelve thirty, then he would disappear somewhere. He'd be in the office filling out papers, which was way down the other end. No problem, you know. You just sat there and watched your machine, kept it going. The air would be cool after four o'clock. We'd walk down to the cafeteria and get a cup of coffee. You had your machine set up; it would run pretty good without watching it, maybe for a half hour or so. We even got a few cents an hour shift differential. It wasn't much, but it was something.