American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

New York, factory area.

Under Jack's lead, Colin came to the place where the idle color printing machine factory was located.

"Be careful."

Walking on the muddy path of the factory, Jack reached out to stop Colin behind him and carefully avoided a small puddle in front of him.

Not far from the puddle, several ragged children were playing barefoot in the water.

Through the ragged coats, their almost skinny bodies could be vaguely seen.

These children were the children of factory workers. Their parents worked day and night in the factory, enduring the harsh working environment, just to earn a meager salary, and had no time to take care of these children.

Under the impact of the Great Depression, the exploitation of factories and enterprises became increasingly serious.

In the early stage of the crisis, at the strong request of the Hoover government, which still had some reputation at the time, the proportion of wage cuts in major industrial enterprises was very small. But as the impact of the Great Depression gradually spread, those factories that had been on the sidelines finally could no longer hold on, and by reducing working hours and working days, they managed to cut workers' wages by 40%.

At that time, many industrial enterprises and small businesses even refused to verbally support the government's request to maintain their wage levels.

The growing backwash of unemployment caused some department stores to pay their employees as low as $5 to $8 per week.

In addition, garment workers, candy store employees and cannery workers were among the most exploited classes.

Someone conducted a survey in Chicago and it was said that most female workers were working hard for less than 25 cents per hour, and 1/4 of them were less than 10 cents.

In 1932, as the Great Depression continued, the hourly wage in the logging industry was reduced to 1 cent, and the general contracting industry was 7 and a half cents; the brick and tile manufacturing industry was 6 cents; the sawmill was 5 cents; the salary of the first-rate stenographer in New York dropped from 35 to 45 US dollars per week to 16 US dollars; domestic servants had to work for 10 US dollars a month.

And New York City is the place in New York State where workers are exploited the most.

"Time" magazine once conducted an investigation. A clothing company in the city that employed 50,000 female workers: hat makers could get 0.4 cents for crocheting a dozen hats, and could only knit 2 dozen a week; women workers who made aprons made 2 and a half cents for one, and could only earn 0.2 cents a day.

But even in the face of such severe exploitation, the workers did not dare to complain at all.

Because even for such a job, there are a lot of people watching behind the scenes, whether it is an unemployed man with a family or an elderly person, they are all competing with them for this job.

After passing the crowded clothing factory, Colin and Jack came to the location of the printing factory.

"Mr. Colin Luper, nice to meet you?"

At the door of the printing factory, the factory owner who had been waiting for a long time wiped his hands repeatedly on his work pants before stepping forward to greet him.

"Me too, Mr. Doug."

Colin smiled as he shook hands with the factory owner.

Then, under Doug's lead, the two came to the location of the color printing rotary machine.

"Cough, cough..."

Reaching out to lift the waterproof tarpaulin covering the machine, Doug covered his mouth and coughed several times in a row, trying to endure the discomfort and explained to Colin and the others beside him.

"Sorry, both of you... cough... This rotary machine was bought before the Great Depression, mainly for printing posters for merchants, but not long after the machine was bought... the Great Depression occurred, and many merchants who had cooperated with the factory went bankrupt. For cost considerations, the printing factory had to idle this color machine and use the original black and white printing process again..."

The dust on the printing machine had been accumulated for an unknown period of time, and once it was pulled off, it flew all over half of the factory.

Standing aside, Jack covered his mouth and couldn't help coughing.

Turning his head to look at Colin behind him, he found that he didn't seem to be affected by the dust.

Earlier, when the factory owner Doug lifted the waterproof tarpaulin, Colin had already used super breathing to protect himself from the dust.

He waited for nearly ten seconds until the dust in the air gradually settled. Doug coughed, cleared the thick phlegm in his mouth, pointed to the machine in front of him and said, "Gentlemen, this is the color wheel machine you want."

Following the direction pointed by the factory owner, Colin's eyes fell on the color wheel machine in front of him. As a layman, he didn't know much about this kind of machine, but just from the appearance of the machine, it seemed that it had not been used for a long time, just as the other party said, and it looked at least 70% to 80% new.

Although, Colin didn't know much about the machine.

However, there were obviously people who knew about it. After hearing the factory owner's introduction, Jack immediately stepped forward and opened the cover of the machine, and tried to press the button again. Then he turned his head and asked Doug beside him: "Can we try to print it and see the effect?"

"This?"

Faced with Jack's request, Doug's face showed a little hesitation. After all, printing with color ink is not cheap.

But in the end, he nodded and agreed: "Okay, but wait a little, I'm going to the warehouse to see if there is any remaining color ink."

Fortunately, Doug's printing factory still has some color ink left from the original printing.

Although I don't know how much time has passed, it should be no problem just for trial use.

Starting the machine, with the gears inside the color rotary printing machine turning, factory owner Doug skillfully operated the machine to print a color poster.

I don’t know whether it is because of the aging of the ink or the general material of the paper used for printing, the poster printed by Doug is not ideal.

The color leakage can be clearly seen on the poster pattern, which is particularly obvious under the character lines. Picking up this poster with a strong smell of ink, Jack frowned and handed it to Colin in front of him.

Reaching out to take the poster, Colin flipped it left and right.

"Mr. Colin, there is nothing wrong with the machine. It is entirely my personal mistake."

"I can ask the printer to come over. He will definitely be able to print a work that satisfies you!"

Looking at the shoddy color printed poster in Colin's hand, the factory owner couldn't help but speak up to make an excuse.

I am afraid that this customer who has finally come will leave because of his poor operation.

At this time, not many people are willing to buy such a large machine.

Once you miss Colin, it will be a question whether Doug's printing factory will still exist next time.

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